The wrinkly brain
Bathing in PowerPoint. Also: glitterbombs, constraints for collaboration and the techno land grab
Hello, February! We love you.
Wordle came and went (for a healthy sum).
Josh is an interesting chap. Very few people in tech have both the clarity of mind to articulate a well-constrained vision and the artistry to achieve it. I’m not even talking about Wordle, which is, from a viral game design perspective, peak brilliance.
“Place” was Josh Wardle’s 2017 flash-in-the-pan Reddit experiment about creating online spaces that encourage collaboration and resist abuse. His premise is sound: the rules and constraints in an online environment define the behaviours that occur there (eg one pixel every 5 minutes means fewer giant penises and more collaboratively realised pixel-art Mona Lisas) Stating this is infinitely easier than doing it and Josh has walked the walk multiple times now. I’ll be watching what he does next.
Into the woods
Two glorious books hit my eyes in January, both of which I now realise are different forms of extreme geekery. The Stranger in the Woods appeals to my reclusive, knot-tying, fire-making anarchist geek. It describes the remarkable true story of a ‘hermit’ who lived undetected in the wild Maine forest for some 27 years. In winter, with temperatures significantly below zero, he would wake at 2am and pace his camp to stave off death. He never lit a single fire! More things happened. It’s a strikingly profound, philosophical and joyous piece of writing.
Do it on purpose
Next, a book that couldn’t be further from forest hermit-ing, and a geek feast for my word-loving, technology-curious inner pedant. “Everything I Know About Life I Learned From PowerPoint” is Russell Davies’ ode to presenting.
Reading it is like taking a long bath; deeply comforting and restorative but you finish with the mental equivalent of wrinkly finger tips (to better scramble from soggy PowerPoint mediocrity onto the rocks of enlightenment, perhaps?) Or like a casual party chat that becomes unexpectedly profound and affirming, then feels a little embarrassing the next morning.
As per Russell’s advice, here is a five-long list of things from the book:
Dolly Parton said “Find out who you are and do it on purpose,” which is lovely
Metaphors and alliteration light up the brain more fiercely than standard prose
PowerPoint was developed by a technical team with a difference, drawn from all walks of life and 46% female to today’s silicon valley average of only 10%. The diverse team made software that levels the presenting playing field, which makes it most helpful to those running uphill. It is often scorned by those already in possession of power and oratory prowess, ie old white men.
Start planning your presentation in black and white and start at the end
Finish it early
A technology land grab
Thought Den’s electric van has been a revelation but the saddest moment by far was cancelling the City Car Club account. Empty buses and booming secondhand car sales paint a dreadful picture. Individual ownership is not a sustainable model and if you can stomach it, here’s why electric cars won’t save us (they need roads). I read recently that the UK devotes more space to roads than houses (and that building more houses might fix quite a few things). This intriguing dutch model is a great approach - buy a house, get a fleet of electric vehicles for free.
Rachel Coldicutt recently raged (she does it very well) about how a boon of the pandemic - neighbourhood mutual aid groups - is being greedily appropriated by technology firms like Jiffy, Weezy, and Zapp. Together these three may sound like rather sad cartoon musketeers, but they’ve generated serious levels of investment (billions) so that you can order ice cream from the couch.
The pandemic hit fast-forward on many things, from car ownership to the indistinct but pervasive techno-land grab (see cashless payments, digitising patient data, NFT in art etc). Along with global weirding, the energy price squeeze and a murderously awful government, you might be tempted to give up on it all. The best antidote I can think of is to stay in physical contact with real people, with your community. Go outside for a walk-chat with someone on your contact list. Call them. Set a date.
As Russell quotes Hannah Dreier (Washington Post reporter) in his book:
You can’t come up with a good story idea in the office. I’ve never had a good idea that I just came up with out of thin air. It always comes from being on the ground.
Graphs and glitterbombs
On the work front, I’m helping a US museum figure out how technology can support better critical thinking, particularly in the climate change space. Two fun things bubbled up.
Firstly, a carbon-centric simulation tool called En-ROADS. Lots of graphs going up and down! If nothing else, a good example of doing complex data reasonably well.
Secondly, the wonderful world of Mark Rober, ex NASA engineer turned YouTube sensation. His videos are mischief and science combined. Please enjoy this short video pranking some porch parcel pirates (with excellent mechanical and electronic engineering).
This has been another mini memo in the erratic exploration of technology, culture, play and sustainability. Please consider forwarding it to the one person you think needs a slither more of that every month. Then get back to being brilliant!
Until next time,
B.
PS - Some (borrowed) advice that sounds trite but is good: if you’re stuck, go and find a decision (even a random one) and then make it.
I read Everything I Know About Life I Learned From PowerPoint around xmas time (much geekery empathy). Reading it made me think that designing slides well isn’t so different from writing a good Twitter thread. I thought the book was a bit lacking on great examples of PowerPoints, but had some good general principles and techniques for designing a presentation. He also mentions a lot of the presentations/thinking of Ella Fitzsimmons (https://twitter.com/fitzsimple), who I’d not come across before but seems pretty great.