If Facebook went away tomorrow...

... that wouldn’t be a bad thing. It’s become a place I look upon with mild annoyance and snark. I don’t take it seriously and while I like the people I’m connected to on the platform, it’s something akin to a shot of Jägermeister these days. Sure, it used to be amazing but now it just tastes too soupy. Maybe it always did. 

Twitter however, even though Twitter pisses me off in big ways, if Twitter went away tomorrow, that would be a bad thing. Despite the strange feature updates, its odd policies around cyber bullying, and the way it can be like a cesspool of hate, Twitter is still super valuable. So much so, that it would be better if it was just a public utility. A part of the government that had real rules and guidelines for engagement. These rules would be enforced and people would adhere to them, even far right nut jobs (yes, even @realDonaldTrump), because the fact of everyone being in one place talking about the big things that are being talked about is something that cannot be passed up.

In this universe of Twitter as public utility, it would have to go through a redesign. Too many people don’t “get” it. And it’s currently just too, I don’t know, round. It’d be a massive project that would need to involve more perspectives than the makers of Twitter have now. If done right, it would be the new CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite where everybody tunes in and everybody is talking about the same things, at least more than we do now. Young and old, black and white, liberal and conservative. All in one place together. All being heard, all having a voice, all sharing the same reality.

I like rules, I love exceptions

Hence, I like/love design. Sometimes both at once. It’s all about emphasis and timing. Put together a masterful set of rules, guidelines, frameworks, and boundaries. But always be on the lookout for when breaking those makes the most sense. When you find just the right time to strike, then go ahead and break those rules, guidelines, frameworks, and boundaries. When it comes to design, the work will be better for it.

More Protective of Time

That’s the thing, isn’t it? Time. The most important thing we have. Certainly more important than money or success. And just what are we going to choose to do with it? Do we even have a choice? I’d like to think so. So the question remains, what do we choose to do with it?

Internet Fatigue

It is, in fact, insanely easy to do things on the Internet. And this Xennial knows what life was like before its speed and connectivity. When you had to always call people on the phone or show up in person. We tried to schedule a small tour in our punk band back in college, before the Internet was effortlessly used for such things. And it sucked. Mail, phone, mail, call. Hated it. 

But, since it’s so easy to do things on the Internet, you just pile on more things. And now, with the pile so high, I just have an immense amount of Internet fatigue. Gotta book the car, find the hotels, schedule the windows consultation, pay the bills, add design work, buy the tickets, check the schedule, accept the invite, read the news, read the latest news, read the latest latest news, and, of course, Tweet and Tweet and Tweet and... Everything rolled into one...

Internet fatigue is very real. Boy is it real.

Giving up on the idea of being “good”

Just let “good” go. Do not even categorize what you do in terms of good and bad (or not good). Instead, just do the design work. You went to school for it, you honed your skills, you’ve evolved over the course of however many years. Why does it matter if you’re good? Instead, focus on the task at hand: solve the problem, find the opportunity. Be a worker and get the job done in the only way you know how to do it. If you can let go of being “good,” you can focus on delivering what it is you came to deliver.

When you just need to clear it all out

All the shit you’re holding on to, just don’t. Let it go. Close it out. Move on. Say good-bye. Just be done. Maybe it’s a lingering project with no deadline or perhaps you can’t bring yourself to state the obvious, but you know deep down you just have to cut the chord. Set it lose. Get rid of it. It no longer is part of you, it doesn’t bring you joy, and it isn’t what you want to be thinking about. So there you go, just be brave. Clear it out and move on to the next. And trust yourself, there is a next. No need to be fatalistic.

Here to put in the work

Not to game the system or get around the system. Not to take the easy way out or to half-ass it. Or to phone it in. Yes, I can be lazy, shirk duties, and have days when my heart just isn't in it, but the standard approach I have to design is that I’m here to spend the time I need to put in to do the work. I’m not here to overcharge, do the bare minimum, or to get it done as fast as possible. (I suppose that last one depends on the deadline.) I’m not hear to automate the thinking, to do something that barely passes, or to even have something that’s just OK. No, I am here to put in the work. Sometimes I’m tired when I’m putting in said work, but that, I think, just comes with the territory.