{"id":443,"date":"2017-11-07T11:30:18","date_gmt":"2017-11-07T15:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aligncenter.org\/?p=443"},"modified":"2017-11-07T12:43:17","modified_gmt":"2017-11-07T16:43:17","slug":"newsletter-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aligncenter.org\/newsletter-17\/","title":{"rendered":"Newsletter #17"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"\"Discover stories from strangers on the subway, examples of creativity from constraints, battling imposter syndrome, and the paradox of coffee in Colombia. The long read from Mother Jones is a troubling prediction of where Artificial Intelligence is heading, while the podcast selection takes a more positive perspective on what we can do to make a difference amidst technological trends. Follow that up with a few artsy digs and then tie it all up with an extra long update on my relationship with creativity and the physical body.<\/p>\n

\u25e6 selected words<\/h1>\n

The Strangers on Your Subway Ride<\/a><\/h2>\n

Ever played the people-watching game with a friend, creating stories about random strangers in a public space? In an example of how complex lives intertwine, New York Magazine’s photo\/interview\/art piece starts with small talk, then goes on to ask deeper questions to twenty subway riders, getting some to open up about their biggest regrets, dreams, and fears.
\nnymag.com (10min read w\/ 3 photos)<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The Hard Way<\/a><\/h2>\n

Imagine having an accident and losing a major part of your mobility, hearing, vision, or other life-changing loss of ability. What would you do? This is a somber thought, but reading these eight brief descriptions of artists and their physical “shortcomings” that led to their best work exemplifies how creativity can flourish under severe constraints.
\naustinkleon.com (5min read)<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Imposter Syndrome<\/a><\/h2>\n

Seth Godin in his frank and convincing manner on why you need to drop the imposter narrative, once and for all. Hint: you’re not alone. Hint #2: get over yourself. It’ll free up your time to do meaningful work.
\nsethgodin.com (2min read)<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Charities Under Threat From a Ban on Used Clothing<\/a><\/h2>\n

The amount of used clothing donated to charities like Diabetes Canada far exceeds the amount that can be resold locally. This excess clothing is sent on container ships and sold overseas, ending up in wagons and sidewalks across Africa. For Diabetes Canada, every year this adds up to 100M million pounds (45,359,237 kg) of discarded clothes and $10M towards their charity. But this could be changing, as the East African Community (EAC), representing Tanzania, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda are proposing a ban on second-hand clothing imports. A cautionary story of the effects of consumption in a globalized world.
\ncbc.ca (5min read)<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

I’m Looking for a Woman Who Will Challenge Me<\/a><\/h2>\n

In a dating landscape composed of endless choices, checklists, narcissism, and hookup culture, we’ve been pushed towards a me-first world shaped by marketing messages that are exceeding our ability to filter them out. A sarcastic and unrelenting faux-confession on dating, self-awareness, and needs, or exactly what you’d expect from David Eggers’ McSweeney’s.
\nmcsweeneys.net (5min read)<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Colombians Can Finally Drink Great Coffee<\/a><\/h2>\n

In my first trip to Latin America seven years ago, my Colombian friend drove us around the country of 47 million, from Bogot\u00e1 to Bucaramanga and up the coast to the natural wonders at Tayrona Park. Throughout the month-long journey, we avoided countless potholes, flash floods, and security checkpoints \u2014 but the one thing we couldn’t avoid was bad coffee. Sure, the newer upscale malls had Starbucks and Juan Valdez, but if you wanted a good cup, the joke and reality was that you needed to go outside the country. WaPo looks at the paradoxical coffee culture in a country with some of the finest beans, and the recent grassroots push to change it.
\nwashingtonpost.com (6min read)<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u25e6 listen in<\/h1>\n

