Seth's Blog: What are you seeking at work?

What are you seeking at work?Some people want safety and respect. They want to know what the work rules are, they want a guarantee that the effort required is both predictable and rewarded. They seek an environment where they won’t feel pushed around, surprised or taken advantage of.Other people want challenge and autonomy. They want the opportunity to grow and to delight or inspire the people around them. They seek both organizational and personal challenges, and they like to solve interesting problems.Without a doubt, there’s an overlap here, but if you find that your approach to the people around you isn’t resonating, it might because you’re giving your people precisely what they don’t want.Posted by Seth Godin on September 19, 2014
via Seth’s Blog: What are you seeking at work?.

Good friends are hard to find – and even harder to keep | Tim Lott | Commentisfree | The Guardian

I do not know what I am doing right to have kept such good friends for so long, but it is certainly worth pointing out that none of them have got to the present point without negotiating moments of crisis. In each of my closest friends there have been moments when the friendship has nearly foundered – but we somehow came through them to a relationship that was stronger than it was before the crisis.
The nature of friendship changes, and you have to change with it. Once, hopefully, I fascinated my friends and charmed them. After 40 years, I am sure I often bore them – and that is inevitable. A good friendship, like a good marriage, ceases after a while to be a mutual entertainment society and becomes instead a sorority or fraternity of battle-scarred veterans. We are still here, we still enjoy being around each other, and we treasure our shared histories. This is something precious, even if it isn’t always a laugh riot.
Is there a secret to long friendships? Simply this – an absence of pride. Too many falter on stubbornness or the determination to hold on to offence. Successful ones rely on humility and the recognition of human fallibility. These are not merely useful attributes. They are the heart and soul of friendship.
via Good friends are hard to find – and even harder to keep | Tim Lott | Commentisfree | The Guardian.

Surprising Trait At Google Of Best Leaders – Business Insider

Autonomy is the key to employee happiness and outsized performanceThe freedom that a consistent leader provides is a powerful force because having autonomy over one’s work is one of the most potent motivators of personal productivity.In 2004, psychologists, Edward Deci and Richard Ryan conducted a study of hundreds of associates at an investment bank on their job satisfaction. They found that the highest job satisfaction ratings came from employees whose bosses offered “autonomy support” — that is, acknowledgment, encouragement, and structure around getting work done as the employee determines, not the manager.The kicker is that Deci and Ryan also discovered that the employees with autonomy were not only the happiest, they were also the ones with the highest job performance.Great leadership is never about being a dramatic hero. It’s just not about you. Instead it’s about providing support to your team by being willing to be seen as boring and predictable.Provide information they need, work from their perspective, cultivate their performance by offering them the oxygen to succeed. Then they’ll have the breathing room and self-determination to shine.
via Surprising Trait At Google Of Best Leaders – Business Insider.

The life lessons school should teach you | Lauren Laverne | Lifeandstyle | The Guardian

Education University isn’t everything. But it is something. Everyone I know in fancypants media London claims they burned through their time at their alma mater like a packet of Rizlas, but I’m often the only person they know who didn’t go.
It’s OK to be a nerd If nerds ran the world there would be no wars. Only unconvincing battle re-enactments in meticulously correct period costume.
Love Never date anyone who is rude to waiters. (Knowing this in advance could have prevented the poisoning of five years of my life.)
Style Never buy anything to impress someone you don’t know. Never wear a T-shirt with a face on it that’s more attractive than yours. If you are ever going to wear a crop top, the time is now.
Socialising All the good bits of a night out happen before 2am. Don’t feel the need to stay up any later. Drugs have a terrible rate of return: they make you ugly, boring and ill, in that order. (The legal ones are the worst.) When talking to someone you like, don’t be nonchalant. Be complimentary. Everyone likes compliments, except dickheads, and it’s usually politic to identify them as quickly as possible.
 
via The life lessons school should teach you | Lauren Laverne | Lifeandstyle | The Guardian.

Not everyone is going to like the thing you made, and that’s okay | WIL WHEATON dot NET

When I was younger, I would have completely ignored the first one, and obsessively focused on the second one to the point of feeling shitty about myself. Part of having Imposter Syndrome is believing that people who praise you are dupes, while the people who criticize you can actually see through everything. But the thing is, the guy who isn’t thrilled has every right to feel that way, and I don’t take it personally. Not everyone digs what I do and what I bring to a project, and that’s totally cool. At the same time, it’s also pretty awesome that a lot of people do dig what I bring to a project, and that is also cool.
Consider this, about having perspective on criticism: If you enjoyed making a thing, and you’re proud of the thing you made, that’s enough. Not everyone is going to like it, and that’s okay. And sometimes, a person who likes your work and a person who don’t will show up within milliseconds of each other to let you know how they feel. One does not need to cancel out the other, positively or negatively; if you’re proud of the work, and you enjoyed the work, that is what’s important.Don’t let the fear of not pleasing someone stop you from being creative.
The goal isn’t to make something everyone will love; the goal is to get excited, and make a thing where something wasn’t before
via Not everyone is going to like the thing you made, and that’s okay | WIL WHEATON dot NET.

Designing Applications for the Power Macintosh

Here’s a summary of the tips we’d like to pass on; we’ll look at each one in more detail below.
1. Tackle expensive computations when they can improve the interface.
2. Eliminate dialogs and command lines in favor of direct manipulation.
3. Drop old assumptions and idioms. Use the processing power to explore new interfaces.
4. Provide a starting point for exploration.
5. Avoid programming cleverness. Instead, assume a good compiler and write readable code.
6. Invest development time in user-centered design.
7. Learn the new rules for performance.
8. Design tiered functionality: take advantage of whatever hardware you’re running on.
9. Test on real users.
via Designing Applications for the Power Macintosh.

rePost::Five Lies I No Longer Believe | TODD HENRY

“COMFORT IS THE GOAL OF LIFE”
This is a pervasive and sinister belief that has – at times – caused me to compromise more than I should. When I aspire to comfort as the greatest goal of life, I refuse anything that might cause me pain or hardship, even if that means I have to abandon my pursuit of true north.
It is struggle that gives life its meaning, and the pauses and blessings that punctuate its landscape. Sometimes that struggle is against self and the laziness that craves only comfort. The creative process is a personal assault on the beachhead of apathy, and to succumb to the path of comfort is to turn our backs on the greatness that is on the other side of sacrifice. I refuse to allow comfort to be my ambition. Comfort is often the enemy of greatness.
via Five Lies I No Longer Believe | TODD HENRY.

rePost::Frank Lloyd Wright's 10-Point Manifesto for His Apprentices. :The Happiness Project

I recently read Frank Lloyd Wright’s Autobiography — a very thought-provoking work. In it, he includes a list of the “Fellowship Assets” that he outlined for the architecture apprentices he worked with at Taliesin, his summer home, studio, and school.
1. An honest ego in a healthy body.
2. An eye to see nature
3. A heart to feel nature
4. Courage to follow nature
5. The sense of proportion (humor)
6. Appreciation of work as idea and idea as work
7. Fertility of imagination
8. Capacity for faith and rebellion
9. Disregard for commonplace (inorganic) elegance
10. Instinctive cooperation
via The Happiness Project: Frank Lloyd Wright’s 10-Point Manifesto for His Apprentices..

Rams' ten principles to "good design"

Rams’ ten principles to “good design”
Good design:[1]
Is innovative – The possibilities for innovation are not, by any means, exhausted. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for innovative design. But innovative design always develops in tandem with innovative technology, and can never be an end in itself.
Makes a product useful – A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy certain criteria, not only functional, but also psychological and aesthetic. Good design emphasises the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.
Is aesthetic – The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products are used every day and have an effect on people and their well-being. Only well-executed objects can be beautiful.
Makes a product understandable – It clarifies the product’s structure. Better still, it can make the product clearly express its function by making use of the user’s intuition. At best, it is self-explanatory.
Is unobtrusive – Products fulfilling a purpose are like tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained, to leave room for the user’s self-expression.
Is honest – It does not make a product more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.
Is long-lasting – It avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated. Unlike fashionable design, it lasts many years – even in today’s throwaway society.
Is thorough down to the last detail – Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the consumer.
Is environmentally friendly – Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment. It conserves resources and minimises physical and visual pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product.
Is as little design as possible – Less, but better – because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials. Back to purity, back to simplicity.
via Dieter Rams – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

rePost::SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED: 41 Things I've Learned By 40

AND THE NUMBER ONE THING I HAVE LEARNED:

#1 – Those who have achieved REAL success in life (financially, emotionally and spiritually) will never criticize your dreams and aspirations. Instead they will look for ways to share their own experiences to help lift you up to higher levels. Successful people are rarely jealous and welcome the achievements of others.
As with all free advice….remember, you get what you pay for.
via SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED: 41 Things I’ve Learned By 40.