thecouragetofindmycreativity

[thecouragetofindmycreativity]

11. Debunking Melbourne Myths

When I originally came to Melbourne as a tourist, whether it was to visit people, see the tennis or hunt for interesting design pieces, the way I explored the city perpetuated my illusion that Melbourne was to New York as Sydney was to LA. 

Myth one: Everywhere in Melbourne seems so close, right?

Sydney is known for its beautiful beaches, sunny weather, fast-paced lifestyle and busy traffic. Given the vastness of its sprawl, Sydney has not been the easiest place to navigate so with to a similar vein to LA, many Sydneysiders rely on having to get a car to get around. It gives the impression that we have the freedom to get anywhere we need to go, at our own faster pace, but it does mean more traffic jams and more environmental impacts. 

How I initially saw Melbourne was it is more European, more culturally driven, more easy-going lifestyle and less traffic. Given how dense Melbourne city and surrounds have been when I have visited, Melbourne appeared to be an easy place to navigate. In my previous travels, catching a tram would be within walking distance, and being on the tram, it provides a unique experience of navigating the city as they would weave in and out of Melbourne streets alongside the cityscape. 

Yet when in living here, I have found my navigation experience to be completely different. When I am are travelling, I do have a little more luxury to take my time, get a little lost and explore. However, when I am instead are trying to get to work, my priorities shift. It is about getting to work in the most efficient way possible, which is why the Melbourne metro train system is taken preference to their tram. Unlike their tram system, their train system is a bit more complicated to understand. I don’t recognise the train lines, and with the indicator system constantly rotating its train information, it is easy to feel that I have arrived on the wrong platform. In addition, Melbourne’s public transport system is more effective in certain directions of travel, mainly north to south. If you are travelling from east to west, the options are more limited. There have been more than once where I have considered buying a car to get around, which has been a decision that I didn’t want to make being in Melbourne. Sitting in long traffic isn’t the most enjoyable experience of getting around Sydney, so I didn’t want to recreate that experience down here. 

In the spirit of efficiency, an alternative that I have picked up instead is bike riding and embrace Melbourne’s bike culture. Unlike Sydney, where I only chose to ride locally because riding a bike against its ruthless traffic can incite fear to any regular person, in Melbourne, its infrastructure has meant that I can be safer where I ride my bike and drivers respects bike riders so they would slow down for them, on most occasions. It has also been an enjoyable way to explore Melbourne, especially riding from Preston to Collingwood, where you get to see various shots of the city buildings in the background.

Myth two: Culture in Melbourne is mainly around the centre and its surrounds

As a tourist in Melbourne, I found myself gravitating to the certain area because they were popular and nice to visit. Typically, it was the City, Fitzroy, Collingwood, Carlton and Prahran. My reason was they were closer to get around and they offered the things that I was looking for: nice alleyways, cafes, interesting places to shop and opportunities for people watching. St Kilda was always part of my visits because I am drawn to water but I will always like a Sydney beach more.  I found these areas were where you typically find in a Melbourne guidebook where worthwhile places to visit.

However, in living further out from these more popular hotspots, it has challenged me to look beyond the obvious to explore neighbourhoods that were typically felt too far. Originally thought of too far, I’m discovering interesting food places in suburbs like Preston, Thornbury or even Northcote and realising that people make their own neighbourhoods wherever they are. As I grow to discover areas beyond the obvious, it provides an opportunity to find that culture can be found in the most unlikely of places. 

Myth three: People in Melbourne live close to one another

The urban sprawl of Sydney and the price of living in Sydney often makes living close to friends very difficult. Since Melbourne’s population is smaller than Sydney and it is more affordable to live than Sydney, I assume that people in Melbourne lived close by to each other. I imagined that Melbourne people lived in the same suburb or in the same apartment like tv shows such as Friends or The Secret Life of Us. 

Yet as I get to know more people here, I am finding that Melbourne folk don’t necessarily live close to one another. From Melbourne’s South to the hipster inner north or even the Melbourne’s western suburbs, like that of Sydney, Melbournians live far and wide. It means the scenario of being able to call friends spontaneously to come to the usual hangout for a coffee or a break is idealistic, but not realistic. I realise now that socialising like Melbourne isn’t too dissimilar to socialising in Sydney, yet again, why did I think that it would be different? Haha... Ah well, lesson learned. 

Nevertheless, as I come to discover this new city, there is no doubt that I will have more myths in Melbourne will get debunked. Yet a the same time, my journey here is also a great way to uncover sweet unexpected surprises that make me believe that I’m in this city for a greater and meaningful purpose. 

[thecouragetofindmycreativity]

10. Progress > perfection

Over these few months, settling into my new UX role has definitely not been an easy ride. Yet, in my attempts to overcome the hurdles and growing pains in this new environment, there are a few personal realisations. 

1. Killing my darlings shouldn’t hurt but it does a little

Despite my repetitive self-talk that my capabilities should focus on the long game, when you have invested your emotions and energy into crafting a design, receiving a constructive design critique can still have an effect on me. 

In my 3rd week, I had been working on a presentation which reported on findings from a recent round of unmoderating testing sessions. Whilst I wasn’t involved in these sessions, my impression was that presenting these findings would aid key stakeholders in the design and product team with informed product improvements. As such, this document needed to easily understood and communicated well. For me, it created high self-imposing expectations. 

