1. Who are you trying to please?

It’s easy to say “I’m trying to please my clients” but I don’t think that’s a complete answer. My satisfaction as a designer, developer, and service provider comes directly from how well I’ve solved other peoples’ problems so, in the end, I’m truly trying to please myself. If someone is unhappy with their site or their logo or their blog then I take it personally and, for my own sake, do everything I can to figure out a better way or a new look.

I look for this satisfaction from the very beginning of a project and try not to take on anything that I’m not going to be proud of in the end. I like to make other people look good and I like to help other people succeed and if I don’t think I can do that (because of the starting point or the project or the person I’ll be working with) then I won’t take the project.

2. Are you trying to make a living, make a difference, or leave a legacy?

This question really made me think…

I know I’m not just trying to make a living, that’s been clear from the start (it’s been clear, at least in my head, since I went back to school 7 years ago). I try as hard as I can to make a difference, both in the way people work and in my industry in general. That’s been a big motivation to keep going but it’s also a big reason I keep blogging (and want to even more). If people can do better work, reach more people, make more money, and/or understand something better because of me, I’ve succeeded and I feel great.

But a legacy? I’ve thought about the business I want to own, the team I want to build, the office I’d love to outfit but it never really occurred to me that I would be building a legacy. In fact, in never occurred to me that I could. Though I’ve never really framed my activities as legacy-building, I’ve always been looking forward to creating jobs for people and building something that can stand on its own. So I guess the answer is yes, I am trying to build a legacy and I think this question just gave what I do a name.

3. How will the world be different when you’ve succeeded?

The world will be different in two ways:

1. There will be more business owners and individuals on the web who understand what’s going on around them and how to use the tools that are available.
2. There will be more attractive, easy-to-use, and well-coded sites and applications out there.

Not a particularly difficult goal for the most part.

4. Is it more important to add new customers or to increase your interactions with existing ones?

I don’t think I could choose one or the other and I work to maximize both (as much I as I can with my time limited to 168 hours a week). In many cases, I’m setting up sites and teaching people with the outcome being a site that they can maintain on their own. If I have to be a day-to-day part of the operations on a site I’ve built then I probably didn’t really do my job very well. On-going check-ups are one thing but content management has matured to the point where web novices can do great things on their own. I like empowering people to not need me.

I do, however, put a lot of energy into communicating with my clients and making sure they understand all of their options. I’m sure this is why I have so many word-of-mouth referrals and returning clients. I hate to burn bridges and I’d rather do the work and finish the project correctly than get paid for every minute of my time. I also put my current clients ahead of any leads I’m pursuing as it’s only fair to complete work you’re on the line for before taking anything else on. In that way, I inadvertently choose to put existing clients ahead of others.

5. Do you want a team? How big? (I know, that’s two questions)

I do want a team but the size is not something I’ve thought about. If I had to come up with a number:

1. One excellent designer who knows how to write code
2. One excellent programmer who understands good aesthetics
3. One excellent writer who understands SEO
4. One excellent finance person who understands sales
5. One excellent generalist who understands how it all comes together

So, count it up, I would say 5 great people who all understand customer service and how to have a good time.

6. Would you rather have an open-ended project that’s never done, or one where you hit natural end points? (How high is high enough?)

I like the idea of a project with natural end points that can be worked towards though almost anything can be improved so I’m not sure you can really categorize all projects into one or the other. Would building a business be an open-ended project that’s never done? What about a web application? I like a mix of both (building and maintaining JoshCanHelp and blog as well as starting and completing individual projects).

The “how high” question is a common one, especially as it pertains to a design. When is a design complete? I think a design is complete when it does what you set out to do and nothing more. This makes sure you’re always looking towards completion and leaves the door open for improvement if that becomes a goal.

7. Are you prepared to actively sell your stuff, or are you expecting that buyers will walk in the door and ask for it?

I’m understanding more and more the “art of the sell,” particularly as it pertains to my business. At first, my attitude was “if they want it, they’ll pay my deposit and we’ll get started.” This worked for the most part but I had a lot of people drop off or disappear before anything was started. Now, I try to make moving forward with me as easy as possible by:

1. Explaining the process and the technology as best I can
2. Making sure they hear that, yes, I can do what they need to get done
3. Providing a very clear path forward, whether it’s a bank of questions to answer, a distinct choice to make, or an easy way to pay the deposit.

My job as a salesperson for myself has much less to do with selling something than it is with getting people ready to go through the process. Building a site is just as hard for the client as it is for me; it involves tough decisions, a lot of work creating the content that will appear on the site, and a lot of time working with me to get the right look and feel. Helping people to understand what lies ahead and how I can help them get through it not only makes for a smoother journey but makes it easier for people to commit to moving forward with me.

8. Which: to invent a category or to be just like Bob/Sue, but better?

Easy: invent. I like to solve problems creatively and when you do that, you create new genres. Outperforming an incumbant, however, builds genres as well. Many people want the same old thing, a copy of a nice-looking site that they can call their own. Other people want something a bit different. When you start to re-think how a site can be built, you start creating new categories of sites.

9. If you take someone else’s investment, are you prepared to sell out to pay it back?

If I ever find myself in that position, I believe I would “sell out,” though I have a tough time understanding what, exactly, that would mean. If you change your product to appeal to a broader, more motivated, or more cash-flush market, is that always selling out? If you take a niche product and make it more broadly appealing, is that selling out? If you change something to make more money and you still like what you’ve got, is it still selling out?

I believe in investor value over personal satisfaction (I don’t see it as the pinnacle of importance, though) so if I ever found myself at a point where I didn’t like what I was making, I assume that there’s always a way for me to leave and hand the keys over to people that believe in it. I won’t work on something I don’t believe in so if it’s me or the product, I’m out.

10. Are you done personally growing, or is this project going to force you to change and develop yourself?

Done personally growing? That’s hilarious… I won’t be done personally growing until I’m dead and buried. I will continue to grow, change, learn, and develop through the rest of my life as it’s a big reason why I get up in the morning.

11. Choose: teach and lead and challenge your customers, or do what they ask…

I like to teach, lead, challenge, guide, resist, and sometimes annoy my customers. If they trust me and can voice their opinions and hesitations, we’ll do just fine. I don’t like to just build what people ask for, I like to push a few boundaries, look at a few options, and help people do their best.

12. How long can you wait before it feels as though you’re succeeding?

I’m impatient in general but I know that about myself so I can wait a while before I get confirmation of how well (or poorly) I’ve done. That doesn’t mean I’m not freaking out with the mic on mute and the webcam off but I’m not going to let that show. Everything in due time, I really believe that.

13. Is perfect important? (Do you feel the need to fail privately, not in public?)

I think perfect is important. I fail in public and I fail in private but I’ll shoot for “polished” before I’ll shoot for just “functional.” On the web, there is so much to consider before you launch a project – design, interaction, search engine structure, keywords and phrases, site speed, social media interactions – and to just complete a few is a dissevice. In the beginning, I would casually mention that we could do a bit of keyword research or I’m able to create a Twitter background but that leaves so much undone when people just say “no thanks.”

But I’m digressing a bit… in the end, I’m looking to create the most complete, best product for who I work for. Many times, this means launching at “close” rather than “complete” and I think the iteration and testing that comes once it’s live is a very critical part of the process.

14. Do you want your customers to know each other (a tribe) or is it better they be anonymous and separate?

One of my favorite things to do is to connect people that can help each other. To that end, I’d love to throw an annual party for my clients and get people together to network and chat. I’d love to see what I learn by bringing all these people together and hearing what they had to say about me and what I do.

15. How close to failure, wipe out and humiliation are you willing to fly? (And while we’re on the topic, how open to criticism are you willing to be?)

Failure is painful but necessary. Wipe out is scary but always on the horizon in this line of work. Humiliation, however, is frightening and, I would guess, completely avoidable. If I invest my time and money into something that sounds like a great idea and it falls flat on its face, I wouldn’t be embarressed if I could explain (to whomever would listen) why it seemed like a great idea at the time. I think humiliation would come from making a really dumb move without thinking about it or proclaiming something totally ridiculous on a whim.

Then again, aren’t failure, wipe out, and humiliation all just states of mind? If I went broke doing something I loved to do that didn’t end up being a commercial success, I might not consider that a failure and I might not consider my state, if I’m still surrounded by the people I love, wipe out. If I did something really stupid but I wasn’t embarrassed about it, can I still be humiliated? If I stick to my guns while people call me names, is it still a humiliation if I truly don’t care what they think? Something to think about….

16. What does busy look like?

Busy looks like having your hobby be overflow from your career. Busy means waking up earlier than others to get essential things done. Busy looks like Saturdays in front of the computer and Sunday nights preparing for the week. Busy looks like me.

I think the more important question is: where does busy stop? If I am answering emails on my phone while I’m at a restaurant with my wife, that’s too far. If I work all day without stopping for a whole week, that’s too far. If I’m juggling to the point where people are beginning to ask me 3 or 4 times for something to get done, that’s too far. If the quality of what I create is suffering because I have too much on my plate, I’m not doing anyone any favors, particularly myself.

A lot of what I do involves creating, either designing or building something. You can’t create very well if you force yourself to create 10 hours a day, several days in a row, it just doesn’t work that way. Also, it’s easy to forget that answering emails, chasing down paychecks, and talking to clients all count as work though, oftentimes, you can’t claim the time. This kind of work can eat up 5 or 10 hours a week sometimes and take up time you could be doing something more important: creating or resting.

I’ve been working very, very, very hard for the last 8 years working full time or more, earning a BS in Chemistry, and building this little business I have going. I have tested my limits over and over and know my limits pretty well. I’ll push it now and then but I always expect to pay for it in one way or another.

Thanks for listening!

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Brief back story: Gaping Void is the “brand name” of Hugh MacLeod, cartoonist, author, blogger, and general creativity muse. Hugh was the first blogger I ever started reading. I have no recollection of how I found his site though I’m sure it had something to do with one of his cartoons I found somewhere. This was several years ago and after that first encounter, I forgot about him entirely until maybe a year later (I’m guessing 2006 at this point) when I felt this strange need to find his site again. It took a while (I completely forgot the name, URL, everything) but I finally found it and when I did, I was elated. I started reading Hugh regularly and was particularly affected by his creativity manifesto, how to be creative. Since then, I’ve been a huge fan… bought business cards with his cartoon on one side, bought his book Ignore Everybody, and get his daily cartoon.

