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Accidental mindfulness via the inability to conjure mental images. Tom Ebeyer

“While countless self-help gurus preach the virtues of ‘living in the moment’, many of us aphants [people with aphantasia – the inability to see images in the mind] find ourselves already here – not by choice, but by nature.” Another fascinating perspective from our diverse neurological existence. And another example of the blind spots in our empathy with each other, always assuming that we see and imagine the world in the same way.

The Visualiser’s Fallacy. Tom Ebeyer

From my old newsletters I’ve only just gotten round to reading. “…the mistaken belief by visualisers that if they use mental imagery to perform a task, then everyone else must do the same. Consequently, they assume that aphantasics, who do not experience mental imagery, cannot perform these tasks – This misconception is significant – It’s not just about the general belief in universal visualisation; it’s about underestimating the cognitive abilities of those who don’t visualise.” There are countless ways that we don’t understand each others lived experiences, while unconsciously acting like we do. 

How to build your secret repertoire. Tobias van Schneider of mymind

While you could read this as an effective sales piece for mymind.com, which Tobias co-founded, I would encourage a less cynical view. It’s about questioning our default online social behaviours, consciously considering our reasons for saving things that inspire us, and encouraging that we take more time to build and protect our individuality. It’s a provocation for how our relationships with digital products could be different. 

How humans evolved to specialise neurocognitively in different but complementary ways

I may have a large confirmation bias in liking this theory of Complementary Cognition, but from what I’ve read so far I’m confident there’s more to it than hope. This line alone “…if groups are not made up of complementary cognitive abilities, group behaviour and culture can quickly become maladaptive and unsustainable with significant negative consequences.” Love it. As per an old post: We need neurodivergent teams.

Developmental Dyslexia: Disorder or Specialisation in Exploration? Dr Helen Taylor

Following on from above, “We raise the new possibility that people diagnosed with developmental dyslexia (DD) are specialised in explorative cognitive search, and rather than having a neurocognitive disorder, play an essential role in human adaptation.” Again, perhaps I’m bias, but I’ve long thought about how dyslexia didn’t exist before the invention of reading a writing. For the majority of human history, it was just one type of brain. It’s hereditary, it lasted, it must have been useful. Same goes for all neurotypes imo. “Complementary cognitive abilities.” We’ve just ended up in a world where the written word, and the ability to focus on it without distraction or much deviation, has become the dominant mode for success. That group are then perceived as normal, and all others as having disabilities or disorders. What a sad turn of events. 

Exploration-exploitation dilemma

“…also known as the explore-exploit trade off… is depicted as the balancing act between two opposing strategies. Exploitation involves choosing the best option based on current knowledge of the system (which may be incomplete or misleading), while exploration involves trying out new options that may lead to better outcomes in the future… Finding the optimal balance between these two strategies is a crucial challenge in many decision-making problems whose goal is to maximise long-term benefits.” I somehow didn’t know this term for this dilemma. Essentially, the core of the argument for asking questions, being inquisitive, creative thinking, and the entire practice of design. 

POSSE: Reclaiming social media in a fragmented world

A good write up on the context and need for for writers, creatives and any content creators to ‘POSSE’ (Post (on) Own Site Syndicate Elsewhere). Molly is putting a lot of great work out at the moment, and displays brilliantly how POSSE should be done on this site. Including in the effective syndication of her written blog posts into a podcast feed. A strategy I didn’t get very far into exploring at the start of the year but would like to revisit. Just check out her contact page. She controls all the most important links and sources. Socials are practically a footnote. Really impressive realisation of the POSSE strategy. 

