Instead of social feeds, this is my archive of ideas & links that made me think
3/24
We recently re-watched “Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa” which is a fantastic documentary which was associate produced by our friend Wendi who is such a badass and someone I am constantly inspired by ✨.
I’m so grateful to my friends who have trusted me over the last several weeks to do portfolio reviews for them - I put a lot of time and focus in to giving them meaningful, focused feedback and I’m pretty sure I’m spot on with my redirection. But when it comes to doing the same thing for my own work, I’m having a “cobbler’s children” effect. I recently had a catch-up with a former colleague who gave me great advice, and it fully unblocked a self-limiting belief that I was holding which prevented me from moving forward with my storytelling. Anyway, if you’re reading this and struggling with your own portfolio, get out of your head and ask for some damn help. I promise it’s exactly what you need.
Another media thing - watch the 20-min short “The Singers” on Netflix - A+
10/25
My husband recently said “ok, after dinner we should watch a movie about extreme birdwatching” and at first I was skeptical but it was the best movie I’ve seen all year.
6/25
HBR’s article about The Power of Mattering at Work felt particularly resonant
This heartfelt episode of Reconsidering about caring for elderly parents with Liz O’Donnell grabbed my heartstrings. I and my friends and colleagues are all in a phase of life where we are navigating aging parents and loved ones, and often dealing with incalculable loss - all while navigating other caretaking responsibilities, work, and daily life.
And their other episode with Allison Pugh about “the last human jobs” was also stellar - I’ve been thinking about prepping for “stage 2” - what am I going to do once I’m aged out of tech? Let’s be honest, the field narrows considerably the older you get, and leadership roles are becoming deeply consolidated. I applied - and was accepted - toprograms for a) social work and b) mental health counseling, but decided to instead continue with the design career I’ve worked hard to cultivate. At least for the next ~5-10 years. I’ve seen the overlooked and underpaid connective labor of folks like my husband - a substance use disorder counselor working within hospital systems - and this interview had us both nodding emphatically.
Ok there’s a theme here - I LOVED listening to Bob Baxley talking about effective design, scale and purpose. Also “it’s very difficult to establish vision with a lot of people / the more people you put in, the slower it becomes.” Preach.
2/25
I was recently tested on my ability to suffer skillfully - an unusual life event occurred and caught me on the back foot. I was reminded of the parable of the two arrows - when something bad happens, that’s the first unavoidable arrow by which you experience pain. But the second arrow is optional - that’s the one you react to, and your choice of reaction informs the level of suffering you’ll allow yourself.
Really enjoyed this podcast about finding work you love, and the focus around energizing vs. draining efforts. Paradoxically, I’ve actually been focusing on the latter (I find repetition extraordinarily draining, so I’ve been creating templates for the team to speed up execution) to eventually focus on the former (I light up when designing things, and want to spend the majority of my day in deep, exploratory focus as I develop new products. I dim when constantly working on templates.)
6/24
I’m currently on a project with three fantastic researchers and they brought up this resource today - IDEO’s “Little Book of Design Research Ethics”
5/24
I recently started working with an organization aligned with public health, and as part of my orientation & discovery into the problem space I watched “The Invisible Shield”, an excellent four-part series on PBS
4/24
It’s a little groovy but I enjoyed this podcast episode on the position we can get in when we create stories about “how things are” - often based on narrow or limited information used to form those narratives. They also mention the book “The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership: A New Paradigm for Sustainable Success” which I’m going to read immediately.
I fell asleep listening a playlist inspired by Mary Lattimore’s “Arrivederci” and was jolted awake at 4 am by “Green Glass” by Josiah Steinbrick which I’ve since fallen in love with - it’s off of an album that is my new go-to for reading at night with the windows open.
3/24
My friend Liz and I went to the Banff Film Festival screening last week and I definitely cried at “Earthside”, a beautiful movie about living life at full volume
This is my favorite piece of art at the museum
4/23
I recently revisited a couple podcast episodes I really loved: Leslie Witt of Headspace and Connie Liu of Project Invent respectively talking with the Re:Considering folks about designing mental health services and approaching education differently. Stephen Brackett of Youth on Record and The 87 Foundation talking with CityCast Denver about the importance of needing more diverse spaces oriented toward young people in the city.
1/23
In a meeting with a colleague today, I talked about how High Country News is consistently my favorite reading material and 5 minutes later we had both signed up for a print subscription ✨
7/22
This podcast about coaching / self-coaching was magnificent. I just got back from a week of in-person, immersive dialog with other colleagues. That, plus the podcast, inspired me to spend some time journaling and reflecting on how I can grow based on what I felt from those interactions.
6/22
Had my mind blown a little by this article: “How Animals See Themselves”
We’ve been watching this mesmerizing YouTube channel about fine art restoration
5/22
Loved this absolutely stellar podcast about navigating midlife. It’s timely as I approach the midpoint of my life (if I go by the average lifespan on my family tree) and simultaneously made me feel inspired and more relaxed.
