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Design Revolution Road Show

Emily Pilloton works with Project H Design to create, refine, and publicize useful objects for “planet, people, and profit,” a field that she calls humanitarian design.

She recently demonstrated these items for Stephen Colbert on The Colbert Report:

  • Spider boots: These Herman-Munster-like elevator shoes protect human landmine-detectors from shockwaves set off by explosions.

  • Adaptive eyecare: The wearer can focus the liquid-filled lenses on these affordable strap-on eyeglasses to achieve the prescription strength that he or she needs.
  • Hippo roller: If you fill this 22-gal. water barrel, then set it on its side and roll it to your destination, you will be pushing a 200-lb. load of water as though it weighed only 40 lbs.

Pilloton and others are taking their design show on the road beginning Monday, February 1, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Here’s the itinerary. For more information, see the Design Revolution Road Show site.

Thanks to Nancy Noble, my former professor in the Design and Industry department at San Francisco State University, for the link.

Tags: Random access, Tech by GD
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William Zinsser: Writing English as a Second Language

William Zinsser, author of On Writing Well and other wonderful how-to books, tells international students at Columbia University: “As you start your journey…, you may tell yourself that you’re doing ‘communications,’ or ‘new media,’ or ‘digital media’ or some other fashionable new form. But ultimately you’re in the storytelling business.”

Source

William Zinsser, Writing English as a Second Language, The American Scholar, Winter 2010.

Tags: Grammar & usage, How to, Random access, Reading, Tech, Writing & editing by GD
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Three Steps to Success

Everyone defines success differently, and everyone will get there in his or her own way. How do you define success for yourself? Is it a matter of dollars and cents? Or does it mean some combination of time, money, relationships, and the ability to do work that makes you feel useful and valuable?

Here’s one path that has proved successful for me in several different contexts:

  1. Observe
  2. Connect
  3. Share

1. Observe

When you enter a new situation, whether it’s a social occasion, a job, an online discussion group, or something else, what do you see? Observe the people around you, the ways they do and don’t interact.

How do you feel here? If you’re uncomfortable, is your reaction based on simple fear, or on a sense that the enterprise you’re joining may prove more difficult than you already know how to handle? If the latter, is this a direction in which you want to stretch and grow?

If so, don’t give up on yourself so easily. Stick around and let that stretching happen.

2. Connect

Once you’ve observed, it’s time to connect the dots. What conversations are taking place? Which ones are not interesting for you? Move toward the ones that draw you.

If there are people whose voices and opinions you listen for, move toward them. If the occasion arises, introduce yourself.

Don’t be upset if people don’t respond warmly to you right away. Some will respond like a puppy in springtime, others like a walrus protecting its rock in the surf. You can learn a lot from either type of person, even if the other’s style is the opposite of yours.

Any new relationship takes time.

3. Share

You have something to share, just like everyone else in the group. Perhaps it’s a question that you need answered, some piece of knowledge that you see the others don’t have, or a service that you can provide.

If you stick around and observe, you’ll find a need that you can help fill. Trust that if you find others in the group interesting, someone may find your contribution interesting as well.

Think of your participation as a long-term effort, a way to move closer to the things about this group or gathering that drew you in the first place.

Parting Thoughts

There’s no one way to be successful, but if you know what you’re looking for, this may be a path to finding it. Success is within your reach.

Related Posts

Three Ways to Network Without Getting Sweaty Palms
Getting Things Done: Report on a Workshop

Tags: How to by GD
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Singing in the Choir

Singing is something that I do alone in the car with favorite CDs, preferably on a long freeway drive where no one can see or hear me. On rare occasions, I sing as part of the congregation in religious services, too many of them funerals in the last few years.

When the baritone sang a solo during a time of reflection at my father’s funeral, I remember thinking, Singing is what we do when we don’t have words for what we feel.

I joined a community chorus this month after many years away and took a chair in among the sopranos. Here’s the repertoire for the concert on Tuesday, March 16, some with video links to taped performances:

My father-in-law, retired choral director Ralph R. Prime, says this is an excellent selection, and he knows his stuff.

All we have to do now is sing it right.

Tags: Personal, Random access by GD
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