The bigger challenge of Slow Productivity is that it requires systems to manage work that’s not yet assigned. If you’re a boss, and an important task pops to mind—“We need to update our Web site with new client testimonials!”—you can no longer simply e-mail the request to one of your underlings and move on with…

For a start, a life task will be something you can accomplish “only by effort and with difficulty,” as Jung puts it – and specifically, I’d say, with that feeling of “good difficulty” that comes from pushing back against your conditioned preferences for comfort and security. Source: Find the Life Task – ckarchive.com Also on:…

The fact is, a two-trillion-dollar company is asking you to shut yourself off from your family, your friends, and your dog in order fully inhabit an environment manipulated and fine-tuned to serve a growth-at-any-cost ethos. This means you’ll be kept fully passive, and under surveillance at all times, to be be slowly monetized, like a…

The role of human curators is not just to select and present content but to imbue the digital landscape with a sense of reliability and authenticity that only human insight can provide. In an age where technology can easily mislead or overwhelm, trusting in human curation becomes not a preference but a necessity for preserving…

So, so great to get an update from The Convivial Society after a long break. All the forces at play within us and without seem to be centrifugal forces, pulling us apart. I remain interested in understanding the nature of these forces. The critical conversation remains important. But I’m increasingly interested in how we might…

Simple wisdom comes out on top, no matter who you are: The most sustainable product is the one you never bought in the first place. Whenever making a new purchase, try to picture where the item will end up after you discard it. Can it be composted, reused, or responsibly recycled? Or would it probably…

Performance should be a sacred, screen-free place, at least in terms of what the performers are putting out to the audience (there’s no stopping the myriad of phones aimed at the stage by the audience, nor do I care too much about that). But an iPad on a mic stand is immediately distracting, and builds…

When switching costs are high, services can be changed in ways that you dislike without losing your business. The higher the switching costs, the more a company can abuse you, because it knows that as bad as they’ve made things for you, you’d have to endure worse if you left. For social media, the biggest…

I think ultimately we’ll be disappointed with federation for all the reasons we’re frustrated with earlier social web systems. People trying to get attention for their ideas, which often are abusive. Now the question is what are the steps to use WordPress as the back-end of a social communication system. Behind the scenes, its database…

Buying a whole chicken, cutting it into pieces and wrestling with the bones, finding ways to really get the most out of every part—that’s enough! It is the antidote to mindless consumption. And while thoughtfulness is not the only requirement of a climate-conscious diet, it is a necessary condition for one. the World Resources Institute…