In Amazement

Given all the cultural, political, social, and other commentary we find ourselves being encircled by, I’m currently most amazed with:

All the shit talking about the new Arcade Fire album, especially if you thought Reflektor was great. Don Jr. being seen as a boy and all black boys shot by police are considered scary men by the media. Why she didn’t just use all the dragons. Conservatives in creative (and tech) positions being all pissed off because their outmoded worldview isn’t being “heard.” Emails to & from people I regularly correspond with all of a sudden go into the spam folder. The “new” slogans the Democrats came up with. What passes for legitimate news sources these days. And what’s labeled “Fake News.”

I’m just amazed by these things. Not in a good way. Please mark it down for the record.

On Goals

Copy and pasted from JoeSparano.com (because I agree with it):

Hunter S. Thompson on goals — “The goal is absolutely secondary: it is the functioning toward the goal which is important.… [B]eware of looking for goals: look for a way of life. Decide how you want to live and then see what you can do to make a living WITHIN that way of life.”

Don’t Read The Comments

This is true for virtually all articles posted on the Internet. Pretty much all Facebook posts. And Twitter? Well, Twitter... 

Today in modern society everybody has an opinion about everything. Seem like by default. Whether they should or not. And while criticism is good to receive, comments on the Internet are not. Comments are a different thing. Mostly I consider them disqualified communication because they’re lazy. Snarky, dickish, mean, sarcastic, etc. But mostly, they don’t count because they are lazy. 

I used to be in the camp of all dialogue is good dialogue. Comments makes the original post better. The Internet is the great unifier for all types of discourse. I don’t think that anymore. Sometimes there are shining exceptions. But today, a Don’t Read The Comments mantra is the best way to carry oneself online.

Payment By Exposure?

This is not a thing. Please do not ever suggest that it is. Of course there are exceptions. But unless you’re the 44th President of these United States Barack Obama and you have something you want discuss, do not ever think that myself, or anyone I work with, is OK with the idea of getting paid with exposure. There’s a chance I would make an exception if Arcade Fire wanted me to come up with some crazy shit for their next album, but even then. Hard to say if I’d be down.

Measured. Considered. Thoughtful.

Enough with the knee-jerk reactions and the zip off of this and that. Emails, Tweets, opinions, responses, solutions, and so on. Why so quick to shout and growl and assert? Why so quick to not only assume you’re right but that you need to offer your voice to the conversation at all? What happened to listening, contemplating, and then, if it’s called for, acting? In this age of lightning fast fill-in-the-blank, maybe we need a measured, considered, and thoughtful shift. To the slow, meandering, late, or maybe even, not at all. 

Meeting people along the way

Design is a business of relationships. Not big business, but not super small. The projects are big enough to really get to know a person you’re collaborating with, but not so small where you barely get a sense of what makes him or her tick. In design, the people across from me, I feel like I get to know them, on a fundamental level. And I really like that.

Hustle, Scratch That

Rather, be thoughtful. Be open-minded. Be intentional. Hustle obscures the question of quality and overall effectiveness. It can answer questions like Is this any good? with Does it matter? Because I’m too busy hustlin’! 

Which is very unfortunate.

Design for the craft. For the problem/solution. For the opportunity. Not for the hustle. Not for the piling on of more and more design that’s rushed and hurried along. Not for the sheer movement of it all. Instead, design to be firmly planted in the process of making, which is where the beauty happens.

Why on Earth, in this short time that we have here, would you want to rush that?