# Simon O'Regan > Simon O'Regan — essays and short thoughts on AI products, design fiction, futures, progress and the natural world. Based in Cobh, Cork Harbour, Ireland. About: https://www.simonoregan.com/ Contact: https://www.simonoregan.com/contact Feed: https://www.simonoregan.com/rss.xml ## Essays - [Progress & Possibilities Sequence](https://www.simonoregan.com/essays/progress-amp-possibilities-sequence): This Sequence is a series of short thoughts on Progress and Possibilities. - [Design Fiction Sequence](https://www.simonoregan.com/essays/design-fiction-sequence): Design fictions are imagined tangible prototypes from the future. These can be narratives, news items, physical objects. - [UX of AI Sequence](https://www.simonoregan.com/essays/ux-of-ai-sequence): This Sequence is a series of short thoughts on the UX of AI. That is, the experience a user has while interacting with a product that uses artificial intelligence. - [500 Whys: Writing your Purpose Statement](https://www.simonoregan.com/essays/500-whys-writing-your-purpose-statement): A purpose can give coherent meaning to a career. It can help with the difficult decisions required to craft a career worth creating. - [TikTok Sequence](https://www.simonoregan.com/essays/tiktok-sequence): This Sequence is a series of short thoughts inspired by my time working with TikTok. The posts focus mostly on the experience of work culture at TikTok and companies like it. - [Trust, Safety & Integrity Sequence](https://www.simonoregan.com/essays/trust-safety-amp-integrity-sequence): This Sequence is a series of short thoughts inspired by my time working on Monetisation Integrity with TikTok. The posts focus mostly on the experience of trust and safety and ad integrity online,… - [The Futures Funnel](https://www.simonoregan.com/essays/the-futures-funnel): When it comes to the longer-term Future, prediction is a mugs game. There are simply too many moving parts and too many unknowns. Prediction demands accuracy and when it comes to the future, accuracy… - [Principles of AI Design](https://www.simonoregan.com/essays/ai-design-principles): The following principles of designing AI products are inspired by Dieter Rams now legendary Principles of Design. These are intended to explicitly call out what makes an AI application useful, good… - [Proof-of-Concept. Prototype. MVP. Pilot.](https://www.simonoregan.com/essays/poc-prototype-mvp-pilot): When building software products and platforms, it is of critical importance to define the desired output. To start with the end in mind. - [Why everything is so hard to use](https://www.simonoregan.com/essays/why-everything-is-so-hard-to-use): There’s never been so many things. Open the door and walk into a random American home; you’ll find 300,000 items. See that child, she has 238 toys. In a day, you’ll use thousands of services and… - [Prototyping Organisations](https://www.simonoregan.com/essays/prototyping-organisations): Organisations are technologies. They evolved to solve problems where humans must cooperate. - [MVP Design: COVID-19 out-patient monitoring](https://www.simonoregan.com/essays/mvp-design-for-covid-19-out-patients): In late March, my friend Colm (a doctor at St. James’ Hospital in Dublin) asked me to help him use technology to solve a COVID-19 problem he was facing. How to make sure that coronavirus out-patients… - [After the Outbreak](https://www.simonoregan.com/essays/after-the-outbreak): I’ve been reading and thinking more deeply about the medium and long term impacts of COVID-19. Two sentences, in particular, have been banging around my head for the past week or so. - [The Deployment Age](https://www.simonoregan.com/essays/the-deployment-age): What is the Deployment Age? The concept comes from Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital by Carlota Perez. For the past 240 years, technological development and its financing has emerged in… - [Exploring the Possible with Kevin Kelly](https://www.simonoregan.com/essays/exploring-the-possible-with-kevin-kelly): If ideas are your drug, you want Kevin Kelly as your dealer. His books, articles and podcasts are a wonderland of possibilities, concepts and hints of futures yet to be built. The wandering prophet… - [The future of payments is invisible](https://www.simonoregan.com/essays/the-future-of-payments-is-invisible): Nobody wakes up thinking about how they’re going to pay today. And yet payments technologies are central to the modern economy; we use them everyday. Payments technology impacts how we spend, where… - [When to use AI](https://www.simonoregan.com/essays/when-to-use-ai): Your AI product idea is probably a bad one. This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Bad product ideas greatly outnumber good ones. If you want to avoid bad AI product ideas, you should first look for what… - [Designing Data Products](https://www.simonoregan.com/essays/designing-data-products): What is a Data Product, and why should you care? - [AI metaphors for the future](https://www.simonoregan.com/essays/ai-metaphors-for-the-future): In Tech circles, reasoning by analogy gets a hard time. - [On Collaboration, Imitation and Genius in Art](https://www.simonoregan.com/essays/on-collaboration-imitation-and-genius-in-art): On the