CKHicks.com

Nothing feels “right” until I write. Whenever I am trying to figure things out, typing or doodling is always part of the solution. I also really enjoy listening to and learning from other people. Crazy as this may sound, I have a very short list of folks that I pay attention to online. I sincerely hope a few of them read this.

Re: B2W

My recent “Gun For Hire” posts are heavily inspired by Back to Work, a podcast on the mighty 5by5 network. Since they have a lot more figured out than I do, this post is a response to B2W #120, where Merlin Mann once again challenged everything I know about what I’m doing right now. (All of the following quotes are from him.)

In a grossly-truncated nutshell: I am working through the challenges of being a self-employed web developer, frustrated writer, and aspiring podcaster; classic starving artist material. I have a loving family, good friends, and a heavy grounding in the Bible to keep things in line. I wrote a long, soul-bearing post last year about work, life, and otherwise. That and “Infidel” should catch you up to speed if you would like to do some additional reading.

This week, Merlin posed an interesting question:

“How much of a safety net would it take before you felt like you could do what you really wanted?”

Last year, I worked on a big web project that brought more income than several previous years combined. This was my first foray into projects of that scale, and it gave me a glimpse of what was possible with my 12+ years of web experience. It was hard work, but very worth it.

“What did you do when, for more than a month, you felt like you were situated for life?”

While I was only working a three-month project, my hourly wage on that project was definitely how I wanted to continue in the future. The issue is that I definitely did not plan sustainably. I can honestly say that I did not squander my money, but being aware of “the Elvis problem” and paying down vs investing anew are things I now understand very well.

It wasn’t a loss, though; I got a chance to “rehearse” how that level of pay could work. In retrospect it is probably good that I only had a three-month contract. Having a “safety net” that went above basic financial needs showed what I could have if working at a competitive rate. Lessons learned.

Tangled

“Maybe you are making things that you like, but you don’t have the safety to do more of it yet…”

Establishing patterns is a hard thing to do while under fire. My previous articles speak to various struggles and considerations, but right now, today, I’m working to take the tiny steps that will inch me toward the bigger goals. Every day, I try to focus on the basics; working on a client project, writing or podcasting something, and doing some research for the future of my craft and family life.

“…after you have that, will you be doing more of what you have done well before?”

I would love to take some of the smaller things I do (writing articles, podcasting, etc.) to the next level. The “prime directive” for me right now is acquiring something more sustainable than my current pace of self-employed web development. I will be an entrepreneur until the day that I die, but when you work in a town (“professional community”) where there are zero creative meetups, the constant rush to hunt/gather client work is paralyzing other efforts, and your friends have no idea what you do…there aren’t a lot of sunny days when it comes to work.

Why work online, you might ask? Why not get a job elsewhere, something that brings you closer to more people, something that you can leave “at the office” each night?

Building Better Nets

Earlier this year, I started applying for offline jobs, collaborating with a local web company, and working to whip my home office into shape. My goal is building a future that is sustainable. While I don’t claim to know everything at 27, there are some pretty basic goals I would like to achieve:

• – Develop online publishing platforms.
• – Write a lot, perhaps read audiobooks professionally.
• – Podcast on work mentalities, tea drinking, d20 systems, movies…
• – Speak or teach on Christian worldviews and apologetics.

All of those have orthogonal angles. Each of them require multi-disciplinary skillsets, which I already have or am currently developing. For me, it is less about having the cushion to do whatever I want, and more about the expectations that drive me to that point.

“What do you really want to do that would not require changing who you are?”

How do you accomplish intangible goals without the means to meet tangible standards? Dan Benjamin counsels people to QUIT! their “corporate stooge” gigs if they have the ability to do so, but what if you are in the reverse situation? I know, just go get any ol’ job, right? Tempting. I don’t have some pie-in-the-sky view of a full-time position, where all my bills are paid and I can do artsy stuff all day, but I do recognize the potential that a “safety net” can bring. That’s hard to do when you feel that your “trade” is the Way of the Future™ for your and your family.

Walking The Highwire

What about goals that go beyond the tangible needs, the ones that provide passion for the pursuits, patience for the pestilence? In my case, I recognize that these clouded days are part of the goal; the journey is part of the destination, especially for a storyteller.

But…

“What if you did what you wanted and made a little money from it? If you had a small safety net, could you make something cool?”

That was the straw that ruined the whole bushel of mixed metaphors. In the midst of “gut churn” there must be patterns for right behavior/action. These should cast shadows of what the future will be like. I’m a 10,000-hour kind of guy; no lotteries, rainbows, or shortcuts. I know it takes time, and I get that these harder days are part of the story, but I’m not sure how to crank out more examples of future work until I have some firm ground under my feet.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, baby.

The Plunge

I hope to keep talking to cool people, working my tail off, and looking for the next piece that might slip into place as I move forward. Actually, I not-so-secretly would like to develop more than just casual non-professional connections to some of the folks mentioned here. More on that later.

Despite all of this whining, there are a few traces of daylight; my best friend is likely going to take back his paper route, I may have additional work opportunities soon (waiting on news, again), and my father has given me a lot to think about for making things happen through his own example. God is good, in spite of the storms. Now to get creative…

This will not be the last post in my Gun For Hire series, but I do hope that it marks the start of a new chapter. It’s time to step up and deal with the elephant in the room: sustainability.

Last week, I finished an article called “Infidel” that covered the last 3+ years of my freelance business. It was a raw look at the ups and downs of what I call my job, the “moderate success” of the business as a whole, and the struggle to define exactly what, if anything, I could count on for the future. That was the most forthright I have been as regards business and its effects on everyday life as a “Gun For Hire.”

Unsustainable is a word that describes the nature of my work on all fronts. Potential employers can be certain that I will not have the same load on my shoulders while working for them; I’m cutting things back like crazy right now. I have found Dan Benjamin‘s position on working a full-time job and building a side business definitely causes one (or both) to suffer, and I’m tired of that struggle. I wrote to him a while back and asked if I should “quit” my freelance business, which I’m not going to do, but it will be taking a different shape in the months ahead.

The issue here is not a lack of income, but a surplus of commitments. There are too many things pulling at this one-man-army’s attention, which means I’m letting a lot of people down. I’m really tired of letting people down.

One of the hardest things for a knowledge worker is letting go of the product or service itself and focusing on the intangibles. Yes, you are hired to create (your thing here), but what does it take to produce that result?

• – Listening to the pain-points, assessing possible solutions.
• – Understanding attempts made to solve this problem before.
• – Proposing a carefully-crafted answer for the desired outcome.
• – Following through with that work unto project completion.

Sounds simple, right? Yet I believe that the toughest part of creative work is learning to come to the table “fresh” each time. Knowing how to do something isn’t the entire answer; being able to propose a reliable solution to their issues, ensuring them of their future sustainability…that’s the ticket.

Again: I will always be involved in some form of entrepreneurial endeavors. It’s in my blood. Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like to grow up in a family where that mindset were not present, to not have decades of example successes and failures. I’m grateful for each and every moment.

Merlin Mann likes to talk about the inability to do great things if you spend your time on the stuff that doesn’t matter. Being mindful of that balance is really tough, especially when your back is against the wall, but it can be life or death in the creative trade. Not being able to work on things that matter to you isn’t just a setback, it’s running in the opposite direction from where you want to be.

And that, dear reader, is unsustainable.

“I feel like I lost my job.” 27 years old and this was the second time I had ever said those words. The first time was three years earlier, when I launched out to start my freelance web business. Always an adventure.

This may be one of the hardest articles I have ever had to write. I’m not announcing anything profound or revealing some trade secret, nor am I exposing some dark section of my inner psyche. (You get enough of those posts already.) This is an honest look at an honest business, plus the decisions that have brought about the rise and fall of my trade over the last three years.

2010: Venture

Freelancing in Springfield, Missouri was a rough beginning to a lot of rough continuums. Earlier that year, I had been employed by a local web company that didn’t know what to do with a self-starting always-learning entrepreneurial-minded web guy like myself. That job ended when I finished all of the simple HTML/CSS projects they had and they asked me if I wanted to become a full-time ColdFusion developer.

The man who ran that company (wisely) asked me if I really wanted to be a full-time programmer at a desk, or if my self-employment bug was going to win out. I turned down the position, they phased me out, and I became unemployable…the day before I signed my first apartment lease.

That was a terrifying time. There were plenty of things that I had in my bag of tricks, but I had rent due the next day and it was time to make things happen. I took my “Gun For Hire” image as a stoic self-portrait while living in that apartment. My days consisted of listening to books, discovering podcasts, writing code, and trying to understand why nobody wanted to pay me for what I knew how to do.

Perhaps one of the biggest lessons I learned during that first year had to do with educating clients. It’s one thing to provide a solution, but when you have to spend 5-6 hours on Skype with someone as you write their code, it forces you to learn how to explain what you do in a new way. This is one of the most important skills for any knowledge worker, a skillset that is often overlooked; learn how to explain what you do.

Once you can confidently explain what you are doing, or at least communicate what VERB you will be using to reach the desired NOUN, things get a lot easier. You spend less time defending your work and more time showing it off.

2011: Withdrawl

The following year went a little better, but I made a lot of small mistakes that I’m (literally) paying for today. I tried to suspend financial burdens so I could focus on building up a client base, which basically meant that I was throwing expenses on a credit card. I got set up with family services, tried to work the system and arrange payment agreements, and generally wanted to establish myself as a good worker without making money.

Listen: It is never a good idea to lean on someone else for your daily bread while you work on something else. Your work may not bring you into the presence of kings, but deferring things for too long can dig you a deeper hole than you realize. I was (and am) blessed to have parents who helped provide perspective during that season, which ultimately ended with me realizing that I needed to charge something consistent and reasonable for my work.

It sounds silly, but I’m built to be a helper and don’t have a greedy bone in my body. I had to really work to charge a decent rate every time; in some ways I still struggle with this today. 2011 was definitely the year when I poured everything back into the business, hoping enough sparks would start a fire somewhere.

That year ended with my humble recognition that I didn’t know how to run a business on my own. I moved back to Omaha for two months so that I could work with my father. He was going to show me some business tips and help me learn to take things more seriously. I learned a lot while I was up there, and though leaving what I had started in Springfield was tough, I look back and see the wisdom in getting some perspective to breathe and grow.

2012: Investment

In the spring of 2012, I moved back to Missouri to try my hand at the freelance business once more. I had more of a defined business plan, a few small projects under my belt, and lots of ideas for how to pitch website packages to businesses. I knew the business would require a time of “buy in” which would make things tight yet again. Fortunately, I had a new apartment, some new equipment, and a new-found excitement for making stuff happen.

My father had helped me land a big project before leaving Omaha; by far the largest I have ever touched. That helped establish me here in Springfield and provide the stability I needed to re-shape some of my business practices. I wish I could say that the large paychecks gave me the boost I needed to fix the problems from the years prior, but it didn’t work out that way. I certainly did not squander any of the money, but I did mis-appropriate it for current work instead of paying off old debts. Lesson learned.

I think one of the most important things to keep in mind when freelancing is that you don’t truly know what will happen next. Though there is debate among the folks I love to listen to about what “job security” actually means, we can all agree that there is something to be said for a steady paycheck.

I really do believe that having your bookkeeping worked out before you take on a big project is just as important as the project itself. That sounds odd, but you would be amazed at the headaches that can be avoided with a dedication to that principle. Work your fields before you build your house.

2013: Infidel

I know what you’re thinking: “This is the part where he tells us that his business had been acquired by GoogTwitAppleSoft!”

No such luck. The first four months of 2013 saw the worst slump in business since I started back in 2010. Actually, since I never officially went 100% on my own before 2010, I guess I can say that this has been my worst year of business…ever!

This may be too much information, but I want to be honest; I’m running on empty over here. For the past three years, I have fought and struggled to make this small company turn a profit, with varying levels of success. The kicker is that I have been working almost completely on my own. Until late last year, when I began to email other web professionals here in town, Twitter had been the only real place I could go for business chatter. My clients were the only lasting colleagues, and to this day no one in my close spheres of friends/family have any real understanding of what I do.

Want to know a secret? I have not taken a single web class…ever. While a business class or two might have been good for me, I’ve learned much of my craft from good ol’ fashioned “view source” and I’m good at it. You won’t find many people who have the blended skillsets I possess.

But reality must come knocking at some point, and generally you have to pay for the door unless you want it in your living room. Freelancing has been a long, lonely road to this strange place where I find myself today. Not exactly a confidence-instilling track record.

Over the last two months, I began searching for other work outside of freelancing. My thought was to find something consistent to work on, earn enough to pay rent, and use the rest of my time to slowly build my business back up for another leap. So far, this has looked like me filling out job applications on public wi-fi, helping with a paper route to relieve some of the pressure, and working on every web development project I can get my hands on. Not really the best way to build a business.

Hustle

Recently, I have been spending some time with 40Digits (whom I am very thankful for) and they let me get out of the house to work around other developers for a little while each week. They’re the best. It has been critical for me to gain these interactions and meet other web folk in my little town.

Home office, remote office, paper route, part-time gig, personal/church projects…things have been crazy as of late. I’m running at full speed right now to redeem every moment of every day. I can honestly say that I have never had the clarity of purpose nor the confusion of pursuits that I do right now. Everything is all-in all the time, which is not a good way to live, but things are starting to shift. I see little glimpses of the future here and there, even if that means spending 8 hours in a remote office, 5 hours at McDonald’s, and 2-3 hours at home some days.

So why go to all this trouble? What purpose could be there be for all of this toil – why not just pack up and move to a town where I could work for someone else? There must be more to this story, right?

As I seek an answer to that question, I see two basic lines of thought: I move, live alone, and lose the connections I have made here in Springfield. Sounds dangerous, until I ponder staying put. It may mean more time spent working alone, building toward the future in the wee hours, the dry seasons, the fitful nights. Either way I see my former timetables being stretched out over multiple years…again.

Vision

“To be a successful entrepreneur, one needs a vision of one’s work. If we dream, we will be inspired beyond the straight jacket of the everyday world. There is a profound connection between art and enterprise, which allows businesses to overcome its limitations and break the rules…Connect, connect, connect with artist-friends. The sorcery and charm of sharing our view of the world make it one of the most treasured of all creative arts.” — Bernardo Medina

It took awhile to get here, but eventually I realized the complete futility of the work of my hands. It is obvious to me that God alone could actually take my labor and produce a profitable return. I mean, He cursed the ground, so doesn’t make sense that He would could bless our efforts?

Any amount of toil produces a profit, but it doesn’t really mean anything unless we’re doing it as unto Him. All I know to do is wake up, dedicate everything I do to His leadings, and try to apply myself in the ways laid out in His word. I’m certainly thankful that I am not wholly responsible for the results, and can only pray that He will multiply the return if I keep Him at the center of everything I do.

My efforts are inadequate of their own accord, but done through Him, I see them do things that go far beyond my abilities. I really do not wish to wrestle with Him in a battle for power or preeminence in whose labor is being applied to these tasks.

I don’t know exactly what the future holds, but I do know that this road stretches on for a while. Whatever it takes to build, “A family who will stand the test of time…” is what I’m after. Along the way I hope to meet great people, build great stuff, and take tiny steps each day that point to a great future in, well, whatever I call my freelance business in the future.

This is exciting – I’ve been working with Tim Murtaugh to update the HTML5 Reset WordPress Theme. His work was some of the first HTML5 code I read/wrote back before a lot of the frameworks became popular. I’ve been pleased to contribute back to this project, and Tim talked about this and other things he’s working on in the latest episode of The Big Web Show. Go listen and check out his work!

I recently wrote a tongue-and-cheek post about losing internet for several days. It has a few tips for keeping things in motion while you wait for the interwebs to re-animate, but it doesn’t deal with the mindset of having to “run and gun” on public wifi. This post will.

Normally, I really dislike McDonald’s and the food(?) they sell. To be honest, I dislike them even more when I have a large system update to download over their network. The free wifi is really handy, however, which made me think about the expectation of freely available services in public places.

When you consider the common expectations we have in this always-on culture, I hope the question of ethical trade also enters your mind. This is the age of hand-held computing, wireless everything, and city-wide wireless internet connections. As we continue down this road, large network providers like Verizon and AT&T have had to take aggressive positions on their data plans due to the heavy usage.

Our constant connection requires a heavy fee at times; how do we feel about free services? Now that we have had to pay for things (yes, sometimes through the nose) do we actually feel more inclined to do honest business? Do we still try to steal wifi wherever we can get it, or does the concept of paying for small things make more sense than ever?

I think this whole discussion has been solidified through a simple understanding: Pay for what you use. If you use wifi in a restaurant, buy something to eat/drink. If it’s a library, donate books/time/money to their efforts. I used to see people sitting in parking lots with their laptop, clinging to the few bars of signal strength they could get without buying a coffee.

I’m a capitalist at heart, but I think that’s a bad move.

If we keep getting intangible things for free, eventually the ecosystem around that entity will show some strain. This is why digital app sales are such a brilliant idea, and why I expect that small transactions will continue to be the future of any volume-based service. (Note: Exchange doesn’t have to be directly associated with the provided service; see also the trade of attention for effort in this famous SXSW talk.)

So what does this have to do with self-employment, freelancing, or being a “Gun For Hire?” Personally, I find it fascinating because I have had to consider these things while my home office network is being repaired. There are plenty of places you can go to get wifi these days, but the signal itself seems almost secondary in importance to the environment.

I would sit just about anywhere (including McDonald’s) for a dependable connection, but the number of options will only increase with time. Making a choice to connect honorably, to trade something for the service they provide, ought to be a cultural norm in our digital age. Thanks to app stores and micropayments on social sites, we are warming to swapping small payments for valuable returns.

Perhaps today’s digital nomad has an interesting future as the expectations of trade decrease and the available services increase. I know there have been entire books written about this; these limited top-down observations are just one freelancer’s view into the digital ecosystem. I love the blending of tangible and intangible values, because it means we are finally starting to understand that “real life” includes more than your AFK experiences, but also allows the non-digital values to flow into the way we play, work, and live online. That’s worth a coffee or two.

I was teasing a good friend about losing his internet connection the other night…then I came home to a dead line at my house. Cruel irony. Though this issue drove me to public wifi for several hours, I wanted to share a few ABC’s for the digital nomad with a non-functional home office.

• Appraise. I love getting a break from the daily routine because it provides a great opportunity to prune your to-do list. If you’re like Merlin Mann, this means killing 100+ “projects” in OmniFocus; we mere mortals might use this time to make a few phone calls. Every bit counts.

• Backup. Internet outages are a perfect time to back things up on one of your local drives. (Side note: If you work at a computer and DON’T have non-cloud drives dedicated to this task, shame on you.) I back up to at least two drives; daddy taught me good.

• Clean. There are still a few things left over from your latest brainstorm (or lunch) that should finally find their way to the trash. I’m OCD, but my work area is where I work, not where I use a handy-wipe on a daily basis.

When you work from home, even if only part-time, losing your internet connection really sticks. It doesn’t have to mean a loss of time, however. You can still be productive from afar, even if that looks like writing a Lifehacker-esque post over McDonald’s wifi. Have fun!

5by5 is acquiring 70Decibels. I feel that this is wonderful news for listeners of both networks. These are two of my favorite groups of people online, and I hope it helps both networks grow and expand into new territories!

Like any crazed freelancer, I receive multiple emails a day from clients who all need something right at the same time. I’m not sure if this is a good sign or not, but it’s how things have been going for the past three years and change. How do you tell people they are important…but there are others in the crowd?

“Yes, I fully appreciate your issue. Yes, I’m working on a fix. No, I can’t do it right this second, because I have ten of you.”

That’s how many of my conversations go these days. It’s a bit like triage; you have to assess the critical nature of the need before replying to the email. Sometimes I’ll get emails, text messages, and phone calls, all in the span of a few minutes, because someone is convinced that the world is ending when a small piece of text isn’t formatting correctly.

Please understand, I’m not saying this is wholly inappropriate behavior. I understand that these sites/tools are part of the lifeline to many of my client’s businesses, and they need to be functioning properly! We workers must also understand that our clients hired us to deal with these problems so they wouldn’t have to, which is something I fail to remember at times.

There’s no substitution for care when it comes to something like this; we just need to figure out how to properly communicate that care. (Note: This may indicate that I need to work with fewer clients…more on that later.)

Working the Magic

When dealing with issues in any relationship, business or personal, the essential thing to display to the other party is a desire to see them succeed. I personally believe that this is central to the ways we tell stories, sell products, and provide services. Sometimes all at the same time. Both sides must understand at least enough about the other party to sympathize with their situation. We do business with people, not robots.

So how do we tell people that they are important, that we care about their work, and that we’re doing our very best to get them “bumped up in the queue” when things go wrong?

Here are a few things I try to communicate:

• - I am actively working on a fix to that issue (be honest – don’t tell them something unless you plan to do it).
• - I have a proposed solution for the interim, or how they can help gather more data (get them involved).
• - We signed a contract that said we would get specific functionality in place, and I keep my word.

If all else fails in our always-on culture of instant gratification and moment-by-moment over-reaction, sometimes you simply have to explain: “We will get this fixed, but please remember, I have ten of you.”

Flying solo is a blessing and a curse. There seems to be a lot of debate in the freelance community about what it means to “make it work.” What do you consider success, how do you measure growth, and when do you know to stop pulling the trigger and call for reinforcements?

I’ve heard a lot of different theories about communication and teamwork from my fellow freelancers. Some say it’s important to work alone as much as possible, others tell you to join forces with someone else and use that connection to keep you going.

One of my favorite podcasts right now is “QUIT!” over at the mighty 5by5 network. I hear a lot of callers asking about when they should do something, how much money to have saved up, etc. Dan Benjamin has (rightly) advised all of them to have more than money and professional connections – they need a support staff.

The people you have in your life will stick with you a lot more than your money or amazing projects. I would argue that all of that rockstar/ninja/wizard/guru status you claim as a freelancer is pretty much null if you don’t have a real human there with you.

Cliché? Perhaps, but I believe it, and I don’t hear it said that often, sadly.

Here are a few people who have been influential in my life as a Gun For Hire:

• Dad, my business teacher, computer teacher, photography teacher, and he-who-holds-my-feet-to-the-fire as I try to figure this stuff out.

• Mom, my ever-present listening ear and who encourages me from several states away. I can’t place enough value on her influence, aid, or care over the last 27 years.

• Brandon, my best friend, constant sounding board, and business partner through crazy startup adventures.

• 40Digits and Departika, business acquaintances and folks whom I hope to work with in the future.

• Kyle Steed, someone whom I look up to as an example in the freelance space. Also an amazing guy to do lunch with.

• 5by5, 70Decibels, Mule Radio. These are people I haven’t met, but they help me keep putting one foot in front of the other. I’m not sure the last three years would have happened without their insight.

This may be one of my new favorite articles on writing. Great thoughts on the industry, the craft, and the hustle it takes to keep writing great stuff.

I love meeting people who live, work, and breathe the web industry. There are plenty of places I would like to go and people I would like to meet, but sometimes the “right” connections are right here in my own backyard.

One of my favorite speakers once said: “This is merely one beggar’s effort to tell other beggars where he found bread.” I think that simple description is key to how we see our interactions in any space or industry, especially something like online publishing. There’s STILL this crazy idea that we need to horde our knowledge, that every bit we know is somehow putting us in a position of great advantage over the other people in our field.

This doesn’t make sense.

Over the last several months, I have really been trying to branch out and make more connections. Since I live in the middle of nowhere (related to technology, anyway) that makes getting to the hip-city conferences a bit tough. Only recently did I really start to take the space around me seriously, looking for people who “get” what I do in this local area. The journey has been a ton of fun, and I’ve been able to meet some neat folks along the way.

I’m an introvert. I don’t like big crowds, congested meeting rooms, or stadiums packed with people. Why should I want to meet, confer, and be vulnerable with a group of people that I don’t even know? Well, I’ve had to learn the hard way that unless we can learn from the people around us, we probably don’t have much business wanting to publish things for other people…at all.

Part of this mini-series I’m writing about has to do with breaking apart the lone gunman approach – the rest is me being open about why doing that for three years running has been a hard decision to live with. Next, I’ll provide a few more thoughts on how this mindset can both cripple professional growth and limit your connections between doing great work and meeting great people.

I’d love to glorify my current calendar mess and say something like, “I’m moving into a new studio space.” The cameras would slowly pan across my minimalist desk, the dim lighting would reveal the razor-sharp edges of my Apple hardware, and the piles of notebooks would remind you of Ray Bradbury, not this hectic freelancer.

This has been a crazy week…and it’s only Wednesday.

Glorification aside, this really is a cool process. I’m moving into a new house with some friends of mine, which means no more smoking jackets and lots more space. My bills will remain about the same as they are now, the distance to everywhere increases only slightly, and having more opportunities to work on projects with my best friend/business partner will be a breath of fresh air. Getting there is the hard part; I won’t bore you with the gory details.

When considering the transition of a home office, there are a few things you have to keep in mind. Some of this I’m learning the hard way, but overall things have been clicking along rather nicely.

• Make sure you transition your internet services, home insurance, and project drives on day one. You don’t want to be stuck in a new place without connectivity, coverage, or chief capabilities.

• Keep a text file or Hipster PDA full of details related to your move. My current file has details like I listed above, but also contains questions to ask my new roommates and/or landlord.

• Don’t stop working. It’s natural to want to halt all work in the midst of the chaos. Having now moved 6 times in the last 3 years, I can honestly say that work is a good way to unwind from the chaos of moving boxes. Having a constant to fall back on is really helpful for short bursts of productivity.

Moving can be a horrid process, but I’m convinced that it doesn’t have to be. I’m only working a single day at the local agency I’m partnered with, which helps a lot, even though that means the pressure is on to migrate my home office. I’m considering a switch to a new billing system that doesn’t require sitting in front of my iMac at home (yes, I’ve been using old-fashiond spreadsheets) to ease the burden and keep things rolling. This may or may not be a good time to make the leap…I’ll let you know how that one goes later.

Doing web work for yourself, clients, and a local web agency requires some fancy footwork at times. I’m not sure I’ve read too many blogs about going from flying solo to sitting at a desk (not like a corporate stooge, thankfully), so perhaps this will help some people.

Today, working with a local agency, I found myself tasked with an unexpected short-run project. I was happy to help, since I have been working on small projects for myself while we spin up some larger tasks “at the office.” This brought up the question of how much time I spent on the new project for the rest of the day; here are a few things I found helpful:

• Use a system to keep track of current projects. Regardless of who you work for or what you do, it’s good to know the next step in the process.

• Balance the immediate and the enduring. Since I have a tendency to jump in and help people right away, I wanted to make sure that my priorities weren’t out of whack. This was important, but so was my other work that paid bills.

• Keep everyone in the loop. One area I have really struggled with over the years is notifying people about how things are going. Keeping an accountable communication habit is crucial for group success.

I’m really enjoying the time with the agency (40Digits) thus far. I feel like this is allowing me to ease my way into the desk environment, which is good because I have spent very little time in that setting over the last decade and change. This blog is a fun way for me to keep things moving and evaluate how I can do better; thanks for reading!

When I decided to remake this site, I had a clear vision in mind: Captivate huge audiences, using any words that came to mind, magically uniting concepts and eliminating obscurities. (Ha!)

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Thomas Edison was a really smart guy. In case you missed it, he’s the chap who brought us things like electric light bulbs. Fine fellow.

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The story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears has intrigued me yet again. We all know the tale: girl wanders into abandoned home, finds mixed success in enjoyment of their comforts, becomes most satisfied in the moderate middle-ground of the youngest bear.

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“My mind rebels at stagnation. No, I am not tired; I have a curious constitution. I never remember feeling tired by work, though idleness exhausts me completely.” –Sherlock Holmes

There’s definitely some inherit haughtiness in associating with a figure like that, but I’m wildly fascinated with the way he is portrayed between solving cases. I don’t pretend to compare my mind to his, but like Sherlock Holmes, I love to solve problems. It will work for now.

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This is not the post you’re looking for. My internet just turned off. I was in the middle of a big client deadline – I hate when that happens.

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I don’t smoke.
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I wrote a paper for college discussing, defining, and determining just what creativity is and also taking a practical look at everyday examples. I figured would be interesting to see how people reacted and what their opinions were – all comments welcome!
 

CK Hicks
English Composition II
January 8, 2007

Creativity ≠ Originality

There is nothing new under the sun. How is it that we as humans constantly "create" new things, yet still refer back to old ideas, events, and situations that remind us of what we just came up with? When we see a new design, hear a new theory, or view a work of "modern" art, our brains naturally attempt to relate what it perceives to a previous experience. It does this in an attempt to grasp the unknown variables and define the entity based on a system of order that we subconsciously submit to and modify every day.

To better understand and study creativity, one must first know the origin. Creativity, according to the Encyclopedia of Children’s Health, is: "Creativity is the ability to think up and design new inventions, produce works of art, solve problems in new ways, or develop an idea based on an original, novel, or unconventional approach." (Encyclopedia of Children’s Health) If this is indeed the case, is everyone creative? Yes, of course they are. Every single person on this earth possesses the ability, resources, and potential to be creative in an alarmingly high number of ways, and uses those abilities on a daily basis even without knowing it.

Why do designs we make always have patterns that we can relate to? Why do we pick our "favorite" colors first when creating something? Why does one song remind us of another? These are all examples of our brain wrapping previously experienced events or understandings around itself to use as a stepping stool for a new arrangement of details that are slightly different than the ones it’s used to. There is nothing new under the sun.

So if everything we create comes from what we’ve already experienced, is there really such thing as "creating" something entirely new? Consider the following quotes as current definitions of creativity: "The ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination: the need for creativity in modern industry; creativity in the performing arts." (Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)) I would like to refute and blend the ways of thinking I’ve quoted thus far, and instead propose a slightly differing definition that is much simpler: "Creativity is a mental alteration and mixture of previously encountered themes, ideas, and experiences." (CK Hicks)

So in that one can be creative and come up with ideas and concepts that have not been previously expressed to them before, it could also be said that those "new" occurrences are actually the brain’s way of finding (at least) two sources of information and merging specific elements therein to form a unique pattern. There is nothing new under the sun. "Creativity is the ability to see something in a new way, to see and solve problems no one else may know exists, and to engage in mental and physical experiences that are new, unique, or different." (Encyclopedia of Children’s Health) While I agree that seeing something in a new way is part of the creative process, variation alone cannot stand alone as the action that takes place in the creative process. One must also consider the act of using opposing opinions as creative viewpoints. Even though the idea it opposes is already in place, the act of taking an alternate approach is still variation and therefore creativity being expressed in yet one more form.

Let’s take a look at an example of how the brain could actually be limited to little or no creative expression. Suppose for a moment that you grew up inside a gray box, engaging in absolutely no interaction with anyone or anything else other than the walls around you. If someone were to show you an image of a tree, then ask you to create your own personal variation of the object, your brain would force you to fabricate something extremely similar to the only known reference that it has to go by – the image that was shown to you. While there are seemingly infinite numbers of variations and changes that could be made, you would still be limited to only having one reference and/or experience to that entity to pull from. Therefore, your tree would not have a treehouse in it, the leaves would be green, and it would not be split down the middle after having been struck by lightning.

My main question is this: is it possible that the answer to "creative block" is merely experience? For example, if a writer can’t come up with the ending to a specific scene in his book, does the answer lie in experiencing as many possible variations of similar scenes as possible? This would allow the brain to draw from an exponentially increased number of sources, therefore expanding the possibilities by which it can factor "new" conclusions. "It is only through experience that creativity grows and matures." (CK Hicks)

On this very note we must also ask if there is such thing as "bad" creativity? Is it possible for the human mind to conceive something that is useless and/or unusable? In my opinion, the answer to this question is no. Dreaming is an excellent example of the brain’s creative "drive" being set free of the cages that we put around it while conscious, and finally being able to use situations, images, emotions, and sounds to convey what is going on within our bodies. So are all dreams, regardless of how strange and impossible they may be, a useless pool of thought processes? No, rather they present us with raw unchecked creative energy that completely submerses us in realms beyond the limits of logical progression. These situations can be incredibly inspiring intuitive insight-initiating instances that we might not otherwise be exposed to outside of dreams.

Throughout the course of history, the human mind has realized an unbelievable amount of information and expressed it however possible. While I still hold to the fact that creativity is variation versus pure originality, the complexity and nearly limitless possibilities make it impossible to summarize or contain. Even this paper, from concept to conclusion, is an example of creative spin put on previous events, experiences, and understandings. There is nothing new under the sun.