Eating at a banquet table

10 person circular tables are the default at weddings because, the story goes, it’s the optimal size and shape to maximise the number of people in the room, while also having enough space to serve people food.

And so we sit at awkwardly too-large-to-talk-across table talking to (either) the person on our right or left.

No wonder people head to the bar for a real chat.

What other things in life have a negative impact on our ability or opportunity to connect that we take for granted as ‘just how it is done’?

Here’s a few you might find on your street:

  • Six foot fences.

  • Internal access garages

  • Cars

  • Retirement villages

How much do you see, let alone know your neighbours? Would you recognise them at the supermarket?

What’s getting in the way of connection?

Left handed

If you’re left handed. chopsticks are great.

Scissors, not so much.

A simple tool, commonly used, made challenging for you simply because of who you are.

Our houses can be like this for society’s outliers.

Steep stairs, challenging door handles, narrow doors, high storage.

Universal Design is a concept usually applied to architecture from the vantage point of the outliers. But why does it only need to be in these special use cases? Why don’t we simply design all houses along these principles. Equality of opportunity and all that.

Besides, what are the downsides in living in a house that had (for example):

  • Wider access ways and thresholds

  • Level transition zones both internally and externally

  • Lever turn handles rather than knob handles for doors and windows

  • The preference for drawers instead of cupboards for easy access

  • Kitchens that are not walk-through (transition) zones

  • Easy-to-use drawer handles 

  • The preference for drawers rather than cupboards, for ease of access

  • Good task lighting in utility zones

  • Well placed grab rails in bathroom areas

  • Non-slip flooring. 

  • Electrical outlets located higher than usual above the floor so they are in easy reach of everyone.

  • Installing handles for doors and drawers that require no gripping or twisting to operate.

  • Storage spaces within reach of both short and tall people.

Big house, small house

There’s always more than one way to swing a cat.

I like simplicity.

I like big houses. They’re good for sharing with other people. Which requires a simpler lifestyle.

I like small houses. They’re good for forcing you to limit what you have. Which requires a simpler lifestyle.

I’m not so sure about medium-sized (normal) houses.

They’re small enough that it’s hard to share the space, but they’re big enough that you can just put things in a corner, in a cupboard, in the space room, out in the garage. Out of sight, out of mind. And into the bin (ten years down the track).

If you’re trying to live differently, and if we need to live differently, perhaps the places we live in also need to be different.

Go big or go small, at home.

Book buying motivations

If you like to read a lot, you have several options. Here’s some:

  • Find a good local independent bookstore and buy a lot of books.

  • Buy a kindle and download everything from Amazon.

  • Live across the road from the Library

All of these achieve the same end result: Access to a lot of books to read. But you probably have a preference. Because how they get you there, and what it feels like, and what it means, is different.

It might be about status: Showing you are able to afford a large library; showing how well read you are; showing you support local business.

It might be about functionality: You travel often; you read multiple books at a time; you read a lot of out of print and reference books.

It might be about the aesthetic: You like the look and feel of real books; you hate clutter; you are in a particular profession and ‘should’ have a library.

Status vs Functionality vs Aesthetics

What other decisions are like this?

  • The car you drive?

  • The clothes you wear?

  • The house you buy?

  • The fence you build?

  • The job (title) you have?

The world's best playground

Have you been outside?

There’s everything out there you can possibly imagine.

That’s kind of the point.

It isn’t necessarily what you have that makes it great, it’s what your (incredible) brain and imagination does with it.

What is your home?

Literally, it’s a building. But what does your brain make of it?

A financial asset?

A place of hospitality?

A place of shelter?

A production space?

A family base?

A status symbol?

Lists for the Future

Some people love writing lists.

Here’s two I came across recently that I found interesting:

Simon Wilson’s 8 Ways to Disrupt the Housing Industry (A sub-list of his 6 things to fix in Auckland)

  1. Enable the not-for-profits

  2. More social housing

  3. Raise the environmental standards

  4. Implement universal design

  5. Prefabricate

  6. Build smaller homes.

  7. Adopt a village model for apartment block design

  8. More diversity in the industry

Seth Godin’s list of 23 important problems to solve in the coming decades.

