Automation is automating the stuff that can be done by robots.

Everyone except for Sarah Boris is doing exactly what they want to be doing. Perfection all around, and Sarah would like to do more of the things she is already doing.

I do think that owner-operators of small agencies and studios are less likely to have side projects within their disciplines. It is hard to realise where business and personal start and finish, and anything will flow quite freely into the agency/studio side. so the responses make sense. Simon Manchipp doesn’t have side projects, he used to have side hustles…but he is too busy working on billion-dollar campaigns…his mother must be so proud.

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Like most, I struggled to come up with a list of skills and weaknesses (or gaps). I don’t ever make lists, I used to, but would never use them. I probably should. I am not sure what is more difficult to publish, one’s strengths or one’s weaknesses. It is hard to be objective. (e.g. everyone thinks that they are a good driver and underpaid.)

Stating skills feels a bit like braggadocio, stating all weaknesses could take too long. In addition, many characteristics (which I know are not necessarily skills) can be both good and bad. So, I am going to focus on the things, of which I would like to do more and on things that are related to design and teaching.

Gaps
Don’t write enough
I want to finally read and understand McCluhan
Read more in general
Do more expressive typography, or just push boundaries of art and design
Finish and build some of the designs I have created
I should probably try to publish (for reasons of teaching, I really don’t want to)
I’m bad at networking and self-promotion
Development stage of the process
I can’t draw
I would like to collaborate more
I could be more organised
Contrarian

Skills
Humour
Scrappy
Trivia
Independent
Messing with people
Contrarian
Good driver

It seems to me that just making a list, regardless if you check it twice, is a pointless exercise. The making of a list can only make sense if it is a first step towards action. I was trying to create something that is not just a list that could disappear into a folder or drawer, but instead, something that encourages development and even collaboration. I liked the idea of a volvelle that usually has precalculated information. The idea being that you could write down the gaps and then have others help fill in ways of mitigating those shortcomings. E.g. I asked the group of any ideas on how I might force myself to write more or better, to which Annie suggested Morning Pages and Jasmine (eventually) recommended a writers’ group of sorts. It is already working…though I could have just asked Annie and jasmine, without glueing and cutting a few volvelles….It’s just a concept at the moment, really basic. I would like it bigger and/or more beautiful, maybe something that hangs on the wall and can be spun and used as a way to motivate yourself. or something really small and intricate to be carried around and updated. Or a digital, connected tool that can be updated by members of a group.

I was also thinking that a volvelle could be used as a tool to either describe a design or ideation process or help when there are blocks, like Eno’s and Ideo’s oblique strategies