I think there’s something messed up about the startup culture in the USA. The belief is that you have to work 6-7 days a week and spend all your mental cycles on your company. Nothing but pledging your soul to your startup yields success, right?
Not in my experience.
We work a 4-day week at …
The Do Lectures just posted the video from my presentation this past September. It’s a little talk about doing things the long, hard, stupid way, and the opportunity of beginning to think about our work as designers as a gift. It also jumps a bit into the issues that need to be overcome to be able to do so in this new digital context where most of our work now lives.
I’d be remiss not to mention the influence of Lewis Hyde’s book, The Gift, which gave me the framework to begin to apply these ideas to my own work. If you haven’t read it, I highly suggest it. Special thanks to Laura Brunow Miner for introducing me to David Chang’s “long, hard, stupid way” line on Treme, and to Amit Pitaru for making the wonderful iPad app Handwritten, which serves as my example of building “gift-giving machines.”
In the spirit of doing things the long, hard, stupid way, I decided to give this talk a go without slides. Man, was I nervous. It was totally nerve-wracking being in that tent of intimidation, full of a small group of such brilliant, shining people. I spoke next to last, so I got to be my own worst enemy for a few days, worrying about the talk by pacing around my tent muttering to myself like a mad man. Thankfully, it seems to have gone over well. It’s a shorter talk at about 20 minutes, and I hope you enjoy it. I think it’s the best talk I’ve given, and certainly the most urgent message I’ve ever felt the need to share.
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