Viewing Category: Encounters
South By Southwest (SXSW) was, once again, an energizing experience that reminded me that there is a lot of crazy people doing crazy things out there that just might work. It is the best thing, ever. However, the experience also overstimulates me, so when I got back home last night I immediately vegged out in front of the TV, watching Eli Stone, Bones, and King of the Hill back-to-back.
This was the third year attending the festival, but it's the first one that I didn't feel particularly hurried. I took my time, and didn't go to every panel. I didn't worry about not meeting everyone, and I didn't worry that much about not being as social as I wanted to be. I essentially accepted my introverted nature while allowing myself to be drawn into other people's worlds. Last year I berated myself for not being more proactive, but this time around I didn't let it bother me that much.
Since this was my third year, I was looking forward to see what conclusion I would draw about SXSW, since it takes three experiences for me to form an opinion I can stand behind. It's related to the way I make observations: first time is just imprinting on what I find interesting; this is a continual process. The second time, I notice that I've felt this interest before, which makes me curious about the root cause. After that, I am in "collection" mode, looking for enough data points to support or discount my theories. It takes at least three data points for me to extrapolate a first set of assumptions; successive data points continue to refine or create new underlying models.
There is one definitive conclusion I can draw right off the cuff: SXSW keeps me in touch with sources positive creative energy, and it has so far renewed me every year. I didn't even realize I was running low on this until I boarded the plane back to New Hampshire and realized that the further away I was getting from Austin, the grayer I felt. My fellow passengers on the plane had different lives, probably quite stable and interesting in their own right, but very local. By the time I landed in Manchester, I was fully aware that now any such creative energy would have to be created by myself. At SXSW, there is so much of the stuff concentrated in one place that it takes no effort to tap into it. There is so much talent, so much creative diversity, and so much sheer possibility that you take it for granted. It is hard to explain. I imagine that some parts of the country are just like this with their close creative communities. If you've ever worked with a great product team, been in a really outstanding art department, or worked in a tight-knit research group you might know what I'm talking about. Back home, in my cluttered office, I'm cut off from that energy again. To get it back, I have to build my own sources of it.
It takes a certain mix of people to build that energy, and making it self-sustaining for an entire year will take a certain level of commitment to building that structure. We've seen over the past few years dozens of Barcamp and Refresh grassroots organizations take seed, which is awesome. I'm curious how to create a broader experience beyond technology and new media, though. It is an interesting puzzle that I'll be trying to crack with the other social-minded geeks in the area.
I also had an insight about personal branding and business cards, and it's probably not what you think. As I met and chatted with people around SXSW, what would typically happen is this:
With past SXSW acquaintances: "Dude! Good to see you again! What's up?" We exchange cards as memory tokens, a promise to our future self to keep in better contact throughout the year. We take note of what's changed since the last time we met: a new job, maybe a new venture or a positive contribution to whatever community they belong to.
With readers of the blog: "Hi Dave! I'm a fan of your blog and I just wanted to say hi!" To which I would respond with a sheepish smile and say, "Really? It's awesome to meet you! What do you do? Neat! Give me a card! Can you tell me, out of my own curiosity, what it is you like about the blog? I'm trying to figure out why people read it." I'd happily exchange business cards with them, and make a note to see what they were up to. I liked these interactions the most.
With people who have heard of my work: "Oh, Dave Seah, it's great to meet you. I've seen your work. Tried it for a while even, good stuff." This would happen often through an introduction by someone I knew. Since I am not one to readily mention work I've done (I know, bad bad bad), often the person I was with would say something like, "Dave's the guy who made The Printable CEO bubble thing". From here, a conversation would start based on the level of enthusiasm displayed. Cards are of course exchanged.
With complete strangers: "Nice to meet you, Dave. So what is it that you do?" Polite and friendly conversation ensue, and cards are exchanged to remember the encounter by.
With OLPC fans: "Is that one of those $100 laptops? I've never seen one. Wow, it is so small and cute. How do you like it?" I was one of the few people carrying these around and trying to use them. Carrying around an OLPC XO laptop at a conference like this is just like bringing a puppy to the park. The nicest people came up to me and asked about it. People who recognize this laptop are the generally ones that are socially conscious, sympathetic to the cause, and are really nice. If the conversation ended up being about more than the laptop, we'd exchange cards.
