Here are four questions that have been agitating me lately. They're not meant to be insurmountably philosophical or life-changing. They're more like nerd pick-up lines. Some have said that four is an arbitrary number, and it is. I feel however, that an even five would fit no better. Hopefully they'll put your craft into perspective and show you how many more questions we have yet to answer. Read more...
If there was no internet (gasp), what sort of things would you design?
Would you be inventing a new solar panel or a shaping a mahogany table? Would it even be an object? Perhaps you would be molding a process or a policy? Creating analogies which contain your virtuous characteristics can help you reflect on the digital tools or processes that you're developing now.
If your company was a country, what kind of government would it have?
How would your government make decisions? How would it protect itself and its identify? Processes, pay scales, conflict resolution, and purpose are all derived from the same values which define a government. Would you be a Scandinavian vision of democracy? Or would you be like a well intentioned dictator? I like to think that we try and incorporate different elements of different political theories, so we should be flexible. Let's not forget as well that revolutions happen as well.
If you could spend 10,000 hours becoming an expert on one thing, what would it be?
The question du-jour at the office these days. We all want to be experts. Rumour has it that becoming an expert takes ten thousand hours of practice. How can you find out what you want to focus on for such a large amount of time, and how do you go about doing it. Sometimes I think life would be easier if I wanted to be an expert in something simple, like pizza for example. As of today, I haven't identified my 10,000 hour goal. It's just a matter of time though, because it can't hide forever.
What are you not willing to do for success?
Here's a tricky one. There's a lot of ways to make a buck out there. Every single one of them is challenging. And only some of them take you where you want to end up. Choose wisely, and never worry about next month's rent.