I have a problem: I like to learn a lot from a lot of different domains.
If we’d meet today, I could discuss on a variety of topics such as: science, design, history, geopolitics (including current events), economy, psychology, neuroscience, food, cultures, pop culture, writing, leadership, technology, society, medicine, nutrition, philosophy, parenting (although I stay away from it most times), organization, business, foreign policy, innovation, complex systems, cinema, marketing. That’s without including my main specialties: software development, process optimization and making knowledge work work.
While all these ideas are very interesting to me, and they help tremendously in my work, they stay somewhat in the background.
How do they help? For example, if you want to change an organization you need a good narrative (writing, leadership), understanding of how systems can evolve (history, science history), understanding of the cultures involved (cultures, society), a way to read and react to unexpected things (complex adaptive systems), structures (organization), a deep understanding of the business value (business, economics), knowledge of how people react to change (psychology) etc. (won’t give away all the secrets :D).
I can’t help feeling that I could use this knowledge better. But how? Still haven’t figured that one out.
I wrote “Usable Software Design” as a test of the interest of combining two disciplines: UX + Software Design. I wasn’t as good at raising interest as I’d have liked. So I need another experiment.
I’m open to ideas and opportunities. Your thoughts?