The Pattern Problem

The Pattern Problem
The Pattern Problem Google Firestarters, September 2017 John V Willshire / @willsh
SMITHERY
Strategic Design bridges disciplines and departments, roles and responsibilities. It is concerned with the factors around a thing, not just the thing itself.
2011
Metamechanics & Behaviour
IED Innovation & Future Thinking Barcelona, 17th-29th July 2017 summer course
let's start with this…
Jean Tinguely 1925-1991
If you stare long enough, you see how it works http://www.vernissage.tv
If you stare long enough, you see how it works
What are the underlying mechanics?
Mechanics: What happens to things when things happen to them?
Movement Maps Loops Layers Metamechanics
Let’s go back to September 2011…
What can planning learn from design thinking? “ ”
“Companies were comfortable and welcoming to Design Thinking because it was packaged as a process.” Bruce Nussbaum, “Design Thinking is a Failed Experiment”, 2011
We don’t need another process
BACK TO THE PRESENT…
Laseau’s Funnel
Double Diamond, British Design Council
time
Linear processes are built for comfort
The ‘roadmap’ is complicit dishonesty
manoeuvrability > speed
manoeuvrability > speed ?
OODA Loops Observe Orient Decide Act
OBSERVE DECIDE ACTORIENT outside world implicit guidance & control REPEAT
OBSERVE DECIDE ACTORIENT outside world implicit guidance & control New information about changing environment Form a hypothesis Test it… REPEAT
OBSERVE DECIDE ACTORIENT outside world implicit guidance & control How do you orient yourself?
Orient To align yourself with relation to surroundings, circumstances, and facts
New information Analysis & synthesis Previous experience Cultural traditions SOURCE: JOHN BOYD
New information Analysis & synthesis Previous experience Cultural traditions SOURCE: JOHN BOYD PRESENT} PATTERNS}
The pattern problem An example becomes a lesson A lesson becomes a method A method becomes a practice A practice becomes a doctrine A doctrine becomes death
We can’t get caught waiting for things to happen again
So how do you break patterns?
Bruce Lee “The highest technique is to have no technique”
Jeet Kune Do
Bruce Lee “it is just a name used, a boat to get one across, and once across it is to be discarded and not to be carried on one's back”
Charlie Munger “Eighty or ninety important models will carry about 90% of the freight in making you a worldly‑wise person.”
Loops help (re)make our models in response to reality
If loops are the behaviour, layers are the environment
but this year…
1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
Stewart Brand “The quick processes provide originality and challenge, while the slow provide continuity and restraint”
SLOW FAST FAST SLOW
THE GEARBOX
THE GEARBOX
SLOWFAST PEOPLE
SLOWFAST PEOPLE FRIENDS FAMILY KIDS TEAM FUNDRAISERS PARTIES PARENT HELPERS COMMUNITY PROGRAMMES LOCAL TEAMS HERITAGE OFFICIAL LEAGUES GRASSROOTS MATCH OFFICIALS GOVERNING BODIES TOURNAMENT INTERNATIONAL TEAMS EUROPEAN COMPETITION SUPPORTERS CLUBS TELEVISION COVERAGE
SLOWFAST SPACE
SLOWFAST SPACE GRAFFITI CHALKING FLYPOSTING STREET ART STICKERS ADVERTISING PUBLIC NOTICE BOARDS SHOP SIGNS STREET SIGNS COUNCIL NOTICES TRAFFIC DIVERSIONS FOUNTAINS MOSAICS PUBLIC AMENITIES MURALS SCULPTURES STREET FURNITURE
SLOWFAST PEOPLE SLOWFAST SPACE
- Stewart Brand “All durable, dynamic systems have this sort of structure; it’s what makes them dynamic and robust”
dynam ic and robust
What happens here?
What happens when a gear jumps?
small, nimble groups of people vs. slow, regulated, built-up space
instant changes in the space vs. large groups of people with shared understanding
“a baby-step to virtual reality” New York Times
I PROMISE YOU, THIS IS RESEARCH
Physically agnostic
Temporally agnostic
Visualising cultural deserts
@willsh What is “here”? pic: Aiko Graywolfe
Is the Pokémon really here?
