the art and science (Systems And Games) of causing change to occur in conformity with our will - The Craft (more)

Author, fiction and non-fiction (occult, criminal psychology). (more)

relating to Socrates (more)

Jerry Weinberg term. Process of getting UnStuck. (more)

Goal: Get broad/open/intelligent input into a rapid Public Policy discussion, leading to rough Design. (more)

Wanted to revive my broken TwitterBots - (2018-07-16) CoachBot Random Reminders (more)

Leonard Richardson library for managing a lot of creative bots that post to a number of different services. (TwitterBots, Mastodon, and more) https://github.com/leonardr/botfriend (more)

Taylor Pearson: Book I Enjoyed: Ages of Discord, by Peter Turchin. The core of the theory is that social conflict is the result of "elite overproduction." There are only so many senators, Fortune 500 CEOs and Big Law partners and as competition for those limited seats heats up, it causes society to fracture. (more)

Harj Taggar: Conversations and Ideas. Conversations about ideas should help you understand what you think. They need more tension than a regular conversation but not so much that you're afraid to share nascent thoughts. The best conversations make your ideas better and feel magical. (more)

Dan Hon: QAnon looks like an alternate reality game. (more)

Adrian Hon and Dan Hon ponder how QAnon can be modeled as an ARG. Makes me wonder if we should fund or subsidise “healthy ARGs”. There’s precedent for other media. (more)

aka Occupy Wall Street

Martin Cagan on Product Strategy - Insights. the most difficult, aspect of product strategy, which is to generate, identify and leverage the insights that will provide the foundation of the product strategy (more)

EmailList/Newsletter host service. (more)

Traditionally a smallish-distribution printed publication, like a magazine or newspaper. Now more often distributed as Email List. Basis for Personal Media Franchise.

Adrian Hon says that Serious Games (Computer Game) can't Change The World - inspiring other people to Change The World doesn't count (as much). On the whole, though, Urgent Evoke – and the rest of these projects – appear to be more like networked creative writing exercises than games that improve the world in a direct, measurable way... I find games like World Without Oil and Urgent Evoke very interesting, because I like the idea of people writing about the future; you don’t know what you think until you’ve said it out loud, or better yet, written it down. In a way, these games help people think things through (Sense Making), which can only be a good thing. I also give a lot of credit to them for inspiring people, particularly younger people who spend a lot of time online (even if the player numbers need a lot of improvement). (more)

Nathan Lewis is not a fan of the Bicycle. In a a properly designed Traditional City, most people don't need bicycles. This is true even today. In cities where people often do not own a car, such as New York or Hong Kong or Paris, these non-car-owning people usually do not own a bicycle either. Or, if they happen to own a bike, they do not use it every day as a transportation device. They get by just fine on foot, and using the transportation options available, especially trains and, if a train is not available, a bus. Occasionally a taxi. A bike is best as a least-desirable option, for those trips that are too long to walk comfortably, and not convenient by either train or bus.

Nathan Lewis thinks a Service Economy in an Urban Village (Traditional City) environment is better and more Sustainable living. He notes that while we currently have a hard time thinking-about/measuring/trusting a Service Economy, the same thing happened during the transition from Agricultural Economy to Industrial Economy (Industrial Age). (more)

Nathan Lewis slams the New Urbanists again. With all these photos from Old Europe, people sometimes get the impression that what I mean by "TraditionalCity" is old-fashioned. You could imitate Toledo (Spain) exactly and get a splendid result, but you can also have a contemporary version of the Traditional City. For example, these are photos from Seijo, a residental community (ie a "suburb") on the western side of Tokyo (Japan). Many people commute to central Tokyo. These were all farmlands sixty years ago. This is all recent construction, from a green field. (more)

Nathan Lewis on having an Abundance mentality of Minimalism. Choose aspirations and expectations that are more worthwhile on an absolute basis than the common alternatives. Like playing squash, at a serious competitive level, instead of big-car-fondling. Then, you are never "giving up" anything. You are, instead, avoiding time-wasting activities, or life-wasting activities, which also happen to be money-wasting activities. It is like eating healthy food instead of junk food. It's something you should do anyway. The fact that the healthy food also costs a lot less than the junk food is just another plus. Why would anyone eat junk food when it is not only bad for you, but also costs more? Duh. That would be stupid. In the same way, you should avoid junk activities and junk aspirations. Which are just as common, in American life today, as junk food. (more)