outskirts of Shenzhen is Dafen artists village — a square kilometre of tangled alleys entirely dedicated to oil painting. - [When data makes us Product Cowards](https://www.simonoregan.com/essays/when-data-makes-us-product-cowards): Like everything — for data, there is a time and a place. Data is great in that it allows us to test our hypotheses. Less so for providing hypotheses to test. - [Signals: Tools for seeing the future](https://www.simonoregan.com/essays/signals): Futures work is not about predicting the future. Instead, futures work shines a light on possible futures. It then asks us to plot paths to those futures we deem preferable. - [The Machine Economy](https://www.simonoregan.com/essays/the-machine-economy): The most recent phase of ecommerce innovations make it easier for individuals to buy things and for merchants to sell them those things. - [The UX of Hidden Motives](https://www.simonoregan.com/essays/the-ux-of-hidden-motives): Designing for the Elephant in the Brain In The Elephant in the Brain, Robin Hanson and Kevin Simler talk about hidden motives and everyday life. In fact … that is the subtitle. ## Short thoughts - [The Deployment Age](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/the-deployment-age): What's the Deployment Age? The concept comes from Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital by Carlota Perez. For the past 240 years, technological development and its financing has emerged in… - [Tiny Bet #2: Prehistoric Artefacts](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/tiny-bet-2-prehistoric-art): When I first set out on Sabbatical, I knew that ‘making’ would be a part of it. Specifically, after years balancing concept-work and management, I felt the need to get more tangible with idea-play. - [DESIGN FICTION: A Brief History of Sailing](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/design-fiction-a-brief-history-of-sailing): DESIGN FICTION: A BRIEF HISTORY OF SAILING - [DESIGN FICTION: Great Hall of Possibilities](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/design-fiction-great-hall-of-possibilities): DESIGN FICTION: Great Hall of Possibilities - [DESIGN FICTION: Diary of a Basking Shark](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/design-fiction-diary-of-a-basking-shark): The following is an extract from the early diaries of Maya Clarke. - [DESIGN FICTION: Masked Themselves from History](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/design-fiction-masked-themselves-from-history): DESIGN FICTION: MASKED THEMSELVES FROM HISTORY - [DESIGN FICTION: Nature Buddy](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/design-fiction-nature-buddy): Even in Ireland, where they'd talk to the wall and the wall would talk back. Once you hit your mid-twenties, new friends are hard to come by. It's harder still to make friends with someone who shares… - [DESIGN FICTION: How the City Plants Grow](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/design-fiction-how-the-city-plants-grow): Infrastructure is a boring word. A word consigned to engineers, economists and public policy wonks. And bio-architects. - [BIOPHILIA SUMMARY: Rewilding the Sea](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/biophilia-summary-rewilding-the-sea): Easy bedtime reading. A nice narrative overview of the status quo and some rewilding rays of hope. Now seeking a Vaclav Smil-type follow-on. - [DESIGN FICTION: Birth Flower](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/design-fiction-birth-flower): 2033 was the year of the See-Me-Not. A beautiful stifling year on the plains of Toledo when the See-Me-Not was seen and seen fully. - [AI SUMMARY: Prompting is hard, AIs can help](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/ai-summary-prompting-is-hard-ais-can-help): Eliciting Human Preferences with Language Models. Li et al. 2023 - [DESIGN FICTION: Dead Pokemon](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/design-fiction-dead-pokemon): Mass protests outside the high-rise of The Pokemon Company in Roppongi Hills and the offices of their joint-owners, Nintendo, Game Freak and Creatures Inc., have brought Tokyo to a standstill. The… - [DESIGN FICTION: Forest Fraud](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/design-fiction-forest-fraud): Well, it could be cut down, and we have no shortage of that in our illustrious history. But forest-clearing leaves a trace; forests don't just vanish. Forests are either burned or they're cut; both… - [DESIGN FICTION: Product Sage or Who Oversees the AI Ethicists](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/design-fiction-product-sage-or-who-oversees-the-ai-ethicists): DESIGN FICTION: PRODUCT SAGE or WHO OVERSEES THE AI ETHICISTS - [DESIGN FICTION: EVP, Panthera](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/design-fiction-evp-panthera): Biophilitas is looking for an Executive Vice President, Big Cats to join our team in Mumbai. - [DESIGN FICTION: Throw-Away Bottle](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/design-fiction-throw-away-bottle): When Isuelt Morgan finished the interview she took a sip of water from her bottle. Then she casually threw it into the sea. - [DESIGN FICTION: Climate