A4: Design Ethos

Step 1: Shoulds and Musts

Musts: Being active, high achiever, interacting with the outdoors, trying new things

Shoulds: must aim for a high paying job, need a high GPA, must prepare as early as possible for the working world, should get a job right out of college

My logos that justifies most of my actions is the logic of performing habits that will benefit me in the long run. I feel like I tend to be a forward thinker and I am very motivated to do actions that will get me to a goal I set in the future. Therefore, I am mainly motivated by the logic of planning and how will my actions will help me reach a marker point whether that be physically, mentally, or career-oriented.

My pathos seems like it chases joy from completing milestones that I set for myself. If I see that one action causes an improvement that aligns with the goal that I have set, I get great pride and enjoyment out of that. On the flip side, I feel more stressed and lacking self-confidence when I am unable to perform these beneficial actions. I think this points to a feeling of joy in progress for me that I chase. When I see myself growing and comparing myself from where I was previously, I find a lot of motivation in that. In tandem with these emotions, I like to help facilitate the feeling of improvement in others. Teaching gives me a great deal of pride as I see in others improvement like I like to see in myself.

My ethos falls in line with my logos and pathos because I want to have the identity of a go-getter. I want to serve as a model of productivity and tenacity that I achieve most of the things I set out to do. I feel this is a big part of my identity and most of my actions are motivated by and are chasing this determined and productive image.

Step 2: Analyzing Actions and Values

My proposed CLA differs from the current status quo CLA by having more expanded and outward thinking values. I feel that oftentimes people focus too much on themselves, as we will in a culture where we believe that all our wants are expected to be met. However, if we are to come together collectively to solve this climate change issue, we must be willing to think about others and look at how our impact degrades the future for all humans that we wish to have. Here are the CLA changes that I proposed for the future:

Litany Change: People’s individual behaviors are given context in the large goal of climate change. People are actively thinking about how their day-to-day actions will affect their neighbors and our collective future. Akrasia is greatly limited and people are taking unconscious and conscious actions that result in a reversal of climate change. The mindset changes will influence all behaviors and help people commit collective action rather than individual action.

Systematic Change: systems are designed to reinforce the change in the litany. Systems should be built to make people more conscious about their responsibilities for a clean future, but also facilitate convenience while also reducing waste. If the system is too inconvenient for people where it's a hindrance to their efficiency, they most likely will not follow along the sustainable path. This would suggest a steady, subconical change rather than making the solution very noticeable.

World View Change: People see themselves more as a holistic group rather than an individual in the world. There is a collective spirit surrounding the world, and people grow together because of it. People become more aware and less autonomous of their actions as they start to see how people are affected as a ripple effect starting from them. Myth’s and Metaphors follow the same trend and are echos of the mindset switch from the world view.

Mattering Map Connections:

In the mattering map, there were three big things that stood out to me about their connection to climate change solutions. They were my drive to perfect what I care about, my love for self-expression, and my attraction to community and collective effort. I am driven to try and create and be a part of a wholesome community that shares selfless values and goals, and I believe that community should encompass the whole world. Because I aim for perfection, I want to try and perfect this community and create a perfect mindset for all with a great common goal. My love for self-expression lets me project the values I hold dear and hope that the community of the future would encompass some of these values a well. This drives me to look at myself and the world to see how we can come together to conserve our future.

Design Ethos:

Through the readings and also my realizations and thoughts, I have come across some points that have contributed aspects of my design Ethos:

• It is essential to make people understand and analyze the impacts of their action
• People who feel part of a community with a larger goal, are more likely to pursue that goal
• Being able to express your core values with the world, allows for more connection in the world community
• Perfection of how you can implement the effects of community and self-expression in the world is important for the fulfillment of my character

Step 3: Share a Story

When I was younger, I was never the best at soccer. I was oftentimes placed on the lower tier team for my lack of skill or being on the heavier side. There was a specific moment, where I was told I was going to be cut from the team that would eventually lead me to play in college currently. In that season, I worked harder than I have ever had and more importantly gained the hunger for self-perfection that I have to this day. My attitude also shifted. From being pushed around and told what to do, I seized my own situation and did the best I could with it. The whole experience gave me a resilience that is so important to me today to achieve the goals that I aspire to. This moment was when I began to express myself as a player. Before, I was too timid or scared to be the person that I was on the field. However, through this burst of confidence from the work I had known I had done, I was able to show who I was as a player and didn’t worry so much about what others thought.

Step 4 & 5: Rough Draft and Revisions

Rough Draft Link:

At first, my rough draft was very rough at best. I was really struggling with finding values that I really held dear and was passionate about. I started off simply trying to look at the values head-on, almost trying to brute force self-reflection which did not end up well. I wanted to describe the origins of my character and I also found I struggled with this step as well. This is why when I placed slides detailing the origin of my traits, they were left blank. However, I decided to take a different approach for my final presentation, and looked to find values connected with the activities and habits that I am passionate about, and find themes within them that could shed light on my character.

In a sense the audience for this presentation was me. I realized that I was almost, if not more clueless about who I was than to someone like my parents who had watched me grow and change over my entire life. Therefore, my goal in this process was really to explain to myself why I was the way that I was and to find connections in my own life that could help me dictate decisions in the future.

The way I decided to communicate my design ethos was to first look at my actions and activities to break down what exactly was important for me in deciding how I would like to conduct my future. Through these themes, I can find values that I connect with, and can use these to inform my decisions in the future so I am listening to my musts rather than my shoulds. I also wanted to look at what stops me from doing the things that I love through akrasia. I have found throughout my life, that the main reason I don’t do things is because of fear of a negative outcome. I tend to not lack motivation, however, fear tends to govern whether I will take a risk or not. I believe by presenting on finding ways to overcome that fear, through a focus on passion, I can better understand myself and my obstacles for leading a fulfilled life.