That’s the card I put together about 3 years ago. I was finishing up a Chemistry degree at SDSU, blogging about sustainable transportation, and felt like I had a lot more to offer the world. My blogspot address was on the back of this card so you’ll notice I wrote “joshcanhelp.com” on the top in ball-point. It was a transitional period, what can I say.

When I first tried to come up with my favorite Hugh cartoon, this is the one that jumped to mind. Problem is, I kind of feel like my business is a science project. It’s also ironic that I spent many years working with science projects and now I have a business…. totally unrelated to science projects. I also miss science projects, especially when I’m knee-deep in business. It was a strangely appropriate card.

I’ve since replaced my Gaping Void card with one of my own design (seemed like the right thing to do) and have also replaced this cartoon with two others as my favorites. If I had to pick one, it would be the second.

“Mediocrity now howls in protest”

I’m listing this one first because it was the thing that scared me immensely about being on the web at first and has since has since made it feel like a great place to be.

When I started designing and developing, I was always discouraged and demotivated by the really talented people out there making gorgeous things (sites, apps, interactive elements, images, missives, blog posts) on the web. It was maddening to see what I tried so hard to do but, at the time, just couldn’t. I avoid “inspiration” sites like the plague (I still do) and got angry every time I saw something beautiful on a page.

This feeling slowly (imperceptibly slow as I still retain some of the self-deprecation I’ve always had) changed into something much more palatable and closer to the truth. I had the two things that all web creators need: the desire to do well and the ability to try, learn, and try again.

It turns out, just like everything else in the whole, wide world, you don’t need natural ability to do well on the web. You just need humility and patience and passion and a good sense of humor.

Here’s where Hugh’s cartoon explains it all so succinctly: most people don’t have any of that nor do they care to develop it. This is why so much of the web is mediocre. I’ll take that a step further: this is why so much of what we’re surrounded with is mediocre. Mediocre movies, books, music, and magazines; mediocre blogs, articles, websites, and business cards;  mediocre marketing, applications, layouts, and clothing. There is so much boring and safe and “meh” out there right now that you wouldn’t be at fault for assuming most of what you haven’t seen is the same.

But, you see, the web has turned that around in a huge way. Sure, I can get bogged down in LOLcatz and “viral advertisements” but I can also very easily find incredible writers, brilliant artists, unbelievable filmmakers, and unforgettable emcees. Blow off that light, thick, airy layer of fluff and below you’ll find people and groups and output that can blow your mind. This stuff doesn’t immediately rise straight to the top but it gets the attention it deserves and the fans it requires.

So go ahead and be mediocre on the web, you’ll be in good company but don’t think for one second you’re fooling anyone.

“Intoxicated by Possibility”

When I first saw this, my reaction was “yeah, that’s me” in the sense of “how amazing is all this possibility?” Then I took a step back and wondered if the connotation was 100% positive.

See, Intoxicatin can be a great thing. Being in love is like being intoxicated. I’ve been intoxicated listening to incredible music and I’ve been intoxicated looking at a spectacular vista. I also love 10% Belgian beer and that brings about a bit of intoxication as well.

Possibility is shorthand for “the American Dream,” at least as it’s told in a historic sense. Possibility means freedom and choice, the ability to choose your own destiny… or at least just pick where to eat. If anything is possible then the best in life is right within your reach.

So, intoxicated by possibility could mean a state of rapture where the world is yours for the taking. Sounds positively dreamy!

But what about DWI, isn’t that intoxication? What about alcoholism? What about loss of control, declining personal health, and loss of productivity? And what about having too much possibility, too much choice? Hasn’t the grocery store become nearly overwhelming? Studies also show that people faced with too many choices simply won’t make a choice.

Faced with two interpretations of this cartoon, I split the difference. I think the intoxication comes from the gray area between the pleasure of having the freedom to choose and the bewilderment that comes from having too many options to consider. Having the ability to make web sites and connect pieces on the web is more fun than I would have originally though but it comes with a serious downside: what the hell am I supposed to do now?

You see, I have more ideas for web apps, start-up businesses, and online services than I could materialize in 10 lifetimes. Having all these choices is great but it leads to a very palpable feeling of being stuck. With so many things to do, all of them (potentially) commercially viable (IMHO) and even enjoyable to complete, where do you start?

The possibility is great but the intoxication is a little hard to handle at times. Thankfully, I’m a few decades away from the hangover.

Thanks, Hugh

Hugh has inspired me for a few years now and I’m guessing he’s got many more in him. If you’re reading this, I want to say thanks and you’ll see my print order just as soon as I can make up my mind.

"mediocrity now howls in protest" by Hugh MacLeod

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In order to fix the leaky pipe, get the car to start, or, in my case, remedy an ailing website, you have to give someone the keys and stand back. We, the service providers, have to get up close and personal with the inner workings of your house/car/website/life to correct the problem. It’s this unintentional close examination of what’s broken and the surrounding area that can tell a distinct story to the people who want to listen.

This idea of service provider intimacy isn’t new (is anything anymore?) but the point was made very clear to me recently.

Greatness up close

I recently traded cash and time to a friend who creates amazing art with aerosol paint (the piece above). One of the things he asked me to do was to trace a few of his sketches and convert them to vector format.

I’m still honing my pen tool skills in Adobe Illustrator so I was glad to have the practice but, for the most part, this is a tedious job. What I didn’t expect, though, was just how incredible it was to see the lines and shapes that make up his work.

It wasn’t until I got into the groove on the second drawing that I started to look beyond just the vector lines over scanned pencil and see what made each piece so beautiful and natural. Pose2 has this amazing ability to create very organic drawings and paintings in any medium he chooses.

The job went from something I was doing for trade to something I was honored to have a part in. The vector files are going to be turned into jewelry so they had to be “corrected” to make sure they could be cut out of metal. I found it very difficult to correct anything on these pieces because the first pass, the pencil drawings, were so gorgeous.

The care, skill, and mastery that Pose puts into his art is the same kind of love and expertise that some people put into their business. I realized, adding anchor points and stretching curves, that I have this kind of relationship with every individual and business that I work with and it’s easy to see when people care about what they do, who they work with, and who they serve.

What it takes

You see, I know all about greatness because I exude it every second of every day. Well, maybe not every second. What I do have is the knack for recognizing it in others, even when I’m not doing it myself.

Look closely, you can see a level of care and skill in the way great people conduct themselves:

• What they say is kind, honest, and conversational. You can see this in their email, on their website, and in their social interactions online.
• They are anxious to learn more, even if it threatens what they already know.
• They are more scared of staying the same thing than they are of changing, growing, and improving.
• Their output is not always perfect but it shines in a very unique way.
• Knowing them and interacting with them makes you want to improve what you do and who you are (thanks Stephanie!)

The opposite of greatness

If greatness is expressed through the actions I listed above, then what does the opposite look like?

• A pattern of dishonest, negative, or unnatural communication
• Desperation to hold on to entrenched truths at the cost of expansion and growth
• A fear of change and experimentation, even if the current methods are not working
• Output is cold, templated, unoriginal, and safe.
• Their presence hardens your own thoughts on the world, particularly things you already know to be false

How are you great?

I want to know, how are you great? How do you recognize greatness in others? How do you find and retain great people in your life?

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In the summer of 2008 I was given the opportunity to learn from a very talented and enlightened individual, Daniel Hopkins aka Pose2. Pose is a graffiti artist with decades of experience in his craft and since taking his class, he has remained my teacher, became a good friend, got on with Josh Can Help as a client, and soon to become immortalized on my wall.

Pose travels around the world taking on projects, teaching people, and spreading knowledge. He also does amazing things for global communities like beautification projects and teaching kids how to express themselves artistically. This time, however, he’s taking on a very important issue in a way that only he can.

I’ll let him explain this inspiration:

One day as I was driving…I stopped at a traffic light and gazed into the eyes of a homeless man and my feelings related to what I saw. He was impoverished physically, mentally and spiritually; every aspect of him was wretched. I felt his pain, despair. I was attracted to his pain, but wanted to ignore him. I was drawn to his loneliness but wanted him to disappear. I just wanted this moment to end; I wanted his presence to stop reminding me that I was alone just like him! He needed help and I wanted to RESPOND but not with money. This time I felt something deeper, a connection. Yes, his sign, all I could focus on was his sign and suddenly the Artist in me awakened and I said to myself, him and his sign are one. Just like any other business the sign is the representation of the business, RIGHT?  I thought, what would happen if artists created  signs for the homeless? Big, bright colorful, energetic signs with empowering words?

Introducing RESPONSE ABILITY

My overall Goal for this project is to organize an army of Artist, world-wide to create and sell 144,000 signs for the homeless. The distribution and sales of these elaborately painted signs will take place on the walls of international Art Gallery’s. Each show will be a one night only engagement and each painted sign will sell for the maximum price of $50.00. Here’s where it gets interesting. Each person who purchases a piece of art is encouraged to give this gift of art to a homeless person!

This act of engagement is the fuel and intention behind this entire project. It begins with the homeless and their despair, the artists recognizes their condition and responds with these powerful signs. The Art Gallery’s provide the space to sell these signs. Then its up to us, we the people, to purchase these works of art and ultimately offer them as gifts, to the homeless.

Addressing a problem as big as homelessness takes more than just money, it takes love, compassion, and understanding. Pose2 wants artists across the world to express themselves for a greater good. Let’s come together as a community and address this real problem.

Calling Artists of All Types

We want artists to use their talent and passion to make a difference. If you’re ready to do something for a greater good, listen up:

• Each contributing artist will be asked to do up to 3 signs for the exhibit.
• Each sign should be elaborate in color and content.
• The content should be short, to the point and inspirational.
• Think about portability, legibility, and dignity.

Get your signs ready and contact Pose2 to submit your work:  Daniel.pose2fx (at) gmail.com or 619-278-1735. DUE DATE IS JANUARY 14TH.

