3 ms·
I'm not sick of the lingo, I'm disappointed by how often simplistic platitudes are used as stand-ins for a well examined life and critical introspection. The gr
by evanlivingston 9y ago
I'm not sick of the lingo, I'm disappointed by how often simplistic platitudes are used as stand-ins for a well examined life and critical introspection. The growth mindset idea is often used to promote this rationalist American fantasy that "you can be anything if you just believe in yourself enough" which is dismissive real life conditions. Believing in one's self is great but I believe understanding what keeps others from being great is even more important, and the ideas like the "Growth Mindset" cause us look at the world in rosy glasses the keep us from seeing that's holding other people back.
This thing by AirBnB looks mostly like rubbish. One does not 'balance their bias' or 'consider the opposite' by asking themselves a few a cutesy questions. It happens through reading viewpoints contrary to yours, exposing yourself to people who are unlike you, having discussions with people who disagree with you. For example, one the questions to ask yourself suggested here is "Am I holding onto something that I need to let go of?"
I would posit that it's not asking that question to yourself that allows you to discover the answer. The same goes for questions like "Who might be impacted by what I’m designing?" If you haven't been exposed to people with color blindness, you're likely not going to consider them when you ask yourself that question. The question itself doesn't lead to increased awareness of the world, engaging with the world does.
Lastly, I think it really underlines how farcical this thing is by making "design" the subject of "Another Lens". The same looks to be true of their "shadow to light" thing. Rather than asking tough questions about their impact on housing markets, cost of real estate, gentrification and disruption of communities they offer questions like "Do I need to slow down?" It's great to question ourselves and approach work critically and thoughtfully but this is just a pantomime of contentiousness.