Category: Blog (the archive of everything)Page 4 of 13

Just build less

This post has moved. It now lives on the Constructivist blog: read the updated version → Eiffel Over is now my stage for engineering-related clowning, singing, dancing and…

Losing edge (on the disadvantages of scale)

In my last few posts I’ve been exploring the relationship between the scale of design team and the connection with the places they are working with. Today I’ll…

Building a wooden rocket (on the advantages of scale)

There are advantages to scale in design teams. NASA estimates that 400,000 people were involved in the Apollo space programme. This scale of operation allows a degree of…

My new game: ForEdge

I’ve just invented a game, called ForEdge to explore the concept of how the amount of ‘edge’ in different sizes of systems affects their efficiency.  This game is…

Stuffed crust geometry

At some point in my childhood, Pizza Hut introduced the stuffed crust pizza. The idea was simple: stuff the crust with a ring of gooey cheese. It was…

Seeing the latent potential

This post has moved. It now lives on the Constructivist blog: read the updated version → Eiffel Over is now my stage for engineering-related clowning, singing, dancing and…

From no run to park run

A few days ago, Parkrun turned 20 years old. What started as a simple community gathering, launched by Paul Sinton-Hewitt on October 2nd, 2004, has grown into a…

Desertification versus dessertification

Desertification = a real word that refers to the process where fertile land becomes desert, typically due to drought, deforestation, or poor land management. It can also be…

No more fish in the sea

Somehow the topics of my posts have returned to the subject of the sea. It is apparently a rich subject to trawl.  Sorry, I couldn’t resist the pun,…

Plenty more fish in the sea

Yesterday’s post on the fish écluses on the Île de Ré speaks to the idea of creating straightforward connections between the resources that humans need to live and…

Stone circles on the beach

Hundreds of years ago, the inhabitants of the Île de Ré, just off France’s Atlantic coast, developed an ingenious way to catch fish. At low tide, they built…

I’m an engineer, I feel your pain and I have a plan

This post has moved. It now lives on the Constructivist blog: read the updated version → Eiffel Over is now my stage for engineering-related clowning, singing, dancing and…

Think of a world without any email

This post has moved. It now lives on the Constructivist blog: read the updated version → Eiffel Over is now my stage for engineering-related clowning, singing, dancing and…

Designers as insiders

This post has moved. It now lives on the Constructivist blog: read the updated version → Eiffel Over is now my stage for engineering-related clowning, singing, dancing and…

Designers as outsiders

This post has moved. It now lives on the Constructivist blog: read the updated version → Eiffel Over is now my stage for engineering-related clowning, singing, dancing and…

Zig zag zig zag zig zag zig

My song Arthur the Lawn Mower is about our relationship with machines. In it, Arthur describes how he takes ‘a random path across the garden terrain’. It turns…

The signal and the coincidence

This post has moved. It now lives on the Constructivist blog: read the updated version → Eiffel Over is now my stage for engineering-related clowning, singing, dancing and…

The wrong (moment to put on your waterproof) trousers

This is a post for the cycling decision-makers among you. It may resonate even if you don’t cycle. Variations on the question of whether, if it starts raining…

Five books for getting into regenerative thinking

This post has moved. It now lives on the Constructivist website: read the updated version → Eiffel Over is now my stage for engineering-related clowning, singing, dancing and…

You only learn when you do difficult things

This post has moved. It now lives on the Constructivist website: read the updated version → Eiffel Over is now my stage for engineering-related clowning, singing, dancing and…

The past, present and future at the same time

This post has moved. It now lives on the Constructivist blog: read the updated version → Eiffel Over is now my stage for engineering-related clowning, singing, dancing and…

On the Ultraviolet Catastrophe and teaching design

This post has moved. It now lives on the Constructivist website: read the updated version → Eiffel Over is now my stage for engineering-related clowning, singing, dancing and…

Design versus Shopping

If the client knows exactly what they want at the start of a design process, then it isn’t design – it’s shopping. Shopping for the answer that you’ve…

Some things you might not know about the Regenerative Design Lab

In the coming weeks I’m going to be talking quite a lot about the Regenerative Design Lab because we have a new cohort starting next week. Some of…

The Schedule

I am sharing today a schedule I use in my work every time the noise from distractions gets too much and/or I don’t actually think I am making…

Start with your scales

I was taught to start my music practice by playing my scales. Starting with your scales: Starting with your scales doesn’t just apply to instruments. It applies to any…

Field notes from chaos

The wind was getting up. The waves were starting to blow in from different directions. The sea scape seemed to be changing at random. The day before, the…

Harnessing waves in our work

Today’s post picks up on yesterday’s theme of riding the waves of human energy in our work. The idea is to create a cycle of working that tunes…

Riding the wave

I spent most of yesterday afternoon up to my middle in waves learning to surf. (I’ve got a long way to go). So it is no coincidence that…

The Great Flattening

Jim Crace’s book Harvest provides fascinating portrait of rural life in England just before the start of the Industrial Revolution. What is so striking is the way the…