Why Give a Damn?

"Technology is the vehicle by which all human capability is magnified. It is morally neutral, but its creators are not."

We are big fans of the writers and doers over at The Unreasonable Institute, which count Tony Chi as one of their contributors. The quote above is from a speech tony gave a few years ago on his last day at Yahoo.

Like Tony's grandfather, mine has seen the impact of electricity, radio, cars, world wars, collapsing empires, economic collapses, the nuclear age and now the information age. Through it all, those new technologies were promoted as the cure to isolation, pestilence, disease, war and ignorance.

With each new technological power or capability comes the very messy and very human process of trying to figure out what to do next.

This is why the world needs people who cultivate a handful of useful habits:

1. Acknowledge that complex systems exist and that they are worthy of investigation;

2. Cultivate an awareness that those systems are inter-related and constantly influence each other in unpredictable ways;

3. Attempt to understand or (better yet) visualize emerging patterns;

4. Tell stories that stick to people's brains and motivate heartfelt action;

5. Design like they give a damn about what happens next!

~ Peter Durand | Alphachimp University