I am constantly reading a plethora of “things” trying to understand and make sense of the world around me. I used to use Twitter as a way of sharing some of the “things” that stuck out but with the fall of Twitter, I thought I might to back to something more traditional - a newsletter of sorts.

I’m sharing some of the things I’ve found interesting in the last month in a blog post format. You can tell my brain jumps around to a lot of different things. I’ll share some opinions along the way and I’ve put tags in front of each one if you want to parse by category.

• [Aviation] With Air India rebranding itself, and livery as such a large part of the recognition of an airline, I delved into why so many aircraft are painted white.
• [Aviation] As a former graphic designer, I’ve always found Airline Safety Cards fascinating. Here’s a little history tour and explanation as to why the form factor hasn’t changed from the 1960s.
• [Aviation] As I’ve designed applications for pilots, I’m always curious about flight paths. Visual representation as well as time-related data all in one display is a challenge. I loved delving into why aircraft are not found in certain FIRs (airspace regions).
• [Design] Just for a little fun, loved this article about finding all of the patterns that Barbie wore.
• [Design] As someone who has worked in voice design and believes in the power of language, I loved Monzo’s guide to Tone of Voice.
• [Design] Combining change management and design, this framework for the 12 leverage points is incredible. Coming at it from a policy and systems design perspective, it can stand to be the core of a change strategy.
• [Design] I was obsessed with Detour when it was around. While I haven’t quite found anything like it, I did enjoy this project for hearing the sounds of Mexico City (and learning about the culture)
• [Design] I can’t begin to describe how much I love when a abstract concept / term / framework is finally made concrete by the simple act of someone formalising it into words, pictures, etc. I thoroughly enjoyed this article about contextual literacy for design leaders as I’ve been struggling to articulate this for a long time.
• [Design] Living in the Inner West, I’ve seen this branding everywhere. I really enjoyed actually seeing the process behind it by For the People.
• [Design] This talk is 7 years old and yet it is 100% still accurate re the design industry and academia coming together.
• [Psych] I’m always looking for tools to be more self-aware and it usually comes in the form of different kinds of exercises. I loved thehttps://chrisguillebeau.com/personal-instruction-manual that I could give to colleagues (professional version) vs a partner (personal version).
• [Psych] As someone who is prone to burnout, I inhaled this podcast. It covers a range of topics around ambition and just hit the nail on the head.
• [Psych] What if we were to live in a sociocratic society?
• [Psych] We really need to change the way we work, how we evaluate it, and the link to it as an identity and sense of self-worth. Out of Office is a life-centered research and design lab doing just that.
• [Psych] When thinking about societal decisions and the judicial system, I thought the Gladue principles were quite groundbreaking.
• [Tech] With everyone obsessed about talking about AI, I started going back to my psych stat roots and was learning about Bayesian Statistics.
• [Tech] I design in Powerpoint, not in Figma or Sketch or the latest and greatest design tool. This is because I want stakeholders to work with me to be able to make changes and I wnat to be able to speak their love / communication language. I enjoyed this article about the evolution of the corporate presentation.
• [Tech] If you’ve worked with Indian tech royalty, the likelihood is that they’ve come from IIT. This article explores the landscape both within and outside of India.
• [Tech + Sustainability ] Let’s reuse computer waste heat! Kidding, we’re still a ways away but I was intrigued by the concept.
• [Tech + Sustainability] Let’s talk about digital declutter for your business.
• [Tech + Sustainability] I’m just purely jealous of this case study / project. I would have loved to work on something like this for my masters thesis.
• [Tech + Sustainability] Have your product evaluated on its sustainability! I bet a lot of people will shy away from this because no one wants to invite scrutiny but it’s a great initiative for welcoming feedback, change, and progress.
• [Random] I was wearing a piece of clothing with the longhorn symbol on it and someone commented that the logo reminded them of the Carabao band. It made me think about the ties between music, community, and political activism.