Posts

Showing posts from December, 2020

On judging a book and its cover

Image
Earlier this year I had grand plans, like most of us did, of what I’d do with all this extra time I’d have from not having to commute to and from work since we’d all gone remote. It’s fair to say that in hindsight, that was a naive of me. As we’ve all found out, sitting home in isolation is actually far from a relaxing activity. Especially when the world outside is on fire and we start to recede into our own minds. Ideally, I would’ve read a few dozens books in this time (and I’m sure some people have, kudos to you). In reality, what i have managed to do is to read a few pages of several books and almost never finishing any one of them.  This morning, I felt like I was in the mood to read something. So I picked up a book that had only recently arrived. President Obama’s A Promised Land. (I’m only 30 pages into this one too so we’ll see how long this lasts). This book’s cover is rather minimal. It features a greyscale portrait of the president, his name and the title of the book in some

Hope: for public problem solving

Recently, I had the great pleasure of being interviewed on a podcast called " Hope ". A group of young Indians is putting together this great series as part of the United Nation's. 75th anniversary (#UN75) and are featuring guests far more accomplished than me so I'm doubly honored to be in such esteemed company! In this hour long conversation, I discuss the importance of defining problems before jumping into solving them, the importance of data and critically, the public in the public problem solving process. All the good bits are based primarily on the work of my amazing colleagues and team at The Governance Lab and all the the bits you don't like are most likely things I've been ranting about on this blog for eons 😂. If you'd like to learn more about the stuff I spoke about, checkout thegovlab.org and also Professor Beth Simone Noveck's upcoming book, " Solving Public Problems ". I hope you'll give it a listen and let me know what yo