A story of coming home. — When I was in elementary school we lived on a dirt road in a small, wooded neighborhood. The houses were somewhat far apart, walkable but not dense enough to fill a pillowcase full of candy on Halloween. …

Building a full relationship with the world and with ourselves through centering. — In life we all face bumpy moments, periods of turbulence and uncertainty, times of just not wanting things to be the way they are. The scenarios are vast: receiving feedback that is hard to hear, dealing with a difficult colleague, not getting funding, getting laid off, having our hearts broken…

Guided reflections across a transitional threshold. — We live our lives within the rhythms and cycles of the physical world. Our calendars commemorate this by marking each full rotation of the earth as a day, the total cycle of the moon around the earth as a month, and the complete trip of the earth around the sun…

On working with change as an expression of your full aliveness. — The pace of change today — technological, societal, environmental, geopolitical — is increasing at such a rapid rate that it can be destabilizing to our individual identities. Those of us caught up in the expansive reach of free-market capitalism have cultivated a sense of urgency, entrepreneurialism, and problem-solving when it…

An even deeper dive into the Four Orders through the lens of history, and an attempt to complete the matrix. — Note: This was originally shared in my Revue newsletter, “Explorations in Design.” With Twitter sunsetting the app I needed a home for some writings, so I’m putting them on Medium for now. In my last post I talked about the Doctrine of Placements, aka The Four Orders of Design, and…

A deep dive into the Four Orders of Design and the systems for and in which designers design. — Note: This was originally shared in my Revue newsletter, “Explorations in Design.” With Twitter sunsetting the app I needed a home for some writings, so I’m putting them on Medium for now. Making Sense of Design When it comes to making sense of design, I have a confession to make: over the last few…

“The only constant in life is change.” -Heraclitus — Life is a ceaseless process of transition. The small transitions of daily life slip by unnoticed while the big changes — career, relationship status, geographic location, etc. — are worthy of celebratory social media posts. From the outside these changes seem to happen quickly, a snapshot in time that marks…

A few thoughts on the future of the practice. — Interaction design has come a long way since the term was first coined in the mid-1980s to describe the design of digital things. Sitting at the edge of the second millennium as software continues to eat the world, the boundaries of the digital are becoming increasingly blurry. Where interaction design…

On complexity, systems, and storytelling — “What would it be like to grow organizations whose complexity arises from the cross-pollinating visions and imaginations of their constituent members?” — David Whyte Last week I asked a question on Twitter that generated a surprising amount of conversation. I’m thankful to everyone who contributed to the thread, pointed me to storytellers and resources, and challenged my thinking.