Love & Work
A notebook about how we work, learn, love and live.
Here in the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts, August is about peaches, plums, blueberries, tomatoes and sweet corn. We are rich. I hope that you are, too.
Happy Friday.
How We Live
What if human intelligence represents an evolutionary dead end?
"Would Nietzsche have been happier — and would the world overall have been a better place — had the philosopher been born some other species other than human? On its face, it sounds like an absurd question. But in If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal: What Animal Intelligence Reveals About Human Stupidity, scientist Justin Gregg convincingly argues that the answer is yes — and not only for Nietzsche, but for all of us. 'Human cognition and animal cognition are not all that different, but where human cognition is more complex, it does not always produce a better outcome,' Gregg writes. Animals are doing just fine without it, and, as the book jacket says, 'miraculously, their success arrives without the added baggage of destroying themselves and the planet in the process.'
"Gregg — who holds a doctorate from Trinity College Dublin’s School of Psychology, teaches at St. Francis Xavier University, and has conducted research on dolphin social cognition — acknowledges that human history is marked by incredible breakthroughs that hinge on our intelligence. Yet, nonhuman animals do not need human-level intelligence to survive and be evolutionary successful, as Gregg points out, which is why this trait isn’t more prevalent across species." - Rachel Nuwer
Book Review: The Downside of Human Exceptionalism
How we learn
"Sometimes the flaw is that which is most beautiful."
"A genius makes no mistakes. Errors are volitional and are the portals to discovery." - James Joyce, Ulysses (1922, edited for gender assumption by me)
"If error were simply an issue of a wrong comma here or an incorrect word there it wouldn’t be nearly as interesting, but mistakes undergird our lives, even our universe. They can be detrimental, beneficial, neutral.
"When Lockheed Martin designed the Mars Climate Orbiter using American units and NASA assumed that they’d used the metric system instead, a discrepancy that resulted in that satellite crashing into the red dust of the fourth planet from the sun—that was a mistake.
"And when the physician Alexander Fleming left out a culture plate which got contaminated, and he noticed the flourishing of a blue mold that turned out to be penicillin—that was a mistake. Errors in how people hear phonemes are what lead to the development of new languages; mistakes in an animal’s DNA propel evolution; getting lost can render new discoveries.
"Sometimes the flaw is that which is most beautiful." - Ed Simon
Article: How Many Errorrs Are in This Essay?
How We Work
Digital correspondence doesn't need to be soul-sucking.
Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas teach a course at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business on the power of humor as a leadership skill. The school grants the same academic credit for the course that they do for Financial Accounting.
They're written a book on the topic called Humor, Seriously: Why Humor Is a Secret Weapon in Business and Life (And how anyone can harness it. Even you.) This article was excepted from that book. Do yourself and your colleagues a favor and read it.
Article: 3 Ways to Fold Humor and Humanity Into Your Work Emails
How We Work
A map of effective participatory decision-making
"The Diamond of Participation is a map of group process created by Sam Kaner and colleague that identifies several phases a group goes through on the way to creating participatory decisions.
"As groups engage with complex decisions there is a very common journey that goes through emotional and creative phases. Our ability to stay open to this journey enables us to discover new ideas, enter into the unknown, engage with difficult dynamics and make sustainable decisions. As a map, the diamond of participation helps us navigate the terrain of participatory decision making, and can help a group identify common traps, pitfalls and opportunities. Alongside personal leadership capacities to host and participate with presence and openness this map, with tools and practices to help move through each of the stages, can support engaging, creative, participatory decision making.
"The diamond is divided into five zones or phases that groups go through. In each of these zones, leaders can help groups make good decisions by paying attention to the emotional terrain and use good tools at the right time. " - Chris Corrigan
Article: The Diamond of Participation
Art and Design
The Taliban believe that "art is a path to corruption and vice in society". What does that mean for the established and exquisite practice of Afghan drivers decorating their trucks with pride?