Artefacts](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/design-fiction-climate-artefacts): The following is a transcript of a stream-auction. The auction consists of immersive, interactive stream. The stream typically viewed in Spatial, can be viewed in 2D video on older devices. The… - [DESIGN FICTION: Transfer Season](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/design-fiction-transfer-season): Hello everybody and welcome to Transfer night. It's that time of the year again, and of course we have an amazing show for you. - [DESIGN FICTION: Plant Directory](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/design-fiction-plant-directory): Each generation since the Industrial Revolution has sought to understand the world through the dominant technology of the day. We are metaphor-making animals after all. - [DESIGN FICTION: The Memes are Never Justified by the Ends](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/design-fiction-the-memes-are-never-justified-by-the-ends-1): DESIGN FICTION: THE MEMES ARE NEVER JUSTIFIED BY THE ENDS. - [DESIGN FICTION: Saints of the Regeneration](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/design-fiction-saints-of-the-regeneration): Pope Theresa has introduced a new pathway to Catholic sainthood. In doing so, she recognises those who dedicate their lives for the protection and preservation of the Biodiversity of Life. - [DESIGN FICTION: Ju’wasi School](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/design-fiction-juwasi-school): The following is the transcription of a personalised persuad archived from the metastream of a wealthy, bohemian mother based in Berkeley, California in October 2032. - [DESIGN FICTION: Alone with the Ancients](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/design-fiction-alone-with-the-ancients): Of all the trends of the 2030s, perhaps the least expected is the sudden rise in interest of History. The rise itself surprising, the depth of interest and the activities associated with it are more… - [DESIGN FICTION: Colour of the Year 2034](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/design-fiction-colour-of-the-year-2034): ANNOUNCING THE PANTONE COLOUR OF THE YEAR 2034 - [DESIGN FICTION: Citizen Oak](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/design-fiction-citizen-oak): His handlebar moustache curls in contempt as he spits out the words in dry Mid-Western. "What I did was a god-given right, and you assclown tree-huggers are insane if you think it isn't". - [DESIGN FICTION: Karma Off-setting](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/design-fiction-karma-off-setting): Deutsche Insurance has re-issued its famous and somewhat controversial insurance product, Pay It Forward, for this coming year. The product which has been described by its opponents as Karma Bribing… - [Favourite Problems](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/favourite-problems): In 907 there was so much information in the world that you could never hope to imbibe it all. It was too much. Simply undigestible. - [Feathermap](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/feathermap): Feathermap is a tiny experiment in how I might use visual design to make idea exploration more enticing. - [Material Ecology](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/im9beti1rsp0gvergvq3a3ix8bm6bg): Design in the 2020s is modular and static. It is not bad. Neither does it mimic the best features of Nature's invention. - [Age of Augmented Invention](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/age-of-augmented-invention): I expect we’ll shortly see the emergence of Quantitative Discovery studies. - [Freeman Dyson on AGI](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/freeman-dyson-on-agi): I do not believe that machines that think exist, or that they are likely to exist in the foreseeable future. If I am wrong, as I often am, any thoughts I might have about the question are… - [David Deutsch On Discovery](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/david-deutsch-on-discovery): “Discovering chemistry, like discovering anything, would then depend on whether your problems led you there.” - [In Praise of Futurism](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/in-praise-of-futurism): The best way to predict the future is to build it. - [Decarbonisation in one Number](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/decarbonisation-in-one-number): We must end our dependence on carbon by 2050. This, to limit global warming to 1.5C above pre-Industrial levels. - [Where do we put the camera in the Permaweird?](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/where-do-we-put-the-camera-in-the-permaweird): What's so disorienting in this Permaweird is not simply the lack of coherent narrative. But the abundance of viewpoints. - [Van Gogh On Fear in Art](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/van-gogh-on-fear-in-art): Vincent van Gogh, writing about the painter’s fear of the blank canvas. - [Piraha Spirit Story](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/piraha-spirit-story): A story from the Piraha people of the Amazon, an excerpt from Don’t Sleep There Are Snakes. - [Lullabies and Content Recommendation](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/lullabies-and-content-recommendation): I