The Overhead Wire Daily | Planning and Transportation for Babies

I posted a piece in the New York Times that was shared by Shannon Mattern on Bluesky written by Jon Klassen about board books for babies. Jon is the author of one of my favorite books to read to my daughter “I Want My Hat Back”. We’ve read a lot of books thousands of times over but “I Want My Hat Back” stands out to me in that I didn’t get super board of reading it over and over like I do other books that cross our paths.

But there’s also a lesson he imparts that I really should listen to more often. Sometimes the moral, story, or idea you’re trying to explain could be simpler and easier, just imagine you have a baby sitting in front of you yelling “too long!” The wandering attention span seems like a good indicator.

This is something folks like Jarrett Walker do well and he noted just recently not to overwhelm the normies with our jargon and phrasing that means nothing to the outside world. But there’s also the art of telling a story, something that can be hard if you don’t have the writing chops or complex ideas are hard to simplify. For some people this comes easy, for others it’s a struggle.

Babies are of course not our target audience, but perhaps telling a simpler story will lead you in a new direction you never thought existed and help you connect in ways you never thought you could.