Week 4

Give three examples of how you can use nature as a model/mentor/measure for your own designs (and life).

  • The first example of how to use nature as a mentor is quite simple. Our project is to literally to understand why people are getting Ebola from nature. More specifically how they are getting it from bats and nature. If the start of humans getting the disease is from nature, then we have to look at the model in which it spreads. If we can understand how this model works, we can then begin to adopt the protocols, so that people don’t get Ebola. Understanding nature as a model is literally how we will build our project.
  • The second way we can use nature in our designs for our project is to learn how nature gathers information, to use to make decisions. Now I understand that trees don’t make a decision about where they will end up being planted, but lions have to decide which way to walk to receive food. They have to gather information about where they are, what they are doing, the conditions, and what not. Then they have to find food. If we can better understand how they make decisions we can model this and learn from it. Too me, life is about the decisions you make, and I think the project, as well as myself, will take as much help as we can get in decision making
  • The third way is that I can use life as a mentor is more of a measure. Nature tells you very clearly if you are hurting it or helping. When your grass goes brown you know you did something bad. If I could somehow figure out how to do that with life, I would be better able to understand what is helping and what is hurting. Now I know you’re going to say, “talking is the solution”, but that doesn’t always work.

 

Pick one of Life’s Principles. Explain how you might apply it to your work and life (could be unrelated to your GSIF projects)

Resilience: In 2nd grade, I was diagnosed with dyslexia. Can you imagine barely being able to sound out a single word while the rest of your class is reading 20 pages of a book in a class period? Can you imagine the power a bully has over this type of person? Especially when you start popcorn reading. I had to work an hour a day with a tutor just to learn how to read, but it taught me that the battle is the fun part. The struggle is real and should be what you look for. Had I just given up, trust me there were many of time where I did for a little, I wouldn’t be able to sit here and type this. Talking the punches is valuable because it allows you to laugh your way through what seems like unsolvable tasks.

 

How do you envision integrating the Cradle to Cradle Design concept into your project (and life)? Give one compelling example.
I envision using the cradle to cradle design concept in the project by finding a way to not create a massive impact in collecting our data. Now the reality of our project is that our project is that collecting data requires a lot of energy, with this energy comes waste. If we can find a way to sort of use our energy more efficient or redesign the way in which collecting and analyzing the data happens we can better address this problem.

 

Give three examples of something very interesting you learned from a friend that was a completely alien concept to you.

  • This is going to sound ridiculous: the chocolate egg cream. I basically spent my summers as a child in Wisconsin, America’s Dairyland, yet I would have never thought that putting sparkling water and chocolate milk together would taste good until my friend ordered one. It’s a great combination and shows that you never know what will go well together.
  • The rubber band in a stripped screw. My boss at work taught me this one. My bet is you know what I am talking about, but if you don’t; if you have a stripped screw that you can’t get out, put a rubber band between the screw head and screw. The screw will come right out.
  • The final one is regarding how a sail works on a sailboat. I was a competitive sailor for all of high school, but the reason I began racing as a 13-year-old was that I had a science teacher explain that sails only push boats for only about 150 degrees of the 270 degrees you can actually sail. Sails are actually pulling the boats upwind in certain points of sail, their effectively wings on an airplane. That’s why if you have ever seen a photo of the boat below you would be confused why they would have a sail that could change angles because conventional wisdom would tell you that there would be less surface perpendicular to the wind.
  • Image result for americas. cup boats

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