Imaginative. Innovative. Ingenious. These words describe the visionaries we all respect and admire. And they can describe you, too. Contrary to common belief, creativity is not a gift some of us are born with. It is a skill that all of us can learn. International bestselling author and award-winning Stanford University educator Tina Seelig has worked with some of the business world’s best and brightest, who are now among the decision-makers at companies such as Google, Genentech, IBM, and Cisco. In inGenius she expertly demystifies creativity, offering a set of tools and guidelines that anyone can use. A fantastic resource for everyone wanting to achieve their ambitions, and for readers of Jason Fried’s Rework, and Seth Godin’s Poke the Box.

The Romans conquered Gaul (modern France and Belgium) in seven years but it took them seventy-seven years to incorporate two thirds of Britain into the empire. One reason it took so long is the revolt that cost seventy thousand lives, destroyed three major cities and required roughly eight thousand additional troops to make up losses and restore some semblance of order. The shock was intensified by learning that such a humiliation of Roman might had occurred at the hands of a woman. How could such things happen to the world’s only superpower? Seventeen years after the Romans invaded Britain, two figures stepped onto history ́s stage to join in mortal combat. One was Suetonius Paulinus, Rome ́s toughest general and the fifth governor of Britain. The other was a royal woman named Boudicca. Her kingdom dissolved on the death of her husband, her daughters raped and herself flogged in order to cow the Britons, Queen Boudicca gathered her armies and attacked. In a sweep that would have pleased General Patton, she annihilated a legion, destroyed Colchester, London and St Albans and threw the entire occupation of Britain into jeopardy. Then she faced the brutal Paulinus in a final battle and was defeated. Was she outclassed or betrayed? To answer this, Boudicca’s trail is followed as she develops from a young warrior into an immortal Queen-general. As she grows into the role of Arviragus (Commander) of the British armies, she has to deal not only with Roman invaders but also with the treacherous ambitions of her rival, sexy Queen Cartimandua, who loves to scramble men’s brains and aims to get control of Rome’s legions by seducing Rome’s governors. She also has to deal with another invasion by Christian missionaries who spread the disruptive message of peace and love among the armies of both sides. Elsa, the Christian healer whom Boudicca loves, fights her own war against religious hypocrisy, while the evil Druidess Morfudd and her servant the murderous Regan, scheme to gain control over the rival churches being formed to corral Christian converts. As for the men in her life, the elderly Prasu is her legal husband but her true lover is the erratic and hot-tempered Venutius who loves Boudicca but marries Cartimandua and is later discarded by Cartimandua in favor of his servant Velocatus. Owain is a high-ranking Druid who falls victim to Morfudd’s sexual wiles, tries to dragoon the Christians into fighting a holy war against the Romans and offers advice to Paul during a visit to Corinth. Ingenius is a brilliant artisan who tries to become rich by aligning himself with Seneca and Procurator Catus, finally redeeming himself by developing the chariots that break up the Roman legions. Atak, an ex Roman auxiliary commander is Boudicca ́s faithful adviser, who stays with her to the bitter end even though his most critical advice - not to ally herself with Cartimandua in the final battle - is ignored.

This is an original collection of exemplary emendations made by ancient and modern scholars. Single examples are analysed in order to extract a method of emendation. The author reviews some attractive interventions which offer a model of textual criticism: a kind of ideal museum of critical intelligence applied to corruptions or cryptocorruptions which have damaged some Greek and Latin literary texts. All Greek and Latin passages included are literally translated and commented step by step. Advanced students and scholars are offered an orderly sequence of ‘cruces’ healed by great philologists so that a teaching route is granted.

As humans evolved, we developed technologies to modify our environment, yet these innovations are increasingly affecting our behavior, biology, and society. Now we must figure out how to function in the world we’ve created. Over thousands of years, humans have invented ingenious ways to gain mastery over our environment. The ability to communicate, accumulate knowledge collectively, and build on previous innovations has enabled us to change nature. Innovation has allowed us to thrive. The trouble with innovation is that we can seldom go back and undo it. We invent, embrace, and exploit new technologies to modify our environment. Then we modify those technologies to cope with the resulting impacts. Gluckman and Hanson explore what happens when we innovate in a way that leads nature to bite back. To provide nourishment for a growing population, humans developed methods to process and preserve food; but easy access to these energy-dense foods results in obesity. To protect ourselves from dangerous pathogens we embraced cleanliness and invented antibiotics, which has led to rising rates of autoimmune diseases and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. More recently, our growing dependence on the internet and social media has been linked to mental health concerns and declining social cohesion. And we are only at the beginning of the digital transformation that will influence every part of our existence. Our ingenuity has not only changed our world—it has changed us. Focusing on immediate benefits, we rarely pause to consider the longer-term costs of innovation. Yet we are now starting to see how our choices affect the way our brains develop and our bodies function. The implications are profound. Ingenious opens our eyes to the dangers we face and offers solutions we cannot ignore.

Adapted from inGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity by international bestselling author and Stanford University Professor Tina Seelig, Ph.D., Innovation Engine distills a dozen years of teaching creativity and entrepreneurship into an interactive guide that turns our natural curiosity and imagination into concrete and action-oriented concepts that can be put into practice immediately. Seelig illustrates how motivation, mind-set, physical environment and social situations can work together to enhance creativity. She explains that creativity lies at the intersection of our internal world (knowledge, imagination, and attitude) and external environment (resources, habitats, and culture). By understanding how these factors fit together and influence one another, Innovation Engine provides the tools to jump-start our own innovation engines and allows us to look at every word, object, idea and moment as an opportunity for ingenuity.

From award-winning higher education journalist and New York Times bestselling author Jeffrey Selingo comes a revealing look from inside the admissions office—one that identifies surprising strategies that will aid in the college search. Getting into a top-ranked college has never seemed more impossible, with acceptance rates at some elite universities dipping into the single digits. In Who Gets In and Why, journalist and higher education expert Jeffrey Selingo dispels entrenched notions of how to compete and win at the admissions game, and reveals that teenagers and parents have much to gain by broadening their notion of what qualifies as a “good college.” Hint: it’s not all about the sticker on the car window. Selingo, who was embedded in three different admissions offices—a selective private university, a leading liberal arts college, and a flagship public campus—closely observed gatekeepers as they made their often agonizing and sometimes life-changing decisions. He also followed select students and their parents, and he traveled around the country meeting with high school counselors, marketers, behind-the-scenes consultants, and college rankers. While many have long believed that admissions is merit-based, rewarding the best students, Who Gets In and Why presents a more complicated truth, showing that “who gets in” is frequently more about the college’s agenda than the applicant. In a world where thousands of equally qualified students vie for a fixed number of spots at elite institutions, admissions officers often make split-second decisions based on a variety of factors—like diversity, money, and, ultimately, whether a student will enroll if accepted. One of the most insightful books ever about “getting in” and what higher education has become, Who Gets In and Why not only provides an unusually intimate look at how admissions decisions get made, but guides prospective students on how to honestly assess their strengths and match with the schools that will best serve their interests.