This past week I was fortunate enough to attend the PIE Demo Day at the Bagdad Theater. I was excited to see what the first class of PIE had been up to and what was happening in the start up community here in Portland. It was a fun event and a new experience for me, I’d never heard anyone pitching their business looking for funding, so I learned quite a bit by watching. But it also made me think quite a bit. At some point during the introduction, one of the founders of PIE talked about businesses changing the world. And as I pondered the businesses that presented I couldn’t help but wonder how any of the ideas were truly world changing. I mean absolutely no disrespect to any of the folks who worked hard and were on that stage, they all are interesting and the business ideas were quite good. A few of the apps I would love to try. But would I classify them as world changing?
This theme keeps coming up in things that I am reading. First in The Great Discontent interview with Noah Stokes, he talked about the experience of going to Brooklyn Beta and being challenged by business leaders to think about how we as a community can use our skills to change things in healthcare and education. I read a lot of different thoughts online after Brooklyn Beta that reverberated the theme of doing something larger.
Then I got the second issue of The Manual and read the piece by Cennydd Bowles. It struck the same chord, Cennydd calls for great design, human centered design.
Great products also meet the needs of society as a whole. So we should design for the good of the web, for the good of design, for the good of the world.
-page 56, The Manual, issue 2
And again he reiterates:
In this new environment, we’ll see personal success defined through the success we bring to other people’s lives.
-page 56, The Manual, issue 2
In the final essay in The Manual, Josh Brewer sums up a lot of what is being said about design leading today.
The era of great design teams is upon us. It will be led by men and women who challenge what we think is possible, inspire us to do more than we believe we can, and encourage us to be even greater than they are.
These leaders free us as teams to reach inside ourselves and create what has never been seen or done before.
-pages 83-84, The Manual, issue 2
I in no way feel like I understand fully how I can and should be participating in something that not only is exciting and fun for me to do as work, but also would be contributing to something much larger than myself, but I do know that I’m now on the lookout for what it may be. I not only want to help create beautiful things that function well, but things that will meet a real need. Because I am tired of the chatter about the next great app that connects me to my friends, I have more than enough ways to connect with people online and in reality, I should probably step away from the screen and connect in person more often. So this week I’ve been contemplative and I’ve been wondering a lot about what this means for me. The desire is growing in me, now it is time for me to figure out what to do. Also, as I prepare to make a large change in my professional life, where does this fit in? That’s what I’ll be thinking about over the next several weeks and probably months.
Update: Just after I posted this, I watched a fantastic video and reread a recent article. They tie in perfectly with the ideas above. Wilson Miner’s talk from Build 2011 is amazing and for a small donation you can see all the videos from the conference, it is worth it for this talk alone. In addition, Cameron Koczon’s A List Apart article is fantastic. We are in a time where lots of people are thinking about design and design as leading the way. It’s exciting and provides a lot to think about.
I recently finished reading a book that has gotten me thinking about a lot of things. The book, along with a couple of online conversations, have made me seriously wonder about what work is in relation to a job and how does work fit into our lives. The Working Life: The Promise and Betrayal of Modern Work by Joanne B. Ciulla, is a great read that starts off with the history of work, the word and how it has been viewed over time. The author then moves on to discuss the history of management theory in the 20th Century and then the final section looks more closely at work as related to life.
Before I get into the meat of what I have been thinking about, I first want to say that I realize that even thinking about this subject makes me extremely lucky. I was born in the latter half of the 20th Century in the Upper Midwest of the US to a family that valued thinking, reading, and education. This is a blessing that I realize many in the world do not have. And so as I sit here and ponder what it means to work and find meaningful work, I realize that I am lucky to not have the worries of survival that so many have, especially in these days as the gap in the US between those who have and those who don’t widens.
I read this book because my husband read it in one day on July 4. One. Day. For him, that is extremely unusual. And he then went on to take extensive notes and journal about his thoughts. It seemed I needed to read this and we decided to make it our inaugural household book club book. Yes, we are having a book club with just us in it. It took me longer to get through it, but the first and final sections of the book are amazing. I was highlighting so much in my Kindle edition, that in the epilogue I was coming dangerously close to highlighting the entire thing. She begins by talking about our culture today and then contrasts that with Aristotle and what he defined as work and leisure. Our culture doesn’t quite know what to do with work anymore:
We live in a paradoxical culture that both celebrates work and continually strives to eliminate it.
