beansprouts – (pl. n.) tiny thoughts from the brain of a Tinabeans
Absolute Powerpoint (New Yorker) “Can a software package edit our thoughts?” Turns out, it can. Somehow, a piece of software designed, fifteen years ago, to meet a simple business need has become a way of organizing thought at kindergarten show-and-tells. “Oh, Lord,” one of the early developers said to me. “What have we done?” I…
An Important Time for Design (A List Apart) I thought I was going to hate this article because it would turn out to be a self-congratulatory article about how great designers are and the rest of the world doesn’t understand and whine whine whine. Well, it wasn’t. It’s a call to action. Nothing new, but…
I remember when I started blogging. It was in high school. Back then, blogging wasn’t cool and no one had heard of it, except us angst-ridden teenagers. In LiveJournal, Blogger, Xanga (remember Xanga?) and the like, I found solace through uncensored written self-expression. This was wonderful. It was like standing on a mountaintop, shouting into…
How to start a movement (TED Talk) Happy New Year! Let’s start movements and dance our butts off on 2012
This year, I’m keeping it simple (and not bothering to mention exercise): Work hard Be compassionate Obsess less Read more Sketch daily Happy 2012!
An Evolution Toward a Programmable Universe (NYTimes) In this article, Larry Smarr argues that, with the increasing prevalence of networked sensors in today’s world, “the world gradually becomes programmable.” That is, instead of just having computational omniscience (knowing), we are actually moving towards computational omnipotence (controlling). What an idea, but not inconceivable. I’m also drawn…
Behavior modification (Wikipedia) Was curious about the scientific approach to “behavior change,” something that gets discussed a lot in ixd projects. This brought back memories of high school psych class and Ms. Lynn saying “But behaviorism has fallen from grace!”. Behavior change is not quite the same as behavior modification, which is founded on the…
Please consider WEIRD (Seth Godin) Seth has a new book out, called We’re All Weird. The basic premise seems to be that the mass market is dying, there is no such thing as “normal” anymore, and to survive in this brave new world, marketers & product-makers have to treat people like the individuals they are….
A Newspaper For The Twitter Age: The Size Of A Sales Receipt, And Edited By You (Fast Company) Little Printer may seem like a throwback at first, but it’s actually a disruptive, weird, but undeniably innovative way to liberate digital content from its screen-based prison. It’s about making “the cloud” tangible and intimate again, by…