Given that I'm sitting at a SXSW panel entitled Making Your Short Attention Span Pay Big Dividends, I'm feeling a bit obligated to post while I listen. Jim Coudal and Brendan Dawes, who just wrote Analog In, Digital Out: Brendan Dawes on Interaction Design (VOICES), talked about the many, many projects they've started and never finished, and finding the value in those experiences. I can definitely relate - I've got far more ideas and potential projects than I could possibly do. I tend to go down several paths at once, knowing full well some will never reach completion. I agree with the presenters entirely - that there's tremendous value in going through the process, even if it means finding out you don't want to go any further with a given project after all. These aren't "failures", they're ultimately an important part of success. All those ideas and all that dreaming pays dividendes in other ways. Nothing new here really - it's the journey and not the destination, right?
One thing I'm hearing everywhere at SXSW is people's passion for what they do... there are plenty of people here who want to make their millions online asap, but mostly they talk about making enough to live they way they want to and being able to do work that is truly interesting and fulfilling.
OK, I'm going to stop blogging and pay attention now :)
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