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The Lost Art of Listening
If all the policitcal debates filling our airwaves and social feeds are any indication, listening is a dying art. In the world of design, the first essential step to designing an effective tool is learning about the user. If we don’t intentionally take time to understand the user, ask questions and challenge our assumptions, we’ll…
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Marathon bands and the message you’re sharing
One of the highlights of a marathon is all the supporters in come out to cheer runners on. As the race weaves through the neighbourhoods of a city (just like Winnipeg this past weekend), many people setup music or even put together a band to play from the front yard to energize and entertain the…
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That’s not a lot of boxes
A co-worker recently shared Tim Urban great TED talk on procrastination. Funny and down-to-earth, Tim takes a light-hearted but challenging look at how we manage to put off the things we really should be doing. As Tim points out, tackling concrete deadline-based projects at work, school or home are one thing, but much more difficult…
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Complain by Creating
Complaining about the broken things in the world can be enjoyable, but at the end of the day, it’s not very helpful to yourself or those around you. As James Murphy said, the best way to complain is to make things. Some of the best tools we use today were built out of a frustration…
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Engaging Deeply
To engage meaningfully in a hyper-connected, always-on ecosystem, it’s important to make space in your daily rhythm for deep thought and deep work. Only when we tend to the source of our stream and create margins in the midst of our routine can we bring our ideas and energies to a world that requires our…
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Which race would you like to win?
This weekend I’ll be running a relay race as part of the Manitoba Marathon. Big events like these are a lot of fun to be a part of, as thousands of runners hit the pavement together. One of the most important things to keep in mind when you’re part of a running event is which…
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The Problem with Dissection
In high school biology we dissected frogs. I can still remember the formaldehyde smell that wafted up as we cracked open the container holding our little victim, and readied our scalpels. For kids (and adults, let’s be honest), dissection opens a whole world of muscles, bones and organs, all held together in this little creature…
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The Designs of Tractor Trek
Last weekend I participated in the annual Tractor Trek, driving my grandpa’s 1954 Super W4 tractor across the countryside for a day in what has become a family tradition. Together with my grandpa, uncles, and brother-in-law, we joined a group of 46 vintage tractor enthusiasts in driving over 50km, hearing the stories that these tractors…
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Savour the Good Stuff
Life is beautiful right now. Really, it is. It’s spring. The trees are blossoming all over our neighbourhood. We have this tree in our front yard that’s covered in white flowers. “I don’t remember it being this beautiful last year,” my wife pointed out last night. And the birds are singing. Robins are ordinary enough,…
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Things Residual
You probably have a dream or a passion you’d like to pursue, if you had the time. You might find yourself saying, “If I could clear my plate for a (month, week, half-hour, whatever) I’d do this thing.” But that plate never clears, emails keep coming in and kids keep waking up from their naps.…
