Big Changes.

2 years ago, I took a big risk.  I left a job I’d only started 6 months before, because a friend was willing to take a bit of a chance on me, and hire me to work with him to build the digital team at an agency best known for print, direct mail, and in-store work.

Needless to say, it paid off. The last 2 years have been an amazing learning experience, and I’ll spend the rest of my life being grateful to the team at OSL for what we accomplished together, and how I’ve grown with the influence, help, and support of so many individuals there.

But the times, they are a-changing.

On Monday, I’ll be joining the strategy team at Klick, and starting in an industry that’s new to be as well, working primarily in the health space.

It’s not just new challenges and new opportunities that motivated me to make the switch.  I’m excited to work with the people, and the culture that I’ve been introduced to in interviews and conversations with the Klick team.

So, starting on Monday, I’ll be working downtown again. Which I’m hoping means I’m going to be a little more available than I’ve been in the past couple years, given the lack of commute.

I’m really, very, incredibly (possibly unreasonably) excited. Change is the one constant in life, and this feels like a very good one.

you are not better at organizing than a computer is at searching.

Nearly everyone I know has a complex file sorting system. Especially those who manage a large number of work files on their machine.

To these people, I probably seem massively disorganized. The major difference is, I put my faith in search before I rely on my own organization. The upside for me, is saved time.

Instead of having a few dozen folders and subfolders, I keep massive folders for each subject. When I need something, I search in the appropriate folder. This would be stupid, except for one thing: consistent naming practices.

When I write a short story, I’ll save a version with the story title as the file name. But I’ll also save a version called “short story_TITLE_nov13”. 

If I go into documents, and type short story into the search bar, they all come up. The date in the filename is the creation date, and I’ll add “v2”, etc, to the end if I feel keeping past revisions is necessary.

Instead of needing to remember which folder something is in, I just need to know what type of thing I’m looking for.

In a work situation, it would be more like: “client name_docket_title_date_version” which, still, is dead easily searchable.

I understand that this “feels” less organized than folders, but being reliant on the durability of folder superstructure is no less tech dependent than being reliant on the durability of a filename and the search tool built into your device’s file management system.

That said, there are also tens of thousands of unfiled emails across my many accounts, so I may just trust my search skills more than the average person.

Bending to Reality.

I was never more creative than when I didn’t have a schedule.  I’d have deadlines, sure, and classes which were of varying importance to attend, but I had to constant, overarching reason to bend the time spent on any given task, per day, to anything other than when the work had to be delivered.  And I never missed deadlines, because everything else was flexible.

I miss being able to go on a 12 hour research binge, followed by a 4 hour writing and revision binge, followed by 2 hours of Entourage, 2 hours of sleep, delivering the finished product, and finally another 14 hours of sleep.  I have a vast array of reasons why this is no longer a feasible approach to work (mostly working in teams, on large, intricate processes where many people rely on my being accessible) but I miss it nonetheless.  I miss being able to disappear into the work, rather than have the work disappear into the process.

I also have a feeling that this type of work, the type I cherished so much, is only possible in a situation like academia, where someone is so closely defining the scope and ingredients of your work that you can be left entirely to your own devices.

I don’t have a solution or suggestion this time.  I’m just pointing out one of the inherent sacrifices in working with real world toys, rather than intellectual playgrounds.  You need to bend to reality, from time to time, in the real world.

It’s probably worth it.  This is no way means I’m not constantly looking for a workflow that mimics the best parts of complete independence, while offering the benefit of working in a skilled, motivated, tightly knit team.

Defining ‘intellect’ meaningfully.

There’s a natural tendency to define intelligence by the traits we feel best reflect our mental abilities. Which is a nice way of saying, I’m at my best when communicating or in (a specific subset of) social situations, so I consider those skills a sign of intellect. Often to my detriment.

It’s at least partially a defence mechanism, but it’s also hard-wired. If I feel smart because of x, it makes sense that I would consider x a sign that someone is smart.

We spend absurd amounts of time treating people who are quite brilliant in different ways like children, because they don’t have the grasp of our specialty that we do.

Ignoring this behaviour in yourself and others is weakening you in every way.

Meet people, and spend your time trying to find out where their intellect lies, rather than how your specific brand on intelligence trumps theirs. We’ll all be better for it.