February 2012
2 posts
“The call of the church has never been to be political analysts. We’re...”
– Jay Hayford, in Religion Report. I love the amount analogy in his quote.
“Doing right matters more than being right.”
– @johnmaeda
January 2012
8 posts
“It seems to me that Facebook and Twitter and Youtube — and just so you...”
– William Deresiewicz
“There’s another kind of courage, moral courage, the courage to stand up...”
– William Deresiewicz
Hustle to Survive
In a conversation I had with RG yesterday, we discussed the differences between big companies and startups. The attribute the stood out most for me was that people in startups were typically in “survival” mode. They are there to make history, to create something new, to give it all they’ve got, and to beat anybody else to it. It’s the hustle to survive, every minute every...
“We can change skill levels through training, but we can’t change attitude.”
– Herb Kelleher, former Southwest Airlines CEO
“More than ever, we’re prisoners of the urgent. Prioritizing requires...”
– http://blogs.hbr.org/schwartz/2012/01/no-is-the-new-yes-four-practic.html#disqus_thread
“Without risks, life’s not worth living.”
– Mo to AL on changing a product to challenge the status quo.
“Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources...”
– http://www.inc.com/eric-schurenberg/the-best-definition-of-entepreneurship.html
Top 100 Package Designs of 2011 →
In today’s digitally-oriented world, it’s nice to see designers pushing the envelop in physical-based design. Digital stuff has nothing on things that you can actually hold, touch, and feel.
December 2011
7 posts
1 tag
Tribal Stages
Just finished reading Tribal Leadership, and excited to have learned a bit of organizational knowledge. According to the book, there are 5 stages of a tribe:
Alienated - Life sucks
Separate - My life sucks
Personal - I’m great
Partnership - We’re great
Team - Life’s great
The trick is to recognize where your tribe (e.g. team, company, group, etc…) is currently, and...
“Core values are what we “stand in” and a noble cause is what we...”
– Tribal Leadership
WatchThe Nike Film Room is simply amazing. Great usage of technology + experience-based design to create a way for kids (or anyone) to feel like Mike (MJ), Kevin Durant, or any other NBA superstars they look up to.
“Fantasy is what people want, but reality is what they need.”
– Lauryn Hill in MTV Unplugged No. 2.0 (2002)
“Don’t let the world break your will. Instead, use your will to bend the world.”
– Mo
“The difference between a boss and a leader: a boss says “Go!” — a leader says...”
– E.M. Kelly via Assuming Leadership in Your Design Agency on Smashing Magazine
November 2011
1 post
“Practice is funny that way. For days and says, you make out only the fragments...”
– Atul Gawande in Complications
October 2011
9 posts
“Curiosity let’s you conquer the unknown, rather than fear it.”
– Mo
1 tag
“A stone cannot shape itself.”
– Mo on why Christians need community.
I'm Big in Japan →
I guess that’s the perk of working for a global company (LinkedIn). See me on the right in the video preview snapshot.
1 tag
“Don’t be anyone’s b*tch. Come up with your own great ideas.”
– Mo
“What can we do this week that we’ve never done before?”
– Question to keeping your team engaged, from 10 Secrets of Successful Leaders
1 tag
“Let’s reach millions of people, by delighting one individual at a time.”
– Me on User Experience Design
Strive for Laughter
Today was my first volunteering session for KEEN, where I got to spend an hour playing sports with children with autism at the local YMCA. If you didn’t know, autism is developmental disorder that impairs social interaction and communication. Autism exists in different forms, and characteristics of individuals with autism vary widely from one person to the next.
Oftentimes, it is difficult...
“It’s your heart running around outside your body.”
– Steve Jobs on the “problem with children.” (source)
“Dreaming requires you to take paths you might not end up following.”
– Mo (during a chat with JR about defining product strategies)
September 2011
1 post
“Every design problem I’ve ever solved started with my ability to visualize...”
– Temple Grandin in Thinking in Pictures
August 2011
10 posts
“You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it...”
– Steve Jobs in the commencement speech he delivered at Stanford in 2005
Scriptures from Mama Ting
Mama Ting wrote an encouraging note for my 30th birthday, and these were the scriptures she handpicked for me:
But those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. - Psalms 34:10b (referring to the fact that God gave me a good wife.)
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than you. - Philippians 2:3
I am not saying this because I am in need, for I...
“Doing the right thing will sometimes make you the bad guy.”
– Mo
“Has anything you’ve done made your life better?”
– American History X
6 Requirements to Touch Someone's Heart with...
In Made You Look, one of Stefan Sagmeister’s life goals is to touch somebody’s heard with graphic design. He attempts to come up with a list of qualities that a given design must have in order to make that happen (no guarantees though):
New Perspective - They have to have the ability to make me see things in a new way.
Trigger of Memories - Somehow they remind me of an experience,...
“Touch somebody’s heart with graphic design.”
– Stefan Sagmeister
Spontaneity Setup
Here’s an awesome 4-step design process that lets you set yourself up for futuristic spontaneous ideas. It’s picked out of Stefan Sagmeister’s Made You Look,
Think about the project from any point of view — your mom’s, yours, from the point of view of color, or form—and write each response down on a single index card.
Spread all the index cards out on a big...
“Audi partem alteram. (Hear the other side.)”
– Saint Augustine
“Receiving a piece of graphic design is like going on a date. If my date turns...”
– Sagmeister
Learn Faster?
This is sort of a rant, here goes. While reading The UX of Learning article on A List Apart, I came across the Bloom’s Taxonomy for learning. It looks something like this:
As a User Experience Designer, my mind runs through this stack on a daily basis. Whenever I’m called upon to create (synthesize) something, I know that it won’t turn out great until I actually understand...
July 2011
1 post
“The human race is filled with passion.”
– Robin Williams in The Dead Poets Society
June 2011
15 posts
“An autotelic person needs few material possessions. And little entertainment,...”
– Finding Flow
“I want to learn more and more to see as beautiful what is necessary in things;...”
– Nietzsche
1 tag
“As a designer, one should create subjectively and receive feedback objectively.”
– Moism
Secret of a Good Conversation
I heartily agree with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi when he says in Finding Flow:
The secret of starting a good conversation is really quite simple. The first step is to find out what the other person’s goals are: What is he interested in at the moment? What is she involved in? What has he or she accomplished, or is trying to accomplish? If any of this sounds worth pursuing, the next step is to...
Ever Wonder Why you Watch so much TV?
Here’s a really interesting excerpt from Finding Flow that explains about why US teenagers (and adults) watch so much TV, even though they experience at least 2x more enjoyment in more “active” activities:
Not all free-time activities are the same. One major distinction is between active and passive leisure, which have quite different psychological effects. For example, US...
“Creative people are especially good at ordering their lives so that what they...”
– Csikszentmihalyi in Finding Flow
“Ideas are like babies because everyone thinks theirs is cute, therefore be...”
– What I Wish I Knew When I was 20
“If you want a leadership role, then take on leadership roles. Just give yourself...”
– Tina Seelig
“To live means to experience — through doing, feeling, thinking. Experience...”
– Finding Flow
“The bigger the problem, the bigger the opportunity. Nobody will pay you to solve...”
– Vinod Khosla
“Restaurant dining is an ephemeral experience. Once you’ve eaten the meal,...”
– The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, on why people like to talk about restaurants.