💎 Friday Gems #36 (Design Is A Job, Enough, Orgesticulanismus)

Where thoughts go, energy flows!

“Where thoughts go, energy flows.”

These words grabbed me as I was feeling a bit distant from my writing lately since I had not written anything for a few weeks.

I was looking for a way to get back on track, and by reading these words, I realized that I don’t need to stay stuck in my head or overthink it. Instead, I can focus my thoughts on taking action and writing to get back on track, which in turn will help me get my energy and motivation to kick in. Also, a gentle nudge from my coach, Oli Anderson, directed me to use any negative energy toward taking action to get unblocked.

And guess what? It worked!💥

The lull I was in has now turned into the joy I felt before of sharing ideas and insights that will help us connect with our purpose and live up to our potential.

Thanks for reading Low Fidelity; your support means the world to me. 🙏🏽

On to this week’s gems!

💎 Design Is A Job: Better Workplaces

I first met Mike Monteiro at a workshop he was leading to help participants present their designs confidently at Mule Studios, his design agency. At the end of the workshop, each participant was to present a prepared presentation for five minutes and then get feedback from Mike. What I liked about Mike was that he didn’t mince words or give the compliment sandwich and got straight to the point. If a presentation sucked, they let you know, but they also provided constructive ways to improve and deliver with confidence. Mike

Ever since that workshop, I have come to respect Mike for being a voice for those who need a helping hand, someone to stand up for them, whether it’s helping those starting out in design gain more confidence, fighting fascism, standing up for immigrants, and promoting unionizing for employees at tech companies. Mike wrote

Design is a Job was a seminal book in my design career. It helped me realize the value I had and what I brought to my clients.

Now with an updated version of Design is a job, Mike is still helping us realize the value we, as tech workers, bring to the table and to stand up for our rights, build a more inclusive community, and help us use design for the good of society.

It’s not Mondays you hate—it’s capitalism.
- Mike Monteiro in Design Is A Job

So if you’re ready for some hard-hitting truth, tell it like it is, and some directness, all with the goal of helping us wake up from a tech utopian dream we may be living in, then check out the sample chapter from Mike’s updated book, Design Is A Job.

This chapter is about Better Workplaces and dives into the “Return to Office” mandates passed down by CEOs to get back to a version of the “normal” we are all facing and struggling with. As Mike puts it,

And this is all happening because management wants a “return to normal,” back to a time that was very reassuring to them, a time where they knew how to operate, a time where signing a twenty-year lease on a huge space was fiscally sound, a time that worked out pretty fucking well for them because they understood the rules—mostly because they set them.

The pandemic opened up a new way of working that fit employees and gave back time they could spend with their families instead of sitting in traffic. And in the wise words of Mike,

You are a stakeholder in your workplace. It is your labor that generates the wealth that powers those workplaces.

Design is a Job is a must-read for anyone in tech, especially designers.

Source: Design Is A Job

💎 Enough

Knowing we have enough is a great mindset to live by. It helps us be grateful for all that we have to allow us to fully enjoy the present moment with as little or as much as we have. This post by Kent Peterson shares a good reminder from Kurt Vonnegut for us to be comfortable with the knowledge that we have enough, which opens up a world full of treasures for us.

Enough

Source: Kent’s Substack

💎 Orgesticulanismus

What does movement mean to someone without it? In this breathtaking and imaginative video, Belgian animator Mathieu Labaye explores his late father’s personal manifesto on movement, freedom, and the power of the brain to adapt when experiencing disability.

Our brains are wonderful at adapting to our reality, and when we become limited in our movement, our minds are free to explore the inner freedom within us.

Source: Psyche

💎 A gem of a quote

Please consider sharing this post with anyone who would find it useful.

Thanks for reading, and have a fantastic weekend!

Rizwan