Can we really call it progress when it creates so much waste? What if your phone — the one you’re using right now — was your last phone? Take a good look at it and imagine using it for the rest of your life. Could it even last that long? Could you? Probably not. Today I want to think about what that means. What happens to a planet and its people when technological progress is measured in product cycles. And what happens when there's no balance sheet to account for the other side of that — when e...
Sep 09, 2019•34 min•Ep. 26
Every discussion of entrepreneurship is really a discussion about values. Today, we'll follow up on last week's episode, where we began a discussion of entrepreneurship by resetting that idea — by challenging the story of entrepreneurship. We contrasted the protagonist — the hero CEO — with the reality of who we are. And we contrasted the plot — the capitalistic, meritocratic variant of the hero's journey — with the meandering serendipity of our lives' paths. But dismantling one story doesn't wr...
Aug 26, 2019•23 min•Ep. 25
Entrepreneurship doesn’t have to mean what you think it means. Over the course of the next two episodes, I'd like to share with you how my own perspective on “entrepreneurship” has evolved, and offer a critique of the sameness of the popular model of the entrepreneur. I'll also give you eight little nuggets of wisdom that have been helpful to me on my journey so far, and only grow in their value to me as it continues… Show Notes Newfangled , where I work. Music All music used in this episode is ...
Aug 19, 2019•24 min•Ep. 24
Every vision of the future is a better index of the present from which it came than whatever time it imagines. So today, let's look back at some of the things we believed would serve as landmarks of the future. Not to point out how quaint they are or to dunk on the blind spots of the past. But so that we can better understand why — no matter what shiny new objects we make and use — we never quite feel like we've gotten to the future. Why it's so difficult to recognize how far we've come… Show No...
Aug 05, 2019•33 min•Ep. 23
Too often we think of the word "design" as a shorthand for an ecosystem of mostly visual phenomena. But words play an enormous, though often unseen, role in the creation of everything. Today, I want to tell you a story about how my life was changed by a few words said quickly, but words which I will never forget... Music All music used in this episode is independently produced and licensed by Design Tomorrow for non-commercial use. Envira , by Blue Dot Sessions Our Digital Compass , by Blue Dot ...
Jul 22, 2019•17 min•Ep. 22
The majority of our clicking and tapping is a repetitive act of information management. Isn't A.I. supposed to help us with this? Don't hold your breath... Today, on Design Tomorrow, in the tradition of the rantiest of rants, I'd like to, well, rant about a few things. About AI and us, about wasted time and wasting of the land, and about the lowing and highing of design... Links The Sword in the Stone , Wart eats a bug “ It is important to use your hands. This is what distinguishes you from a co...
Jun 17, 2019•19 min•Ep. 21
Is technology a means to an end — the ladder we climb to a future we want to inhabit because it's better for us than the present — or is it as far as we let our minds and hearts go? In this episode of Design Tomorrow, we'll connect a few stories about technology that didn't make it in order to better understand the technological path our culture is on... Links Split-flap displays Saying Goodbye to Philadelphia's 30th Street Station's Iconic Flip Board BERG's Pixel Track BERG's archived home page...
Jun 03, 2019•23 min•Ep. 20
Does advertising still make sense in our world today? How does a form of media always known as an associated form — as something that sips from the attention river flowing to and from other things — function when the complexity of those waterways has exponentially increased? Links Who is Using Twitter in the US? 28 Twitter Statistics All Marketers Need to Know in 2019 The Eye-Opening Influence of Instagram on Buying 10 Instagram Stats Every Marketer Should Know in 2019 The Cost of Paying Attenti...
May 20, 2019•38 min•Ep. 19
Are interfaces good? Or are they a distraction — for us the makers, and for the users we believe we are helping? How can we think better about both how we interface with digital experiences, personally, and how others do it? Today, we'll think deeply about the nature of the interface — what it is, and what it says about us, the people who made it — and explore the need for new rules for better interface-making... Links It's a Mistake to Mistake Content for Content , by Kenneth Goldsmith In the K...
