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I’ve spent the last two weeks moving around the countryside and various small towns in the south-western parts of Germany and I have to say, I’m impressed with some of the changes I’ve seen. Coming from Australia, where we’re generally a good decade behind the rest of the western world in terms of shifting our reliance away from fossil fuels, a lot has happened since my last visit.
I’m tracking some everyday observations through this list on Twitter. A couple of my favourites so far are easy-to-read energy ratings for real estate listings and the prevalence of triple glazing. I think I even spotted some quadruple-glazed windows in one of the newer hotels we stayed at. Germany was always a trailblazer when it came to photovoltaic installations, but it’s the first time I noticed that a lot of commercial buildings, such as supermarkets or factories, have their entire roof covered with panels.
Unsurprisingly, the most noticeable shift happened in terms of e-mobility. Even in smaller towns, electric vehicles are omnipresent, and I don’t just mean electric cars, even though there are plenty of them around.
During my hike at the edges of the Black Forest, sightings of e-bikes easily outnumbered ‘normal’ bikes two to one. It makes sense. Especially in hilly areas, electrified bikes open up a form of mobility that many people simply hadn’t considered before. Like Craig Mod describes in his piece below: “Whatever world may have been nearby, an electric bike brings it nearer.”
I’ve long been convinced that the nimble bicycle delivers the freedom and joy that the car industry promises. Add a motor to it and it truly competes as a primary mode of transport for a majority of people. If we manage to connect it to fast, reliable public transport, a lot of arguments for car ownership simply become obsolete.
Many Germans tell me that these shifts are still happening too slowly and there is too little of it – true, given this country’s engineering culture and financial means – but for this Australian visitor, it’s a peek into the future.
– Kai
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Apps & Sites
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I love the work that the folks at Micromobility Industries are doing – an advocacy group for and conference about the future of mobility. Their newest offering is this directory with reviews and links to all kinds of small electric vehicles: one-wheel, skate, scooter, ebike, moped, dirt bike, NEV and more.
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This is cute: Can’t build up the will to go for a walk? Connect with a ‘walking buddy’, schedule a time and take a (real world) walk at the same time as a stranger elsewhere. “Walking buddies cannot chat or write text to one another. The app can notify you know when your buddy starts their walk, and the walking page will display each user’s status as ‘walking’ or ‘not walking’.” No location information is shared.
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A handy little tool that turns boring screenshots into beautiful images, ready to be shared on social media (with presets for the perfect ratio and sizes) or to be embedded into your presentation.
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A growing and easy-to-read directory of popular apps and their Windows and Mac keyboard shortcuts.
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Worthy Five: Kerstin Tebbe
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An activity worth doing:
Becoming ambidextrous. A few years ago, I had a perpetually pulled muscle in my right upper arm. To let it rest and heal, I started trying to use my left hand more. (I’m right-handed.) Building strength and dexterity in my left hand and wrist was both humbling and a great reminder that when you start something from scratch, consistency and practice matter so much.
A concept worth understanding:
Networks. Typically, the word brings to mind references to professional connections or even social media. But we can also think of networks as organising models through which we can affect change. Networks go by many names (networks, alliances, coalitions, consortiums, etc.), work at every scale from local to global, and focus on any topic from addressing climate change to ensuring the right to education. Given the entrenched nature of so many of the challenges we face as humanity these days, we need effective networks that can bring a wide range of interested people and organisations to the table to help us create the systems change required to address those challenges.
A book worth reading:
The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek takes the traditional (capitalist) approach to organisations and turns it on its head. He defines the idea of infinite games – in which players come and go, the rules are changeable, and there is no defined endpoint – and elaborates what it can mean to lead and build organisations from this different vantage point, focused not on winning but on creating value towards a greater purpose or cause.
A newsletter worth subscribing to:
Psyche Magazine is about all things human and packed with insights.
A quote worth repeating:
The phrase ‘greater than the sum of its parts’ has become a cliché. But the idea of not just combining our efforts but creating some value together that is separate, distinct, and beyond the amalgamation is incredibly powerful and inspiring. It is worth considering in application any time we seek to collaborate.
(Did you know? Friends of DD can respond to and engage with guest contributors like Kerstin Tebbe in one click.)
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Books & Accessories
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How our desire for social rank shapes us
Hugely interesting new title by W. David Marx about how individual status-seeking creates our cultural ecosystem. “Solving the long-standing mysteries of culture – from the origin of our tastes and identities, to the perpetual cycles of fashions and fads – through a careful exploration of the fundamental human desire for status.”
