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10,000 hours, why I started writing & user experience; week 2.

“You will become clever through your mistakes. — German proverb”

Perhaps it is necessary that i’m using a quote from a German proverb due to my current situation, if you have been following that is. However, it is a notable quote to me as it comes from one of my favourite books The Talent Code, written by Daniel Coyle. I came across this book a few years ago when athletics was my biggest past time. Stick with me though, i’m getting to the design part.

The notion that natural talent will only ever get you so far has always inspired me. From forever watching my peers exceed me in different parts of my life to finally achieving my personal goals and bettering what I never thought I could better, I believe that hard work is key. To exceed in any area, not only sport, hard work is needed. Not only is it hard work but the right work. “Deliberate practice” is the correct term, something that I strive for whilst being educated in Industrial design, UX design, Design thinking.. whatever you want to call it. But the theory goes that 10,000 hours of deliberate practice and you can be world class in that area.

“The sweet spot: that productive, uncomfortable terrain located just beyond our current abilities, where our reach exceeds our grasp. Deep practice is not simply about struggling; it’s about seeking a particular struggle, which involves a cycle of distinct actions.” — Daniel Coyle, The Talent Code.

In my first blog I stated why I wanted to start blogging and what relevance it had. However, some time and much read content later I have come to realise it is something more important than first anticipated. Writing is creative. Writing boosts creativity, writing gets you out there. You may not be right the first time, the second time or at all but it doesn’t matter. It is about starting a conversation with others, getting your thoughts out there and seeing how people respond.

“I believe that inspiration favors the diligent”

What has the potential to embarrass you has a much bigger payoff of in value to you. It seems that whilst i’m not working, learning or working on my own projects; blogging could be my own little extra piece of ‘deliberate practice’. I recently listened to a podcast by Hacking UI where Matt Mullenweg, CEO of Automatic and founder of wordpress, expressed the importance of writing. Here is an extract;

You know, the most important thing is just to write, just do it. I know that sounds like very Nike but you should really sit down every day and write something, even if you don’t publish it but writing is a muscle and just like if you wanted to exercise every day or meditate every day or whatever it is, the daily practice will make you grow, probably more than anything else so more than anything else I could say.

Taking our pictures for the Bosch internal website.. had to control the lighting.

If you write every day, you will become a better writer and I believe that inspiration favors the diligent.

— The full script can be found here: Hacking UI podcast.

By writing these blogs i’m reading more than I ever thought I would, i’m discovering trends and technology I wouldn’t of otherwise known and i’m listening to some great podcasts. I cant say i’m going to remember everything but by writing i’m only backing up the content i’m taking in. I’m building my own portfolio of thoughts through Medium, a place to share and a place to digest new material.

An interesting extract from the same Hacking UI podcast with Matt Mullenweg shows his focus on users building their own homes on the internet away from social media. By having the ability to influence things through your own control.

Yeah, maybe a way to think about it is that the social networks are like great parties to go to. And everyone’s there, but it doesn’t belong to you, you wouldn’t live there. You shouldn’t live there. It’s like a club. But, you know, you have your home that you return to and it’s where you actually have the ability to influence things and control things and change things. That’s something that is more permanent.

As a design student, building my own space in the internet and exposing myself to opinions and reviews is essential to building my confidence for the future. It is my second week of my internship and i’m forcing myself to create more content in order to become better. All of the signs are pointing towards the positives and really i’m already feeling them. 10,000 hours or not, i’m sure i’m going to continue to write and explore new areas every week.

“Try again. Fail again. Fail better. — Samuel Beckett

And if you made it to the end, here’s a treat… Bosch asked us to photoshop ourselves onto a superhero for their wall of interns…

Learning design culture: 10,000 hours? was originally published in prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Learning design culture: 10,000 hours?

Cool stuff, every week

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