Now

Updated at 7:11 PM on Tuesday the 27th of February 2024, from Portland, Maine. It was 39℉, calm, and cloudy outside.

2024 is shaping up

  • I recently returned from a trip to Puerto Rico with good friends. It's become something of an expected excursion each February. A welcome respite from the cold of Maine winters.
  • A bit over a year in, I'm enjoying getting to know Portland, Maine after ten years elsewhere. It's a walkable, foodie peninsula. What more can you ask for?
  • My day job role focused on product design systems at Lightspeed on the B2B team was eliminated due to restructure, so I am—once again—on hiatus and exploring other professional opportunities.
  • I'm working on a series of updates to this website (you can expect more lists and links and… maybe even some long-form reflections!).

Book-shaped thing

I’ve been exploring the application of concepts related to second-order cybernetics and deutero-learning for a handful of years now. About a year ago I realized I’ve been accidentally zigzagging my way toward writing a book-shaped thing about it.

Topics include systems theory, behavioral (and other) sciences, cybernetics, maps, naming things, generalizing design strategy, and so much more.

There’s a lot that’s overwhelming and exciting to me about this journey. Subscribe to email updates at strategytheory.com.

Language, ecology, mind, and nature

Unsurprisingly, I've been reading (and rereading) a lot of Gregory Bateson, Mary Catherine Bateson, Nora Bateson, and Robert Bringhurst.

The research topics I'm focused on all ladder up to this Bateson-ism (which is really an ancientism, generalized as a critique of occidental society to address underlying systemic wrongheadedness):

The major problems in the world result from the difference between how nature works and the way people think.

—Gregory Bateson, Steps to an Ecology of Mind

There are so many related threads to follow and so many patterns which connect. I've been learning a lot about myself professionally and personally while reflecting on these wonderful folks' stories, poetry, and prose. It's a real trip.

Relatedly, Margaret Mead, Bateson, and collaborators formed ideas in the 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s that challenged academia about core issues we’re reaping the consequences of today. Why wasn’t the challenge successful? Why hasn’t it been since? More on this soon.

What's next

I'm currently searching for my next in-house role. If you're looking for a very senior design individual contributor and would like to learn more about my work, please let me know.

To repeat last year's update around this time, I’m not sure where I’ll call “home” later this year. My hope is to choose somewhere to be intentional again about connecting with community for at least a number of years. There's a chance I'll stay in Maine. A chance of migrating somewhere else. I suppose in many ways Hallowell will always feel like home. That’s a nice feeling to have.

Say hi

Please do reach out through Bluesky or email if you'd like to do coffee, drinks, dinner, or a call sometime. As always, I'm here for the conversation and community. ❤️

What's a now page?

A now page is an attempt at outlining things I might tell a friend I haven't seen in a year. My hope is that this'll be a way for me to process certain things in public for a number of reasons I'll write about one day—such as cultivating sincerity and vulnerability as paths through the noise.

Learn more at NowNowNow. Many thanks to Derek Sivers for the idea.