The Zen of Changing Lanes

Everything I need to know about Zen I learned from changing lanes.

Or, more accurately, not changing lanes.

My onramp to the freeway is a long, two lane stretch with a traffic light at the end.

Everyday I’m a-fluster when I decide which lane to move into. There’s the truck up front on the right side—that’s worth two cars for sure. But the left has two vans. Quick, left!

This happens everyday in the echo chamber in my head. It’s a weird thing to worry about. We all do it.

It’s silly–honestly–to think of how scared we are of picking a lane. Choosing wrong. The finality of it. It’s 37 seconds—I timed it. It’s 37 seconds in the slower lane. 28 in the faster one.

And for what? To get my turn to merge into the bulging freeway so I can wait and worry there about what lane’s best? (more…)

Designing Forwards and Backwards

I recently found this Creatiplicity podcast. The host can be a little precious, but in his episode Elliot Jay Stock says some striking things.

Why did we start designing?

We didn’t start designing because we wanted to “solve problems” or find “elegant solutions.”

We started designing things because we love to make and fiddle and shape and see what can come of it.

It’s interesting to remember this. It gets back to the diy/punk spirit of design.

We didn’t get into designing things because we cared about x-height or kerning or grids or bauhaus or wire-rimmed circular glasses… all those things we think will make a Frank Chimero or Jason Santa Maria notice us. (more…)

Jack Hart on Chunking Up The Writing Process

Break it down into manageable steps. Let’s kick this idea around. OK, now that we’ve kicked it around, what would you say your theme statement is? And that will help refine things. If that’s your assertion about reality, how are you going to demonstrate that? What sort of information do you need to gather that’s relevant to that? And so on, and so forth. If you do those things one at a time in a logical order, it’s much less intimidating.”

Jack Hart

Here’s some more writing tips on this site.

Design, Objectivity & The Punk Spirit

What does human nature, biology, and ancient Greek architecture have to say about how wide my sidebar should be?

I’ve recently been geeking out about how my calculator can help me design more gooder.

I’ve been influenced by people who say there may be objective-ish right answers to design problems… or at least righter answers.

Making it feel right

Up to now everything I’ve designed has been a product of feel: shaping the stuff to look right/good to me. Obviously often within constraints which shape the design as much as my “feel” (the CEO hates blue, the site must be accessible to weird people, the target audience is Australian Latinos, etc).

This is the only way I could have known how to make things. I’m self taught, no lessons, and the fun thing about design has always been caring about the experience and making it right.

But this feel-based approach has been called into question by a few smarty pants people. (more…)

How do we know what happens to us isn’t good?

“The police and emergency service people fail to make a dent. The voice of the pleading spouse does not have the hoped-for effect. The woman remains on the ledge – though not, she threatens, for long.

“I imagine that I am the one who must talk the woman down. I see it, and it happens like this.

“I tell the woman about a man in Bogota. He was a wealthy man, an industrialist who was kidnapped and held for ransom. It was not a TV drama; his wife could not call the bank and, in twenty-four hours, have one million dollars. It took months. The man had a heart condition, and the kidnappers had to keep the man alive.

“Listen to this, I tell the woman on the ledge. His captors made him quit smoking. They changed his diet and made him exercise every day. They held him that way for three months.

“When the ransom was paid and the man was released, his doctor looked him over. He found the man to be in excellent health. I tell the woman what the doctor said then – that the kidnap was the best thing to happen to that man.

“Maybe this is not a come-down-from-the-ledge story. But I tell it with the thought that the woman on the ledge will ask herself a question, the question that occurred to that man in Bogota. He wondered how we know that what happens to us isn’t good.”

Lovely short piece of writing from someone on internet: The Man In Bogota →

via Jae “Not afraid of bear-spray” Reichel

The Cocktail Station, a party hosting tip

I love putting great, exciting cocktails in my friends’ hands.

I’ve geeked out about cocktails a bit, trying the fancy fancy stuff, making my own simple syrup, buying essential oils, holding lots of things above my head and shaking them vigorously…

But these drinks take some work, and when you’re hosting a party you don’t want to be making cocktails for people all night – you also want to enjoy the party, dance, hang, relax, catch up, etc.

Yet, you want your fellow partiers to be a little excited about their drinks. how can you put great cocktails in your friends’ hands and enjoy your own party? (more…)

Radiohead on Self Publishing In Rainbows

The great thing about [releasing In Rainbows for donations] was [the music industry] didn’t like it because this wasn’t about the money – it was about the spirit of the thing.

Obviously we hoped to make money out of it, but it’s not about being greedy. It’s getting that whole thing back: what’s exciting about music? It’s the spirit.”

Ed O’Brien of Radiohead

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