Richard Yong

Design is dead. Long live design.

Everything I designed was unnecessary

So Phillipe Starck said. Design is dead. Long live design.

I'm not totally on board with this. Pointless and unnecessary design will always live on, as long as we are human, we will always love beauty and pride, it was true in Homer's (of the Iliad...) day, and true in ours. Positional goods (goods valued mostly by desirability, e.g. LV, B&O, Ferrari) will always continue to attract massive demand.

There will be a massive shift in design, buoyed by enforced frugality (recession), voluntary simplicity and a socially and environmentally aware generation.

Design will evolve and shift to an utilitarian focus. The winners will design the way we eat, live, sleep, think and love. Designers will direct the way we spend our money and time and only focus on the necessary.

Here are six unconventional counter-intuitive designs (and a sign of things to come):

Kiva.org - Micro financing for third world countries. Designed as a portal to lend small amounts of money (I'm talking $100 to fund a Tanzanian store for 10 months) to businesses in developing countries. This is sociopreneurial design at it's prime, and it isn't charity.

One Laptop Per Child - Designing a laptop under $100. This is technological, business and charitable design at the same time. All in a world where people are looking for faster computing, people are out there making sure our neighbours don't get left behind.

Grameen Bank - A micro financing bank for poverty stricken communities based on trust. No contracts, no collateral. Sounds like no one pays right? Wrong. They are profitable and the socialpreneur won a Nobel prize for it.

iPod - Apple brought music back to the people. Once a positional good, now a commodity. You can get to music in three clicks, brilliant. It's marked a gigantic shift in music design. For years audio quality was like wine tasting, snobbery was rife. Now it's just about the music.

Youtube - What Apple did for music, Youtube did for T.V. This is why HD TV, High End audio will become even more cut throat niche markets in the next decade. Youtube and Apple showed the masses that bigger, louder, faster isn't better, the quality is in the content.

Nintendo - When everyone wanted more 'awesome graphics' and '12.5 surround sound,' Nintendo pissed it's shareholder's off in 2006 by saying that people want fun. No, I'm not kidding, Before the Wii's launch Nintendo's stock price was sitting at the same levels as when the first Nintendo came out in the 90's.

Nintendo got it right. People want fun. The quality is in the content. By the way, Nintendo is the only game console manufacturer making a profit on every console sold. Yep, Sony and Microsoft lose dollars on every playstation or xbox sold.

There I said it. Content is King. The frill and whistles aren't necessary and people are catching on.

In future there will be no more designers. The designers of the future will be the personal coach, the gym trainer, the diet consultant

Phillipe Starck

Flickr cred: nedrichards

Cut the overhead. Sleep better. How I pay $50 a year in mobile phone bills.

I've met corporate workers with no time,a frenzied schedule of things to do and a life on schedule. I've also met unemployed people with bucket loads of time, but nothing to do. So it's a a conundrum, how can you work, afford the things you want and have the time to do what you want? It's simple, if a little audacious:

Do what you want, as work.

It seems crazy, there are bills to pay, and the work you want might never pay the bills. The phone, the car, the mortgage, the credit card, the vet, the doctor, the this, the that, the, the, the. the list goes on.

I don't disagree at all. Money is a concern, but how much is enough? a lot less than most people think, but you need to think first. Most people go to work, then spend what they earn. I propose a better solution. Work out how much you need to spend (and invest), then go and earn it. It doesn't matter whether or not you love your work, because once you reach enough, the rest is a bonus, and buys you freedom of choice. You work on your terms, terms of what you do, where you do it, how you do it and when.

It's not about ascetism. I'm ambitious about my financial goals. It's about doing what you need, even if it's not that great to meet the necessities, then having the time, energy and resources to focus on the important. This is different for each person, everyone has unique dreams of building a business, spending half the year surfing, travelling the world, spending time loving and nurturing children and family or giving time to charity. I've seen too many people drained, with great financial resources but so much overhead that they ran out of energy to live, be healthy, be loving, be good people, let alone dream.

Well here is another audacious idea. Cut the overhead. AKA cut the crap. I recently spoke to Anthony Herro of Herro Solicitors in Sydney, and he said the single biggest factor of struggle in small businesses is overhead.

Here is how I've gone to a minimum overhead life, and these rules apply as much to business as they apply to life.

