Tag: feelings

The 9th Best College Town

MIKELeave a comment

In his review of College Towns, Ray Delahanty (aka CityNerd) combines the walk, bike, and transport scores along with census data to score college towns.

Places score well (highly) on good urbanism, design, walkability, pedestrian streets and so on.

Corvallis Oregon ranks ninth, thanks to high bike use based on census data.

But, “it’s a little puzzling because the bike infrastructure isn’t exactly world class which goes to show how important culture and habit are for transportation choices“.

There’s a beauty to good design. We love design. It’s satisfying. It feels like we’re doing something.

But it’s not the root level.

Design is superficial. It’s shines. There’s polish.

Done well, design relies on points of friction, human needs, and feelings of belonging (like identity). Design is on culture and habit. Design must align with basic issues.

Love and Trust and USA Basketball

MIKELeave a comment

One theme here is that information is not enough.

In his book, 10 to 25, about communicating with young people, David Yeager writes that the compliment sandwich doesn’t work because its supply side not demand side.

JTBD works so well because it shifts the focus from me to you, a business to the customers.

The supply side version of a compliment sandwich is what Yeager calls “wise feedback”. Before young people can hear criticism they have to feel safe. Feelings matter. Being in-the-group matters.

Shane Battier tells a story about Coach K’s early Olympic experience. Coach has just come from Duke where he sets a standard. People like us do things like this. But there was one guy on the team who was not very good in pick-and-roll defense.

So, coach lit into him. “You let him know in no uncertain terms that this is not going to fly,” said Battier. “And at that moment, like, you could see the look on this player’s face. He had never been talked to like this.”

Battier had. “I lived it, so I understood where it’s coming from. It was coming from a place of love.” This is Yeager’s wise feedback. It comes from a place of wanting the best. The listener feels safe because the listener and speaker are on the same side – they’re in the same group.

Coach K wises up right way. “It clicked and you realize, oh, this is not appropriate for him at this moment.” He didn’t have the right relationship for that kind of communication. It takes trust and love which take time and effort. We evolved as group members.

Note: Another version of this idea is here: https://moontower.substack.com/p/jokers-everywhere