Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Gregory Wolanski

Write something honest, uncomfortable, and unpopular.

Work isn’t everything.

Working for a living isn’t everything.

Distance is valuable.

It’s difficult to distance yourself from work when you’re a workaholic.

I work in client services. Over the years, I’ve been able to work out a way to ensure myself distance from work. It wasn’t by having a wife and children. I didn’t start doing extreme sports or CrossFit. I stopped thinking about myself as a “designer” in the context of work. For more than 2 years now, I’ve been a “second designer” — I work with a colleague designer who plays the first violin.

There’s more to the first violin than money, prestige, and the deciding vote. In my experience, it’s also working for more than 40 hours a week, stress, attending 99.9% of the meetings with customers, running most of the presentations, receiving multiple phone calls from customers at various times (including meal times), and managing the cash flow.

I exchanged money for a free mind, prestige for better health, and the deciding vote for the ability to work in concentration.

Money

I exchanged a large part of my potential income for a free mind. It’s extremely difficult to fulfill most of your needs related to building things with one job. I tried for several years, without success.

Becoming a “second designer” allowed me to start publishing one short article per month. It allowed me to help non–governmental organization free of charge in my free time for 1.5 years. It allowed me to spend time trying to help open source projects. It allowed me to apply to UX for Change as a mentor. It allowed me to think about further initiatives.

Now I’ve started thinking about how I can diversify my income. I’ve wanted to do this for a long time, but I had other things on my mind when I played the first violin. There is a hint of a chance that exchanging a large part of my potential income for a free mind is a necessary step back to take two steps forward.

Also, it seems that good deeds come back around. Because of the work I did for one non–governmental organization for 1.5 years, I now have the opportunity to work on a very interesting project for other non–governmental organizations. Serendipity.

Prestige

“Prestige” is an interesting word. Omitting one or two exceptions that prove the rule, I’ve never directly thought of prestige in the context of myself. This word is strange to me. At the same time, I took prestige into account in the decision–making process — without naming it as such.

When I realized this, I exchanged ineffable prestige for noticeably better health. I sleep more, have very little stress, eat breakfast, cook dinner almost every day, and eat the most regularly I ever have in my life. When I was the first designer, it seemed to me that I would never be able to make these changes. As a second designer, I have room to maneuver in these domains.

The deciding vote

The feeling of having the deciding vote and the illusion of control are powerfully nice for the ego. Nice things have value. Do I care about the deciding vote at work? No. For many years, I didn’t think about it. When I finally did, the answer was obvious.

I exchanged the deciding vote for the ability to work in focus. I work 8 hours a day at fairly regular hours that I picked out for myself. Clients contact the first designer, so they don’t disturb me. Now, I only talk to clients on the phone a few times a year. When it comes to emails, I communicate with clients more often, but I regularly go weeks without a single email exchange with a client. It’s nice.

And the deciding vote? I don’t have it. I don’t have the illusion of having it, either. There is a wide spectrum of possibilities between having the deciding vote and not having it. I do my job as well as I can. I sell my design work to the first designer, sometimes still to customers. I’m pleased with the results of our joint work, although sometimes I still think I would do something differently if I had the deciding vote. The next thought: Is the deciding vote worth it? Ego or an enjoyable everyday life — you have to choose. I don’t have a large enough ego to give up a well–designed routine and the joy of working in the flow during the day.

Roses without thorns

There is no rose without thorns. Everyone seems to want to be the first, the best. It’s difficult to organize plan B as a second designer. No one is recruiting for this position. I found myself choosing the lesser evil here. I’m good here in this place. It’s not without flaws, but it’s good. I relish this situation because I know that it will not last forever.

I’m glad that I was able to decide to be a second designer. I have a feeling that this decision has allowed me to mature as a designer.

You don’t have to be the first.

The Second Designer was originally published in prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Second Designer

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