May 06, 2019•34 min•Ep. 18
We live in a time of illusions. Simulations that reflect back upon us more than just the passage of time, but something important about who we are. Something unique is going on right now — with the tools and technology we have — that is giving us the ability to stop, stretch, bend, and replay time. In this episode, we'll explore what that offers us, we for whom at some point, time will end... Links " Danielle " Timelapse of the Imperceptible Effects of Aging Created from Family Portraits by Anth...
Apr 22, 2019•23 min•Ep. 17
When so many problems of existence remain unsolved, we haven't earned the luxury of smartphones. So this is an intervention. A challenge to the status quo of waste and distraction and triviality and short-term pile-on that is our way of life here in 2019... Links " Give it a second! It's going to space !" "not just actual attention but the promise of future, fictional, vaporous attention" - Dan Hon Flint, Michigan still doesn't have clean water Bill Gates made a machine that turns feces into dri...
Apr 08, 2019•22 min•Ep. 16
What is it about robots that compels us to create them? And what does it say about a culture that makes machine surrogates despite not having reached a consensus about why to make them in the first place? In this episode, we'll explore the robots taking over our world, and the agenda behind them... Links hitchBOT the definition of "robot" from Google and Wikipedia a drumming robot a spring-making robot oh, the many uses of springs Uber's first self-driven truck delivery was a beer run . Amazon's...
Mar 25, 2019•34 min•Ep. 15
What are our ideas worth? Are they as valuable as we think they are? And what might change about how we act on our ideas once we start thinking differently about how we value them and how unique they really are? In this episode, we'll explore how simultaneous ideas and discoveries throughout history show that ideas and minds probably work differently than we think... Links The Discovery of Endorphins Who invented Electricity? List of multiple discoveries The Theory of Multiples Dueling Movies ar...
Mar 11, 2019•20 min•Ep. 14
They say that practice makes perfect. I'll settle for "practice makes good," thank you very much! In this episode of Design Tomorrow , we'll explore what it means to practice - what there is in repetition that can help us to get better. Not just at what we do, but also at who we are. Links My drawing professor, Alfred Decredico . Balancing Data with Intuition , by Jon Yablonski The Way to Make Good Things is to Make Many Things , by Chris Butler Music All music used in this episode is independen...
Feb 26, 2019•16 min•Ep. 13
There are very few people left on Earth for whom the world isn't shaped by computers or seen through their screens. But does it have to be this way? In this episode, we'll explore how screens — and the images they reveal — are just as much a manifestation of the world from which they come as they are the raw materials of a story about the next one: the future... Links The IBM Portable PC 5155 Blade Runner - Opening Scene Human Progress Landscape , the not-so-good student animation I made in 2003...
Feb 11, 2019•24 min•Ep. 12
As long as we've been self-aware, we've desired companionship. And yet, we are not enough for one another; we hunger for something more - something that folklore, imaginary friends, and now technology have attempted to satisfy. Today, we stand at a crossroads beyond which is a future full of artificial lives. What kinds of minds will we create for ourselves? And what kind of future will those minds make for us? Links " The Measure of a Man ," Season 2, Episode 9 of Star Trek: The Next Generation...
Jan 28, 2019•26 min•Ep. 11
The more time passes, the faster it feels it's moving. It's an illusion, of course, but does that really matter? If you feel like it's moving faster, it might as well be. The shrinkiness of time is part of the human condition. But the secret you may not know is that you can slow it down . You can get your time back. Here are eight ways... Links " Life is Short ," by Paul Graham The boiling frog phenomenon\ My preferred notebook Deep Work , by Cal Newport Music All music used in this episode is i...
Jan 14, 2019•25 min•Ep. 10
Progress is something we all try to work toward, but how do we really know if we're making any? And if progress isn’t permanent, is it progress at all? In this episode, we'll explore progress and the ways that certain forms of it actually trap us in the past... Links Ronald Wright, A Short History of Progress Interview with Ronald Wright, " What is Progress " Music All music used in this episode is independently produced and licensed by Design Tomorrow for non-commercial use. Early Renaissance M...