If it isn’t over here…
And isn’t over here…
It must be here
Pokemon Go ‘mob’, July 20th, San Francisco Photo: NYT TEMPORARY SPATIAL SHOCKS
@willsh
Pic: Jean-Louis Zimmermann
“It makes it harder to live here”
virtual layer
Gamers Pokémon Public parks Fashion fans Ltd editions Shopping malls Patients NHS Doctors Surgeries Self-driving cars Cheap fuel Village petrol station Violent mobs Suppression Polling stations
All environments now change faster than our processes can allow for… dynam ic and robust …we can’t afford to get stuck in patterns
How do we design tools that break patterns? An example becomes a lesson A lesson becomes a method A method becomes a practice A practice becomes a doctrine A doctrine becomes death
“The blacksmith makes his own tools” Daniel Dennett
THE OBLIQUISCOPE
THE OBLIQUISCOPE Don’t look at what you’re looking at
WHO WHAT Culture, Individuals, Groups What are they part of? How do they communicate? What beliefs do they share? Matter, Space, Objects What is it made of? How is it accessed? What does it depend on?
SLO W ER FASTER WHO WHAT Culture, Individuals, Groups What are they part of? How do they communicate? What beliefs do they share? Matter, Space, Objects What is it made of? How is it accessed? What does it depend on? What happens in five years time? What have the last 24 hours been like? In the long run, how is this sustainable? Step by step, how does this work?
SLO W ER FASTER WHO WHAT Sketch the momentary interaction… Write the 5th anniversary press release… Map the supply chain… Evaluate long-term sustainability… Analyse population trends by location… Sort through user complaints… Empathy mapping… Prototype new supporting service…
SLO W ER FASTER WHO WHAT …using LEGO bricks …for a news organisation that doesn’t exist yet …using metaphorical territorial features …as if you are a UN working group …as if this is a long dead civilisation at the turning point …as a card game …using LEGO minifigs …as if you are a parasitic start-up
SLO W ER FASTER WHO WHAT The Obliquiscope
WHO WHAT WHO WHAT WHO WHAT
The fox is the master of adaptability
Domains Resources Interactions
善狐
SLOWFAST PEOPLE SLOWFAST SPACE If loops are the behaviour, layers are the environment…
people space actions, interactions, conversations… objects, environments, systems…
people space MATERIALISM: “all things, including mental things and consciousness, are results of material interactions.” IDEALISM: “reality as we know it is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial” actions, interactions, conversations… objects, environments, systems…
people space MATERIALISM: “all things, including mental things and consciousness, are results of material interactions.” IDEALISM: “reality as we know it is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial” actions, interactions, conversations… objects, environments, systems… Sometimes it’s this. Sometimes it’s this.
p s Fast Slow FastSlow
p s
Team
Team Qualitative
Team Qualitative Quantitative
p Qualitative QuantitativeTeam
Sketch
Sketch Scaffold
Sketch Scaffold Structure
Scaffold Structure Sketch s
p s
p s Improve? Share?
p s
Time is an output, not an input… p s
If loops are the behaviour, layers are the environment
OODA Loops Observe Orient Decide Act
p s 1. OBSERVE 2. ORIENT 3. DECIDE 4. ACT 2 3 4 1
p s Team Qualitative Quantitative Sketch Scaffold Structure
Structurally, it’s intuitive…
p s It’s also a fractal…
P S
The best way to learn is to play
Describe Five Pivotal Moments
p s
(FIVE MORE SLIDES TILL BEER) SO, TO CONCLUDE…
Make your own tools to break the pattern problem… An example becomes a lesson A lesson becomes a method A method becomes a practice A practice becomes a doctrine A doctrine becomes death
Tools which naturally reinvent themselves WHO WHAT WHO WHAT WHO WHAT
p s Tools which change behaviour, not simply repeat it
Bruce Lee “Set patterns, incapable of adaptability, of pliability, offer only a better cage. Truth is outside of all patterns”
Thank you John V Willshire john@smithery.com @willsh smithery.com artefactshop.com

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