Project 364

A World Beyond

The insane amount of media coverage through all the different channels yesterday really struck me.  I’m sitting there watching the inauguration, live on the CNN/Facebook little setup, while streams of random people are updating their Facebook statuses in another column.  There were multiple outlets for watching the ceremony live online — CNN, current.tv (which is awesome, more on them later), hulu, and ustream, just to name a few.

And I’m thinking, cripes, what, exactly, is getting done right now? This is one of the most inspiring moments in history, and I’m thinking about productivity.  I’m thinking about all the people in all the offices watching this two-hour event.  It was an event so powerful no one cared what they had to do — they had to find somewhere to watch it.  I’d like to know bandwidth consumption during those few hours, our building must’ve been through the roof.  I remember telling one of my chat friends “something, somewhere is on fire.”

So yes, that was all crazy.  And of course you have the endless array of articles on just about every site imaginable talking about it, and of course Twitter lit up like a Christmas tree.  But, gladly, it hung in there.  I didn’t see the fail whale this time but there were reports of a fail eagle, appropriately.  Anyhow, while a tad slow, I think the internets hung together well to handle the mass explosion of media requests.  And I think people realized for a little while how connected they are, really, and maybe how fortunate.

I mean people could have watched the ceremony live, ON THEIR IPHONE.  You know how crazy that would’ve sounded, even a year ago?  Now, I’m looking at my new little guy and wondering what kind of craziness does it have on tap in the next few years.  Holograms? Lasers?  Holograms with lasers?

So what’s my point with all this? The recent updating of whitehouse.gov (which looks great) created some posts of the same site back in the early 2000’s when Bush took office.  That got me thinking if I remembered the inauguration of Bush’s last two terms.

And I totally don’t.  It doesn’t help that I don’t particularly like the guy, or think he was qualified to make presidential decisions.  But I really don’t remember my office shutting down to watch him take the oath of office.  And something tells me I will remember this ceremony forever; not just because of Barack, but because of the way it brought life, work, nearly the internet itself, to a standstill to bear witness to a moment in history.  And I hope my daughter will someday read about it in an accurate history book, and have some kind of recollection.

And I hope the next ceremony will be even better.

Historic - For All

Finally getting a moment to reflect a bit on what happened today.

We welcomed a new president, and in the process signaled what I hope is the beginning of true change in America.  Change into the country we all hope it can be, but isn’t today.  The thing is it won’t happen without everyone working towards it, not just President Obama.  Wow, how cool was it to say that.  President Obama.  And from what I’ve seen he knows it, and it pushing people to get involved.

Yet we are an idle nation, mostly, full of indifference and cynicism.  It’s like our cynicism drives our indifference — it’s not my problem, now is it?  Well, when it comes to the problems facing this country, it is your problem, and mine.  It’s ours to act upon.  And what I fear right now is, people won’t step up to that challenge enough to drive the kind of change Barack speaks about with such passion.   This is where the cynicism has gotten to me.   Maybe its realism, but it sure feels like I’m a cynic.

What to do?  First, I’m going to make sure my daughter has the right sense about her, something I encourage every parent.  A sense of justice, hard work, patience, and optimism.   The sensibility to judge people on their character, not superficial aspects like race, creed, or gender.  To give the benefit of the doubt but know when something isn’t right.  To trust, to love, and to work hard for what she believes in — to not be another generation of cynics.  I think we’ve had enough of that.

I find myself still in wonder at what has occurred, both today and in November — I met Barack about six years ago, at a dinner put together by my father’s teachers union.  I remember beer, corned beef, and this guy I’d never heard of speak like a ball of fire.  I remember being struck by his speaking style, at how powerful it was and how the room reacted to him.  Then I remember talking to him for a while, and being amazed at how he was speaking to me at my level, and others at theirs, even though I could tell he was a very intelligent guy.  Some people can do that, not speak down or up to you, just to you, with you.

I remember thinking, that guy will do something someday.  And then, when does it actually happen?

Today.  And every day, because what it says is anyone can achieve what they want if they go after it hard enough.  Barack had a true uphill battle in many ways, yet he countered with his intelligence, sensibility and magnetic personality.  He also surrounded himself with incredibly smart and able people.

The lesson is you can get whatever you want.  It’s no “Secret”, its just positive thinking.  But its work, its sweat, its failures and its tears.  Still, you can do it.

Just put your head down, and go.  Just don’t stop.  Don’t ever stop.

The Closing Gap

Just a little personal observation here.  My wife and I have spent most of the last few weeks watching episodes of 30 Rock on the Roku Netflix player.

