Are.na Channel Abstracts

I wanted to write a quick post to share more context around some of my channels on Are.na.

Assorted Design References
ADR began as a collection of digital design references to help with my product design education, and then quickly evolved into a scrapbook featuring art, architecture, fashion, philosophical quotes, graphic design and identity work, digital product design, editorial and print design, posters and packaging.

The broad collection now functions more like a blog that’s intended to aid in combinatorial creativity.

A Catalogue of Simple Pleasures
I’ve grown increasingly wary of the “innovations” of early 21st-century life: iPhones, social networks, the attention economy, digital vanity, the erosion of focus-as-skill, and the elevation of shallow experiences.

There are so many small, simple pleasures in life that are truly wonderful - from holding hands, to stretching, to paying off a debt, to saying “I’m sorry” - and I wanted to start collecting them as a reminder to myself and hopefully to others.

The collection is an antidote to modern life, encouraging us to seek them out and savor them wherever possible.

Small Tools for Successful Living
A motley collection of individual “tools” - including walking, forgiveness, doubt, and The Socratic Method - designed to give you more agency over your life.

I’m quietly collecting these tools and will then organize them around a simple taxonomy designed to encourage their application.

The goal is a succinct digital object that functions as a narrativeless self-interpreted self-help text stripped of any agenda.

An Index for Interacting with Information
A shorthand reference for the different systems we use to structure, organize, process and deliver information. I created it as an aid in the product design process.

Living Through Networks
Still very much in its infancy, this is a casual exploration into the notion that networks are the fundamental architecture of complex life - from our brains and bodies through to our societies, economies, organizational methods etc.

Joy & Cooperation
I find the human capacity for complex collaboration to be deeply fascinating and very rewarding. I’ve been enamored with concepts like companies, management, and organizational systems since I was a kid.

While we all have horror stories of our corporate experiences, there are many good stories that permeate the zeitgeist as well, and I’d like to better understand both halves.

This is an ongoing study in understanding the various pieces necessary to promote a joyful collaborative experience.

**Ambient Organisations
A concept that emerged within Joy & Cooperation that I spun out into a dedicated channel. Ambient Organisations are organizational systems that exist within the fabric of our society. They can be implicitly influenced, not explicitly controlled. They are publicly accessible and collectively agendaless (although individual agents may have agendas). Examples would include Bitcoin (but not Ethereum), the global economy, science, language, subcultures, the concept of abstract currency and knowledge.

Questions For A Future Self
A broad range of questions designed to establish an on-going dialogue between your past, present, and future selves.

The idea is to answer these questions repeatedly, across different timescales (a week, a month, a year, a decade, etc.) so that you can observe your personal evolution across time.

This sits alongside Small Tools for Success Living and Living Through Networks as an exploration in living with agency, grace, and harmony.