A realization that this leaves out something essential Nothing so fundamental lies in the realm of concern to us aggregate humans, where the need is, now, for the study of real complexity, not idealized simplicity. In every field except high-energy physics on one hand, and cosmology on the other, one hears the same. The immense understanding that has come from digging deeper to atomic explanations has been followed by a realization that this leaves out something essential. In its rapid advance, science has had to ignore the fact that a whole is more than the sum of its parts. Matter versus Materials: A Historical View knowledgecomplexityholism
The group of blind mullahs In a natural landscape, each element is part of the greater whole, a sophisticated and intricate web of connections and energy flows. If we attempt to create landscapes using a strictly objective viewpoint, we will produce awkward and dysfunctional designs because all living systems are more than just a sum of their parts. Our culture has tried to define the landscape scientifically, by collecting extensive data about its parts. These methods are much like the group of blind mullahs in the Sufi tale, who try to describe an elephant. Bill Mollison, Introduction to Permaculture The blind men who felt the elephantThe blind men and the elephant holismnature
Designer + Developer Workflow An Article by Dan Mall danmall.me The way designers and developers work together today is broken. It’s too siloed and separate; “collaboration” is a fantasy that few enjoy. The state of advertising in the 1940s was similar. All of that changed when copywriter Bill Bernbach met art director Paul Rand. Their collaborative working style led to the birth of the idea of “the creative team,” the mutual respect and partnership between art director and copywriter that tended to yield unique results. Bob Gage, an art director that worked for DDB, the agency Bernbach co-founded, described it like this: “Two people who respect each other sit in the same room for a length of time and arrive at a state of free association, where the mention of one idea will lead to another idea, then to another. The art director might suggest a headline, the writer a visual. The entire ad is conceived as a whole, in a kind of ping pong between disciplines.” Isn’t that what we all strive for in our jobs? True collaboration with equals and partners? Ideas that build off one another? Why does this seem so far away for some of us? collaborationmakingholismadvertisingcreativity
The blind men and the elephant A Proverb "I see" said the first, grasping a leg, "an elephant is like a tree." "I see" said the second, holding the tail, "an elephant is like a snake." Another, feeling the ear, said "an elephant is surely much like a thick carpet." The blind men who felt the elephantThe group of blind mullahs holism
Field Notes on Science and Nature A Book by Michael R. Canfield www.hup.harvard.edu An endless living worldWhy Sketch?Letters to the FutureOne and a Half Cheers for List-KeepingLinking Researchers Across Generations+8 More The Student, The Fish, and Agassiz
An endless living world If there is a heaven, and I am allowed entrance, I will ask for no more than an endless living world to walk through and explore. learningnaturereligionwalking
Why Sketch? An Essay by Jenny Keller What you have observed closelyA single imageParallel refinementColor reproductionThe negative spaces+4 More Conversational drawingThe Beauty of the Overlooked
Letters to the Future An Essay by John D. Perrine & James L. Patton The lapse of many yearsThe Grinnell SystemJim's systemJohn's systemRecord them all+3 More
One and a Half Cheers for List-Keeping An Essay by Kenn Kaufman I don't need that birdList-chasingThe maximization method
Linking Researchers Across Generations An Essay by Anna K. Behrensmeyer Future valueTime capsulesTools of the digital ageFive basic rulesBonewalks+1 More
Why Keep a Field Notebook? An Essay by Erick Greene Pick one thingLab notebooksHybrid journalsA fertile incubatorBest practices
The Spoken and the Unspoken An Essay by Karen L. Kramer What is unspokenResearch questionsQuantitative data collectionAnthropological rapportScan samples, focal follows+4 More The observer effect
Note-Taking for Pencilophobes An Essay by Piotr Naskrecki MantisAn extension of my brainRecordingsThe era of paper
The Evolution and Fate of Botanical Field Books An Essay by James L. Reveal To serve as a reminderSterile creaturesFurther and further away
The Pleasure of Observing An Essay by George B. Schaller AbbreviationBeyond dry factsA study should persistPrecious intangible valuesIndependent fragments of existence+1 More
In the Eye of the Beholder An Essay by Jonathan Kingdon Haven't you noticed?Wordless questioningOutlinesAgents of thought and experiment
Untangling the Bank An Essay by Bernd Heinrich Specific aimsMore than a witnessPeculiaritiesSecrecyIf it wasn't written down+1 More
A Reflection of the Truth An Essay by Roger Kitching The need to recordMental infrastructureScientific writingA three-layered process of documentationIncidental details+1 More