Exploring our relationship to bugs as fellow beings
Designing with soul + how to work with every type of person (Issue #343)
Insects can be scary (like wasps), gross (like cockroaches), and annoying (like the ants that somehow made their way into my two-pound honey jar last week). They’re also essential to our survival: Bugs great and small are crucial members of ecosystems across the globe, whether they’re pollinating suburban flowers or breaking down leaves and dead animals on the forest floor. But as Christopher Halsch recently wrote in , humans are contributing to serious declines in insect populations. (Perhaps you’re familiar with the windshield phenomenon?) As we’ve done with so much of the natural world, we humans haven’t been very good at showing insects our gratitude.
Recently, a research group called Status of Insects reviewed hundreds of studies regarding insect decline. They found a few primary causes: intensive agriculture, climate change, pollution, invasive species, and habitat loss. So what can individuals do to support these small but mighty creatures? Well, Halsch writes, we can plant native species to help local bugs thrive. (He also mentioned dimming artificial lights, which can trap and kill certain species, at night.)
Recognizing our interwoven relationships with insects is also an important part of repairing ecosystems. Have you, perhaps, realized that your seasonal allergies have gotten worse in the last year? As climate change “supercharges” pollen, it’s also killing off bee populations, which are crucial to collective survival: Bees pollinate one third of the world’s food supply. Bees can also help us with those allergies; many people believe that local honey can help the pollen-averse, basically by inoculating them with trace amounts of pollen.
As someone who, just this morning, enjoyed a morning cup of tea while watching a tiny, neon-green inchworm find its way across a stone step, I also think that observation of insects can remind us, on a personal and collective level, of our place in the world: Not as rulers with the right to destroy anything in sight, but as simply another set of beings trying to make sense of the strange surface on which we find ourselves. Scientists have recently begun to think that bugs are indeed sentient. This means that, when we swat and smush them, they feel pain. It’s something to consider as we move through the world that these insects work so hard to maintain.
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Discussion-worthy stories
- Why do so many people think fonts just *feel* better a Mac than a PC? It boils down to rendering philosophy. Apple products display text true to how the design would appear in print, whereas Microsoft opts to focus on precise pixel placement. ()
- Researcher and service designer reflects on what’s missing from a lot of government, academia, and design consultancies: designing with soul. She describes it as balancing user needs with cultural fluency, compassion, and systems thinking.
- breaks down how to work with every kind of person on your team, complete with actual conversational prompts you can use. For naysayers: “Challenge them to contribute by asking for solutions instead of only sharing critique.” For eternal optimists: “Balance their enthusiasm with practical follow-through.”
Your daily dose of practical wisdom: on empathy as an entrepreneurial skill
“Anger destroys opportunity.” — , in What Smart Founders Do When VCs Say No
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