Finds

The Gut Check was shared in the Throughline Conference afterparty chat. It’s the system that Sara Cantor and the other leaders of Greater Good Studio use to make decisions about what clients to take on. 

One of the themes (or throughlines) of the conference was how important it is to intentionally choose one’s own path. This article gives the way this small group of decision makers figured out how to do that for themselves: a list of questions they survey themselves with, so that they’re all thinking about the multiple dimensions of their purpose. 

It’s inspiring me to think about what my questions would be. I mostly work as a solo operator, but I also collaborate with others. How I make decisions about why, how, and with whom I work could use this kind of consideration—even though it’s messy, subjective, and not based on hard data or numbers (see more on this in the last segment of this newsletter). Our feelings are fundamental means of knowing—and are an important component in business decisions. Recognizing and openly communicating about those feelings is power that I want to tap into.

Flex & fumble

Book check: We’re through QC1 (quality check 1) on UX Skills for Business Strategy! It’s so dense with information, it needs some serious formatting and design to maximize its usefulness and usability. As a reference book, we expect folks to dip into a few pages here and there, when that UX skill or business impact is relevant to them. Finding those pages is critical! 

We’re also considering making an app to provide a lightweight, extra, electronic interface for the book. (And if that news made you perk up, tell me what you would want in such an app! I’d love to interview you.) 

What a strange time we’re in, that it makes sense to build an advanced tool, possibly with emerging technology, to make ancient dead-tree technology more useful. There’s so much richness in the book that would be lost in an app, but it’s going to be a heavy book—and we’re all so accustomed to having all of our knowledge in bite-sized, palatable chunks. Should we have started with an app? Podcasts? Blog posts? Right now, near the end of more than 2 years of work on this project, it’s pretty easy for me to second-guess. 

But soon—next month, we hope—you’ll get to judge this book for yourself!

Philosophy

Use it or lose it—true of muscles, languages we learn, and any other skill we practice. 

Whether we watch Olympic athletes in Milan, or last weekend’s Super Bowl win for my local Seattle Seahawks, we see the magnificent results of neuromuscular alignment, genetic differences, and intention, all pushed to maximize specific performances. 

I know just enough biology to understand that training to produce any desired outcome comes from repetition of stimuli and actions so that the “right” neural connections (and bone, ligaments, tendons, muscles, etc.) are kept and strengthened, and the “wrong” connections are pruned away. 

This is standard knowledge in sports and physical therapy. And for language learners like me, who used to be able to speak and read several languages, but can now only remember a few phrases (and frequently in the wrong language). 

But we can’t decide to prune a “wrong” neural connection; as long as we practice it, it remains. At a cellular level, our bodies see connections not being used and reduce our overall energy expenditure by cleaning them up. To our bodies, “wrong” just means “unused” - so if I don’t use and practice the “right” connections, they will get pruned just as ruthlessly. 

So when I turn to an AI-equipped tool for something, I make myself answer the question: What skill do I lose an opportunity to practice by using AI for this? 

• Summarizing and notetaking are externalizations of and aids to encoding, a critical learning process; when I use AI summaries and notetakers, I don’t get to practice sensemaking, learning, prioritizing, and connecting to prior knowledge.

• Wayfinding is an application of spatial awareness, literal connection to structure, space, and time; when I use GPS, I don’t get to practice my understanding of the environment. 

• Coding and designing are processes to make decisions about the details of function and form into a coherent whole; when I use AI to vibe-code or vibe-design, I don’t get to investigate and interrogate my decisions through the whole process. 

Using AI tools also opens up one opportunity I can think of: Vibe-coding or vibe-designing involves giving directions for the expected output, which is pretty valuable to practice. But do I really give instructions to humans the same way I would instruct a bot? No. I try to give instructions to people based, at least in part, on their intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. The motivations of the companies behind the AI tools are about getting more of my data, attention, and dollars. 

There are many other “gut check”-type questions to ask about any technology use, but as I watch skiers fly and skaters spin, I ask myself: How can I be more aligned in my body, mind, and intention,  like these athletes are in theirs? My body can’t do all that—that’s not my path. But for what my body and mind can do, I want to prioritize getting myself the practice I need.

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I write these newsletters myself, and I stand by what’s in them. If you have kudos, concerns, or questions, please tell me. —Torrey