Had a weekend away and some evenings with friends, so I’ve taken in a bit more real life interestingness these past few days. Which was nice.

Read

What does a scientist look like? Children are drawing women more than ever before

A tiny win for good news, but we need it.

The Subprime AI Crisis

“Generative AI is being sold on multiple lies…” I’m trying to read as many competing opinions as I can about AI right now. And this piece is about as far away as you can get from the very exciting yet very investor pitch deck-like ideas expressed in situational-awareness.ai. It’s a damning view that feels more likely in my opinion. At the same time though, as someone without any deep and practical technical knowledge of LLMs and their potential, I’m aware that my opinions are just that and that I want to keep challenging them. This piece did that. Now, I need to find some more evangelising!

Design needs less talk, more action on sustainability. Design Week

“We need designers to question everything,” … “What are the consequences of creating this product or service?” … “If you can’t get your head around it, then you can’t communicate it. If you can’t communicate it, then you can’t get your clients on board. If you can’t get your clients on board, then you’re not getting paid to do it, and then there’s no incentive to do the learning.” I’m enjoying the issues that are being explored on the new Design Week, and sustainability (and climate change) is obviously a biggie. Good to see it being acknowledged that a big part of the issue is with designers, not knowing how to understand and communicate around the issue effectively. It’s not enough to keep just saying ‘we should design more responsibly’ while doing little to interrogate why we’re not.

Who are designers here to serve? Design Week

As above, another great piece form Design Week provoking good questions and thoughts. I like this not just because it involves signage (which has become a bit of theme on this blog), but because it gets into the realities of operational revenue. “As you can see from their own charts, they make about £800k a month, or 20% of revenue, from fines. The design choices appear to prioritise revenue over user satisfaction.” It’s another POSIWID situation. The author goes some way to recognise this, but then leaves it at, “I think [designers] should do everything we can to be ethical”, which I think cuts off an important path for considering alternate avenues for strategy. How do we make clients care about being ethical? Or care about user needs? And how do we help them make the returns and revenues they expect, without having to chalking up another loss for ‘good design’? I’ve many opinions on all this, involving design education, client communications, affordability of design services, better sharing of design patterns with the industry, and better sharing of case studies that include honest and open lessons about challenges and how they were won. But maybe that’s a bit much for this link post. Note to self (and a reminder that I meant to do this after my original UX is a joke post): How can we do more ‘good design’?

Haeckels ditches its name over links to racist zoologist. Design Week

What amazing news. Potentially, a very damaging commercial decision for a business to make, but very much the right thing for humans to decide. Wonder what [Nick Asbury] makes of this display of corporate purpose?

How to build god and get away with it. Taylor Troesh

A nice take on AI / ASI fears. Including some lovely analogous writing about the relationship with their daughter, and her relationship with “great glass slabs”. Also, it taught me the n-player game from game theory.

Vaillant Heat Pump Controls / How Radiators Work. Protons for Breakfast

I can’t admit to understanding everything here but I love following this guys work as best I can. This post stuck out for its verging on the edge of UX, information design, and clearer communication. Topics that are more in my comfort zone, if you’ll pardon the heat zone pun (which will only make sense if you peek at the post). Jenifer, one of my old business partners, has also recorded her experiments with solar and self sufficiency, a lot of which also goes over my head, but I still can’t help finding it awesome and inspiring work (both the effort to do it and log it in a shareable way). Proper smart people that share are brilliant.

My biggest productivity mistake. Tim Harford

“I think many people, myself included, tend to accumulate more active projects than they can reasonably handle. Each project has its own intellectual and organisational overhead, and there’s a risk of a cognitive traffic jam, as more mental energy is spent switching between projects than doing them. There are some tricks to reduce this sense of overload, but I have never found a permanent fix.” As ever, there’s a lot of cracking points in this piece from Tim Harford, but this one has the added bonus of revealing that he’s also human. Just knowing that he’s not as perfectly productive as he seems is an encouraging relief. A while back he wrote An economist’s tips on making email work for you, which left me feeling like I’m a child for not being able to empty my inbox. So it was also great to learn in this piece that his email strategy has downsides also. Thinking more, the last Harford post I liked – How to stay curious while avoiding distraction – was also on this topic of productivity. I wonder if he’s working on a new book about humans being a bit rubbish at doing things (and that its amazing we actually ever get anything done). Hope so, as that’s a book I’ve always wanted to write… if it weren’t for… being a bit rubbish at doing things, and having too many active projects.

