Why am I writing this new book?
In short: Life principles is a book I'm writing for my son. It contains lessons that can help us design a better life for ourselves and others. It might end up being a children book, but for now it's just rough notes.
From Service Design to Family Life
Over the past few years, I've written over 400 tiny Service Design principles. These are ideas, tips, and tricks to improve the services we create for others and better serve the people and planet around us. But something big has changed since I started this writing journey—I now have a kid. So, I'm not only designing services but also working on designing family life, our family culture, and a way of living together where we don't want to all kill each other.
Teaching Life Lessons Through Stories
As my son grows older, he's starting to understand the stories we read to him. He asks what specific words in those stories mean and questions the deeper meanings behind what we read him. This got me thinking:
Instead of reading stories written by others that teach values that are not exactly ours, wouldn't it be nice to have stories that teach him important life lessons that I've learned?
Principles that could help him design a sweeter, more lovely, more calm life. That's the challenge I want to explore through creating this course or book. Yeah, I'm not sure what format this will have. But I'm starting it here, where I know how to start.
Why Share This Publicly?
You ask might say:
But Daniele, if this is for your son, why the fuck are you sharing such personal ideas publicly?
First, I believe in open source—sharing stuff so others can take what interests them and build on it.
Second, there's an accountability factor in showing that I'm working on it; it ensures I turn this rough idea into something real.
The third motivation is to motivate others to do the same. I believe a project like this helps you really reflect on the life lessons learned you learned and pass them on to the next generation. We spent years learning these lessons, so there might be value in giving them back.
f you're building a company, share your life principles so your employees can learn from you. If you're an educator, synthesize your biggest ideas about learning in your field. Or maybe you've had unique life experiences that could benefit friends and loved ones.