First, finally I feel like we’re getting value out of our Netflix membership; you really have to keep on your DVD viewing and adding new films online, and returning.  We were all over that, but then our daughter came along last May and that time evaporated.

We’ve also been using DVRs for three or four years now — to the point that I can’t remember just sitting and watching prime time television, commercials and all.  But even with a DVR, you see and are exposed to a number of messages.  And studies show these messages can be somewhat subliminal.  As DVRs become more prevalent via being more affordable, people will be bypassing more and more commercials, which drive the revenue for the networks to develop the content that’s being recorded.

So, now channels are doing fairly well at moving their content to the channels audiences control, like hulu.com and other online sites with streaming video.  And of course they have an advertising-based revenue model, with display and video ads functioning in a “commercial break” or gap, model.  Now, applications like the Adobe Media Player and Boxee pulls in those shows, giving users more control over that advertising.  And soon advertisers will catch up, probably with the same model.

Thing is, that isn’t going to work soon.  You see, the Roku player can play entire DVDs of shows, like 30 Rock, without any form of advertising.  And I notice where the gaps are in each show for the commercials.  And thus we’ve spent the last few weeks being minimally exposed to tv ads, if at all.

Point is, advertisers and networks, especially, need to rethink the advertising model on television, or at least the way the show content gets distributed.  Make it more about enabling — creating the content, making it more directly possible, rather than interrupt it.  Because great little devices like the Roku Netflix player will keep coming out, and keep putting more control in people’s hands.

Tumblr v. 5

Looking good today Tumblr! Yesh!

Keeping the Flavor

I was talking with my wife this evening, and asked what I should write about.  This was half in jest, as I expected her to say “proper diaper application” or “infant teething”, but she mentioned an interesting topic: cast iron skillet cooking.  We just picked up one and have been making some tasty dishes with it.

So I paused a second, and searched my brain for a decent metaphor.  Then there was one — keeping flavor.  One of the interesting aspects to cast iron skillets is they never get fully cleaned, not in the power-wash in the dishwasher with harsh soaps that most pans get.  You give these skillets a quick scrub, sans soap, and they’re good.  They keep some of the resident flavors of the various meals you’ve cooked, called seasoning.

Seasoning, now that’s a topic.

As we progress from role to role, from opportunity to opportunity, there are aspects, or flavors, to each role that we should retain.  Different agencies, boutiques, or other environments will offer much different challenges, approaches, and peers to soak up wisdom from.  In each role we all put into play solutions that can be totally unique.  And in each role we all see the results of such solutions, and are given the opportunity to look back at our approaches and subsequent solutions.

That behavior of ‘looking back’ is what really gives us the complete sense of “seasoning”, that is the ability to learn from success and failure.  Those learnings are your ingredients — your basil, goat cheese, and whathaveyou.

Think about it like your first job was like scrambled eggs; simple, but great if done right.  And if you think about the various times you’ve messed up scrambled eggs, and learned how to do them right.  Then, your skillet gets the perfect flavor as you begin to make the eggs really well.

Then you move on, to something more challenging.  To keep this in the egg realm, maybe its an omelette.  You bring in other ingredients, and more flavors get into the mix.  You have to learn how to flip the omelette, which takes some attempts. Then, you start to get it right.  You move on to frittatas, and continue to develop your “seasoning”.

The key to all this is to not be afraid to make some bad eggs, because when you make bad eggs, you undeniably know what made them bad.  Too much heat, not enough, or  too much time in the pan.  When you eliminate what makes bad eggs, you make good eggs consistently. But you have to retain the knowledge of your failures.

Because, just as important as all the perfect dishes you made, you have to keep the flavors of the dishes that weren’t so good.  Then your “seasoning” will be great.

Work + Love + Play

Within the areas of you life, it has become clear to me there are three areas that require dedication to — and this dedication will give you the best chance to live a long, rewarding life.  Doris Goodwin, author of Team of Rivals and other biographies of presidents, explains this concept well in relation to past presidents.

Abraham Lincoln had a deep and passionate interest in a wide range of areas, literature, the arts, but his love of politics drove his work life.   When that became too stressful for him, he always had the theater to go to or a great book to delve into.  Thus Lincoln’s varied interests would keep his life balanced, and in some ways helped benefit his work.

Work.  This is important, of course, to find an area you can make a living in that you can use a passion for.  This will help it not seem like work, but fun, and that’s a clear difference.  Once you start considering it fun is when you can be truly free and creative, and then worlds open up to you.  Doing well in you work life requires time, energy, talent, and passion.  And those four things will take a lot out of you.

