A NEW BOOK FROM STEPHANIE + ISAAC BUDMEN

The universe has been exploding

for 13 billion years.

We don't claim to understand it.
But we found something useful.

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A USEFUL LENS

The Arcade Humans built a system to survive.

Rules, scores, tokens, ladders. It works. It keeps us going. But the arcade sits inside something much larger, more complex, and more mysterious than any game we've invented.

We call that bigger thing the theme park.

THE PRACTICE

Applied Curiosity

Wonder. Complexity. Play.
A methodology for escaping the arcade
and entering the theme park.

THE BOOK

Applied Curiosity

5

Parts

10

Principles

7

Case Studies

144

Spreads

Seek What They Sought ✦ Be As The Reed In The Wind ✦ Everyone has something to teach ✦ Work from the Unknown ✦ Life is not a straight line ✦ No Lonely Islands ✦ Celebrate Failure ✦ Experimentation over expertise ✦ No threats, only opportunities ✦ Timing has a way of working out ✦
"We didn't set out to build a method. We set out to build things. The method emerged from the necessity of explaining why our things worked, and why our process felt so different from everything else we'd tried."

THE AUTHORS

Stephanie &
Isaac Budmen

Co-founders of Budmen Industries and Think Variant

For over a decade, they've turned open-ended questions into working artifacts, tools, and experiences at the intersection of design, technology, and education.

Their work has been exhibited by the Smithsonian and Metropolitan Museum of Art, covered by CNN, and deployed in emergency rooms and classrooms worldwide.

Smithsonian Met Museum 3.5M Face Shields US Patent Holders Everson Museum