Playful ‘things to think with’ and think about, shared every two weeks..

№ 104 | Thinking with Card, Visualicious Recipes, Zwicky Box, “Justing vs Butting”, AI Prompt Deck, and Gathering Design Strategies

Even MORE playful things to think with and think about. But first… a special announcement: 🎉 🗓️I’m beyond thrilled to be presenting at the upcoming Sketch Your Mind Conference (October 13-17). It’s online. It’s free. And, it has an amazing lineup, including a lot of folks I’ve

№ 103 | ‘At What Cost?’, The Tarot Cards of Tech, Two Visuals to Improve Your Next Talk, The Mind’s Pendulum, Habits of a Systems Thinker Cards, Afrofuturism and the “future past”, and Four Ways Humans Relate to Technology

Another dose of playful things to think with. Perhaps a little less playful… And a wee bit more somber and cerebral… But, all good things to think about! ‘At What Cost?’ Here’s your perennial reminder to think about the unintended consequences of the things we design, build, and use.

№ 102 | Adventures in Systems Zine, CodeCharta, Why Diagrams Fail, The Feed Game, “The Art of Asking Smarter Questions,” The Importance of Shared Labels, and AI and UX Research

Another roundup of ‘playful things to think with’, or think about. Or think about when you’re thinking. Or… You get the idea! Oh, and one last plug for the 💥EPIC💥 sized 100th issue of the Thinking Things newsletter. You know, just in case you missed it. I did spend

№ 101 | The CX FUNdamentals Toolkit, The Dabbawala Algorithm, High Agency In 30 Minutes, Webb’s Depth of Knowledge (DOK), and Nick Sousanis Illustrates the Joy of Learning

And… I’m back again, with a regular-sized dose of 5 playful things to think with. [And just in case you missed it, the previous mega-sized special 100th issue of Thinking Things featured dozens of things grouped into 11 themes. You should definitely check it out!] The CX FUNdamentals Toolkit

№ 100 | ✨Special Edition:✨ A Look Back at 99 Issues of Thinking Things

Welcome to a rare clip show edition of the Thinking Things newsletter. You can read my rambling preamble, or skip down to this special super-charged selection of thinking things! One reason I maintain this newsletter is to… * Share examples of * Spark interest in * Inspire the creation of …playful things to

№ 99 | A Solarpunk Zine, The Great Gambit, Coastline Paradox, Customer Needs Safaris, Type 1 Diabetes Companion Cards, and “The Broken Rhetoric of AI”

Welcome to another edition of the Thinking Things newsletter, your regular roundup of playful things to think with and think about. 🗓️One quick note, before we get into this 99th edition of the newsletter. I’m planning something epic (or at least wee bit larger than usual), for the 100th

№ 98 | Types of Deadlines, Awesomeness from Oliver Caviglioli, The Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy, Fractional Work, EuterPen, PRIMES, and ThreatGEN® Red vs. Blue

Here we go—another dose of playful things to think with and think about! Types of Deadlines When I saw this, I knew instantly this was going into the newsletter! Here we have a visual explanation—a visual way to think about—various types of deadlines [LI] . And while the

№ 97 | Workshops and Wizards Cards, Human Agency Scale, System Health Over Time, 10 Notable Data Visualizations, Your Brain as a Closet, Two Org Frameworks from John Cutler, ‘A Busy, Busy Day at the Airport’, and SideQuest Decks!

Your regular dose of playful things to think with, and think about! Workshops and Wizards cards (UPDATE) A few issues ago, I shared an early prototype of the Wizards & Workshops cards from James Smart, a small set of fantasy themed ‘kudos’ cards participants can give to each other during

№ 96 | Cards for Uncertainty, The Curiosity Curve, Communicating to Reduce Resistance, Envisioning Cards, Scrutinizing “Best Practices”, Nick Sousanis on Due Process, and Reservoir Sampling

Welcome to issue № 96 of the Thinking Things newsletter, your regular roundup of playful ‘things to think with’ and think about… Cards for Uncertainty I want to kick things off with a question to think with, asked by Zbigniew Janczukowicz at the last Cardstock meetup, a question that left us

№ 95 | Conquest (a VUCA Game), PLOT4AI Card Deck, MANY Ways to Launch a Startup, Union-Co-ops Zine, Power Skills, Barrier Island, and A Computational Public Space

Conquest (A Game to Explain VUCA) 😍 Mmm. A board game to learn about VUCA [LI]. More to the point: A board game designed for players to experience Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity. Ever wanted to explain VUCA to managers without boring them into a coma? We The Catalyst made a

№ 94 | Archipelago of Possibilities, Strategically Vague Questions, Pattern ABC Cards, Letter to a Young Systems Thinker, The Heroine’s Journey, and A Theme Park in Miro

Here’s your regular dose of playful things to think with, and think about! Archipelago of Possibilities This single photo was enough to derail me from whatever I was doing, and get my mind whirring at the creative possibilities. Look at the canvas map! Where do the cards come from?

№ 93 | Illustrating Complex Systems, Moving Motivators Cards, Working with Team Values, The Eudaimonia Machine, Role-Playing an LLM, Froebel’s Gifts, Senseless Interfaces, and Ojisan Trading Cards

It’s another issue of the Thinking Things newsletter 🎉 .This time, with a few more than usual playful ‘things to think with’ and think about… Enjoy! 30 Illustrated Frameworks for Complex Problems I tend to shy away from sharing “roundup” sites, and focus more on singular tools, things, methods, games,