Ready to Make a Difference?

We need everyone on this one. The vision is global but we must first start local. The first launching of this exhibition will take place on Saturday, Jan 16th, at Voz Alta Art Gallery, 1754 National Ave, San Diego, CA 92113.

Update: a few photos from the event:

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Why can’t I come up with an idea like that?

The insinuation here is that all of us are just one fantastic idea from fame and fortune. I believe this to be true. The more subtle insinuation here, however, is that it’s only the lack of a great idea that’s keeping us away from the success that is rightfully ours. This part is totally ridiculous.

Guess what…

Your ideas mean nothing.

I wrote a post about this before, about how an idea is only good as far as you’re willing to take it. The great (or crappy) ideas that remain in your head do no good (or bad) and just serve as an annoying reminder of your lack of time, motivation, or both. As such, the success that you’re apparently owed (I suspect this is a primarily American belief but have not gone far to prove it) isn’t being held hostage by a mental deficiency indicated by your lack of Golden Egg ideas, it is, in fact, just your lack of desire to make the idea happen. This is good news, I promise.

You see, ideas are merely step one of a one million step process and, as such, are just simple, albeit painful, indicators that your life is going to get harder and your free time will suffer a devastating loss. To most people (this off-hand majority calculation was formed by calculating how many people I know have had a great idea and acted on it to success or failure), this terrible beacon is just the scare they need to file the idea under “no thank you but I reserve the right to bitch about it when I see someone else do it.” This is a very common state of mind and it’s probably fine that way.

Your obsession means everything.

To some, this “idea as a starting gunshot” concept is familiar. It still marks a long road of hard work ending in potentially catastrophic failure but the fear that this causes is more closely related to a roller coaster than it is to a serial killer (with the understanding that some of us have similar issues with roller coasters as we do with serial killers). This fear becomes a challenge and our strong desire to meet this challenge comes in the form of obsession.

There’s more to idea-based success than just obsession but it’s the first thing you’ll want to look for when you’re evaluating the probability of your success. If you have an idea (any idea) and an obsession with making it a reality, the road ahead will be as clear as it possibly can be. Your task isn’t easy and your sucess anything but guaranteed but the car is packed, the tank is full, and the kids just started a movie. Pick a good route, stay alert, and stop regularly and you’ll have a nice trip.

Meet the insane idea.

The family road trip metaphor explains the majority of ideas that we get. These ideas are like, for example, a great new way to store vegetables or a unique content distribution method or a product to clean a dashboard. These ideas are helpful, address a pain point, find a gap in the market, and succeed or fail based on decisions made throughout the process.

But there’s another type of idea that plagues us. This idea is like a non-stop, 8 Red Bull marathon drive from San Diego to Miami. This idea might not seem so good at the start and might not be well thought out but it has a champion, the driver, that infects others with his enthusiasm. This is the insane idea.

This idea is so loud and so bright and so sudden that you forget about the hard work ahead and the obstacles in the way. All at once, the idea becomes monolithic: you can’t move it and you can’t get past it, the idea must be dealt with. You’re left powerless but ecstatic, happy to hand over the controls of your life to something ethereal and unsure but so promising. Your life as you’ve known it is over.

The insane idea is the great equalizer.

Whether you’re the type to file your ideas away or grind through each one methodically, you’re completely susceptible to the insane idea. All that differs is how you react to it.

The idea-filer’s primer to the insane idea.

The first thing you’ll notice is this strange tingling in what feels like the absolute center of your body. This is your obsession germinating like a bean sprout, touching very strange, metaphysical parts of you. It’s also the mark of your eventually complete loss of rationality. Don’t be alarmed.

Next comes frantic planning. We’re talking drawings, sketches, late-night to early morning typing, writing, and researching. The idea isn’t fully formed yet so it feels incomplete. You’ll add features and benefits and add-ons and bells and whistles. There’s no sense of how the idea will come together or if it is sound, just frenetic, unfocused activity.

At some point during this planning stage, you reach a stage that traps many, many people (for good reason). All this planning has brought you to where you need to actually take a step forward to make the idea happen. The problem is multifaceted: there are so many steps to take and so many ways to take each of them. If you had the domain experience to generate the idea, you’re probably missing the necessary business, marketing, and technological acumen to nuture this idea to maturity. Conversely, if you’ve got the goods in the acumen department, you’re probably missing the domain knowledge about the market you’re charging into headlong.

The decisions you make at this step plant the seeds for success or failure (remembering that your idea is a failure right up to when it succeeds). Read more than you think you can handle, discuss things with a broad range of people, and take advice from people who have been down this path before. Paramount to that, don’t make decisions until you have to and, when you do make them, follow through. Nothing will derail you faster than ignorance combined with indecision. Hang on tight.

The idea-farmer’s guide to the insane idea.

You’ll also notice the obsession germinating but it will feel more familiar to you, if maybe a bit stronger than you’re used to. You’ll go through the same planning phase (like you have many times before) and face the same multitude of decisions (like you always do). But you have a different problem to contend with.

Since you’re all “been there, done that,” you have a starting point, previous experience to draw upon, and your own advice to follow. The insane idea, however, doesn’t give a flying dingleberry about any of this. The idea has control of the car and you’re just in the back seat yelling impotent directions and fearing for your life.

What starts to become clear is that you’re not out of control, you’re just playing by a new set of rules. The idea at the wheel may not know how to drive but it shares a goal with you, the frightened passenger: to see the light of day.

So just stay calm, respect the maniac at the wheel, and enjoy the scenery. The idea has no directions and no map but it has a destination and it needs your help to get there. Your idea might change it’s mind, make a sudden turn, or hop on the wrong freeway and it’s your job to remind it of where you’re both headed and guide it back on track. Remember the lessons you’ve already learned but also remember that the rules have changed. Hang on tight.

Bonus section about me: Insane ideas make life worth living

Sidenote: I’ve noticed that blog posts that talk about the author as the main character can come across, at best, as boring and, at worst, as terribly self-centered. As such, I’m trying to move relevant but non-essential personal information to the end of my posts so you can choose to just ignore it if you’d like. You’re welcome.

I consider myself, for the most part, an idea-farmer. I like good ideas and I typically know what to do when I get one: abandon it (see this great video with Ira Glass on abandoning ideas). I have have exponentially more ideas than I have time to implement them but, inexplicably, I’m always ready for another.

I’m currently working on a nice, normal good idea and my obsession with bringing it to fruition (along with a co-obsessor) is making sure it will see the light of day. This idea is fun and has become more of a hobby than a 3rd job.

I have, however, lived through two insane ideas, both of which were sudden, drastic career changes. I call them insane ideas because…

• I had no choice but to follow them through
• I had no idea what I was getting myself into
• My lack of experience did nothing to dissuade me from chasing after them with gusto

My insane ideas changed my life, twice. I consider myself lucky because both changes were very positive and both saved me from intense boredom, abject dissatisfaction, or worse. The first insane idea, to get a chemistry degree and work in sustainable transportation, was only good because it lead to the second insane idea, abandon most of my formal education to work on the web. They work in mysterious ways these ideas.

I’m always looking for people with insane ideas who either need a push forward (that part is free) or need hand-holding throughout (that part isn’t but let’s talk). There’s nothing I like more than exchanging ideas with motivated people. Maybe I’ll spark an insane idea or maybe I’ll talk you down… you never know until you ask!

Related posts:

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While I haven’t eliminated repetition from my professional life entirely, I’m aware of something very different at work. Creating websites from scratch can be tedious but it has taught me something critical about…

Iteration

This word has two pertinent dictionary.com definitions:

the act of repeating

Iteration can mean doing the same thing over and over again. When I use this word, however, I’m thinking more about the second definition:

a problem-solving or computational method in which a succession of approximations, each building on the one preceding, is used to achieve a desired degree of accuracy

In layman’s terms, when you iterate or use an iterative process, you’re doing the best you can with the information you have, checking how successful you were, and using that information to take another, more educated stab at it. Since I’m a self-taught designer and developer, iteration has been a critical part of my professional growth. I’ve developed a very iterative mindset.

An iterative mindset is based on three things: observation, analysis, and persistence. In other words, iteration comes more from desire and hard work than any kind of innate ability.

Observation

To successfully employ iteration, you need to be observant. What you’re looking for are problems, specifically recurring ones. These can range from minor annoyances right up to massive failures. You’re also looking for benefits. This could be something that saves you 10 seconds a day or something that saves you $100 a day.

The best way to be observant (and to benefit from what you see) is to record. I record things in a simple text editor and write them up later to post on my blog. I also record very minor things in a lined notebook that I carry around with me. A lot of what I type or write down does not get used, explicitly. By recording it, however, I made a mental underline, one that can occur to me later if I’m confronting the same problem.

This is begging for a real-life example.

Let’s say your having a conversation with someone. If this person is someone you want to please (your significant other, a potential client, a potential date), you probably want to be tuned into them and observant of how they react. If you talk poorly about our current president (a potentially risky topic with any of the people referenced above), you’ll want to judge their reaction to see if you shold do that again. Now, extend that to everything and everyone around you. You want to have pleasant, recurring interactions with all that surrounds you and the first step towards that is being observant.

Analysis

I find this word particularly unfriendly at times because it implies a lot of work. Analysis, here, just means being observant in way that finds connections between what you’re observing.

There are people that have “an analytic mind” and seem to find connections between pieces of information that seemed so unlikely. I have certainly heard my fair share of stories regarding people who found incredible connections between things but there are other forces at work:

1. Practice - the more you think abstractly and look for connections, the better you become at doing so (you are, in fact, being iterative while you practice this)
2. Intention - to connect seemingly disconected elements, you have to let go and make this your intention. Analysis is self fulfilling: if you’re certain there are no connections or you are unable to find them, that will become true.
3. Patience - I think this is the true talent of what might appear to be a gifted analyst. In theory, if you had enough time to draw a proverbial line between all possibilities you would find the connection (or be certain there was no connection).

Using the previous example of a conversation, now consider taking the next step beyond your observation and try understand what you’re seeing. The easiest thing you can assume about someone reacting poorly to speaking poorly about the current president is that they are a democrat. As likely as this could be, there might be other factors at work here.

