I’ve written before about [how I think about and talk about design](http://bob.ryskamp.org/brain/?p=4367). While in general I find it important to be specific about the practice you’re doing, there are some broader definitions that are useful. One that occurred to me this morning: *The first act of product design is deciding what effect you want to…more
Couched [in an article about procrastination](http://nautil.us/issue/16/nothingness/why-we-procrastinate) is this fascinating study result: > Using fMRI, Hershfield and colleagues studied brain activity changes when people imagine their future and consider their present…their neural activity when they described themselves in a decade was similar to that when they described Matt Damon or Natalie Portman. If our future selves…more
> We have science fiction, and science follows it. We imagine it, and it comes true. Yet we don’t have social fiction, so nothing changes. – [Muhammad Yunus](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-moore/science-fiction-and-social-fiction_b_3100989.html) A nice quote, and a good motivator, though I do think we have [a couple types](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_and_dystopian_fiction) of [social fiction](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_science_fiction).
> All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town. – [Leo Tolstoy](http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/57886-all-great-literature-is-one-of-two-stories-a-man) > A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes…more