12/21
Escaping the Trap of Efficiency: The Counterintuitive Antidote to the Time-Anxiety That Haunts and Hampers Our Search for Meaning. This was a very timely read during my least favorite two weeks of the year - the time between Christmas and New Year where I feel deeply unsettled and stuck between a sense of wanting to accomplish everything and simultaneously wanting to do absolutely nothing, and then feeling guilty about it.
Finished a book on data privacy and didn’t realize there’s a whole set of established Privacy by Design foundational principles
11/21
Intrigued by attention restoration theory and this concept of “soft fascination”
10/21
This is Service Design Doing - Method Library
Service Design Glossary
9/21
d.MBA: Guides - A helpful collection of business concepts geared toward leveling up design professionals (I really liked the one about economics)
8/21
It’s hard to be a moral person. Technology is making it harder. - Sigal Samuel
The Capacity for Wonder / Sunsets - The Anthropocene Reviewed
I’ve been absolutely entranced by Mary Lattimore’s Collected Pieces album especially Bold Rides and The Warm Shoulder
6/21
Experience Design; 4 Ways to Make Your Next Event Unforgettable. I miss hosting! There’s the work part of experience design that I like, but I also miss building a playlist, setting a table, arranging lighting, playing games and cooking a meal for friends and family.
Sort of related to that podcast: writing acrostics for guests at a dinner party
5/21
What Is Systems Design? How to Surface Opportunities for Change
The Middle Way of Sobriety - Matthew Ginden
A History of Authenticity, from Jesus to Self-help and Beyond - Alexander Stern
Yo-Yo Ma Answers Cello Questions from Twitter
You Are a Network - Kathleen Wallace
Paddle to Seattle
2/21
Radiooooo - The Musical Time Machine
A great YouTube series on mushroom identification
The Hum. It’s real. I’ve heard it. Or maybe I have tinnitus.
Whenever I’m feeling blue, I watch some of the Crufts Freestyle competition and it always cheers me right up
12/20
Beatrix Potter (of Peter Rabbit) was a mycologist prior to becoming an author
The Sound of Colleagues
Huun‐Huur‐Tu - Full Live Performance
Tap Dancing Sequence from White Christmas
Zoom and Gloom: How Empathy and Creativity can Re-Humanize Videoconferencing - Robert O’Toole
10/20
My Life as a Turkey
The Need to Touch - Laura Crucianelli
How Andrew Wyeth Made a Painting - The Nerdwriter
Designing the Ballot & Voter Experience with Dana Chisnell - Aurelius Podcast
09/20
The Domain of Spirit - Ram Dass (archived dharma talk)
Home Is Where You Park Your Minivan - Radio Diaries Podcast
Lockdown in Lockup - Radio Diaries Podcast
06/20
I’ve found it really interesting how different businesses and organizations are using wayfinding to set up social distancing guidelines. Over the last few weeks, I’ve seen custom-made signs, red arrows / green arrows, blue painters tape, sandwich boards, caution tape, etc.
04/20
Capitalism and the Age of Addiction - Sean Illing & David Courtwright
And related somewhat, this article about “Kind UIs: Creating Interfaces that Promote User Wellbeing.”
Last week I had some feelings about inflated language, so I was really happy to keep the gripe going with this article about garbage language.
I watched this documentary that talked about a hydroelectric dam they built in South America that was pretty much entirely created for the sole purpose of powering the nearest major city’s exponential use of electricity year over year. But in the process of building it, they had to take over indigenous farmland through eminent domain and tore apart the natural environment. It’s something I don’t think about a lot, but yeah, when you use your device, or charge it up, or check your media which is powered by a server somewhere, you’re making an environmental ripple effect through your actions.
02/20
Behavioral Design 2020 and Beyond
The Side Effects of an Unfinished Internet - Neil Patil
Erika Hall continues to be awesome. Her quote: “Teach people those skills early in life, and start valuing conversation—particularly conversations where we feel the stakes are high, or we’re forced to talk about what we don’t know. What I’ve found in all my years of consulting is that if you go to any organization, everyone is terrified. They’re terrified of their colleagues, of the people who report to them, of the people above them. They’re terrified of looking like they don’t know what they’re doing. And it’s all because nobody has been taught to talk to people, or negotiate with people—despite the fact that these things are really learnable.”
If you consider yourself a designer but you're not routinely considering the architecture of the thing you’re designing, are you performing design or decoration?
07/19
How Our Brain Sculpts Experience in Line with Our Expectations - Daniel Yon
The Universal Page - 99% Invisible Podcast
What does pilgrimage mean in an age of instant communication and high-speed travel / “I Have a Small Heart” by Bajir Cannon
Inclusive Language Guidelines from WBGH, whose logo will always be etched into my mind from This Old House
Design Patterns for Mental Health exists, as does a Data Permissions Catalog. Jeez I love the internet sometimes.
I’ve been interviewing folks for some different positions at work, and I’ve been trying to keep a lot of these basics in mind.