Since the presentation was a part of a relatively new process, my approach to this presentation was inspired by the structure of research plan, where on the outcomes of each task was its focus. As such, my presentation would communicate from the responses of the user and their experience. 

Yet, in our weekly design review, one of my fellow designers questioned my approach to the presentation. Citing her previous practices, she felt instead of focusing on user’s outcomes, the presentation ought to focus on the success of each product feature citing how successful users were in completing session tasks. As her reasoning was solid and the promptness of her feedback, I started to feel embarrassed about what I had presented and I adopted her approach to communicating the rest of my presentation. Afterwards, the designer spoke to me after the review, she told me that the critique was not me but rather on the preexisting process, which I found relieving. 

At the end of the day, my reaction highlighted that throwing away work that you have personally invested into can be hard. In being challenging of my approach,  it required a vulnerable, yet an adaptable mind to recognise the critique aimed to improve my skills and also improve the ways things are done within the design team. As such, killing your darlings continues to be a practice that I need to adapt regularly, even more so when you receive critical user feedback. 

By doing this, it demonstrates that I care more about delivering the right solution and that I am invested in my work only to deliver the results necessary for the user and for the business. 

2. Teamwork is critical in delivering a user centred product

In my earlier experiences in user experience, I often felt that I was in a UX team of one. Even though I was working with great interaction designers and developers, as a design researcher, I was placed in projects in a solo capacity. Even though I was in-house, I acted like a UX consultant, providing research insights and design recommendations on various projects. 

The advantages of this setup were that I had the opportunity to author a few practices, be experimental and I had to trust my gut when applying research techniques. However, when you aren’t working in a team, it can be isolating because not everyone in the design team was across what you were trying to do. 

Even so, when you are in a research team of 2 across a 200 person company, it also means you naturally have to carry the load of communicating the value of user research. It also means that you learn by doing rather than being mentored by other individuals.

My experiences illustrate the importance of teamwork in user experience. When you are placed in the hands of a group of dedicated individuals, it creates opportunities for collaboration, to share ideas and open to having your own assumptions challenged. It also provides the space to not get too attached to your designs because there is a shared goal, influenced by the needs of both the users and the business. 

In an ideal world, your team is working very closely together to get things done, sharing their learnings with each other along the way. However, constructing some form of a positive team environment, whilst not being super close is better than none.  

3. Progress is greater than perfection

In sharing my design review experience with fellow designers at a design meetup, many of the designers empathised with my plight as they too have had this experience. Yet, one of the designer's comments continues to strike a chord with me.  She describes how she has a post-it on her computer screen that says “Progress over perfection”. 

As a classically trained designer, perfection is a character trait that I find continuous hard to break. You naturally take pride in crafting certain outcomes. Perfectionism may be expected when you are making a fine jewellery piece, but it is not so achievable in the case of building software.

The reason is that as an industry, the tech industry is a rapidly changing. It is an environment where opportunities for innovation can stem better solutions. Given the low barriers to entry to create a product, there continues to be a paranoia that any startup can disrupt or challenge any existing market. From a design perspective, an interface can rapidly change....from an initial design concept that took 2 years to test, and 18 months to build...within the space of another 6-9 months, the whole design was redone.  As such, striving to deliver an eventually perfect product is not feasible or practical. 

It means designers need to be open to change and adapting as you go along. It means that whilst I mitigate as many risks as possible by regular feedback loops with users, the absolute certainty of a perfect success product that is loved by all is a pipe dream. All we can strive for instead is developing gradual successes in a product, iterating the design to deliver progress in a product. 

_______________________________________________________________________

Obviously, as I develop myself as a UX/UI designer, there will be many learnings that I will gather along the way. It means creatively working together in using your skills to solve real human problems. However, in sharing some of my personal insights, my hope is to show that whilst being a human centred designer can be a difficult and challenging job, the impact you made can be personally rewarding. 

[thecouragetofindmycreativity]

09| New Year New City New Me

There is truth to the sentiment that the only “worldly" constant is change. Sometimes, change can be expected like the coming of a new year. During this time, you can naturally reflect on the good and the bad of the last year and yet optimistically look forward towards the future and make positive plans. In doing this, this act motivates you to reset your life and charge forward to uncover what grand things that can come from the year. 

  Sometimes, change can come unexpectedly and requires you to act fast and figure it out as you go. This could be a completely new environment yet these circumstances provide the reset you need to form better habits and embrace the change. 

For me, 2018 represents a time where both of these changes are happening. A new year allows opportunities for new projects to come about on the horizon, as well as a new city to explore. It hasn’t been easy at first, it has involved getting physically lost in different parts of the city, catching the wrong transportation, finding a permanent place to live, and often not knowing many people than I did in my hometown. 

Naturally, it would be nice to be settled but I guess I realise that settling does that take time and that there is a value in making mistakes especially if it becomes a learning experience. Aka a growth mindset. In time, my hopes that these changes will help in getting re-inspired as a designer, but also as a creative person.  In the long run, I know that being forced out of your comfort zone is already challenging me to adopt new habits and become more organised to avoid a pattern of complacency. 

I realised that there is a danger in forming a complacent pattern, especially when you ignore these feelings or leave them unchecked. It can be comfortable to stay in this pattern, because once it becomes a habit, I have realised in my own past that choosing in doing this way of things can stagnant you and not challenge you. Even when friends and mentors encourage you to make changes, sometimes you get stuck in that bubble, it can develop an adverse mindset, which impacts on your mental and physical health. 

