December 2011
3 posts
November 2011
4 posts
organization: thing-like something
The word “organization” appears to be an abstraction in its own right. If we use it in the sense of “the organization of festivities” then the word means the multitude of actions and efforts that are necessary to have the party be a success, before, during, and after the actual party. If we use it in the sens of “the organization has been in existence for 5...
“What I call Platonicity, after the ideas (and personality) of the philosopher...”
– The Black Swan - The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
October 2011
3 posts
September 2011
1 post
“When the city operates as an open system – incorporating principles of porosity...”
– Richard Sennett, The Open City, 2006
July 2011
2 posts
“When social scientists add the adjective ‘social’ to some...”
– Bruno Latour, Reassembling the Social, 2005 (Oxford Press)
June 2011
1 post
“The professionalized cognitive and occupational styles that were refined in the...”
– Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning, Horst Rittel / Melvin Webber, 1973
February 2011
0 posts
December 2010
2 posts
September 2010
1 post
“Distraction and concentration form polar opposites which may be stated as...”
– The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Walter Benjamin, 1936
May 2010
1 post
January 2010
2 posts
December 2009
3 posts
Does technology drive history?
I’ve come to a disconcerting conclusion: design research is great when it comes to improving existing product categories but essentially useless when it comes to new, innovative breakthroughs. I reached this conclusion through examination of a range of product innovations, most especially looking at those major conceptual breakthroughs that have had huge impact upon society as well as the...
“Bounded applicability simply states that any method or tool has limits. You know...”
– Dave Snowden, Mithridatism & excess: an argument for bounded applicability (2006)
“We may wish for easier, all-purpose analyses, and for simpler, magical,...”
– Death and Life of the great American Cities, Jane Jacob (Vintage) 1961
November 2009
3 posts
“There are professions more harmful than industrial design, but only a very few...”
– Design for the Real World, Victor Papanek (Pantheon) 1971
“The idea is simple to explain, and distinct from a naïve determinism. Different...”
– The Wealth of Networks, Yochai Benkler (Yale University Press)
October 2009
2 posts
While I've been gone
Is it really 6 months since I posted anything? I guess it is. And what a 6 months it’s been. I suppose I can’t be blamed too much. A quick link roundup is in order of some interesting blog posts that I’ve seen and events that have happened since I got back. A massive Bloglines purge (14,000 unread: oof) made me feel a bit sad. There’s so many smart people writing so much...
August 2009
1 post
“However powerful our technology and complex our corporations, the most...”
– The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, Alain de Botton (McClelland & Stewart)
June 2009
1 post
May 2009
1 post
Dealing with the uncertainty of the complex
Fresh off of a week spent receiving Cognitive Edge Accreditation with Michael Cheveldave here in Vancouver, its not surprising to me to be seeing the simple, complicated, complex, and chaotic all over the place. We are, as Dave Snowden and company are bound to say, pattern-recognition beings after all. Three related posts on the problems with applying ordered and simple domain thinking to the...
April 2009
1 post
March 2009
3 posts
“communication + There are broadly two types of definition of communication. The...”
– Key Concepts in Communication and Cultural Studies, John Fiske et al (Routledge)
January 2009
2 posts
“History has drawn fault lines dividing practice and theory, technique and...”
– The Craftsman, Richard Sennett (Yale University Press)
December 2008
1 post
November 2008
4 posts
cyclocross season recap for 2008
After a couple of years of sporadic racing, I returned to regular competition this fall by partaking in the BC Cup Cyclocross series. I’d left off racing Men’s B back in 2006 and having done only half a CX race in 2007, I figured it would be a safe bet in that group. New this year: a Masters category. A lot of the usual suspects from Men’s B in days gone by had moved over to the...
October 2008
1 post
September 2008
17 posts
“The severest ordeal that nature imposes on the racer is the mountain. The...”
– What is sport? Roland Barthes (Yale University Press)
Where's the Square? Public space design contest in...
Inspired by my recent foray into the public spaces of New York and being the “armchair urbanist” that I am, I attended the VPSN’s Where’s the Square design contest kick-off session last night. Three interesting speakers (Berelowitz, Oberlander, Thom) mused on the topic of where Vancouver’s grand public space / square could be and should be. And what other cities have...
next year
What I missed whilst flying home from NYC… Starcrossed Cyclocross 2008 from bce on Vimeo. Next year. It’s on. Kudos to the EV guys for a strong showing down there this weekend. Our Saturday morning cross adventures at Jericho and UBC appear to have paid off.
Content Matters - Web 2.0 Expo - Danico, Wright,...
Liz Danico, Jeffery Zeldman, Alex Wright, Kristina Halvorson, Paul Ford Sept 19/08 - raw notes Changing minds about role of content in wireframes Importance of content strategy in terms of user experience. Audio recording started: 8:08 AM Friday, September 19, 2008 Original names: copy matters Off limits: “copy” Content matters, can’t be used copy You may have heard: 1. Content...