Article: The Daily Heller: Recalling Afghan Truck Art Before the Taliban
Story
Traditional western storytelling conventions aren’t up to the task of understanding the enormity of the climate crisis or the pandemic.
 Storytelling outdoors, Concord Library, 1970, by Paul Ife Horne via CC BY-NC 2.0
"People love to talk about the power of stories: the force of the right hero’s journey spurring an individual into action; the power of a compelling narrative to change minds; the way empathy can break down barriers and re-shape society.
"I think writers choose to believe in the power of stories because it gives us hope. It justifies the hours we spend toiling at our desks without guarantee of audience or remuneration. We need to keep this faith if we’re going to stumble on through the darkness.
"The problem is that some of the most urgent and lethal challenges our society is facing are too giant and unwieldy to fit into the little patterns our human minds are used to making. Our present pandemic response policies suggest some people don’t get to be 'heroes' on a 'journey', and many traditional western storytelling conventions aren’t up to the task of understanding a climate emergency that defies any sort of conflict-resolution arc..." - Bri Lee
Article: Stories Draw Us to the Hero’s Journey, but Individual Empathy Doesn’t Help Us See the Bigger Picture
Typography, Visual Identity
The challenge of updating a recognized vanguard of culture
"Roger Black, art director of Rolling Stone from 1976 to 1978 and currently chair of Type Network, approached XYZ Type to redesign the classic logo in 2021. As one of Type Network’s foundry partners, we were thrilled at the prospect of putting our own lettering on the cover of this influential magazine, and intrigued by the challenge of celebrating the publication’s visual history by creating something entirely new.
"The assignment was a paradox. How could we make the logo look like it did in the past, without making it feel dated? My hope is that loyal readers will believe the old logo is back, but on closer inspection will be surprised to notice how much it has been modernized." - Jesse Ragan, XYZ Type
The foundry posted a great article about the project, including a complete history of the famous word mark, on their website.
Article: Lettering, Legacy, and Rock ’n’ Roll
One-liners
Article: If everyone bicycled like the Danes, we’d avoid a UK’s worth of emissions
Article: Why downtown won’t die
Article: Why Swiss trains are the best in Europe
Article: How teens are pushing back on book bans
Playlist
In their first concert at Lincoln Center, the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra performs Yuri Shevchenko’s arrangement of the National Anthem of Ukraine, led by Keri-Lynn Wilson and featuring concertmaster Marko Komonko. The music is soft and hauntingly beautiful. Toward the end of this video the camera pans the audience. There is not a dry eye in the house.
"Ukrainian violist Kateryna Suprun is among an estimated 5 million Ukrainian refugees who have fled their home country; another 7 million remain in Ukraine, but displaced from their homes. Now, nearly six months after the first strike on Kyiv, Suprun is one of 74 musicians banded together and touring the world as the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra.
"The orchestra, conceived and led by the Canadian Ukrainian conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson, is made up entirely of Ukrainian refugees, Ukrainian members of European orchestras and musicians representing the Kyiv National Opera, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, the Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra, Kharkiv Opera and other Ukrainian ensembles.
"Formed through a collaboration between the Metropolitan Opera (Wilson’s husband is Met General Manager Peter Gelb) and the Polish National Opera, the orchestra coalesced quickly around a mission to stage, as the Met news release put it, “artistic defense” of its homeland. Its debut concerts across Western Europe and Britain have been met with rave reviews and long ovations." - Michael Andor Brodeur
Article: A Defiant Orchestra of Ukrainian Artists Hopes Putin Can Hear Them
Image of the Week
Strands of spaghetti dry on racks near the beach in Amalfi, Italy. 1949.
Article: Rare And Fascinating Historical Photos Of Pasta Production From The 1920s To 1950s
What's Love & Work?
Love & Work is the weekly newsletter by me, Mitch Anthony. I help people use their brand - their purpose, values, and stories - as a pedagogy and toolbox for transformation.
If you get value from Love & Work, please pass it on.
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