At times, I’ve tried forming new habits to get out of a battled and complacent mindset, especially when you keep trying to do the same things. Sometimes, it doesn’t always work out and a miraculous opportunity like mine comes. Being in a new environment invites the opportunity for anyone to redefine oneself. Since you are surrounded by new people who don’t know you, it allows you to present your best self. It has allowed me to dig deep into my former creative self that I have forgotten to attend to and bring a renewed vigour to my creative journey. 

As a result, I am really grateful for the opportunity to start afresh in a new city with new design projects. It is in these moments that I remind myself that whether positive or negative, expected or unexpected experiences, change forces us to act and respond it. It is this change that I hope benefits me but that also benefits others.

[thecouragetofindmycreativity]

8. Hurry Slowly | 4am confessions

As I write this, it is 4am on a Saturday morning and whilst I should be asleep, my mind is fluttering with energy. In my inability to sleep, I listened to an Indiehackers podcast with Tobias van Schneider. From its honest, in-depth conversation that really made me question my creative motivations and learn the lessons about being a designer who ends up getting interested in too many things. 

In this experience,  I realised that there is something really powerful about the stillness of the night. When everyone else is asleep, it is almost like you have the excuse to play and not have to think about all the incoming expectations of you once the day begins. It is like the insights from this podcast was allowed to slowly sink into my being and process without feeling guilty that it was time being unproductive. 

I honestly realise that doing this type of thing on a regular basis is not healthy, but it also reveals insight into how in the daytime, we are simply fighting competing expectations for your time. When I get caught up in doing the business as usual, being creative becomes push to the side and it is why it led to a stagnation in building this blog. Given that in the previous blog, I was speaking on grit and keep showing up, there is immediate value to myself in being consistent. It’s because our attention gets pulled in so many different directions, focusing on being consistent and dedicated to your work is really tricky. 

I understand that competing interests for your time is the defined norm in our advanced society. There is the rush of dopamine that you get from instant gratification, whether that is from social media like your Twitter feed or Youtube video or ticking that last task on your checklist.  None the less, here early in the morning, there is something valuable on not having distractions in your face such that specific ideas and conversations from a podcast get to resonate within me more effectively because I am not as conscious about being unproductive and wasting time. 

A podcast that I have been listening to lately that reflects upon this problem is Jocelyn Glei’s “Hurry Slowly”. In this series, Glei is interviewing designers, creatives and other individuals about the challenges of being in this world with competing for attention. In listening to a couple of these episodes what I find interesting is that in our technology-saturated world and the exponential speed to which results are being demanded by clients that the key methods to hurrying slowly by the guests involve decisions with analog technology. It would range from choosing not to share your personal calendar to reclaim and protect your time from Basecamp’s Jason Fried, to spending quality time in nature to improve your mental wellbeing and productivity. 

What I have enjoyed most these podcast so far was listening to Austin Kleon describe his work process, particularly how he uses the analogy technology and using his hands before using the computer. Essentially, he writes and sketches ideas on his notebook and then transfers to the digital for efficiency and visibility. For him, this initial analogy approach provides focus from the distractions by the world but also allow the maker to play and sit with ideas, which is often difficult given the demand for fast results.  

Often creative solutions don’t always come as you would expect nor immediately, but by jotting down ideas and thoughts, they can be formed upon reflection. It makes me think about the slow part of Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow, in that the more challenging and critical thinking is often slow and needs time to solve well. This can be hard when certain stakeholders demand delivery speed without understanding how some problems and solutions may need the time to develop. How might we build the optimal environments that allow us to work productively, but offer the opportunity for gradual progression over the course of a product or a person’s life? 

It is probably why I ought to switch off and try to go back to sleep. 

Until next week, catch you later

[thecouragetofindmycreativity]

7 | Grit: Keep Showing up

 I’m not sure where I heard this again recently, but encountering the phrase “Keep Showing up” has definitely been affecting my mind. I think why that phrase is important to me at the moment, it is because it has definitely been a while since I last wrote on my blog. My reason is mainly due to a mismanagement of prioritises and that more immediate things took precedent to my writing. Firstly, it started from embarking on a new side project, finishing client work, explore new work opportunities, which are exciting but also present challenges. However, despite this, I started to also question the quality of my writing, whether or not I had something worthwhile to write upon. When my inner critic to reveal itself, I realised that it was a symptom of something bigger and it is why the phrase “keep showing up” becomes meaningful.

In Angela Duckworth’s Ted talk: Grit, the power of passion and perseverance, she examines how students learn from a motivational and psychological perspective. She explains that for students to do well in school and life, there is more than doing things quickly and easily. Grit is about having stamina, where you are putting the effort day in and day out, not in the short term such as a week but for the long term such as years. Thinking about life as a marathon, not a sprint. She also identifies grit is not a quality that comes naturally like that of talent. It is because the research shows that many talented or naturally gifted people do not follow through their commitments or persist to shape their craft. She also notes that growth mindset is key to grittier because a growth mindset indicates that you are continually learning from the feedback and striving to make subsequent improvements. More importantly, I think, it provides the mental framework to treat rejection and failure, that these are not a permanent conditions or traits by points on a long journey. Yet, it does require you to put in the work to persevere and achievement, step by step.

