Excited! 8: Tiny Changes
Today—as of a few minutes hours ago, here in California—it's 2018. And there are so so SO many things I've been excited about, two other missives I've fully drafted, and instead, of course, I feel compelled to tell you about ...!!!! a song I've had relentlessly stuck in my head.
My favorite band, for reasons I find hard to articulate, is a Scottish group called Frightened Rabbit. They …probably won't be your cup of tea. Energetic music that's either angry or depressed, or both; a lead vocalist with a plaintive Scottish brogue; playful lyrics laced with bitterness and profanity; and a discography that begins with numb depression, moves to post-breakup vitriol, pushes through to a "winter of mixed drinks" and acceptance ("I think I'll save suicide for another year"), and even dips into a few tracks of I'm …happy? and I'm really not sure how to deal with that, before bending around toward social issues and panic attacks again. A DJ friend has teased me that they're in the genre of "sad bastard" music.
Despite (or because of?) all of this, I'm ABSOLUTELY in love their music, and have been for almost a decade. I've seen them perform live twice—three times, if you count the lead singer's solo act, and this is impressive because I almost nevvvver see bands perform live—and each time the band finishes their setlist drenched in sweat, the audience having bellowed along to every song with all of their heart. Happy? Sad? Angry? Devastatingly depressed? Their songs are perfect for singing along to, no matter your mood.
So it's not too much of a leap for me to say that for the past…um, well, almost year, I've had the refrain from their early song "Head Rolls Off" bouncing around the inside of my skull:
"While I'm alive, I'll make tiny changes to Earth."
(Yes, yes, yes, I know: After the HARD SELL of two effusive paragraphs, this song is not their best, in my humble opinion, and you're probably watching the music video linked above like this kid (at around the 2 minute mark).
THAT IS BESIDE THE POINT.)
It's a good mantra. A plainspoken reminder for a new year.
Chances are, you're facing lots of challenges, some big, some small. As a perennial procrastinator, I allllways need to remind myself the best way (I've found) to power through intimidating work problems is to just ...do the work. Break it down into tiny bites, and make incremental progress. Bird by bird, in the words of Anne Lamott.
It's a sentiment I've seen echoed again and again and again over the past year. (Baader-Meinhof, anyone?)
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My friend Andy McMillan took up a 100-day project to cook more often, and I really admired his mindset about it.
I have a bad habit of dismissing my accomplishments, especially small ones. For most people, what I'm describing is completely normal. You have food at home and you cook with it and eat it. This is not hard. But this project isn't about accomplishing something big, it's about accomplishing something small with regularity.
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Writer Austin Kleon, in an excellent list of advice to recent graduates, recommended—at the very top of that list—developing a structure and a routine of tiny accomplishments every day. (He backed that advice up with quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson, Annie Dillard, and a whole book by Mason Curry, if you needed more convincing.)
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Artist and educator Taeyoon Choi has been exploring the intersection of education and activism, and made the same point, too. Regardless of your politics, there are many things in the world today that are scary in their size and complexity, and becoming more civically engaged often seems daunting. Taeyoon pointed out that activism can start with simply being a better human to others and the world around you, in tiny ways.
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And finally, the ever-well-read Bret Victor (yes, that Bret Victor) pointed out this anecdote by retired Bell Labs alumnus Dr. Richard Hamming, about the challenge that Nobel Prize winning scientists often face in finding success again:
When you are famous it is hard to work on small problems. This is what did [Claude] Shannon in. After information theory, what do you do for an encore? The great scientists often make this error. They fail to continue to plant the little acorns from which the mighty oak trees grow. They try to get the big thing right off. And that isn't the way things go.
Make tiny changes to Earth, y'all. Hope your 2018 is full of slow-but-steady progress.
(Aaaaand if you need an accountabilibuddy or an ineluctable cheerleader, drop me a line to let me know what you're working on...!)