• They could be a strong republican and patriot discouraged by those who don’t support the powers that be.
• They could be apolitical and assume that you’re being racist.
• They could be just generally uninterested in politics and bored of hearing about it.

Your analysis consists of coming up with many possible solutions and, using your observations, making a guess at the right one.

Persistence

Here’s where the actual work comes in. To be iterative, you need to repeat the process using your new information honed by your analysis. You must be willing to face the same problems with new information and risk potential (repeat) failure.

Persistence is direct reflection of how much you want to succeed. It has less to do with innate ability or the size of the reward. I’ve seen people tenaciously playing a video game for months on end towards a goal that few people understand. I’ve also seen people lose seemingly important things in their life through inaction. People will cause a scene over a few pennies but will drop out of high school for no discernable reason. Hence, persistence is a mindset.

Sticking with the observation and analysis necessary to make better decisions about previously faced problems is not always easy but if you see each attempt as an experiment and part of a larger process instead of individual failed events, you’ll be better prepared to face the next iteration.

My conversation example needs a bit of modification to work here. We’re going to assume the person you’re talking to does not have any inclination to give up and walk away. With that in mind, you’re now free to iterate towards a better experience with them. If your goal is to find a healthy middle ground, maybe you try a topic that isn’t so inflammatory. Maybe you ask them questions. Maybe you compliment them on a particular attribute. However you do it, you’re experimenting towards your goal, watching and learning along the way.

Bonus: How I’m iterative

This topic came to me as I was combing through my obsessive-appearing series of folders holding various re-useable website templates, code snippets, and documents. Each time I create a new website, I add something new to this library. Maybe it’s a link saved on Delicious, maybe it’s a better site header, maybe it’s a new module I can use in WordPress – could be anything. What I’m always looking to do (in order of importance).

1. Create a better product each time
2. Minimize repetition
3. Save time on the next go-around

I do that through iteration: observing things that cost me time, money, and patience; figuring out how I can cut down on these things as much as possible; and never giving up on improving what I do.

What say you? Do you explicitly or implicitly use iteration? How?

“We Are What We Repeatedly Do. Excellence, Therefore, is Not an Act, But a Habit.” – Aristotle

No related posts.

talent.

I have a Hotmail address that includes the word “talent” in it. I’m not going to broadcast the story of how this address came to be simply because the entertainment to embarrassment ratio is far too low. Regardless, every time I give this address out over the phone or in person to someone, it makes me think about the word “talent” before I think about the genesis of the address. I think ‘does this person think I’m full of myself because I have the word “talent” in my address?’ Then, I think ‘do I deserve to have this word in my email address?’

talent.

Talent is a funny thing. Being talented in something is a product of chance, practice, both, and neither [these days, I'm leaning much more towards practice]. By chance, you can be a talented writer. By practice, you can be a talented basketball player. By both, you can be an inspirational painter. By neither, you could have the potential for something within you and never even know. Talent is born and built and wasted and ignored.

talent.

In the past couple of days, I’ve talked to two very talented people. These are people that I have a lot of respect for and whose work I am amazed by. The talent they both display is fascinating to experience though each of them have very different talents that exist at very different cultivation levels.

talent.

One is accomplished in his field and an expert at human interaction. He wrote a book which, if the universe is fair and just, will sell a million copies. He is a family/marriage counselor by trade who happens to be the most insightful person I know when it comes to humans interacting with each other. He can say very, very little while telling you more than anyone has ever told you before. This is what he told me (personally) about talent (this is not a direct quote; I’m paraphrasing):

Use who you know and what you know to do what you need to do. Sometimes we think that we need to do everything and know everything ourselves but that is not how you get done what needs to be done. Leverage your talent to build relationships and use these relationships to reach your goals. When you try to do everything at once, you get bogged down in the details. You need to find the people that can help you the most and use their talent to help you.

What do you think? I think I need to get better at exactly this.

talent.

The other person I talked to is a musician with an international fan base and an album coming out soon. I’m not sure exactly how long he has been making music but I can assume that it’s been at least a decade. Having a conversation with him is a pleasure because he’s both very smart and very knowledgeable and does everything he can to make sure he speaks his mind as clearly as possible. He’s political, musical, socially-conscious, sans both a driver’s license and a cell phone (OMG, can you imagine?? LOL), and a great person to talk to about talent.

We talked about someone he knows who is a talented videographer. Hearing someone like him talk about someone he respected made me want to ask him how he handles others with talent. I asked him, essentially, how he feels when he is around talent that is potentially greater than his own? He had this to say (again, paraphrased):

I just like to be around talent, be the nexus of talent around me. I like to be around people who are more talented than me because I can learn from it. Having talented people around me makes me work harder and do more, not to compete but because I have more resources

Intrigued, I dug a little deeper. He clearly has a talent that he has no choice but to follow. How does it feel to have a talent and a passion you can’t deny?

I’m not sure it’s all that great. I’m stuck doing this whether I want to or not. Trying to be a rock star and making an impact on pop culture is a curse, really. I don’t have anything that’s marketable, I’m basically a starving artist. Either I make an album that works and appeals to people or I fail; those are my two options. I’m always facing failure no matter what I do. There is a stigma to being creative, I don’t really have a marketable skill. If this doesn’t work, then what? If I fail, people can look at me and say ‘silly boy, of course you don’t do that, you’ll never get anywhere in music.’

talent.

Talent is a blessing and talent is a curse. Talent ties you up and talent sets you free. Talent pays the bills and talent drains your savings account.

So what is universal about talent? Talent only gets better with practice and focus. Talent makes you popular if you let it. Talent is knowing when to use your talent and when to use someone else’s talent. Talent gets better in the presence of complementary talent. Talent comes to you, it finds you. Talent is finding your own flow, tapping into something that’s bigger than yourself. Talent won’t guarantee your happiness and talent won’t guarantee your income.

Your talent is bigger than you, it’s bigger than what you can create or fix or destroy. Still, the talent that you have inside of you is yours to use or yours to ignore. Not everyone who finds and exploits their talent will end up with what they wanted or thought they deserved out of life. What they will do, always, is inspire and amaze and cause people to think if they let that talent out into the world. Human ability appears limitless in it’s depth, breadth, and scope. Even if you don’t or won’t find it in yourself, talent has the ability to affect you in fascinating ways.

talent.

No related posts.

The articles I’ve been reading, particularly lately, do two distinct things for me:

• They show me how often I get it wrong and exactly where I can improve (example: I write too much)
• They show me how often I get it right by just planning, thinking, and iterating (example: the transparency and accessibility of what I write)

It occurred to me recently that the content I write ranges broadly from senseless, boring drivvel to concise and insightful statements. It got me thinking about how I, personally, arrive at either end of this spectrum and the mitigating factors for creating the content that I do.

I write well about things that I care about

I’ve been tasked over the years with writing large documents, press releases, website descriptions, personal statements, and arbitrary essays. The type of writing I’m asked to do has little effect on how well it gets written. What does have an effect is how personally or emotionally I’m tied to the outcome.

When I write about who I am as a person or what I’d like to do with myself or my business, I can easily break into a fairly lucid state of creation. I always find myself writing far more than I need and cutting back when I’m complete. I care deeply about where I’m going, what I’m doing, and who I strive to be. It’s important to me that, when I feel the need to communicate this to someone, I’m able to do so truthfully and comprehensively.

If, on the other hand, I’m asked to write about someone or something that I feel neutral about, I find it hard to pick the right words out of my vocabulary. The writing takes forever and sounds cliche and wordy. I lose the honesty and directness that I work so hard to present. In the end, the outcome is poor and the process is never enjoyable.

It might seem that I’ve painted myself into an autobiographical corner, forever restricted to writing about myself and what I do. Thankfully, this isn’t true. If I’m writing about an idea that is interesting or a cause that is noble or a subject that I’m learning about or something you can do to make a difference in your life, I’m energized the same way. I just have to know that when I read it later I’ll be proud of what I wrote AND why I wrote it.

I write well when I know (or think I know) what I’m talking about

I won’t name any names (mostly because none immediately come to mind) but you can tell that someone is full of it through their writing. I’ve read enough BS articles from people regurgitating information to know when someone gets it and is speaking from their knowledge or doesn’t and is just filling the page.

I’d go on about how lame people are but there’s nothing I can do to change it. A system, just by existing, is begging to be gamed. So, people will continue to copy other peoples’ work, compete with honest sources for search engine rank, and attempt to build a fake following of unsuspecting newbies. I can only assume that those who can do and those who can’t just hack it for as long as they can.

Sigh

To combat this scourge, all I can do is just not fall into that trap. I’m not claiming to be a certified expert about everything that crosses this blog but if I’m giving advice, it’s something I’ve learned from doing. Or, if I’m just working out an idea, that honesty comes through. I’ve tried to write beyond my expertise and a quick re-read always tells me it’s time to back it up and stick with what I know. No one wants to read my base-less conjecture, particularly myself.

I write well when I can write well

I’ve been reading a lot lately about the creative process. I thought Twyla Tharp’s book The Creative Process was a great dissection of a hard-working creative’s life and found Hugh MacLeod’s book Ignore Everybody to be a fairly comprehensive summary of some really potent life lessons. Oh, and Anne Lamott’s book Bird By Bird which really spoke to me. The more I explore the mysteries of creativity the more I understand my own successes and my own miserable, awful failures.

So, let’s say I’m writing about something I care about and I happen to have a lot of experience with it. I have days where I can take this great position and make something really compelling. I also have days where everything I type sounds like I’ve read it thirty times before. Moon phases, rising Mercuries, wind speed, and air density all, I’m convinced, play a part in this silly little game I play with my writing so, I’ve decided I’m totally powerless.

Or am I.

I’ve found that I can write better in the morning (this seems to be common from what I’ve read). I can write better if I’m well-rested (does that even need to be said). I always write better if life is going well. I write better if I’ve been reading more lately. I also write better when I’ve been writing more.

