Find Better Problems

When? Tuesday the 13th of November 2012 at 18:30

Where? Betsey Trotwood, 56 Farringdon Road

Find Better Problems is an event to celebrate the deeply intractable, frighteningly complex, and fundamentally important problems that make life worth living.

In June our good friends Sidekick Studio hosted the First Find Better Problems session. Now the baton has been handed over to us at Good for Nothing, so on the 13th November (during Internet Week Europe) we shall be hosting the next instalment.

The formula is simple

Take a room in a pub, invite four inspiring characters who have found better problems to share their story so far, add a sound system, some ale, a microphone and some better snacks, and fill with a crew of awesome folk, who deep down inside know that the current system is toxic and crumbling and that there must be better, smarter more brilliant things to be focussing our energies and passions on.

And this time around, we want to try a wee experiment. We want to open this up.

Where are the better problems?

• How do we find them?
• What stuff gets people excited?
• What problems look terrifying?
• Where are the opportunities for impact? Social, environmental, commercial.
• How can we help each other to get more stuff happening faster?

If you're up for coming we'd love to see you, you can register here, it's free but we ask you a couple of quick questions.

If you've got some ideas on better problems you can post them here. We'll take them into the event and explore them with an open mic session, if you want to claim a problem and open it up to the pub, then you’re very welcome, or if you want to throw something into the mix, an article, a link, some tunes, whatever, please do.

We don’t know where this will go, but it's Internet Europe Week right, so let’s collaborate and experiment and listen to good house music.

Guest Do-ers

Christophe Warrack is Founder and CEO at Open Cinema, helping build community cinema as a platform for participation, development and play.

Find Christophe online at www.opencinema.net and on the Twits @weareopencinema

Ed Dowding is Founder at Sustaination. Systems analyst and designer, strategist, writer, campaigner, provocateur, permaculturist, web developer, and occasional TV farmer and sheep wrangler. Hanging out on the Twits @eddowding and on the web at app.sustaination.co

Matt Linnecar - Founder Gnewt Cargo, find him at @GnewtCargo and gnewtcargo.co.uk

Olivia Knight

Olivia Knight is an ex brand strategist turned mother, film-maker and environmental campaigner who is now building a good, green startup from her kitchen table.

Find her at http://projectpatchwork.tumblr.com/ and @projectpatchwrk

See you there!
Stephen, tansy, Dan, and Jim

What's your Better Problem?

Login or join the movement to start sharing.

• 

  Problem from Marcela Teran

  I have a couple of better problems that I could share:

  1. A project I have been collaborating with called Plan Zheroes, the idea is to help make connections between businesses whith surplus food and charities in need. It is already generating some inspiring stories but still needs lots ofsupport and fine tuning. http://www.planzheroes.org/

  2. My final MA project how to support everyday activists engaging in positive social/environmental behaviours to make them feel more accepted, understood and promote spillovers. ---> http://startquestioning.wordpress.com

  3. A talk that's somewhat relevant. With so many better problems, how de we decide which one to focus on whithout being overwhelmed? .and how to stop societies from tricking us into focusing on the not so better problems?

  http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html

• 

  Problem from Hege Saebjornsen

  There is a current attempt to put a monetary value on natural resources - 'natural capital'- with the intention of 'aligning economic forces with conservation'. What is the better way to truly value the things we take for granted unless it dissappears (fresh drinking water, clean air, forrests, fish etc.)? What language do we use?

  Another one: What is the process to ensure that we are actually asking bolder more courageous questions?

• 

  Problem from Alexander Kenmure

  My better problem? The people I know who can solve better problems, don't (or sometimes won't) believe that there are better problems so they continue to provide solutions to worse problems(!) Maybe because the worse problems still seem pretty massive and scary and difficult to walk away from. This seems a tad inefficient to me. How to breed confidence in friends and colleagues to walk away from the wrong problems (and consequently all their personal investment in that problem) and address a better problem?

• 

  Problem from Chris Wells

  Inequality.

• 

  Problem from James Morley

  I'm looking to tackle two problems at once - motivating people to get more active, and raising money for charity. A Penny Per Mile is the simple solution. Choose any activity, set yourself a target, get your friends and family to sponsor you. The only bit left is to get off your backside and do those miles.

  What better incentive do you need to go for a run, walk the kids to school, or hop on the bike to work rather than take the car, when you know that every mile you do is going to your chosen good cause?

  I'm looking for support and possible funding to get it off the ground. More at http://www.apennypermile.com