Learning The Independent Lifestyle

I always wanted to be independent - I never, not once in my life, had the goal of working for someone else.  It's not in my genes.  In 2003 I founded Common Craft and in January of 2007 Sachi joined the company.  Since then, Sachi has been the real force driving our goal of having a truly independent lifestyle.

And it is ALL about lifestyle.  As I've written before, we make our lifestyle a huge priority.  Why choose to be independent if you can't create a job and schedule that works for you?  We've been trying to figure out what this means and I have a couple of examples.

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Working as a Video Making Team

Last night we shot the video for the next Common Craft Show and, as usual, we came out of the experience completely exhausted. I've always been fascinated that it takes so much out of me.  In thinking about why (other than the 500 watt lights), it has become clear that it may be the same thing that makes our videos work: iteration.  Everything we do on video is rehashed, rewritten, repositioned and edited all the way to the point the camera rolls (and sometimes again after).

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My Personal Life Stream on Tumblr

For a while now I've been fascinated by the idea of creating a single place (other than Facebook) that brings together all the things I do on the Web. That is why I created the zeitgeist page here on Common Craft - to have that single place to bring it together. At the same time, I've had a blog at leelefever.com that has become a pain to keep updated - I needed a replacement.

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Sachi is a PiMP

Just a quick congrats to Sachi for passing her exam yesterday. She is now a PMI Project Management Professional (PMP).

Of course, since she started studying and having the book (above) around the house, I had to take every opportunity to call it the PIMP exam and make lewd references whenever money is exchanged between us.

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Big Ups to Kris Krug

Just recently I was hanging out with Anthony, a great friend who has helped with the Common Craft designs over the years. He mentioned, quite candidly, that he wasn't a big fan of my buddy icon for this site. Being a designer and friend, I took his advice to heart and started the search for a new one.

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To Be Rather Than to Seem

I'm originally from North Carolina and I once learned that our state motto is "Esse Quam Videri" which translates to "To Be Rather Than To Seem"

If you ask me, this should be the motto for businesses (and individuals) who are trying to adapt to the new world of community, marketing and advertising on the web. The days of "seeming" are over and success in the future is all about "being". Really, there is no choice - the customer now decides what is real.

To Be Rather Than To Seem - it makes sense to me.

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The Big UNsubscribe

How long has it been since you really thought about all the things you subscribe to in email? The newsletters, the notifications, the email lists. It's so easy to delete the old stuff when it comes in that you might be used to doing just that - deleting instead of unsubscribing.

I've spent the last couple of weeks unsubscribing from everything and I was amazed at the sheer number of things that came in, but always went unread. My guess is there were 25-30 different newsletters and updates. I had no idea.

My advice is to be aware and remove the things you're not reading if you have a choice. It's quite liberating. Now, if I can just figure out how to unsubscribe from spam, I'll be all set.

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Disinterest in Academic Discourse

From time to time, I participate in conference calls and online discussions that are focused on subjects that I should care about: knowledge management, communities of practice, online learning, etc.

More often than not I find that these discussion become academic discourse and generally make me feel the same.

I honestly respect academic discussion and I believe academia lays the foundation for what we know and understand. But man, that kind of discussion is just not for me- and perhaps I'm revealing my ignorance here.

The theoretical, the ongoing discussion about the published papers of respected academics, the arguments about pros and cons of each theory and their applications in endless situations -- it all just drones on for me.

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What Would You Be Doing in 1905?

In the last year I got a chance to participate in a two-day personal development workshop through a client. During the workshop it became obvious that I was very Internet-focused in my work and the question they asked was: “What would you be doing right now if we were living 100 years ago and the Internet didn’t exist?” I think about this often.

Here’s my answer: In 1905, I would be interested in radio and the telegraph. I might not have the radio technology at my fingertips, but I would have likely gotten my hands on a telegraph by then.

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Random Reflections on Gambling

I survived Vegas with about even money in my pocket and quite a few hours of lost sleep -- sleep I’m still trying to get back. It seems like it’s taking me longer and longer to recover from such weekends as I get older. I had to take a power nap a little while ago to get through the day.

I’ve been thinking about the whole gambling thing and what a heathen I am. OK, not really. I’ve really been thinking about two types of gambling: with machines and with people. I don’t like gambling with a machine- it is such a mechanical way to spend time- put the money in, pull the handle, repeat. You may win or lose, but the experience is always the same- the machine never consoles you when you lose or roots for a good hand.

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