Rahaf Harfoush on "Hustle & Float: Reclaim Your Creativity and Thrive in a World Obsessed with Work" (Diversion, Feb. 19, 2019)

Book Synopsis: There’s an epidemic of overwork and stress among today’s knowledge workers. They’re trapped in a relentless push for increased productivity that is hurting their own creativity.  The problem is that people are looking for solutions in all the wrong places.  Working in collaboration with her global corporate clients and a panel of the world’s leading experts, author Rahaf Harfoush has discovered that it is not the way we work that’s causing burnout, but our subconscious attitudes and beliefs about why we work, which have been shaped by social, historical, and biological forces.  In Hustle & Float, Harfoush turns a close eye to the evolution of productivity and creativity, the state of workplace culture today, and the biological model of work performance that modern science has now discredited.  She then introduces a compelling mix of actions and tools that professional creatives can use to arrive at a better way to work. For too long, creativity and productivity have been considered essential but unconnected. Thousands of books have been written about each of these concepts separately. Hustle & Float is the first book that explores the increasing tensions between productivity and creativity within our personal and professional lives, and offers solutions to the contradictory ideologies that push us to act against our own creative best interests.

.

About Our Speaker: Rahaf Harfoush is a Strategist, Digital Anthropologist, and Best-Selling Author who focuses on the intersections between emerging technology, innovation, and digital culture. She is the Founder of Red Thread Inc., a think tank and special projects agency specializing in digital culture. She currently teaches “Innovation & Emerging Business Models” at Sciences Po’s MBA program in Paris. Formerly, Rahaf was the Associate Director of the Technology Pioneer Programme at the World Economic Forum in Geneva where she helped identify disruptive start-ups that were improving the state of the world.

QUESTIONS: events@rotman.utoronto.ca, Megan Murphy, (416) 978-6122