So there are prompts and activities and behaviors that all play a part. Still – STILL – there are good days and there are bad days. For myself, I don’t give up on the bad days and I don’t try to squeeze every last word out of the good days. I’m not writing a novel (yet?) so I’m not burdened with a huge rock to push uphill. I am, however, charged (voluntarily) with keeping a steady stream of good information coming from this site. The pressure never helps things but it does keep the fingers working the keys.

Takeaways?

Online content has become, in so many cases, totally throw away. Armed with keywords and a word minimum, people painfully bang out articles and posts less for the sake of creating and more of the sake of, well, more.

If you want to write good content, you have to care, you have to know something about it, and you have to give it some time. In my mind, there’s no point in writing drivel. There is so much CRAP out there, in fact it’s the majority. Why contribute to that?

Listen, we all have bad days, that’s just how it goes. But don’t let a bad day or two make your site look unimportant. Do your homework, take your time, and put your heart into it.

Related posts:

1. Blogging 101: How to Write a Great Blog Post… a Reader’s Perspective This is a guide I wrote a few months back....
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You are an [sic] Digital Collaborator

If you are a Digital Collaborator, you use information technology to work with and share your creations with others. You are enthusiastic about how ICTs help you connect with others and confident in your ability to manage digital devices and information. For you, the digital commons can be a camp, a lab, or a theater group – places to gather with others to develop something new.

I’d say they nailed me.

Their questions were well thought out and covered a lot of ground. I told them that I feel the internet has helped me stay in better touch with people, stay more productive, and helps me learn new things.While I’m happy to share my own tendencies, I would like to see the results so far… maybe that’s a later post.

Other interesting things I learned from all over the site:

• 61% are anchored to stationary media; though many have broadband and cell phones, coping with access is often too much for them (here)
• 75% of women and 73% of men use the internet (here)
• The internet penetration increased at the greatest rate between 1995 and 1997 (here)

So, what kind of tech user are you?

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Josh is not a social media expert, consultant, or maven. Josh is a social media/network participant, promoter, and fan.

I saw this post, “8 Questions You should Ask Your ‘Social Media Expert’” and I liked the thought process is sparked. I’m a big fan of posts that call people out for two reasons: 1) schadenfreude and 2) because, if I can answer a couple of them, I feel good. In an effort to make my professional life as transparent as possible, here is my $0.50 on the subject.

It should be said, if it wasn’t implied, that the questions below come verbatim from the link above. I omitted the 8th one because it was silly and I’m dead serious. That was a joke.

Can you give me an example of social media work you’ve completed for a client recently?

For the time being, the social media “work” I’m doing are just suggestions via email, phone, or in person. This is, incidentally, why I usually “consult” over lunch or coffee with colleagues, friends, or family.

With clients, my BREAKTHROUGH VICTORIES are as follows:

• I convinced one client to get on LinkedIn to help her artist representation company. She’s slowly but surely getting up to speed.
• I’ve seen another client start to get active on Facebook to connect with potential fans.
• I got my marriage counselor client to start blogging (indirectly) to gain attention for his book.

So, in short, I’ll help you understand it and give you a few ideas for the low, low price of an iced tea and an open mind.

How do you go about pitching bloggers?

I’ve never had to pitch a blogger before but I’m sure the time will come (in fact, I have a few  in mind). I would/will do the following:

• I’ll try to connect with them via a “non-committal” method (Twitter, blog comment, forum). Since my pitch will be genuine, natural interaction will as well.
• I’ll approach them quickly and respectfully. An email will not be at midnight on a Thursday and I’ll make sure my grammar and spelling are up to par.
• I’ll try, at most, twice without a reply (including direct contact through Twitter, etc) before I consider the possibility dead.
• If I get a response, I’ll make sure my pitch is clear, concise, and has an easy “way forward” (i.e. I’ll make it easy for them to help me).

Gears are turning…

How do you monitor what people are saying about you?

I Google myself (still sounds dirty to me) and my business, of course. I also check up on Twitter search now and then. I haven’t signed up for alerts yet because it just feels egotistical.

For clients looking to monitor their brand, Google Alerts and Twitter Search are essential, of course. Trying the different search engines with various combinations of keywords is important (with spaces and without, misspelled, with “.com” or “.net”).

Where can I find you online?

I maintain a pretty solid web presence, half for networking and half because I really like to do it.

• You can find  me blogging weekly here at joshcanhelp.com
• You can find me on LinkedIn posting in groups and writing recommendations
• You can find me on twitter.com/joshcanhelp retweeting good tips and posting my own
• My friends and family can find me on Facebook commenting on pictures and posting links (I don’t really use it for business networking)
• You can find me on Flickr… sorta. I don’t take a lot of photos but I some up now and then

• You can find me at vwvortex.com talking about design and car nerd stuff
• You can find me on stumbleupon, liking links from time to time

I think that about covers it!

Can you (ghost) write my blog for me?

Well, no, but thanks for the compliment. Here’s what I will do for you:

• I’ll tell you everything (relevant) that I know about blogs and help you understand the world you’re about to enter
• I can show you how to write for a blog audience and how to target keywords (do as I say, not as I do)
• I’ll work out a schedule and show you how to keep it
• I’ll read through your first several posts and show you how to improve them
• I’ll subscribe, comment, and check back because if I worked with you, I probably like what you do

How do you measure results?

In the end, the only true measure is your ROI (whatever you’ve decided the return to be). If your goal was to sell more shirts and you’re selling more shirts by the time we’re done, that’s the result. If your goal was to connect with more people and you’ve got 500 followers on Twitter and have met up with a few groups of people, mission accomplished (in the true sense).

Concrete results, for me, come from:

• Analytic data from a website showing a positive conversion path (basically people on your website doing what you want them to do) combined with an actual increase in [insert goal here].
• Increased opens, click-throughs, and forwards from an email campaign combined with an actual increase in [again, insert goal here].
• Increased number of incoming links, positive mentions online, positive responses, comments, and replies.

How would you define social media?

Social media is social interaction surrounding submitted media. Vauge, no? The terms themselves are so vague that their definition, together could be anything. When clients/friends/family asks me what this “social media” thing is, I tell them…

• It’s a collection of websites that make finding the best of the best on the internet much easier then it’s ever been.
• It’s an extension of pop culture that lets people interact and have a say on what is happening.
• It’s a place to find like-minded people and garner attention for things that merit, in your mind, more attention.
• It’s the perfect place to start if you have no idea where you want to go
• It’s a time sink

How did I do?

It’s really up to you how I did. If you like what I said and want to talk, send me an email with what you had in mind and let’s connect!

Great comic from Hugh at gapingvoid.com

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Anyways, writing my notes for this presentation got me thinking about my past as a student and how far I’ve come as a person. I wanted to share a bit about what I’ve learned as the oldest dude in my graduating class (except that other guy).

On being an undergraduate (at 29)

Sticking on the course that I chose for myself almost 7 years ago and staying motivated to complete it has been on of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life. It’s also been one of the best experiences I could ever hope for and one that’s absolutely altered everything about me and how I live.

One of the biggest things I’ve dealt with is the feeling of being “behind” in life. I’m one of the oldest undergraduates in my program (by about ~3-4 years) and, as such, I am constantly reminded that, in May, in terms of education, I’ll be 7 years behind most of the people I’m taking classes with. Just typing that knots my stomach up a bit. Having had the ability to choose my path at 17 when I graduated, I could be, best case scenario, 3 years post-PhD in whatever discipline I chose. I could celebrate my 30th as Dr. Cunningham making 6 figures and on the path to greatness (well, maybe). Instead, I’m going to celebrate my 30th completely exhausted with a BS in hand and, hopefully, an open spot waiting for me in a Master’s program for Computer Science (or Computational Science). Depressing when you put it like that, no?

Other considerations

Of course, this kind of comparison would be unfair. At 17, my direction in life was absolutely nil. In fact, I tried community college for one quarter, hated every second of it, and quickly decided to enter the workforce as a barista. This led to a severe (and still present) caffeine addiction combined with a solid pessimism directed towards the human race. There’s really nothing worse than being an already depressed teenager dealing with crowds of people deperate for their drug of choice. I still have bad dreams about that job. The point I’m trying to make is that I, at that point in life, was not only incapable of choosing a path for myself, I did not have the tools necessary to apply myself towards anything. I was listless and lazy and proud of it.

Additionally, I don’t know that I would have ever chosen chemistry as a discipline. I may have gone into computer science directly or biology or medicine (I did want to be a doctor but only for the parking space). I know now that I should be in chemistry, that this industry and I get along well, and that I understand it easily. Choosing the path for the rest of my life was a much easier task at 22 than it would have been at 17.

The most important thing, however, was what the 5 year delay in going to school taught me indirectly. I worked for a wireless company for almost 3 years before I decided to start taking classes again. In that 3 years I reached about 270 lbs, was completely inactive, smoked over a pack a day, was at a high point of anger and depression, and hated almost every second of my life. Looking back, I am very grateful for being able to experience what it is like to work for a good company with good pay and good benefits doing something a compuer program could do for 40 hours a week. I felt like a nothing and a nobody for 8 hours a day for several years and it taught me that I would enver again accept that kind of position in life.

Without this working period, I would never have met the important people that I did, learned incredibly important life lessons, and built the confidence and ability that I have today. I would have entered with world with a PhD, some incredible experiences, but, quite possibly, very little respect for what else is out there.

There is no “behind”

The idea that someone can be behind in life is something that I’ve wanted to come completely to terms with but have a long way to go. I’m able to dismiss it slightly by realizing that this is primarily an American construct. Thinking that there is a goal to life or being worried about what you’ve accumulated or how much education you have or how far along you are (or are not) with your mortgage is something that we’re indirectly trained to believe in this country. People make job decisions based solely on how much they’re making with no consideration to what they are doing or who they might be harming… but I digress.

I don’t have a mortgage, I don’t have a degree (yet), I don’t have a family of my own, I don’t have a wife, I don’t have any of that. As such, at 29, I am, in an American scale, behind… quite behind, actually.

I also don’t have a divorce, I don’t have a degree I’m not using, I don’t have credit card debt, I didn’t lose a lot of money when the economy crashed, I’m not drowning in student loans, I’m not upside-down on a car.