-Kindle Edition, location 63
It is the goal of so many to make enough money that they no longer have to work or that they can strike out in their dream job, be their own boss, etc. Why is this the case? Is it because we are searching for meaningful work and just not finding it? Is work just the economic transaction of earning money for doing tasks or thinking? If that is the case, is that not a job rather than work? But do we then look down on people who do not work?
Without work we face infinite options about what we should do and what we should be. Also, people who can work but choose not to have to explain themselves to those who suspect the only reason they gave up good jobs and now choose not to work is that they are lazy or in some way deficient.
-Kindle Edition, location 260
Why is the first question we ask people when we meet them, “what do you do?” Is this the role that work has come to play in our lives, is it that central?
It is the final section of the book where she discusses our life in relation to work that truly hit home for me. The way our culture of work is going, work is becoming more and more a fixture of our identity and for many, it is where they find who they are. But in a society where the flows of the economy change frequently, when you lose your job, you then lose your identity and who you are. Also, when your whole identity comes from work, do you also cross a line of sharing all of yourself at work, can that not be a danger when the realities of work in our culture is that it is an economic transaction?
Please do not get me wrong: I love coding, I love the web, and, on most days, I like my job. But I also realize that we work because it is what is expected of us and that work should not be the end all be all of my life. There must be more to it than that. There is so much joking in conversations when you talk about having a life and doing, or not doing, things in time away from work, but is it really a joke or has our culture come to expect that work will be everything?
In the final analysis, is it not better to work less, to have more time for leisure (in the Aristotelian sense of the word, not amusement, which are two very different things)? If one is willing to live a modest life, to forgo things in order to save more, then one is able to work less hours per week in order to enjoy life more in the here and now. Is working really hard now to retire early a good balance? Because really, who knows that something won’t happen before you reach the magical retirement age you set for yourself. All of this has changed my idea of what being “rich” is. It is not about having a lot of stuff or a lot of money, it is about having time; time to be able to spend in activities you are passionate about, which may or may not be something you can get paid to do.
I’m closing with just a few more quotes from the book, these are from her epilogue and I am still chewing them over.
When I look at the historical big picture, I am perplexed at the domination of life by paid employment at a time when life itself should be getting easier.
-Kindle Edition, location 4533
Is that not true? With all of our achievements in technology, why do we still work so much and so hard? Why is work the predominant part of our culture?
This is an era when life should be filled with all sorts of rewarding activities. Yet many find themselves caught up not only in long hours of work but in debt, and suffering from stress, loneliness, and crumbling families. Why? In part because we always want more, in part because we don’t realize that we have choices.
-Kindle Edition, location 4536
This one hits me, because to me it is about money. Again I say that I am lucky to have been born to the parents I was, along with a paternal grandfather who valued education. They gave me a great start in life, but the choices I make now also play into what role paid work must take in my life.
Is the life we have now worth what we are giving up for it? Meaningful work is rare, but is out there to be found either in a paid job or in our free time, if we really want it. Not everyone wants it, finds it, or considers the same things meaningful. A work-dominated life is fine if it is a conscious choice and makes one happy. But if it doesn’t, then we should start thinking of how to fit work into our lives instead of fitting our lives into our work.
-Kindle Edition, location 4551 (emphasis mine)
For the past several months I have been thinking a lot about balance. I am sure that the fact that I started practicing yoga last November is part of the reason, so much of it is about balance, and not just in keeping your balance as you hold poses, but also in being balanced in mind and body.
The idea of balance has then taken over in my mind, I’ve been thinking about work/life balance, and about computer and non computer time balance, and about eating balanced. It seems to be something that at this time of life I desperately want to get right. I want to be balanced. I want to feel good and healthy. I want to be able to let go of the crap and enjoy the good things.
So, how have I done that? What changes have I made? They have been slow but sure lately, but I no longer look at any type of computing device after work. I am present with G during dinner and we are together either watching a show or reading in the evenings. I have also become more dependent on meal planning, I want to know what I will be eating so that I know it will be good for me and easy to prepare on days when I am busy. The final thing is yoga, I am digging in more and more to what it truly means to practice and I refuse to miss the two classes I go to weekly.
Do I feel balanced? I feel better, but sometimes the balance can tip too much to one side. I find this happens during the work day way too often. I lose sight of what I am trying to do as I am pulled left and right by others. I forget to slow down, breathe, and then move on to the next task. It is hard to get others to help out in this area and be respectful. I find that it is hardest at lunch time and I need to find a way to block people out even if I am at my desk. I can’t wait for nice weather, being able to eat outside, away from the din will be wonderful.
I continue my quest for balance and I am hopeful that as I do, I will get stronger and able to say no more often and have people respect that more often.