A pleasant problem is that even while being paralyzed almost completely, there's still too much I can do. I have more ideas than time to realize them, even more so; I don't even have enough time to write them down & draw sketches!
Don't we all have to choose how much attention we give to too few things/people?! Priorities...
Realizing your own extraordinary ideas can cost a lot, most often one project cost already more than one can possibly assign to it. Protecting ideas for example, is something only large cooperations can afford really. Cooperation often is "a must", which is fine but what about all the other ideas that don't get enough attention because of the few major projects? Most ideas don't get a chance to prove themselves, thus many great ideas die right after birth, and that's a shame. People have the ability to prevent this loss, but aren't organized well enough yet to do what is possible.
As a child I thought my life was never ending and dreamed about all the things I would be when older. At about the age of 20, I "woke up" realizing that "later" had become "today", and most dreams did not yet come true and didn't seem to become true soon neither. After the bus-accident (age 26) and two years later losing my father, the idea of dying became a real thing that could happen any day. Now I'm calculating how many hours I could have left to do what I want to do before I die.
Beyond the circle of life
Each individual has a limited amount of power (time, energy, knowledge, connections and such) to focus on whatever. Everybody first has to arrange the basics that make up the circle of life, consuming most of everybody's power. Most people need all their power to keep the basics alive, some don't even have enough power to support the basics... some do have spare power to do extraordinary things with, of which most is doubtfully spent.
Some basic things:
- Food, shelter, clothes, be in motion, grow, sleep,
- Playing, fooling around, chit-chat, funn & freedom,
- Stay fit, clean-up, learn, work, trade, adapt,
- Fall in love, have sex, care for kids,
- Care for; the olderly and sick, family & friends in need,
- Deal with: natural, personal and national crisises disasters wars and such.
Point is; after subtracting all daily business, just a little or even no power is left to give special attention to extraordinary things that lead to quality and progress. If you don't care about quality & progress, are scared for change and the circle of life at the present level is fine to you, then there's no reason to take action. Personality do I like progress a lot, even though I realize new things bring good as well as bad. But at the present level, there's good and bad also, so; to evolve or not to evolve, that's a question to with I say "yes please" because I find it exciting and want my broken neck repaired.
We have to work together well in order to get enough bundled power to reach quality progress. When analyzing an ordinary year, I see big chunks of my and other's power being lost in useless things, things I do not enjoy and aren't really useful or efficiënt. Some things seem really important, but aren't really, like searching for ways to keep the telephone bill down; telephone and internet connection should (maybe up to a certain level of use) be for free, payed for and used by all of us, a collective thing that drives our society, part of the communication infrastructure that we by now can't live without, just like roads. All the time we spend on administration and permission to use it is just a waste of power.
Attention
Many situations that aren't getting enough attention of the right kind, turn into chaos or even death. A little attention is leading to the usual, which can be good enough. More attention can lead to all kinds of improvements.
I like to care for details, for as far as my powers reach. Writing text isn't what I'm good at -as you may have noticed- English isn't my natural language, Dutch is, but I'm not good there either! (but I'm doing it anyhow). Dealing with people isn't my thing also, but I am/was great in handling a CD without damaging it, which makes me a rare kind already. Who is able to turn a big book's page without instantly reducing its value? Not many! Who will fix his/her bicycle before it is broke, as soon as it sounds weird or feels unusual otherwise? Well, that's what I'm good at. How does the system work and can anything be improved? Removing the dirt before it harms the system is the solution for like 90% of all troubles. But than again; I'm not superman, so most in my life is running shitty also.
Human to product interface
Nobody knows how all products are produced, there's just too much incredients: tools, processes, systems, materials...
Most consumers know very little of the products they bought. "I just want it to work" without caring for the system within the product, not willing or trying to understand how it works. Designers are forced to make thinks easier to use for the average person & maintenance free, which sounds good but at the same time the consumer loses even more touch with the soul of the product. The designer creates a human-product interface for the average user, and at the same time taking away your possibilities to understand & care for your product. Access to the machine is been made hard or even impossible, parts are often impossible to repair, moduls (groups of parts) can sometimes be replaced by specialist, not because it's so hard to do, but because they have access to the new modules and most consumers are pretty dumb on this. There are not much repair shops left. "Does it not work well anymore? Get a new one". True; modern products are very advanced with small almost biological parts (build on nano-scale) that are almost impossible to repair. Point is; I feel like losing touch with the products that surround me, and not just because I can't touch them anymore. Do you understand what I'm complaining about?
Time to stop writing now, new priority; dinner and going through the "new year" rituals. Taking about time being an illusion might not be an appreciated subject tonight. Let's eat, smile and wish each other a happy new year!
|
Giesbert Nijhuis
 |
