This is 40
Discover more from SenseMake by Zach Hill
This is 40
Reflecting on year 39 and looking ahead at the next 40 years.
I want to thank all my subscribers in advance, as I will be using this week's blog/newsletter to reflect a bit on the first 40 years of my life. I will also be using this post to contemplate what the next 40 years might look like as I continue to walk my path. I hope you find some value in these writings.
Yesterday, I turned 40. Year 39 was not a year I will remember with fondness, but I do feel it is a year I will remember as a necessary inflection point in my life.
The APA Dictionary definition of the mid-life crisis:
a period of psychological distress thought to occur in some individuals during the middle years of adulthood, roughly from ages 35 to 65. Causes may include significant life events and health or occupational problems and concerns. However, no empirical data exist to support the notion that this distress is specific to midlife, and many researchers consider the midlife crisis a myth. See also age crisis. [coined in 1965 by Canadian consulting organizational psychologist Elliot Jaques (1917–2003)]
It was easy to see and understand that this is what I was experiencing. It didn't make it any less difficult to experience. My anxiety and depression were dominating my life in ways that I didn't think were possible. Both were related to my relationship with work. 39 was filled with anger, sadness, and dissatisfaction. This led to neglecting my friends, leading my marriage to all but total oblivion, and living a completely unhealthy life full of terrible food and a sedentary lifestyle.
Something had to change. So I changed everything.
The first thing I needed to do was to change my relationship with work. I was creating so much stress and anxiety in my life because I had a terrible mindset when it came to my job. I am on a path to solving this problem by separating my purpose from my work. I still want to succeed at work, but that’s only now a small part of my purpose rather than the purpose itself. I am beginning to accept that I can pursue my purpose within and outside my vocation (this blog is an example of a manifestation of this concept).
This fundamental mindset shift, plus letting go of a few key addictions like video games and junk food, opened the floodgates, and the floodgates happened to open serendipitously a mere few weeks before my 40th birthday.
I've decided to try veganism. I wake up early. I meditate. I read. I run and use kettlebells for exercise. I am in better control of my inputs.
But what I assume is most relevant to readers of this newsletter is that I also have a new approach to my purpose, my creative journey, and again, how both interact with our traditional concept of work, especially design and creative work. Here is what will matter most to me within the next 40 years of my work journey. Here are the pillars of my purpose:
1. Defining design and defining my design practice: It’s both an exciting and scary time to live in the world of design. Design is both mired in ethics-driven battles for its soul and evolving into game-changing new frontiers that could create real impact not just for humans but also for the planet. We’ve witnessed the mass layoffs of designers within the tech community and opportunities for designers to work outside of the tech community. Part of this personal exploration is my continuous journey to find my role on the stage of design. I am somewhat inexperienced as a designer for my age. A lot of my contributions within the world of design have been more toward strategy, process, and approach than execution. This fact used to fuel my anxiety, but now I see my experience as a gift, in the sense that I can approach design work with both an experienced eye and a beginner's mind. I look forward to continuing to share my explorative journey within design, which leads me to…
2. Collaboration & Connection: Creating and discovering authentic human connections and fostering collaborative environments could be the most essential pillar I am using to create my purpose. This is my role in the theatre of design. Speaking of theatre, a source of anxiety was people's perception of how I create collaborative opportunities. Many people believe that workshops and brainstorming sessions are considered “design theatre.” A fairly respected UX personality publicly accused me of even harming the craft by using workshops as a tool. As a result of this interaction and reading some other content that spoke to the downsides of design thinking, I decided to be ashamed of my facilitation skills and my workshop experiences. I felt like a fake and that I wasn’t contributing anything meaningful to the evolution of design. But now I’ve realized that collaboration and human-to-human connection has never been more vital to have in the design process, and I am now proud of the experiences and environments I have built for others to be confident and to be creative. Workshops are my best collaborative tool at this moment of time but perhaps I will discover new and better ways to collaborate and connect with others and if I do I will share these ways with you.
3. Creativity: I believe creativity is generally on the decline within the world of design. We’ve created processes, systems, and patterns that, while reliable, have replaced our pursuit of creative solutions to design problems. This is not to say that process and the way we do everything should be thrown out the window, but I am looking forward to exploring opportunities to inject a little more creativity into the craft of design. I used to love being an artist and a musician, I used to love creativity. I want to explore ways to bring creativity back to my life and my professional practice. I am also now acknowledging another gift that I have given to the world of design: I have provided countless opportunities for clients, stakeholders, engineers, marketers, project managers, product owners, CEOs, and even other designers to feel a little more confident in their creative abilities.
4. Diversity and ethics: As a 40-year-old white cis male, I have a problem with other white cis males continuing to dominate this industry. I am full of a ton of privilege because I grew up in comfort and experienced little adversity in great part because of simply how I look. As a result, I sadly admit that I have a near-total lack of understanding of what needs to be done to create a more diverse design community. I want to use my ignorance as fuel for curiosity. I want to discover and pursue opportunities and conversations around the diversity in design, which, in turn, should lead me to explore the ethics of design. We’ve designed a lot of terrible things, and we’ve done so with intention. I believe a more diverse design world is a crucial puzzle piece to a more ethical design world. I hope my path leads me to an opportunity where I can contribute to the progress of a diverse and ethical design community.
5. Empathy: I’ve seen too many designers, design leaders, and other creative professionals state that empathy now is just another design buzzword. I’ve seen the question asked: “How can we really empathize at scale”? This is a good question. We can either assume that this question can't be answered or try with the best of our efforts and intention to discover ways to empathize with the people we are trying to create things for. Empathizing with others is hard, and it’s even harder to do so when trying to solve design problems for people. But we have to keep trying, and I want to at least evangelize the idea of us at least trying to be empathic designers.
6. Solving problems: I’ll keep this last one short and sweet. I want to use everything listed above as tools to solve human problems, wicked problems, and problems that, if solved, can make a positive impact on people and the planet.
I feel that this isn’t the first time I’ve written a post about the things I care about and want to write about. But it's my birthday weekend, so I feel I can do another round of reflection as I work to walk a more powerful, loving, and authentic walk within the second half of my life. Thank you for reading and indulging me. I hope by writing about the topics I listed, I can provide some value to your journey.
My favorite things of the week
This illustration from Liz Fosslien perfectly encapsulates a lot of what I was feeling in year 39, and honestly, this is something I know I am going to continue to struggle with moving forward. Check out more of Liz’s work here.
Thanks to Joe Natoli, a genuine force for good within the UX community for introducing me via webinar to Kat Zhou and her website Design Ethically. There are a ton of resources including collaboration tools and a framework to grow your ethical design practice. I’m looking forward to further exploring this website.
Transition design is something I have been interested in within the last few months or so and Susan Yelavich has written a great article on the field and the way it approaches solving wicked problems.
Doug Powell, a veteran design leader is releasing a new podcast. Check out the preview here.
Finally, a LinkedIn connection posted this on her feed recently and I thought it was a fun way to describe the idea of what good facilitators do during workshops.
