Christofer Falkman

Again I feel the need to express the joy it brings me, to construct things away from the computer, IRL. And especially woodworking, after receiving a book on the subject from my colleagues. I've been visiting my family up north in Sweden, and decided to begin working on a project I've been thinking of doing for a while; an 80s arcade cabinet.

Me and my brother have been working for 2 days, and have finally been able to construct somethings that resembles the real deal. Now I'm heading back to Gothenburg to continue with the electrical parts of this cabinet; the control panel, screen and computer.

Joy.

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Lemonade is about what happens when people who were once paid to be creative in advertising are forced to be creative with their own lives.

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Work of one of my favourite graphic designers; Saul Bass

             

Click here to download:

tag_design_posters_designersSa.zip (839 KB)

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I'm excellent at ideas and developing pre-studies of potential projects, but where I fail is; execution. I don't know if I have a short attention span, or if I put to much effort in developing concepts, that I lose the essential spark when It comes to developing and completing projects. When I go through my notebook, I'm horrified of how many projects I have on hold. Sure, most of those projects are probably better of that way, but there are some projects in there, that have real potential.

So. Lately I've been experimenting with the well known method by David Allen, of organizing goals and tasks; GTD (Getting Things Done). You've probably heard about it a couple of years ago, but this is my first attempt at it.

There are several ways of approaching this method, and LOT'S of applications/services to assist you. (You should have a look at Mashables massive post about some of these applications).

I' currently evaluating the following; Pen & paper, Remember the milk, OmniFocus, Lifetick and Things. I will return shortly with a review on these. (My favourite so far is actually the Flash/FLEX based; Lifetick)

I actually don't like the idea that I would need software to help me for fill my goals, but what I'm really trying to figure out is what's causing my, in some cases, inability to follow through;

The obvious; lack of time?
Laziness?
Short attention span?
Focusing on the wrong things?
Wrong priorities?
To detail oriented. Not looking at the big picture?

As I venture into the world of high productivity, I will also try to answer this question.

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As usual, at lunch time, all the consultants, advertising people, web folks and other office employees gathers around Kungsportsplatsen to get some food (probably some sushi, or an overpriced sallad).

We are all the craftsmen of air.

My brother, a sheet metal worker, and I had a conversation a couple of years ago, regarding the the art of real craftsmanship, and the fact that fewer people, especially in my generation and those younger, are in that line of work. My generation, children of the information age, is probably more likely to work as an software engineer or a graphic designer, than a carpenter or a plumber. This is of course a generalization and relates to class belongings and social circumstances, still... We seem to be creating less and less with our hands, and more with our minds.

Behind me, around lunch time, in the line to the ATM at Kungsportsplatsen, i overheard something that i had shared experiences with. Two, obviously office workers, talking about the joy of actually seeing a physical result;

Guy #1: - I just love doing the dishes.
Guy #2: - Yeah. Me to. It's really satisfying.
Guy #1: - And don't get me started on cleaning the apartment, dude!
Guy #2: - Aah, yeah. I really enjoy vacuuming. It's like instant reward.
Guy #1: - Yeah i know.
Guy #2: - Clean floors.

And boy do I want to join the conversation and praise the happiness i feel when i mow the lawn at my mothers house or when cleaning out the storage space in our basement . And lately, as struggling with the agency problem, this is really becoming quite an issue for me.

Sometimes i just want to see a clean floor.

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While sharing a casual dinner with my fiancé recently, me fiddling around with my iPhone trying to answer some incoming mail, my fiancé alerted me on the fact that my attention was (obviously?) not focused on the right things. But for me, at the moment, her outlay on the struggles of Ingemar Bergmans maid, wasn't that important. Just as you would scroll by an article on a web page, or skip a track on an podcast, closing the tab in my browser, putting that IM-conversation on hold; I found myself "skipping that article" and focusing on what was important for me at the time; An email regarding the whereabouts of a certain hammer drill.

FAIL.

With Clay Shirky's words on my mind; It's Not Information Overload. It's Filter Failure. I find my self, unconsciously, adapting these information sorting techniques to my real life, social behaviour. Applying filters. Prioritizing my attention. Which is of course nothing new, but in this case, not socially accepted and seen as rude. But still, if I'm in information filtering -mode all day, it's inevitable. Mark as read. Go to next article.

Even if this incident is obviously just plain anti-social, as we spend more and more time online, I'm seeing that structural behaviours in our online presence is merging/spilling over to our offline social behaviours. IRL.We have adopted online slang to our every day vocabulary. Studies is showing that Instant access to information are changing our patience levels. We are now erasing the boundaries between private and public, thanks to services like Facebook and Twitter. As we are getting more sophisticated technology, making information available to us, ALL the time; at dinner, in meetings, at the movies, at school.

So. Is our handling of information overflow something to take offline? Is offline information, in social situations, more important than online information? Attention wise?

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I've been wearing your casual web development costume for years now, and produced my share of websites. Mostly the same kind of solutions, for the same kind of customers. This seems like something quite common. Joshua Porter deals with the subject, he refers to; The Agency Problem. And sure, you learn things on the way, but as you some of you know by now, you seldom get any real feedback from end users. Under a fixed period of time, you create something together and when your done you both go your separate ways. At deadline, hopefully, your client seems happy, and thats that. He pays your bills and you go on to work for another client.

Somewhere down the line I've realized that this is somewhat not an ideal solution for me. I need to develop something that will engage me over the boundaries of my company's deadline. I would like to get in touch with the users, talk to them and this way evolve as an developer and an architect.

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