Top Tags

Tag experiences

Entries 2 Total

Resilience III – Core Belief System

Mar 13, ’11 9:17 PM

“Life can be all too brief, so we must reach out for opportunities when they present themselves.  To do this, you need to better understand the kind of person you are and take control of the forces that, even now, are shaping the future “you.”  Armed with the knowledge of who you are and who you want to be, you can create meaning in your life.  You can do this by using the resilience skills to develop more intimacy with those you love, to fill your life with purpose and meaning via your work or involvement in the community.  You can also use the skills to take on new challenges.”

While the origins of Incubator were based upon loss, it ultimately allowed me to begin understanding who I am and what I want out of my life.  While not yet completely true, the process of documenting my experiences and thought patterns has allowed me to remove many of the negative emotions that comes with loss.  It was this removal that ultimately enabled the end of Incubator and the beginning of Territories.

While the process of healing can, and does, ultimately end, self-exploration does not.  It is created as one experiences new things throughout his or her life.  Coincidentally, self-exploration is an essential part of being resilient.

With the creation of The Visual Journey and the initiation of Immersion, I have a clear understanding of who I am and the experiences that got me here.  But what’s missing is an in-depth analysis of my core belief system.

Thus, one of the areas that I will be focusing on in the weeks and months to come is understanding, and challenging my core beliefs.  Some of my beliefs may fit naturally while others (i.e. those that are not making my life better) require replacement.

Furthermore, some beliefs are centralized to my professional life, while others span both work and play.  Also, some beliefs will be easy to uncover while others may require further analysis.

Future experiences aside, I believe this next step will enable me to truly understand my identity, my role in the world, and will ultimately increase my resilience.

Comments Off on Resilience III – Core Belief System

Immersion: Operating Framework and “Post Digital” Concept

Jan 10, ’11 8:46 PM

The concept of an operating framework is to organize your time and effort into specific areas of focus.  In theory, and with appropriate discipline, an operating framework can accelerate one’s development in one or multiple areas.  The very nature of writing down one’s goals (or visually representing them) can plant these ideas and objectives into one’s subconscious, and this becomes a very powerful motivator even if you aren’t explicitly thinking of the framework on a daily basis (you shouldn’t be).

For example, here is an example of a partial framework from 2007 (Plane 6 – “Foundation”):

(Click on the image to enlarge)

While I listed electronics and software development within this framework, I didn’t end up spending a lot of time in these specific areas.  And that’s where the evolution of an operating framework becomes relevant; where are you focusing your energy?  And if you aren’t spending your time in certain areas, is this necessarily a problem?

In the Immersion (Plane 10) framework shown below, there is now a clear separation of what I’ve focused on in the past and what I ultimately need to focus on in the future.  This is a radical shift given that I’ve typically had to justify and take on multiple, parallel tracks that had little relationship to one another – other than the fact that one path was for survival, and the other more aspirational.  By logically separating these skills from the “core”, they will eventually become dormant and by default, the skills that I want to develop will have developed due to this increased focus (i.e. a self-fulfilling prophecy).

(Click on the image to enlarge)

Layered above these “dormant” skills are multiple layers of activity – all leading to a radically advanced portfolio along with an increased level of interaction weighted more heavily in the real-world than in the digital realm. What’s truly important here is that this increased interaction ultimately stems from a broader range of experiences.  Not surprisingly, this has a dual purpose; the greater one’s experiences, the greater one’s ability to learn, identify challenges and design solutions to those challenges.  Experiences represent a designer’s playground.

Finally, one concept that perhaps serves as the basis for this framework is John Maeda’s concept of “post digital”:

[Post Digital] is a term that I created as a way to acknowledge a distinction between those that are passed their fascination with computers, and are now driven by the ideas instead of the technology.  […] the “post digital” generation refers to the growing few that have already been digital, and are now more interested in Being Human.

Ultimately, this is exactly what Immersion is all about – I’m less interested in the technology for technology’s sake.  Rather I am interested in using technology to increase idea generation to make people’s lives better.

Comments (1)