№ 116 | Mapping the Sources of Power, The Atlas of New Futures, Factitious, Mutual Aid Self Care Zine, Lecture-Zines by Darren Raven, Wild Cards Deck, and the Weight of Worry
Hello, and welcome to another edition of Thinking Things, your mostly-regular dose of ‘Playful Things to Think With’ (and think about).
Mapping the Sources of Power
By way of a LinkedIn post from Scott Wolfson comes this map depicting “how experts actually make decisions.”
It’s a hand drawn conceptual landscape from the book Sources of Power, identifying various “cognitive superpowers.” According to Gary Klein, author of the book, his research showed these kinds of skills consistently outperform careful analysis: Intuition. Pattern matching. Mental simulation. Storytelling. Reading minds. Detecting anomalies. Improvising. Metacognition. Seeing the future.
Scott comments on the relevance of these skills (identified in 1998) to today’s AI conversations
Every. Single. Territory. On this map is something AI cannot do.
Not “cannot do yet.”
Cannot do. Full stop.
What stopped me was the artifact itself (FWIW, I’m gathering a small collection of these allegorical maps). But, I was also curious about the source material, which… eventually led me to this 2017 article in Psychology Today “Mapping the Sources of Power” written by the author, revisiting his map after nearly two decades.
I’ve commented before about how I love to witness people’s thoughts changing over time. What’s beautiful about the article is not only the updated version of this map, but his thoughts as to what has shifted for him. After noting the updates he’d make are relatively minor, he does add this:
In reviewing the 1998 map I found myself making a distinction between the types of knowledge people have and the abilities that their experience enable. The 1998 map doesn’t make this distinction and I think it might be important.
Speaking of maps…
The Atlas of New Futures
Futures? Archetypes? You got my attention!
The latest edition of the AXA Foresight Report describes 5 ‘New Futures Archetypes’ (NFAs)—with archetypes here focused on territories (think places you might visit); each of the archetypes looks out 15 years at “possible worlds shaped by climate change, technological evolution, demographic shifts and geopolitical dynamics.” The five identified archetypes are described as
worlds in a box that represent distinct takes on the future, developed in collaboration with partner institutions and open for others to use and build upon
One detail I especially enjoyed—after sharing the five archetypes and the drivers behind each—is the invitation to explore and create your own archetype, and the structured framework (of sorts!) to do so:
Speaking of futures…
Collective Dreaming Deck
This is a find I’ve been sitting on for a bit, waiting for the right moment (I think it pairs nicely with The Atlas of New Futures). The Collective Dreaming Deck from UN Global Pulse is “an interactive card-based game designed to spark collective imagination and support speculative scenario building.” It’s a free download. And, I love the specificity of the prompts, ranging from ‘gene hacking becoming commonplace’ to ‘systems for climate reparations’ to ‘moveable cities’. 🤪
Instructions are straightforward: Draw 3 cards at random; construct a story or scenario inspired by these cards.
Factitious
Ooh, a game to test (y)our media literacy. I think this was created for a college course with a goal “to teach people about fake and misleading news and not trusting everything you see on the internet.” Fortunately, the creators have graciously shared this with the rest of us! I was a “sharp reader” with 17 of 19 articles correctly identified (I’ll blame those two on the pressure of the timed response). Try it. See how you do!
Mutual Aid Self Care zine
More analog goodness from Alastair Somerville. This time, it’s the Mutual Aid Self Care zine, a simple zine you co-create (by answering reflection questions) to help you when you’re feeling anxious or overwhelmed.
Clever little detail: It’s kind of two zines in one, depending on how you open it: One direction focuses on ‘How I help me’, to remind yourself of things you can do; the other direction focuses on ‘How you can help me’, things you can choose to ask of or share with others.
For a more comprehensive version of this same material, check out the referenced zine Mapping Our Madness: A workbook for navigating crisis, extreme states, or just foul moods.
Speaking of zines…
Lecture-Zines by Darren Raven
“Amaze amaze amaze!” (Reference to Project Hail Mary, which I just got done re-reading and watching; I recommend both the book and the movie).
But as I was saying… WOW, is this next find going to blow your mind.
Just go ahead and check out these Lecture-Zines by Darren Raven.
First, there’s the sheer magnitude of this project. 365 zines! 😲 But, each zine is like a concentrated dose of related concepts, frameworks, mental models, and other ideas—things to think with and think about. Plus, citations included in every zine.
I made the mistake of jumping in somewhere in the middle (more on that in a moment), and missed out on this quite useful context from the first zine:
From the handful of these I’ve opened, I can say they are like mini-thought bombs full of inspiration. Yes, these live up to the stated goal of being provocative prompts.
As to the first zine I started with… It was this one on the 18 Creative Values. And here’s the funny—not surprising—thing: I was about three-quarters of the way through that zine, and was thinking to myself “this would make a great card deck” (as I often do). And then, on the next page… Boom. A card deck.
Anyway, LOTS of stuff to sift through… I’ll see you all again in a few years! 😉
Speaking of card decks…
Wild Card Deck (NPR)
I was listening to Wild Card with Rachel Martin, the NPR show where celebrities and creatives answer deep life questions drawn from a deck of cards.And I thought to myself “dang, these questions are really good… I wonder if anyone has captured all these… Or if there’s a card deck yet…” A moment and a search later, and… Serendipitous timing! 🎉 It turns out NPR just released—this month—the Wild Card Deck. Instant buy for me.
The Weight of Worry
An analogy to think with: The Weight of Worry: When to Let Go [LI]. You can put this next to the Spoon Theory:
A professor held a glass of water.
He asked his class one simple question.
"How heavy is this glass?"
Students answered:
8 ounces. 12 ounces. Maybe 16.
He smiled and said weight was irrelevant.
What matters is how long you hold it.
One minute feels like nothing at all.
One hour makes your arm start aching.
One full day paralyzes you completely.
He set the glass down on the table.
The lesson landed harder than any textbook.
Your stress works the exact same way.
A worry held briefly causes zero damage.
That same worry carried all day destroys you.
The problem was never the glass itself.
The problem was refusing to set it down.
High performers fall into this trap constantly.
They carry every project, every deadline, every fear.
They mistake relentless grip for mental toughness.
But paralysis disguises itself as perseverance sometimes.
The strongest leaders know when to let go.
They put the glass down before it breaks them.
Rest is a strategy, never a weakness.
QUESTIONS:
1/ What glass have you been holding far too long?
2/ When did you last give yourself permission to set it down?
🫳
🎤