don’t lose sleep over content recommendation. - [Socrates’ Daemon](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/socrates-daemon): Socrates heard voices. And listened to them. - [My PhD problem in 10 lines](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/my-phd-problem-in-10-lines): Sometimes things go wrong with the brain. Sometimes large sections of the brain fire together. These are seizures: epilepsy in adults, neonatal seizures in newborns. - [Digital Litter](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/digital-litter): Each tiny digital creation tucked away forgotten in server farms. - [Why I Uninstalled TikTok](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/why-i-uninstalled-tiktok): I woke up tired and that tiredness followed me to my desk. - [Against the Commodification of Community](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/against-the-commodification-of-community): We've come to accept that we will be commoditised. That our own actions are other peoples' incomes. - [David Deutsch on Knowledge](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/david-deutsch-on-knowledge): David Deutsch has a core perspective that I find extremely inspiring. - [Flooding the Zone of the Ancients](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/flooding-the-ancient-zone): Developers and fantasy authors share a penchant for the ancients. In naming things, mostly. - [Speculative Futures and Barriers to Entry](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/speculative-futures-and-barriers-to-entry): An idea is worth nothing. An idea can change the world. - [500 Whys: Writing your Purpose Statement](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/500-whys-writing-your-purpose-statement): A purpose can give coherent meaning to a career. It can help with the difficult decisions required to craft a career worth creating. - [Ju’wasi Hunting Story](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/juwasi-hunting-story): A hunting story, an excerpt from The Old Way. - [Tiny Bets](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/tiny-bets): Two concepts bubble to the surface of the digital zeitgeist. - [Three Beliefs about Purpose](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/three-beliefs-about-purpose-statements): My three beliefs, firmly held, on purpose statements. - [Who TikTok hires](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/who-tiktok-hires): What have you done - but more importantly, what fire in your belly do you have now. Will you sweat for this company. - [There's no such thing as Sustainability](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/theres-no-such-thing-as-sustainability): The Biosphere is a superset of dynamic systems. - [Why are Humans worth Sustaining?](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/why-are-humans-worth-sustaining): Before embarking on a journey of sustainability - why bother? What is exactly is it that we wish to sustain? - [Le Corbusier On Mastery](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/52o7qhcph75vsum68dm4q4v1zn67wh): Le Corbusier's description here is of Mastery in Architecture. - [Highly Sensitive People at Speed](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/highly-sensitive-people-at-speed): Some animals are more sensitive than others. - [Biophilia](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/biophilia): Humans are innately attracted to the natural world. We have a tendency to connect with it, especially with other forms of life. - [Refining my Information Diet](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/refining-my-information-diet): Snacking on the wrong things. Snacking on too many of them. - [Beauty, Charisma and AI](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/beauty-charisma-and-ai): Charisma is one of the two great transcendental forces in the social world: beauty is the other. - [Machiavelli’s 4D Chess](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/machiavellis-4d-chess): "He was sure that any prince who put [his advice] into practice would soon arouse popular hatred and self-destruct. And this ... was precisely what Machiavelli wanted. " - [Tibetan Creativity and ChatGPT](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/chatgpt-as-a-verification-tool): There’s no Tibetan word for ‘creativity’. - [Prediction: Idea Management will grow 3X in the 2020s](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/prediction-idea-management-will-grow-3x-in-the-2020s): Sustained economic growth is central to modern civilisation. Ideas, i.e. invention and innovation, are tightly coupled to economic growth. - [Ideas are getting harder to find](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/ideas-are-getting-harder-to-find): Across industries, products and organisations, research effort is rising while research productivity is declining sharply. Since 1930s, in the US research effort has risen 23X with its productivity… - [David Deutsch on Possibility in Science](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/david-deutsch-on-possibility-in-science): Science often predicts – and brings about – phenomena spectacularly different from