The Sensemaking Companion - Section I

good sensemaking requires discernment, humility, clarity of thought and emotional regulation. And these aren’t things we do, or things we can buy. They’re capacities we develop over time through practice

If the times we live in could be defined by a single feeling, it might be a sense of disorientation. Trying to make sense of reality right now is like being lost in the woods.

if we’re going to adapt and survive what is a time of significant transition, we’re going to need to develop new ways of seeing and being.

Thriving now means taking responsibility for using the cognitive tools we were all born with to make sense and find meaning. On a daily basis, we’re being asked to discern what’s fact, and what’s fiction.

The online world and its explosion of narratives, data and tribalism presents us with a unique evolutionary problem. The environment we evolved in wasn’t carefully designed to capture our attention, hijack our biases and stoke our outrage. A physical forest doesn’t bombard us with an overwhelming amount of information and narrative warfare every mi... See more

We aren’t just trying to find meaning and clarity in physical space, but within a digital forest overlaid onto almost every aspect of our lives.