How does an institute like the library carry over from the “old” business model into a new digital business model?

Changes

Before we ever can understand how a business can survive in the “new” environment we must first identify what it is that makes it different from the situation it was before. It is not just the library business that has changed, it’s foremost the media industry that has changed. I think that it can even be described as forced to change. Over the past few years the digital revolution has done a lot with the world. Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook have changed the way we use media on a day to day basis. But how does that affect the industry?

Change: consumer culture

With the introduction of iTunes and the rise of Amazon prices of media goods have gone down drastically. Not only because the goods have become more digital and there is almost no physical cost left but also due to the fact that both are taking out the middle man. Anyone can very easily put their own songs on iTunes and there are more and more authors that only use an editor for proof reading and do the distribution on their own.

It’s not just about cost. People are looking for a closer connection to the creators of the content. Sales directly from the musicians website have gone up over the last few years not because it is cheaper. Not because it is cheaper but because the consumer wants to reward the artists instead of paying the middle man. Rewarding the creator of a piece comes with a price… allowing the consumer to extensively sample the content before them buying it. Consumers are no longer content with a reviews or promotions in the media, they want to judge for themselves. For musicians it has become of vital importance to publish free samples.

One of the most interesting new changes in what consumers want is ease of use. No technical implementation is getting away with multiple authentications, giant forms or things that don’t seem work. Apple, Google and Amazon made sure it is easy to use and get access to their products. Consumers now expect that from every service.

Change: information

Over the years new media types did emerge and they all have their own unique set of meta data and terms. The meta data has become more and more freely available. Sites like Wikipedia, IMDB, last.fm and LibraryThing hold almost all meta data anyone could ever need. People are creating and maintaining bigger and bigger knowledge bases and they are very frequently completely free.

The current age is not as much the age of the computer, but it is the age of information. The Internet allows us to access almost unlimited sources of information from all over the world. News travels around the world at light speed and new discoveries are shared instantly. With the revolution in hand-held Internet devices we even call it the pocket brain. Forgot that name of that athlete that won a gold medal on the Olympics over 20 years ago? you’ll find it in seconds!

This is the experience people expect. Pocket brains and live news are normal to many people across the world. And they expect it to be free and unbiased.

Change: Smaller world

Actually the word has not physically shrunk… it is the access we have to the world. It used to take 80 days to get around the planet, now the international space station does it almost 16 times a day. A flight from London to New York takes about 8 hours, with the boat it used to take 6 days in the day of the RMS Titanic. The distances are the same but we now have access to travel methods that allow use to be there much faster.

And it’s not just about the distance. Although we have been traveling the globe for centuries we are now settling in new locations a lot easier. One used to get a place to live in the village one was born. Nowadays it is more likely you will end up somewhere else due to work or partner. This makes it that we get in contact with more cultures. Not just from immigrants, but also customs from other parts within the same country.

Locality has also changed with the introduction of better methods of communication. I have friends living in Arabia, Japan, Australia, the USA, Brazil and the UK and I keep in contact with them regularly. This does not make the physical distance less or the travel shorter, but it does provide me with a way to keep in contact with them. Our world has not shrunk, our definition of local has gotten bigger.

Just like information we expect to hear and see more from across the globe. More sources and a bigger range or cultures and opinions.

The problem

So, what is actually wrong with the library?

well, not much. A lot of the public libraries are doing their jobs fairly well. They organize local events, act as a community center, loan out books and other media. So why are there so many issues surrounding the library? It is hard to answer this question. A questions like; Why are visiting numbers dropping? is already very complex and is a symptom of what is actually happening.

It might be hard to swallow… but I think the library as an information and entertainment provider is loosing its relevancy.

Why would I go to a library to find the same information I can find online? Why would I wait for weeks for a movie to be in the library while I could download the movie before it is premiered? Why would I go to a library with a couple of thousand Cd’s while online I could get everything? I does not matter what the library does to try and keep up with online sources, but it will always stay at least one step behind. The web is just too fast to keep up with.

Remember. This is saying nothing about the services it provides to the community. Providing people with free Internet access, organizing readings, giving shelter to book clubs, having a place for kids to discover reading and for students a quite place to study. The library is a lot more than the books in the collection.

The future

The one part the library is best known for is becoming less relevant. But that doesn’t mean that the library is loosing its way. I think a pivot is in order. Refocus on areas that need serving and move the original purpose more to the background. Focus on what works best in the library today and expand on these activities. Keep organizing events, keep making kids enthusiastic about reading and keep providing community services. The locality and the local impact is important as it is THE thing that differentiates the libraries from the Internet.