Love. Because the four work pieces take a lot from you, its all the more reason to have love in your life.  Love is the support structure to make yourself right after a particularly rough round of work and put you back out there, stronger than before.  Love can become the motivation for work — to provide for your family, to make a loved one proud of what you do.  Without love, work seems flat and methodical.  With it, its noble and heroic. You’re out there providing for your family, like a real adult.  Thus, love is the core piece of the three.  Without it, the others are flat.  So find someone who will love you for who you are, whether its a significant other or family.

Play.  Work and love are great, but they don’t always counter the work stress (and even love stress) so well.  This is why you need play.  You need interests outside of work, outside of love, to drive your passions and keep yourself sane.  Lincoln lost himself in poetry, novels, and other works of literature. Thus this can be simple as a good piece of fiction, or something entirely different. The point is play has to be about what you love doing for you, and you have to keep it up as work gets more time-intensive.

Work + Love + Play.  Seems like simple equation.  But what does it equal? Contentment. A pleasure in your own existence, in the idea that you have it right.  Each of the values will fluctuate; sometimes work more intensive, sometimes love, but they will all balance in the end.  But if you don’t include all three, there is no equation.  And no answer.

If you’re feeling like that answer isn’t there right now, try plugging yourself into that equation and see what’s missing.

Being Thankful

After a week or so of “Being” posts, I thought good way to wrap it all up is to realize some perspective — even levity.  When times are tough, like now, it’s easy to focus on the negatives, to focus on what we don’t have.

Well, maybe we should focus on what we do have for a second. We still live in one of the best countries in the world.  It has its up and downs, for sure, but its good compared to a lot of the world.  We can speak freely, vote, and get some decent organic vegetables.  I don’t get shot at on the way to work.  I’ve got heat, refrigerated food, DSL, hot water, electricity, transportation, and even some wine now and then.  I don’t think we really look at all the “invisible” things we take for granted a bit, things that a lot of the world doesn’t have.

If you want some perspective, travel somewhere that isn’t a hot tourist destination.  Go to Bangkok, Thailand, and you’ll see a lot.  Take a train either to the north or south and you’ll go by a lot of makeshift communities of basically shacks.  That will snap you into place.  What’s amazing is, even with the conditions there, the people are still amazing. They’re friendly, happy, and probably not hearing all the time how bad everything is.  They just live their lives, and do the best they can.  They work hard, are inventive, and I’m sure have some good times.  I highly recommend travelling there; it will change your life.

Or take Costa Rica.  Costa Rica is in an intense area, surrounded by Nicaragua and Panama.  While they have coasts with some luxury hotels, there’s mostly not a lot of the things we consider standard.  The Oja Peninsula in the south has no electricity anywhere.  There’s a lot of generators, and you get their via plane or boat.  Yet there are remarkably beautiful resorts still, and some very laid-back people.  Their saying is “pura vida”, or “pure life” and they live it every day.  Again, highly recommend.

I don’t think the people in Thailand, in homes made of corregated aluminum, and Costa Rica, playing soccer in makeshift fields, are worrying too much about a recession.  They’re just living, and glad with what they have.  Maybe we should be more, too.

Being Real

After meandering a bit yesterday about Being Nice, a (fairly) logical development from it what the idea of being real.  In a way, being real is about being nice, yes, but more just you.  And the reality that to be real, you won’t always be nice.  Here’s some ways to keep yourself you, nice, and a human.

1. Be honest. Yeah, being honest can suck sometimes.  It puts you in positions to make tough decisions, have difficult situations and, hopefully, take some responsibility upon yourself.  Because to do this, you first need to be honest with yourself, about everything you did and didn’t do.  Being honest is tough at first, it is.  It’s easier to make something up to save yourself in a bad situation.  But you’ll be better for it, and people respect it far more.  Besides, lies will catch up to you, and fully run you over.

2. Be accountable. Like being honest, sometimes you’ll face tough spots being accountable.  Something will go wrong, it always is.  That’s just life.  You’ll be involved, in some way.  It might be your fault, it might not.  The lesser person will find someone to throw under the bus.  The stronger person will not only take responsibility, but for others too.

Admit to your mistakes, be an adult and take responsibility fo the occasional failure.  Like that typo I just missed. Because its the people that take responsibility and learn from their missteps are the ones that ultimately succeed.

3. Be active. Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr.  All awesome communications platforms.  But, in a way, they’re flawed.  The communication is informal communication — sure, you can talk to complete strangers, old friends across the world, and make new ones. Thing is we’re starting to miss the one to one level of communication, even in offices with email and IM. What’s amazing is, it’s easily addressable.  Start in the office.  Next time you start writing that IM or email to that person right down the hall, or on the same floor, go walk over to them.  Talk to them about whatever it is.  You can really easily be memorable in that way, and you’ll find the people you talk to will address your issue or idea with more interest than another email.

