Review: In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World

In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World by John Thackara
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Admittedly this 2006 book is dated and seems most so when it considers the (unnamed) Internet of Thing reality that is already upon. Still, it is insightful and valuable to read, especially for engineers.

Thackara tells us of ancient Greece's symposiarch who could enforce drinking or nude dancing on too-serious feasters. In this, he reminds us that humor helps keep an open mind. It does feel it still takes a very open mind to see a need for sustainability in the ecology invention and production that underpins our consumerist society. Thackara’s central thesis is: “If we can design our way into difficulty, we can design our way out.” I have the same hope and also witness the effects of poor design everywhere, including the “mindless” sprawl that comes from designing for swiftness, not closeness.

The zen of “design mindfulness” he promotes is exemplified by The Open Planning Project. This New York-based organization advocates for a free, distributed and open geographic information infrastructure to help citizens engage in meaningful dialogue about their places.

Thackara doesn't speak to this directly, but I was drawn to think of our automotive-based society: "bedroom communities" separated by a drive from places of work, the need for an expensive (to buy, produce and maintain) automobile for modern independence, and these vehicles that carry with them their own power plants meaning they take on their own fuel-fossil fuel. I think centuries hence there will be examinations on our decades like we look book at slavery-based economies asking "What were they thinking?"

View all my reviews