💎 Friday Gems #29

Presenting Family Tech Use, Rules for Play, Handling confrontation

Nín Hǎo Low Fidelity readers!

Today I want to start off by asking you a question.

How can have more conversations?

I want to have more conversations with all of you to talk about the challenges you are going through and to learn which topics matter the most to you.

Would a discord/circle group work better for our conversations or would the chat feature on Substack be a good place to start?

You can email me at rizwan@rizwanjavaid.com with your suggestions/questions/feedback or if you want to chat let’s find a time to talk!

I want to grow the Low Fidelity community and the first step is by having real conversations.

Thanks!

Here are the gems that have caught my eye this week.

💎 Charting the course for family tech use

Breezing Up (A Fair Wind) by Winslow Homer, 1873

As I think back to how it all started, I can see it clearly now…

First, we give our kids our phones to keep them distracted at the grocery store.

Then, we give them our phone at home to make sure they eat their food.

Then, we give them our phones to play games.

Then, we give them our phones to message their friends.

Then, our kids want their own phone because all the kids in school have a phone.

The challenges with tech use for kids and families are real and if left unchecked they can have damaging effects.

As parents, we want to make sure our kids grow to become independent, responsible, and healthy and manage their own tech use but as

Ruth Gaskovski

reminds us in her article that the responsibility starts with us parents, not with the kids.

If you are to steer the ship, first examine your own tech use, and how it may be affecting your children. You as the parent are the one who sets the tone.

We parents set an example for our children.

Ruth’s article is a must-read for parents no matter how old your children are. It’s never too early to start.

Charting the Course for Family Tech Use

Source: School of the Unconformed

💎 Paula Scher’s 10 rules for play

Illustration by Lorenzo Gritti.

There are no original ideas!

It took me a long time to come to this realization. I guess it is part of growing as a designer and understanding how creativity works.

As Mark Twain once said, “There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope.”

And so did Paula Scher, a renowned graphic designer and Pentagram Partner, when asked to share her methods for creating “new” and “original” designs. To which she said, “I have no real methods, and nothing I make is either new or totally original.”

It’s great to hear this from one of the legends of the design world.

It helps to break us free from the belief we may have picked up along the way that our ideas have to be original otherwise, they are not good.

As Paula Scher explains, being in a “state of play” is the key.

Being in a “state of play” means having the ability to freely associate and see new possibilities and combinations in old ideas that become new again.

You are throwing the dice.

Her rules help us get into in a “state of play” to enable our creativity, curiosity, and play to guide us towards creating unique combinations of ideas.

They are all great rules but Rule #3 stands out for me.

How might we lean into our constraints to explore our creative playground?

Read Paula Scher’s 10 Rules for Play

Source: Figma Blog via

Kim Witten, PhD

’s Hold That Thought newsletter

💎 How to handle conflict if you hate confrontation

I used to run away from conflict at work, ok, ok, maybe I’m still not completely free from the anxiety that takes over when I need to say something in opposition to my team members.

As soon as I feel the need to disagree I can feel my body tense up and breathing stop. I have to remind myself to breath which helps me relax.

As the article suggests, disagreements are inevitable and the better we can manage ourselves as we disagree with someone, the better it is for our well-being and self-esteem.

If we bottle up our emotions it just makes the situation worse because then we hold on to the anger or frustration and suffer silently. If instead we are open about our emotions and calmly share our feelings we can turn a challenging situation into a learning opportunity.

Source: NY Times

Let me know in the comments if any of the gems resonate with you. I always love hearing from you. :)

Thanks for reading, and have a fantastic weekend!

Rizwan