• Say no to fixed costs. In business, fixed costs are the devil, they are unavoidable costs that come whether or not your business is making money. These become an expectation of your income. For businesses, these are things like rent, for people, these are the cable TV bills, the 24 month mobile phone plans and the devil of all fixed costs, personal loans (cars, holidays, whatever.) These are the bills that enslave you to work to continue servicing them. Ouch.
• Say yes to variable costs. In business, variable costs are those that change with your level of revenue. These are things like raw materials and utility bills. Personally these are things like charges per use and buying outright. No financial ties. Not using it? Don't pay for it. It's dodging the monthly repayment contracts for the internet, phones, cars and any other expenses.

In reality, it's difficult to always kill off all fixed costs and move to variable costs, but you can reduce them. Here are ways:

• Don't subscribe to anything. Cable TV sucks. Mobile phone plans suck. Leases, loans anything with the word 'repayment' or 'instalments' suck.
• Maximise your pay per use services. Pay by the call and you'll start using your mobile less (contrary to popular belief, you don't need to call every missed call back or reply to every single sms). I've gone to $50 a year prepaid mobile service, and I use Skype and VOIP for my calls. I pay less for calls, and I only pay what I use. It's scalable to use.

Fixed cost is the whip that send you to work, there will always be a minimal amount, and it's different for each person (rental, mortgage, food, hygiene, etc.) Variable cost is the stuff you can say no to unless you use it.

Cut the overhead. Be scalable and be free.

Paperless in Four Hours.

I went paperless today. I've planned to exorcise our household of this anachronism for some time, so it feels great to have done it!

There were, however, a few important requirements before I embarked on this epic journey of minimalisation, I had to be able to:

1. Scribble and take notes

2. Back up scanned files

3. Be more efficient than paper

4. Access information faster than paper

How did I do this?

Three pieces of technology and about four hours. Two hours to install, setup and implement a simple usable process, and two hours to cleanse myself of my arboreal sins.

1. Lenovo X61T tablet - Lets me annotate scanned documents with a digitizer pen. I like to scribble. I can now carry and create information wherever I go. The ace up my sleeve is I can take written notes and write on existing documents anywhere.

2. Canon Lide50 scanner - My trusty workhorse scans multiple documents into a single pdf and has the fantastic ability of one button scanning. I scanned over 5 years of financial, personal and business data in 2 hours. The double paged stuff is being outsourced to a business scanner, it's not worth the time to do it myself.

3. Microsoft SyncToy - A free application (bless you Mr. Gates) that allows you to backup a pair of folders. Using some simple jedi mind tricks, I've paired folders on separate networked hard disks mirroring the scanned data between them. It's brilliant, simple disaster recovery planning for home use (Unless we get attacked by an EMP, somehow I don't think anyone will need paper then)

So how much paper do I have left?

• Ten page paper folder. Birth, marriage, citizenship and other important certificates, I'm not worried, they're scanned too!
• 4 blank and mildly scribbled notebooks.
• 2 guitar tabs I'm not sure I can find online easily (Canon in D and Tommy Emmanuel's Angelina)

So there you have it, paper less with all the benefits!

Flickr credit: Thaths

Necessity.

'Some things are really necessaries of life in some circles... which in others are luxuries merely, and in others still are entirely unknown.'

Henry David Thoreau - Walden

A lot of what I have is taken for granted. Sometimes luxuries become necessities for me. A car, a phone, a watch. Many things, really. 

Three things have helped me clarify my understanding of necessity. Perspective, reflection and appreciation.

I love hiking, camping, traveling and meeting different people. I'm forced to realise that life is lived differently all over the world - an iPod isn't de rigueur, contrary to popular belief.

Thoreau was right, my neighbours in Alor Setar, Malaysia showered outside, a luxury to them would have been a hot shower indoors, a necessity for many, and maybe entirely unknown to the long house villagers I met in the jungles of Sabah.

When I visited India and saw the throngs of people who earned less in a year than I did in a day, I realised I was lucky. When I visited Japan and saw the busy streets, I realised Sydney isn't that cramped. When I camped in a shelter built using a plastic sheet strung over a line between two trees, I realised how little shelter I actually needed.