Jan 01, 2019•16 min•Ep. 9
We're all using voice interfaces now — a thing of science fiction now very much in our reality. But it turns out that feelings — things like fear, loneliness, trust, and desire — play just as much of a role in the way these machines work than do databases and code... Links Data talks to the Computer Josh.ai Josh promotional video We Are Hopelessly Hooked on Technology B.J. Fogg Tristan Harris on the needed design renaissance Music All music used in this episode is independently produced and lice...
Nov 20, 2018•21 min•Ep. 8
In a world as crowded with technological tools for measuring our progress as ours is, sometimes the best way to see how far we've come is, literally, in our own hands and on our own faces. In this episode, we'll discuss a simple exercise you can do to test your perspective and how well it accounts for other people, not just you. Links A 30-second test to determine whether your boss is a gem or a jerk Music All music used in this episode is independently produced and licensed by Design Tomorrow f...
Nov 01, 2018•17 min•Ep. 7
It may sound like a rhetorical question, but asking "what is real?" is becoming more and more a practical inquiry into the nature of our everyday experience. In this episode of Design Tomorrow, we'll imagine a future — not too far off — where the lines between real and something else will be so blurry that we'll probably need a whole new category of technology to help us bring them back into focus... Links The Pyramids at Giza The Mona Lisa Photosynth Audio Spotlight Talking Window Active Listen...
Oct 16, 2018•22 min•Ep. 6
There is no good definition of design. In this episode, Chris talks about what distinguishes design from art, and how accountability plays a unique role in making the distinction clear. Links 4'33" , by John Cage The scene sampled at the end of the episode is from "A Matter of Perspective," Season 3, Episode 14 of Star Trek: The Next Generation. You can view the clip here . Music Wilt, by r beny Mercurial Vision, by Blue Dot Sessions ektar, by r beny Credits Design Tomorrow is produced by Chris ...
Oct 02, 2018•16 min•Ep. 5
We all think about the future. Probably more than we're even aware. But, is thinking about the future useful? Does thinking about the future actually help us make one that's better? In this episode of Design Tomorrow, we'll talk about the future. Not a specific future, but the possibility of one. And what it means to envision the future — practically — in a way that both shapes our present and ensures progress... Links Traction , by Gino Wickman Music Winter Tracks , by r beny Refraction , by Po...
Sep 18, 2018•21 min•Ep. 4
In this episode, Chris tells a story about a drawing professor who taught him about not just identifying the negative space in our thoughts and actions, but something he called active erasure, and how being intentional about the act of taking things out can not only improve the work we do, but change its very nature... Links Alfred DeCredico How to Grow an Idea , by Jenny Odell Music Raro Bueno, by Chuzausen Veins of Silver, by Blue Dot Sessions Bathyscaphe, by r beny Credits You can follow the ...
Sep 04, 2018•16 min•Ep. 3
In this episode, Chris talks about what it means for designers to get out of their own way, and he shares a couple of ways he's made that not only more possible in his life, but more natural to his day to day. Things Mentioned in the Show Clients from Hell “I am trying to be unfamiliar with what I am doing." Said by John Cage. The full quote is, "I am trying to check my habits of seeing, to counter them for the sake of greater freshness. I am trying to be unfamiliar with what I am doing." I'm ho...
Aug 23, 2018•18 min•Ep. 2
In this episode, Chris talks about appreciating the design of everyday objects, minimalism, and how some objects can reflect a life well lived. Links I mentioned a bunch of objects I own that I especially value. Only some can be found online, so this is a partial list: My preferred notebook is a Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook My preferred pen is a Pilot G2 .7mm Fine Point in black My preferred belt is a Grip6 My preferred pants are a pair of Edgevale Cast Iron Utility Pants in Smoke Blac...
Aug 23, 2018•20 min•Ep. 1
