Nikki Anderson interviewed me for her User Research Strategist podcast. Our focus was AI’s impact on research and informaton architecture – and how practitioners can take advantage of this new technology. See the episode page, which includes show notes. If you want to learn more about my experiments in AI, check out this page.

In episode 2 of the Traction Heroes podcast, Harry shared an extreme personal experience in service to exploring the question: How can we act skillfully in unfamiliar circumstances? I considered adding a trigger warning – Harry’s story made me wince. That said, we landed in a practical place. I’m excited about Traction Heroes. These conversations are more personal than those in my previous show, while providing lots of value. IMO of course – I’d love to hear your thoughts. Traction Heroes ep. 2: Unprecedented

I’m undertaking a year-long crash course in the humanities. These are my notes for week 4. Following Ted Gioia’s curriculum, this week I read the Analects of Confucius. As I did last week, ChatGPT helped me select a movie to complement this reading – albeit indirectly. Readings I’d heard of Confucius and occasionally seen some of his sayings, but hadn’t read the Analects. It wasn’t easy. The text consists of pithy statements attributed to Confucius or his disciples. It’s fragmentary and non-linear. I suspect much nuance is lost in translation. (I used the Penguin edition translated and commented by Annping Chin.) It was produced in and for a different context. (Chin’s notes helped.) That said, themes emerged. Confucius values “humaneness”: a way of being and doing good. As with Socrates, what this might mean is illustrated through examples and interactions with others (primarily, disciples.) The humane person aspires to do good for others – often at their own expense. The individual’s relationship to social structures is perhaps the book’s central concern: Master You [Youzi] said, “It is rare for a person who is filial to his parents and respectful to his elders to be inclined to transgress against his superiors. And it has never happened that a person who is not inclined to transgress against his superiors is inclined to create chaos. A gentleman looks after the roots. With the roots firmly established, a moral way will grow. Is it not true then that being filial to one’s parents and being respectful to one’s elders are the roots of one’s humanity [ren]? Individuals should cultivate wisdom and knowledge. The following statement might well be a raison d’etre for this crash course: The Master said, “I suppose there are those who try to innovate without having acquired knowledge first. I am not one of those. I use my ears well and widely, and I choose what is good and follow it. I use my eyes well and widely and I retain what I observe. This is the next-best kind of knowledge.” Audiovisual Music: Gioia recommended The Hugo Masters, an anthology of Classical Chinese music. Apple Music has volume one, which focuses on bowed instruments. I was surprised by the similarities between this music and that of the old American west. (Perhaps it’s recency bias from Ry Cooder’s PARIS: TEXAS soundtrack.) Art: Gioia recommended a website that highlights ancient Chinese arts and crafts. I’m sorry to say I gave this only minimal attention. My first “fail” in the crash course. Cinema: as I did last week, I asked ChatGPT for movies I could pair with this week’s reading. Specifically, I asked for movies that reflected Confucian values. It gave me the following list: “Ikiru” (1952) - Akira Kurosawa “To Kill a Mockingbird” (1962) - Robert Mulligan “The Family” (1915) - Fei Mu “Tokyo Story” (1953) - Yasujirō Ozu “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946) - Frank Capra “Rashomon” (1950) - Akira Kurosawa “The Joy Luck Club” (1993) - Wayne Wang “The Godfather” (1972) - Francis Ford Coppola I gravitated towards (3) because it seemed a) older and b) directed by a Chinese director. Alas, THE FAMILY is a hallucination. While Fei Mu is indeed an important Chinese director, he didn’t direct this film – indeed, he was nine in 1915. Sigh. But I hadn’t heard of Mu before, and this mention led me to discover another film of his, SPRING IN A SMALL TOWN. It’s available in its entirety (with English subtitles) in YouTube: As with many older films, it moves glacially. It also felt more staged than contemporary Western films. (Compare its cinematography with CITIZEN KANE, which is seven years older.) That said, it does reflect Confucian values, at least as I understood them. Two short lectures by Prof. Christopher Rea help contextualize the film and explain its significance: YouTube is a source of endless treasures for someone driven to self-education. Reflections Confucius’s approach is what we might call “conservative”: social and filial responsibilities overrule individual desires. Rather than rethinking old ways of being, we’re encouraged to play our assigned roles without complaint.Being good means fulfilling established duties toward family and community. (“With the roots firmly established, a moral way will grow.”) In the movie, Yuwen sacrifices her love for Zhichen because of her commitment as Liyan‘a wife. In a modern Western context, this feels quaint. For us, “lived experience” trumps older “received” knowledge, especially when dealing with social relations. We wince at the notion of having “superiors.” Confucius would say we’ve lost sight of the roots. Or worse, we see them but believe they’re rotten and must be hacked out. But our individual selves don’t amount to much; it’s the broader context that matters. Our duty is keeping the context healthy and moving forward. Self-effacement is especially important in times of tumultuous change. The movie is set after the end of the Sino-Japanese war and during the Chinese revolution. The ruins we see onscreen are the result of one way of life giving way to another. Mu seems to say the way forward lies in looking to traditional structures – a radical statement in a time of revolution. While not experiencing outright war, many of us are living through tumultuous change. Technology (especially AI) is upturning long-standing ways of being. Politics is in turmoil, as are global and local economies. What’s the best way of living under such conditions? Confucius would encourage us to return to our roots and value the context above ourselves. It’s a worldview that calls for trust, humility, and self-sacrifice. A tall ask in our individualistic times.

