Inside: a thought experiment; how human values get lost; and a new perspective on recent political upheaval (Trump, Brexit, terrorism, etc). Monday On Monday the devil offers you productivity. He has a magical to-do list for you. Things appear on the to-do list as soon as you desire them, if they…

Its impact on my life and others’. Next steps. — Part of why I work on big, world-changing topics is that for much of my life I’ve been a narcissist: a person who has to believe they’re doing big, important things. For me, as I guess for most narcissists, this came from deep insecurities and fears. In a way, I…

Achieving my #goals. I thought it was what life was about. I brought my goals into every meeting and every relationship. I was insufferable. Much later, I began to understand my values. See, most people only have goals some of the time. At other times they “wing it”. A person…

Why do bureaucracies of good people do bad things? Why do apps with good intentions cause bad social outcomes? Why do helpful innovations — like cars, single-family homes, and smartphones — lead people into isolated lives that don’t serve them? I’ve spent much of my life learning about values-misalignment, which…

A year of soul searching For me, 2020 has been about rethinking what the world needs from me. My previous work on metrics and design techniques was helpful, but didn’t drive the changes I’d hoped. Recognizing this involved some personal growth. My new mission It looks like my next step can build on what I’ve done before. My…

Alternative Institutions are Rising — New social systems, collective intelligences, and coordination mechanisms are forming to address COVID-19. This post can be read as a guide to making them even better, or as an evolving index of the best things going on. The WHO, the CDC, the media, the economy — many traditional institutions are…

☝️ This essay is also available on the Human Systems notion. According to Daniel Schmachtenberger, we are at the end of one kind of civilization and must transition to another. If we don’t transition — if we stick with our current civilizational operating system — then we won’t survive an…

☝️This is an excerpt from my textbook, Values-Based Social Design. My job is to help people design better social environments and systems, both online and offline. …

Steps towards radical redesign — Public debate seems like an important part of changing big systems. When modern nations formed, there was lots of public discussion and debates. In the US, for example, there were arguments in the newspapers about how the US government should work, later collected as the federalist and anti-federalist papers. It’s…