The frog notices the water feels a little warmer. A little warmer. A little warmer…Rob Alderson, Design Week 

A story that starts as worrying for one reason (that someone deliberately edited and sexualised the image of a woman), then escalates the worry to a whole other level (that AI did this without anyone noticing), but which is essentially caused by the thing we feared at the start (that AI training data uses edited and sexualised images of a woman). The issue of algorithmic bias, data colonialism, and marginalisation seems to have slipped from the AI chat of late it feels. “The frog notices the water feels a little warmer. A little warmer. A little warmer…”

Hampshire County Council now spends 83% of its budget on social care

“Hadn’t realised quite how much rising social care costs have been squeezing out *everything else* that local govt is supposed to (but not legally obliged to) provide.” I didn’t know exact figures either, but in work with Hackney Counsel’s Temporary Accommodation team in 2022, I saw a very clear suggestion of the situation. As Judy Webb explains further down the thread.

Bill Gross wants to save media … with AI

““I got angry that (what OpenAI is doing) isn’t fair,” he said.  Since then he’s hired nearly two dozen engineers and AI experts, in addition to raising $25 million.” I so hope ProRata is successful. 

The Gap of Disappointment

“What I’ve dubbed the “Gap of Disappointment” is hurting Labour badly. [The] gap is wide because expectations of Labour were much higher to begin with.” I used to image this exact kind of chart for the gap of disappointment between Apple and PCs. I saw PC users that were used to things being hard, so when they really sucked, the gap was small, and anything that even remotely went smoothly, gave a euphoric jump from disappointment. Mac users meanwhile experienced such a relatively smooth and daily good experience that when something rarely was a bit hard or going wrong, that their gap was enormous, despite all experience still being higher than any level of PC user experience. Also, I’m sure there was a level of Stockholm syndrome in PC users too. 

Shaping Human-AI Interaction: The Power of Metaphors in Design

Companions, Toolkits, and Enchanted Objects. I like this thoughtful approach to engaging with how we begin to think about AI from a design perspective. Metaphors are essential in UI and in helping users to understand and adopt new technology. Equally, not having enough metaphors can be restricting, and as touched on in this piece, people are a bit stuck on the companion only use case. I wager there are more or other metaphors we can use though. Will be interning to see what emerges. Also, the enchanted objets idea here reeeeally reminds me of the IoT times of late 2000s.  

Listen 

How to design teams that don’t suck. Re:Thinking with Adam Grant

“…building a great team requires more than just picking an all-star roster or doing trust falls. Adam dives into the hard-hitting research on what makes teams work.” Some good insights / pleasing confirmations of what I’ve experienced and long believed. Interesting to pair this episode however with the next one… 

The wrong way to think about culture fit. Re:Thinking with Adam Grant

“Adam dives into the evidence on why overemphasising fit can overlook promising people — and shows how organisations can fight conformity and support self-expression”. As with the other podcast, some fantasy insights in here (that align well with links above about Complementary Cognition and the work of Dr Helen Taylor). But there’s also an uncomfortable contradiction in these two episodes, in that the first one leans heavily into the success of a hockey team specifically because of the shared cultural background. I would have liked a bit of exploration or acknowledgement of that. 

Listen/Watch 

Pronunciation of behemoth 

Had a chat about this at the weekend. On a table of 4 people we all had slightly different opinions on how to say behemoth! This video reflects mine (although WOW! There are so many terrible AI voiced shorts and videos out here that say it wrong). 

Chiwetel Ejiofor reads possibly the funniest letter of recommendation ever. Letters Live

I’m going to watch Letters Live, live, later this year and am really looking forward to it. Hoping very much to have people like Chiwetel Ejiofor doing the readings. The premise as far as I know is that the letters are real, and not fictions. This one’s so good though it has me questioning again. Ones like Michael Palin reads a letter to a friend after the loss of their leg however are easier to believe. Irrespectively, both, and all, are so well performed I’m not so sure I care. 

The WordPress ecosystem has lost its mind…

Some more good insight and perspective on the whole WordPress vs WP Engine debacle. “The entire thing is a great example of how there are no good guys in war. Are you on the team of petty megalomaniac CEO who’s willing to burn down his entire community to prove a point. Or are you on the team of the parasitic freeloading private equity firm who’s only guiding principle is financial gain? There’s only one loser in this war, and that’s the WordPress user.” Personally, I’m still quite far from falling on the side of the parasitic freeloading private equity firm. 

