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  • writing lightly…
    “… there’s another layer of responsibility, writing on a thin sheet of tree and hoping the words are worth it… Such a thought could make a person set down her pen.” -Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass
  • looks a lot like writing season
    Right after I spruce up this place. Because that’s how writing works…
  • PEW Research: Tech Saturation, Well-Being and (my) Remedies
    Back in January, I was asked to participate in PEW Research’s survey on the impact of digital life: “Over the next decade, how will changes in digital life impact people’s overall well-being physically and mentally?” The choices: more helped than harmed, more harmed than helped, not much changed. PEW and partner Elon, published comprehensive results of the … Read more
  • Experts Sketch
    I think best with a marker in my hand. Always have. My workspace, and all paths to and from it, are littered with box and line diagrams, doodles, code snippets, and my (at that moment) best idea ever, on any scrap of paper, notebook or whiteboard within reach. Quirky, my friends think. But, I’m far … Read more
  • Lessons from Critical Making: Thingking
    As technology and data increasingly pervade our everyday, technologists and teams are incorporating new practices, especially design thinking, as a means to deliver digital products, services and experience that fit. The person. The situation. The system. Teams responsible for these new digital endeavors and transformations often model their practices on elite technology companies, fast moving … Read more
  • Archives: Making the case for polymaths
    [Note: Originally published on my business technology blog, elemental links, March 2014.] Not everyone can be a specialist, and that’s a good thing. Four good sources on why we still need polymaths (generalists, versatility) in an age of increasing specialization, and complexity. For natural polymaths, check out the bonus link on Maya Angelou, and then … Read more
  • Want better answers? Ask better questions.
    Some years ago, I was engaged in a discussion with leadership peers on tackling a particularly challenging issue that seemingly had no answer to satisfy the trifecta of ambitions, resource constraints and ability to execute. We’ve all been in this meeting. You circle until one of two things happens. Some person or faction gives in, … Read more
  • Connective thinking is rare, crucial – 1959 Essay by Isaac Asimov on Creativity
    Connective thinking ability cited as key trait in newly published Isaac Asimov essay on Creativity: But what if the same earth-shaking idea occurred to two men, simultaneously and independently? Perhaps, the common factors involved would be illuminating. Consider the theory of evolution by natural selection, independently created by Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace. There is … Read more
  • Eames’s Legendary “Powers of 10”
    Increasingly, designers are shifting scale from rethinking artifacts (whether buildings, posters or toasters) toward whole systems thinking. I would call this a scale shift from, let’s say, 10^1 to 10^5. Prompted originally by environmental thinking and more recently by the rise of networks and globalization, we are starting to recognize that it is impossible to … Read more
  • The future belongs to systems thinkers
    I’ve often said the future belongs to the dot-connectors. Webber’s Rule of Thumb #7, the System is the Solution, describes it perfectly: My point is that embedded in every company, in every organization, is a system. When you see the system and not just the individual pieces you increase your chances of winning. Most people … Read more
  • 11 Rules for Critical Thinking via Brain Pickings
    From the fantastic Brain Pickings: “Dubbed Prospero’s Precepts, these eleven rules culled from some of history’s greatest minds can serve as a general-purpose guideline for critical thinking in all matters of doubt:
    1. All beliefs in whatever realm are theories at some level. (Stephen Schneider)
    2. Do not condemn the judgment of another because it differs from your own. You may both be wrong. (Dandemis)
    3. Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. (Francis Bacon)
    4. Never fall in love with your hypothesis. (Peter Medawar)
    5. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts. (Arthur Conan Doyle)
    6. A theory should not attempt to explain all the facts, because some of the facts are wrong. (Francis Crick)
    7. The thing that doesn’t fit is the thing that is most interesting. (Richard Feynman)
    8. To kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact. (Charles Darwin)
    9. It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so. (Mark Twain)
    10. Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong. (Thomas Jefferson)
    11. All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second, it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident. (Arthur Schopenhauer)”
    via Was Shakespeare Shakespeare? 11 Rules for Critical Thinking | Brain Pickings.
  • Enterprise Architecture in 140 characters
    “The ultimate outcome of Enterprise Architecture is change-friendly capability delivery.”