To stay relevant when it comes to the collections, steps will need to be taken to provide easy access to them. Not only to get people into the collection, but also other data. Provide a platform to discover the collections and all the surrounding information. And keeping in spirit with the figurative shrinking of the world allow access to other collections from near by libraries. It might even be a good idea to make one global collection for a certain area and not see them as these separated silos. In the age of information, why keep data locked in a place where nobody can access it?

Although I’m currently not working on a solution for libraries I do hope that this pivot in focus will happen, soon. The library is so much more than just a place to lend books from.

We tend to measure quality to very specific parameters that apply to a medium or subject. This does not allow us to compare two different pieces. Even comparing a comedy movie with a action movie becomes really hard. But is there a universal way to measure quality?

I think there is!

Yes, quality is something that is very subjective. No, it is never possible to completely cover quality by just measuring. But, I feel there is one thing that all things with great quality have in common. All quality product are layered.

When tasting good wine, eating nice food, watching a nice movie or just admiring nature we enjoy the layering. The blend of different flavors in our food and drinks make it taste better. A comedy becomes better if the jokes are more than just flat jokes. Even in nature we can admire the beauty of the world not just by looking all the levels of details and combined with grandeur that a landscape brings. Artists agree that knowing and understanding art allows you to see even more of the beauty of certain pieces. Even scientists feel that there insights only make the world a more beautiful place.

Is layering the root of quality and beauty? maybe!

What

Lets define what a layer is to get a better understanding of how this thing could improve the overall outcome.

A layer is property that can be isolated from the complete picture. This extraction should be consumable on its own and have it’s own value. If we look at examples a painting has cut, texture, contrast, lighting, depth, idea, philosophy, color, technique and many other layers that make the painting what it is. If we take one of the extracts, color, and look at it isolated the color might be beautiful. It however cannot compete with the painting that has the colors distributed over the canvas in a certain way. And without an idea behind those shapes the painting is meaningless. Even though color has it’s own can be beautiful and have value it will only really shine if it is combined with other things.

This brings me to a couple of questions:

• Do more layers mean a better end result?
• Is the combination of layers important in creating a better result?
• Do single layers also need to be of a certain quality?
• Is the perception of layers important?

How

Many have seen the movie “The King’s Speech” and it has been highly awarded. Why?

I could analyze the whole movie here but there are very simple reasons why. The movie is very well filmed, the acting is of high quality and it is a compelling story. Let’s focus on one area, imagery, I know a bit more about that. If you see the picture below you can see how well this movie has been made by the way this shot is chosen. The microphone in the center of attention as it is the main subject in this shot. The leading man slightly to the left in the shot almost on the golden ratio line and the supporting cast on the right of the microphone in the background. But if you look more closely into the image you see more. The clothes the leading man is wearing are the same color at the audience. this makes him blend into the background, it makes him fragile. the supporting cast has recognizable clothing on that is different from the rest of the crowd. the depth goes from the left bottom to the right top, making it look like the main character is the center of attention here.

Many different shots could have been chosen here that all had different properties. But you see that the layering of all these properties together make this into a well shot image. As movies tell stories via imagery this images tells as much about the story as the sound, motions and acting. Just a still image here is telling a 1000 words without any movement or sound.

Throughout the movie this kind layering in the imagery is shown. The wardrobe is well picked to suit the situation. The way the image is shot supports the acting and the story. All these things come together to bring one very enjoyable movie.

With this said we see that a lot of layers does make the movie better. But also the combination and the interaction between the layers is very important! By looking at the image you’ll also see that high grade materials and tools were used to shoot this so individual quality matters. And last but not least. Me, analyzing this image for you might have shown you new layers of beauty within the movie that you might not have realized before.

You see that more layers that interact with one another build upon each others quality to provide a better quality result to the one who wants to perceive it.

Measuring

How does this layering thing help me in measuring quality?

Well, we have seen that it is about the amount of layers, the interaction between layers and the quality of the individual layers. The perception part is not something you can influence. If you count the layers, count the interactions and see if the base quality is good you will still end up measuring that stupid quality thing. Cheap salmon from a can will never get turned into a 5 star dish. But a average quality salmon filet can be turned into a fine dish if combined with the correct ingredients. This does still not take away that with better base material the overall result will get much better.