Seth Godin on Design Matters<\/a><\/h2>\n

Since 2005, Debbie Millman has interviewed the world’s leading designers, authors, and thinkers on the Design Matters podcast. In his second appearance on the show, marketing thought leader Seth Godin gives suggestions on how to navigate our difficult times. “What we have to figure out is how to disconnect ourselves from the circle of fear and from the circle of contempt and even panic and make something that matters instead.” In this hour long interview, Godin laments on our culture’s addiction to data, stating in his straight-forward style, “data gets us the Kardashians”. Godin then goes against common thinking, explaining why he doesn’t pay attention to typical web metrics like page views, and instead of asking “Who saw it? Who clicked? What percentage?”, we need to ask “What\u2019s trending? What\u2019s the yield?”. And then he pushes us to ask ourselves the most significant question, “What difference are you making?”.
\ndebbiemillman.com (57min podcast)<\/a> – Other sources: SoundCloud<\/a> – iTunes<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u25e6 eat well<\/h1>\n

Spicy Roasted Cauliflower Lasagna<\/a><\/h2>\n

Confession: I’ve never made lasagna because hell, it’s a lot of steps! But cauliflower was cheap and plentiful and I had a pasta craving, so I pulled up this bookmarked NYTimes recipe. It took longer than it should have and I wasn’t confident it would turn out, but it ended up great! Tip: follow the top user comments by soaking the lasagna noodles in warm water, use nutmeg instead of cinnamon, add Italian seasoning, and double the ingredients to fill a regular 13×9″ baking dish.
\ncooking.nytimes.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u25e6 read slow<\/h1>\n

You Will Lose Your Job to a Robot\u2014and Sooner Than You Think<\/a><\/h2>\n

Artificial Intelligence seems to be all the rage \u2014 with newspaper headlines in companies announcing large investments at a daily rate. If you’re like me and need it explained in layman’s terms, start with the fantastic two-part primer by Wait Buy Why from 2015<\/a>. Two years later, AI still feels like a faraway concept to most that doesn’t affect daily life, but the pace is accelerating so quickly and few understand the monumental changes we are on the brink of. To illustrate the exponential growth in AI capability, in 1997 IBM’s Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov in chess. Fourteen years later in 2011, AI beat humans at Jeopardy. Expert computer scientists interviewed as recently as last year thought we were years away from an AI that could defeat a human opponent in Go, widely considered one of the most complex games. But earlier this year, AI beat the best player in the world. This was only a few months after AI developed by Carnegie Mellon learned to bluff its way to victory over four professional poker players, a game thought to require skills only humans possessed. An Oxford-Yale survey of 352 A.I. experts estimates that A.I. will outperform humans at translating by 2024, driving a truck by 2027, surgery by 2053, and by 2060, perform all human tasks. But where are the promised job losses and increase in productivity? This article addresses the common doubts raised by skeptics while looking into a near future where wealth is further concentrated to the robot owners, and how we’re heading towards a perfect storm of inequality, unemployment and climate change. The result could be an unprecedented loss of blue-collar work and an uprising more powerful than the recent working-class backlash that elected Trump. And the controversial solution many experts are suggesting for this massive loss of jobs? Universal basic income. A troubling read sure to spark debate.
\nmotherjones.com (30min read)<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u25e6 current read<\/h1>\n

The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life<\/a><\/h2>\n

A friend asked what I was reading and said sarcastically, “So, you’re reading a book about creativity to be more creative? Hmm…”. That hurt a bit, but this is the kind of brutally honest feedback I can really work with. Yes, it’s a form of procrastination, and there is no magic formula \u2014 what works for someone else might not work for you. But what I get out of self-improvement books are the bits and pieces taken from others experiences, and then applying those to my life. And what’s helped me this year is a strategic approach to reading where I scan the table of contents, take notes after each chapter, write down what action I can do, and also to review a few weeks later. In Twyla Tharp’s unconventional foray into the self-help genre, the advice that resonated strongest was to “Build a Bridge to the Next Day”. I’ve started to setup my desk the night before, writing down my most important tasks for the day, so when morning comes I can hit the ground running. This book draws upon the famed choreographer 35-year career the book, dispelling myths and misperceptions about creativity through 32 exercises. And like exercise, sustained creativity is something that needs to be nourished and fed with discipline and rituals, in order to turn creativity into a habit. The advice here applies to painters, musicians, business people and scientists alike. Tharp has gifted us with tips on getting out of ruts and stimulating creativity so that you can take out that blank piece of paper and make that first mark.
\ngoodreads.com (Twyla Tharp, 247p book)<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u25e6 dig this<\/h1>\n

What I’m digging lately:<\/p>\n