Editors' Letter (The Learner)

Hello The Ones! So our first year has seen four editions of our signature #JustOne coat. The core philosophy is conscious living. We deploy product design as the means to bring our ideas to life.

For our latest project we've picked a different medium to express the same message - The LearnerIt's the ultimate companion for lifelong learners, because the mind we cultivate is our greatest asset.

The backstory

From our childhood education was always held sacred in our household. The narrative is a familiar one - as first generation children of Indian immigrants, education was always seen as the key to building our lives, finding freedom and commanding our own states of being. Yes there was the traditional vocational route (our siblings are doctors, dentists etc) but also learning broadly was always encouraged. The knowledge you accumulated was like a super power.

This has held true to this day. One thing we know for sure - innate proclivities exist yes, but 99% of everything else can be learned. Remember when you were a baby and you couldn't walk, drive, speak, didn't know what a mortgage was, understand why the sun rises and sets and what a meme is? You can't specifically, there was no 'mortgage epiphany', but eventually you learned, EVERYTHING. Some elements are physical, others social, psychological, behavioural. The brain is a huge processor and each person that lives and breathes is testament to the thesis that we each can learn and grow, into unrecognisable beings from our first few years.

The trick is keeping a regular practice and using tools that provide focus and encouragement. So, combining this thesis with science and design, The Learner represents our own method, refined through years of testing and tweaking. 

WHAT IS IT?

Stores are full of notebooks and journals with pithy quotes on the cover, but once inside the pages are one big dose of BLANK. The mind is already on full speed mode, as the day demands from us work and play with lots of grey patches in between. The last thing we seek is a daunting white space that doesn't speak to you. SILENCE is hard for anyone to deal with.

This is where The Learner comes in. We've added in structure, so you can organise your thoughts based on things you have:

SEEN / READ / HEARD / DISCOVERED

What's more there are Tips (ex. how to have more interesting conversations), Prompts (ex. what can I learn from someone I dislike), and a full Reference section at the back for further reading, learning and general mind-bending and enhancing stuff.

Made in Cornwall, England. In hardback so it's sturdy enough to take trips in your bag, smart enough to pull out in a coffee shop, intriguing enough to illicit curiosity from other human beings. 

Why me?

The world is changing, now is the time to act. As we transition from a resource economy to an ideas economy, the mind we nurture is our most powerful asset.

Know this:

- a Chinese factory replaced 90% of its employees with robots, reducing staff size from 650 employees to just 60. This lead to a 250% increase in production and an 80% decrease in defects.

- In 1943 Thomas Watson, the chairman of IBM proclaimed "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."

- A Western Union internal memo (1876) stated "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us."

- "We want Google to be the third half of your brain." Sergey Brin

Humans are cool! We can adapt, evolve and thrive. How liberating would it be if we could be our own personal experimenters, testers, learners? The Learner is a tool to catch the things that intrigue you, to help process the deluge of information, and then lead from a position of power to create and do cool stuff. This is design for living 2.0. 

 

'What we need to do is always lean into the future; when the world changes around you and when it changes against you - what used to be a tail wind is now a head wind - you have to lean into that and figure out what to do because complaining isn't a strategy.'

Jeff Bezos

 

The Learner is your start point, the rest is in your hands and minds.

Get yours here