Capt. Grace Hopper on Future Possibilities: Data, Hardware, Software, and People (Part One, 1982)

This is fascinating to listen to / watch on so many levels. Firstly, for an introduction to Grace Hopper who I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t know of before seeing this. The whole talk is just full of insight and history, and again, more realisation that so many ideas which feel contemporary, have actually been around for generations. Also, in Grace and in this talk I see another exemplar of how complex subjects can be (and should be) explained in simple terms. Her persistence with grappling with (and more likely, in wanting to help others to grapple with) the concept of ‘showing me a nanosecond’ is just brilliant. Watch this part form here, which begins with this fantastic introduction: 

“I have to explain something about myself. I’m an extraordinarily annoying employee. I normally drive all my bosses is totally nuts. Because I won’t do anything ‘till I understand what I’ve been told to do. So when you tell me to do something I start asking questions until I get a clear picture of what I’ve been told to do…”

This is what we should all be doing. Let’s all be more like Grace. 

Watch 

Ambitious community transport hire system… battery-powered… in 1974

“1974: William Woollard was in Amsterdam, to report on Witkar – an ambitious community transport system – and test drive one of the battery-powered, three-wheeled vehicles. Clip taken from Tomorrow’s World, originally on BBC One broadcast 17 October, 1974.” And I thought the invention of Zipcar in 2000 was innovative. As above, always amazing to realise when what we think of as new or discovered by our generation are just rehashes and echos. As per an old post: Generational amnesia: The memory loss that harms the planet.

The angst they [we] are really experiencing. Revolt ad for Frazzled UK

“Small Talk shows two work colleagues exchanging vacuous bants around the water cooler while concealing the angst they are really experiencing, speaking in generic subtextual dialogue.” A brilliant use of the ‘true inner monologue’ sketch technique. I remember seeing the Truth in Advertising around 2001 and it relating to so many meetings and interactions I had experienced. In fact, watching this back, I realised that stuck with me perhaps more than I realised. 

AI hallucinating of factory working peacocking breakdancing rocket shipping

There are loads of these about at the moment, and it will no doubt be a thing we look back on in a morbidly fond way when (if 🤞) AI images and videos stops these crazy hallucinations. But this one caught my attention as the kind of thing I can sometimes picture in my own mind as a technique to try to get to sleep. I start images in my minds eye and try to let them ‘freewheel’ without controlling them. Usually more just shapes and abstract textures, but sometimes scenes like this. That makes these videos feel oddly emergent for me. Sharing in the imagination. 

File types hanging out. Elle Cordova

Another brilliant sketch from Elle. So well observed and performed. The WEBP and HEIC punchline is so perfect. 

1981 Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy TV series review

I grew up watching this series and loved it. It was my introduction to Douglas Adams, and in many ways, to what I would classify as British humour. It’s fascinating to me to see how it was talked about at the time of release, and to see what panel review shows used to be like. 

ADHD but medicated. Ice Cream Sandwich

I love so much about the writing, performance, animation and irreverence in this guys videos. Been watching a lot of them with my kids (trying to get them into better, semi-mindless YouTube content than they tend to watch in their strictly allotted time). Anyway, this is a great example of these videos, and one that resonated with me and my own new explorations into medication. Feeling nothing even remotely as bad as what he went through, thankfully, but equally, not really feeling all that much at all, other than perhaps a slightly increased ability to hyper focus with fewer distractions. This post as a possible case in point!

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Model maker and paper cut artist. Ellie Sampson

I absolutely adore this work. Would love a version of my home made like this. Been tempted a number of times to ask about costs, but pretty sure they’re more than I can afford as this work can’t be, and should not be, cheap. Fantastic skills. Great to see.