The Brain Dance. Week 8–9: Feb 20 — Mar 5, 2017
Another bi-weekly article list (it’s becoming pretty much a norm lately) with the usual suspects, AI, VR, Design, UX and some miscellaneous reads. And also going back to book reviews, this time with a blockbuster.
The Brain Dance: Week 8–9
February 20 — March 5, 2017
Recommended book of the week
“Sapiens. A Brief History of Humankind”.
by Yuval Noah Harari .
2015. Deckle Edge. 15h18min
Rating: 5/5
The first time I heard about this book was in one of those pretty common articles with a list of recommended books. I’m interested in knowing more about the origin of things but have to admit the past is not something that excites me like the future does. But it was so many people recommending this one that I decided to give a try and knowing Yoval Noah Harari new book, Homo Deus, which explains his vision about the future of humankind, was going to be released on Audible… audiobook I’m listening to right now.
Sapiens depicts what happened since the beginning of Homo Sapiens “conquer” of the world to practically the present. And it does analyzing three key moments: The cognitive revolution, when homo sapiens, developed their mental power; the agricultural revolution, when we embraced a new style of life and started to settle; and the scientific revolution when we speeded up progress of humankind.
It’s well know that famous quote (I don’t remember who said it and google doesn’t help this time :p) that says “You need to know the past to understand the present”. And it’s pretty illustrative and sometimes mind opening to see how many relevant insights from the past are valid today.
I don’t want to start listing all the interesting things the book explains, I think you deserve to read it (or listen) and enjoy the ride, but I’ll highlight what I think is a good analogy of the present.
The author is specially critical with the moment homo sapiens embraces the agricultural revolution. He almost describes that’s the moment when humankind in a way started to be a slave of themselves. When homo sapiens started to be dependent of the soil, of the environment, of the associated needs, when we started to build our lives around spaces and circumstances.
If you think in what’s happening today with technology it sounds like we’re making the same mistake. We’re starting to build our lives around technology the same way our ancestors built their lives around agriculture.
Is it life cyclical? Are we actually making the same mistake?
Read or listen to this book, I’m sure it’ll bring questions and familiar feelings.
Technology & AI
10 Breakthrough Technologies 2017
I thought lists were over at this point of the year but this one from Harvard Technology Review is pretty interesting. A view on new tech that will be the norm in a not too distant future.
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Inside Facebook’s AI Machine
I cannot stop thinking on AI and, even when a part of me thinks is something to arrive in the future, how important and present is in our lives. This revealing article describes what’s behind the Facebook machine.
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Storytelling And Bot Making
This is an article about the relevance of simplification, how new ways of interaction — in this case conversational interfaces— force us to give more value to the story we’re telling and how to implement it.
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Robots can become role models, and that means we need to design them carefully
In a future where technology can be present in our lives to a point we make them be “part of the family” we have to be aware of those consequences and how we design them to be integrated in it. Kids born in a tech-driven environment will find technology (robots?) even like role models, so we have the responsibility of take care of it.
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Why This Robot Ethicist Trusts Technology More Than Humans
An interview with Kate Darling, researcher at MIT Labs, talking about ethics around AI.
Design
Tips for Becoming a Design Leader
Interesting tips & thoughts around design leadership from the Facebook Design team.
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UI Animation: Please Use Responsibly
I’ve been posting some articles about animation lately. This is a new one highlighting its responsible use.
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Design research at Dropbox
An article about research teams and their objectives, goals and techniques to improve the company product (Dropbox in this case).
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Do responsive sites have to be so tall on mobile?
That’s a fact. When we design for mobile we tend to stack the content with the result of looooong scrolling mobile sites that it’s more like an extreme workout for thumbs. This article talks about some alternatives.
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11 Big Ideas from Game Design You Should Know
Pretty interesting article describing some principles and techniques of game design we can use in different contexts.
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Interview: DixonBaxi / FormFiftyFive
DixonBaxi is one of those design companies that deeply admire. I love their work for the Premier League and Eurosport among others. Here we have an interesting interview with them.
User Experience
Creating Empathy in an Artificial World
As closer we get to the “no interface” era and embrace more human-like interactions, empathy will become more and more important. blurring the boundaries between technology and humans and making more effective interactions.
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Advantages of prototyping from a psychological point of view
Prototyping is way more than a cool word. Their advantages are obvious. This article makes a point on their psychological benefits.
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A More Human Interface Through AI
I want this, I want interfaces (visible or invisible) that can adapt to the circumstances, my personal ones. A AI-powered UI that understands the context and needs of users and acts accordingly.
Productivity
How to Mentor a Perfectionist
Perfection is a myth, it doesn’t exist… really. And I know what is to have that disease that sometimes and if not all the time has potential negative effects. It’s great to be demanding and push beyond the norm but I admit sometimes it makes us go blind. This article gives some tips on how to deal and mentor perfectionists.
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What’s the Value of a Like?
The like currency, more valuable than money. What’s is real value? More than interesting article.
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Always Be Learning
I try to absorb from as many sources as possible. I read a lot, I try to follow some courses, I love to have creative talks. As Steve Jobs said… “Stay hungry, stay foolish”. Never stop learning.
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The 3 Simple Rules of Managing Top Talent
Like mentoring perfectionists, managing top talent is not easy. Here we have some tips.
Virtual & Augmented Reality
Can augmented reality revitalize the print magazine?
This is not a new topic, but it’s interesting to see how we’re slowly but with steady walk going into a place where AR/VR/MR will be familiar. New technologies into classic mediums to give them a boost.
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Virtual Reality as Possibility Space
A comprehensive article that describes what we will be dealing with a world in Virtual Reality. Pretty interesting and exciting (and a bit scary, to be fair…).
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The Brief History of Volumetric Filmmaking
The future of film in Virtual Reality spaces and how it evolved since the beginning. It’s nice to see how much it evolved in the last 10 years.
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Move Over Tablets? This Tech Could Be The Future Of Learning
Mixed reality as the future of education… who doubts this won’t happen?
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Apple reportedly has ‘over 1,000 engineers’ working on AR, could show up in next iPhone
This is more than interesting. AR, at least for me, is more interesting and see more functional applications than VR. If Apple is betting hard on it, I’m sure it’ll have the global impact we started to predict with the success of Pokemon Go!
