Love & Work
A notebook about how we work, learn, love and live.
Futurist Stuart Candy of Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Design says that “The future we imagine is the future we create”. Given how harsh a lot of present reality is, it follows that imagining positive futures requires a fair amount of fantasy. And as Einstein says, fantasy is a gift.
Let's dream. Happy Friday.
Futures Thinking
Fantasy reflects a fundamental aspect of the human condition — the struggle to overcome hardships.
Credit: grandfailure / Adobe Stock
"The snobbery of those who look down on fantasy has a long pedigree — so much so that, in 1947, J.R.R. Tolkien felt the need to defend the genre in his work, 'On Fairy-Stories.' For Tolkien, fantasy and fairy stories are not simply stories about fairies. They are stories that take place in a land of fairies. They exist in their own created land, where any number of wondrous things can happen, but they are always treated with the utmost seriousness by the reader. To enter Faërie is not to enter a world of simple make-believe; instead, we perform an act of 'sub-creation,' in which we form a world within our wider 'reality.' - Jonny Thomson
Article: Tolkien on the Importance of Fantasy and Science Fiction
Learning
"Don't be afraid to be an idealist."
In October of 2006 Maria Popover started writing a weekly newsletter that she called Brain Pickings. Last year she renamed it The Marginalian. It is one of my must-reads, and based on your comments, it is for many of you, too.
In 2022 the letter turned 16. She took the time to gather things that she has learned while publishing this inspiring missive.
Article: 16 Life-Learnings from 16 Years of The Marginalian
How We Live
"We conflate the idea that cities change with the idea that neighborhoods are inevitably taken over by wealthier, whiter residents."
Leslie Kerns
Leslie Kerns is a feminist urban scholar from Toronto, Canada. In her latest book, Gentrification is Inevitable and Other Lies, she pushes back against an assumption that too many of us assume is a given. Anne Helen Petersen says that Kern "argues, with great clarity and precision, not just against gentrification, but against seven over-simplified, often hackneyed ways it’s been understood, normalized, and inevitablized. It turns narratives of gentrification upside down, shakes them, and displays all the presumptions that inform them."
"As a feminist scholar I was always interested in how power works across intersecting systems and identities, but this was the first time I understood that geography was a crucial factor. If you think about ideas like 'a woman’s place,' segregation, apartheid, anti-trans bathroom bills, settler colonialism, space is fundamental. How people are excluded, made vulnerable to violence, Othered, etc. is often accomplished through spatial processes of separation (e.g., 'white vs. colored' bathrooms) and by assuming there are right or normal places for different groups of people to be and not to be."
"...For me, a single dimension anti-gentrification struggle is never going to be enough. If we don’t attend to and make connections among other crises and the violence they create — be it the climate crisis, COVID, policing, borders, reproductive rights, the rise of white supremacy, ongoing settler colonialism —then we’re not going to get very far. I’m aware that in saying that, though, it sounds like I’ve scaled up the problem to a point where people may disengage because they’re overwhelmed and feel powerless. Hence the final section of the book! Initially, I had planned to end the book at the “Gentrification is Inevitable” chapter that includes many examples of resistance to gentrification from various cities. But when I got there, I felt that something was missing. Reading examples was interesting and educational, but not empowering. The book needed to include a call to action and a path to action.
"The last chapter, then, moves beyond a critique of what gentrification scholarship has been missing to lay out affirmative principles for what an intersectional anti-gentrification politics might look like. It also offers a 'baby steps' approach for those who might not have any idea how to get started. So far, people really seem to appreciate this section. They put down a book about a pretty heavy, depressing topic feeling a glimmer of hope and seeing themselves as part of the solution." - Leslie Kerns
Author Interview: Gentrification is Inevitable (and Other Lies)
Media
"For over half a century, Ms. has helped to shape contemporary feminism, with its editors and authors translating a movement into a magazine."
"Ms. Magazine was a brazen act of independence when it launched 50 years ago. First introduced to the world as an insert in New York Magazine, Ms. demonstrated the potential for journalism that centered news and analysis around women and their lives and made a feminist worldview more accessible to the public.
