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TLDR 127

Too Long; Didn't Read Issue 127

Published: 2017-12-08 • 📧 Newsletter

Welcome to Issue 127. Chaos isn't a pit. Chaos is a ladder.

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This week I posted the following:

Say hey with a note at hello@wiobyrne.com or on the socials at wiobyrne.

🔖 Key Takeaways

📺 Watch

This past week I started following the work of M Sanjayan, the CEO of Conservation.org...among other things. I'm starting a deep dive to think more about conservation, climate change, and helping fight for planet Earth. I want to build better awareness so I can think and speak (somewhat) eloquently about these topics.

Sanjayan has hosted a range of documentaries for PBS, BBC, Discovery, and Showtime. Most recently, he was featured in the University of California and Vox Media's Climate Lab series. You can review all of the videos in the Climate Lab series here.

📚 Read

As I work and develop materials online, I dream of a world in which any child can use the Internet as a text to educate and empower themselves. This means that any individual can have access to any materials needed to help them become the individual they want to be. This is regardless of where they grow up in the country...or the world.

The work of Raj Chetty and the Equality of Opportunity Project is making me rethink this dream.

The project's latest paper, out Sunday, looks at who becomes an inventor — and who doesn't. The results are disturbing. They suggest that creativity is broadly distributed, but opportunity is not.

As we think about possible futures, this is why we need to think and talk about disruption of power structures. We also need to identify opportunities to make these materials open and accessible for all.

At several of my public speaking events over the past year, I've had one common takeaway. Perhaps, as adults, we don't fully know or understand how best to use social media and all of these screens around us. And, perhaps, as suggested by some of the writings from danah boyd and the hoMaGo reports...we don't fully understand what kids are doing in these spaces. Finally...perhaps...we shouldn't tell them what to do (or not do) in these spaces.

Perhaps we should listen to the kids.

This piece from the NY Times is a good starting point to having these discussions with students.

Audrey Watters has been busy pulling together her yearly look at the most important stories in edtech from the past twelve months. The first of the stories from 2017 is a look at information, misinformation, and the "fake news" that has polluted our social networks over the past year and a half.

I definitely recommend taking some time to review this story...and the other two posts so far from this year as we wrap up 2017.

Let me state the outset that this is a horrible title for a great post. Honestly, move past the poor choice of a title, and take some time to dig in.

Once you dig in, you'll find a long, and somewhat humorous examination of the current state of innovation, entrepreneurialism, and design thinking we see in education. I've been conducting some research, and writing a bit about design thinking, and this post was the kind of reality check that I needed in my work.

If you're busy in these spaces as well...take some time to read and respond to this post. I've shared it with a bunch of colleagues and they've responded with a fair amount of praise, criticism, and critique. That's the sign of a good post to me.

We've been talking quite a bit about "trust", or the lack thereof as it relates to society and our connections with business, government, and other organizations.

This piece from the Harvard Business Review takes a deep dive into the brain chemistry that plays a role as companies work to empower, challenge, and engage employees. Some of the basic themes involve just treating them like adults.

To manage for trust in your business, classroom, or personal life...here's their suggestions:

🔨 Do

This is one of those things where I feel like I'm in a different part of the Internet for the week.

Supposedly, Justin Timberlake made headlines with his fruit "breakthrough" this week, a blueberry shoved inside a raspberry he's calling the "Braspberry."

The author of this piece on Lifehacker suggests that a far better flavor is a blueberry nestled inside of a raspberry, inside of a strawberry.

I urge you to get out there and play with your food this weekend to see what you can concoct.

🤔 Consider

"The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between the two, the leader must become a servant." — Max De Pree

This week's themes—climate change psychology, lost Einsteins, trusting kids' social media wisdom, design thinking critique—all require leadership that defines reality honestly, serves communities humbly, and expresses gratitude. Whether building trust in workplaces or addressing inequality in innovation, the servant leadership model De Pree describes stands in stark contrast to techno-solutionism and top-down control.

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