What I have found that Grit is increasingly becoming important in both life and work, especially as I iterate on my development as a designer. Working as a designer in my experience has been a resolve in harnessing and shaping my skills through the opportunities and the setbacks. When certain skills aren’t present, learn more. Get curious about growing your capacity to learn, rather than expect for skills to come naturally nor easily. It involves reaching into your passions in creativity and expressing your thoughts to put yourself out there. It involves perseverance is necessary to get what you want in our competitive world and being a designer means developing a tough skin. This is where bringing myself back to the writing is important in this scenario. Ultimately, it is a journey towards the great discovery of the expansion of my capabilities in order for the right clients to resonate with your expertise to deliver the results they need.

When what you do fails or does not go according to plan, Duckworth reminds me that these moments will pass. I simply need to pick myself up, dust away those inner critic thoughts and learn from my mistakes. It is also involved seeing the benefits of tough experiences as stepping stones towards greater learning opportunities and nothing in life that is worth it is made easy. It also means that being present to conquer those moments to discover future possibilities.

So keep showing up.

[thecouragetofindmycreativity]

6 | Know what makes you happy

Transcript

Over time the practice of creativity becomes more like a way of life, which sometimes it can’t be switched off. Creativity does not always fit between as a strictly 9 to 5 job. I see that with the creative people that I have been surrounded by in the past and now in the present. It is not that creative people necessarily choose to set themselves apart, but I have found certain types of quirks and personality traits that draw designers together. We have our mutual interest in curiosity, learning new facts and making new discoveries, we can finding inspiration in anything, we are collectively driven to make things, that ultimately bring joy to users. We desire users to appreciate our efforts and hard work, that we are considering new and better ways of doing things in order solving their problems. We derive joy and happiness from this making experience and likewise, building impactful and aesthetically pleasing things motivates my creativity to continue being a human centred designer. 

Yet, in listening to a recent interview with Stephen Gates, the Global Head of Design at Citi, his thoughts on his perspective on happiness and creativity were very thought-provoking and relevant to my search for what makes me creative. 

“The other question I ask creatives in an interview that throws them for a loop is do you know how to be happy….especially creatives…the concept of you need to be happy changes over the arc of your career by the fundamental nature of whatever industry that brings you to create….The long you work that creative field, whether it is a designer, chef or a welder, the longer you do it the inherently the further you get away from doing it. I started being a designer at 12, I have to fight now to be the guy that can at least walk into a room and sketch on a whiteboard or doodle on an iPad because the responsibilities are different….my concept of happiness of being that kid at 12 to now has changed multiple times"  

- Stephen Gates

In mulling over Stephen Gates’ thoughts, I do notice that what makes me happy as a creative has definitely changed over time. When I was a kid, I initially thought being creative was a maker type who was stylish and artistic. I would spend my free time making fabric dolls and subsequently clothes for dolls to make. As a teenager, I would also enjoy spending time sketching and doodling ideas for fashion outfits as well as trees.  At the same time, I enjoyed mathematics and the thrill I had when I would get the answer correct. For me, it was able disentangling the problem, using the tools (aka equations and formulas) and ultimately finding a methodical process to figure out the right solution. Now as an adult, what makes me happy as a creative has gone through some twists and turns, particularly as I am gradually transitioning out of classical design toward digital and computational based design. 

In progressing towards being a UX designer, I do see also that being a creative is contentious and complex experience especially as I see myself getting further away from what used to define my creativity, as an arty maker. Instead of making things with my hands and instead of sketching, I do more writing. English wasn’t a subject that I easily enjoyed in high school, and this impacts my motivations to express myself in writing. In writing, it is not black and white or explicitly right or wrong way to write, it is about backing up your thoughts with evidence to demonstrate a persuasive and well-considered argument. Yet writing is a great way to communicate my thoughts more succinctly and laterally. It is a creative medium where I can get my thoughts out there from my mind and in sharing it, I enjoy the thought that perhaps you will resonate with my journey. It has also me consider expanding my vocabulary, in order to find the right words that succinctly capture my thoughts. 

Like Stephen Gates, it is about finding the occasional opportunity to be inspired. For him, it is cooking a meal because he can see the satisfaction of his creation in a short space in time. For me, at the moment it is typography because I can express my creativity in the shape of the words, and play with the line and colour. I am also experimenting with side projects that not only boost my capabilities as a UX/UI designer but allow me to play and experiment with visual design to code. 

If I were to answer Stephen Gates’ question if he were to interview me, I would respond that what makes me happy involves working with open minded individuals in a team and playing with ideas if see whether it helps users in their day to day. It also means acknowledging that your creativity will change and adapt over time, and seeing the opportunities that learning new skills will impact on my design process. I also think that happiness is a work in progress, never always realised and it requires a continual perspective change to force yourself to be happy, no matter what the circumstances are. Easier said than done of course, hence why it is a work in progress for me. 

So go figure out what makes you happy and work to hang onto it, but be reminded that happiness is only temporary, and it changes over time, so learn to embrace that.

[thecouragetofindmycreativity]

5 | Figuring out give or take: Selflessness by being selfish?

Last week, Gary Vaynerchuk wrote an article in Medium called Being Selfless by being selfish. In summing up his thoughts, he questioned how mixing passion with practicality should impact your attitude to giving. 

