A beloved quote around The Hatchery is Michelangelo’s, “Critique by creating.” Nature abhors a vacuum which means a critique that offers no alternative vision can trigger people’s desire to maintain the status quo. Critique by creation is powerful because it expands people’s imaginations around what is possible. This edition of “Timely Innovations” will offer up three stories of people disrupting the status quo with acts of creation. Perhaps these innovators can expand your imagination!
When Data Clears the Air
Chicago is now home to
the largest air quality monitoring network in the country . The monitors
detect , “nitrogen dioxide, typically formed by the combustion of fossil fuels, and PM2.5… Exposure to both pollutants is linked to childhood asthma and cardiovascular issues. PM2.5 is increasingly being singled out as the world’s leading environmental health-determining factor — associated with acute mortality and morbidity for respiratory and cardiovascular health outcomes.” The project is called Open Air Chicago and came about after local organizers successfully brought a complaint to HUD about a South Side industrial development. Now, 277 monitors throughout the city make air quality data available to Chicago citizens, which can inform personal health decisions as well as public policy. The leaders behind the project took their moment of criticism and created something that would enable better outcomes for more people for years to come. Hopefully all Chicagoans can breathe a little easier!
Logging Off, Together
Our next creative critics are over in New York City. This year marked the first ever
Summer of Ludd festival . Advertised solely through posters and word of mouth, the event was “a weeklong series of talks and activities like
how to flirt and date offline , mending, and learning to
fight against data centers , all focused on getting people off their phones and into community.” The posters, scenery, signage, etc. were made by hand and in looking over it all there is a remarkable spirit of play that comes through. While there is certainly plenty of critique of big tech to go around, it’s clear that the organizers were showing off just how exciting, fun, and rewarding embodied social experiences can be. Field trip next summer anyone?
Built to Stay on Purpose
Our final stop of this tour is not a place at all but a book. Eric Reis, author of start-up bible The Lean Startup, recently released his new book,
Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad... and How Great Companies Stay Great . Reis does an admirable job of outlining the challenges founders who want to create mission driven companies have in staying on mission. What makes the book truly novel is Reis’s description of the legal mechanisms (like incorporation) that values-driven founders have at their disposal to build something that is “incorruptible”. The book is full of rich stories of how companies went astray, but equally, full of stories of companies that have been wildly successful precisely because they were built to stay on a mission of human flourishing. It’s a must read for anyone who wants to leverage business for good.