So we are still stuck with this magic number that we call the quality of the base material. Could we ague that two average quality base products is better than one top quality base product? or is it three? I don’t think that we can answer the question with such a basic answer. The question remains with the magic quality number that we give to a certain layer. We do however isolate the problem to this one area.

Taking a step away from the quality of the individual layer and looking at the importance of the amount of layers and the interaction between them we can learn something. It shows us that we can use this information to create better dishes, movies, music and other products. Every time we stand before the task of creating a new thing we must think about how to layer the product. Think carefully about the amount of layers and the interactions between them.

Conclusion

In the end it is not about comparing one to the other, this is completely senseless anyways. But being aware of the fact that we perceive layers in a product and that the amount and interaction between the layers influence our opinion about its quality is interesting. This also points out the one thing I left out in measurement… our perception. I think this is the most important factor.

Why do children not appreciate Pixar movies like adults do? Why are many of them of such high quality? because they are working with the perception of  both audiences. They use comedy that can be perceived by children and they use comedy that is made for parents. They shine at telling one joke and catering both audiences at the same time, making both laugh about the same joke in different ways.

Richard Feynman talked about the layers and the eye of the beholder. If you really want to enjoy things to the fullest… educate yourself to be able perceive all the beauty in this world… Enjoy!

Interestingly there are always ways to cheat yourself out of an issue to fix it later. The solution might be not technically the best but it can work for 90% of the time and when it fails you can make it matter less. Cheating the client out of the best solution might make them happier than delivering a perfect product.

The pledge

Let’s say your creating a photo gallery. You want to create a page with all the images as big as possible but not exceeding a certain box size. Facebook does this with their photo galleries and it is a very common practice. But if we look at it closely it’s not easy to do as it looks, sometimes an image needs to scale to a maximum width and sometimes it needs to scale to a maximum height. This can be done by using css and doing something like this

.container {
  width: 80px;
  height: 60px;
}

.container img {
  max-width: 80px;
  max-height: 60px;
}

This can work for images that are bigger than the container, but what about smaller image? It is also not very efficient as you will push bigger images to the client than they will be displayed. On a large scale like Facebook this can really hurt the bandwidth.

What you would like to do is create thumbnail files from the original photos that fit the container size exactly. This would be most efficient in bandwidth and would allow for both bigger and smaller images from the container to fit.

The Turn

What if you do not have the time or the resources to set up this kind of thumbnail system you might want to cheat this thing a little. The CSS technique mentioned earlier would now keep white space if the image does not fit the proportions of the container. Photo’s in a photo gallery will almost always exceed the size of the container but are in different ratios. This can pose a problem but can be solved by this kind of solution.

.container {
  width: 80px;
  height: 60px;
  overflow: hidden;
}

.container img {
  width: 80px;
}

This would make the image slide below the container that will hide it. This way the container will be filled most of the time. Only panoramic pictures now have a small white are at the top and bottom. This is a solution that would work for 90% of the images as panoramic is not a very popular format at the moment. It is not perfect as higher images now only show the top part and the image is not really the best performance. But for a first release it will do and taking off a couple of weeks in development is also nice.

The Prestige

It’s not actually about this example… Although it nicely illustrates what you can do in this kind of situation. It is more about allowing yourself to take small shortcuts that can save you weeks in development. As long as the shortcuts are acceptable and users are not complaining about it yet you can get away with it. But don’t forget that sooner or later you will have to fix it. The photo gallery thumbnails will work as scaled down and not perfectly cut version. But in the end you want to take care of that performance issue and make it look and feel better.

Lesson learned: You can cheat and get a quick result but you’ll need to fix it later. The quicker can be an advantage in some situations but pick your cheats carefully.

Are we looking for a website like last.fm when we are looking to buy an album? I know Google’s shopping filter would be an option for that. But what about lyrics, videos, publishers, local shops and all other kind of data one could be interested in. Last.fm provides a lot of data but with an agenda. Not always ambiguous, focused on music alone and not very singular.

Libraries do have this kind of structure and ambiguity. What they are missing most of the time is completeness of data and the simple fact that it is only data from one library. Can we create a more universal database focused on providing single records of data that contain everything one would ever want to know about it?

The library model

I’ve been working with some library data lately and I found that they have very interesting ways of structuring data. Larger libraries yield a set of records to show up for different locations. They link different versions of a book to show up as one record. This is a very structural and orderly way to show the data. Does a harry potter book need to show up more then once in a result list of would you just be content with a list with all the books in the series once?