Business cards, at a conference/festival like SXSW, serve as access points to our websites more than anything, and that's because we can find out a lot more about the people we just met. And why does this matter? It's because we want to make a GOOD social/business contact; at SXSW, the chance that this will happen is many times higher than the typical networking event in your home town. The people at SXSW generally are passionate about what they do, or they want to be. These are people who I would like to have friendships with. Friendship matters.
My eureka moment was that I should be designing my website to make friendship that much easier to establish. As I look back at the evolution of this blog, one of the constants has been the way I tend to write as if I'm writing to my friends. And if you ARE reading this blog every day, we probably COULD be friends. Which leads me to the following blog and content design principle: I am not interested that interested in marketing my services on my website just for money. What I am doing is friend-focused marketing. Make it easy for people to see what I've done, what I'm interested in, and who else I'm talking to or working with on interesting project. Above all, practice good friendship by being generous with what I can give, being authentic, and showing instead of just saying. And to close the social networking loop, make it easy for my friends to introduce me to their friends.
There's a lot more to this than meets the eye, so I will probably write more about the design concept as I start looking at my site. Should be quite interesting.
A good friend of mine recently went to London, and on return announced she'd gotten me a present that was not very "London", but was likely very "Dave". I was in San Jose at the time, however, and had to wait a week until I got to see it, which gave me plenty of time to think of what it might be. Gifts are an interesting window into friendship, as they give you an idea of how you are being perceived. In the worst case they are way off the mark, but in the best case they illuminate something that's more fundamental and perhaps unexpected.
When I finally got to see what it was, I was somewhat surprised to see it was a leather notebook. I'm super picky about notebooks and stationery, so this was a bold move (though I doubt it was realized at the time of selection). I am a fan of sturdy tightly-bound journals and durable papers; my current favorite carry-around is the Moleskine Reporter format. The new notebook was pretty much the opposite of my Moleskine. It was just a sleeve of hand-tooled leather, decorated with repeating die stamps. A sheaf of fluffy textured paper was cut to fit into the sleeve, and held in place with a long string that was punched through the spine in three places, which also wrapped around the entire notebook to keep it tidy. After the initial surprise wore off, I was struck by the idea that this notebook binding might have been the way it was done long ago, and that this could be some kind of replica or artifact. I loved it.
No, it was nothing of the sort; it was just something she saw that she thought I'd like, perhaps because I am constantly hauling out tiny notebooks and am writing in them at the coffee shop. I've been getting away from computers more and more these days when I'm thinking, as I find making marks by hand engages a different part of my brain. I feel more connected to the ideas, and the lack of "undo" makes me more mindful of what I put down. I use my Moleskines as daily working notebooks and have learned to treat them as "sacred scrap paper", but this notebook was just the sort of thing I knew I would have great difficulty writing in. The kind of words I would write in such a notebook would have to carry their weight in artfulness or importance. I would hate to blemish such a notebook with anything less.
"You know, I don't know what I would write in this," I admitted as I examined it further. "It's so nice."
"You'll write ideas for stories in it!" my friend proclaimed vigorously. "Things you hear other people say, phrases like that one we keep wanting to use...uh, what was it..."
"It was 30 degrees above warm?"
"Yep, phrases like that! And other ones that you come up with." And that was the end of the discussion.
It's not very often that I get a present that so successfully combines so many personal quirks and goals into one package, so I was doubly-impressed. Of course I didn't want to use any old crappy pen, so I started looking around for a nice fountain pen that I could carry with me along with the notebook. I found that Pilot makes a $1.89 disposable fountain pen that apparently writes fairly well and would be a good test. I tried my local Staples to see if they carried it (they do on the Website), but they only had a few mediocre-looking pens in stock for more money than I was willing to spend. A bit more Googling revealed the fascinating cult of fountain pens and moleskines that already exists. I took note of a few brands that were mentioned, and decided to just keep my eyes open for stationery stores. For some reason, we don't seem to have them in New Hampshire, so it would have to wait until next time I headed south.
