Paper Rules

working for a company where everybody constantly talks about the importance of prints, I couldn't contain a smile when I read this quote (although from a fictional character)

round 2

here's another variation...incorporating some leftovers. I'm big on asparagus lately because I'm fighting a cold, and I read that they help.
truth is: I just like them.
mahalo

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Dee-Lee-Cious

I enjoy cooking. don't even think about giving me a recipe though, I just follow my nose...and taste buds.

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Muscles

The heart is a muscle.
Physiologically that’s a known fact. But It’s also true that in most cultures the heart is considered the center of our emotional sphere.
Let’s look back at the first statement though, and build on that a little. We know a lot of things about muscles: if you stress a muscle too much it will hurt, potentially resulting in serious damage; a muscle’s ability to perform increases with regular exercise; without regular use they experience atrophy, temporary or irreversible depending on how long the inactivity lasts; using a muscle for the first time in a while will result in pain too, but that kind of pain is almost considered “good” pain, any sport enthusiast knows that it’s a sign of the muscles building up to the condition needed to perform.
Although this list could go on, let’s stop here and look back at the other meaning of “Heart”, the emotional meaning. Does what we know about muscles apply to the heart as well? I would argue that in most cases it does. Some people are naturally more inclined to love, and love in a more powerful way, just like some people are more naturally fit and better athletes than others. It’s also true though that anybody can become a better athlete with exercise, and along the same lines I believe that anybody can improve the way they deal with love and emotions by exercising them. Incidentally, the euphoric feeling that you experience when you’re in love is similar to the feeling you get during and after a strong physical performance.
Of course doing sports is hard work, and the fear of injuries, or the sore muscles, can be enough to scare some people, pushing them away from the opportunity to have a healthier body. It’s also true that those who get past those fears find great joy and satisfaction, and look back to their own “lazy” days as missed opportunities.
The heart is the same way: everybody knows love hurts.
A lot of people also know that it’s a worthwhile pain.
mahalo

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Formulas

Living in the States as a foreigner gives the opportunity for some interesting observations: it fascinates me to see how different certain behaviors, approaches and reactions are.
Today I want to mention formulas. Americans live by formulas. For the outsider it’s mind blowing to notice how this applies to virtually anything, from complex work issues to interpersonal relationships.
Formulas have a great strength: they simplify and frame a problem, making it easier to deal with it, sometimes removing the need to understand the problem entirely. At the same time, for the very reason that creates their strength (simplify), they remove or disregard parts of the situation. In an world where everybody, or most players (including the problem) play by the rules, this approach works pretty well. And the US, in many ways, are that world.
The only danger is that the little bits left out by the simplification could pile up into a big issue, therefore although the process runs smoothly, and all the steps are respected, the outcome can turn into a disaster.
Furthermore, in certain fields (such as when dealing with emotional issues), the simplification required to define an actionable formula is even further from the complete picture of the problem, given that there are added layers of interpretation. There might still be an illusion of positive outcome, since the steps and results compute properly, but the real problem, or a portion of it, could be hiding in the missing pieces, and it’s hard to even see that the solution isn’t really solving anything.
In Italy we don’t believe in formulas much, probably because it’s hard to find somebody (or something) that plays by the rules. Or, perhaps, because the longer and more fragmented historical past has generated layers of complexity that make the formulaic approach much harder to apply. In any case, our approach to things is to try and understand the problem from any angle possible, and then just go in and face it, ready to improvise our way through it.Less efficient, for sure. Far more adaptable though.
In my mind it’s obvious that we should learn from each other: there’s no need to question the structure of everything all the time (like Italians do), it’s a terrible time sink, and in a lot of situation the benefits are marginal compared to the resulting inefficiency; on the other hand, the world is getting more and more complex, and the formulaic approach (at least for some issues) becomes more and more dangerous.
Something to think about.
mahalo

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technology

i am posting this speaking into a phone. not typing, speaking. i am not a huge technology fan but this is pretty amazing

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Throwing Away the Alarm Clock

I heard this poem by Charles Bukowski on the radio yesterday, and even if I'm not a huge fan of his, something made me want to post this, so here it is:


"My father always said, "early to bed and
early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy
and wise."

it was lights out at 8 p.m. in our house
and we were up at dawn to the smell of
coffee, frying bacon and scrambled
eggs.

my father followed this general routine
for a lifetime and died young, broke,
and, I think, not too
wise.

taking note, I rejected his advice and it
became, for me, late to bed and late
to rise.

now, I'm not saying that I've conquered
the world but I've avoided
numberless early traffic jams, bypassed some
common pitfalls
and have met some strange, wonderful
people

one of whom
was
myself—someone my father
never
knew."

what do you think?
Mahalo

Where do I sign up?

