(webdev Tory) @worldsendless@qoto.org

December 1. Start of #AdventOfSystemSeeing 2023 edition.

Like last year, there will be daily prompts on the AdventOfSystemSeeing hashtag (making it easy to follow or mute).

The idea is to do daily (15-20 minute) exercises in a System Journal (notebook). These could be a “make your own advent(ure)” sort of thing, or you can follow the prompts on the hashtag each day.

Day 1 #AdventOfSystemSeeing

Without looking at one (not even a picture), draw a bicycle.

Annotate with observations and questions that your drawing raises for you.

(I have us do this exercise during of some of my workshops. It’s more interesting and useful than it sounds — probably.)

Day 2 #AdventOfSystemSeeing

On Systems

Jot down your ideas about systems. This will form a useful baseline to look back at, when we get to the end of this advent(ure).

You could use a Mind Map with branches such as "definitional concepts," "related concepts," "approaches to," "people to learn from," etc. Or a Concept Map. A set of doodles perhaps. Text. Or something else -- let us know what you tried (if you'd like to, of course).

It's the weekend. It'd be nice to have fun with it.

Day 4 #AdventOfSystemSeeing

Identify Focal Situation

Think of a situation you want to explore as we practice various systems approaches and views. It's good if it's something that matters to you, but don't stress too much about your choice, as you can always shift focus as you explore and refine your understanding. If it helps, think of a challenge you’re facing, that you want to understand better, and address/resolve/dissolve...

Briefly describe the situation.

Day 5 #AdventOfSystemSeeing

Sketch the Situation

Start to explore the situation you described on Day 4 - visually this time. I like Rich Pictures for this: identify who (people, organizations, systems) is involved in this situation, how they interact, (annotating to add) what their purpose and role is as it relates to this situation, what they care about, their concerns, and so forth.

Use words and images, but keep it informal and sketchy.

Day 6 #AdventOfSystemSeeing

Re-Center

Take a look over the visual situation description (rich picture) you drew yesterday. Pick a person or group that is significant to the situation you’re exploring, and center the next frame on them. Draw a Rich Picture of the people, systems, organizations, etc. that they're encountering, as broadly related to their concerns on the previous visual situation description (rich picture).

Day 3 finished, only a couple days late. Would have been sooner if I'd written fewer bugs
https://github.com/lambdasierra/adventofcode2023/tree/e1d26a64e2061502ce914907fdbb3b869600adea/clojure/src/advent/day03

#AdventOfCode2023 #Clojure #AdventOfCodeSpoilers #AdventOfCode

@gugurumbe Thanks for the reminder! I've resorted to writing my own of some things because the quantity of npm dependencies were maddening.

https://qoto.org/@worldsendless/110352073303676309

@worldsendless At work, we have Office 365 so we ought to use Teams, right, since we get it "for free" with O365? We tried it. We prefer to pay for Slack (in addition to O365) because it just all round works better and has better integrations etc. In the same way we also pay for Zoom because it works better than the A/V and screen sharing in Slack. I would sort of prefer we only paid for one collab platform but none of them on their own work well enough in all cases to supplant the others.

Right now, in the midst of our year-end fundraiser, we are just a little over 10k away from reaching our next major milestone of 100k! A big thanks to all who have participated so far! And if you're reading this, and you're ready to participate, please read: https://u.fsf.org/41e Every contribution, every boost/share, helps us in our mission. #LearnLibre #FreeSoftware #Education