"That potential quickly pivoted to power. How? Ms. didn’t just cover the news — it made the news. It reported on trends and helped to create them. Over the years, Ms. has sparked laws and judicial changes, influenced policy, generated new vocabulary, and forced action on issues too long ignored. Articles in Ms. have won awards, fueled movies and books, spurred scholarship, and are still widely reprinted and included in textbooks and collections."
Article: Ms. Magazine Turns 50
Writing, AI
ChatGPT is a game changer. This genie is not going back in the bottle.
Play with ChatGPT just once, and you realize that the world of idea generation has turned. Mark Schaefer asked members of his community how they were using the AI app and got 20 surprising ideas. As someone who works in naming products and services, I was particularly interested in this exercise:
"Me: Help me come up with a name for a new drink. It’s got Japanese gin, unsweetened tonic, lime, Szechuan pepper, and grapefruit.
"ChatGPT: How about 'Sakura Sunrise?' The name incorporates the Japanese gin and the citrus flavors of grapefruit and lime, and the word 'sunrise' suggests a fresh and invigorating start to the day. Alternatively, you could go with something like 'Peppered Grapefruit Gin Fizz' to emphasize the unique flavor combination of Szechuan pepper and grapefruit."
Spooky, right?
Article: 20 Entertaining Uses of ChatGPT You Never Knew Were Possible
Related Article: Can ChatGPT Write a Proper Usability Test Script?
Related Article: How to Use ChatGPT in Product Design: 8 Practical Examples
How We Work
"For the college-educated elite, work has morphed into a religious identity—promising transcendence and community, but failing to deliver."
 Nicky Loh / Reuters
"What is workism? It is the belief that work is not only necessary to economic production, but also the centerpiece of one’s identity and life’s purpose; and the belief that any policy to promote human welfare must always encourage more work.
"Homo industrious is not new to the American landscape. The American dream—that hoary mythology that hard work always guarantees upward mobility—has for more than a century made the U.S. obsessed with material success and the exhaustive striving required to earn it." - Derek Thompson
Article: Workism Is Making Americans Miserable
Visual Identity
An identity that welcomes both a rural local community and urban New Yorkers
"Catskill Art Space (CAS) is a community arts center located in leafy upstate New York. Founded in 1971, the space is also one that prides itself on having deep roots within its local community, providing an open cultural destination for locals, while also attracting New York’s art lovers from the center of the city. In its time, the space has seen exhibitions from the likes of James Turrell and Sol LeWitt. To see in a new era, Catskill enlisted the help of Athletics studio to develop a new brand identity that would 'reflect CAS’s future ambitions, while remaining true to their local heart and soul', a press release details.
"Summarizing the core driving force behind the identity, Catskill’s Executive Director Sally Wright says, 'We’re trying to open the doors in a way, so more people will come in,' adding that, 'It’s challenging, breaking down the perceptions of what an art gallery or art center is'. To create such a welcoming feel to the identity, Athletics focused on a readable wordmark, a versatile typeface and a subtly toned, nature-inspired palette." - Olivia Hingley
Article: The Nature of Upstate New York Inspires Athletics’ New Identity for Catskill Art Society.
One-liners
Article: Apple has developed a robot that can take apart iPhones with (almost) as much care and attention as they were put together.
Article: Mussel farming is healing the UK’s coastal food chain.
Article: The brain is not wired to transmit a sharp “stop” command in the most direct or intuitive way.
Article: Joni Mitchell’s catalog of albums now on YouTube: stream them online.
Article: Gartner: Seven ways for corporations to be ethical
Article: More empathetic people better understand animal sounds.
Playlist
A couple of weeks ago on our family chat thread, son Devan said: "Anna Moss seems really familiar, but we can’t figure out why. Dad, have you had her in your newsletter before?".
No, Dev, I haven't. But she sure does belong here. This song is soft and groovy. It's amazing what four people standing on a street corner can do.
Video: Anna Moss & the Nightshades "Slow Down Kamikaze" NPR Tiny Desk Contest Submission 2021
Image of the Week
Photo by Muhammad Fadli
“This Plastic for Rice project is so meaningful and full of change and hope. The waste system in Indonesia faces a long way to sustainability but this picture shows two generations making a living by cleaning up plastic on Bali. I really like the empowerment this woman conveys in the way she straddles her motorbike with her daughter and looks straight into the camera.” - Anne-Marie Hoeve
Article: Plastic for Rice: How Bali Kept Going When Travel Stopped
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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