On Intentionality
Hi friends,
Over the last week or so, I’ve been reading and thinking a lot about intentionality, and how critical clear intent is in design and life.
Whether it’s a product, app, poster, or interior, often what separates beautiful design from something mediocre is the clarity and cohesiveness of the designer’s intent. A skilled designer can manipulate the elements of the piece to express and reinforce their intent so that a user who was not privy to that intent can feel that there is clear cohesion and resonance. Even if they can’t consciously tell you why, it just feels right.
Conversely, an unskilled designer may have an overall intent, but fail to organize the elements of a design to support it. This dissonance can usually be seen or felt by the user. Worse, an unskilled designer may have no clear intent at all, mashing things together until something jumps out at them, leading to a jumbled and unrefined end result.
The key is first having an overall intent, then being able to work with the constraints and the design elements to produce the desired result and not something unintended.
As I move through my fourth decade on this planet, and more of my brain space is occupied by the big questions, it seems that the key to a good life is the same: having intent, and consciously aligning the elements of your life towards it. Except in this case, the user is yourself.
I’ll share a few readings from my week below.
Anson
Interesting things of the week
📖 Reading - How Will You Measure Your Life? (Harvard Business Review Article, by Clayton M. Christensen)
This is quite an old article (first published in 2010) that HBR is featuring for their 100th anniversary. The author argues that a life is just like a business: you need to have a purpose or intention, set a strategy for achieving it, and allocate your resources like time, energy, and talent appropriately.
He makes a clear recommendation to make time to regularly think about your life’s purpose. While it may not produce as tangible accomplishments as more time spent on work or study, a clarity of purpose will vastly improve your allocation of resources.
🔈 Listening - Anything You Want (Audiobook, by Derek Sivers)
Derek Sivers is the founder of CD Baby, an online music distribution business that he “accidentally” started when he tried to sell his CD online in 1997. He ended up selling the company for $22 million with the proceeds going to a charity that funds music education.
In this short book (you can read it in one sitting), he explains his uniquely humanist approach to business that is centered around knowing what you want from your business, how you serve your customers, and maintaining a clear focus on those things while ignoring all the other noise.
A lot of business content is focused on growth and scale at all costs, and this was a refreshing reminder of what really matters, which in Sivers’ words, is:
Are you helping people? Are they happy? Are you happy? Are you profitable? Isn't that enough?
I listened to the book on Audible, but it looks like the entire thing is available for free in written and audio form on his website. Highly recommend for anyone running or thinking of starting a business.
📖 Reading - 103 Bits of Advice I Wish I Had Known (Kevin Kelly)
Over the past few years, Kevin Kelly (founding executive editor of Wired magazine, prolific technology writer and thinker) has published a list of semi-random advice that he wish he had known when he was younger.
This is the first year I’ve stumbled across it. There are some solid nuggets of wisdom here. I’ve picked out some favorites below.
Specifically on the theme of intentionality:
If you repeated what you did today 365 more times will you be where you want to be next year?
Your time and space are limited. Remove, give away, throw out things in your life that don’t spark joy any longer in order to make room for those that do.
Focus on directions rather than destinations. Who knows their destiny? But maintain the right direction and you’ll arrive at where you want to go.
The only productive way to answer “what should I do now?” is to first tackle the question of “who should I become?”
Other favorites:
Efficiency is highly overrated; Goofing off is highly underrated. Regularly scheduled sabbaths, sabbaticals, vacations, breaks, aimless walks and time off are essential for top performance of any kind. The best work ethic requires a good rest ethic.
Make stuff that is good for people to have.
When you open paint, even a tiny bit, it will always find its way to your clothes no matter how careful you are. Dress accordingly.
Art is whatever you can get away with.
Take note if you find yourself wondering “Where is my good knife? Or, where is my good pen?” That means you have bad ones. Get rid of those.
When negotiating, don’t aim for a bigger piece of the pie; aim to create a bigger pie.