A week ago, as I was finishing the writing on my largest game* to date, I posted a twitter thread about my insecurity and imposter experience, and how I had downplayed (sabotaged, even) my own work. Thread: https://twitter.com/stratometaship/status/1536318473177284609 The writing is now basically finished. Usually, after I finished a writing project, I felt a melancholia, […]
I count three kinds of human settlement. There is the camp. A temporary bulwark against the elements. All it takes is a firepit and people huddled around it. Assembled and reassembled as the community moves. Hunter-gatherers on the move, pastoralists and their goats and their sheep, German tourists in their FKK camps on the Adriatic. […]
My hometown of Tolmin has fewer than 4,000 citizens. Lausanne, in Switzerland, has 140,000 (and shops that close earlier than in Tolmin). In both towns, people live in large single houses or small apartment blocks. This is the way people live throughout the Alps. You could take a paysan from Pully, plop them in Ptuj, […]
Korean culture is indebted to its rulers, even its alphabet (한글 hangeul) created by decree of King Sejong in 1443. But that kind of ruler is not my topic today. I needed a ruler. The un-kingly sort, for making straight lines on paper. So I went to a Korean stationary store. If you’ve not been […]
“Where are your scissors?” “In the stationery drawer, why?” “I need to cut the meat.” “Huh?!?” In creative and design and lateral thinking workshops one of the oldest tricks in the book is the brick. Master comes into room. Master places brick on table. Bits of fired clay crumble onto table. That will leave ochre […]
Two years ago I had no first-hand experience of South Korea. My expectations were those of a moderately well-read and well-traveled European. High-income country based on GDP per capita. Densely populated. Very plugged-in, overworked populace. High-tech. Eat live octopi. That is to say, I knew nothing. The first time I visited, I was dumbstruck. I […]