Category: appreciation

A Millennial Manifesto?

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When it comes to our careers and our experience at work, we’ve become selfish—but in a good way. Getting paid is no longer enough; we expect to actually learn on the job. We want our skills to be fully utilized and are left unsatisfied with “easy jobs.” We want more responsibility when we’re ready, rather that waiting until we’ve “put in our time.” We expect to do more of what we love, automating the more laborious and monotonous parts of our work. —Scott Belsky, “You’re a Free Radical, Run With It” from Maximize Your Potential.

While the above no doubt applies to a variety of people working towards self-actualization, I feel like I see this a lot with my fellow Millennials—a huge chunk of our generation is busting on to the scene with fierce creativity to tackle issues that we’ve grown up with and largely saw get worse. I think it’s no coincidence that social enterprise and design for social good is exploding as my generation comes of age and finds its place in the story of humanity. I’d like to think Millennials are disproportionately what Scott Belsky calls Free Radicals; I acknowledge, however, that I might still be intoxicated with the optimism of the recent conferences I’ve attended, A Better World by Design and EmTech MIT, in which folks like the TR35 have made tremendous strides to solve pressing problems.

Maximize Your Potential, the new book by 99u.com from which the passage above comes, is a fantastic resource for Free Radicals of any generation, anywhere; it’s loaded with perspectives that resonate and advice that’s insightful and actionable.

Maximize Your PotentialHere are the key headings in Scott Belsky’s piece. I agree with and love everything stated here.

We do work that is, first and foremost, intrinsically rewarding.

We thrive on flexibility and are most productive when we feel fully engaged.

We make stuff often, and therefore, we fail often.

We have little tolerance for the friction of bureaucracy, old-boy networks, and antiquated business practices.

We expect to be fully utilized and constantly optimized, regardless of whether we’re working in a start-up or large organization.

We consider open source technology, APIs, and the vast collective knowledge of the Internet to be our personal arsenal.

We believe that “networking” is sharing.

We believe in meritocracy and the power of online networks and peer communities to advance our ability to do what we love, and do well by doing it.

We make a great living doing what we love.

My Millennial Anthem

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Since getting this song during my weekend at the A Better World by Design conference, I can’t stop listening to “Shape the World” by Tim McMorris; it seems to recombine so many messages and feelings I’ve been encountering in recent years as my generation endeavors to find its place in humanity’s story.

Shazam, you’ve done it again, allowed me to take a snippet of song and add it to the soundtrack for private and social moments; thanks!

“What if you’re not the creative genius here…

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… and what if there’s not one idea… what if everyone could do what you’ve done in solving these problems around the house? What if it was normal for anyone to redesign their stuff?”
—Jane ni Dhulchaointigh

I often visit the 99u website for tips, guides and inspiration. Here’s a link to a video from their conference that I really enjoyed. While watching it, the words I’ve quoted above really jumped out as reminder of the power of reframing.

Jane ni Dhulchaointigh: The Magic Is in The Process

Still Awesome: Mirai Mizue

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I recently got the CALF DVD compiling a number of Mirai Mizue’s animations, and it’s rather fascinating, bizarrely at times. My favorite is “MODERN”, embedded below; the soundscape makes the transformation of geometric shapes all the more mesmerizing, atmospheric and science-fictionally/abstractly futuristic. At times, “MODERN” reminds me of the game Edge, but remains to me in a category of its own. I’d love to see “MODERN 2” at a screening or on DVD at some point.

Love you, Clover: The Enzo is Back!