The other night I was hanging out with a friend, we were talking about plastic surgery (i know, this topic seems to be coming up a lot). I have a hard time understanding it, unless there's a serious condition that needs to be fixed, but I was happy to hear that she feels the same way, and I know that her husband (he's one of my best friends) couldn't care less for that stuff.
After a while we concluded that, for our age (I'm 41, she's a little younger), we can't really complain about our bodies, we're in pretty good shape, we don't have to take any meds regularly, and our bodies still let us do most of what we love. I think that she joked saying: if they told me 20 years ago that I'd be in this shape now, I would have said "where do I sign up for that?".
This got me thinking: I could probably say the same, and it applies to many different aspects of my life: I have a good job and a good salary (that I complain about, of course :)), I live in a nice house, pretty close to the ocean, I can surf regularly, I have a beautiful family, I'm pretty healty.
And don't even get me started on the life I've had so far...I've experienced stuff that most people only dream about, I've seen a lot of places, met a lot of people...my existence has been rich and interesting, with ups and downs, of course, but I 'touched' a pretty wide spectrum of experiences, emotions, people. Not much to complain about, really, but sometimes I seem to forget and start whining about what I don't have.
Well, in those moments I should think back to the early part of this journey, imagine that boy that I was 20 years ago, walk up to him and say: "you know, in 20 years you could be this man".
I bet his response would be "where do I sign up?"

mahalo

Ink Calendar

something interesting I found: a calendar concept where the carefully designed capillary action of special paper paces ink absorption, to show dates as they go by. Crafty and poetic at the same time.




you can find the full story here: http://dvice.com/archives/2009/07/ink-calendar-re.php

PLAY

I've been reading and watching speeches on how important it is to play. This, of course, is nothing new for most designer...I think we initially choose this profession because we intuitively see that it has something to do with PLAY, something we're not willing to give up.
As it turns out, even a generally playful profession can find you in the middle of a "play dry spell", where it can feel like months, even years since last time you truly felt creative at play.
This is something that should be avoided... creativity is a necessity for society, and play is the source of creativity. The interesting thing about these speeches is that they showed more reasons for play to be necessary, something explainable in more scientific terms than "it just doesn't feel right without it". I'm not gonna get into the details because it gets boring really fast, but basically with a scientific experiment it was shown that animals that were raised with inhibited play were more likely to get stuck in a situation without seeing a way out, and starved to death.
Now, I don't know what you think: that to me sounds like a pretty good reason to play more...
This is something I want to talk about again soon, but now I'm tired.

Mahalo

What if?

I went to the San Diego Pride Parade yesterday, and aside from the blistering heat it was good fun. In the overall joyful atmosphere, when I saw these guys I couldn't help wondering: what if we sent this kind of troops to Afghanistan? How different would things be? What if their exhuberant cheerfulness was so contagious that everybody forgets about war and starts dancing?

 

 

 

Mahalo

Question!

This is the title of a song by System of a Down, and unless you're into heavy handed (but beautifully crafted) crossover I don't recommend looking it up to hear what it sounds like, I just wanted to use the title.
The reason why I like it is because it says "question" but it's not a question, it's an imperative.
And I do that a lot (most people would say "way too much"),I question all the time, and it's easy to misinterpret the reasons that make me do it: people think I question to prove I'm right.
I admit it, I am a little bit of a know-it-all at times (and by the way, almost everybody becomes one at some point) and I can easily see how one could reach that conclusion. I don't mind being wrong though, understanding why or how I'm wrong helps me grow and make fewer mistakes going forward. And trust me, I've made a lot of mistakes in my life...that's how I learnt almost anything I know. Therefore, going back to the "Question!" piece, here's the fundamental concept:

