words matter
our imaginations shape the experiences we design, and the experiences we design shape our imaginations.
And language is a fundamental tool in architecting both. The details and specificity and intention of it constructs our beliefs about how the world is, and can unlock all of the new ways we might hope it to become.
And language is a fundamental tool in architecting both. The details and specificity and intention of it constructs our beliefs about how the world is, and can unlock all of the new ways we might hope it to become.
Olivia Vagelos • We Are Not the Only "Who"
Language can be a gift, and language can be a tool of colonialism.... See more
The western point of view, the dominant materialist worldview, holds that land is the source of ecosystem services, land as property, as capital, as natural resources. Sustainability defined as how we can continue to use and to take. Whereas the indigenous perspective honors land
Olivia Vagelos • We Are Not the Only "Who"
Prompt power is not benign! The questions we ask ultimately determine the answers we find.
Pocket Observatory • Mass Observation
Calling things by their true names cuts through the lies that excuse, buffer, muddle, disguise, avoid, or encourage inaction, indifference, obliviousness. It’s not all there is to changing the world, but it’s a key step.
Seth Goldenberg • Radical Curiosity: Questioning Commonly Held Beliefs to Imagine Flourishing Futures
The Bureau of Linguistical Reality
Richard Fisher • Why We Need New Words for Life in the Anthropocene
“Quiet Quitting” started as a way for Gen-Zers to communicate with each other the reality that you can, in fact, not sublimate your entire identity and all of your time to a job and not get fired…..that you can just treat your job as a j-o-b, not as the sole determent of your value as a person…and that you can especially do this if your job treats
... See moreAnne Helen Petersen • Bed Rotting and Loud Quitting
On the one hand, language is a wonderful tool. It allows us to describe these other worlds in metaphors that help us think and imagine them. But there are many places where our language leaves us in the lurch. Like with vision, we don’t have a word for detecting light but not having a conscious experience of it.
ed yong • What Counts as Seeing
“If you want to survive in this organization, you shouldn’t use the words you use. Words like ‘more-than-human’ or ‘otherwise’...” Someone told me this a while ago and probably many of you often come across comments like that. Re-reading my fav book, I found this quote:“The way we talk about this life and living, the language we use, builds a kind... See more