NORTHERN PLANNER

I think that a big part of being a decent planner (and person) is being someone who others like throwing ideas around with – and not caring who thought of it. Stu said something really interesting today about passing things on. Loosely about not just buying something for the way it looks, or even how it works, but also being mindful about who you might want to give it to when you’re done with it, or who might want to buy it. Or even how your own tastes might change.

Lots of connections began to form. There’s the obvious stuff like what you might want to sell on Ebay, but also a few cultural bits kicking around. JamesB’s got me interested in repair culture and keeping stuff for longer – sustainable capitalism might mean we need to live with what we buy for longer – or make sure it’s useful for someone, or something else. There’s the economic conundrum of how we get bored with shiny new stuff quickly, but don’t have enough time with loved ones, some fuzzy stuff about customisation, personalisation and also the way I still treasure my Dad’s wooden Dunlop Maxply tennis raquet, but would never use it. It’s all a mess of thought spaghetti right now, but you never know.