Listen

Do you visualize like I do? David Eagleman, Inner Cosmos

I’ve continued taking into the past work of David Eagleman and discovered some great episodes of his podcast, which reminds me a little of the Hidden Brian podcast which sadly ran out of steam a little for me, or just changed it’s production in a way that hits me less now. Anyway, this episode adds nicely to my ongoing research and fascination with aphantasia, with stories and perspectives (from Pixar founders) I’ve not heard before.

Is AI truly intelligent? How would we know if it got there? David Eagleman, Inner Cosmos

As above, more well written ideas and perspectives from Eagleman. And even though this is a year old, it’s still an accessible and provocative listen about AI and the nature of intelligence.

A Soft Murmur – Ambient sounds to wash away distraction

A nice little addition to my white noise arsenal.

Listen/Watch

What if everyone pointed a laser at the moon?

More unsurprising brilliance from Randall Munroe, explaining the surprising reality of what it takes to light up the moon, even just a bit. And then an awful, awful lot. Once again, science facts proving more fascinating than most fiction.

Carspiracy – You’ll Never See The World The Same Way Again

Global Cycling Network (GCN) are making increasingly helpful and important videos. The sort of thing I would have expected from the BBC, now produced by a small group of passionate cyclists. Inspiring stuff. But also in this video, really quite depressing!

Watch

The time travel movie that doesn’t move

I’m gutted that younger me didn’t know of the film (La Jetée) in this video as he’d have loved it and been totally inspired. Thankfully, this essay from the awesome Nerdwriter has made older me aware, and stirred some very enjoyable (pop)philosophical thinking.

Look

Children’s Literacy. DESIGNTHINKING!

Reading isn’t and has never been my strong suit*, so I really relate to what’s being said here. The ‘issue’ of reading rates as always smacked as ableist imo. And basic snobbery when it belittles comics and graphic novels.

*I’m on the dyslexic spectrum. And as per phrasing like “not my strong suit” and “on a spectrum” might suggest, I’m trying to think more about my nature, rather than giving myself labels that suggest I’m burdened with deficits. Inspired in part by the idea of “difference not a disability”

Also, I’m also considering setting up a bot to repost everything from DESIGNTHINKING! It’s just too good. A critical and reflective lens that the design industry desperately needs right now. It’s kindling a fire in me at least to speak up. I just need to stoke myself a bit more.

Asking Stupid Questions as a Service. Dan Hon / Very Little Gravitas

I’m an increasing big fan of Dan Hon and only just found this, which I think is his consultancy shop front. Half glad I didn’t find it before writing copy for my own personal/professional site as it would have influenced me far too heavily. I’m aiming for straight talking like this, and an offer that’s not a million miles off, but I’ve got a little less chutzpah than Dan so not sure it would have been helpful before getting my own messaging in order.

Reference

Design. Humanity’s Best Friend.

I made a quick visit to the Design Museum this weekend and this strapline jumped out at me. I don’t remember seeing it before. Perhaps I’m more attuned to it as I refine my own related messaging. I feel however that the kind of design the Design Museum focuses on is too dominantly on the fancy looking and superfluously experimental side for my current liking. But, this line could invite more practical thinking also, so I’m hoping it becomes a valuable reference.

Want

The History of Information. Chris Haughton

I’m resisting buying this for my kids, as they’re a little too game obsessed to spend time with beautiful books now (still reading regular books, thankfully). Also, I know I’d be buying this more for myself anyway, and my to-read stack is far too tall already. It looks brilliant though. Also, we were huge fans starting in 2014 of Oh No, George! and A Bit Lost, so I’ve a lot of love for Chris’s work.