What do I have now? I have an amazing woman in my life (that, ironically, I met when I went to community college. Had I accepted my position to the UW when it was granted, we might have actually had a class together but never met when we did), I have close, close friends in several different states, I have a network of professors I can contact and learn from, I have a great GPA, I have 2 jobs, both of which are fairly stable, I am humble and respectful and can appreciate anyone’s lot in life, and I’m grateful for all of that.

Am I behind? Yup. Am I ahead? Yup. Is anyone keeping score? Only me if I decide to.

Thinking about going back to school in your 20s? 30s? 40s?

The easy answer would be “yes, do it! Do it for you and me and them! Go back! Always” but I’m not going to say that because I’ve also learned that college just isn’t for anyone. Here’s what I think:

• If you go back, do it for something that excites you. I would have never stuck with this degree if I didn’t like the subject. As you get older, your time, especailly your time off, becomes increasingly valuable. If you’re going to classes that aren’t interesting, skipping time with your family and friends to study, and generally “losing life” (that’s what it feels like sometimes) to your degree, the least you can do is study something that you find interesting.
• Don’t go back without calculating the opportunity cost along with the actual cost. Here’s how…
  • Calculate the amount that the schooling will actually cost (tuition, books, supplies).
  • Calculate how much you’ll be making while in school (if anything) and multiply it by the time you’ll be in school (so if you can make $15,000/year in a part-time job and the school takes, say, 4 years, you’ll make $60,000 total during that time).
  • Now calculate how much you would be making if you WEREN’T in school (if you could make $40,000 per year average for those 4 years then you’re at $160,000 for four years).
  • Take what you will make during that time away from what you would make and add that to the actual cost to get your absolute cost ($160,000 – $60,000 + $20,000 = $120,000)
  • Now figure out how much you’re gaining after you get the degree (it’s been found that college graduates make about $20K more per year than those without… so it will take you 6 years to make that $120K back).
• Nothing can make you feel older than hanging out with people 10 years younger than you are. Still, you have the advantage. You want this degree ten times more than most of the people around you. You’re also more likely to get more sleep, take better care of yourself, try harder, and do better. Attend a few study groups, gab about teenage drama, tell them about your wife or kids or mortgage… get in there and get the experience. I’ve learned a lot about myself through the young’uns I go to class with.

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I’m never COMPLETELY satisfied with the outcome but I’m definitely internalizing the idea of taking my time, moving deliberately, and taking the artwork line by line. It’s very easy, with spray paint, to rush through things and end up with a sloppy, ugly piece. The timing and movement is critical to (a) avoid drips and (b) ensure line consistency. I find spray paint to be a frustrating but eye-opening medium to work with. You HAVE to allow for a certain level of messiness but you’re also aware that you can be very neat if you have the skills and patience.

Personally, I find more “zen” and enjoyment in the drawing. It’s interesting to me to have constraints (like letters) but be free to express them however I wish. I do much better with a pencil and pen than I do with a can of spray paint. To be honest, each time I finish a piece, I’m ready to give up on the aerosol portion of the artwork. Still, I keep coming back and, typically, I’m glad I did.

These pictures were taken by a professional photographer who showed up to snap a few. You can find her work at www.creativeshake.com/karin. She showed Pose and I some of her other work on her iPhone (great way to carry around a portfolio) and we were blown away. She’s got a very broad talent and her composition was just fanstastic. She really knows the angles! Thanks for the copies, Karin.

The rest are off of my phone so pardon the quality (or complete lack thereof).

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I just wanted to say thank you to everyone stopping by for all your great support and kind words about the email and this site. As you grow up and gain a bit of distance with your friends (geographical and/or emotional) you start to get that “would anyone come to my funeral” feeling. Everyone has their own lives, some have kids, others have spouses, some are just caught up in the day-to-day, trying to get ahead. I definitely get lost in the thick of things and fall out of contact with people that are important to me. Not for too long but long enough.

What I’m trying to say is that I’m glad I spent many hours coming up with something to send to the people that are important to me. I wanted to share a few pictures, offer my assistance, and maybe touch base with a few of the people who drifted a bit further away than others. Getting all the replies back was a great feeling and really helped me through a killer week.

So, thank you for taking the time to visit my site. I hope it’s useful to you now and in the future!

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Personally, I find this generalist position to be a bit uncomfortable. I can learn anything but I’m a master of nothing. Once I pick something up and it’s clear to me that I could learn it to much greater extent, the skill becomes logged and I feel the urge to move onto something else. I don’t abandon the things I learn, rather I build libraries of resources, try to stay remotely informed on the topic, and exercise what I know when I can.

I see this behavior over and over and over and it’s becoming clear to me that I belong on the edges, not in the middle. I work much better straddling two (or ten) different disciplines and skill sets than I do dedicating myself to one in particular. I’m beginning to understand this more as an advantage I have then a disadvantage. The reason I’m having a problem figuring this out is because…

There are JOBS out there

Jobs are titles, hence the term “job title.” Jobs have descriptions and requirements and recommendations and qualifications. Jobs are neatly listed on sites like Jobing and Hotjobs, and, to a lesser extent, Craigslist and Elance. You are qualified or not qualified for a job. Your resume has or does not have what a hiring manager wants. You meet or do not meet the requirements of a position.

I built a pipe the other day (it sorts information from a number of different sources and filters out what you don’t want to see… incredible online application) to find work in my area (just quick, one-off temporary gigs). This process required me to, by way of blocking and allowing certain pieces of information, craft a series of information filters that ended up in a stream of information from 8 different sources coming from 3 different sites. This Pipes application looks at the information that is being fed to it, sees all the different fields (like the title of the ad, the description, the posting date, etc), and decides what to do with it based on what I told it to do.

I found it very difficult to use the fields I was given and the descriptions being provided to create a stream of information that matched want I wanted to see. Don’t want .NET jobs, no engineering positions, yes for HTML but no for Flash, yes for teaching but not for certificates, no for photography but I can take pictures so maybe yes. I find it easy to describe to people what I do (I help small businesses and individuals get the most out of the technology they’re using and find other cheap, simple tools to help them move their ideas forward) but I can’t seem to tell a computer how to find clients for me.

It’s not ALL bad… in fact it’s not bad at all

I learned two important things from the pipe exercise yesterday:

1. I don’t WANT to fit some job descriptions. There are things that I like to do (writing, HTML/CSS, design, chemistry, teaching, talking to people, helping people, messing around with gadgets, learning things) and there are things that I don’t like to do (spamming, busy work, lying, wasting time under false pretenses, talking to people who don’t listen, data entry). On top of that, there are specific things that I want to learn (PHP, Javascript, general computer science, design standards, art) and there are specific things I don’t really want to learn (this list is actually pretty short but includes C#, thermodynamics, electrical engineering, anything more about calculus than I already know). Combine these two things together and you have a good idea of the type of jobs that I don’t want to take. It’s ok to not be qualified for something and expect to never be qualified for it. This goes for everything from programming to auto repair to internal medicine. Not everyone can do everything but some of us can and, frankly, choose not to!
2. There is enough work to go around. There is also enough work to be picky (see above). Between the 8 sources I looked at, there was enough work for a team of people. I see this list and the whole thing looks like lost opportunity. Instead, I should be seeing job security. I don’t do everything at the company I’m contracted with and I’m not expected to. Same goes with this list of gigs: I’m not qualified for many of them but, for the ones that I am, I should not be expected to answer everything. Maybe if I was unemployed and not in school I could justify applying for everything but, right now, that’s not the case.

What I did in the last week (including today)…

1. Learned Yahoo Pipes
2. Wrote two solid blogs posts
3. Started learning Microsoft’s Expression Blend
4. Had a fantastic conversation about the philosophy of application planning
5. Started planning an application
6. Started building a new website
7. Took a test about op amps, RC circuits, voltammetry, and coulometry
8. Studied many hours for the test above
9. Learned about path selections in Photoshop
10. Finished designing a print ad in Illustrator
11. Designed a print ad for something totally different in Photoshop
12. Uploaded all my current passwords to Keepass, a password database
13. Wrote a Craigslist ad for someone; referred someone who got hired for it
14. Created 7 different spreadsheets in Excel with complicated equations
15. Build a media PC virtually
16. Found out about connecting a computer to a TV; avoided buying a whole new computer with one cord
17. Figured out DVD ripping and burning with an easy application
18. Possibly wooed a client away from another webmaster
19. Learned out CSS sprites and how to use them
20. Put together an HTML email for conference marketing
21. Learned about molecular symmetry and how to find it

“Ok you’re busy… and?” That’s not the point. There’s no real thread running through that list of things (besides needing a computer for most of it). There are several different goals involved there, many different skill sets, and quite a few different careers. I’m not an expert in anything up there but I did it all proficiently and enjoyed a good portion of it.

Bridging gaps, connecting ideas, breaking molds

getting back to the idea of jobs… the “great job” we all hope for, in mind mind, comes from one particular skill that you’ve honed for years, possibly mastered in a way, and hope to expand from. This “great job” comes from a PhD in chemistry, 8 years of experience in a lab, 4 or 5 different published papers in your field, a pile of recommendation letters, a good connection with someone, and some good old positive energy. A “great job” comes from 10 years of screwing around with a computer and painting in your teens, another ten years of a boring job while doing digital art during every spare minute, a line of T-shirts, a string of album covers, an innate talent for colors and layout, an abilty to stare at a monitor for 12 hours in a row, the “knack,” and a fortunate meeting with the owner of a creative firm.

What I’m saying is that I don’t have 15 years of doing anything but working in many different industries, fields, jobs, skill sets, and locations. Even now, I work with scientists, artists, programmers, trainers, and executives and live with someone in the Health industry. My mind and my hands cover a lot of ground and it’s my ability to talk to each one, to understand what they’re saying without knowing what they know, that makes those edges just a little bit closer.

I understand why people call code poetry. I understand why pharmaceutical companies are seen as immoral but why they are not innately that way. I’ve seen chemistry look like painting, I’ve seen marketing reflect pure creativity, and I’ve seen business be as passionate as anything I’ve experienced. I know why finance is like Tetris, I understand why someone would become a professional auto mechanic, and it makes sense to me why a person would leave their “great job” for something scary and amazing.

