Last post for me ’till 2010
With the year drawing to a close it’s important to go over the things you want to do. So make your resolutions and (hopefully) stick to them. However, in the shuffle to figure out the future it’s a good idea to remember the past. Inspired by Stephan Sagmeister, here are the Things I Have Learned: 2009 Edition.
In quote form, because I love how the block-quotes look (and I haven’t used them enough).
I think If you’re going to say something, be adamant and unequivocal about it. If you don’t know enough about it, do some research.
The problem with phrases like “I think…” or “well, what about…” and similar phrases is that the person you’re aiming them at will be more inclined to take them as weak opinion and not something definite statement. Convincing someone of something is tough enough as is without opening holes for them to doubt that you know what you’re talking about. By being definite with your statements and opinions – and backing them up with facts if possible – you can convince someone what you think is solid. People tend to believe people that are confident, especially if they aren’t confident themselves.
Google is not actually a software or search company, it is an advertising company.
Free email, free calendar, free web indexing, free word processing (created this post in Docs), free GPS? How can Google pay for all this? By making oodles and oodles in they’re ad placement. And, being that they’re ad placement is based entirely online, it’s only to the big G’s benefit you spend as much time online as possible.
My prediction for the next ten years? Google will consolidate into mobile ads and, eventually, environmental ads that change when they sense you come by. It’s a brave new world in the cloud, friends.
If you need to buy a piece of software for something, most likely someone probably has already made it for free.
VMWare Fusion? Try VirtualBox. Microsoft Office? You’ll like Zoho, Google Docs (my pick), or OpenOffice for the non-cloud minded individual. Photoshop? GIMP and others do much the same job. Have a netbook? Ditch Windows 7 and try ChromeOS. These days, pretty much any piece of software has a free, legal equivalent that will satisfy an amateur or even a professional.
If you are working a 9-5 design job, you will go insane if you don’t do creative things on the side.
Some of the best and most interesting sites, companies and designs come out of the need to do ’something else’ than the norm. When you’re doing the same thing every day in a creative field things can get boring really fast. Taking on pet projects is a great way to alleviate that boredom (24 Ways has a great write-up on the subject). Flex that creative muscle outside of monetary concerns. Who knows, you might be able to make a career out of it.
Knowing when to say ‘No’ to a job is more important than saying ‘Yes.’
It is easy to get stuck with that job or client that you just needed too soon. Sometimes saying ‘No’ in the beginning will end up actually saving you money. Certainly it will save you a lot of frustration.
The only thing worse than being told what to do a million times is having to tell someone what to do a million times.
I’d explain this more, but I think it’d ruin the fortune cookie feel it’s got going on.
There isn’t anything on the Internet that you can hide, so you might as well be honest with yourself and stop hiding.
It is shockingly easy to find out who is behind some internet handles. If anyone is being remotely careless, it’s possible to figure out who they are, who they work for, where they live, etc. If you’re honest about what you do, just be open about it and you won’t have anything to worry about. If someone doesn’t want to hire you because they don’t agree with what you say, that’s they’re prerogative.
Owning a firearm doesn’t hurt as insurance, though.
$2,499 US dollars will buy you the Adobe Creative Suite. $30K and up will get your a great education at a design school. But it’ll all be a waste if you don’t spend that $20 bucks for a sketch pad and pencil to draw out your ideas.
College students who are going into creative areas, pound this into you head. Your lives will be much, MUCH easier if you learn how to sketch and draw your ideas out before you get onto the damned computer. Someone who can use a paper and pencil is a much harder person to find these days than someone who can code Javascript. If you create things, you should be able to draw things. Not even well, just enough to place your ideas out there.
Porof-Read things at least three timse
Don’t let those little things pass you by.
Being a tiny bit skeptical goes a long way being practical.
This helps me a lot when I watch Fox News or read blogs. If it doesn’t make any sense, then be skeptical and dig a bit deeper.
I’ve lived through 2 ‘apocalypses’, dozens of ‘wars’, 4 disease scares, 3 recessions, and two badly run Presidential Administrations. Pretty sure the next apocalypse, war, disease and Administration won’t pose too much of a problem.
The world keeps ‘a turning.
Flickr is the best $25 I’ve spent all year.
With only a couple hiccups (c’mon Flickr, make it easier to share with non-Yahoo!ers), Flickr is the best photo sharing website out there.
Class Warfare is a lie perpetrated by the elite.
You just need to figure out which elite that’s referring to.
Money has less importance to me than making art. I also know that is most likely because I am stupid and young.
I don’t make a ton of money, and I struggle from time to time, but I love drawing and putting stickers on things and writing this blog post. Every penny I spend and every minute I waste on something I like is currency well spent.
And so that about sums up the things that I think that I learned this year. Hopefully I remember those things and learn new things. It’ll be even better if I change my ideas a year from now. When 2011 roles around and the mole people are only a year from breaking ground to invade us, who knows what I’ll know? I sure as hell don’t.
Happy 2010, internet people!