Section I
Talks
Businessweek Design Conference
Cusp Design Conference
- Control to Culture Festival “Designing Experiences that Make Us Feel Alive” A talk for corporate and HR leaders on creating experiences that make people feel alive, including a discussion on getting risky ideas approved, finding fresh ideas, and lessons in failure.
- UNFINISHED Festival “Trust and Faith” An intimate conversation between Ida and the Rev. Dr. Patrick Malloy on the pandemic, recovering from betrayal, and finding trust.
- Immersive Design Summit Opening Keynote “Spiritual Trespassing” An opening keynote on experience design that writes down to the metal, including a guided exercise where the whole audience connected with their power animals.
- Cusp Design Conference “Superability” Drawing a throughline from childhood struggles with learning disabilities to adult design superability.
- Harvard Graduate School of Design “InfluencexDesign: Individuals” Harvard Graduate School of Design's exploration of influence and impacting individuals.
- Businessweek Annual Design Conference “Zombie or Not?” How has the last half century of successful design made us numb, and what does it take to know if you're a zombie or not?
Section II
Essays
- See You in Court — observations about how conflict works between people, drawn from volunteering as a small claims court mediator in Brooklyn.
- Your Move 78 and My Colorblind Glasses — ways to think about AI in 2026, inspired by a historic game of Go and my own neurodiversity.
- Astrology isn’t fake—it’s just been ruined by modern psychology — on how modern psychology warped how astrology was understood by those who created it, and the case for reviving its older, traditional methods. (The article went viral when it ran.)
- More essays on Uncommon Places Design — including “The Two Failure Modes of High-Stakes Gatherings” and “Host Better Hackathons”.
Section III
Research
Patterns of Transformation
- Patterns of Transformation — research into the design of transformative social experiences, drawn from well-done sex parties, funerals, and wilderness trips. Widely read within and beyond the experience design community.