Welcome to (likely but unsure) the last version of “Vinita-dumps-her-brain-each month”. I’m trying to find a easier format to produce these things. It’s a bit strenuous rounding everything up each month. I “miss” the Twitter format but will find something as we go along.

• [Aviation] 787 in Antartica!
• [Design] Defining research structures within organizations might help us think “research projects” more differently.
• [Design] One of my favorite illustrators, Sanjay Patel, has made an animated series on Youtube. Definitely for a younger age group but I loved the explanations and colors.
• [Design] Loved this strange traffic sign video.
• [Design] Huge fan of Beth Matthews and her amazing props. She sent this out in her newsletter and just took a screengrab cause I thought the craft was so cool.

• [Psychology] The impulse to linguistically adapt to your environment, whether consciously or not, is called accommodation theory, which social psychologist Howard Giles coined in 2007. When we feel affection toward someone, we adapt to their mode of speaking. Children of immigrants and people who are used to hearing or speaking multiple languages do it all the time. Found at Juggernaut.
• [Psychology] Resonated SO MUCH with this. I consider myself a bit of a pollinator and it’s always challenging to tie all the threads together to tell a cohesive story.
• [Random] As someone who worked on Alexa, I’m always interested in Home IoT stuff. I loved this article about South Pole Roombas.
• [Random] Recently had to to go on the hunt for Super Glue. And then this came up.
• [Tech] AI being used for branding… by Modi.
• [Tech] A friend put me onto these new Google Pixel ads and they are hilarious.
• [Tech] Sweep is helping companies visuallize their carbon emissions impact. Super relevant for certain industries such as construction and aviation. Would LOVE (and kinda already do) work in this space.
• [Tech] Everyone in tech is talking about the AI pin. So many memes and gifs floating around. I dumped my initial thoughts after watching the video.
  • Looks like beautiful industrial design
  • I like their use cases. More than the normal stuff we have seen.
  • Feels clunky in terms of input and output. Tapping the thing over and over to interact with it.
  • Feels basically like Sixth Sense. Would be curious to see the fidelity of the projection.
  • Still need for a visual hub - because we are visual creatures
  • Developing trust that it’s giving you the right answer. Developing trust that it heard you correctly.
  • Creating a whole new platform for interaction - doesn’t usually work. Need a suite of things that have already worked to get it to catch on
• [Tech] I subscribe to Rest of World, a newsletter focused on tech outside of North America. They just realized their “40 companies doing better than the West” piece.
• [Psychology] We (mostly me maybe) fantasize that close friends will fix things. This says differently.
• [Tech] Benedict Evans’ take on leaving Twitter.
• [Tech] The future of Figma. Enough said.
• [Tech] Google’s take on how to use AI to fight climate change. Some interesting points.
• [Tech] HBR article summing up where we are in the corporate world. Loved this graphic the most:

• [Urban design] What a high-speed rail map could look like in the US. #transitnerd
• [Urban Design] Found this company Better Block, based out of Dallas doing some cool work.
• [Urban Design] Strong Towns reminds me of the Living Street Project from Ford.

Finished Reading:

• Forest of Enchantments - really enjoyed it and very topical for Diwali
• Rituals for Work - I don’t usually read many “work” books as of late but enjoyed this. Great gift for those looking to grow their facilitation skills.

Finished Watching:

• Family Karma - watched the latest season. Indian American Reality TV - nothing quite like it that I’ve seen. Started watching cause went to uni with one of the cast members.

New Vocab:

• No specific new words but Merriam Webster published their 690 words they added for the year.