The problem that Gary says that people have a desire to give, but they do not have anything of value to offer. For him, he was quiet for the first 13 years of his business career because this was the time it took before he could actually be in a position to provide real value to others. During this time, he amassed the resources, knowledge and right people so that when people come up to him, he was an expert, and someone slogged and had the experience to back up what he says. 

He also makes a comment regarding the younger generation’s lack of seeking the big picture, because younger people see giving as a way to upgrade their reputation because it makes others view them as a kind and generous person. In a way, it is trying to trade visibility for credibility. However, if your act of giving gives you visibility but does not come from a place of authenticity and being able to back up what you say, then your giving might provide a meaningful output. What Garablee says is for your giving to be effective in helping others, you yourself need to be in a place of success, which might mean being happy or being able to know what it takes for you to be happy, so that you when educating others with your experience and your knowledge is useful for other people. 

He also describes the best kind of giving needs to be selfless, where you don’t expect to receive anything in return, which is different to what he says about the younger generation who valued their visual reputation growing bigger. He demonstrates this concept finally with a life bucket, where you fill your life bucket with happiness or things you do well in, and once your bucket is filled then you can go out and help fill other people’s buckets because your own bucket is overflowing. This kind of sums up his argument about being selfish now to be selfless later. 

Whilst necessarily agree with everything Gary Vee describes in this article, but his words define struck a chord within me. The reason is that over recent months, I have been personally exploring the tension between how much we give vs how much we take, particularly as giving is associated with being nice and taking is associated with being mean. It came about from my own interactions with acquaintances and friends and in sharing our dilemmas and achievements, I kind of felt that I needed to be in a position to give. Despite being friendly and considerate of other people’s concerns, by giving advice to people, it did impact upon my wellbeing. wellbeing. 

It was also inspired by watching Max Joseph’s video called "Dicks: Do you need to be one to be a successful leader?". It is a great video to look into the minds and processes behind how film directors behave, particularly with their employees. Nevertheless, Max’s video introduced me to Adam Grant, the best selling psychologist who wrote the book Give and Take, where he disproves that climbing on top of others will lead to success, that by giving and helping others will also lead to your success. I naturally liked the sound of this idea, because even though I understood that we live in a dog eat dog type world, I don’t necessarily like to display a character of wanting to destroy people or climb over people to obtain my success. I would rather build my success alongside everybody else. 

In reading Grant’s book Give and Take, I realised that my initial impressions of giving and take were flawed and not so straightforward. In Grant’s research particularly with a conversation with Peter, an Australian financial advisor, and Peter's relationship with one of his former colleagues Brad, Grant identifies that givers are susceptible to the doormat effect: where they tend to see the best in everyone so they operate on the mistaken assumption that everyone is trustworthy. When takers take advantage of that trust, being a giver hurts and works against themselves. Givers can then be seen as pushovers, people, specifically takers can use givers however they see fit. 

Grant’s book also describes research conducted by psychologists that show stereotypes in personality are automatically correlate how people perception of one’s giving or taking behaviour. It was determined through a person’s level of agreeableness because this agreeableness it builds assumptions about how we expect people to act. For example: when you look at an agreeable people, they tend to be cooperative and polite- such they wanted to be harmonious with others and coming across as caring, nice and welcoming. Disagreeable people, on the other hand, were more competitive, critical and tough and not very welcoming. These assumptions mean that we stereotype agreeable people as givers and disagreeable people as takers. So if you encounter an agreeable person, your impression of the person is they display the best of intentions but if you meet a disagreeable person who is cold, your impression is one where this person may appear to not be considerate of your interests and look to exploit. So you may easily want to give and help the agreeable person, and less so to the disagreeable person. Yet, in casting these judgements, we only look at a person’s general demeanour without really investigating their true motives. According to Grant, “giving and taking are based on our motives and values and they’re choices that we make regarding less of whether our personalities trend agreeable or disagreeable" (Grant, year, p192). The reason is as there can be people who appear agreeable on the surface but are takers, and there are also people who we do not see eye to eye but display the best intentions once you get to know them. 

In light of this, both Vaynerchuk and Grant hint at ways for givers to avoid burnout. Vaynerchuk suggests that thinking about your passion with practicality so that you give when you are ready to freely give, usually when you have reached a place where you are happy within your own success that you are ready to give feel like a taxing exercise. At the same time with Vaynerchuk, I understand where he comes from and it is a good perspective, but being in a state of happiness is not always a fixed state, you could be happy one day and sad the next. Does that impact on the way that we ought to give in general? 

I prefer to consider Grant’s approach from being selfless giver to the otherish giver, which is similar to Vaynerchuk’s thoughts but offer a bit more insight. Being an otherish giver implies that givers do still care about helping others, but they are also interested in their own goals and their own success. Being an otherish giver is about maintaining yourself to avoid over-investing in other people or over giving in your capacity to give that it jeopardises your own wellbeing. It also means focusing your giving towards the direct impact on your work, because then you get the continual motivation to keep giving. Grant also suggests carving out giving time, so the giver is able to give versus the time they need prioritise and focus on their own capabilities so that they don’t burn out, which can be a concern. 

