Post AcXSzKmlbczmMLJLXs by RuthMalan@mastodon.social
 (DIR) More posts by RuthMalan@mastodon.social
 (DIR) Post #AcXSyMqaSIOsSodYAa by RuthMalan@mastodon.social
       2023-12-01T05:27:28Z
       
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       Day 1 #AdventOfSystemSeeing Without looking at one (not even a picture), draw a bicycle. Annotate with observations and questions that your drawing raises for you. (I have us do this exercise during of some of my workshops. It’s more interesting and useful than it sounds — probably.)
       
 (DIR) Post #AcXSyOexiUI25LDIKO by RuthMalan@mastodon.social
       2023-12-01T13:16:17Z
       
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       👆Warm up exercise for Day 1 of our Advent(ure) of System Seeing.
       
 (DIR) Post #AcXSyQXwhXrjw9wifY by RuthMalan@mastodon.social
       2023-12-01T15:27:34Z
       
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       As warm-up exercises go, what are we warming up for?A daily practice of noticing (what we don’t notice, too). Of using a journal to look (sometimes with our mind’s eye) deeper. A daily practice of “good enough” to learn something (about us, as we interact with systems, as well as about the systems we interact with and within).
       
 (DIR) Post #AcXSySQvgbRRmyg90i by RuthMalan@mastodon.social
       2023-12-01T23:52:37Z
       
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       So. Did we all draw a bicycle? Ready for some discussion?
       
 (DIR) Post #AcXSyULgZ4R3jIEz7A by RuthMalan@mastodon.social
       2023-12-02T01:20:31Z
       
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       Despite our various differences in comfort with drawing, and drawing a bicycle in particular, doing so helps us notice what we have and have not noticed about bicycles. We can begin to ask questions about the relationships, say, between seat and pedals (directly below? Not?). We can notice what we’re missing (brakes?). And ask what kind of bike (electric? Mountain? Road? Cargo or passenger capable? Did we default to a "mens'" frame?). Could we build it? Would it work?
       
 (DIR) Post #AcXSyhoAWTwZTOfPoe by RuthMalan@mastodon.social
       2023-12-02T01:22:28Z
       
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       We might assume, given everyday familiarity, that we have a pretty good notion of what a bike is composed of, but when we need to draw the actual relationships among the parts, our knowledge of those relationships, generally speaking, is more fuzzy than we might have expected.
       
 (DIR) Post #AcXSyzNtAvcLz6VgLw by RuthMalan@mastodon.social
       2023-12-02T01:25:06Z
       
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       And that part is not about drawing skill! Sure, if we ride a lot, and maintain our own bikes, we have more of a sense of the structure and key relationships and essential parts than if we don’t. But even then, it’s surprising to a lot of everyday cyclists, that there are various relationships among structures and mechanisms they aren’t really that sure about when they come to draw a bicycle.That’s why it’s so important to do the exercise, and not just imagine one did it.
       
 (DIR) Post #AcXSz1dCox3exBgwVM by RuthMalan@mastodon.social
       2023-12-02T01:30:41Z
       
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       This image clipped from Nick Sousanis' Unflattening is the big idea here. Putting things down on the page, helps us to see more, including by noticing where our uncertainties are. We use the world to save memorizing the world. And so we don't always know what parts of it we are relying on the world to be holding for us. (If you haven't already, you might want to treat yourself to Unflattening! https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674744431)
       
 (DIR) Post #AcXSz3cZQHjp7nPSnA by RuthMalan@mastodon.social
       2023-12-02T01:46:28Z
       
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       At any rate, daily prompts will not always be accompanied by this sort of "lecture" hahah. More setup and context setting, sometimes. It varies.But I did want to draw out the lesson: if we have these uncertainties about something as (relatively) simple, physical and part of our everyday experience as a bicycle, then how much more so is this the case with the ecologies of complex sociotechnical systems we work on and within?  So. We reaching for the next page? <smiles>
       
 (DIR) Post #AcXSzKmlbczmMLJLXs by RuthMalan@mastodon.social
       2023-12-02T02:00:18Z
       
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       Some folk shared their drawings -- Matthew's (@mattly ) drawing is wonderful and so is Jeff's (@JeffGrigg). I've done this exercise countless times, and I'm still not putting my drawing up here! :) Matthew's questions/annotations demonstrate so well what I was talking about above. https://hachyderm.io/@mattly/111503605177431430I also recognize that some folk might have drawn a simpler "idea" sketch. And the questions would be different, but we'd still have this "venue" for a conversation with ourselves
       
 (DIR) Post #AcXSzMsrnv3yrqBFKa by RuthMalan@mastodon.social
       2023-12-02T02:38:37Z
       
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       bicycle!What we’re paying attention to, shapes what we perceive and pay attention to.https://twitter.com/tomgauld/status/1730598473861386348