The Informed Life

Nathan Shedroff is an entrepreneur, author, speaker, and educator. Like me, he teaches at the graduate interaction design program of the California College of the Arts . This conversation focuses on his new book, A Whole New Strategy , which teaches strategic thinking. See full show notes at: https://theinformed.life/2024/01/14/episode-131-nathan-shedroff/

This episode is a compilation of conversations from 2023. It’s not meant as a best-of collection, but an opportunity to highlight some themes that emerged during our conversations throughout the year. The episode is also an experiment, with the themes being curated partly by an AI. Cover photo by Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash . Show notes Episode 107: Michael Becker on Knowledge Work Episode 108: Ca...

Steve Portigal is an independent user research consultant. He is the author of Interviewing Users and Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries . Steve and I both have new books, so we thought it’d be fun to compare notes on writing non-fiction. In this, the second of two episodes on the subject, we focus on the process of writing. If you haven’t done so already, listen to our previous conversation, w...

Steve Portigal is an independent user research consultant. He is the author of Interviewing Users and Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries . Steve was previously on the show last year, talking about research skills. This conversation is a bit different: both of us have written new books, and we thought it’d be fun to compare notes about the process. We decided to split our conversation into two p...

Audrey Crane is the Head of Growth at DesignMap, a product and strategy design firm. She’s also the author of What CEOs Need to Know About Design , a book that helps leaders understand and tap into the power of design in their organizations. In this, Audrey’s second appearance on the show, we focused on how organizations can ensure they’re getting the best design work for their money. Show notes A...

Nate Davis is an independent information architecture consultant and a longtime contributor to the global IA community. In this conversation, we discuss his ideas about IA sub-disciplines that influence the construction of digital user interfaces. Show notes Nathaniel Davis - LinkedIn Methodbrain Four Information Architecture Disciplines Every Team Should Consider When Building Digital User Interf...

Karl Voit describes himself as “a life hacker trying to make deliberate decisions on every aspect of life.” Among these are the tools he uses to manage his personal information. In particular, Karl is an avid user of Org Mode in Emacs, which is the focus of this conversation. Show notes public voit - Homepage of Karl Voit Karl Voit on Mastodon (@publicvoit@graz.social) Filofax - Wikipedia Franklin...

Karl Fast is an independent scholar, information architect, and futurist. He’s the co-author with Stephen Anderson of Figure It Out: Getting From Information to Understanding . Karl is one of the most avid readers I know, and in this conversation, we compare our reading practices. We discussed this subject in preparation for a personal knowledge management workshop we will teach later this year. S...

Jenae Cohn is the Executive Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at UC Berkeley. Along with Michael Greer, Jenae recently published Design for Learning , a book about how to teach better using technology, and what online teachers and instructors can learn from UX designers. Show notes Jenae Cohn Jenae Cohn, PhD - LinkedIn Design for Learning: User Experience in Online Teaching and Lear...

Sönke Ahrens is an independent researcher and coach. He is best known as the author of How to Take Smart Notes , a popular book on the zettelkasten method of note-taking. In this conversation, we discuss the role of notes in thinking and learning, with a focus on zettelkasten-inspired note-taking. Show notes Sönke Ahrens How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens Niklas Luhmann - Wikipedia Bielefeld...

Chiara Ogan is a former UX designer and information architect. She recently left that career to become a mental health therapist. Chiara’s background is in library science, and in this conversation, we discuss how she organizes her personal book collection — which she just did in preparation for this major life change. Show notes Chiara Ogan Chiara (Berlingo Fox) Ogan - LinkedIn Information Archit...

Alex Wright is the Head of User Experience at Google News. He’s also an author, and his most recent book, Informatica , is the second edition of Glut , his deep history of the information age. In this conversation, we discuss the history of information technologies and why learning about it matters to people who work in tech. Show notes Alex Wright Alex Wright (@alexgrantwright) / X Alex Wright -...

Aidan Helfant is a college student who’s using personal knowledge management (PKM) to improve his learning. He’s also sharing his methods and tools to help other college students succeed. In this conversation, we unpack Aidan’s approach to note-taking for learning. Show notes Aidan Helfant Aidan Helfant - YouTube Aidan’s newsletter Aidan’s blog Aidan Helfant (@AidanHelfant) / Twitter Ali Abdaal Bu...

