Soul wrapped in skin (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} preppyperv) wrote,@ 2007-08-16 00:02:00 |
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Knots
I am spending my week tucked away into a DC hotel at a professional conference. What is it that I really do, do you ever wonder? I mean some of you know, but do you really know? I say what is easily understood for the most part, but what I really do, even when so clearly articulated usually brings an expression to someone's face that resembles what I would assume you would look like if you had just had a total conversation with someone who spoke to you in a tribal clicking language. Wow, what a run-on sentence huh? I am sure that made it all much clearer for you, dear reader.
I am at UX Week. So I have been spending my days with like minded people, so I have had some amazing conversations. Typically, folks in my field of practice are naturally curious and tenacious problem solvers. We extract clarity from chaos.
A fellow attendee was explaining it and said, I ask people if I gave you a shoestring, that was completely knotted up, what would you do? She says that the responses vary. Some say, I would throw it away and get a new shoestring. Others, well, I would cut the knot out and mend the ends together. Others, well I would try to unknot it and see if it was simple enough, then I would continue, if not, I would just toss it. Someone like me, an information architect who approaches with a user centered design mind, says I would unknot it, and restore its usefulness. But first, I would complete my due diligence and ask questions like, was it altered in a way that would render it useless, meaning was it melted or stitched or fused in such a way that the exercise is futile. If the research told me no, it was simply knotted using a variety of knots I would dig in. That is what I do, that is what I find professionally fulfilling. Oh, and I would also teach someone else what it was I was doing, thereby sharing the knowledge and increasing my collaborative problem solving knowledge base.
For the most part, I approach work and life in much the same way. I research, I ponder, I study, I learn and then I act. I believe in purposeful action. I believe in strategy and collaboration.
In a more personal and intimate way though, I feel as if I am holding several knotted up strings. I must now do my careful research and ask questions about the state of the string. How it came to be in knots is not the crux, it has bearing, but it does not change the current state. Do I want to know the answers to these questions? I must analyze and assess the value in putting in the work or simply getting some new string or doing without the string. Is there really a solution that will come from that analysis?
Maybe life and love and happiness and healing is not so simple as all this. Maybe I cannot approach this as a problem that needs to be solved. Maybe I can. Maybe I don't want to. It goes back to that value proposition for me, the one that sometimes reads as selfish, but really could just as easily be called self interest. Same coin, two sides. But the bottom line is always the same, what will be the outcome and who will it benefit?
In my professional world, I have an expectation that I will be presented with knotted strings on a regular basis, that is why I do what I do. In my private world, I am usually content to not have knots, loose ends or any strings that could entangle me in a way I do not desire.
How would you approach the knot?
I am spending my week tucked away into a DC hotel at a professional conference. What is it that I really do, do you ever wonder? I mean some of you know, but do you really know? I say what is easily understood for the most part, but what I really do, even when so clearly articulated usually brings an expression to someone's face that resembles what I would assume you would look like if you had just had a total conversation with someone who spoke to you in a tribal clicking language. Wow, what a run-on sentence huh? I am sure that made it all much clearer for you, dear reader.
I am at UX Week. So I have been spending my days with like minded people, so I have had some amazing conversations. Typically, folks in my field of practice are naturally curious and tenacious problem solvers. We extract clarity from chaos.
A fellow attendee was explaining it and said, I ask people if I gave you a shoestring, that was completely knotted up, what would you do? She says that the responses vary. Some say, I would throw it away and get a new shoestring. Others, well, I would cut the knot out and mend the ends together. Others, well I would try to unknot it and see if it was simple enough, then I would continue, if not, I would just toss it. Someone like me, an information architect who approaches with a user centered design mind, says I would unknot it, and restore its usefulness. But first, I would complete my due diligence and ask questions like, was it altered in a way that would render it useless, meaning was it melted or stitched or fused in such a way that the exercise is futile. If the research told me no, it was simply knotted using a variety of knots I would dig in. That is what I do, that is what I find professionally fulfilling. Oh, and I would also teach someone else what it was I was doing, thereby sharing the knowledge and increasing my collaborative problem solving knowledge base.
For the most part, I approach work and life in much the same way. I research, I ponder, I study, I learn and then I act. I believe in purposeful action. I believe in strategy and collaboration.
In a more personal and intimate way though, I feel as if I am holding several knotted up strings. I must now do my careful research and ask questions about the state of the string. How it came to be in knots is not the crux, it has bearing, but it does not change the current state. Do I want to know the answers to these questions? I must analyze and assess the value in putting in the work or simply getting some new string or doing without the string. Is there really a solution that will come from that analysis?
Maybe life and love and happiness and healing is not so simple as all this. Maybe I cannot approach this as a problem that needs to be solved. Maybe I can. Maybe I don't want to. It goes back to that value proposition for me, the one that sometimes reads as selfish, but really could just as easily be called self interest. Same coin, two sides. But the bottom line is always the same, what will be the outcome and who will it benefit?
In my professional world, I have an expectation that I will be presented with knotted strings on a regular basis, that is why I do what I do. In my private world, I am usually content to not have knots, loose ends or any strings that could entangle me in a way I do not desire.
How would you approach the knot?