I realise that Gary Vee has important points to make, particularly that when we give, that it should be given without expecting anything in return.  When we are starting out and developing ourselves, our wellbeing and skill set might not be at the best place to openly give advice because we are still figuring out what makes us happy and what will lead to our success. In thinking about it further, this mentality seems to make me think about imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is feeling that you are failing things until you have made it. However, once you have made it and no longer feel like an imposter, then giving won’t feel like an extra burden on you. Although, as the current conservation around design is dealing with imposter syndrome, I wonder when we don’t feel like imposters.  

Nevertheless, I think that giving when you are happy is more valuable because you yourself at a greater comfortableness to give because giving when you aren’t happy is draining and feel like it hurts a bit more. Nevertheless, you do need to be little selfish in order to be selfless, but do not let it dictate your ability to give.  

[thecouragetofindmycreativity]

4 | Selling yourself is not the same as selling out

Transcript

A humbling lesson that I was reminded recently is the value of selling yourself as a brand. But simply saying the words “selling myself as a brand” or even thinking that out loud, it makes me feel a little nervous. When I thinking about the concept of selling myself, I picture myself like I am a commodity and try to understand how commodities work.  You need to determine who your audience is to see if your commodity fit their needs. You would also need to think about how to present the commodity so that others are engaged interest and see how it brings value. Yet toward this inward to myself, it kind of makes me feel nervous because I am actively drawing attention to yourself. 

You see, I would generally consider myself to be a humble, empathic and relatively introverted person. For sure, there are moments where I have expressed myself in outlandish ways. Everyone has those times ;) However, in general, when I enter a room I would not necessarily be the one that naturally sparkles or draws attention.  So making an intention to stand out of the crowd gives me the irks.

That being said, being humble, empathic and introverted doesn't mean I don’t express my creativity or that I am incapable of delivering bold designs. Instead, I simply made an assumption that by crafting my designs well, then my designs were so intuitive that the design could sell itself. That way the focus would be not on me selling the design but focused on the design.

So during design school, I would pour my energy into craftsmanship and quality of the product. Thinking about the materials, making sure my metals were polished well, making sure I would sand all surfaces so they were nice and shiny but at the cost of presenting my ideas clearly. This kinda worked from a classical design perspective, where I would create unconventional jewellery pieces and I would only have a plaque to demonstrate my story and my idea.  So when my work was critiqued, its main focus was on its aesthetics and its craftsmanship. My assessors would appreciate the beauty and the intricate work spent into these metallic pieces, but the story is considered of lesser value. I would only have a plaque to demonstrate my story and my idea.  So when my work was critiqued, its main focus was on its aesthetics and its craftsmanship. My assessors would appreciate the beauty and the intricate work spent into these metallic pieces, but the story is considered of lesser value.

Nowadays, working within the interaction design field, I realise this assumption does not work. Even Mike Montiero says this in his book, "Design is a Job". Why? It is because not all ideas or designs are as intuitive as I originally thought. In comparison to jewellery design, Interaction design is relatively more complex because it involves more interactions and mere aesthetics doesn't cut it when you need your design to function well. Also, people would interact with your design however they see fit and build assumptions on your product idea based on their own interactions. You simply couldn't control exactly how people will use your design, but without communication, users can be left with an undesirable experience and simply switch to something else. Yet, If you become a strong communicator, it is helpful in preventing user error and provide clarity to the reasons for my designs. It also demonstrates how you have addressed the problem at hand and be open to criticism. As a designer, it is my responsibility to help users see how the designs improve their lives and help stakeholders see how these designs bring value to their business.

I realise now that selling yourself is not the same as selling out. Yes, my skills are part of my toolkit but my skills don't completely represent me as a person. After all,  I am a unique person who is trying to bring something different to the conversation.  Even though it is uncomfortable, selling yourself does help in presenting your best self forward, to communicate what you can offer but also what makes you stand out from the crowd. I also realise to distinguish selling yourself from selling out, it comes back to defining myself. It comes from focusing on my strengths and having the inner belief that you have what it takes. By backing yourself, communicating your worth comes from a place of authenticity rather than putting on a cascade. It gives people the confidence that you can do the work. 

So I am learning to sell myself better, build my confidence and how I express my value to others. But it also means not letting everybody’s feedback affect me, and having that inner belief that even when the people around you may not see it. I am reminded of what Mike Monteiro said about designers:

Ultimately, your job is to make the client feel confident in the design. Confidence is as much of a deliverable as anything you’re handing over in the project.

So that’s what I hope to achieve, to make the client feel in confident in my design. 

[thecouragetofindmycreativity]

3 | Convergence: a help to creativity, not  a harm

The creative process is inherently messy. Unlike the item that you purchase at the supermarket or the buildings you see around you, the restaurant meals that you eat, what you see as a user is often the final product whereby the creativity is neatly packaged ready for your consumption. As users, you sometimes forget that for this product to arrive at this final outcome, it required a lot of planning, thought and negotiation behind the scenes which is not always going to be smooth or straightforward, because you don’t see that. 

As the creative process is messy, the phases of divergent thinking and convergent thinking helps us resolve this process. From the brief that you are given, the first phase involves broadening your thinking and generating as many ideas that you can think of. Convergent thinking is the opposite. Then the second phases filtering through your ideas come to resolve to one idea. In my experience, divergent and broad thinking has always been easy simply because inspiration is always around you and easily available. Whether it is from your life experiences, what you encounter on a daily basis, or even that the momentary pause, we are inundated with information that can inspire us. Or with the internet, we can easily find it. For me that converging all these thoughts together to be the challenge to find the focus on one or a selected few ideas. I kind of found that you draw from each inspiration and it becomes a big effort to put these ideas together harmoniously.   