anything that has been experienced before. For millennia people dreamed about flying, but they experienced only… - [Ways of Exploring II](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/ways-of-exploring-ii): Selecting stepping stones is the path to future ideas. - [Ways of Exploring](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/ways-of-exploring): Selecting stepping stones then is of utmost importance. How we select these stepping stones matters. We must choose our compass. - [Everything, everywhere is always moving. Forever.](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/everything-everywhere-is-always-moving-forever): Everything, everywhere is always moving. Forever. Get used to it. - [Sol LeWitt on Conceptual Art](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/sol-lewitt-on-conceptual-art): Ideas can be works of art; they are in a chain of development that may eventually find some form. All ideas need not be made physical. - [VUCA by Design](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/vuca-by-design): The world of 02022 is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. It is VUCA. - [Idea Maze, Multi-Maze](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/multi-path-idea-mazes): The Idea Maze is a company's path to its desired outcome. - [How are you Navigating?](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/how-are-you-navigating): Once your time here is done, you will have carved a path through the space of possible paths of work. A path of what you worked on and with whom. A path whose contours will be the investments you… - [Stepping Stones in Idea Space](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/stepping-stones-in-idea-space): String enough useful ideas together and you may find yourself in an unexpectedly interesting and lucrative neighbourhood. - [Org challenges and UX of AI](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/org-challenges-and-ux-of-ai): More precisely, the shape and composition of AI teams directs what Product ships. - [How I got into AI](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/how-i-got-into-ai): It started with a video of a monkey moving a mechanical arm with its mind. - [What is the UX of AI](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/what-is-the-ux-of-ai): UX of AI is the experience that a user has while interacting with a product that uses artificial intelligence. - [Podcast: UX for AI Products](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/podcast-ux-for-ai-products): Thoroughly enjoyed speaking about the UX ofAI Products on the PM Hub Podcast in 2021. - [TikTok Time](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/tiktok-time): Time behaves differently in speed-obsessed environments. - [Above All, Speed](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/above-all-speed): Speed is the defining characteristic of work at Tik Tok. - [Neri Oxman on Innovation and Loneliness](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/neri-oxman-on-innovation-and-loneliness): "If you can measure it, it doesn’t count. You know you’ve reached innovation when you’re lonely. You know that you’re doing something new, pushing boundaries, when there’s no one or nothing… - [Human Nests and ‘Good Enough’ Design](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/human-nests-and-good-enough-design): All the great apes make nests. All, bar adult gorillas, make them in trees. - [The Pain of Convergence](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/the-pain-of-convergence): Any finite creation\, even the very best imaginable, is a process of continuously waving goodbye to possibility. - [ChatGPT and Lived Experience](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/chatgpt-and-lived-experience): Everything everywhere is always moving. Forever. - [Invest early in Ad Integrity](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/invest-early-in-ad-integrity): Platforms do not exercise full control over ad integrity. - [Norman Foster on the Future of Design](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/norman-foster-on-the-future-of-design): "The future will be a fusion of learning from the past, learning from and working with nature, and using the most advanced technology of our age. The story of civilization is the story of… - [The Great Hall of Possible Inventions](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/the-great-hall-of-possible-inventions): Imagine a cavernous hall stretching before you as far as the eye can see. - [In Praise of Possibilities](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/in-praise-of-possibilities): Some sentences make better futures possible. - [Navigating the FOMOsphere](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/navigating-the-fomosphere): We are exposed to more. And so there's more to miss. - [The FOMOsphere](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/the-fomosphere): The FOMOsphere is the space of all possible experiences that you can imagine having. - [Trust, Safety and Organic’s Blurring Lines](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/trust-safety-and-blurring-line-between-paid-and-organic): Creativity in the 2020's is no longer centred on pictures in