I was visiting my sister last weekend in Rhode Island for fun, and we stopped by one of her favorite stores, Figments, which is run by a RISD graduate / graphic designer named Peggy. It's a small store that stocks an eclectic variety of stationery, furniture, one-of-a-kind gifts, and other tasteful artifacts. I'd been there once before, having gotten excited by some aluminum binder covers that I didn't end up buying because I (again) didn't know what I would put in them...they were so cool :-) This time, I saw that Peggy carried a handful of the German Lamy pens pens I'd read about online, though it took me a few moments to remember this. I got the Safari, which is regarded as an inexpensive and reliable fountain pen, in a color I am very fond of. My sister commented how she doesn't ordinarily like fountain pens because they feel scratchy and catch on the paper, but the Lamy was very pleasurable and smooth. She called me up later to say that she wanted to go get one. :-)
I actually haven't tried writing in the notebook yet with this, because I haven't yet heard or thought of any interesting phrases to put into it. I also want to get some brown ink, so it looks extra-ancient when I write in it, but in the meantime I'm willing to use the blue cartridge that came with it. I am a little concerned that the paper will be too porous for the fountain pen, but I will try it out later this week and see what happens. It may be that the other pen I got at Figments, a Lamy Vista Rollerball, will work. I wasn't planning on getting this pen, but I was sharing a story with the owner about how there was a certain green Pilot rollerball pen in the 80s that I used to love writing with. My enthusiasm must have triggered something, because she hauled out this pen and had me try it. As I doodled, I got lost in the action of the pen...it was very smooth, and ink flowed out of it effortlessly. It has been a long time since I've used a pen that made me want to make marks on paper...not since that green Pilot in the 80s, actually. My current everyday rollerball is the Pilot G2, but this pen has more resistance and is kind of scratchy. It reminds me of work. The Lamy Rollerball reminded me of recess on a warm spring day, drawing endless doodles on the picnic table with my friends by the soccer field.
So I have my notebook, and I have my pens. I'm looking forward to making some marks on paper next time I'm in the coffee shop.
I flew to northern California last Tuesday for a week-long onsite working session. The routine is a bit more established this time, and I'm starting to make some progress that feels like progress...that is, I can actually see stuff on the screen now. I've been ramping on some video game graphics technology (Microsoft's XNA 2.0, which we've switched to after giving Managed Direct X 1.1 a go). XNA has a much cleaner API than MDX, and does away with a lot of legacy issues that I'm glad I don't have to worry about. What's been frustrating is the documentation, which on the surface looks comprehensive but lacks the kind of detailed guidance at the mid- and low level references that help flesh out the complete picture. I've been making my own references to fill in the gaps.
On the flight to San Jose, I perused Southwest's "Spirit" Magazine and took some notes:
Possible Food Destinations: The Independent Retail Cattleman's Association is an organization that promotes "the great steak houses of North America", which is an idea I could really get behind. Steak seems to be a big part of airline magazine advertising for some reason; perhaps business travelers looking for deductible junkets are the target audience. I noted a few other mentions of beef places to look into: Arcadia Modern American Steakhouse here in San Jose, Austin Land & Cattle Company in Austin (might have to visit there for SXSW in March), and a place called Lawry's for (yum) prime rib. I love steak because it's an elemental food when it's prepared well: it's essentially meat + heat, with a dash of salt. Once you master the heat aspect, you can do a lot of interesting variations on the basic theme. I
Cirque du Soleil packages excellence, and so should we: The article described how world-class athletes are swarming to Cirque Du Soleil for work, and it's quite a competitive process. What struck me about the article was that Cirque Du Soleil has really developed a methodology for putting on sustained productions of exceptional artistry and uniqueness. Because they handle every detail of the productions they develop, they are the go-to people for creating this type of entertainment experience. So how can we apply this to our own, less acrobatic work? If we can make our obsessions pay off (that is, financially they turn a profit), I don't see why we shouldn't relentlessly pursue them IF we are also competent judges of our own excellence. That takes a pretty uncommon objectivity.
My New Car Could Be a Mini Cooper: The original re-issue Mini Cooper was very cute, but just too small. The new Mini Clubman, though, adds way more rear legroom and cargo space that's accessible via two swinging rear vertical doors. Cool!
Randal Ford's Norman Rockwell-inspired Photography: Randal Ford staged and shot live versions of Norman Rockwell's classic illustrations of Americana. It's amazing that actual people can actually contort their faces into the exaggerated expressions depicted in the original paintings.
Receipt Filing Service: I hate filing receipts, so I do a very poor job of it. I was intrigued to read about shoeboxed, which will consolidate your online receipts and scan in your printed ones. They have a service where you can mail in your receipts and they'll scan 'em into your account, and mail them back to you. While the receipt service itself is free, the scanning service is not. It's an interesting idea! I suppose a real accountant would do the same thing; I wonder how much the difference would be in cost.
