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willsh.bsky.social
John V Willshire. Running smithery.com, a Strategic Design consultancy since 2011, also teaches @ RCA & IED Barcelona Makes artefactshop.com Writes buttondown.email/artefact Convenes https://lu.ma/stepscollective https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnvwillshire
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Watching The Sixth Sense with the youngest now. The titles are *very* widely spaced…

submitted 8 hours ago • 1 comment

#STEPS collective 9th May. 2 parts 1 Sharing examples and unpacking a few with the details of how they started. 2 bring and share examples you have seen of 'Citizen Design', a platform or process has been created to enact positive choices with citizens... @willsh.bsky.social lu.ma/stepscollect...

submitted 13 hours ago • 0 comments

Artefact 247 “I only know what I think if I write it down” buttondown.com/artefacts/ar... #newsletter #agentive #writing

submitted 13 hours ago • 1 comment

THE SOCIAL NETWORK was not harsh enough toward zuck

submitted 16 hours ago • 361 comments

This has made me quickly sketch out the Cross Quadrant guide to Elon Musk. More: crossquadrantbulletin.tumblr.com/spottersguide (cc @changeist.bsky.social @ndkane.bsky.social)

submitted 21 hours ago • 0 comments

Trying to work out what Google’s ‘moat’ even is around Drive, Docs, Slides and Sheets. Beyond copying features from other start-ups (eg Sheets has clearly nicked some Airtable features), doesn’t fell like there’s been any real innovation in years.

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

The days of Google Docs are ending; we enter the age of Docs, made by France's Interministerial Directorate for Digital Affairs and Germany's Center for Digital Sovereignty of Public Administration. We need more governments to collaborate on public software projects to achieve digital sovereignty.

submitted 4 days ago • 53 comments

I could watch this for the next hour. Top work.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Booking for #Devon Bat Survey opens 6 May. Borrow a detector for 3 nights and get a list of species for your 'square'. Last year we got nine. www.devonwildlifetrust.org/devon-bat-su... #bats 🦇

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

I went to an excellent online ‘bat spotting’ workshop last night run by the Bat Conservation Trust… then decided to go out and see what was around at sunset… (cc @sussexwildlife.bsky.social) #sussex #bats #ukwildlife

submitted 2 days ago • 2 comments

Yesterday I wore this* to a workshop with a smart casual dress code. 3 responses: * "I need to check that's what I think it is" * What brand is that? * I can't figure it out. So I got to introduce 2 people to new books! artefactshop.com/products/le-... * under a jacket. I'm not a farmer, Liz.

submitted 3 days ago • 5 comments

For those *amazed* at the styling of Zuckerberg’s new $23m abode in Washington DC, there may be something rather familiar in the aesthetic of this new-build estate going up here in Sussex. Lambasted as a taste-free, characterless blight on the local community, Zuckerberg is also the CEO of #Meta.

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

G’night then.

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

I have good news for people looking for the example that best illustrates the current VC/ai landscape.

submitted 4 days ago • 22 comments

For those *amazed* at the styling of Zuckerberg’s new $23m abode in Washington DC, there may be something rather familiar in the aesthetic of this new-build estate going up here in Sussex. Lambasted as a taste-free, characterless blight on the local community, Zuckerberg is also the CEO of #Meta.

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

'“This is the worst AI you’ll ever use,” AI evangelist Ethan Mollick likes to say – although Cory Doctorow’s insights about software's slide towards “enshittification” should serve to remind us that it’s more likely this is, in fact, the best it’ll ever be.' Spot on critique of Ed-tech's AI embrace.

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

so they're mycoblogging

submitted 5 days ago • 452 comments

did jd vance kill the pope?

submitted 4 days ago • 52 comments

JD Vance joins Liz Truss on an inauspicious list

submitted 4 days ago • 5 comments

I mean, this is also clearly JD Vance’s fault.

submitted 4 days ago • 2 comments

Mark Zuckerberg’s new house has strong “we won a five year planning battle with Alderley Edge council for permission to demolish the bungalow that used to stand here” vibes.

submitted 5 days ago • 197 comments

Not entirely sure bringing Johnny Sexton as a coach on the Lions tour is a terribly good idea. Not the most popular of players, and has spent four years taking pot shots in the press at players who’re going. www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/a...

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

Chief among the Ring's powers is its ability to deceive.

submitted 7 days ago • 4 comments

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

Of course I can see a colour nobody has ever seen. But you don’t know it, because it goes to a different school. www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

Actually, it’s maybe just the right time to watch it. It is roughly as long between its release and today, as it was between the release and the events of 1997 which feature majorly.

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

I decided to rewatch “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace” and oh my, I’m not sure this was the year for that…

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

That thing where you are digging out two trenches for the potatoes, and realise what else it looks like.

submitted 7 days ago • 2 comments

Guys, you're still trying to replace FDR. I told you we can't do it, and we can't do it. Now, what we might be able to do is re-create him. Re-create him in the aggregate.

submitted 7 days ago • 45 comments

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

Gillette’s Razor: the simplest explanation could always do with another explanation on the back of it. Or five.

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

Pennies are essentially worthless. But if I stole 7 billion of them from Mark Zuckerberg, I think he’d call that theft. If your business model doesn’t work without breaking the law, you’re not in busiess — you’re in organized crime.

submitted 8 days ago • 30 comments