Dense Discovery - 84 / On the design of beard trimmers...

We have an economy where we steal the future, sell it in the present, and call it GDP.

– Paul Hawken

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Featured artist: Julian Frost

Dense Discovery
Dense Discovery
 

Welcome to Issue 84!

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A few years ago, I bought a Philips beard trimmer which has been a joy to use – until the battery started to fail earlier this year. Trying to figure out how to replace it, I fell down a research rabbit hole, spending hours on YouTube and in bottomless iFixit forum threads. I borrowed special tools and even had a friend with a soldering iron at the ready. But to no avail: this device was intentionally designed to never be opened. (More experienced DIY fixers may be more successful, or at least more comfortable with breaking non-essential parts in order to get inside.)

“At Philips, we fully embrace sustainability, because of its benefits for society, and because we believe that it is a driver for innovation and economic growth. That’s why sustainable development is an integral part of our company strategy.”

That’s a quote from Frans van Houten, the CEO of Philips. It’s part of their website’s sustainability section where they wrap corporate speak around buzzy words like EcoDesign and Circular Economy. Unsurprisingly, you can find those same words, slightly rearranged, on the website of every electronics manufacturer out there.

Walking down the ‘personal care’ aisle of electronics stores, I can’t help but feel disgusted. Dozens of brands, hundreds of options of toothbrushes and shavers, and every single one of them is designed to be discarded at the end of their battery life. How did we ever accept this as the norm? When did planned obsolescence become an acceptable characteristic of what we continue to call ‘well-designed’ products?

One of the cornerstones of good design is longevity, never obsolescence. It’s time for product designers to reclaim the meaning of ‘design’ from corporate marketing departments. And it’s time for consumers to demand better design. – Kai

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The Light Observer →

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Overheard on Twitter

Y’all worried about 5G towers but haven’t eaten a vegetable since 2013.

@bIondiewasabi

 

Food For Thought

The Coronavirus Is Showing Us Which Entrepreneurs Matter →

Read

How often do you think about entrepreneurship when you get your hair cut or get a take-away coffee? “If Casper, WeWork or some celebrity’s makeup company doesn’t survive this crisis, the impact on our lives will be negligible. Elon Musk will be fine. But if we lose our barber, the fruit store on the corner or the plumber who saved us in a flood, we will have lost a piece of ourselves.”

“May We Live Long and Die Out” →

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That title got your attention, didn’t it? It certainly got mine. A fascinating read about VHEMT – the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement. “Taking care of the humans that are already here is a major part of VHEMT. We can take better care of those who are here by not creating more.” [If paywalled use Incognito Mode]

How Wikipedia’s volunteers became the web’s best weapon against misinformation →

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A really enjoyable piece with some interesting insights into how Wikipedia managed to remain a fairly reliable and trustworthy source of information in a sea of troll-powered misinformation. “‘There’s a part of that that is encouraging, that says that a radically open, collaborative worldwide project can build one of the most trusted sites on the internet,’ says Ryan Merkley, the chief of staff at the Wikimedia Foundation. ‘There’s another piece of that that is quite sad, because it’s clear that part of being one of the most trusted sites on the internet is because everything else has collapsed around us.’”

 

Aesthetically Pleasing

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What you see here is made with only cardboard, glue, and toothpicks – by Greg Olijnyk.

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Digital artist TacoSauceNinja creates vibrant, captivating sceneries of fantasy worlds.

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Soo Zee makes a broth that originated from Sichuan China. This beautiful branding project turned the name (meaning 23) into “a character of many forms that represents the art of mixing 23 herbs and spices to create an authentic beef noodle soup that you won’t forget”.

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Degular is a gorgeous new sans family that comes in seven weights and three optical sizes.

 

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The Week in a GIF

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Email us the URL to your favourite GIF and we might feature it here in a future issue.

new@densediscovery.com

 
 
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Older messages

83 / Are you hibernating or wide awake?

Tuesday, April 14, 2020

The only thing that will redeem mankind is co-operation, and the first step towards co-operation lies in the hearts of individuals. – Bertrand Russell Featured artist: Brad Cuzen Dense Discovery Dense

A quick thanks and hello!

Monday, April 13, 2020

Dense Discovery Dense Discovery Your attention is precious. View Issue Archive → We're all struggling to keep up – with the news, social media, our inbox. The irony is not lost on me as I reach out

82 / Learning how to sit with discomfort amidst uncertainty

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone. – Blaise Pascal Featured artist: MUTI Dense Discovery Dense Discovery Welcome to Issue 82! View/share online

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