A time where this happened is for my final year design project. Prior to its commencement, I had come back from a month travelling around South America. I tried the famous steak in Bueno Aires, (which was tasty), I’d seen the beautiful beaches of Rio de Janeiro, I was dazzled by the infinite salt flats in Uyuni, in Bolivia and I biked around the otherworldly landscapes in San Pedro de Atacama, in Chile. Yet in my month around South America, the experience that provoked me most was trekking the Inca Trail for 4 days to arrive at Machu Picchu. It was one of the hardest challenges in my life, climbing steep hills at high altitudes, across many kilometres. In connecting with nature, I wanted this experience to influence my work. In finessing my ideas, it motivates me to work towards producing a series of wellness products to help people de-stress at work, but also to question whether they were achieving the experiences they ultimately wanted. 

I would then think of many types of ways to solve this problem.  I experimented with different materials such as Fluro fluid, silicone and resin, branches, leaves, metals which diverged in my thinking. I became drawn to different possible solutions and tried frustratingly to create a harmonious solution. In the end, I came up with a failed concept that didn’t make sense to my assessors and that also didn’t solve a problem. 

One of those lessons is that not all good ideas work to the provided brief and sometimes it is a renewed practice of killing your darling ideas. Convergence brings forth clarity to your idea such that your audience can appreciate your original intention. 

This post serves as a reminder that creativity is complicated and messy. However, in working to easily throw out the bad ideas to identify the good ideas in these 2 phases, helps makes the process a little bit easier. Convergence allows your creativity to be communicated clearly with the right intentions.

[thecouragetofindmycreativity]

2 | Why make an audio blog?

Transcript:

I have always been obsessed with tv culture. Growing up, the tv was the centre of my living room as I’m sure that was like most of you as well. Even though I did spend much of my early years climbing trees and reading books, as I grew older, these acts transitioned towards time in front of the screen. Maybe it was the appeal of seeing life vicariously through the lives of other teenagers helped me make sense of my teenage world. Imagine a being a powerful warrior figure like Buffy the vampire slayer, or the complications of relationships as Joey between Dawson and Pacey from Dawson’s Creek, it created an image of what an ideal teenage life could be like. And I was addicted to finding out. 

Unfortunately, this addiction caused problems with my family and my grades. I can remember there were many times where I have glued my eyes to the screen, and I had been repetitively told off for it, by particularly my parents. “Jenny, are you listening to me?…Come have dinner”. Still, I was too absorbed to the tv to listen to their shouts. This interaction was often common as such it would lead to them being super pissed at my ignorance that they were forced to stand in front of the screen to draw away my attention. There was a period where I was diligently able to not watch tv. Given that my grades weren’t doing so great, my parents forced me to stop watching tv until I get better grades. I wanted to be a good daughter at the time, so I diligently studied during the rest of high school and it also bled into my uni years. It was probably a time where I was the least distracted, especially since social media and interview videos were not a thing back then, which is not the case these days. 

However, during the later stages of studying university, I really became interested in storytelling in videos again. However, whether it was msnbc video, Yahoo video, and then youtube, these places were an outlet to observe what other people were doing, and where I could get a few tricks.  As a DIY sewer, I became obsessed with Corinne and Rob at Threadbanger, and I filled my days between 2008 and 2009 learning to make customised clothes from old T’s, turning button-down shirts into dresses or sewing from scratch. I would watch Rachael Ray’s 30 mins meals and imagine that I could be a good cook. I would also watch RoadTrip Nation and see college kids question discovered what they wanted to out once they left college. It was also around this time where I discovered Casey Neistat through the video channel for New York Times.  These days I watch many Youtube vloggers who often document their lives, whether it is the DIYers The Sorry Girls, through to travel with Fun for Louis or Casey Neistat again to discover how he manages the complexities around his video work. 

Tv culture allowed me to escape from the realities of everyday life. However, these days tv and internet video culture allow me to learn and be included in someone’s journey. Whether it is the process of a couple building their tiny house, or building craft, or telling their journey to be a restauranteur, story listening uplifts me to understand the person, their context and their journey. It is probably why I like interviewing people as part of my designer role. Essentially the act of telling and listening to stories connects us to each other as human beings trying to navigate the complexities of this world, whether it is true or fictional. 

So you are thinking about the title and ask they why have I called it, Why make an audio blog? In spite of being interested in tv/video based culture, there is something beautiful in hearing words without being immersed in the visuals. It is really obvious that we lived in a dominant visual world, where we look at our Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter feeds and then back to Instagram, we are easily stimulated and consume images by simply flicking or swiping. In this world, how we perceive others is based on the visuals that you generate, and in turn, your identity can propel you to be an “influencer", or what “influencers” are really becoming, internet celebrity. 

Being an internet celebrity is fine, but it is really for me right now. I really want this audio blog to be a place of expression, documenting my thoughts and outlining the journey to reclaim my creativity. The reason behind creating an audio blog was very much motivated by listening to the audio edition of Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. In hearing her read her book, I felt empowered listening to her voice, as her nuances give effect to her prose. I too want to draw people through my voice, figuratively and literally. 

