...non periodic oscillations...

Image source: http://bit.ly/2ZAGiQ0 I have heard a lot of people talking about the virtues of “hard work” wherein sacrificing everything else in life is considered normal and almost always, expected. In my limited experience, I have learnt that nothing can be further from the truth. While I have never shied away from responsibility, I have generally ignored such “well meaning advice”. Recently, I came across two posts that brought this thought to the fore again. The glorification of a sixty or eighty hour work week or similar nonsense is the clarion call of those who are terrible at managing their work or are generally clueless about what their priorities in life or work are or believe that employees should be available at their beck and call or worse, plain exploitative. I have personally suffered at the hands of those who loved to schedule team meetings on holidays or wanted to have a discussion after six in the evening or regularly set unrealistic deadlines to ensure tha...

We were in a mall on Christmas Eve (I know, right!) because we had to get something. While passing by the otherwise dull inventory on sale everywhere, we chanced upon a tiny kiosk run by Scooboo (https://scooboo.in/) selling stationery and we just had to take a look. You know what happens when you stop at a place selling stationery? You tend to lose money quickly. That is exactly what happened. We saw these lovely gel ink pens in two varieties - one was a black ink with a big bold alphabet on it, and the second was a box of ten with nine colours. The black and white body pens both have black ink. This box is also available as a set of twenty pens. The Initial Pen with black gel ink Anyhow, long story short, pens were bought and money was handed over. I was so enticed by the beautiful, black satin finish fountain pen but held firmly to my resolve of not hoarding any more stationery. It feels good and bad - at the same time. So here is a random piece that happened as part of...

This very interesting piece of research - "The business value of design" ( link ) by Benedict Sheppard, Hugo Sarrazin, Garen Kouyoumjian, and Fabricio Dore, published by McKinsey Design - talks about how design affects a company's bottom line. What I found interesting while reading it was that I have seen a lot of organisations whose core business is design yet they do not understand it entirely. They make the same mistakes or lack the same commitment towards a design led approach to their own business as mentioned in the article. Design organisations get tied down by the lack of design in their own internal processes and business outlook, all the while trying to sell a “design product” to a client, claiming how it will improve their life or business. This is one of the main reasons why most designers live a chaotic and disoriented life, taking pride in their utter inability to streamline even the basics. This attitude is sold to the world as the romantic...

“He/she looks like an educated person. How can he/she do that?” This is a phrase that I hear often, from a variety of people, in response to a variety of stupid or uncivil behaviour that people exhibit in everyday life. It is almost always delivered with an expression of disbelief.  Quite honestly, I have never understood this strange correlation (in people’s mind) between being “educated” and the expectation of better behaviour from other human beings. It seems that for whatever reason, people believe that education is supposed to instil better sense and behaviour. It is supposed to make one a better human being. How? By attending Moral Science classes in school? It is my firm belief that our education system is deeply entrenched in an industrial process of converting human beings into employable zombies who will obey orders. The standard recipe of study hard, good grades, good college, good job, etc. is designed to make us subservient and obedient. The sole aim of the d...

A key takeaway from the last post, Design Thinking_Einstellung Effect , according to a dear friend who is an architect, was, “Don’t try to innovate when you’re tired”. I couldn’t agree more. How does one innovate when the mind, body and soul are feeling crushed by fatigue? There is another perspective to this situation though – famously depicted by Bill Watterson – last minute panic. source: http://bit.ly/2AcnKtY “Last minute panic” is a design world favourite because it justifies (even if only to themselves) all the chaos, disorganisation and quite often, half-baked design solutions that most design firms love to revel in. Yes, business realities and external factors will always impact the process. Every stakeholder will have an influence on the job on hand and yet, if you look at the inner workings of most (not all) design organisations; the chaos and disorganisation are self-inflicted. There may be a number of reasons why those who are entrusted with organising our world...

Design Thinking is an interesting phrase. I keep seeing it referenced a lot and yet I wonder if most people using it understand it? I have heard it from successful “designers” who seem to practice the exact opposite of what they keep harping about. This morning I came across a very well written article Minimizing the Einstellung Effect in Design Thinking: How to Arrive at Innovative Solutions by Diminishing Cognitive Bias by Dana Mitroff Silvers . The author talks about how, instead of focussing on innovation through design thinking, design teams tend to focus on the “tried and tested”. In an atmosphere of intense competition and cut throat fees, design firms are constantly trying to cut down on the process and focus more on the deliverables. Whether the design solution works for the given design problem or whether the team “fall in love with what is front-of-mind, thereby missing opportunities for fresh, new ideas”, designers need to pause and introspect. In the race to pr...

Architectural internships, for most practicing architects I know, are either an unnecessary headache or a means to get some affordable “hands on deck”. For the students looking for an internship though, it is a critical juncture of their lives. Many are of the opinion that internships aren’t required at all while many consider it a rite of passage to professional practice. The way I see it, I believe it is a good thing to give students a flavour of what professional practice feels like, before they step in to the big bad world. Academia is such an insulated, cocooned life that for some students, internship can be a pretty harsh awakening. For some interns, working in an architectural practice helps them to understand what skills are more likely to get them employment quickly. For others still, applying their thoughts in a real world scenario is a thrill. The problem with internship though, is the manner in which it is implemented. The Council of Architecture (CoA) is, of cour...

“And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.” _J. K. Rowling Our lives today are lived at a pace unprecedented in the history of mankind. We try to extract something out of every single moment, meaningful or not. Each one of us is in a race and honestly, most of us do not know where the finishing line is. Losing My Religion is the story of Rishi, one amongst the many of us, who believes in winning and is part of the same race which most of us are participating in, willingly or unwillingly. The story really starts once Rishi hits rock bottom in life. Having struggled to keep it all together, he believes he has reached the nadir till the chance encounter with Alex takes him on a path which he could never have imagined himself. The journey of a man who lives his life with a plan along with a man who has no plans whatsoever, creates moments which are exciting, refreshing and downright crazy at times. Just when life seems to start making sens...

When I first heard about Big Magic, I was in two minds. However, I must admit that not only did I thoroughly enjoy reading this book, I felt it connected to my own life in so many ways – and that, for me, is a rare feeling. Big Magic is about trying to understand the creative spirit, about welcoming it into one’s life and about understanding that the “gift” of creativity is not for the “select few”. The author takes the reader on a journey through this ever confusing, misunderstood, mistreated world of creativity by starting with the one thing that holds us back – fear. If you’ve ever dreamt of embarking on a creative endeavour and hesitated then you will instantly connect with the book. The book is pragmatic and focuses on understanding the creative instinct and reactions without pretending to paint a rosy picture. Yes, any creative exercise will be hard. Yes, it might be frustrating too, and yet, at the end of it, there is no joy like the joy of creating something beautiful...