Week 4 Reflections: Contemplating the scenic route
Remember when I said I wasn’t a good at detail? Yeah. Please excuse the mess…
My initial intention for today’s blog was to take my own advice and build on last weeks reflections of ‘a need to specify’ in an attempt to define some real parameters for my project. After I hit publish last week, my brain decided to haunt me. I became a little bit too conscious of the fact that idea 1 was in need of a specific case study, idea 2 an indication of partner type to narrow my search and idea 3, a more concrete specification of what I expect from myself. I think it’s safe to say that I have a little bit more thinking to do before getting onto delivery modes. So, in true Maryam style…I decided to explore something else.
What do 1) Leanne’s 18 hour journey from Orkney to Edinburgh, 2) A craftsman in Asia’s largest slum, 3) Giorgia Lupi’s dear data postcards and 4) a Google AdSense logo have in common?
Week 4. And beyond this, a reflection that journeys matter. In the case of 1, 2 and 4, creative thinking came as a product of a challenging situation. Leanne’s decision to use text to speech as a learning mode when facing of a race against time, gale force winds and train cancellations. Google’s discovery of behavioural surplus and the subsequent birth of surveillance capitalism in an attempt to survive the dot.com bubble burst. And small business owners in Dharavi slum generating an annual turnover of c.$1bn despite the lingering presence of social exclusion and lack of formal infrastructure in their communities- a topic for further exploration in my Exclusion and Inequality assessment. Then there’s Giorgia’s Dear Data postcards. These present a slightly different scenario, coming from a perspective of privilege. In a blog written by Giorgia Lupi (the basis of this week’s interdisciplinary futures course discussion), the benefits of embracing complexity are explored. Giorgia pairs up with an information designer embarking on a 1-year journey where they humanised their data musings through data-drawing. The outcome? Incredible.
A final note/food for thought
Using a mix of the ingredients above and Rhi’s feedback on my project ideas last week, I’ve set myself a baking experiment. That is, to ponder on and answer the following: for my project would I like to focus on the destination (applications of the start-up) or the journey (building useful tools that will come in handy along the way)? Hopefully I’ll be able to give a bit of an indication of where I got to in next week’s blog.
If anyone has any thoughts/reflections on their experiences of focusing on a journey versus a destination, I’d love to hear them.
Thanks for the prompt Maryam – focusing on a journey versus a destination got me thinking … I am someone that needs a plan, to be prepared. I think this is partially a product of being the daughter of a teacher/engineer who constantly made lists and taught me about lists and making detailed plans and agendas. I might have a plan A, plan B, plan C and sometimes a plan D. I like to “think” this means I have flexibility built in, and I am lowering my anxiety, but what really happens is I get stressed out about implementing the plan and if it doesn’t work I feel like it failed. One trip I took to Thailand was completely unplanned except for airplane tickets (I was so worried) and it was one of the best trips of my life as I was only in the moment, not thinking about the next event until it was upon me. Three years ago my professional career took an unplanned dramatic turn but it’s been amazing. As a Product Manager for digital transformation in government, I have had to stop thinking of detailed project planning that I can control and instead about roadmaps and journeys – a key difference being thinking about the vision and longer-term connections with systems and continuous improvement rather than how we will practically execute all the tiny phases that have a clear end point. I have had to switch my thinking to big picture, let go of what I cannot control, overcome fear of working out in the open, and being ok with failure. It’s destination-focused but we still need to be fully invested and involved in the journey. It’s taken some effort to changing my thinking and at times feels like you are not making forward progress. I am reminded about what we are learning in Interdisciplinary Futures – we may have a common goal in mind as members of an interdisciplinary team, but we may take different pathways to get there based on our own values, biases, and skills sets. Not sure if my ramblings are of any use, but sometimes taking a step back to look at the big picture or your vision is helpful when I think of destination and journey.
Thank you so much Darcie- I’m not sure I’d be as brave in jetting off to another country without a plan but I’m so glad to hear that the trip went well! I love the idea of being destination-focused but with investment and involvement in the journey. I think it makes sense to keep line of sight of both and perhaps merge a few ideas together i.e. exploring various avenues of getting to the destination. Thanks again!