Humanities and Design as Keys to Future Success: A STEAM Book Introduction

Robin: “Success in the future depends on a grounding in the humanities: understanding human nature, digging into motivations, and prompting behavioral change. It also depends on art and design, enriching the world through them as we continually pursue greater efficiency and functionality.” ---- STEAM takes its initials from five English words: Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics. STEM emerged in US education in the early twenty-first century and quickly spread worldwide. Without the arts, it emphasized science and applied sciences. STEAM builds on it with new approaches to learning and is expected to play an important role in developing future talent. The key is the added “A.” In recent years, prominent companies and educational institutions worldwide have paid particular attention to art and design. From 2010 to 2015, Silicon Valley giants including Google, Facebook, and Adobe acquired numerous startups. The founders of 27 of those companies had design backgrounds. Leading consulting and accounting firms, including Accenture and McKinsey & Company, have also crossed industry boundaries into previously unfamiliar design fields, acquiring design firms aggressively. The business world once favored MBAs. Today, graduates of art schools with Master of Fine Arts degrees are more sought after. Likewise, logical thinking and critical thinking, once regarded as indispensable business skills, are losing attention to design thinking. Society urgently needs people capable of unprecedented imaginative ideas and revolutionary inventions. Entering the twenty-first century, humanity’s pursuit of efficiency and functionality has approached its limits. Forward-looking companies are exploring new paths, with art and design attracting their greatest attention. The book examines the STEAM spirit from three perspectives. First, STEAM talent must embody a new twenty-first-century humanism, placing humanity at the core of professional practice and exploring it persistently. Second, STEAM talent must maintain an innovator mindset and tirelessly drive innovation. Finally, STEAM talent must boldly cross boundaries between disciplines and fields, using design and imagination at work to create unprecedented, advanced ways of acting. Combining a humanist who values humanity, an innovator, and an avant-garde designer forms the author’s ideal of STEAM talent. The mission of STEAM talent is to free humanity from fixed thinking and introduce new models for harmonious development between people and society. The author argues that only people with sincere passion for benefiting humanity, dedication to rigorous exploration, and freedom in thought and action can lead society’s progress in the twenty-first century and point the way forward. Silicon Valley leads the times through cutting-edge technology and unconventional ideas. Which industries are flourishing? Which outstanding people are excelling in their fields? What exactly is the STEAM so widely discussed there? Understanding these questions offers a different perspective on the talent a new society needs. That is what this book offers.