-I don't question to be right, I question to understand-

This concept is key. And it's not only for my own understanding, it's also for my interlocutors: I might question their position, so that they're forced to think it through and either find a way to reinforce it, or reconsider. Either way there's a benefit: they come out of a discussion with a better position, or they drop a weak one.
I believe the technical term for this kind of approach is "Dialectical Inquiry" or something like that (trying to translate obscure labels from Italian here, bear with me :)). When I was in school it was everywhere, my professors made me question everything, even my own sanity (guess that should have been a red flag right there:)), and although at times it turned out to be painful, the results were incredible.
I'm a firm believer in dialog as a tool, and it's not just because I'm Italian (we question all the time, argue, yell at each other and then we're happier).
The thing is, dialog is the most powerful thing that can move us past our own convictions. Also, it's a great way to get around missing information or data: by confronting the knowledge and positions of 2 people, they blend and generate a more complete view...sometimes the addition might even expose potentials for connecting the dots and generating even more understanding.
Of course there are differences in the different cultures that can affect this: like I said, in Italy we take it for granted, we probably even do it too much; in other cultures the process might not work because it violates certain accepted rules of behavior, and some filtering affects the outcome; in other, less desirable cultures, the mere act of questioning might cost you your freedom...or your life.

Therefore, the bottom line is: Question! ... but be careful

Mahalo

2 more great talks

Received these from 2 good friends, and I'm happy to share (assuming somebody's reading this)


very interesting visualization too


something good to learn

SIr Ken Robinson on education

interesting (and entertaining) talk.
I saw Sir Ken Robinson at a conference in 2007, one of the speakers that really stuck in my mind

Beauty

-Edit: Last night, for the first time since I posted this, I read it again. It's awful, poorly written and boring. I don't know what I was thinking. I would delete it, but I'll leave it up as a reminder: the best thing about mistakes is that you can learn something from them-


You have to be beautyful.
To be happy.
At all costs.
This is one of the messages that is hammered daily into our heads, It triggers behaviours that sustain several multy million dollar industries.
The thing is, I could almost agree with the core principle: the world, today's world in particular, needs more Beauty.
Unforunately, Beauty is a concept that is difficult to frame, hard to measure, and challenging, at best, to manufacture. No need to worry though, because there are plenty of people out there that are making our life easier by breaking the code of Beauty, to give it back to us in simple formulas that will guarantee success (and by pure chance, can all be purchased, I guess we really are lucky!).
That's how beauty becomes a lotion to remove wrinkles, or getting breast implants, or a major surgery to have your legs chopped and extended by a handful of inches, to be taller, because everybody knows tall is beautyful. This is what really hit me, seeing how in China that surgery is considered the thing to do, and those who can afford it, and be out of commission for over a year, and endure great pain (and risk), dive right in.
Regardless of the outcome, I have a hard time believing this has anything to do with Beauty.
Perhaps it's jus me....actually it's certainly just me, seeing how most people are aligned with the general idea (without the extremes of the surgery). Still, I'd like to give my interpretation of Beauty, to explain my position a little better. When I was in school, one of the first "rules" they had us learn was: "there's no recipe for good design". Now that I work in the US, where everything is carefully executed following some 'process' that is supposed to ensure repeatable success, that sentence stands out like an eye sore. I do see, day in and day out, the benefits of processes (not really my thing, but they work), but then why can't we have a formula for good design? An easy, 10 steps process that inevitably leads to a good design? To use an analogy that fits, you can give the same recipe to 5 different people, and the outcome will be 5 different dishes: some will be good, in different ways, some will be awful, despite the fact that the steps on the recipe were followed accurately. Part of the reason is, I believe, that design (just like cooking) deals with Beauty. To help explain this point though, I'd like to swap the term Beauty, which we generally associate with some cosmetic quality. Instead we'll use Harmony, or if you can think of some other term that speaks to the deeper qualitites of Beauty, just substitute it from now on. Easy to see now how the "10 easy steps to good design" get a little more complex, not only you have to go through each step in detail, but you also have to control that every element in the process, and the process itself, stay harmonious, concept that (unless we're talking sound waves) is not easy to grasp for everybody, and even harder to explain. This is more the realm of intuition than reason, and not everybody is in touch with that sphere.
This is why you can have a woman (or a man, of course I speak from my angle) that has beautyful eyes, cheek bones, hair, legs, brests, hands and feet, but the overall effect is somehow "off": all the ingredients are there, but they still don't add up to "Beauty". This is also why plastic surgery does not guarantee success.
At the same time you can have someone with average, or even less than average, features, but when put all together the total effect is much better than the sum of the parts. All this, in my mind, has to do with Harmony. and I'm not just talking about a formal quality here: there's also harmony of body and soul (I know, it sounds deep and cheesy at the same time): someone who fells good about him/herself is more likely to express Beauty that someone that doesn't, at least that has been my experience.
Then again, perhaps nothing I just wrote makes any sense to you. We can agree to disagree.
I already wrote too much for one time anyway.
Mahalo