Noah Fang
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kingofark.bsky.social
Noah Fang
@kingofark.bsky.social
1.7K followers 88 following 520 posts
https://kingofark.com/

Design practitioner, author and occasional speaker, working on design, strategy, and organizational transformation. Was creative director, UX/product manager, visual designer, editor, translator, programmer and more.
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kingofark.bsky.social
When we use process and structure to fix cultural problems what we often get is more lying and cheating. Little lies become bigger lies. And the behavior becomes normalized. (The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek)
September 12, 2025 at 1:56 AM
kingofark.bsky.social
The days of my youth, as I look back on them, seem to fly away from me in a flurry of pale repetitive scraps like those morning snow storms of used tissue paper that a train passenger sees whirling in the wake of the observation car. (Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov)
September 10, 2025 at 1:32 AM
kingofark.bsky.social
Under the delusion of user-power, both use-situations and users themselves are designed to align with the designated distribution of power and agency set by the stakeholders in power, such as clients, institutions, or funding agencies. (The Corruption of Co-Design by Otto von Busch and Karl Palmas)
September 4, 2025 at 3:33 PM
kingofark.bsky.social
We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep.... (The Tempest by William Shakespeare)
September 4, 2025 at 3:32 PM
kingofark.bsky.social
Most managers, to be sure, are good people; and it seems unlikely that a couple of years of pseudovocational training will spoil them. But it is foolish to imagine that they will behave well merely because they are told in business schools that they should regard themselves as professionals. (The Management Myth by Matthew Stewart)
September 4, 2025 at 3:30 PM
kingofark.bsky.social
Technical progress tends to be more tangible than design progress: it's very difficult to design the right solution, and fairly easy to technically execute many solutions. (101 Things I Learned® in Product Design School)
September 4, 2025 at 3:25 PM
kingofark.bsky.social
Refraining from asking for justification beyond managerial edict, tradition or fashion, is a key aspect of functional stupidity. It also results in the reproduction of problematic conditions and a shortage of what is sometimes referred to as 'voice' in the organization (Morrison, 2011). (A Stupidity-Based Theory of Organizations)
September 4, 2025 at 3:23 PM
kingofark.bsky.social
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
August 30, 2025 at 5:56 PM
kingofark.bsky.social
Importantly, design thinking is primarily a North American phenomenon, and not the universally applicable, culturally neutral practice it is assumed to be by its prominent practitioners. (Design by D.J. Huppatz)
August 30, 2025 at 2:46 AM
kingofark.bsky.social
The soft sciences are hard. The factors that shape human behavior are largely amorphous and likely infinite. This makes it very difficult to frame questions about people in scientific terms, identify reliable variables and controls for a study, and draw clear conclusions from the data. (101 Things | Learned® in Psychology School by Tim Bono)
August 29, 2025 at 2:00 AM
kingofark.bsky.social
Systemic design applies sensemaking skills such as visual storytelling and visual analysis, drawing out wisdom through dialogue, and knowledge translation through diagramming. (Design Journeys Through Complex Systems by Peter Jones and Kristel Van Ael)
August 29, 2025 at 1:58 AM
kingofark.bsky.social
In China, philosophy has been every educated person's concern. In the old days, if a man were educated at all, the first education he received was in philosophy. (A Short History of Chinese Philosophy by Yu-lan Fung and Derk Bodde)
August 25, 2025 at 8:29 PM
kingofark.bsky.social
When leaders take steps to protect their own interests, particularly when those steps are taken at the expense of others, they send a message to everyone else that it is okay to do the same. (Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek)
August 23, 2025 at 5:19 PM
kingofark.bsky.social
The American welfare state is politically vulnerable because it does not rest on a sense of national community adequate to its purpose. The nationalizing project that unfolded from the Progressive era to the New Deal to the Great Society succeeded only in part. It managed to create a strong national government but failed to cultivate a shared national identity. (Democracy's Discontent by Michael J. Sandel)
August 23, 2025 at 5:17 PM
kingofark.bsky.social
like lectures, non-fiction books don’t work because they lack a functioning cognitive model. Instead, like lectures, they’re (accidentally, invisibly) built on a faulty idea about how people learn: transmissionism. When books *do* work, it’s generally for readers who deploy skillful metacognition to engage effectively with the book’s ideas. This kind of metacognition is unavailable to many readers and taxing for the rest. Books aren’t pulling their weight. Textbooks do more to help, but they still foist most of the metacognition onto the reader, and they ignore many important ideas about how people learn.
August 22, 2025 at 1:11 AM
kingofark.bsky.social
If someone is only misinformed, you just need to provide them with correct facts and they can become rightly informed. But misinformation persists precisely because knowingness shields a person from learning. ("Knowingness" and the Politics of Ignorance by Brian Klaas)
August 20, 2025 at 1:29 AM
kingofark.bsky.social
In the same way that Taylor supplies the metrics required for managers to gain power over pig-iron loaders and the like, Ansoff and his planners give top managers the metrics they need to control middle managers. Strategic planning is a species of rhetoric—a kind of "expert talk" —that justifies the power of top management over the middle. (The Management Myth by Matthew Stewart)
August 17, 2025 at 4:58 PM
kingofark.bsky.social
There are too many well-meaning people who know better, who override their sensibilities and play along with what they see the mainstream culture rewarding, hoping to realize their goals for success. They play mind games, trying to believe that there's no better way to manage people, or interact with them, without jeopardizing their own aspirations and success. In the end it's all about keeping your job, getting ahead, and ignoring the costs. (Good People, Bad Managers by Samuel A. Culbert)
August 17, 2025 at 4:57 PM
kingofark.bsky.social
Democracy in its present form cannot survive the merger of biotech and infotech. Either democracy will successfully reinvent itself in a radically new form or humans will come to live in "digital dictatorships." (21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari)
August 17, 2025 at 4:55 PM
kingofark.bsky.social
You don't sell someone something by engagement, conversation and relationship. You create engagement, conversation and relationships by selling them something. (101 Contrarian Ideas About Advertising by Bob Hoffman)
August 15, 2025 at 7:15 PM
kingofark.bsky.social
Most people appreciate those who: - Are genuinely interested in the work they are doing - Ask good, thoughtful questions - Have respect for their skills and beliefs - Are helpful (Why Design Is Hard by Scott Berkun)
August 15, 2025 at 7:13 PM
kingofark.bsky.social
Big government versus small government is in many ways beside the point. If government is successful as a platform, you could have small government and big services, just like Apple does with the iPhone. (Wtf? by Tim O'Reilly)
August 9, 2025 at 6:39 PM
kingofark.bsky.social
What can be a mistake politically is to assume that particular ideals— including social justice— can be something that society can just "arrange," through government, without considering the particular patterns of incentives and constraints inherent in the institution of government. (Social Justice Fallacies by Thomas Sowell)
August 9, 2025 at 12:05 AM
kingofark.bsky.social
Reading books or traveling yields one level of intellectual diversity, but nothing equals the power of working with people who implicitly bring those perspectives into everything they contribute. (How Design Makes the World by Scott Berkun)
August 9, 2025 at 12:03 AM
kingofark.bsky.social
Draw to discover what you see. Write to discover what you think. (Excellent Advice for Living by Kevin Kelly)
August 9, 2025 at 12:02 AM