> Our own nature, in fact, is defined by the tiny fraction of possible interpretations [of the world] we can make, and the astronomical number we can’t.-
[Hans Moravec](http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/~hpm/project.archive/general.articles/1998/SimConEx.98.html)
> Our consciousness may be primarily the continuous story we tell ourselves, from moment to moment, about what we did and why we did it. It is a thin, often inaccurate veneer rationalizing a mountain of unconscious processing…
> On the one hand, our consciousness may be an evolutionary fluke, telling an unreliable story in a far-fetched interpretation of a pattern of tiny salty squirts. On the other, our consciousness is the only reason for thinking we exist (or for thinking we think). Without it there are no beliefs, no sensations, no experience of being, no universe. – [Hans Moravec](http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/~hpm/project.archive/general.articles/1998/SimConEx.98.html)
Things that everybody does, in every culture worldwide: [Human Universals](https://condor.depaul.edu/mfiddler/hyphen/humunivers.htm)
For example:
> * Dance
* Jokes
* Language
* Laws
* Planning for future
* “Snakes, wariness around”
* Tickling
* “Weather control (attempts to)”
[via Alan Kay](https://www.fastcompany.com/40435064/what-alan-kay-thinks-about-the-iphone-and-technology-now), who says “Suppose you want to make a lot of money. Well, just take the top 20 human universals and build a technological amplifier for them.”
George Tsebelis on the connection between electoral structure and government structure:
> The basic idea is that the more veto players you have, the more difficult it is to change the status quo. And the more ideological distance the veto players have from each other, the more difficult it is to change the status quo…
> In the United States, if this kind of sharp division and polarization that we are seeing now is one we’d want to try to resolve institutionally, then the major solution would be a change in the electoral system, and a transformation to Single Transferable Vote, which means that every voter would rank the different candidates…
>What STV does is, even if you are an extremist of one side or the other, your second vote will go to the more moderate candidate on one side. You’ll have a house or senate where moderates prevail.
In 2004 I headed up Mount Umunhum for the first time, hoping to conquer my last Peninsula summit. Unfortunately [I was thwarted by the private land which blocked the road](http://bob.ryskamp.org/brain/?p=2110), tantalizingly close to the summit.
Thirteen years later, and thanks to [lots of hard work](https://www.openspace.org/newsletter/mount-umunhum-timeline) by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District ([donate here](https://www.openspace.org/what-to-do/get-involved/donate) =) and [the voters of Measure AA last year](http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/SF-Bay-protection-Measure-AA-passes-7970365.php), [Mount Umunhum is finally set to open to the public for the first time on September 17](https://www.openspace.org/umunhum-grand-opening).
The Grand Opening ceremony is fully booked, but starting September 18 the summit (and the road there) will be open to the public. Exciting!
In other news, the famous red barn familiar to riders of Highway 84 West will soon become part of [the new La Honda Creek Open Space Preserve](https://www.openspace.org/our-work/projects/la-honda-creek-master-plan), with 6 miles of hiking trails. Great news.
Since becoming a father I’ve had trouble fitting in all the things I’d like to do, so I’m always on the lookout for ways to combine two activities together, or to squeeze one in between two others. A few examples of these “micro-activities” that have worked out well:
* Meditate while falling asleep
* Pushups as I roll out of bed
* Bodyweight exercise on playground equipment while the kids play
* Mindful breathing while waiting for them to finish things (brushing teeth, putting away toys, etc)
* Squat stretch while brushing teeth
* Naps during lunch break (and related, lunch during meetings)
* Squats and stretches while riding the elevator (alone =)
The way these work best is when the activities are in two separate cognitive or physical categories. I haven’t been able, for instance, to listen to a podcast while working (which both require cognitive attention), or to intersperse pushups with cooking (both require your hands). But a physical activity while doing a mental one can work (e.g. pullups while watching the kids).
Mindfulness in particular is well suited for this. Besides the fact that a single 20-minute session is hard to stay focused for anyway, spreading bits of meditation throughout the day has a nice regulating effect on my mood and attention. [Chade Meng Tan](http://chademeng.com/) encourages people to practice just a single breath at a time, finding that produces a large benefit; I agree.
Computers are great at generating lots of options…not so great at choosing the best ones. So you can guess what happens [when they start generating novelty t-shirt ideas](https://smile.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_pg_1?srs=16325482011&rh=i%3Aspecialty-aps%2Ck%3Acola&keywords=cola&ie=UTF8&qid=1502249965).
An interesting argument about how and why to look at photographs of suffering.
First, put yourself in the position of the photographer; imagine you are seeing what they did right in front of you:
> Azoulay asks her readers to project themselves into the scenes of photographs, to notice the power dynamics at play, to identify the participants, and to view the outcomes not as inevitable but as one possibility among many.
Then prepare yourself to act when you see similar situations in the future:
> Viewers, through careful observation of images of horror, become witnesses who “can occasionally foresee or predict the future,” she writes. As a result, they can warn others of “dangers that lie ahead” and take action to prevent them…
> To be resisted, it seems, violence must be seen, and photography makes such vision possible.
> I think learning should be about learning the basics in all the fields and learning them really well over and over. Life is mostly about applying the basics and only doing the advanced stuff in the things that you truly love and where you understand the basics inside out. – [Naval Ravikant](https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Naval-Ravikant-TKP.pdf)
When I taught an introductory design class at Stanford, I finished by telling the students, “That’s it! That’s all you’ll ever need to know about doing design. Now, go out into the world and spend the rest of your lives trying to actually do it.”
I’m enjoying the poetry of [William Carlos Williams](https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/william-carlos-williams), credited as one of the leaders of the [Imagist](https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/brief-guide-imagism) movement, which sought to rescue poetry from the vague and flowery language of Georgian Romanticism.
My favorite is the funny and surprising “[This Is Just To Say](https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/just-say)”, which is also [great for parodies](http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/07/poem-becomes-meme-forgive-me.html).
> (This is just to say)
> I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
> and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
> Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
Ezra Pound described the core tenets of Imagism as:
* Direct treatment of the “thing,” whether subjective or objective.
* To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation
* As regarding rhythm: to compose in sequence of the musical phrase, not in sequence of the metronome.
To the extent product design can reflect poetry, those would be pretty good design principles too.
