№ 51 | Caregiving 101, Post-Solarpunk?, Working on Digital Walls, Streamlining Decisions, and Superpowers & Shadows

№ 51 | Caregiving 101, Post-Solarpunk?, Working on Digital Walls, Streamlining Decisions, and Superpowers & Shadows

Caregiving 101

I love the interplay  between the cards and journal in this Caregiving 101 design project (check out the concept video!).

Caregiving101 is a caregiving toolkit seeking to facilitate conversations between caregivers. The system of tools within Caregiving101 is built upon the foundations of Solomon’s Paradox - that notion that one can think more sensibly about other’s problems than one’s own.

No love for Solarpunk?:

So… interesting proposal here, though I'm not sure if it's anything new or an attempt to rebrand everything that got us into our current mess: “The Terrapunk Manifesto - a Solarpunk alternative.” If I invoke something like Dator's Four Futures, I see this as a tension between a Discipline future and Continued Growth future. And having just finished reading Dune, the Dune references didn't work for me—Dune is too rich with nuanced and complex ideas to reduce to a flimsy reference like “mastering nature.” That said, I also just finished reading A Psalm for the Wild-Built (a highly praised Solarpunk novella) which… also felt like it overlooked some basic human drives that make us, well, human. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Working on digital walls?

Good ideas in this piece on “Team memory, organisational sharing and serendipity in distributed workplaces.” How would you answer this question:

  How can we replicate office-based sharing while distributed?

Streamlining decisions: a framework

Hmm—is making decisions really this easy? 🤔

 In my experience there are mainly two factors that impact good decision-making: clarity on what good means - is the decision moving us in the right direction?clarity on who should take the decision - were all the relevant people involved in the decision-making?

Source: “Streamlining decisions: a framework”

Superpowers & shadows

I love this piece exploring how to coach people to recognize the “dark side of your superpower.” I think it resonates with me, as it aligns with the CliftonStrengths philosophy, which is to not focus on your weaknesses, but rather look for the blind spots inherent in your strengths. Bonus points for the five example use cases of this coaching approach in action.


BONUS: I love the visual design / presentation layer for these two micro-sites:

Everyone has JavaScript, right? and The ideal viewport doesn’t exist

Read more

№ 110 | ‘Havens, Hubs & Hangouts’, “Infrastructure for Thinking”, Fractal Gridding + the Hadara Method (for Goal Setting), Bootstrapping Computing,  Catalyst Game, Four Corners Reflection, A Visual Archive of the Jan 6 Capitol Attack, and the Size of Life

№ 110 | ‘Havens, Hubs & Hangouts’, “Infrastructure for Thinking”, Fractal Gridding + the Hadara Method (for Goal Setting), Bootstrapping Computing, Catalyst Game, Four Corners Reflection, A Visual Archive of the Jan 6 Capitol Attack, and the Size of Life

Did you miss me? 🤪 Stephen P. Anderson here, back again with your regular roundup of ‘playful things to think with… and think about’ (wow, that came out sounding like a cheesy DJ announcer!) One of the great things about taking time off between issues is the bounty of amazing finds

By Stephen P. Anderson
№ 109 | Algodeck, Alternatives to Arrows, Comic Lettering, Equations Explained Colorfully, Chemistry Advent Calendar, A Framework for Making Decisions, TikTok’s System Map, Learner Engagement Checklist, and Closing Prompts

№ 109 | Algodeck, Alternatives to Arrows, Comic Lettering, Equations Explained Colorfully, Chemistry Advent Calendar, A Framework for Making Decisions, TikTok’s System Map, Learner Engagement Checklist, and Closing Prompts

Let’s close out the year with an XL-sized roundup of ‘playful things to think with’ and think about. 🗓️NOTE: This will be the last newsletter until next year. I normally publish Thinking Things every two weeks. But, I do like to take a bit of time off during the

By Stephen P. Anderson
№ 108 | Paid Attention, Algorithms to Serve People, Algorithms That Don’t Serve People, the Meaning Matrix, Historical Problem Space Framework, Games as Information Systems, Four Video Games to Change How We Think, and the Circularity Deck

№ 108 | Paid Attention, Algorithms to Serve People, Algorithms That Don’t Serve People, the Meaning Matrix, Historical Problem Space Framework, Games as Information Systems, Four Video Games to Change How We Think, and the Circularity Deck

I’m back again with even more playful things to think with, and think about! Chances are, this edition of the Thinking Things newsletter gets lost in the FLOOD of “best deal of the year” emails.  Anyway… I’m busy. You’re busy. This will be the “straight to the

By Stephen P. Anderson
№ 107 | Reimagining the Now, Surfacing Worldviews of Change, Characteristics of SenseMaking (Illustrated), The Authoritarian Stack, Wheels of Privilege / Power—Remixed!, Four Leadership Modes

№ 107 | Reimagining the Now, Surfacing Worldviews of Change, Characteristics of SenseMaking (Illustrated), The Authoritarian Stack, Wheels of Privilege / Power—Remixed!, Four Leadership Modes

Back again, with even more playful things to think with, and think about. Last issue, I promised more card decks in this edition of Thinking Things. So, more card decks it is! Reimaging the Now card deck The Reimagining the Now card deck was created “to highlight how existing technological

By Stephen P. Anderson