"Any being, any agent, who can truly say, „Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time!“ is standing on the threshold of brilliance."
~ Daniel C Dennett
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If Daniel Dennett is right, assessing failure is not about regret. It is about knowledge. When something goes wrong, and we know that it has gone wrong, we have understood so much.
We remembered why we thought it was a good idea, why it was tempting to do in the first place, what we set out to change, and why it went wrong.
It does not mindlessly celebrate failure, but appreciates it for what it is: A fundamental part of our existence. So when we fail, let's get the most possible forward momentum out of it, to help us tackle the next challenge.
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Rationality, instinct and decisions
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Does rationality shield against failure? Can diligence keep us from making mistakes? Probably Not. At least not when you’re trying to do something that hasn’t been done before.
Learning from the past is important, but it only takes you so far. As does logic, when you have to make decisions based on very little objective facts (and regardless how many facts you collect, in terms of logical frameworks, your dataset usually is tiny).
I’ve written about the dangers of heuristics, the mental shortcuts that save us time but might lead our reasoning astray. So it’s only fair to present the counter-point:
“In a world where all options and probabilities are known, a heuristic can only be faster but never more accurate. In a world of uncertainty, which is typically the situation we face, where one cannot optimize by definition, heuristics tend to be more robust.” ~ Gerd Gigerenzer
Do your research, but also trust your gut. Or, as Robert de Niro puts it in Ronin, one of my all-time favorite movies: „Whenever there is any doubt, there is no doubt.“
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Mistakes in Urban Planning, The Sensing City vs. the Smart City and what is the next step in urban design?
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In urban planning, there are typically two approaches: One is Top-Down. This is the old way. It is still very common, but it is getting a very bad rep from spatial designers. This is where a planning board of sorts decides what to do, and what is best for everyone. The most important critique is that it forces inhabitants of (re)planned areas into a passive position of 'being planned on'.
The other approach is 'Bottom-Up', where citizens play an integral role in shaping scope, purpose, intent and goals of an urban planning project. Designers try to match the needs of people living in these areas with the demands of the city as a whole. If done right, acceptance goes up, and overall results will be better.
Alphabet's Sidewalk Labs is taking on rethinking "Smart Cities". In the wake of many failed Smart City projects, lots of budget overruns, delays and general disappointment around the world, Sidewalk is to rebuild a part of Toronto, Canada, as a "sensing city". With their “ubiquitous sensing”, they try to better understand what is going on in the city. So, this is a bottom-up approach in a certain way, but on the other hand, the project itself seems to be quite "top down".
I've written about the "technology makes everything better"-trap in regards to traffic before, and to me, this whole project seems to be set up on those ideas.
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Sensors collecting data and algorithms taking action on it calls for a change in policy that is equally radical as the change these technologies will bring to our lives. New York City has just passed a law that bans algorithmic discrimination and calls for a task force to study how the government is using algorithms.
Another approach is an initiative called Making Sense is a platform for citizen science inside communities. They just released their toolkit as a PDF-download. Great stuff!
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How the narrative of a failure changes over time
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A couple of years ago, my friend Collyn did something remarkable: She founded Bowndling, her own company of adventurewear clothing. It was a unique thing, but sadly, it didn’t work out. After fighting on for months, the company finally folded in October 2015.
On that day, she wrote:
"But please, let’s not glorify failure. It sucks. It’s painful, lonely and frightening. There’s no glory in not being able to buy groceries or pay the rent for months on end."
The above article offers a rare and honest glimpse into the experience of something not working out. It is a piece written against a culture that claims how much can be learned from failure but then consistently refuses to talk about it.
25 months later, she transformed her experience into a reflection, consisting of multiple insights that create momentum for future work.
The change in the story she tells is inspiring. Something happens over time when we deal with failure. Things not only get clearer with the years, we also appear to be kinder to ourselves.
"Ask yourself: Even if this fails, would I still do it?". That's a really great question.
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Google, what is going on with you?
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It appears that the grip of the the Big Five (Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet née Google, Facebook) on the internet is getting more tight.
One of the reasons I started this newsletter - as a kind of Inbox-blog - was to escape these clutches that want to embrace everything, and make it their own.