In episode 2 of the Traction Heroes podcast, Harry shared an extreme personal experience in service to exploring the question: How can we act skillfully in unfamiliar circumstances? I considered adding a trigger warning – Harry’s story made me wince. That said, we landed in a practical place. I’m excited about Traction Heroes. These conversations are more personal than those in my previous show, while providing lots of value. IMO of course – I’d love to hear your thoughts. Traction Heroes ep. 2: Unprecedented

I’m undertaking a year-long crash course in the humanities. These are my notes for week 3. Following Ted Gioia’s curriculum, this week I read the remainder of the Odyssey. On the audiovisual front, I watched a movie that made me think differently about the poem’s subject. Readings Last week included books 1-10 of the Odyssey. This week I “read” through the remainder of the poem. “Read” is in quotes because I mostly listened to the audiobook I mentioned last week. The story pivots when Odysseus returns to Ithaca. Surprisingly, it happens halfway through the poem: all of the famous “adventure” stories, including the encounter with the cyclops and the sirens, happen early on. The second half emphasizes social relations and (especially) loyalty. When Odysseus returns home, Athena disguises him so he can observe his compatriots. He wants to learn who’s remained true to him and who’s gone over to the suitors who are courting his wife and consuming his wealth. Notably, he tests Penelope, his wife. He consults primarily with two male confidants: his son Telemachus and Eumaeus, his chief swineherd. The story takes surprisingly long to resolve, which it does in a series of astonishingly violent vignettes. An epilogue reminds us this return is only a brief respite: Odysseus is destined to continue wandering. A key theme: the expectations and responsibilities imposed by family ties and social roles. Odysseus is king and expected to behave as such. Hosts behave in proscribed ways toward guests. Parties who violate norms face consequences. In particular, we’re continually reminded of parents’ expectations (especially fathers’) expectations toward their children and vice-versa. Audiovisual Music: Gioia recommended Beethoven’s third, fifth, and ninth symphonies. These are all works I know well. Still, I revisited the third symphony and fifth symphonies. Art: Gioia recommended looking at Greek architecture. As with sculpture, architecture is hard to appreciate on screens. I’ve visited the Parthenon IRL, but did it without a guide. As a result, I missed a lot. This lecture from a professor at Notre Dame’s school of architecture filled in blanks: A friend of mine studied architecture at Notre Dame, and I was always surprised at that school’s focus on classicism. I didn’t understand the relevance of aping ancient architecture in modern times. I still don’t. That said, I can appreciate aspiring to manifest idealized forms in an “imperfect” world. Cinema: I asked ChatGPT for recommendations of films inspired by the Odyssey. A few were obvious (e.g., 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, adaptations of the Odyssey itself) but one stood out since it was already on my to-watch list: Wim Wender’s PARIS: TEXAS. Like the Odyssey, this film follows a man’s journey “home.” In this case, the journey is internal. The protagonist, Travis, is wandering lost and mute in a barren landscape. He seeks to put the pieces of his shattered family back together. Reflections PARIS: TEXAS raises important questions: What is a father? What responsibilities do fathers have towards their children? How should adult men behave? How should they relate to their own parents’ legacy? These questions are relevant today, but they were urgent in 1984 when the movie came out. The social revolutions of the 1960s upended traditional roles. As often happens, naive idealism led to disaster. Travis’s generation wandered into middle age without a compass. The result: shattered families and loneliness. The Odyssey portrays a radically different milieu. The relationship between Telemachus and Odysseus (and Odysseus and Laertes, for that matter) couldn’t be more different than that of Travis and Hunter. Characters in the Odyssey don’t shirk or even doubt filial or social duties – they celebrate them. To be clear: those structures have problems. The Odyssey takes horrific violence – including violence against women – for granted. Social roles are unfair and inflexible. People and animals are objectified. “Fate” overrides choice – and is often used as an excuse for atrocities. A verse from the Rush song Freewill kept coming to mind as I read the poem: A planet of playthings Of course, we shouldn’t abide by Bronze Age values. Nobody reads the Odyssey today looking for explicit instructions on how live. (Unlike the Bible – more on that later in this course.) Still, the stories we tell ourselves about who we are matter. They offer pointers for leading fulfilling lives. That’s how I’m approaching these ancient texts. Stories that stand the test of time do so because they connect us to deep truths. The classics are relevant to the degree they help us answer enduring questions. The one I considered this week was one Travis asked in the movie: What does a father look like? We won’t get direct answers from these stories. The best they can do is sketch ideals. Much like the proportions in Greek architecture, we must adapt ideals to the conditions we meet on the ground. Which is to say, cultures need models. For 27 centuries, Odysseus was a preeminent model for adult masculinity in Western culture – flaws and all. We’ve moved on, thankfully. Alas, the fictional character most likely serving that role today is Homer Simpson: a selfish dolt driven by his id. I’ll take the other Homer any time.