Change the way you look at something and you change what you're able to see
PRISM is a whiteboard-style workspace for exploring an object of attention through different lenses.
That object could be a question, a problem, a decision, an idea or something else you want to look at more closely.
Put it at the centre of the workspace. Bring different instruments to it. See what becomes visible.
The object stays the same. Your view of it can change.
The basic idea behind PRISM is simple. There are multiple ways to look at the same thing...
Upstream
Look upstream and ask what may have produced what you see now.
Downstream
Look downstream and ask what might follow from it.
First principles
Look through first principles and examine what sits
underneath your current account of the thing.
Structural analogy
Use a structural analogy and see what another system
or relationship might reveal.
The original object of attention doesn’t change. What changes is what becomes available for you to see and consider.
Why PRISM?
Think about white light passing through a prism. Before it enters the prism, it appears whole and complete. Then the prism separates it into colours that were already there but were not visible in that form.
That is the analogy behind PRISM. Something in front of you may appear equally complete: this is the situation; this is the problem; this is what is happening. Apply another way of looking and distinctions can appear that were not previously available to you.
“PRISM does not add those possibilities to the object. It gives you another way to see it.”
A set of ways of seeing, made usable.
“If changing the way you look at something alters what you see, how could those different ways of looking be made available as practical instruments?”
One analogy that helped the idea click was night-vision goggles. You do not need to understand how night-vision goggles work for them to help you see in the dark. They are human knowledge and human capability captured in a form that somebody else can use.
PRISM applies that same principle to ways of seeing. The instruments give you access to particular attentional operations without requiring you to already think that way yourself.
Not another machine for
producing “the right answer”.
PRISM is not designed to tell you what to think. It does not decide which possibility is correct or which course of action you should take.
Some of what a lens reveals may be useful. Some may not. That judgement remains yours.
"The question is simply: does looking at this differently allow me to see something that I couldn’t see before?"
What could you put into PRISM?
"Almost anything you genuinely want to explore.
A consequential decision.
A point of view you have become accustomed to.
A business problem.
Something that feels stuck.
A creative idea.
Something you suspect might look different from another vantage point.
PRISM gives you a place to put that object down, step outside your existing view of it and ask:
"What else can I see from here?"
PRISM is currently a working prototype.
The next step is to put it into the hands of people who find these ways of looking useful and learn what it opens up for them.
If getting a different perspective on something you have become used to seeing in one particular way feels valuable, join the waitlist. When PRISM is ready for testing, you’ll be among the first to know.
