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Why I Was Afraid Before We Launched Our Book #launchbook

danah boyd | apophenia 2016-06-04

 

launch to the world

Launch: Using Design to Boost Creativity and Bring Out the Maker in Every Student has been out for a week and it has remained number one in its Amazon category the entire time. I have watched teachers create visuals with quotes from the book. They’ve launched book clubs. They’ve invited us to do podcasts. There is a really cool core group of people rallying around these ideas and it’s been amazing to be a part of it.

And yet . . .

A week ago, I sat alone, staring at the review copy, feeling more scared than excited. Here’s why:

I’m still learning.

I’m not the ultimate expert. There are people at the Stanford d.School and at IDEO who know the ins and outs of design thinking better than I do. There are people who have published more journal articles and pioneers in this field who developed these theories before I was born.

Furthermore, as we interviewed hundreds of teachers using design thinking, I realized that there are teachers out there who have executed parts of design thinking in ways that I have never imagined were possible. For example, I never pulled off the “launch” side of our design thinking projects as well as others. When I think of what Mike Kaechele and Trevor Muir have done with the concept of an authentic audience, I think, “Man, I wish I had heard their story earlier.”

Then it hit me. That’s precisely the point of this book. It’s not to say, “Hey folks, I have all the answers.” We wrote it to shine the light on those who do great work. We wanted to take the research of others and make it accessible to a K-12 audience. AJ and I wanted to create a book that was both in the clouds (inspiration and theory) and in the dirt (practical and useful). We wanted to write the kind of book we would have read when we were starting out with design thinking a decade ago.

I realized that this fear was pointless. This book was never about me. It’s about the bold idea that design thinking can transform classrooms.

It’s not an instruction manual

Recently I sent a manuscript to another publisher. One of my reviewers (a consultant and not a teacher) told me, “Teachers don’t want ideas. They want instructions.” Another said I should abandon the humor, ditch the story-telling and make no references to vignettes outside of the classroom.

So last week, I sat alone wondering if we had written the wrong kind of book with Launch. We didn’t write an instruction manual. We shared stories. We gave a framework. We used humor. We did everything the education consultant had told me teachers hated.

Then I remembered something. Creative teachers don’t need an instruction manual:

At that moment, I made a choice. I decided that if someone wants an instruction manual, they’ll have to look elsewhere. But what if they want a guide? If they want a framework? If they want real classroom examples? Well, then, this would be their book.

It’s scary when you put in a ton of effort.

There’s this tendency in creative work to take your feet off the gas a little before you launch. You hedge your bets a little. You don’t try quite so hard. Because, let’s be honest, it can be soul-crushing to pour your heart into something only to have it flop.

I realize that the numbers aren’t supposed to matter. It’s about the process and not the end results. That’s why it felt so risky to try this hard. We spent almost an entire year on this book from start to finish. I agonized over the phrasing of certain paragraphs. I scribbled notes all over each draft, refining it over and over and over again.

It sounds weird, but it felt terrifying to publish something that had required this much effort.

I reminded myself that “this could fail,” but the only failure would be failing to create the best possible book we could create. And I knew, in this respect, that our book was already a success. We didn’t hedge our bets. We played all of our cards. I’m glad we did, because by this doing, we made something that made us proud.

I took a major creative risk.

I’ve shared this story before, but I’ll share it again through this video:

For the last year or so, I have slowly added more sketches to my blog. I’ve continued to create new sketchy videos, refining my craft along the way. Still, as we walked through the review process, I kept saying, “Are you sure about the pictures? Are you sure they look professional? Do we maybe want to find a serious artist who can do a better job?”

Again, those words: real artist.

Sharing your work can be scary. It’s why so many people never try. But there’s something far more terrifying — keeping it hidden forever. Or worse, giving up before you’ve started.

To my surprise, people have loved the sketches. This affirmation has silenced those words, “serious artist.” I’ve grown more confident. I’m going to own the words “author” and “artist.”

Ultimately, that’s the power of a launch. And that’s what this book is about. It’s about the idea that all kids are creative and that every classroom should be a bastion of creativity and wonder. It’s the idea that there are no special “creative types.” We’re all creative. Every one of us. It’s the idea that kids grow in creative confidence when they share their work with a real audience.

That’s the power of a launch.

CURIOUS ABOUT DESIGN THINKING

Here are some free design thinking resources I’ve developed that you might find helpful: