Gin & Water Cooler

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We had a productive first day! The project ranged from learning a programming language ("8 lessons and 2 more to go!" was the closing remark), working on apps (two of the cases being their main gigs, tsk,tsk), putting ideas down on paper (me) to putting together a web site design. 

The best part of it for me was the sense of urgency I felt as I fiddled with my ideas that were, in my usual mind, totally frivolous. By the sheer fact of sharing it with people as a "project" and then having them sit with you workig, I found myself taking it seriously for the first time.

Everyone seemed to have enjoyed it as much as I did, and we agreed to keep it a weekly meeting. We'll share our progress as we go...

Join us:

Triangle Lifestyle Designer's Meetup, followed by a "10%" session

Every Tuesday 6 pm

Straw Valley Cafe, 5420 Durham-ChapelHill Blvd

IN SHORT:

What if we can harness our creative energy in a short, half-day chuncks toward what we REALLY want to work on? Or something that you've been curious about, but have put on back burner because it "doesn't pay?" Let's do a group experiment: devote just four hours a week on something you don't do as part of your regular work routines, and see what happens. 

So next Tuesday, March 27, at Straw Valley Cafe in Durham (5420 Durham-ChapelHill Blvd, on a non-descript utility road next to a giant stripmall featuring Old Navy and Walmart. It's beautiful. Seriously, this is one of the most bizzare site I've seen since we've been back in the area), a handful of independent workers are getting together to work togather, independently, on our pet/new/next-big-thing projects from 5 til closing. There's a meetup page for it too (but you don't have to RSVP there to come!). 

This is an experiment. After the kickoff event, we could then pick another time to meet and work, continue independently, or stick to a regular, weekly schedule. Who knows? Maybe some corporate offices could sponsor this and host a group for half a day every week.

LONG STORY:

This is not a new concept. In Drive, writer Daniel Pink sites a practice known as "20% Day": workers can spend 20% of their paid hours working on any project they wanted. According to Pink, it's a well-established tradition among some elite innovation companies: 3M has been doing it for decades, and Google famously adopted it to a good use. Apparently, Post-Its, Google News and Gmail all came out of these self-initiated projects.

The main idea is that these hours are spent on the workers' own initiative, and they are allowed to work on what excites them most, without restriction on what kind of project, limit on how to do it, or supervision from the above. There's no penalty for not doing it, or extra rewards other than your own satisfaction.

However counter-intuitive it might be initially, this makes sense. Pink sites example after examples from social science large-scale experiments that show people who are motivated from within outperform those who are motivated by the outside rewards and penalties. They are happier, more productive, and more creative. Tony Shwartz talks about the same thing from a different point of view. 

I mean, look at my son here. This is a game he invented, called "snowman." If I said to him, "do this: make a bunch of balls, stack them up, make it like people" he'd never have shown this much interest. It's his project. 

The upshot is that these "free project time" are a way to get people to bring their personal passions to work, and produce something new, interesting and good.

But how does it apply to me?

However, as a freelancer/independent worker/entrepreneur (whatever label I might adopt, depending on the day's mood), my challenge is not the format itself; it's how I motivate myself to do this regularly. 

Enter coworking. I long suspected the true benefit of coworking isn't so much the cheap(er) rent or amenities, but the community you get to plug in to and the support you get from your "coworkers." I realized this is the perfect way to get me out of my routines in a focused way, and at the same time, promote coworking to those who aren't converted yet but could use it. 

So instead of opening yet another space, I'm starting a project. An event series. And a community (well, plugging in to communities already existing—thanks Katie!). 

Sign up:

So, the last month's KofficeAM was really fun with fellow #WDS attendees congregating and chatting about our interests and swapping stories of west coast culture shocks.

Daisy Cakes was a really fun venue and a good place to get some quiet space (in the mornings at least) but I want to mix things up a bit and try something else this month: Straw Valley Cafe, in the nowhereland between Chapeil Hill and Durham. 

If you've never been there, prepare yourself to be, um, surprised. Shocked, even. It's a site not to be missed (though it's really hard to find! I've been there twice and got lost getting there each time). I won't spoil the surprise by describing it here, but it really is a special venue. Really excited about this place, wish it wasn't where it is (next to Walmart and Old Navy's, among others).

Hopefully, there'll be some conversations, but if you want to just come and work with us that'd be super cool, too. I have some interesting books to share, ideas to try, too, if we feel so inclined...

*under consideration by the WDS headquarters. 

Starting tomorrow (!), I will be hosting a monthly meetup*, at rotating locations, of like-minded free agents** curious enough to come out and play/work with me for up to two hours.

We are starting at 10 AM tomorrow, Feb 8, at Daisy Cakes in downtown Durham.

It's a coworking experiment. Coffee & pastries will be ever-present, of course, but optional. Bring whatever you're working on, be it a project, resume or novel, for sharing or just working on. I will most likely be bringing books and notetaking aparatus. 

It will also double-duty, at least until July, as unofficial World Domination Summit prep meetings for the Triangle contingency of the said conference in Oregon. 

Curious about coworking? Tired of working from your bedroom or cubicle? Change the scenery with us, and who knows? You might stumble on new interesting ideas and people. 

That's the vague idea for now. I even set up a eventbrite page so you can RSVP/plancast if that's the kind of thing you're into:

http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2902119317

More reports/ideas to follow!

P.S. — Just in case you're looking at the picture and wondering: this is NOT what I have in mind as coworking in a coffee shop. Just thought it was funny to see the whole iMac there.

*: meeting, coworking session, chat-over-coffee, consultation, workshop, etc. whatever you want it to be.

**: independent workers, consultants, freelancers, creative workers, location-independents, office nomads, work-from-homes, etc.

What is PKN? Pecha Kucha Night is a network of timed-slide-themed events around the world. Topics vary, but they all share the same format: 20 slides, 20 seconds each. It's an entertaining way to learn something new quickly from folks from a wide variety of backgrounds and interests.

My talk will be (what else?) on Work. It's titled, "Full Engagement: Making Work Work." Lofty? Yes. It will be interesting to see just how effective I could be in this format to convey what I've been stewing on for the last year and half. I will be putting the slideshare and other resources up as they become available, here. 

If you are going to be there, I'd be very curious to see what you thought of it. There might be a video of it, too, so check back if you can't attend in real life!

Cheers,

Akira

This is a very, very, VERY important piece of knowledge. Say it with me:

JOBS ARE NOT THE SAME THINGS AS WORK

By "work," I mean meaningful tasks done for yourself and others. Childcaring comes to mind, for example. Is it work? Heck yes. Is it a job? No.

Is it, therefore, less important than a job?

I think our generation and prior generations believed that it was. But people who didn't have the concept of jobs in the 10th Century, didn't have that distinction. Whatever you did that created value for someone else was valued for that function. Central monetary systems abstracted that, and now we have people who value money over the actual value.

We are shifting away from that abstraction. As "job creation" becomes more and more a topic around the dinnertables everywhere in America and beyond, we need to ask: what are we supposed to create? Saying, "yes, housework/volunteering for a local church/giving a neighbor a hand is important to a point, but you still need money brought home by your husbands who work at a job!" is hypocritical, pointless, and not enough when those jobs are scarce, and the economy built around the concept of "job" is in dire straits. Saying, "we need work for eveyone, but we don't all need a job, necessarily," and ask "what can we all do to create work and value for each other?" is freeing, more creative, and very fruitful.

What do you think?

In this video below, teacher and thinker Douglas Rushkoff explains (very patiently, to an arrogantly-poised, bumbling interruptor that is WSJ’s Dennis Berman) why he thinks this is the case. If you have any spare moment, WATCH IT NOW, and let me know!

This is not necessarily a coherent thesis, but please bear with me as I ruminate...

I've talked about Tony Schwartz, whose whole mission is to bring energy and focus in the front and center of productivity, not time or diligence. This blog post by Jason Fried at 37Signals says attention is the most precious resource you have. 

Focus and attention is an enormously important to our productivity. I get that. But...

I recently heard about this experiment regarding college students, basketballs, and a giant gorilla (-suited person) walking across the room. Does it ring a bell? I first heard it in Betsy Burroughs' excellent Focus, and it's a center piece in just-published Now You See It by Cathy Davidson. The premise of the experiment (and the implied lesson) is that when you set a bunch of people to a very specific task of counting the number of passes that take place between basketball players in a room (involving multiple balls, I recall), they become so intent on the task that more than half of them miss the giant gorilla walking across the room. 

In short, narrowly-focused "attention" turns into "attention blindness." Broadly speaking, all three (or four, to include Fried) authors are talking about the same thing: the kind of focus you need to come up with brilliant solutions or innovative ideas. 

Priorities, and pitfalls of attention blindness

Only that, it's a surprisingly tricky thing to define in a day-to-day operation of anyone's life/work. Just what am I supposed to focus on? How do you prioritize between tasks on deadlines, the important talks you must have with colleagues/spouses (ha!), quiet thinking about your long-term goals, and the email/text/tweet that just came in? How do you know which of these things that demand your precious attention is the giant gorilla (and which one of the gorillas is the one you mustn't miss, and the one to ignore)? And, how do I cultivate that kind of skill?

I mean, are we supposed to focus, or pay more attention to things that are peripheral to us? Can we do both? 

I think, the lesson is to keep yourself awake, energized and curious, so you can keep your focus on the wide spectrum of things, and so you can tell what is the most important piece to pay attention to at the moment. I am picturing a star soccer player or a genius hunter on the field mid-game, who have their attention on the wide spectrum of things at once, ready to narrow that focus on any given situation and act on it. And I think it's no accident that I am thinking of these physical examples (though you'd know, if you knew me at all, that I'd the last person to bring up sport analogies in anything) as I think about this. Attention is a phisical activity, and you need your body to be in a tip-top condition to function well.

But what do you think? 

*content of which might end up getting published as a video series, stay tuned!

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Wonderful! A new space opens today in Raleigh that is focused on fostering collaborative work community.

Named The Raleigh Forum (@theraleighforum), it is a brainchild of Cristina and Sara Rose Roman. The smallish but open space sits atop a new restaurant/bar in a vibrant part of downtown just around the corner from my favorite coffee house in town. It features gleaming hardwood floor, well-worn exposed concrete walls, and other urban-decay details, and the tall windows line the eastern wall affording a crop of the Raleigh downtown skyline and street dramas unfolding below. In short, it looks like it could be my kind of a work/play hangout.

They already have some core members to take up some of the yet-to-be-furnished space. I asked Cristina what made their group special, and she cited the variety of talent and disciplinary as one. "The community aspect is very important to us from the start," she said.

They are having an open house party today at 4pm. If you are in town (sadly, I won't be), check it out!

New York City is home to more than a few coworking spaces. Given that, I think the press has been surprisingly slow to write up the spaces (especially when the City seems to be subsidising some of them) and discuss the concept. So, when a friend sent me a link to a recent article (thanksEleni!), I was pretty excited.

Here it is: "Working Separately, Together"

It's by no means a dissertation about coworking, but there're some interesting numbers thrown in there: Indy Hall in Philly has 130 members, with 30 members paying $275/month. The Hive at 55, a space in NYC, charges $25/day or $450/month. These seem quite a bit from Durham, NC, but what do you think? Is the community aspect of coworking worth premium?

It seems that they are starting a new column about work with this article, which is awesome. I will be watching that space...