a feed with clearly outlined areas for ads to appear. - [Why I joined TikTok](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/why-i-joined-tiktok): I love the app, and what the app promises. - [Futurism and Procrastination](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/futurism-and-procrastination): “The idea of the future, pregnant with an infinity of possibilities, is more fruitful than the future itself”. - [Experience Design and existential overwhelm](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/experience-design-and-existential-overwhelm): The existential overwhelm of the modern world is that it provides an inexhaustible supply of things that seem worth doing. - [Progress and the accumulation of Knowledge](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/progress-and-the-accumulation-of-knowledge): If progress is real … it is not because we are born any healthier, better, or wiser than infants were in the past, but because we are born to a richer heritage, born on a higher level of that… - [Human-Centred Design's Christian roots](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/human-centred-designs-christian-roots): Human-Centered design aims to make systems usable and useful by focusing on the users, their needs and requirements. - [Why Ad Integrity is important](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/why-ad-integrity-is-important): For better or for worse, advertising powers the Internet. - [Who should join TikTok](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/who-should-join-tiktok): Tik Tok is a bad fit for most people working in Tech. - [FOMO in the Exponential Age](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/fomo-in-the-exponential-age): We fear missing out, because missing out could mean (social) death. In an exponential age, we fear missing out exponentially. - [Lewis Mumford On Technology](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/lewis-mumford-on-technology): “We are not suffering from too much machinery, but from too little. For let there be enough iron servants and more of us shall be able to sit on the tops of mountains and stare into the blue sky… - [Principles of SMS Design](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/principles-of-sms-design): Designing for SMS is an exercise in constraint. - [Decision-boundaries and super-labellers](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/decision-boundaries-and-super-labellers): Super-labellers are the untapped resource of algorithmic improvement. - [The Bullshit-Industrial Complex just got Bullshitier](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/the-bullshit-industrial-complex-just-got-bullshitier): Generative AI poses an acute short-term risk to information quality on the internet. - [The Hype Cycle and Perfect Prediction Horizons](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/we-tend-to-overestimate-hard-projects): We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run. - [Dad-tactics before the birth](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/dad-tactics-before-the-birth): Being a new Dad is busy. It’s tiring. It means being always on and always available. Being interrupted is your new default state. Your longest available free time will be measured in minutes. It will… - [AI Problem Statements](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/ai-problem-statements): A problem statement is a tool to help guide your team toward building the right product. Defining AI problem statements well is important in pointing a path to a worthwhile AI product. - [UX Design Teams and AI](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/ux-design-teams-and-ai): UX design teams and Machine Learning are getting acquainted. But the relationship is still in its early stages. - [Books of 2020](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/books-of-2020): Here’s a selection of recommended books that I read and finished in 2020 and that map to the topics covered in The Deployment Age. - [How I Read](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/how-i-read): Find a book that looked interesting, start the book, read through sequentially to the end. Read as many as you can. Never read a book twice. - [The Experiential Futures Ladder](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/the-experiential-futures-ladder): Experiential futures design situations and stuff from the future to catalyse insight and change. - [The Limits of Rapid Prototyping in AI](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/the-limits-of-rapid-prototyping-in-ai-7sxpj): Rapid prototyping tests the human consequences of design ideas. It does so, quickly. - [The Design Difficulties of Human-AI Interaction](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/the-design-difficulties-of-human-ai-interaction): Designing for Human-AI interaction is hard. - [The Bullshit-Industrial Complex](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/the-bullshit-industrial-complex): It is a natural-occurring byproduct of human societies. But the forces that have given rise to exponential growth in digital communication are fuelling a human bullshit mega-machine. - [Exploring the Intuition Spaces of