Trying on Lenses

Mixing & matching views on and from: tech, startups, risk, business, & policy

Welcome to The Refractor by Rob Terrin. This is a space to try out perspectives that come from tech on business and policy; business on tech and policy; and policy on tech and business. Below is an image of one type of refractor, a phoropter, but there are others! Any lens or other object which causes refraction is technically a refractor.

This includes, but it not limited to prisms, telescopes, your eyes, cameras, and rainbows. One of my favorite people, talks frequently about how the tools we have shape the way we see the world:

Carmen A. Medina @milouness

Excellent article that reminds me that Our Ability to Know is ALWAYS a Function of our Tools for Knowing. aeon.co/essays/the-bli… via @aeonmag

aeon.coThe blind spot of science is the neglect of lived experience – Adam Frank, Marcelo Gleiser & Evan Thompson | Aeon EssaysIt’s tempting to think science gives a God’s-eye view of reality. But we forget the place of human experience at our peril

My hope is that this space is a place to try out, borrow and learn about tools from one field, then use them in other fields, to gain new knowledge. I promise to be respectful of your inbox, and won’t publish more than once a week. Feel free to reach out and continue the discussion.

Please join me as I try looking through different lenses at enduring themes. No pressure to sign up. Glad to have tourists here as well as longer term readers. If you’re in the second camp, here’s your chance to follow along with minimal effort: