SK8 Goggles
And that’s the best thing too man. It just keeps going back to finding new sh*t. Let’s go out to this spot way out on Utica Avenue…and instead of getting off at the train spot that’s closest, maybe you take one farther out or get off at one early. And just try to look around you. You go to the same spot, but you find 10 new spots on the way there.
-NYC Skater Pat Smith, Deathbowl to Downtown
The more people I see twitting on Blackberries, the more I seek the skateboarder’s sense of curious chance. It’s not because of Luddite leanings, it’s that when we all start drinking from the same well, creative thinking can dry up. I believe that if we are to have value as parsers or creators, we need to look outward for thoughts and inspiration. The smartest people are tilting at windmills, not reading everyone else, keeping up with them Joneses.
So how to snort fewer pixels and keep vision fresh? Like Iain Tait, I’m rediscovering the use of pens and phones (4 tlk not 2 txt). My dude Adrian Lai taught me to batch my RSS feeds into different days of the week. And no PDA.
Obvs millennials make no distinction between on and offline. But that doesn’t mean virtual offices are the future. First Life aint dead, it’s just getting remixed and coming back stronger – witness the rise of Steampunk, Farming & Etsy. And on its heels might come a new luxury space, defined by the ability to disconnect.
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The handwriting is my creati-productivity savior. Sure, I have to get back on the board to type it all up, but the slower, messier, more focused use of pen and paper’s keeping me satisfied. Don’t know about you, but I don’t think about things in a straight line. I make boxes, circles, asides, marginalia, scratches, cross-outs, doodles and underlines. All things I can’t do on my puter. I’ve even taken to sketching out Final Cut edits in ink. Then lets talk about how fresh and focused I feel coming to the computer after a break, rather than worn down by the near-solid-state stimulus. Everything I do on my machine seems that much brighter.