Thoughts (...and questions) after listening to 'The Age of Outsourcing' by Matthew Syed

Themes: technology and humans, fashion thinking, creativity, creative education, design process, research

25 Years of the 21st Century: 3. The Age of Outsourcing

Have we outsourced our memories to our phones?

(Released On: 08 Jan 2025)

Show notes:

Is this the age of outsourcing?

A look at a much deeper shift in who we are, how we think, and where value is created. 

Macro level - how corporations have outsourced so much that they’ve become hollow.

Micro level - how we've outsourced our minds and memories to technology.

Production team

Editor: Sara Wadeson

Presenter: Matthew Syed

What's going on?

Technology and our minds

• Fact checkers no longer part of Twitter

• Low level tasks are being outsourced by companies - affects accountability when problems happen - what does that say about respect for the supply chain? The value of craftmanship, skills, etc

• ‘When Information is in abundance attention is a scarce resource’ - The effect of smart phones on our attention - even just having it close by is taking our attention away and effecting our ability to do things ( learning, creating etc)

• With information so readily available the onus is on us as people to self-regulate (emotions, thoughts, reactions, behaviour etc.)

• Internet allows for much speedier access to research and information - but what about accuracy and quality? As a curriculum designer, this shifts the value even more from outcome to process.

Technology, creativity and the design process

• How does this effect the creative process? when our emotions, thoughts and behaviour are being affected by technology - Its even more important for Designers to be aware of these influences

• In Fashion, innovation often comes from designers being inspired and developing unique concepts that challenge the status quo (Dieffenbacher, 2020) - As designers we adapt our methodologies in order to continue to create taste and meaningfulness in our work as well as usability and functionality

  
  

Definitely more on this later...

references:

25 Years of the 21st Century: 3. The Age of Outsourcing

Have we outsourced our memories to our phones?

(Released On: 08 Jan 2025)

Dieffenbacher, F. (2020) Fashion Thinking. 2nd edn. Bloomsbury Visual Arts.