I’m a generalist, I love it all and I like loving it. I want to know about what you do and why you do it. I want to know where you want to go and how you’re going to get there. I want to know what drives you, what makes your heart jump into your throat, what pushes you to complete exhaustion. And when I know about it, I want to show you what’s out there to make it easier, better, faster. I want to help you do what you love and make money doing it. I fit in everywhere, I can talk to anyone, and, if it’ll help someone around me, I’ll learn how to do it.

Josh Can Help

Wow, what a time for Brother Ali’s song, forest Whitaker, to come on:

My wardrobe is jeans and faded shirts
A mixture of what I like, and what I wear to work
I’m not mean and got a neck full of razor bumps
I’m not the classic profile of what the ladies want
You might think I’m depressed as can be
But when I look in the mirror I see sexy ass me
And if that’s somethin that you cant respect then that’s peace
My life’s better without you actually
To everyone out there, who’s a little different
I say damn a magazine, these are gods fingerprints
You can call me ugly but cant take nothing from me
I am what I am doctor you ain’t gotta love me

Update: Just read this on GapingVoid.com… wow, nail on the head stuff:

I seem to have inherited the crofting mentality. I DON’T like waking up in the morning and doing the same thing every day. I LIKE having all these different balls in the air- cartooning, painting, consulting, writing, marketing, blogging etc. Sure, part of me would like nothing better than just “retiring to the desert and making paintings”, but another part of me likes all the running around in different directions. And all this running around DOES get tiring, I can tell you that. Sometimes I LOVE the feeling of being constantly overwhelmed. Other times I utterly despise it.

Thanks again, Hugh, for putting what I’m thinking into words.

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Feeling perpetually impatient and involuntarily rushed, we are crushed by
the idea of an impending end to the time given to us to finish our lifetime
goals. Minute by minute we are tempted to scrutinize our productivity and
achievement, comparing our own progress to those around us who seem
infallible. In this fog of analysis and discontent we lose sight of a very
important event: our daily rebirth. Each day that we are granted is a chance
to escape the condemnation of comparison and start anew on our way to who we
know we can be. Every morning, light or dark we start a new path, mark a new
beginning, become a new, different, wiser person subject only to our own
judgment, compared only to who we were the day before. It is the concept of
this vivification that is so important for us to understand in order to
continue on the path of success that lay before everyone.

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Dripping in High Key by brtsergio on Flickr

Seth Godin that is. The lesson comes from this post and only set sunk in yesterday. Key point:

I discovered a lucky secret the hard way about thirty years ago: you can outlast the other guys if you try. If you stick at stuff that bores them, it accrues. Drip, drip, drip you win.

It still takes ten years to become a success, web or no web. The frustrating part is that you see your tactics fail right away. The good news is that over time, you get the satisfaction of watching those tactics succeed right away.

The media wants overnight successes (so they have someone to tear down). Ignore them. Ignore the early adopter critics that never have enough to play with. Ignore your investors that want proven tactics and predictable instant results. Listen instead to your real customers, to your vision and make something for the long haul. Because that’s how long it’s going to take, guys

Drip, drip, drip the work pays off and all the time you spent getting it right comes back to your two-fold. An example:

Let’s say you take on a website project for friend of a family member. Let’s say it took a while and you didn’t get paid very much because you did it out of love. You keep changing it and updating it and, after a while, it becomes your own. You’re not being paid anymore but you just want that other person to have something nice. And they appreciate it!

Now, let’s say you get busy elsewhere and you stop correcting errors, stop checking for 404 errors, stop updating the blog. A few links change and you forget to check them. In the meantime, your friend, so happy that he has someone like you to help him out, is handing out your card to everyone he knows, telling everyone how incredible you are. He says “go to my site, check it out, it’s incredible!”

One day months later you get a call from your friend and he’s all smiles. He talked to someone that wants to talk to you about a job and he has two people with your card that want to call you about the site. Suddenly, you hope they didn’t click on that one link or notice the wrong copyright date. Maybe they saw a 404 or a few typos and reconsidered. Maybe they got the impression you were a full-time webmaster and were confused why everything wasn’t in tip-top shape. Suddenly, you wished that realized that payoff can take some time.

If you put your name on it, put your best into it. The work you do know could (and should) come back to haunt you later and it’s up to you whether this phantom is benevolant or not. Deliver on time repeatedly, concentrate on quality output (be it product or service), and take care of your customers so when someone inevitably asks them “Hey, where did you get that?” the respond will be “Oh, Josh made it, he’s great, here’s his email” rather then “Ugh, don’t ask.”

In the response above, replace my name with yours. Unless of course you want me to help you make something great in which case, you’ll inevitably say that! :)

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One of the most challenging and interesting parts of what I do is bridging the gap between potentially confusing technology and people who are far removed from how it works. I think people intentionally avoid this massive gray area because of lack of patience, lack of interest, or inability (or no desire) to communicate properly. It can difficult to explain concepts like table-free design, search engine optimization, and digitizing art for print to people without the necessary experience. Despite that, it’s necessary for people who are promoting themselves or their business to understand these concepts on a basic level and realize how they can expland their work into new, expanding markets.

I’ve taught billing systems and wireless networking to customer service representatives, math and science to family members and classmates, and blogs and social networking to colleagues and clients. What I’ve found to be the hardest concept to get across to people is the proper way to design and implement a website. I’m not exaggerating; explaining standards-based, table-free, search-optimized design to people without any experience can be a painful process to all parties involved. Clients want to understand what they are paying for – explicitly – and the only way to make this happen is to explain why I do what I do and why they want me to keep doing it that way.

I’m new to all of this… how can this article help me?

Clients (those who need the design)

This post explains the very basic ins and outs of website design and why it can be such a pain in the butt. Are you confused why you were charged for three hours of time just to change a few words? Have you asked for what seemed like a simple change only to be met with a sizable estimate? In adding my two cents to the conversation, I hope to clear up issues like these for people who might be looking to understand the process a bit better.

Designers (those who provide the design)

While I’m relatively new to the discipline, I’ve been teaching people and promiting understanding since I first strapped on that inbound call center headset. Let me help you find the words to use so you and your client are on the same page. Use your knowledge, skill, and people skills together to show your clients exactly what you do and why you do it that way. The worst that could happen is you lose 15 minutes and gain some personal clarity.

Understand: Web design is it’s own discipline with it’s own subsets.

I have always known this but it took an article at A List Apart, one of the most reputable voices in web design, standards, and usability, to really solidify this in my head. To quote the article (to avoid unnecessary paraphrasing):

Web design is not book design, it is not poster design, it is not illustration, and the highest achievements of those disciplines are not what web design aims for. Although websites can be delivery systems for games and videos, and although those delivery systems can be lovely to look at, such sites are exemplars of game design and video storytelling, not of web design. So what is web design?

Web design is the creation of digital environments that facilitate and encourage human activity; reflect or adapt to individual voices and content; and change gracefully over time while always retaining their identity.

At the risk of flinging this topic from comprehensible to hopelessly high-concept, it is important to address the implicit abilities and obstacles of this very interesting medium.

Taking an idea for a website and moving it from concept to execution has an interesting middle step. This middle step, the one where you weight the benefits of making precisely what was visualized against the negatives of spending an inordinate amount of time building it, is something that designers are painfully familiar with but clients may not entirely grasp. It is quite simple to sketch an idea out on paper, somewhat difficult to translate this idea digitally, and very hard to build the exact product you had in mind to begin with. Maybe the technology does not exist, maybe you’re not sure how to build it, or maybe the idea was too complicated to begin with but, in the end, what is created never seems to exactly match what was conceptualized. Please keep in mind that there is nothing inherently wrong with this frequent occurrence.

There is another force at play here as well. In the end, even if you’ve created exactly what was on that bar napkin to being with, there is a chance (a good chance) that it just won’t look exactly how you thought or it simply functions poorly. It could be that all the artwork required to make the page look amazing makes the whole page load slowly. It could also be that the revolutionary way to navigate that you devised is not at all as intuitive as what you thought. Regardless of the reason, a perfectly executed concept does nothing to correct the errors that existed in the concept to begin with. While the “it just doesn’t look right” factor occurs in all segments of art and design, the “it doesn’t function properly” can only occur where interaction is happening.

Both of these factors work together to add unique facets to web design that threaten to destabilize the relationship between client and designer.

Clients

You don’t have to fully understand the internet and navigation and usability and optimization to understand why your designer tries to dissuade you from certain things. What you do need to understand is that your expertise in other fields does not translate directly to the web. Because something “looks” easy or “seems” easy does not actually make it easy to complete. Something as simple as content change or color change could require a lot of back-end work.

• If you don’t understand, do yourself and your designer a favor and just ask. If something seems easy but you are being told that it isn’t, ask her explicitly. Anyone able to make the changes should also be able to explain what they are doing.
• Get an estimate, even if it’s just a verbal agreement. Knowing up front that your image update is going to cost $200 might persuade you to approach the problem differently.
• Good web design takes time and, unless you can do it yourself, costs money. Making everything look right and function properly is an act of art, science, and patience. If you trust your designer, let him do what needs to be done and keep in mind that you’ll be glad you spent the money now rather than deal with fallout later.

Designers

You know what you’re doing and you’re as honest as they come so it can be downright insulting when someone questions your judgement. Still, what would you think if a contracting firm kept coming back for more money and more time on a remodelling job? Would you keep handing over money, no questions asked, or would you try to understand what is going on so maybe you can make an executive decision? It’s your job to patiently and effectively explain where the time and money is going so your client can budget effectively and potentially cease problems that get out of hand.

• Communicate well and often. If you think you might go over budget, say so. If problems are occurring, explain them. You might be used to guiding a project and making decisions but, when you’re on someone else’s time and money, it’s up to them. Give them all the information they need to make the right choice.
• You’ve heard of Always Be Selling (ABS), right? Well, for this post, it’s ABT, Always Be Teaching. You can never go wrong if you spend a little extra time sharing some of the knowledge you have. Don’t just say “the code was screwed so I fixed it,” explain what was wrong and what you did to fix it. This helps you by honing your knowledge and keeping you honest; this helps your clients to better understand what you do and showing them that you’re willing to give a little extra.
• While you might know the best way to do something, maybe the client has a different idea in mind. It can be painful to leave behind ugly code, deliver an unfinished product, or stop working on something that clearly needs more attention but it’s even more painful to fight against it. Explain the situation (#1), share the knowledge (#2), and leave your ego at the door.