Maggie Appleton is a product designer at Ought , an AI research lab that’s working on ways to scale open-ended thinking with machine learning. She’s also an advocate of sharing personal knowledge online. She publishes one of the best digital gardens I’ve seen, located at maggieappleton.com . In this conversation, we discuss the what, why, and how of digital gardening. Show notes Maggie Appleton Ma...

Bob Kasenchak is a taxonomist and information architect at Factor. This is the second of two episodes with Bob that focus on what information architects can learn from music. The first conversation, which you can find in episode 116, focused on the structure of music itself. Today’s conversation focuses on how we can make music more findable — but there are insights here for anyone working with an...

Bob Kasenchak is a taxonomist and information architect at Factor. Bob’s background is in music, and this conversation delves into what information architects can learn from studying music. We recorded two conversations on the subject: this one focuses on the structure of music itself, and the second covers how we can make music more findable. Look for that one in an upcoming episode. Show notes B...

Are Halland has worked in digital product development, strategy, design, and communication for over a quarter of a century. During that time, he created the core model, a tool for designing websites and products that align business goals and user needs. He has now written a book about the core model, which is due to be published later this year. In this conversation, he explains what the core mode...

Dan Russell spent 17 years working at Google, with a significant part of that tenure as a Search Anthropologist: “someone who tries to understand how people search, what kinds of things they seek, and how their tools influence their search process.” Dan is the author of The Joy of Search , which is the focus of our conversation today. Show notes Dan Russell The Joy of Search: A Google Insider’s Gu...

Sheryl Cababa is the Chief Strategy Officer of Substantial, an experience design consultancy based in Seattle. She’s the author of Closing the Loop , a new book about systems thinking in design. The book emphasizes the role designers can play as catalysts for social change, and that is the focus of our conversation. Show notes Sheryl Cababa - LinkedIn Sheryl Cababa (@SherylCababa) Substantial Univ...

Jerry Michalski helps organizations become more trustworthy by exploring their language, processes, and intentions. That’s fascinating in itself — but I wanted to talk with him primarily because he curates an online resource called Jerry’s Brain, a deep repository of interconnected thoughts. He’s worked on Jerry’s Brain for a quarter of a century, longer than any other such experiment I’m aware of...

Andy Fitzgerald is an information architecture and content strategy consultant. He works with mission-driven organizations to produce systems that communicate clearly, align business and user goals, and scale effectively. Our conversation today focuses on moving beyond the page as a metaphor for how information is delivered toward more flexible content structures. Show notes Andy Fitzgerald Consul...

Nicole van der Hoeven is a Developer Advocate at Grafana Labs. She is also a communicator, sharing what she learns through her writing, conference presentations, and YouTube videos. The latter are what brought Nicole’s work to my attention: she runs a YouTube channel focused on one of my favorite tools for thought, Obsidian. In this conversation, we focus on how Nicole uses Obsidian to “learn in p...

Hugh Dubberly is the founder of Dubberly Design Office, an interaction design studio based in San Francisco. Hugh has a long trajectory in the design world. Before opening his studio, he did pioneering work at leading tech companies like Apple and Netscape. He is also a thinker and teacher of uncommon depth and breadth. He’s my colleague at the California College of the Arts, and I’m also lucky to...

Carrie Hane is an evangelist at Sanity, a cloud-based content platform provider. Carrie is co-author of Designing Connected Content , which advocates for content modeling as part of the digital design process. This is also the subject of our conversation. A side note: Carrie is one of the keynote speakers at this year’s information architecture conference, which takes place in New Orleans from Mar...

Michael Becker is the founder and CEO of Identity Praxis, a strategic advisory firm. He’s also a prolific communicator, having produced dozens of YouTube videos explaining how to use advanced knowledge management tools. In this conversation, we discuss Michael’s approach to knowledge work and how tools such as Tinderbox can help you think and work more effectively. Show notes Michael Becker - Link...