by Kevin G. Bethune
240 pages, hardcover, $26.95
Published by The MIT Press
mitpress.mit.edu

This latest addition to MIT’s Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life series spans autobiography, history, polemic, business manual and inspirational self-help book. At the core of Nonlinear, by author Kevin G. Bethune, is the quest for innovation as a way of helping users find their place in the world. Or, as Bethune playfully cites a speech by Denzel Washington to students at the University of Pennsylvania: “To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did.” True innovation, he argues, demands breaking accepted conventions and marrying expertise across business, design and technology. This includes techniques like using data to set parameters for a project, integrating it with qualitative design investigation to understand the human needs involved, and ensuring that project teams mirror the world’s diversity to avoid blind spots and maintain relevance.

Bethune is a perfect example of the nonlinear in the book’s title, saying that real progress in any endeavor isn’t simply a straight line but a zigzagging across multiple landscapes. He clearly knows what he’s talking about as someone who started out as an engineer, became a business planner at Nike after his MBA and, through sheer will and doggedness, created for himself the opportunity to work on footwear design before returning to college and studying industrial design. The book’s closing line sums up him and his clear passion neatly: “The secret is to get moving so that you can build momentum to learn as fast as you can. Fall forward. Be nonlinear.” —Yolanda Zappaterra ca