Did I miss anything? What can clients do better to help designers understand the goal? What can designers do better to make the customer know the value their getting?

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This kind of thinking can work for any kind of artist. If you paint pictures, you can design shirts. If you draw cartoons, you can easily translate that to digital images for web sites or blogs. Find the niche, spread the word, and extent your influence. The more people you can reach with your art, the better (from a sales and reputation standpoint). If you do your art on the west coast and have build a following, there will be people on the east coast who have never heard of you and would probably love your work.

Here’s what I’m talking about…

I started with a simple drawing in my sketchbook. First step was pencil, then just plain old Sharpie marker on top. I don’t pretend to be an accomplished artist by any means but you get the idea. At this point, it was time to put some paint down so it was off the the Art Academy of San Diego.

Overall, this is definitely the best piece that I’ve done. It’s also the third time I’ve ever put can to wall and really went at one of my drawings. This art form is very cathartic for me… more on that another time.

The second picture above is almost where I stopped but I decided to add the white shine on the top and sides which really set the piece off. I really wanted a black outline but I bought Rustoleum satin black and that just is not the right paint for an outline so I ended up falling back to my old faithful, “blue note” by Montana Gold.

This could be the stopping point for an artist but, in my mind, there is more to do… much more.

With just ink on paper, there isn’t much that can be done with it but, as you can see here, I scanned the image into my computer (with my handy-dandy Canon MP610 printer/scanner which I highly recommend). Now, in Adobe Photoshop, I start playing with the image to make it look more vibrant and consistent. First, (this is always first for me) I opened the Image > Adjustment > Levels window. For those unfamiliar with Photoshop, this affects how much white and black is in the image; it’s like a contrast adjustment on crack. Just play with the levels until it looks right. Next adjustment was Image > Adjustment > Saturation. I use this to bring out the colors and make it look a bit more like my drawing (scanned images seem to lose a lot of color). Finally, to make the colors (black, light blue, and orange) perfectly consistent, I used the Eyedropper tool (“I“), picked a color the represented the color the best, then picked the Paint Bucket tool (“G“). At the top, I set the tolerance to “60,” found a spot on the color I sampled, then dumped it. Because the contrast is so high between these colors, it worked out perfectly. Then, using the same color, I picked the Brush tool (“B“), chose an appropriate size (“[" to decrease and "]” to increase), and cleaned everything up. I did this for each color.

This image is “finished,” meaning that this drawing has gone about as far as it can. To move forward and make something transferrable, we need to move it into a new program, Adobe Illustrator.

First, in Photoshop, I took all the color out by going to Image > Adjustment > Desaturate. I’m not going to transfer the scribbles in the middle nor am I going to keep the color, just the outline of the letters themselves and the outline of the background.

Now I select the image, copy it, and paste it into Illustrator. The next part is a pain in the butt (especially if you’re a novice like me).

I keep the black and white image from Photoshop and use it to trace. What we’re doing when we trace a pixel image (image from Photoshop) is creating a line path on top of the illustration. Because this awesome programs work with image layers, we’re not changing the original image (though it looks like we are). Image layers are the digital equivalent of clear transparencies. If you can imagine tracing a picture with pens on a transparency and you have an idea of these layers. The fun part about these is that the layers are basically infinite so minor changes can be made and altered a million different ways.

To make this outline, I took the Pen tool (“P“) and added an anchor point on each corner, following the outline of the letters. See how you can follow that line around the entire piece except for the dot on the “i” and the insides of the letters? Every continous line is its own path and will be traced separately and then combined.

I would love to write out a tutorial about how this is done but it’s a bit beyond the scope of this post. If you’re dying to know, here it is in a nutshell:

1. The path around the edge of each letters is 4 point with no fill (simple techniques you can learn on-line).
2. After creating the path with the Pen tool, it was really blocky with straight lines only. Correcting this was the tricky part. Hold down Shift, then press “C” to use the Convert Anchor Point tool. Click on the point that connects on of the lines you want to be curved, hold down the mouse button, and drag away from the point to make handles appear. If this doesn’t seem to work, zoom in and make sure you’re selecting the point. the two lines that connect to this point will likely be screwed up now. Click on the square end of one of the handles and drag it around the point to separate it from the other handle. You’ve now made a “combination anchor point.” Now, type “A” on the keyboard and screw with the handles until the line curves correctly. You’ll have to do this for all the lines you want curved. This is a pain in the butt, not intuitive at first, and takes practice.
3. The insides of the letters (4 paths… see that?) were subtracted from the outside by selecting all 5 paths (hold down Shift while clicking), then choosing Window > Pathfinder, clicking on the “Subtract from shape area,” then clicking Expand (both are in the Pathfinder window on the left).

After all of that, I finally had an outline. Why all of this work? This image can now be resized to any size, large of small, without losing quality. You can also do some awesome things with this but first…

….I added the original colors to show how clean this format is. Picking new colors is as easy as selecting the shape and finding a new color in Illustrator’s swatches. I was really excited to find some amazing combinations of colors, things I would never think go together. You can also use Adobe’s kuler.com site to import fun combinations (I’ll save explaining that until I actually use it but check out the site if you’ve never seen it).

Next, we can play around with new colors, line widths, and, everyone’s favorite these days, gradients (smooth shift from one color to another). Above, you see my shiny Halloween version. Gradients can go from any color to any color but add a nice sense of depth if you choose a color and a slightly darker/lighter version of the same color.

Additional designs can be added very easily in this format. In fact, anything too complicated should probably be left out when tracing with the pen and added later. In this case, I added the scribble-style fill that you can see in the original and converted it to some wacky ice-cream colors (because I have a sweet tooth)

Last but not least, we can have some real fun and extrude this design to make it 3-D. This control can be found under Effect > 3-D > Extrude & Bevel. There is way too much fun to be had with using Illustrator to modify an original piece of artwork.

The vector artwork is great because it’s the best version to use for printing because it’s quality is infinite. You could take the vector file of the image above and make a vinyl wrapper for a skyscraper and the lines would be as sharp as you see them above. In fact, you’ll notice, the images above have very sharp lines to them.

These designs can be used in magazines and books very easily now. Also, since the color information is very simple, these designs are great for screenprinting (though a but more work needs to be done). As I said above, they can be used in vinyl designs for vehicles or blown up and printed as posters.

The bigger implication here is flexibility and expansion. Maybe I’m not a great graffiti artist but maybe my simple illustrations above look like a logo someone wants and I get business drawing one up. Maybe someone out there is a great graffiti artist but translates his/her work digitally and makes it known that he/she can do more than just make a piece of paper or a wall look amazing.

Expand out and learn new things; you’ll never be sorry.

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Our hero attempts to contact the colleague in question.

…time passes…

No response.

fin

No related posts.

I devoured blogs about search engine marketing/optimization (I barely knew how to code), Photoshop tutorials (I have access to a copy at school and even then I find it hard to do something as simple as crop an image), and design instructions. I poured over CSS galleries and design samples and coding forums. I signed up for hosting, bought a new computer, and set out to pursue this insistent, confusing, potentially disastrous dream of mine. It was my time, I would not be denied!

Very quickly, reality set in. I had quickly acquired a heavy pile of new books to certify myself in all things IT-related, another egotistical URL (joshcanhelp.com – heard of it?), and a sinking sensation that I might be going about this all the wrong way.

It took up until this morning to understand where I started to go wrong. Seth Godin describes it perfectly (the following is an excerpt):

Here’s an interesting dichotomy:

I published a book so I need you to read it
vs.
There’s something you need to read, so I wrote about it.

Or

I’m fifty and I just made an album because it was time for me to make one.
vs.
These songs won’t let go of me and I want to share them with you because they matter.

The first is me-centric and explains that we’re promoting something that got made because we need to sell it. What we do is make stuff and sell it, and what you do is buy it or watch it. “I needed to make something to sell, here’s the best I could do.”

The second is you-centric. It starts with the needs and desires of the consumer and ignores the committees, the compromises and the economic realities. It says, “I found something for you, here it is.”

I like you-centric, I talk about you-centric, I try to push for you-centric at work, I’m all about you-centric. I’m a consumer and I want things and entertainment and media that makes sense for me. I’m a producer and I want people to like what I do and let me work on their projects. I want companies to give a damn what I think and I want to be insanely useful to my friends, families, clients, and colleagues.

So the problem I’m seeing with my initial “business plan” (there are quotes because, for the time being, I do not have a business plan) is that I envisioned putting myself out there and the business coming to me because, well, I’m me. This is celebrity thinking, actor and model thinking, author, director, and musician thinking. I’m just entering the market with the ludicrous assumption that there are already people waiting outside my virtual door for the next insightful Josh blog or the next amazing Josh service or the next crazy Josh endeavor. Like a product devised in a boardroom and never once shown to consumers before rushing to market, I figured that the idea was sound simply because I had it.

Read my About Me page and this post and you’ll see that, through and through, my intentions have always been to be a resource before anything else and offer the kind of service and attention that is only possible by someone (like myself) who truly enjoys connecting with people, old and new. But the problem lies in the fact that I had no idea what the market was like out there and no clue what people needed.

Four customers deep and I’m already starting to get it:

• The blogs that I read, the designers that I follow, the tutorials that I read… none of these people are who I’m going to help. All things can always improve but these people do not need me.
• The coolest Flash gadget, the slickest widget on my blog, the best Twitter post will not get me closer to the people that are having trouble managing their technology. Referrals, USPS, and networking will.
• Unlike me, most people don’t really care what the code on their site looks like or how a wireless network works. Most people want to know how to use what they have and they want it to function properly ad infinitum
• Just because you’re a teacher, just because you know something, just because you have information to share does not mean there are always students waiting for you.
• Few people care about the design process, design elements, and the subtleties of good design. That’s why many people probably don’t immediately call a web designer an artist.

Thanks again, Seth.

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