My necessities are being pared down. Refined. If I own something, then it better be used. Careful reflection on the things I own showed me two things - under utilisation and under appreciation for lots of things. Books lie unread, cds and video games lie unplayed.

My aim is to reduce and catalogue the vast majority of things I own, down to necessities, amenities and a few luxuries, and to appreciate the few things I do have. I share my exciting week with you next post.

'When I think about all the stuff I own, I get a little nervous sometimes'

Jessica Church

flickr credit: creativesam

Do Little.

'If you want be happy', says Democritus, 'do little.'

Marcus Aurelius - Meditations

It's Monday morning. The week has just started and you have a million things to do. Your schedule looks like a bomb blew up inside it and everyone wants a minute of your time. There are errands to run and deadlines to meet.

Busy feels a lot like important. It isn't. (The guy flipping burgers at McDonald's is busy.)

If we pause and ask ourselves 'is this necessary?' for each and every action and thought, no redundant actions should follow. All those meetings, worrying and rushing through errands that you secrely thought were pretty useless?  They might be.

A useful way of dropping the useless, is taking the 50,000 foot eagle's view approach. When you're working in the minutiae of the detail, step back. What's the big picture? Am I helping the end goal in the most efficient way? A lot of the time we build complicated, huge project plans, convoluted spreadsheets, detailed budgets or lengthy briefs when in reality the necessity of the situation may only call for very little.

Don't just do as you're told. Do as you're needed.

Doing Little isn't about being useless, It's about focusing on the important.

Do little. Do important. Win back your time. Do what's necessary and be happy. Democritus said so.

This is the start of Meditations Monday, a weekly kick start to your week with ideas from Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher emperor who lived over 1800 years ago.

Min Maxing

Min Maxing. Your Dungeons and Dragon analogy for the day. I'm a massive geek, and if you didn't get the memo, geeks rule the world now.

Beyond the fat sweaty balding men in basements rolling dice, role playing is about developing a unique character with strengths and weaknesses, usually physical or mental. Min Maxing is the art of maximising your allocation of skill points earned into your best strengths (Maxing) and not adding to your weaker skills (Min-imising). For example a warrior might maximise his strength, but will not allocate anything to wisdom or intellect (and spend time hitting things... rather than thinking about them.)

Back in reality things aren't quite so black and white, but Min Maxing can still be a useful strategy for getting the most out of life.

It's a tedious grind spending time working on things that you neither have the talent or skill for. The opposite is also true, it's extremely rewarding, fun and valuable to work with our strengths and talents. In fact, second for second, dollar for dollar I will bet that the quality and time saved on the result of working with our strengths puts the time we do spend working with our weaknesses to shame.

Sometimes we might spend too much time working on weaknesses, it's common to sometimes spend too much time on this instead of using our strengths. I personally struggled with mathematical studies and sciences, however I excelled at humanities where analysis of abstract concepts and discursive learning were my strengths. Once I finished high school, I made the obvious decision to study accounting at university. Yes. I know. Real smart. Hindsight is 20/20. I finished my degree, however I chose to leave the accounting world behind. It's been a difficult but liberating step, and the upside is now I get to spend time maximising the use of my strengths.

Min Maxing - not just for geeks.

Flickr image courtesy of Extra Ketchup

Workspace minimalism.

Minimimalism is about getting away with as little as you can without losing what you need. As simple as possible, but no simpler.

We all have a little pack ratitis at heart, and as we collect things, our lives become more cluttered. These obstructions and clutter can mess with our sense of peace and calm. I've begun minimalising my house, my life and my work, today I want to show you our workspace.

I had a few goals to decluttering.

• Remove all visible wires
• Remove any items not used everyday
• Look nice
• Be cheap

Starting with my sound system, my PC and printer, I went off to IKEA and bought a BESTA shelving unit ($99) , and stuck all the wires behind it. Then I bought an IKEA BOALT dvd box ($18) to replace the books I'd been using to prop up my monitor.

I also use an 'in' tray, this is where paper resides with information that needs to be processed.

You might want to checkout a couple of sites I visit frequently to get inspiration for decluttering and having a nice looking place. www.unclutterer.com and ikeahacker.blogspot.com.

Checkout my flickr stream for more of my workspace.

www.flickr.com

This is a Flickr badge showing photos in a set called My Workspace. Make your own badge here.