The library model might be local and based on a single instance. But what if we take the single record model with a local touch we might have something to work with.

Single record model

Using a single record to collect information on an item is basically adding a layer to search results. Instead of finding 545.000.000 results when looking for harry potter you will only get 7. Every book in the series is it’s own record and the movies can fall under the same flag. If we look at the content of the book versus the content of the book we will see that they are representing the same thing. It becomes a bit more tricky when looking at sound-tracks for the movie but in general we can connect all these items to one single source.

Another advantage of the single record model is that you have one area to show meta information like different versions, languages and editions. Information like origin, creators and publishers can then be easily accessed. Instead of having to plow through all those different results it is all captured into one nicely formatted record.

Local over global

In the modern day and age if we talk about information in media we will almost always talk about global information. IMDB does not only hold information from internationally published movies and tv series. Also the local television and cinematic content can be found in this database. Maybe not as complete as the international the local touch gives it that extra completeness.

Local and global both do have a very different impact om people. global news can be seen as just an event. Many are watching the developments in Libia from a distance. It is not a very tangible thing but we do want to give support to the rebels. Local new has a more personal impact. A local fireman being killed has much more impact than one being killed a few towns over. The more global you go the bigger the impact must be before you can get a feel for it locally.

The library has a very local impact and therefore takes local content and promotes it over all the more globalized content. As they are providing this service they keep an eye out at the balance between global and local information. This is very useful in a big media library. Local content should be presented before the more internationally oriented information. In the Netherlands it is less interesting that the Millennium books have a French version of the book. It is a lot more logical that in the Netherlands you get presented with the Dutch and Swedish version first as the are the local and the original language of the book.

Value of information

The library is something more than just a place that holds books. It has a certain value as it safeguards the value of information. So, what is that hidden value of information? Why do we not accept wikipedia as “real” information and we do accept a paper encyclopedia?

It is because of the filtering and centralizing information. It is because we trust someone to safeguard the information value for us. We trust them to give us unbiased information with some recommendations. We value the library as it safeguards the value of information.

Using the powers of the internet

It has been said in the past: “This internet thing is going nowhere” or “The internet is just a passing fad”. Both came to the forefront about 15 years ago. Now 15 years later we know better. The internet has revolutionized the way we the way we experience media, the way we work and even the way we live. Information freedom is something that is becoming part of the law and some internet companies are part of 100 most successful companies in the world. Even the revolutions in Egypt and Libia are accredited to the rise of social media.

So what are the real “powers” of that internet thing and how can a glocal universal media library benefit from it?

Community

Look at wikipedia. Thousands of people are adding and updating information in the internet. One minute after Steve Jobs stepped down as Apple Inc. CEO it was already added to his wikipedia page and the new CEO was placed on the Apple Inc. page. Community can work for you to update and add information that you might be missing.

There are also problems with this way of working. Information might be wrong and some information might be based on opinion or does not give a full image. Mechanisms to keep that information into check are required to deal with these kinds of situations. This is also the reason why we trust libraries more than just the internet. It is a web of trust we create with these local “experts”.

To use the best of both worlds we need to take those local experts and let them either verify or gather information. Using their knowledge and expertise they can determine what is what. Community of random people is also important. But starting with a community of experts and adding “unverified” information from other can be a good community model.

Existing services

I’ve already mentioned places like IMDB, last.fm and wikipedia. But there are many other sources that are open and ready to use. This way we tap into the content released by publishers, community content and all other sorts of information. Services like LibraryThing have a vast database with reviews and ratings for books. Adding that information from those services can really enrich the experience.

Local vs. global

We talked about the value of local information. It’s interesting how locality works. In many ways locality is not about actual location. But about finding a connection between people. If i’m on a subway in Amsterdam and I meet someone from my hometown I greet them even though I would barely know them. If I were in NYC on the rube I would greet anyone from the Netherlands… Just because we have a connection. This is an example about location… but how about other things? I have a t-shirt that says: “Skynet development team” and when I go to the cinema I have an instant connection to people who like the terminator movies. Just because we both have the same interest or do the same thing. In a globalized world we look for a connection to our own “tribes”.

Tribes

In the world of social research “tribes” are a common element. Wearing the same brand shoes, listening to the same music, playing the same games or even the way you walk the street determines what tribe you belong to. But tribes are again nothing more than just a connection between people. A random person will belong to several tribes at the same time, and even more during the course of once life. But how can we use the power of tribes?

