My interest is always in complicating things.

All story is manipulation.

The kind of narrative I subscribe [to] trusts in the possibility that people could change.

We do coalesce around stories that seem transcendent.

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

• T.S. Eliot

But six [human skills] will survive, say Messrs Brynjolfsson and McAfee, no matter how fast and smart computers become. Those skills are: statistical insight; managing group dynamics; good writing; framing and solving open-ended problems; persuasion; and human nurturing.

Sounds like a challenge.

Is it possible that, we human beings–who are soft-wired for empathic distress–is it possible we could actually extend our empathy to the entire human race as an extended family, and to our fellow creatures as part of our evolutionary family, and to the biosphere as our common community?

If it’s possible to imagine that, then we may be able to save our species and save our planet. And…if it’s impossible to even imagine that, I don’t see how we’re going to make it.

• Jeremy Rifkin on “The Empathic Civilization”

We can be knowledgeable with other men’s knowledge, but we cannot be wise with other men’s wisdom. – Michel de Montaigne

Where do ideas come from?

From looking at one thing and seeing another.

From fooling around, and playing with possibilities.

From speculating. And changing.

Pushing, pulling.

Transforming.

And if you’re lucky, you come up with something worth saving, using, and building on.

That’s where the game stops, and the work begins.

• Saul Bass

What a cool way to celebrate the design process! Via Kevin Kelly.