Gerald Ajam

Library / Lineage

Ideas I inherited

Few useful ideas begin where we first encounter them.

Library

This page traces some of the intellectual lineages that have shaped my work: where particular ways of seeing came from, what I retained from them, and where I have become less convinced.

Each source is set out in the same four steps.

  1. 01Source or thinker
  2. 02Idea I took
  3. 03How I use it
  4. 04Where I qualify it

TBC

The thinkers, and what I took from each

The strands and their topics are set. The sources in each, the idea retained and where I have qualified it are mine to confirm, not to be inferred from the shelves. Until then each strand points at the shelf that already holds its reading.

Lineage

Learning

Topics

  • Memory
  • Cognition
  • Transfer
  • Feedback
  • Expertise
  • Instructional design

The reading so far: Learning science

Lineage

Design

Topics

  • Affordance
  • Reflective practice
  • Human-centred design
  • Situated action
  • Interaction
  • Systems

The reading so far: Design thinking · UI/UX and interaction design · Visual communication

Lineage

Systems and complexity

Topics

  • Feedback
  • Leverage
  • Emergence
  • Adaptation
  • Boundaries
  • Uncertainty

The reading so far: Complexity education

Lineage

Futures

Topics

  • Scenarios
  • Alternative futures
  • Backcasting
  • Assumptions
  • Signals
  • Uncertainty

No shelf holds this strand yet.

Lineage

Geography and place

Topics

  • Scale
  • Interdependence
  • Spatial relationships
  • Place
  • Networks

The reading so far: Learning spaces

Singapore