Beetle & Byte

A Prescription for Good Design

On the heels of the last post about Margaret Heffernan and her argument that computer automation is not a rightful substitute for human expertise—especially in highly unpredictable and complex spaces—comes a related episode of the Wireframe podcast.

In this episode, host Khoi Vinh met with doctors about the design of electronic health records (EHR) and the accompanying software and hardware. In a nutshell, these broken systems work against the doctor-patient relationship instead of for it. They are driven more by healthcare billing practices than by patient needs and often command the attention of doctors at the expense of engaging meaningfully with patients. It’s a quick and worthwhile listen for anyone interested in the topic of design in healthcare.

The Human Skills We Need in an Unpredictable World

This talk by Margaret Heffernan more intelligently and eloquently expresses the idea that’s been noodling in my mind for some time. That it isn’t an inevitability that we lose our humanity at scale. In fact, we should double down on our humanity–compassion, empathy, and attention–the larger an organization gets. Without it, we become little more than a cog in an unfeeling and uncaring machine.

Preparedness, coalition-building, imagination, experiments, bravery — in an unpredictable age, these are tremendous sources of resilience and strength. They aren’t efficient, but they give us limitless capacity for adaptation, variation and invention. And the less we know about the future, the more we’re going to need these tremendous sources of human, messy, unpredictable skills.

But in our growing dependence on technology, we’re asset-stripping those skills. Every time we use technology to nudge us through a decision or a choice or to interpret how somebody’s feeling or to guide us through a conversation, we outsource to a machine what we could, can do ourselves, and it’s an expensive trade-off. The more we let machines think for us, the less we can think for ourselves.

The more time doctors spend staring at digital medical records, the less time they spend looking at their patients. The more we use parenting apps, the less we know our kids. The more time we spend with people that we’re predicted and programmed to like, the less we can connect with people who are different from ourselves. And the less compassion we need, the less compassion we have.

What all of these technologies attempt to do is to force-fit a standardized model of a predictable reality onto a world that is infinitely surprising. What gets left out? Anything that can’t be measured — which is just about everything that counts.

Margaret Heffernan, TEDSummit 2019

A Week of Links

Missy Elliott slayed with a performance medley of her greatest hits at the VMAs.

This squirrel knows good music.

Two Swiss sisters pay homage to Homer and Lisa‘s trip to New Orleans. I’m impressed with just how many culinary scenes they recreated.

Recently dawned on me that there’s a better way to dole out honey.

Can’t wait to play Mario Kart on my phone.

Currently trying to figure out where to put this DIY living wall in my home.

Leadership is as much about the environment that one shapes as it is about the impact that follows.

A breathtaking reminder why we should all be booking our trips to Iceland.

Moving and funny TED talk by Paula Stone Williams about what she’s learned since transitioning to a woman.

Whimsical paper masterpieces.

Recent addict of Lucas’ Papaw Ointment.

Library Savings

Image of Wichita Public Library receipt showing savings.

The Wichita Public Library has a simple and clever type of positive reinforcement. When you checkout a book from the library, the receipt shows you how much you saved by using the library instead of buying the book. They also show your lifetime savings.

At the beginning of this year, I pledged to not buy anymore books and instead either read the ones I’d accumulated or else checkout others from the library. It was a bit of a bumpy start to change habits and adapt to loan periods and hold times for books, but now I’ve hit my groove. I do everything electronically. I use Libby to connect to my local library‘s catalog and once a book is available, I send it to my Kindle. I’ve read much more this year than in the several years preceding. It’s a super convenient and rewarding system, though a tally of my lifetime savings would be fun too!

via Open Culture | Image by The Wichita Eagle

Sagrada Familia

Photo by Angela Compagnone on Unsplash

One hundred thirty seven years after construction began, Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain, received its first building permit. Construction began in 1882 and completion is targeted for 2026, the centennial anniversary of the death of the architect, Antoni Gaudí.

While, I’ve long felt the fatigue of visiting European churches, I did use good judgment last year to check out the Sagrada Familia. It was bizarre and surreal and absolutely stunning. There were two things I loved in particular.

First, the design – everything from the architecture to the stain glass to the 23 foot tall, bronze doors – were contributions not only from Gaudi but many generations of designers since his death.

Second – the light. The way the light pours through the stain glass and hits the curves, lines, and shapes of the building’s interior is true magic.

Photo by Angela Compagnone on Unsplash

More Work

Austin Kleon‘s response to the question, “Do you ever feel like no matter how much work you do, you can or should be doing more?“

Yeah, always. If you get into that productivity trap, there’s always going to be more work to do, you know?

Like, you can always make more. I think that’s why I’m a time-based worker. I try to go at my work like a banker. I just have hours. I show up to the office and whatever gets done gets done.

And I’ve always been a time-based worker. You know, like, ‘did I sit here for 3 hours and try?’ I don’t have a word count when I sit down to write. It’s all about sitting down and trying to make something happen in that time period — and letting those hours stack up.

Austin Kleon

If I’m anything, I’m a list maker. No matter how many times I’ve tried to break the habit, it seems to be permanently ingrained in me. Two of my goals this year were, a) to not define my success by the number of checkmarks on my to do list, and b) to not define my failure by the number (or lack of) checkmarks on my to do list. I’ve made no headway in addressing either goal. I’ve probably only exacerbated both.

Today, though, I changed my to do list (I use kanban boards with Trello). Instead of assigning myself a list of tasks for a given day. I commit to a period of time for a certain type of task, like chores. For that period of time, I work on my chores until the time has lapsed. This way, I’m always accomplishing the goal of doing my chores but not defining my success or failure by how many I get done. I make the investment and do what I can. I continue the investment the next day and the day after. It’s a minor shift but somehow releases me of a certain heaviness. I’ll keep with it for a while and see how it goes. Fingers-crossed it’s a happy middle ground between list making and meaningful productivity.

Hawai’i Tropical Botanical Garden

One of my favorite things to see when traveling are botanical gardens, arboretums, or anything of the variety. They tend to be a quiet and uncrowded and filled with wonderful folia. By far, the best one I’ve been to was just recently at the Hawai’i Tropical Botanical Garden near Hilo on the Island of Hawai’i. It was nothing short of spectacular. You’re in a literal rainforest that just happens to be maintained by people. There were hundreds of plant species thriving – so many of which I struggle to keep alive potted in the far-from-tropical Seattle climate. It was humid and a steep incline but entirely worth the time. I’ll be dreaming about it for years to come.

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