It's been over a year since we've checked in on the state of projects. Quite a few code-named things happened!
- [⋯] A skunkworks project nicknamed STRAYLIGHT is now an artificial intelligence startup I'm cofounding. It's been so much fun to work with D and J.
- [⋯] Working on super-exciting secret project KIMON!
- [⋯] Commissioned Heather to help with branding for BROECKEN, and it was one of the best decisions. Her creative process is marvelous to see, and she took the aesthetic in directions I would never have thought to. Stillllllll working on a website for it.
- [⋯] Putting together a workshop (on designing for physical spaces) with E for a conference in March.
- [✓] Our winning zoo hackathon team had a few early morning Skype calls with London in late summer for BILA MAJINA. We nailed down requirements and priorities, and then I got busy and had to recuse myself before the coding began on the microservices.
- [✓] After about two-and-a-half years, I completed my work on ATREYU. 🎉 Many thanks to N, M, D, Y, S, G, D, T, B, S, P, C, …and I'm sure a few other letters of the alphabet I'm forgetting.
- [✓] Finished up and released a single level of ANTILLES, a retro-style, pixelly mobile game, as part of the larger push on MAXELL. Research for this project involved a trip to the basement of the Air and Space Museum and YES, Y'ALL, MUSEUM BASEMENTS ARE AS STUPEFYINGLY WONDROUS AS YOU MIGHT EXPECT. It's was a joy to do both pixel art and code, and I wish there had been more hours to burn on it.
- [✓] While LATEEN is perpetually being fine-tuned—bought some lasers late in the year to make better tripwires—it's installed and running. Assisted Biagio in making an interactive sculpture for the Santa Cruz MAH lobby. It was my first Arduino installation, and my first project using the invaluable Museduino kit (from Miriam and Co., which I will rave about at lennnnnngth in the future). I learned SO MUCH on this project, and am extremely grateful to Biagio, Justin and Nina and the MAH, and Miriam.
- [✓] Helped build a prototype for LARIAT this summer, and did a lot of research on CNC mechanisms (stepper motors! timing belts! threaded rods!)...and learned that I still have much to learn about amperage and motors.
- [✓] STUDEBAKER (a redesign of the automotive museum website) is done.
- [✓] MAILLARD’s first art show went well; the group had a second one in September, themed around synesthesia that was also a hit. In May, I emceed a lively workshop on git and devops for artists; in September, I taught on augmented reality for the web.
- [✓] FYNBOS launched (and with it, JULIAN). I had little to do with either beyond initial consultation; overall, they've been well-received.
- [✓] Got my official rejection
letteremail in June from NASA for DAMERON! - [✓] Chad remixed a better version of SYD (our "live podcast" MCN session on museum technology infrastructure) from the original interview tape. Listen on Soundcloud.
- [✓] Was interviewed by Scott Sayre (thank you, Scott!) for a podcast as part of a series of conversations between museum technologists.
- [✓] Speaking of MCN: finished PLETHORA, which involved hand-drawing a whole slew of museum objects for screenprinting on a t-shirt for the fiftieth anniversary of the conference.
- [✓] Went on a 44-day road trip around the east coast and back.
- [✗] Put together a pitch for CIRROSTRATUS (a small freelance engagement), and applied with friends to DREY (artists residency), but neither panned out.
- [✗] Got a proposal off for REBUS (a UI for an emoji spelling bee), but it did not happen.
- [✓] Finished HATCHEL, another collaboration with Chad (see next bullet)…
- [→] …and got the green light to sanitize and open-source its Processing code as part of ARETHUSA. Hopefully a link to that in the next missive.
- [→] Nothing to report on RIO GRANDE and COLLINS and HAMMERSTEIN (been somewhat busy).
- [→] Need to make forward steps on BOMBILATE. Pieces are in place, just need to start. Get your act together, Alderman.
- [→] Also need to carve out time for BAYEAUX.
- Phew.