#reminds me of that time i found out one of my professors was a hardline persu and had written articles defending racism

[thermodynamic-comedian]

the deep, resentful sigh lena let out when gwen said "she's a LADY." i know that sigh so well. that's the "oh my god she's a tory" sigh. my condolences king.

[idh4950-blog]

IDH 4950 Key Takeaways

Now that this class is winding to an end, I wanted to write a quick journal about what this class has taught me.

1. Don’t fear ambiguity

In this class I had a lot of difficulty grasping the assignment. I’m a blue person. I like fully fleshed out requirements, expectations and examples of what you’re looking for. I got none of that. I can’t count how many times I asked if my group needed to do something for the project and the response I got was “do you think you need to do that?”. Quick side note— that’s maddening for a blue person. I was a premed student before switching to political science, and this class made me reminiscent of my first weeks in political science. Coming from a hardline approach in the biological sciences where every question has an answer and it needs to be accurate to six decimal places, political science was at first very hard for me to grasp. I remember hearing “any answer is correct, so long as you can justify why” and thinking my professors were nuts. But I learned to adjust and find solace in the ambiguity of being able to form my own arguments. That was once again challenged once I got to this class. What could my professors mean that there was no rubric? No requirements? No guidelines for any activities aside from to decide what the single line of instructions meant to us? I felt out of my league. But once again, after understanding and growing accustomed to the lack of direction, I found solace in our activities. I enjoyed that we all had different outcomes to the same instruction. I loved that Luke’s version of the chindogu assignment was to make the products so impractical that they became unusable. I loved that our mindmaps looked absolutely nothing alike and took no common form. What this class has taught me is to not run from the ambiguity, but to embrace it. A hard lesson to teach a blue.

2. Don’t be afraid of change

Often times through the semester my group and I found ourselves at a cross roads. We needed to change paths once again and wound up back at square one. But without those changes, we wouldn’t have been doing our project justice. We wouldn’t be doing our clients (the pantry) justice. While it’s frustrating to feel like you’re in a never ending loop of being back to the basics, it’s that recurring need to reorient that makes the end result worth it. Continuing on with a poor plan isn’t going to make the end result any more satisfying, just because it saved you some time.

3. Take the “you” out of it

When designing or redesigning, we have this instinct to think of what we would want. Which isn’t always a bad thing, but I’ve learned it’s also not a good thing. When redesigning a space, you need to go and observe what the actual stakeholders want. What they’re missing. By learning what people need and hearing why your ideas for them won’t work, you better understand what would actually work. Once again, design with, not for. I feel this is something I will be able to take with me into the future. When designing policies, when advocating for future clients in the legal system, sometimes you need to listen to what the stakeholders want, not force what you think they need. This is a useful lesson and one I need constant reminding of.

Overall, this class has been really useful to me, not to mention a good time. I was really nervous about this course when I first signed up and those fears weren’t abated when I realized how abstract the course was. But the structure and the lessons helped me to grow. It made me more comfortable in my creativity and more comfortable with the unknown. I feel it’s made me better at taking a step back before I push my own thoughts and values onto a situation. And for that, I’m thankful.