A zen perspective on how we think about the future
Last weekend I had nothing to do for a minute except package up the ever-growing collection of articles at DesigningLife.com. Trying to simplify. They address topics like collaboration, innovation, leadership, organization building, community development, and economic development. I dumped them on a new blog and realized that I've got half a new book worth of material accumulated, so decided that the continuing collection will in fact become a new book next year in 2012, giving me an unprecedented 3 new titles coming...
Hopelessness has forever gotten bad press. It provokes dread in those of us who want a better future than the past. We attribute it to people who suffer ignoble misfortune and injustices. There is however a kind of hopelessness that is productive and critical to a future different from the past. We need to lose hope in the power of colonization to restore sustainability to war torn and impoverished regions. We need to lose hope in endless consumerism as the prime cause of personal and collective happiness. We need...
India is home to a sea of homeless and people who have structures that provide more risks than any level of sustainability. So designers are interested in new possibilities that leverage what is financially, energy, and infrastructure pragmatic. Vijay Govindrajan of Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business with Christian Sarkar, marketing expert issued a challenge in the Harvard Business Review blog to come up with a house for the poor. As per an article in the Economist – They laid down a few simple guidelines...
Europe is in the process of quickly catapulting beyond the US when it comes to pedestrianizing urban areas. While American cities are synchronizing green lights to improve traffic flow and offering apps to help drivers find parking, many European cities are doing the opposite: creating environments openly hostile to cars. The methods vary, but the mission is clear — to make car use expensive and just plain miserable enough to tilt drivers toward more environmentally friendly modes of transportation. Cities including...
Spent the day yesterday with friend and film maker, Brad Masi, filming onsite interviews with an amazing pastiche of urban farmers. The ultimate piece is going into a new startup site that will bring people together to share every kind of food related learning possible through video media. Beyond the palpable passion for their craft, each exemplified the current space of continuous innovation that urban farming has become. We're talking about parking lot straw bale vegetable beds, mutli-layered canopy urban forest...
New York City school librarians are the latest casualties in the leaning of American education. Here is my short list of wrong reasons for this national tend. Learning to pass tests preempt the learning of learner-directed search competencies The assumption that online sources require less expert research assistance Libraries in communities will become less relevant, so students should get used to that The potential value of librarian in a digital age is completely underrated by educators Memorization is...
I attempt a couple of daily Twitter posts, with the humble intent to add to the amazing stream of wisdom flowing through this often fractal, always boundaryless community. This was one of today’s: 20 restaurants +10 bars +15 galleries/shops +20 churches +3 coffee shops, 1sq mi = 1 happy community. Welcome to Tremont, Cleveland OH. Yes, the urban neighborhood where my studio resides in a city still characterized by ghost stories now eclipsed by the dreams of people whose passions rival any on the planet.It’s a testament...
With amazing innovations in social apps, app developers are finding new ways to find people lost in disasters, connect neighbors in good exchanges, and help excess food find the homeless. In a world where stories of hackers stealing passwords and crashing websites are more and more common, it’s refreshing to hear that there are a few more civically minded hackers out there. Recently, thousands of these big-hearted hackers put their collective brains together for a global marathon hacking session in over 19 cities...
Last night I did a rare public workshop introduction to Zen meditation. Many in the group are people involved in learning with yoga and energy healing arts. The group loved it on three levels. They liked the proven benefits of meditation, they liked experiencing them first hand, and they liked that the entire workshop was organized simply around their questions. One could say, it was a very Zen approach to Zen. And why not. Why does learning need to be anything but experiential? Why can’t learning address why as...
10-time author and designer with a focus on change in organizations and communities. HappinessChoice.com. Contact Jack at jack(at)happinesschoice(dot)com
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