The Multidisciple Issue #1
A bi-weekly newsletter concerning the development of Multidisciplined
In my last newsletter here below, I mentioned my need to change things for Multidisciplined. In this one, I can be a bit more specific on how I want to/and have changed things.
Updates on Multidisciplined
The Multidisciple
I’m still interested in writing and sharing things weekly, but the researched and deep way I was trying to write things wasn’t working. To best meet that intention, I’m introducing The Multidisciple, a proper newsletter in three sections:
The first section is what you’re reading currently, the updates of Multidisciplined as a project (currently the best way to frame it).
The second section is titled Notes From a Multi-Disciple. Here you can see in real-time the concepts that I’m puzzling at that eventually feed into longer-form content. (It will also be a summary of the “Research Notes” portion of the website [see below])
The last section, From the Desk, showcases the newest publication or provides updates on the writing, art, or other work.
The New Website
In a previous post, I expressed a desire to find a new home for Multidisciplined. I thought that meant that Multidisciplined as a Substack site would cease to exist. I was wrong.
Introducing: https://www.multidisciplined.dev/
The site is still very much a work in progress. As it fills out, I will likely change pages as necessary and change the entire structure of the site. My intent is for it, including all the content, to change its structure as I change as well.
Notes From a Multi-Disciple
Design Research Revisited
In the note, Design Research as Phenomenology, find a sticking point about how Meike van der Bijl-Brouwer and Kees Dorst liken design research as similar to the work that a phenomenologist would do.
Intelligence as Fineness of Discriminations
I revived the following note in my personal knowledge management system to make use of Frederick Ferre’s point in Philosophy of Technology which expresses that intelligence could be defined by one’s ability to make discriminations. This is connected to the next note.
Modeling For Learning
I’m leaning on Khaitov and Samanova’s 2023 work on “The Importance of Modeling in Student Learning” for this note. This note, as the last one, reminds of the Drs. Cabrera’s extensive work on DSRP (Distinctions, Systems, Relationships, and Perspectives, a newer paradigm for systems thinking). Specifically, their work reminds me that the way that models help us learn is through the process of interrogating and interacting with a model, whether that be a mathematical model or a systems thinking-based model that is codified in DSRP.
Sociotechnological Vision (STV) as Decoding Design
I’m pretty excited about this one. Joseph Giacomin shows in his “What is Human Centered Design”, the note on the Multidisciplined website will do a better job at going into detail than I can currently, but in short, Giacomin details a graphical depiction of HCD that mirrors how I imagine what someone who goes through STV would.
The Objectivity Illusion
As depicted in this article, I’m reminded, just as DSRP and John Boyd’s OODA Loop reminds me, that we don’t perceive reality directly. We perceive reality through mental models, through our experiences, etc.
From the Desk
How to Enjoy the Dread of Being a Generalist
This is an older article from my time on Substack as Multidisciplined, but I’ve revived it as a way to help people understand a bit of what the site is about. In it, I talk about how the journey of learning a bunch of different things, in a number of different domains, can make an environment of a special kind of dread. What’s to do about that?
And that’s all for this newsletter. I appreciate the time you took to read this, it means a lot. If there’s anything in it that you like, please share it with the button below.