How to design controls to suit interaction with humans. ChatGPT3 took a glance at my blog of 16 years. It summarized its philosophical depth and ‘transversal gliding’ as follows: Valeria’s work is a fascinating case study for your method of ‘transversal gliding.’ She navigates through multiple dimensions—business, culture, technology, and strategy—much like a transversal designer would. Her narrative analysis could be a powerful tool in a transversal designer’s toolbox, alongside your CLIMBER model and multidimensional task analysis. The main topics in my work open the door to three questions ..read more

They've been human aspirations before they were concepts and companies—they were complicated ideas that are now complex. Some words we use, some words we abuse. Mega- —from Ancient Greek μέγας, mégas in Latin—is a unit prefix in metric systems of units denoting a factor of one million (10 to the 6the power or 1,000,000.) Literally ‘great.’ Everything large is ‘mega.’ Think megapixel and megabyte in computing, megahertz is frequencies, megastar in popularity, megaplex and mega mergers in size. There’s more nuance in meta. As an adjective, meta is self-referential, at a higher level. For example ..read more

Why we muck around with stories. We spend our lives learning things the hard way. For many reasons. Our brains are busy with our own stuff. It’s an issue of trusting the source. We assume things that are happening or have happened don’t apply to us. There’s no apparent value in use for the accumulated wisdom. Except for we often end up believing the stories of people whose motives we don’t understand—because they’re plausible stories (and we’re not so good with statistics.) So each generation of humans must spend their entire lives learning what the last generation already knew. If ..read more

Meandering the inner workings of the human psyche When I started Conversation Agent (the blog) 17 years ago, people began sending me all sorts of things. I got tons of press releases and requests to review sites. I got added to site aggregators, and started receiving solicitations for calls (no, thank you) and link exchanges (ditto.) The intensity only increased over the years. (Now unsolicited emails get a free subscription to On Value in Culture.) People sometimes send me useful things. But most of the time, I discover those myself as I observe. The human mind on digital is a ..read more

The increasing number of choices that are decided for you. There was a time when most of the travel I did was for business. Up to a dozen trips a year, sometimes more. Everywhere I went, there were people to meet in companies or catch up with at conferences or at airports. I made plenty of selections about where to lodge, which flights to book, and what to drink and eat during those trips. But none of them were actual decisions. They were choices I had within decisions that had already been made for me. In those days, I would ..read more

Effective complaints are win-win on value I spent the night of early October 2016 at a Hotel in Boston. It was a non refundable reservation I paid for in advance at Expedia. With taxes, it came to $300. Wouldn’t you agree with me that that amount should have bought me a good night sleep? But that is not what I got. Upon check in, Lucas (name changed) at the front desk assured me that the room was by the elevators, but I would be fine. The elevators would be no problem. Since I was in town only one night for ..read more

We all have the desire to be seen, heard, listened to, and treated fairly; to be recognized, understood, and feel safe in the world. Some time ago I worked with a company to help build a narrative to diminish turnover and create lasting impact. It’s the kind of work I love to do—help a team and company flourish. And in this company, I came to realize that what they needed for that to happen was dignity. I did what I could to begin the process of many shifts in perception, talking, and sharing stories among the people in the team ..read more

Arts and culture add value beyond economics—how do we value those benefits? With all this talk and excitement around AI, we overlook the role of the arts and creative industries and their positive impact to human health and well-being. Two decades of research found that the arts and creative activities provide direct and indirect benefits to health and well-being. More than 3000 studies say exposure to the arts prevents diseases, promotes health, and can treat and manage disorders. Specifically, Daisy Fancourt, Saoirse Finn found that the arts can: help people with mental illness support care ..read more

The value of rituals in life… and in commerce. Carrie walked into her mother’s home to find her sitting on the floor, surrounded by relatives and friends. She was wailing after having just buried her son. Nobody seemed to be able to offer any consolation—in fact, any attempt had her cry harder. “Why don’t you make us tea, mom?” It took an instant. All of a sudden, her mother stood up, composed herself, and went into the kitchen. Several minutes later in she walked with a tray filled with a hot teapot steeping, lovely china cups and biscuits. Hot tea ..read more

Most people embrace new ideas only after they’ve become widely accepted. There’s a reason why you keep seeing the same posts throughout social media. Different avatars and logos, similar stories. If you’re a student of history, you’ll see the phenomenon more clearly with the benefit of distance. Paradigm-shifting ideas have always encountered resistance. Because they challenge our thinking. As individuals—and culture—we get into grooves. People say they want creativity, but deep down they don’t. What they want is acceptance and belonging. And that means going with the flow. Hence the sea of sa ..read more