4. Be curious. Be a hunter, of culture.  You don’t move ahead by standing still, so continually hunt and search for elements that inspire you.  Music, art, literature, there’s plenty.  If this sounds daunting, find one area, like finding a few new bands that you dig.  Finding new elements to follow will help you solidify further who you are and what you like, and even expand upon it.  Growing yourself, as a person, as an appreciator of culture, is definitely real.

Being Nice

For the next few days I’m going with a series of “Beings”, posts of varied topics but all about finding something in yourself to develop, reverse, or discover.

“It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice.”

Now, I don’t remember who said that exactly, probably someone’s mother.  But it’s totally true.  And it concerns me as the internet is making stars of well-meaning, honest people.  Power, fame, and celebrity tend to corrupt.  I really hope some of the nice people I’ve been meeting through various online channels stay true.  But, that’s a different topic.

Being nice.  Sounds easy, right? It’s not always so.  Take a moment during your commute, walk to lunch, or during your food shopping to observe how people interact with each other.  Do you ever see a man give up his seat on the train? Or open the door for someone? Not too often.  But when you do see it, you notice it.  Usually, the person who received the politeness really does.  And remembers it.  Because it doesn’t happen often at all, and that’s really a shame.

Now I’m not saying be nice for your own gain.  You should be nice to be nice.  It’s the right thing to do.  But what it will do for you is make people like you.  Then you’ll find they’ll be nice back.  And willing to help you.  That can all develop into good, real friendships, that’re just good for everybody.  And what do they spring from? Being nice.

I shouldn’t really have to tell you how to be nice.  But, some tips that you may not always do:

1. Ask people questions. About them. When you meet someone, or exchange pleasantries with someone you already know, ask them a quick question about their life.  How their kid is doing in school.   Where they’re from.  Where’d they get those cool shoes.  No fakery here, make it real.  And you should actually be interested in the example.  If you’re not, then that’s not nice, and you should work on that.

2. Smile, for real. Too many people go through their entire days with sour looks on their faces.  I’m not saying be the Joker, but crack a smile or grin when you see someone.  That will let that person know you’re approachable and not in some foul mood.

3. Be agreeable. Accommodate people.  Bend a bit, you won’t break.  Make that last minute meeting.  People remember that too.  The more you do that the more in demand you’ll get.  And its the in-demand people that get moved up.  Unless your job is some sort of hobby, which would be kinda weird.  I assume you want to be promoted.

4. Get out there. At my current agency I make it a point to move around the floors, and say quick hi’s to people.  Too many times people get glued to their offices or cubicles and don’t embrace the human factor.  Instead of that next email, go over to that person and talk.  You’ll both get more out of it.

Being nice is really about being consistently caring about other people.  I’m not saying become Mother Theresa, (although that would be ok) but care, and show it.  There’s so much indifference in the world you will be a beacon.  And we need more of those.

Being Relevant, and human too

Ideating can (and does) exist in a void, driven by the aspirations of the creatives involved. Too often are the wants and needs of the intended audience missed, or, more likely, not researched deeply enough to grasp motivation.

Or, also likely, said audience is not defined tightly enough to construct an accurate model of said wants and needs.

Or, the most likely of all, we forget we’re speaking to humans, as humans, and not WMF 35-42.

We, as humans, are naturally empathetic to a degree.  Other animals, not so much.  When was the last time you saw an owl move on because a mouse was limping? Never.  It’s one of the things that separates us — that, and sitcoms.  Or so I’ve heard.

Anyhow, you can come up with a great idea all day long.  An idea that would kill as a facebook application, or a blog, or a fifteen second tv spot.  But if you don’t also weave into that idea why people would like it, or what problem it attempts to solve for them, it will not work.  It’ll look great on facebook with all its 10 users.

What to do? Spend time, upfront, looking carefully at a specified target audience.  Find someone who is it.  Or better yet, a group.  I’m not saying form focus groups, but be more informal.  See what they like, what they need.  Find a connective thread between them of an unaddressed issue, need, or concern.  Then base your ideation off that thread, that problem set, rather than the image of the audience themselves. Use your empathy for the audience’s problem set to drive your inspiration.

Because solving problems is when we actually get to be and act like humans.  And that’s the best chance you’ll have at someone using or interacting with whatever it is you come up with.  That’s when it’s not an ad anymore.  It’s more.  And it’s what I got into the business for.  Don’t know about you.

So dig deeper, look closer, find people, reframe the question and the answer will come naturally.