The Vignelli Cannon
The Vignelli Canon is a book by Italian designer Massimo Vignelli. It’s not a set of hard rules, but rather a glimpse into Vignelli’s design philosophy and the principles he believed were important for good design.
Personally, when approaching any opportunity or challenge, I use Vignelli’s philosophy on the “intangible” foundational concepts of semantics, syntactics, and pragmatics.
The Simple Sabotage Field Manual
The CIA’s Simple Sabotage Field Manual was created during World War II and details ways citizens living in occupied territories can disrupt enemy efforts by being inefficient and generally annoying in everyday tasks.
Declassified in 2008, this document can now be used as a guide to help people in the workforce avoid frustration and hindering productivity. This is a great roadmap of what to not do when running a successful organization.