And here in San Jose:
Old School Mac Stores: In San Jose I got a chance to visit an actual old-school Macintosh store called Mac Pro, which by strange coincidence is the exclusive North American distributor for be.ez laptop bags. I had just read about the LEvertigo 17 the week before, which seemed to have the combination of vertical carry and cleaner styling I wanted for the new 17" Macbook Pro. My hands-on experience: it's a nice bag, though lightly-built compared to the rugged Briggs and Riley Computer Brief that I used for my smaller laptop. If Briggs and Riley made a 17" version of their brief, I would be so happy.
I want Fry's with that: I also have been to Fry's Electronics in San Jose a couple of times already, and I was enthralled by the selection of components available. I saw things in person that I've only read about in online catalogs. I wish we had one back East; the closest thing I've seen is the Micro Center in Cambridge off of Memorial Drive, and it is nothing like Frys. Not even close.
I probably won't have time to do a tour of the historical landmarks, but it's just cool to be in the birthplace of the (micro)computer revolution.
Although I don't own any stock in Starbucks, I do drink an awful lot of their coffee as part of my morning wake-up routine. I've actually gotten a little sick of it. Their coffee is not all that good. Their pastries are, despite their tempting appearance, mediocre to the point of making me angry. What keeps me going back is the sense of energy, not the coffee. I think of the food and drink I buy as a kind of "social tax" I have to pay in order to be part of the community.
The seeds of discontent thus planted, I was keenly interested when I heard that Starbucks has their old CEO and founder Howard Schultz back at the helm through my Advertising Age e-newsletter. The cool thing about Ad Age is that they tend to write from the "brand perception" perspective; I was intrigued to learn that the changes that Schultz had in mind were related to customer experience, for example the complete lack of coffee smell at Starbucks (hey!) and that view of the barristas are blocked by the equipment (yeah, that's right). I found this article at The Washington Post regarding the malaise of Starbucks particularly interesting, because it drew attention to just what I was missing from the coffee house experience.
While I enjoy the story of scrappy independent coffee houses battling the Starbucks behemoth, what it really comes down to is that I want a place where I can hang out and have all my senses engaged in a comfortable (but not dull) fashion. I love the smell of good coffee. Unfortunately, the best coffee I've had in some time has been from the coffee maker of my cousin Ben in California. He went through many batches of Pete's coffee to find the magic blend of grounds and water to brew a fine cup. I need to do the same thing here, or find it somewhere.
One of the powerful draws of one's home town is, I think, those places where you can let down your guard and be infused with the sense of community pride. Food seems to tie into this feeling a lot of the time. It might be the familiar taste of Hellman's Mayonnaise in the chicken salad from that little market down the street, where you could get heirloom tomatoes way before they became "fashionable". Maybe it's the pizza parlor you went to as a kid, could be something about the crust that keeps you coming back, or the memories playing Asteroids back in the 80s after school, trying to stretch that quarter to a million points before going home. People recognized your face and knew what you liked, and in return you looked them back in the eye and smiled in recognition. That's a good feeling, and one of the most accessible sources of this in any town is the coffee shop. Coffee drinkers share the love for the beverage, and we exult in the smell and the ritual of getting our cup just right. It's just enough to pull you into a community without asking too much of you, the bare minimum of interaction to remind you that you are part of a greater humanity. At a great coffee house, you'll see the regulars and get a sense of their personalities by overhearing what they are ordering. The great barristas anchor the experience like bartenders, assuming that your coffee comes right and smells like a morning that you look forward to.
December 9 through December 14 I'll be in San Jose, California for an extended on-site, getting serious about coding for the Big Project. Although I don't yet know our schedule (it is going to be pretty intense), I thought I'd see if there was any interest in having a productivity geek dinner at some easy-to-access place that's quiet enough to hear each other talk.
When I used to run user group meetings here in New Hampshire, I would encourage people to bring some objects (not on a computer, though, unless the computer itself is cool) for a kind of informal show and tell. The criteria? If you think it's interesting, then likely other people will too. When you bring some object to serve as a conversational prop, our geekly excitement tends to override any hesitation. It works great, and it makes it much easier to remember people.
Any takers? Leave a comment if you're interested, and a suggestion for a venue. I guess we could make a page on the Public Wiki for coordination. You'll have to register first. I guess it is also time to bring a forum online as well. If there's any interest, I'll set it up.