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The human case for fewer cars in our lives
When Canadians Melissa and Chris Bruntlett moved to the Netherlands, they discovered the benefits that result from treating cars as visitors rather than owners of the road. They captured their experience in two books: Building the Cycling City and this latest one which documents city design that is child-friendly, connected, trusting, feminist, quiet, therapeutic, accessible, prosperous, resilient, and age-friendly. “Little attention is given to the effects that a ‘low-car’ city can have on the human experience at a psychological and sociological level. Studies are beginning to surface that indicate the impact that external factors – such as sound – can have on our stress and anxiety levels. Or how the systematic dismantling of freedom and autonomy for children and the elderly to travel through their cities is causing isolation and dependency.”
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Overheard on Twitter
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I used to be young and cool and now when it rains I say things like “This is good. We needed this.”
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Food for Thought
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This very self-helpy piece taught me that the so-called ‘abundance mindset’ goes deeper than a ‘there is enough for everyone’ attitude. It can help ease anxieties in times of crisis and uncertainty. “When you embody an abundance mindset by believing there is an unlimited amount of everything available to you, your mind and body feel safe, even if something is taken away or not yet received. ‘You become more resilient, and your body learns that the anxiety and stress isn’t needed because there is no threat to losing anything when there’s always more ways to gain what you want or need,’ says Papetti. ‘The only thing that’s certain in life is uncertainty, so embodying an abundance mindset that trusts you’ll be safe in the uncertainty is the secret to living a life of greater gratitude, ease, and satisfaction.’”
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This short piece is, I assume, the introduction to the latest issue of Atmos, an independent magazine about climate change and culture. Willow Defebaugh writes about how/why we should move beyond binary thinking – in the climate debate and more broadly: “Transcending binary thinking is not easy; in fact, it can be excruciatingly difficult to find common ground with people who don’t share our values or perspectives. But what hope do we have if we don’t try? ... In a world of duality, we can all practice asking what the third option might be. As I’ve written before, we divide nature into night and day, but dawn and dusk are equally part of the cycles of creation. And so I long to live my life in the messy light of morning and the murkiness of eventide, for that’s where promise resides.”
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While I don’t currently own an e-bike, I’ve ridden enough of them to believe in their transformational power. As I mentioned in my intro, I strongly believe that the effects of e-mobility will change cities more than any other cultural shift. Here, Craig Mod beautifully describes the power and magic of discovering bikes with a motor: “I’ve long since posited world peace could be achieved if you bought everyone in the world a bike, but now I want those bikes to be electric. I want everyone to feel this silliness, this punch-drunk stupidity of pure love, this sense of cheating the rules, the norms, this sense of ever-present delight. At our worst, humans mindlessly consume, sear the earth and each other, fill our bodies with poisons. At our best we invent electric bikes.”
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Aesthetically Pleasing
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French mural artist and painter Arthur Maslard a.k.a. Ratur often depicts bodies staged in dramatic poses, humans faced with a nature in ruin, mythical figures, and symbols of perpetual rebirth. (via)
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Bademaschinen is a floating sauna in Oslo, Norway built in part from re-used windows of an old nursing home.
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I really like the identity that design shop Order created for data processing firm Union. “The wordmark is built using core geometric shapes of a circle and square. A symbol was designed for secondary uses and at smaller scales, calling back to the user’s journey throughout the data workflow.” Order is behind several other techy brands, all of which I feel have a strong story behind their brand identity.
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Hanje is an ultra-heavy display typeface based on a geometric construction. Its very dense and chunky appearance makes it a playful choice for creative editorial work.
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Notable Numbers
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Researchers have made the most thorough assessment to date of the global population of ants and the estimated total is a mind-blowing 20 quadrillion of them, or approximately 2.5 million for every human.
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A new study shows that people who bought e-bikes increased their bicycle use from 2.1 kilometers (1.3 miles) to 9.2 kilometers (5.7 miles) on average per day, a 340% increase. The e-bike’s share of all their transportation increased dramatically too, from 17% to 49%.
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A recent Gallup poll shows that just 11% of US Americans say they recently smoked a cigarette – a record low since the start of the survey in 1947.
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Classifieds
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The Week in a GIF
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Reply or tweet at DD with your favourite GIF and it might get featured here in a future issue.
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