Love & Work
A notebook about how we work, learn, love and live.
COVID hit our house this week. Debbie went down first. Now we're both down. But she's starting to feel better and I can already imagine feeling better.
Happy Friday.
How We Live
"Those facing flood and fire can’t afford to lose hope. Neither should we."
Rebecca Solnit Miikka Skaffari / FilmMagic
"...If you do not take the long view, you cannot see how campaigns build, how beliefs change, how what was once thought impossible or outlandish comes to be the status quo, and how the last half-century has been an extraordinary period of change for society, beliefs and values. Today may seem the same as yesterday, but this decade is profoundly different from the last." - Rebecca Solnit
Article: Why Climate Despair is a Luxury
Design, Systems Thinking
Evolving from Human-Centered to Humanity-Centered design thinking
Don Norman
"Why Humanity-Centered Design? How is it different from Human-Centered? The meaning of the phrases cannot be inferred simply by the words: it is necessary to view the context. 'Human-Centered' was developed in the late 1980s. The focus was on the people for whom the design was intended. Now, four decades later, we have increased sensitivity to the biases and prejudices against societal groups plus increased concern about the environment.
“'Humanity-Centered' emphasizes the rights of all of humanity and addresses the entire ecosystem. It represents the ultimate challenge for designers to help people improve their lives. Where “human-centered” puts a face to a user, 'humanity-centered' expands this view to the societal level of world populations. When we design for humanity, we cannot stop with people. We must consider the entire globe: all living things, the quality of the land, water, and air. The loss of species. The changes in climate. We are an integral part of the system called 'Earth,' where changes in one component can impact every component." - Don Norman
Article: Humanity-Centred Design or Designing for Living Systems?
Futures Thinking, Urbanism
The city of tomorrow is a remodel, not a rebuild. It is something we will evolve toward, sometimes in small and incremental steps.
"What does the city of the future look like in the USA? Let’s take a trip to Any City, USA of the mid 21st century. With a look at the existing situation, current trends, and recent government policy, let’s take a look at where we’ll work, how we’ll get around, and where and who we’ll live with in the coming decades.
"The city of tomorrow has many familiar streets and sights of the city of today - after all, it’s a remodel, not a rebuild. While other countries have the option of building new cities or neighborhoods beyond the edge of existing ones, the US already used up most land within commuting distance in the 20th century on low density suburbs. Most of us will live in places that already exist today, but with changes." -
Article: The U.S. City of the Future
Personal Productivity
Traditional time management tools were never designed for freedom.
"'Stop managing time and start prioritizing attention', says Richie Norton. 'Pay attention to what you really want, then fast forward the model, going from purpose to priorities to projects,' he says. 'The way you’re paid should be in alignment with what you want to be doing. Change the way you work. Change how you’re paid. Change your life. The work you choose determines your lifestyle.'”
Article: How (and Why) You Should Practice ‘Anti-Time Management’
How We Work
Invite participation, promote open conversation
Patrick Lencioni proposes a model of effective teams that is a pyramid of 5 characteristics (that he presents through the lens of the 5 dysfunctions of a team). This is a simple team exercise that makes it easy to identify a group's own learning edges. I'm going to start to suggest its use whether the need is obvious or more underground.
Article: This Simple Team Activity Builds Psychological Safety.
Social Messaging, Advertising
Choose the train over a plane.
A simple outdoor campaign by Mother London that informs train travel is 7x less polluting than planes.
Article: Trainline – I Came By Train Because By Mother
Civics, Education
"If current events have made one thing clear, it is that schools must again teach the fundamentals of being informed, engaged citizens."
"When most Americans think about K-12 education, reading, writing and arithmetic tend to come to mind first. But public schooling, as envisioned by Horace Mann, serves another vital purpose — to educate students about their roles and responsibilities as members of the nation’s constitutional democracy.
"Unfortunately, over the past half-century, that central civic mission has largely been lost. But if this moment in the country’s history has made one thing clear, it is that now is the time for schools to again teach young people the fundamentals of what it means to be informed and engaged members of this self-governing society, and what is needed if the country is going to recover from the current polarization and discontent." - Ashley Berner, Christina Ross
Article: Time to Refocus on Civics, for the Good of the Country — and Student Literacy
One-Liners
Article: Brightly lit satellite billboards are technically and economically possible. But can we not?
Article: This coral reef resurrected itself — and showed scientists how to replicate it
Playlist
6-year-old Miles Bonham has more than 719K followers on Instagram. The reason is simple: it is a joy to watch how deftly and comfortably he controls his software and instruments to bring his own groove to a song.
He is undaunted by challenge. As he says, “The problem is I can’t do that. But the answer to that problem is: I can do it.”
This is a longish video shot over multiple days of him learning to perform “Girl” by The Internet (@The Internet) featuring KAYTRANADA (@KAYTRANADA). Production geeks will love it.
Video: 6-Year-Old Miles Reproduces KAYTRANADA + The Internet “Girl”
He, or he and his dad, posted a much shorter versions on both TicToc and Instagram.
Get ready to have your mind blown and your heart warmed.
Image of the Week
“Babouch” (“Flip-Flop”), by photographer Stéphan Gladieu
“'So dramatic, so strong, so visual,' artist Stéphan Gladieu said of his first encounter with the revival of an ancestral folk art movement in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. Kinshasa is the capital of Congo but also one of the many places American and European countries send their waste. Though doing so is illegal, wealthier nations still export tons of debris with the knowledge that these places do not have the resources to treat or recycle it. Instead, these discards sit, swell, and slowly drown everything around them.
In the face of this ecological disaster, the young people of Kinshasa began to repurpose the waste into traditional religious costumes that were previously destroyed, along with other cultural histories and rituals, by the forced Catholicism of colonization. Gladieu’s relationship with these artists has evolved into the Homo Détritus series.
“'(In the photographs), we are talking about ecology, but we are talking about ecology through African masks. As you can see, they’re completely covered up. You don’t see any part of the skin. The traditional masks were done with natural materials. They symbolized the spirit of the ancestors or the spirit of support of the natural world. These young artists reinvent these traditional masks in a way, but they do it today with trash because they find more trash and natural materials.'”
Article: Photographer Stéphan Gladieu Documents the Congolese Street Children Turning Waste into Wonder
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.
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