Some of my most powerful and interesting paths forward are uncovered when I stop intentional thought and let the uncontrolled brainwork of my run take over
My strides are more like shuffles as I breach the top of Mount Royal and begin the rapid decent down the other flank. The whip of the wind at this height is crisp enough to hurt. But skimming my eyes out over the city as it wakes, as the porch lights of the dark hours mix with the bath of morning sky light, I feel only lucky and strong and ready.
Running to work has become a practice — something I do frequently enough that it’s knit straight into the fabric of my day. I stuff clothes and lunch and…
tl;dr: Quantitative insights are dogged by poor communication. Charts themselves are often the chartjunk. Focus on simple, concrete stories that connect emotionally.
Overhearing a quick summary of your research at the lunch table or coffee machine can be tough! The demon in your head shouts ‘wait, what?! that’s not at all the take-away!’ But deep down you know that it’s the communication that’s broken, not the ingestion.
I lead a research team inside a start-up that’s gobbling up growth — in customers and revenue, but also in team size. We’re now well over one hundred speckled across 10 cities in three countries. Add to the mix a wide and widening spread of backgrounds and skill sets as we build a company that…
tl;dr: Fear of failure keeps us from creating, yet innovation is fuelled by the smash-up of imperfect art. Get out there.
Yesterday, while out on a long run, I had a flash of something I wanted to write. Something I wanted to create and share and contribute to the conversation. It wasn’t just a pull to craft a story. The tug was to share and get out there.
It’s happened a lot! But where has it all gone? My first instinct is to run home and furiously catch those thoughts before they disappear. It’s the second instinct that’s the killer. I note… and then I think, I read, I reflect, I worry about the parts I don’t know much about. …
Jason Stanley
Data Scientist & Design Researcher
