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Dear Chris & Co., There are several streams of research in management studies that deal with passion and emotional engagement as a source of excellence and productivity. I'm dashing from point to point as I wend my way toward New Zealand, so I can't provide references, but I recall a few cues -- 1) Tom Peters's work has a great deal on this, and one of his books with Nancy Austin was titled A Passion for Excellence. 2) There are several titles out on passion and emotions in brand development and brand building that may relate to this. 3) The literature of creativity and flow morphs onto some of these issues. Whether or not they use the term "passion," the affective states involved often have to do with passion and engagement. 4) Passion generates the commitment that lead to creativity and excellence. Check Malcolm Gladwells' recent book Outliers and note the 10,000-hour heuristic. You've captured vital qualities perfectly in your comments: [Chris Rust wrote] "passion seems to imply a degree of individualism, a willingness to go further than others in pursuit of an individual goal. If so that might have some implications for how we support young people entering university education. ... "... the motivation that brings somebody to engage in all-consuming training ... to achieve a particular kind of competitive perfection. We also felt that a similar (maybe less extreme) passion distinguishes learners who will keep experimenting and perfecting their work as a way of refining their skills and knowledge. ... "I'm not sure that passion has figured so much in concepts of designing, which we often discuss in quite functional ways, but I'd be glad to be proved wrong." Actually, you aren't wrong in the sense of what you seek. There is probably a distinction to be made between the necessary functional aspects of the artifacts, products, processes, and services we design and the passion that we require to work, tinker, iterate, and struggle to get them right. Some years back, Per Mollerup wrote a book on excellent design with an unforgettable title: Good Enough is Not Enough. Per's point is that we should not rest until what we design is what it ought to be. Anyone who knows Per sees this at work in his practice and his research. At this point, I'll take a moment for a happy announcement -- we've just hired Per as Professor of Communication Design here at Swinburne. He's closed his Copenhagen practice and moved to Melbourne, starting a week ago. He will deliver his inaugural lecture on March 25. Anyone in the Melbourne area is welcome to join us for this exciting event. Back to you and passion, Chris, passion is at the core of every great practice in any field, because it is passion that keeps us at it as we perfect our skills and knowledge. The best example of this as I see was Jacques Hadamard's book on the psychology of creativity in mathematics, a Princeton University Press classic that is still in print. To see that kind of passion at work in the mathematical mind, check out the two extraordinary books on how Sir Andrew Wiles solved Fermat's Last Theorem. Simon Singh wrote one and Amir Aczel wrote the other. Both are a good read, and each shows passion at work across centuries to solve the puzzles and problems of mathematics, geometry, and number theory. In design, we see this same kind of passion at work in Bucky Fuller's achievements, in the work of designers such as Victor Papanek and in research by such scholar-designers as Dori Tunstall, Kristina Neiderrer, Bruce Archer ... well the list goes on. These people are driven by a combination of curiosity and the drive to make things work that seems to me as passionate an achievement as the music of a Mozart. And now, I must dash, driven by the furies of my schedule, but consumed by the passion to make things work here at Swinburne -- as I'm happy to say they usually do. "Do you hear how Fury sounds her blessings forth how Fury finds the way? Shining out of the terror of their faces I can see great gains for you, my people. Hold them kindly, kind as they are to you. Exalt them always, you exalt your land, your city straight and just -- its light goes through the world." Thus spoke Athena in Aeschylus's Eumenides. Speaking, of course, to her people the designers. Yours, Ken Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS Professor Dean Swinburne Design Swinburne University of Technology Melbourne, Australia Telephone +61 3 9214 6755 www.swinburne.edu.au/design