The phenomenon of tribes are already being used in the world of search and social media. We get recommendations on our previous actions. These actions match together in a “tribe” and this allows for recommendations based upon your personal preferences. If I search for “sexy python” I will get a lot of links to the sexy framework in Python. I will not get Britney with a python around her neck… My tribes are probably tech, design and gaming.

Location does matter

When looking at media locality actually really matters. The over-complicated rights in media alone deserve filtering on locally available media. But even in other situations. If in Sweden I will probably would like to read the books of the Millenium series in Swedish. In the netherlands I would probably would like to read the book in either Dutch or maybe English. Swedish is less relevant outside of Sweden so location is key here.

Locality can also be a physical thing. I’m looking to buy a Blu Ray disk of the latest harry potter movie. I can order it online but I need it right now… Local stores might have it but I would need to visite a couple of them to be sure they have it in stock. What if I search for the movie and find local stores that have it in stock? Interesting?

Proposal: What if…

What if we create a central database with all media content. This can be indexed, scraped or whatever, but let’s say we can do this. Connect all the content of one specific item like the matrix reloaded, it’s movie score and it’s soundtrack should be connected. We connect items in a series like the Millenium books and movies.

So now we have this vast database of connected content. Create a search engine to start using it. Search on the items, and the content that comes with it. Use external data to enrich it. Think locally as well as globally while enriching the record for a specific user. Use the expertise of the user but also draw in specialists to maintain all the extra information about an item.

What you get is a very complete searchable catalog of media items. Using the power of the library and the power of the internet to allow users to get a personal and glocalized experience.

Well that is not the case… Working efficiently, planning and taking that little bit extra time to look ahead makes all the difference. An up to date agenda is a start… but what about those double bookings and those things that tend to slip in unintentionally. How can I deal with on the fly social events?

Everybody always says to me: “you don’t have time, you make it”. I do not agree with this at all. I would rather say: “There is only so much time, better use it well”.

Plan

I use a very tight planning system. Everything goes into time-boxes and is planned accordingly. I have an agenda that I follow closely and even seemingly trivial things go into the stack of things I need to do. This way I can check if it is done or if I still have some work to do. This almost project like approach to time management allows me to optimally use my time and I always have a filled backlog of things that I can do.

Static vs. Agile planning

Planning is one thing, executing it is another. I found that thing almost never go completely according to plan. But! It’s still important to have the planning to show intention and time framing. If we talk about planning we are mainly talking about timing things together in the most efficient way. There are however things that can only be done in a specific time period. Like meeting up with a friend or a doctors appointment. There are also thing that are not required to be done at a specific time.

I found myself in the situation where I used the specific difference between these static events and these “can be done any time” events. Static events are always there and cannot be moved. Agile event are just time planned into voids. So adding empty spaces in my calendar is a very common practice for me. These empty space represent any work that “can be done any time”. If in my agenda I stumble upon a block like this I look at what events are still to be done and I go do them.

Because of this way of working I have the freedom to rapidly insert or remove items from my agenda and I would still be able to keep going. Agile events like watching a movie, playing a game or doing some personal projects can also be easily pushed out if the immediate future and put on hold if that is required. You do have to remember to put these items back in there later on. Relaxation should be part of your planning.

Do take your time

Have you ever gone to the grocery store and that old lady in front of you at the register is just taking ages to pay her 3 items from the shop… We all have been in those situations where we tend to plan ti tightly. Be honest to yourself and allow yourself to plan some extra contingency buffers. Yes, at the end of the day you might have some extra time because of it… but is that really a bad thing? There is always something else you can do, always some empty time slot you can move over.

Personally I would be rather early with something than late. The buffer allows me to do that.

Priority

In planning we almost forget the most important thing, Priority! Is it more important to go visit a friend or do those groceries for your mom? Life is about difficult decisions, and these are the easy ones. Get things prioritized. I put taking out the trash over watching television. This is very logical when you look at it. But when push comes to shove one might be more willing to put on the TV…

Priority is never a fixed position. I can go and pick up the groceries right now instead of going to a friend, but that friend also needs attention. So after some point you will need to move that friend up in priority. How do you do that?

