Bruce Mau’s Incomplete Manifesto for Growth (1998)

Bruce Mau Design, maker of the Massive Change exhibit and part of the MDC Partners Network, pens the Incomplete Manifesto For Growth.

As Mr. Mau puts it, “Written in 1998, the Incomplete Manifesto is an articulation of statements exemplifying Bruce Mau’s beliefs, strategies and motivations. Collectively, they are how we approach every project.”

Many are obvious, but a few definitely stand out…

#6. Capture Accidents
The wrong answer is the right answer in search of a different question. Collect wrong answers as part of the process. Ask different questions.

#14. Don’t Be Cool
Cool is conservative fear dressed in black. Free yourself from limits of this sort.

#16. Collaborate
The space between people working together is filled with conflict, friction, strife, exhilaration, delight, and vast creative potential.

#18. Stay Up Late
Strange things happen when you’ve gone too far, been up too long, worked too hard, and you’re separated from the rest of the world.

#20. Be careful To Take Risks
Time is genetic. Today is the child of yesterday and the parent of tomorrow. The work you produce today will create your future.

#23. Stand on Someone’s Shoulders
You can travel farther carried on the accomplishments of those who came before you. And the view is so much better.

#24. Avoid Software
The problem with software is that everyone has it.

#27. Read Only Left-Hand Pages
Marshall McLuhan did this. By decreasing the amount of information, we leave room for what he called our “noodle.”

#39. Coffee Breaks, Cab Rides, Green Rooms
Real growth often happens outside of where we intend it to, in the interstitial spaces – what Dr. Seuss calls “the waiting place.”

And the very last one on the list…

#43. Power to the People
Play can only happen when people feel they have control over their lives. We can’t be free agents if we’re not free.

What Does 1 Trillion Dollars Look Like?

Ever wonder what a trillion dollars looks like? Take a look here.

Now consider what 13 trillion dollars looks like. According to Wikipedia, As of July 28, 2010, the United States “Total Public Debt Outstanding” was approximately 93% of annual GDP, or $13.258 Trillion, with the constituent parts of the debt being “Debt held by the Public” being approximately 60% of GDP, or $8.63 Trillion, and “Intergovernmental Debt” standing at 32% of GDP.

To put that into perspective, based on the approximate population of 309,115,406 in the US, that’s about $43,500 per citizen. The US national debt has continued to increase an average of $4.10 billion per day since September, 2007.

Yes, things appear to be slightly out of control.

Is a Hello World Title Too Obvious?!

Ok, finally got a blog up. Now the fun part; writing. Jokes aside, I’ve been meaning to put up a personal blog for quite literally years. For one reason or another, it just hasn’t happened until now. I guess these things take time.

To date, I’ve done all of my blogging on our the Engine Digital agency blog, and I’ll continue to post there. While I don’t get a chance to post over there as often as I would like, I tend to keep my posts on the agency blog as closely relevant to the digital space as possible, so this new personal blog will give me the freedom to be more liberal with the categories I cover. This is also going to be my hub; where I’ll be able to post random creative projects and what not. It’s kind of exciting to finally have this thing up!

In terms of the details, this is running on WordPress with a custom version of the Modern Clix theme by Rodrigo Galinde. It’s a nice clean grid-based theme that has topped 30,000 downloads (good for Rodrigo, bad for those of us that thought we were starting with a unique theme). In any case, it’ll just have to do.

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