But escaping proves difficult. In yet another questionable design decision that appears to come from an "we know better what you need than you yourself"-attitude not uncommon in tech circles, Google decided to move all newsletters - regardless of their content - into a "Promotions" folder, and out of your inbox.
Seth Godin cries 'Foul', and I do, too.
But that's not the only thing that is going on in Mountain View that should have proponents of the open web worried.
You've probably seen Google's AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) style pages. These are versions of articles specifically created for showing directly on the search result pages on mobile devices. They are cached by Google, so they are shown instantly, without the need for loading an external website. The downside is that the user never moves to the external website - she stays on Googles services, so the visit gets basically "captured" by Google.
Google is now rolling out AMP for EMail (which at the moment means gmail), which is kind of cool because it allows for more interactive emails, but it also kinda sucks because that interaction is locked into a proprietary software.
You can read a good writeup about the issue at Gizmodo.
We've been there before - twenty years or so ago, Netscape offered "enhancements" to the language used to create web pages. Then Microsoft did the same with their Internet Explorer. Both times, the community resisted these attempts of "Embrace and Extend". I'm afraid now it's time to do it again to keep the web open and free.
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A list of 25 Principles of Adult Behavior by John Perry Barlow
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One of those fighters for a free and open Internet was John Perry Barlow, who recently passed away.
He inspired generations with his many contributions to Internet Activism. And he also left us with this list of things to do or don't.
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- Be patient. No matter what.
- Don't badmouth: Assign responsibility, never blame. Say nothing behind another's back you'd be unwilling to say, in exactly the same tone and language, to his face.
- Never assume the motives of others are, to them, less noble than yours are to you.
- Expand your sense of the possible.
- Don't trouble yourself with matters you truly cannot change.
- Expect no more of anyone than you yourself can deliver.
- Tolerate ambiguity.
- Laugh at yourself frequently.
- Concern yourself with what is right rather than whom is right.
- Never forget that, no matter how certain, you might be wrong.
- Give up blood sports.
- Remember that your life belongs to others as well. Do not endanger it frivolously. And never endanger the life of another.
- Never lie to anyone for any reason.
- Learn the needs of those around you and respect them.
- Avoid the pursuit of happiness. Seek to define your mission and pursue that.
- Reduce your use of the first personal pronoun.
- Praise at least as often as you disparage.
- Never let your errors pass without admission.
- Become less suspicious of joy.
- Understand humility.
- Forgive.
- Foster dignity.
- Live memorably.
- Love yourself.
- Endure.
"I don't expect the perfect attainment of these principles. However,
I post them as a standard for my conduct as an adult. Should any of
my friends or colleagues catch me violating any one of them, bust me."
~ John Perry Barlow
Source (by way of kottke.org)
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New places, new Ideas: Erasmus for young Entrepreneurs
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One thing that seldom turns out to be a failure: Spending some time abroad. Are you a creative entrepreneur living in Upper Austria? Looking for inspirations and amazing learning opportunities? Then head over to the website of Creative Region and apply for their Erasmus for young Entrepreneurs programme, a Europe-wide scholarship for creative workers.
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Why you shouldn't consider speed limits optional
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(Image Source: Youtube)
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One of my favorite YouTube Channels - Numberphile - has a great video on how braking actually works.
Take two cars, one going at 70 mph, and one at 100 mph. Both break with the same efficiency. How fast will the second car still be when the first comes to a halt?
The answer will surprise you.
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Has cryptojacking gone out of control?
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Don't give up. Just don't.
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"Try to acquire the weird practice of savoring your mistakes, delighting in uncovering the strange quirks that led you astray. Then, once you have sucked out all the goodness to be gained from having made them, you can cheerfully set them behind you, and go on to the next big opportunity. But that is not enough: you should actively seek out opportunities to make grand mistakes, just so you can then recover from them."
~ Daniel C. Dennet
Why?
„All life is forwards.“
~ Kate Tempest
That’s why.
Take care. And don't forget to hive-five yourself on a regular basis. Celebrate your failures as much as your victories! 🥇🥈🥉
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