Because empathy is a cornerstone of design.
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Proponents of this new science believe that experiencing awe may be an essential pathway to physical and mental well-being. By taking us out of ourselves and expanding our sense of time, it counteracts the self-focus and narcissism that is the root of so much modern disenchantment. To experience awe, to fully open ourselves up to it, helps us to live happier, healthier lives.
A rather extensive article by Henry Wismayer, but well worth the read: Finding Awe Amid Everyday Splendor. Really enjoying the articles Noema Magazine puts out lately.
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There is brave in soft.
There is wild in simple.
There is peace in thunder.
There are songs in stillness. -
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Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.
Cory Doctorow about Tiktok’s enshittification and how (social media) platforms die. I really do like the sentiment the subline of this blog conveys, too: “No trackers, no ads. Black type, white background. Privacy policy: we don’t collect or retain any data at all ever period.”
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When a person aspires to be a brand, they forfeit everything that is truly glorious about being human. Building any brand requires consensus. When we position ourselves as a brand, we are forced to project an image of what we believe most people will approve of and admire and buy into. The moment we cater our creativity to popular opinion is the precise moment we lose our freedom and autonomy.
Designer and brand consultant Debbie Millman about The personal brand paradox and how social media (with its followers, likes and click-throughs) is pushing the long-lasting concept of the ‘personal brand’ at the present time.
wepresent.wetransfer.com/stories/personal-brand-paradox-debbie-millman
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Build a good name. Keep your name clean. Don’t make compromises, don’t worry about making a bunch of money or being successful … be concerned with doing good work and make the right choices and protect your work. And if you build a good name, eventually, that name will be its own currency.
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They found that when people made a very subtle shift moving from ‘What should I do?’ to ‘What could I do?’ they generated many more solutions and better solutions.
This is how to solve problems more effectively with one simple change by Daniel H. Pink.
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Design has shifted more toward manufacturability and appearance than functionality, when it should be a balance of all three. Arguably, it’s nearly impossible for corporations to avoid participating in the trend cycle as long as consumers have an appetite for more — whether it’s a predilection for cooler clothing or whatever new incremental yet buzzy technology just came out. At the same time, the blame does not lie on consumers’ shoulders; corporations are responsible for creating and stoking the ‘new and more is better’ culture we have today.
Izzie Ramirez sums up why Your stuff is actually worse now, especially in the fashion and the tech industry. What has happened to “less but better”?
vox.com/the-goods/23529587/consumer-goods-quality-fast-fashion-technology
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Our current ideal of beauty, specifically in Western culture, specifically at this time in history, means being as divorced from your humanity as possible,” beauty culture critic Jessica DeFino told Jezebel. “These AI drawings have almost no humanity in them: They’re cartoon, digital renderings, created by artificial intelligence without a human hand involved in the making of it all. It just feels very depressingly on track for what our culture considers beautiful.
Lensa AI and the Trap of Otherworldly Beauty by Emily Leibert.
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Spinning on turntable
Vinyl’s warm sound fills the room
Analog magicVinyl’s crackle and pop
A symphony of sound waves
Forever in grooveVinyl disc spins slow
Echoes of the past come alive
Music timeless flowscreated with the artificial intelligence ChatGPT
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When you go out into the woods and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever. And you look at the tree and you allow it. You see why it is the way it is. You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light, and so it turned that way. And you don’t get all emotional about it. You just allow it. You appreciate the tree. The minute you get near humans, you lose all that. And you are constantly saying, ‘You’re too this, or I’m too this.’ That judging mind comes in. And so I practice turning people into trees. Which means appreciating them just the way they are.
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© Jody Mac (via YouTube)
The reality of your life is always now.
The backgroundmusic is quite corny and the clips are mainly stock material, but I still really like the video Jody Mac put together using excerpts from the amazing talk “Death and the Present Moment” by Sam Harris. His entire talk (about an hour) is on Youtube, too, if you want to start your year with some excellent food for thought:
You really can change the world if you care enough.