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The Enzo Returns

 

As someone who likes to eat fries with and in sandwiches, I was ecstatic when I found out a couple weeks ago that Clover would be doing another run of their Enzo sandwich. The photograph above just cannot capture even a sliver of the Enzo experience; it is a sheer delight to chew and savor if you like the ingredients (listed below) that go into this uniquely delectable vegetarian meal/snack.

enzo ingredients

Frustrating But Good: The Spectacular Now

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Delightful and difficult to watch, The Spectacular Now is engrossingly charming and believable. Particularly for me, it was frustrating to see the well-meaning, relatable characters do things that hurt themselves and those they care about, frustrating to see Aimee’s insecurity, frustrating to see Sutter a victim of his own live-in-the-moment philosophy. But that’s what ultimately made the story as poignant as it was, portraying in an affecting way the ordinary but meaningful foibles of youth. Though perhaps at times dramatic, The Spectacular Now doesn’t have any overblown drama, yet we can see that there’s a particular magnitude to what’s happening, what’s slowly building up. Because like the characters who can see in each other what they cannot see in themselves, we as the audience have distance—from their situation and, at least in my case, from youth—we can see the slow disaster unfolding, can see that it doesn’t take a sudden catastrophe to derail lives. Or maybe not. At times the film does such a great job of pulling us into their world and their perspectives, and we, like the characters do, let things happen.

Love the ending.

I have to agree with much of the Fresh Air film review, which starts by characterizing The Spectacular Now as “goofy, exhilarating and unreasonably sad, like being a teenager.” What David Edelstein says about the actors and their characters is often spot on.

Again, a film that isn’t done justice by its trailer, but here it is in case you’re curious…

Just Watched: In A World

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After hearing such captivating interviews with Lake Bell on NPR, how could I not be eager to partake of her film In A World? With solely Lake Bell’s on-radio descriptions of the film vigorously stoking my expectations, I excitedly immersed myself in all the familial drama, occupational antics and romantic (and vocal) misadventures of Carol’s (Lake Bell’s character) life.

Although not as auditorily delectable as I had hoped (there’s a good dose of sensual, smooth voices but interspersed with much normalcy), Lake Bell’s In A World had some well worthwhile hilarity. The plot and characters had enough zaniness to keep my attention locked on the film, riding their parallel voiceover-centric universe roller coaster with them. If you need something quirky and fun, check out In A World; I think it’s substantially better than its trailer makes it out to be.

“You’re alive. Act like it.”

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I’m not sure who said that (either Elevated! or Da Poetry Lounge),  but now perhaps what matters is that it was said, boldly as a thunderous command closing an emotionally and linguistically turbulent meditation on the modern human condition. That blazingly delivered poem charged us to again be human.

At the packed, sold-out National Poetry Slam 2013 finals, I was utterly astounded by the powerful voices slam poets gave history, social issues, personal emotions and so much more. The phrases resonating in the air thick with the energy of fandom (for these poets specifically and for poetry generally), those words wove stories that were everything from heartbreaking to uplifting. A boisterous bro duo gleefully shattered the illusion that first-time lovemaking is smooth and sweet; Mr. Freeze, the Penguin, the Riddler, etc. read their letters to Batman recounting tragic life stories, ultimately instructing him to fix the city that created them; a chorus of positivity encouraged us to celebrate how amazing life is, how remarkable it is, among other things, that our lungs and hearts often work tirelessly, unnoticeably; a substitute teacher’s mind races as he ponders over what he will tell a 4th grade girl who declares her aspirations of becoming the best tetherball player in the world, a world where not all dreams can come true, still pervaded by gender discrimination; a slam duet spun dizzying parallel stories of young siblings separately struggling with what society tells them their bodies should be and do… And far more. Sitting there, transfixed by the transformation of voice and bodily motion into sheer passion, provocation, catharsis and communion,  I could barely believe words could do all this and beyond.

Although the details of diction, rhythm, gesture and tone were crystal sharp as they were unfolding during this most astonishing of artistic evenings, that extreme clarity is ebbing, but among whatever is left as time blurs memory will be the unshakable truth that words spoken bellowed, sung, guffawed and cried on stage connected us, pulled those of us in the audience into feelings and experiences perhaps not our own but unmistakably belonging to all of humanity, dared us to look at our past, present and selves, pushed us to move resolutely and justly into the future.

If there’s a slam poetry venue near you, check it out if you haven’t already.

Here’s the short film Slip of the Tongue, one of the pieces that brought me into the world of spoken word and slam poetry.