Finds

№ 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

№ 117 | A Special “Two-fer” Edition: Museum Activities, Attention, Technology & Childhood Education, Writing Together, Two Critiques of Org Change, and More Great Conversation Starters

A special “two-fer” edition, featuring things to think with or think about—that happen to pair nicely with each other! Context: While collecting the various things that make it into this newsletter, I sometimes come across posts, frameworks, etc. that feel better to share together, as a pair (or triptych)

№ 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

№ 115 | Copyright: The Card Game, Design Thinking Canvas, The Learning Matrix, “Moving From SWOT to SO WHAT? Analysis”, Prosocial Design Network, Lenny’s World… Remixed!, and Violence as a Contagious Disease

I'm back again, with your regular roundup of ‘playful things to think with’ and think about! (Two days later than usual, but… other priorities!) Copyright: The Card Game Now this is how you design a learning card game! Take a confusing topic (in this case copyright law). Create

№ 114 | Platform Thinking Journey Cards, The Dictionary of Radical Alternatives, Learning Theory Map, “Let Them Have Your Way” Zine, a Framework Mashup!, “There is No System 2”, Go for Goals, and Gutenberg Revisited

Welcome to another curious roundup of ‘playful things to think with’ and think about! Platform Thinking Journey Cards Here’s a shout out to my friend Werner Puchert, who just dropped another one of his extensive card deck video reviews. This time, he’s looking at the Platform Thinking Journey