Brazilian graphic designer Felipe Kaizer’s thoughts on design responsibility, and design in politics:
To be political is then to righteously serve a worthwhile cause. We can see here how politics is understood: purely as mankind’s way to organize itself in order to face ever new problems. Hence politics is merely a collective form of solving problems [...]
The responsible design of politics
Posted by John Lampard on Thursday, 23 July, 2009 to the design and art subset
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Trust in your daydreams to solve problems
Posted by John Lampard on Wednesday, 22 July, 2009 to the comment subset
More on daydreaming as a way of problem solving, the daydreaming mind is far more active than many believe it to be:
By most measures, we spend about a third of our time daydreaming, yet our brain is unusually active during these seemingly idle moments. Left to its own devices, our brain activates several areas associated [...]
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The Pentamix for an extreme Rubik’s Cube experience
Posted by John Lampard on Friday, 19 June, 2009 to the design and art subset
Ten variations of the iconic Rubik’s Cube, including the “Pentamix” which looks to be a particular devious version of the puzzle.
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Don’t brainstorm for solutions when you can daydream instead
Posted by John Lampard on Thursday, 14 May, 2009 to the comment subset
Don’t underestimate the power of the daydream… also a possible explanation as why solutions to some problems present themselves when we least expect them to.
“People assume that when the mind wanders away it just gets turned off – but we show the opposite, that when it wanders, it turns on,” said Christoff, co-author of the [...]
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Travel broadens the mind, and enhances creativity it seems
Posted by John Lampard on Monday, 11 May, 2009 to the comment subset
Living aboard may boost creativity. This possibly makes for a good excuse to take an (extended) overseas holiday.
Across three studies the pair made the following findings: students who’d spent more time abroad were more likely to work out how to affix a candle to a wall without the wax spilling; those who spent more time [...]
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The inverse pyramid of management hierarchy
Posted by John Lampard on Friday, 20 February, 2009 to the comment subset
A good manager is in-fact a servant and facilitator ensuring their “subordinates” are sufficiently resourced and removing all possible obstacles to productivity.
The word manager makes many people uncomfortable. It calls up the image of a bossman telling you what to do and forcing you to slave away at doing it. That is not effective management. [...]
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Question asking as a problem solving method
Posted by John Lampard on Thursday, 8 January, 2009 to the comment subset
“The basic unit of knowledge is a question.”
“The basic unit of knowledge is a question.” This is a common saying at Toyota, where hierarchical, authority-based leadership is eschewed in favor of responsibility-based leadership. Which is to say that people at the top of the corporate food-chain don’t drive all the decisions just because they sit [...]
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If you build it, you will use it
Posted by John Lampard on Wednesday, 29 October, 2008 to the comment subset
Hopefully solving a problem that you have will also solve a problem that other people have.
Everything I’ve done over the years that’s worked out well – software, standards, writing – everything, without exception, was something I did for myself. I’ve done the other thing too: built things based on guesses about what people out there [...]
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Tim Berners-Lee, the Web, and “creative connectivity”
Posted by John Lampard on Friday, 13 June, 2008 to the comment subset
Tim Berners-Lee would like to see the Web becoming a repository of “partly formed ideas” that could eventually assist in solving some of humanity’s larger problems, by forming a “trail of thinking”, that people could progressively contribute thoughts to until, through collective thinking, a solution emerges.
It is an idea he refers to as “creative connectivity”.
“Now [...]
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On Creativity
Posted by John Lampard on Thursday, 6 March, 2008 to the design and art subset
On Creativity, by Andy Rutledge at A List Apart.
How’s this for a definition of creativity?
Creativity has nothing at all to do with self-expression or flamboyancy. Aside from the simple ability to create things, the most important feature of creativity is a highly developed perception filter that is somewhat less common than we’re led to believe. [...]
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