Others](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/exploring-the-intuition-spaces-of-others): John Salvatier has an interesting article on what he calls the '‘I Already Get It’ Slide, a cognitive bad habit that prompts you to gloss over the reasoning behind conclusions with which you are… - [Principles of Futures Thinking](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/principles-of-futures-thinking): I've been thinking quite a bit recently on some core principles of Futures work that Roy Amara laid out in 1981. - [Levels of Uncertainty](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/levels-of-uncertainty): We have expectations about how the future will unfold; these expectations are forecasts. - [AI prototypes make Data Products tangible](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/ai-prototypes-make-data-products-tangible): An under-looked aspect of Data Products in general and AI products in particular is that they are often 'invisible'. They lack a tangibility - something to touch, something to see. This is an… - [Machine Learning and the evolution of extended human capabilities](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/machine-learning-and-the-evolution-of-extended-human-capabilities): Machine Learning is an extension of the toolset that humans have invented to create change at scale in the world around them. - [Fallibilism and Product Management](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/fallibilism-and-product-management): Fallibilism is the idea that we can never be 100% certain we’re right and must therefore be always open to the possibility that we’re wrong. This relates to our understanding of the world - our… - [Adaptive preference and shrinking Product Vision](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/adaptive-preference-and-product-vision): An adaptive preference results when we modify aspirations toward expectations in light of experience. - [Deciding what to test in AI prototypes](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/deciding-what-to-test-in-ai-prototypes): Deciding what to test is the first, and most important, step in defining an AI prototype. This decision shapes all other decisions in designing the prototype. - [Signalling in Innovation Management](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/signalling-in-innovation-management): No matter the context, there will never be enough resources to do everything. - [Avoid ‘Big Bang’ Delivery](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/z4sln4epd0svtk8binaxzhktaxkfbj): 30 years into the software revolution, we've learned a thing or two about what works and what doesn't. 'Big Bang' Delivery falls squarely into that second category. - [Minimal Theme for Roam Research](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/minimal-theme-for-roam-research): Roam Research is the leading light in a spate of emerging note-taking and thinking tools that aim to move beyond the constraints of traditional text documents. - [Prototyping is Thinking through Making](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/prototyping-is-thinking-through-making): The human mind did not evolve in a glass jar. We are social animals that like to move. We think on our feet, and in conversation. We learn by watching, copying, trying and testing. In other words, us… - [Some data’s more equal than others](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/some-datas-more-equal-than-others): As machine learning has matured, ML algorithms have become commoditised and therefore it is the data that is valuable. Or so the argument goes. - [Affordances and AI](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/affordances-and-ai): Affordances are the potential actions that a product makes possible. - [Doubt and Double-loop Learning](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/doubt-and-double-loop-learning): Most of us, most of the time, interact with the world through single-loop learning. - [The Management Quantum Effect](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/the-management-quantum-effect): I’ve noticed an interesting effect in Management. Simply by asking a question, you change the answer. - [Talkers are dangerous](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/talkers-are-dangerous): Talkers are dangerous in an organisation. - [Invention & Innovation](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/invention-amp-innovation): Invention and innovation are often confused. - [Trends: Pattern errors & extrapolation errors](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/technology-trends-and-extrapolation-error): It strikes me that there are two types of errors in trend forecasting. - [Executives should change their minds](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/executives-should-change-their-minds): It's ok for executives to change their minds. - [Short Thoughts](https://www.simonoregan.com/short-thoughts/short-thoughts): Short thoughts are brief pieces of writing that each focus on one little idea. ## Mutterings - [LEVELS & LAYERS. Why write, why learn.](https://www.simonoregan.com/mutterings/levels-and-layers-why-write-why-learn): I'm rattled. Rattled without reason. With no strong reason for writing.