  1. High efficiency, sustainable method for growing sufficient food, including market-shifting replacements for animals as food

  2. High efficiency, renewable energy sources and useful batteries (cost, weight, efficiency)

  3. Effective approaches to human trafficking

  4. Carbon sequestration at scale

  5. Breakthrough form for democracy in a digital age

  6. Scalable, profitable, sustainable methods for small-scale creators of intellectual property

  7. Replacement for the University

  8. Useful methods for enhancing, scaling or replacing primary education, particularly literacy

  9. Beneficial man/machine interface (post Xerox Parc)

  10. Cost efficient housing at scale

  11. Useful response to urban congestion

  12. Gene therapies for obesity, cancer and chronic degenerative diseases

  13. Dramatic leaps of AI interactions with humans

  14. Alternatives to paid labor for most humans

  15. Successful interactions with intelligent species off Earth

  16. Self-cloning of organs for replacement

  17. Cultural and nation-state conflict resolution and de-escalation

  18. Dramatically new artistic methods for expression

  19. Useful enhancements to intellect and mind for individuals

  20. Shift in approach to end-of-life suffering and solutions for pain

  21. Enhanced peer-to-peer communication technologies approaching the feeling of telepathy

  22. Transmutation of matter to different elements and structures

  23. Off-planet outposts

Saturday switch off

Imagine if we all spent Saturdays without our devices.

No smartphone.

No laptop.

No gaming console.

Perhaps even no TV.

How would our days be different? How would our lives be different?

How would our homes be different?

If we were feeling generous, we might accept screen watching with others participating.

Movies.

Sport.

Possibly multi-player gaming. Possibly.

Try it, and find out what changes.

Get down to your local

Local park, that is.

Our shared spaces give so much to our communities. Mostly, they give space.

Space to meet.

Space to exercise.

Space to sit.

Space to walk.

Space to bump into each other.

Space to connect.

We all need to connect.

We all need spaces to connect.

We all need a local.

Down to luck

When you get down to it, some things just come down to luck.

Right place, right time.

Or with property, maybe: Right generation.

Better faster (uglier) hedge trimming

There’s a hedge on our place. It’s quite tall, and made up of a range of different plants.

One of them has spiky leaves. It’s quite aggressive.

I first trimmed the hedge using manual hedge shears.

It was hard work. Took me half of a day. I discovered muscles in my back and arms I didn't know I had. My arms were covered in scratches, and there were two trailer loads of trimmings to take away.

But let me tell you, the hedge looked good.

Today, I trimmed the same hedge in under an hour (including loading the trimmings into the trailer). I cheated though: I used an electric hedge trimmer.

And it doesn’t look as good.

I don’t think the issue is the tools. I think the issue is the attitude.

If I’m going to take half a day and use oversized scissors to cut small trees, it had better be worth it.

But if I’m just going to swing a power tool around for an hour, I’ll take whatever I can get.

Sometimes better outcomes happen because it’s hard.

Spiderman sucks

Well, not Spidey per se., just some of the unintended consequences of his Uncle Ben’s mantra.

Seth’s latest blog post highlights that when we understand the responsibility that comes from having power, many of us simply abdicate out of fear.

In a democracy, we each have more power to speak up and to connect than we imagine. But most people don’t publish their best work or seek to organize people who care. Most of the time, it’s far easier to avert our eyes or blame the system or the tech or the dominant power structure.

And in an age where so many of us have access to so much power (thank you internet), how many of us are walking away from the power out of fear of the responsibility?

Maybe, if we start to get together and care together, we might change some things, or at least something.

Hiatus

hiatus

/hʌɪˈeɪtəs/

noun

1. a pause or break in continuity in a sequence or activity.

For this of you (anyone?) regularly reading this blog, you’ll have noticed a break in daily run of blog posts for the last two weeks.

