Couldn't Fit This On My Hand

This is amazing and I must share.  I am far too willing to work for free, thankfully there is an amazing flowchart created by Jessica Hische to help.  Sadly it doesn't fit on my hand but that isn't stopping my today.  My blog, I can do what I want.

For the original big version go here! 

Quit Compaining

Today's common sense came from an epiphany post yoga.  When I'm getting paid, enjoy when your boss wants you to put in more hours to change something.   He gives you great feedback and values your work.  Be thankful.  It's rare to feel valued working some jobs, when you have work and a great job, look forward to the feedback and changes you can make.  You rarely get it right on the first try, enjoy the journey.

A Little Late, But Very Inspired

Hokay, so.

These past few days I've spent creating and crafting.  It's been miraculous.  I've been experiencing a plethora of inspiring events nonstop for a few days.  So I apologize for the delay in posting. Time to catch up.

So, firstly, this was advice from a dear friend about my dancing.  It applies to basically everything though.  Also, it has been noted by numerous sources I'm happier when I do things I love.  I'm also happier when I create something or anything.  This brings me to the second. 

I've created 10-15 pieces of art since Thursday.  Some are crap, some are okay.  I don't care.  It felt remarkable to create something.  Between the 700+ photos I took this week, 4 hours of video to edit, a project mostly finished, a new portfolio and all the art, I feel practically tingly with inspiration.  It's bad for my bank account in terms of paper and canvases and my vanishing amount of wall space.  However, once again I don't care.

Lastly, a design thought.  I think the one size fits all mindset is excessively dated.  I got this idea from reading about education reform.  I've heard related concepts about place based solutions.  Very few if any solutions are universal.  So stop it.  Besides, one size fits all didn't even work in clothing,why would it work elsewhere? 

Post Script:  It's good I didn't delay any longer otherwise I would have run out or arm room.

Productivity

 
Okay, the lesson from this one is simple.  Get up earlier.  The problem is cuddling with an amazing man and sleeping in till noon.  Perhaps there is a balance yet to be attained.  Still, today I took almost 200 photos, completed a new portfolio, restructured another website for a group I am a part of and washed my car by hand.  I'm also very tired at 1 in the morning, as I should be.   Lesson learned?  Maybe perhaps.  Will I want to wake up at 7 tomorrow morning?  Hell no.

Yoda, Definitions and Catching Up

Last night I liked the idea of the difference between multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary.  They are not the same.  Often times people use trans-disciplinary, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary as the same thing.  This makes me peevish.  Having people in multiple disciplines is different from people working together across disciplines, which is slightly different from working between disciplines.  I think design thinkers flourish when they understand the difference and how to work within each group. 

 Today I picked the quote from Ray Bradbury, "You can't try to do things.  You simply must do things."  It is a little yoda-ish.  Still, my productivity soars when I just do things.  I can do miraculous things when I just throw myself into them.  Piffle is what comes from trying.  Or thinking about trying.  

Just doing things makes me feel impulsive and ridiculous, but I think I must embrace that.  The freedom it comes with requires that I move past fear and procrastination and my entire life should be lived that way. 

I'm Bad at Things

I have house guests currently, and 4 friends I dearly missed come visit me this afternoon.  So I've been rather distracted.  So I will post pictures tomorrow, as I will find my quote while reading before bed.  My apologies.

The Future

I want to know what the future holds, but it holds true I cannot even begin to predict it.  No one can.  Time to stop worrying.  I worry a little too often.  There is only so much I can plan for. 

I need to be adaptive and forget being stubborn or easily worried.  The majority of things I worry about never come to pass.  The majority of things I hope for actually come true.  Which is strange, but another reason I should stop worrying.

Time for some fun.  For something unexpected and maybe stupid.   

Career Path

Candy Chang did a project where she created stencils on the ground saying what I wrote on my hand to remind students of the bigger picture.  For me I wanted to be a banana as a kid.  Then a lion tamer.  Followed by learning every language on the planet to help people.

Today I want to change the world through good design.  I want to be a design thinker.

Well Defined Projects

If only projects came with all these clearly labeled.  They usually don't, but that doesn't mean they aren't there.  I hate it when projects take time to develop these.  However, the more projects I work on should hone my skills at finding, establishing and developing these quickly. 

If clients don't have them, I need to find them so time and money isn't wasted.  I've done a lot of that with numerous projects already.  Time to move on and grow up. 

Creative Antithesis

I have issues with anger.  I have for years.  Seth's blog this morning starts out with this.  I need to be consistently creative and insightful.  It's good to know my anger is the antithesis of my dreams and needs.

Plus people respond to me and my ideas better when I'm not seething with rage.  Plus rage leads to stubbornness.  Stubbornness never leads to anything good/creative.

Heroic Ignorance

I have been rereading the Last Lecture.  Since I have graduated and been looking at grad schools, I've been looking at bettering myself to be ready.  I don't want to treat it like I did my undergraduate.  I need to focus and be more professional.  The past 4 years were an improvement, but I can still do better.

My boyfriend has caught on to my fear of ignorance in the past year.  He'll ask me about stuff I don't know and watch me uncomfortably pretend I've heard of it.  Sometimes I have, sometimes I'm not sure.  I'll ask about it, but I am very afraid of being wrong or ignorant.  This will only restrict me in the future.

Randy Pausch talked about his ideal grad student.  When "Captain Kirk" came to his office and asked questions for hours about virtual realities, Randy admired how heroic he was.  He wished all his grad students were like that.  NOTED.  I have less than a year to stop being scared of my ignorance.  Teachers don't mind someone being ignorant if they are willing to learn.  I've always told my students this, it's about time I believe it.

Einstein on Design

Okay, so not only is that man brilliant in general, his observations on life were astounding.  My roommate told me about the fish one recently.  "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."

 
But back to the point, while using Stumble today (my new favorite obsession although I am a few years too late) I was sent to a page of Einstein quotes.  To me, this quote, speaks well to the idea of ideal design.  We love making things more complex than they should be or dumb things down.  Dumbed down ideas in an overly complex product looks cool but is just a waste.  It's easier, like most wasteful things.   

Dieter Rams has what some people call the 10 commandments of good design.  The last one is "good design is as little design as possible."  Simplicity is hard, annoying hard.  It's hard in mathematical proofs, it's a pain in education and just as annoying in design.  Ideas and design should not be dumbed down to the lowest common denominator, just expressed as simply as possible. 

K.I.S.S.  - Keep It Simple, Stupid!

Dead Horse

Today is a bit of a cop out.  This an old favorite of mine.  This is a great example of common sense I forget.  I think too many people drag around "dead horses."  Most of us even try to stay on them and just kick them trying to get them to move. 

Fingers are crossed in the hope I one day learn this.

Failure

I think too highly of myself when I think I'm not scared of failure.  Perhaps trying really hard to not fail is just procrastinating success. Still, every time I've failed, whatever I was working on was vastly greater than projects that came easily to me.

My teuxdeux (awesome website) today is to go fail gloriously at something.

This saying comes from IDEO.  I've been reading Change by Design, which is where I found this one.

Comfort Zone

I had started to think attempting to make my comfort zone big enough to include truly changing the world would work.  As long as I'm comfortable nothing will change.  I'll just end up on Netflix.  For hours.

As I tell students learning ballroom dancing, "if you're comfortable, you're doing it wrong."