But then why not make a blog? After all, blogs are easier to produce and be make every day even, like a journal. I admit making an audio blog seems like more work than originally anticipated.  Each of these posts come with much reflection and building some technical know how which I’m still figuring it out as I go. However, In a world where we are seeing so much information to read, there is something to be said about connecting with one’s voice for me.

It's not that I don’t necessarily like reading a blog. It is more as a user, I find myself emotionally connect with someone’s voice because that is a human quality.  I’m sure before the printing press was formed, stories and history, or folklore were passed down through the act of telling one’s story. There is something inherently more connected with a voice, as you are engaging other senses aside from the eyes. I could imagine you sitting on a long distance train and listening to my thoughts, like that when I was listening to my audiobooks. I also feel that producing this makes my work more accessible to people, particularly with those that have vision impairments such that they can still access my journey for creativity. 

To be honest, I don’t know how this audio blog is will exactly manifest but it is something that I’m building to explore. After all, it is early and it is still an experiment. However, in focusing on the voice, it is an interest of mine that I am exploring.

[thecouragetofindmycreativity]

1 |  Fear, Bravery, and Creativity

A tale about how life gets in my way of being a creative person. 

Transcript:

It is remarkable how much 4 years changes your perspective on life and creativity. Lately, I have been watching CatsCreature, a Youtube studying Textile Design at Rhode Island School of Design. As I watch her discuss her projects,   it triggers memories of my time in design school. I reminiscence about going to the woodshop and in the jewellery studio to build upon my latest project. I remember those times where I was experimenting with everything from bending acrylic with a heat gun to using a hydraulic press to create domes from copper. I also miss the conversations I had with uni friends about what were they making and getting curious about their reasons behind their design.

Design school was a brave pursuit for me. As a graduate out of business school, my life was compelled to being an accountant or in finance, something practical but it didn’t feel fulfilling to me. I wanted to pursue my interests in art and fashion, or do something to challenge the creative mindset that I ignored through my years in business school. It also meant going against the grain of everyone and societal’s expectation of me, to find a stable job and making a living for myself, which was not easy, particularly for my worrying parents. Despite these fears, I forged ahead and applied to design school and got in! If it wasn’t for design school, I probably won’t question my interests in fashion and be introduced to Arduino and Processing. 

At the time, I felt fashion and jewellery seem to be a frivolous exercise because I was capable of making beautiful things, but how were they making a positive contribution to society? I became a fan of the work of Leah Heiss because I too wanted to also make jewellery that enclosed mechanisms that could save a person’s life like her Insulin Jewellery piece. Wearable technology felt like intentional product design because technology facilitates additional function that improves a person’s behaviour. As such, the wearable pieces that I made in my final year of university was some of the bravest work that I created. 

Wearable technology fuelled my curiosity towards learning about the field of User Experience Design. As a dreamer, I could make digital products that could make a positive difference and shape people’s behaviour to do good things. I could work for a group like Google X, who were using unusual methods to solve some bold and out there problems. 

Yet, as I became a UX Designer in the real world, my naivety was quickly confronted with the realities of organisations. Despite being initially encouraged to try new things and experiment, eventually, my work involved tasks that left me creatively dry. They weren’t necessarily bad tasks in themselves, however, the reality of getting stuff done left me uninspired and thus creatively dry. During my time, I reasoned it to growing pains, as I adjust to being an artistic being in a corporate organisation.  At the same time, I was reminded that my work does not serve my needs, but the needs of others. 

Even with my ignorance, I worked to suppressed my discomfort and simply worked harder with the tasks laid before me. I tried several attempts to change my mindset and use creativity as part of the process of design thinking. Creativity is not necessarily excluded to beautiful, artistic projects but also to thinking strategically about how an organisation’s culture or processes could be changed. It should have excited me to broaden my perception of creativity but I began to feel the fear that creativity was a mutually exclusive entity, either beauty and fun or practical and serious. Being involved in serious projects drew me away from the fun projects and dampened my creativity once again.  

Now four years later, I fear that my creative confidence that I grew to develop in university has diminished. As an emerging designer, I fear that I have to make compromises in my work that leaves me uninspired, which has affected my attitude and challenged my identity as a creative person. I know that being a designer in itself is a privileged career, as such I want to make it count. 

Four years later, I have felt the realities of the world has crept into my creative mind such that it has brought fear towards ambiguity and instability and creativity a difficult pursuit.  Yet as I am dried up of creativity, I am working to face this fear head on. I am provoked by how Elizabeth Gilbert describes of poet Jack Gilbert in her book Big Magic. Gilbert instructed his students that “they must live their most creative lives as a means to fight back against the ruthless furnace of this world”. In doing so, creativity requires bravery because Gilbert says

 “Without bravery, we will never be able to realize the vaulting scope of our own capacities. Without bravery, we will never know the world as richly as it longs to be known. Without bravery, our lives will remain small - far smaller than we probably want our lives to be.” 

This blog represents my journey in being brave once again to give myself the courage to find what makes me creative, whether it is in my work, or on a side project. In fulfilling that part of myself, it will make me be a better person and rediscover what potential that I really have to offer. I hope that in this journey, others may get to discover the extent of their own capacities in the big dynamic world out there.

Audiolog references:

Catcreature: https://www.youtube.com/user/thisthatandsparkles

Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24453082-big-magic

[thecouragetofindmycreativity]

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The Courage to Find my Creativity is a continual work in progress behind the scenes, as I build my content and convey my thoughts.

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