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Stuff that matters: Unpicking the pyramid

By Dan Lockton ⋅ January 14, 2009 ⋅ 5 comments
Stuff that matters: Unpicking the pyramid

Most things are unnecessary. Most products, most consumption, most politics, most writing, most research, most jobs, most beliefs even, just aren’t useful, for some scope of ‘useful’.
I’m sure I’m not the first person to point this out, but most of our civilisation seems to rely on the idea that “someone else will sort it out”, [...]

Dredging up some old ideas

By Dan Lockton ⋅ July 28, 2008 ⋅ One comment
Dredging up some old ideas

Three essays I’d pretty much forgotten about, written for courses at Cambridge during my Master’s in Technology Policy, linked here for no reason in particular:
Peer Treasure: how firms outside the software industry can use open source thinking
How can we strengthen links between entrepreneurial companies and entrepreneurial universities in the UK?
Motor vehicles in the developing world: [...]

J G Ballard & Architectures of Control

By Dan Lockton ⋅ January 5, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment
J G Ballard & Architectures of Control

Over at the brilliant Ballardian, editor Simon Sellars has just published my article ‘J.G. Ballard & Architectures of Control‘, where I take a brief look at how Ballard’s work repeatedly examines ‘the effect of architecture on the individual’ – something central to both the physical and psychological aspects of my research. Many thanks are due [...]

What I’ve learned so far as a freelance designer/engineer/maker: Part 2

By Dan Lockton ⋅ April 13, 2007 ⋅ One comment
What I've learned so far as a freelance designer/engineer/maker: Part 2

In part 1 of ‘What I’ve learned so far…’ I looked mostly at being a ‘jack-of-all-trades’ and the idea of ‘Wexelblat’s scheduling algorithm’ (or the ‘good, fast, cheap: pick two’ theory) as it applies to a young freelancer starting out. There were some very insightful comments which are also well worth reading.
Before starting on [...]

What I’ve learned so far as a freelance designer/engineer/maker: Part 1

By Dan Lockton ⋅ March 1, 2007 ⋅ 18 comments
What I've learned so far as a freelance designer/engineer/maker: Part 1

This is the first in a series of essays where I’ll try to look at some of the realities of working freelance in this field; I hope these will be interesting and possibly useful to others contemplating this kind of work. Please note, these are only my own musings and ramblings, written mostly on train [...]

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