No real reason. It just happened.

But we’re back.

Enjoy the ride.

Place-making: Form, function & feel

Think of a place you know well. It can be a place you like, or a place you’re not such a big fan of.

What is it that gives that place it’s specifics? How do you remember, know and/or experience is?

  • Is it the Form of the place: Where everything is, the colours, the layout, the materials, how you get there…

  • Is it the Function of the place: What you do (or don’t do) there, how well it helps (or hinders) your activity, what each of the things that are there do…

  • Is it the Feel of the place: The emotions you feel when you’re there, or after you leave, or the lighting, ambient environment, or just “the vibe”…

Whatever it is, it is interesting to think: Who designed this?

Buzzwords

Here’s a few buzzwords I’ve heard recently:

Sustainable. Disruptive. Green. Resilient. Blockchain. Big Data.

Concepts which, when understood at a fringe level, lose all meaning and become irrelevant.

And then we have to search for new ways to explain sustainable, disruptive, green, resilient, blockchain, and big data, because the original (and perfectly descriptive) language has been co-opted.

Dine in or takeaway?

Do you prefer to dine in, or takeaway? The answer is probably: It depends.

So, what does it depend on?

Let’s make it simpler and see if we can narrow it down:

If you are at a cafe and just getting coffee, do you prefer to dine in, or takeaway?

If it depends, what does it depend on?

  • How rushed you are?

  • If you’re with someone?

  • If it’s the weekend?

  • If you’re at work?

  • How busy the cafe is?

  • If you brought your keep cup?

If it doesn’t depend on anything, what basis has fixed your decision?

  • You don’t use takeaway coffee cups for environmental reasons?

  • You only drink coffee when you have time to sit down?

  • You only buy coffee from a hole-in-the-wall which only does takeaway?

  • You only get coffee from a place which only does dine-in?

  • You get your coffee in a takeaway cup regardless because you like the taste?

Contextual decision making vs pre-decision making is an interesting contrast in approach.

Make a time for it.

Lists are great. But they don’t always get done. Or at least, the right lists don’t always get done.

Need to drop the wheelbarrow that you borrowed from your neighbour back? Make a time for it.

Want to catch up with a friend? Put a time in your calendar to call them and arrange it.

Feel like you need a holiday? Book it in. Now.

Want to just hang out at home? Make a time for it next week.

Miss curling up with a book for three hours? Lock it in. And then protect it.

You might find, like I often do, that my to-do list doesn’t fit into my calendar. And then you have a choice: Do less of more and squeeze everything in, or just do less.

Silly season overwhelm

Avoid the malls. Instead you could:

  • Stay home

  • Shop online

  • Shop elsewhere

  • Make presents

  • Regift your favourite books

  • Sleep

All of these are (in my opinion) better options for you, and probably the planet.

Double-down chocolate

There’s a small local gelato joint thats a bit of a hit around these parts.

They make a dessert that starts with a decadent fudgey-cakey-gooey-caramely-goodness named after a (similarly-named) politician, who gets more mixed reviews from locals.

I selected a scoop of “superman chocolate” gelato to drop on top of the (heated) gooey-ness, which was promptly drizzled with a shot of chocolate.

Oh yes, and a wee swirl of whipped cream on top.

Delicious.

Chocolatey-delicious.

I doubled-down (tripled even) on the chocalatelyness, and must admit I was concerned I’d overdone it, and was about to be overwhelmed by chocolate and sweetness.

I’m pleased to say, this never happened. Each mouthful was joyous, and I suspect, it is because each of the elements were independently delicious. I wasn’t left feeling overdone, in fact I considered a second round, but didn’t (I’m getting wiser in my old age).

Without saying chocolatey anymore, here’s what (I think) I’ve learnt:

  • If something is truly good, really truly good, more is better. The flavour of chocolate is this kind of good.

  • The same is not better. Get more of the essence of the goodness, but get it in a new way. Chocolate can be ice-cream, or brownie.

  • Don’t fall for the cheap stuff.