Long distance thinking; Internet rot; TikTok wars
💡Think
I came across a pretty cool model for being more sustainable earlier today, it's called the "Avoid-Shift-Improve" approach.
It's quite self explanatory, but Avoid is where you cut out high-powered activities. For example, not driving as much. Shift is where you move to a more sustainable option; cycling, anyone? And Improve is where you increase the efficiency of something you're already doing, for example switching from gas to electric.
Like I said, no ground breaking, but pretty neat to see this codified. It should make it easier to remember if you're in a position to choose. Full Wikipedia article here.
--
p.s. if you're looking for a new design job my collective is open again for registrations, and if you're hiring designers you can post jobs for just $25.
📷 Look
📖 Read
❶ Long distance thinking
I really enjoyed this post, as it shows us that trying to consolidate and optimise knowledge is probably not the best way to approach understanding. The post centres around the phrase “If you can't explain it to a 6-year-old, you don't understand it yourself", which in theory is great but in reality forces our comprehension and ability to achieve to fall short.
❷ What lies beneath (the internet)
There are 1.5 billion websites on the internet, but only 200 million of them are active. This means that most of the internet is just kind of...rotting. Written by a former SEO expert, this article draws comparisons between the internet and architecture. Websites are kind of like buildings, with pages as our rooms, but the thing is that when we restructure or demolish our buildings, people will still be able to find them a decade later and be faced with a dreaded 404.
❸ The myth of the first "TikTok war"
I don't know what it is with our obsession with branding really bad things with marketing speak, but apparently we're going through this right now. The thing is that it's kind of just not true, is it? The central problem with this is that mixing war amongst social media means that people can skip straight past it...swipe, doesn't concern me. It aligns really well with the privileged position of not needing to watch the news at all. Sorry for the low energy closer today folks.
--
Bonus round
A 41 minute behind the scenes documentary from the filming of Napoleon Dynamite? Why not
The shortlist from the The Academy of British Cover Design (ABCD) 2022. Graphic design at its best
It turns out people really liked the design of Windows phones
🎧 Listen
"A seat at the table" isn't the solution for gender equity
This is the podcast version of a Ted Talk, and it still works really well. Whether you're a designer or not, the trope "seat at the table" is probably quite familiar, but this speaker firmly believes that that's just not the best way to improve equality. Rather, we should look to build new tables. Nice!
Listen to this podcast (19 minutes)