John Maeda, President of Rhode Island School of Design, wrote a blog posting recently about Apple and commented that STEM…Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math…is no more important than what he calls IDEA…Intuition, Design, Emotion, and Art.

“Right now, our nation sees left-brain thinking, focused on logic and reasoning, as critical to future economic development. You can see it in the emphasis on the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) subjects. What’s missing from STEM is right brain thinking — embodied by what I call the key “IDEA” (Intuition, Design, Emotion, Art). We need both both halves of the brain to work together and channel that brilliance through our hands and propagate ideas throughout our world. We all wonder why Apple’s products have that je ne sais quoi that draw us in. I’m beginning to think that it’s not just that they understand the power of simplicity, or the power of software. It’s that you can see they were born from a person, from two dirty hands, from just a little bit of technology, and from a massively powerful IDEA.”

We agree. The power of 100kGarages is not just the tools and technology that enable the fabrication…the STEM…but also in the design and art behind the things that are fabricated…the IDEA. And if our focus sometimes becomes a little STEM-centric, we hope that Makers remind us that 100kGarages needs both halves of our brains!