I use a system that is fairly common in agile planning. I give everything I want to do a value relative to another. I also give them a price. These two combined make it easier to determine what to do first. I might rank picking up groceries and going to see a friend at the same value, but visiting that friend might take longer. Therefore it is profitable to pick up the groceries. But if I pick something over the other I increase the value of that “dropped” item. The next time visiting that friend will be more profitable…

And sometimes… a blogpost can be posted a day late because publishing it exactly that day wasn’t more important than something else… sorry…

Combine and expend

If you are busy combine things to save a lot of time. Going for a coffee with a friend downtown and suggest to have a bit of a stroll. While doing that you can go to that shop downtown to get that thing you really needed. Simple things as combining pleasure and work during friday afternoon drinks are the easy ones but try to be more creative. I organize coding events where I meet up with friends co-workers and other people who are interested for some coding, talks and drinks. This way I combine working on coding qualities of me and my colleagues with a social event while I’m learning and teaching. And in the middle of that I do some networking with the folks I have not met yet. See, combining things can make for an interesting and useful activity that is also fun.

If you do things you are good at they will get along very quickly and you’ll have fun in the process. When you do things you don’t want to do it takes too long and you will get to hate it. Some things you will have to do, but many can be expended. As a businessman I expend the work that need to be done on my financials. Instead I have time for that extra work that is paying the guy doing it for me. I have the luxury to be able to afford an accountant. But even without the funds I’m sure you have a friend that is better at it. In return you can do work for the one that is doing the work for you. We tend to forget that even if we only spend 3 extra minutes doing something but get frustrated with it we will take at least an extra 10 minutes compensating that frustration. Think before you do something you really don’t like doing. That dishwasher might be expensive but it saves you time and frustration.

The application I never build, yet..

What if there is an application that will keep track of what you need to do. An application that will only shove things into your face when your ready to deal with it. It might be a bit more administration but I know that more and more people are starting to doing just this. A Scrum trainer I once met said he had a Scrum board in the house for the housework. His wife would take care of the tasks and she would negotiate with him what he would be able to do in the upcoming month. He said that worked perfectly for them. I say… +1.

But what if we could create that ultimate system?… new issue trackers are born week and time management tools are doing just the same. What would make this system really different from any other. My idea is simple take your agenda, fill in the blanks and let the application give you a prod when your doing nothing. The prod would invite you to do something, something from your free backlog. If you choose to watch TV every time it will drop off the list as you already done that enough for that month. Might be a very forceful system and you’ll still have to do it. But its a gentle reminder that you need to get some things done.

Interested? Currently my backlog is full with other things and the priority is low. If your interested and want to help out… I might push that priority up a bit. Ow,… it is probably gonna take more than a month to code it. Just a little warning about the actual work size.

Many people go to school, college and then university. After they are done they start to work, learn about the trade and keep on doing that until their ready for pension. The modern world is moving at such a pace that 10 years from now we are required different skills to be able to function within a work environment. The tools of the trade are changing and so are the idea behind them. Technology does play a big part in this. But what about you?

“It takes only one person to change your life…you”
Ruth Casey

My story

I’ve always been a strange one when it come to learning things. My preparation for my exams were done on the couch in front of the TV… I passed them with flying colors…

From a fairly early age I had this way of learning. When I got my first bicycle I looked at it for almost a year. It made my mom kinda pissed as it was a new bike… and after that first year I almost could not ride it anymore because I had grown too much. But I did do something remarkable! After going out for about 5 to 10 minutes I went back home and had the training wheels taken off. “Take them off. Otherwise I’m never going to learn how to ride my bike” Joost Elfering (age 3). After about an hour later I was riding my bike on my own without any help. This is my first memory of me approaching learning thing like this.

As I grew older it was discovered that I had dysleksia… dislexia… dyslexia! Man… how can anyone create such a complicated word for such a condition… anyways! As that was discovered it also became apparent why I learned in my own way. I was doing the motions of riding a bike in my head. I was not only thinking about it but also seeing it as I was really doing it (read more here, here or here). Because of this I had to devise my own way of learning things at school. Some thing were a lot easier for me than for others. Other things were actually a lot harder!

I never learned the multiplication table by head… I couldn’t. But I could calculate in ways that others would not understand. 6 times 6 for me is… 10 times 6 is 60, divide by 2 and adding 6. Maybe complicated for the small numbers but while the equations got bigger the easier it was for me to solve them. I changed the way I calculated to best fit my train of thought. Not many kids of 8 do this…

I’ve always been very aware of what I wanted. Some thing I find interesting, others… not so much. As a college student we had to pick our classes at school. I know that art interested me and that exact sciences were very interesting to me. So I took art history, painting, advanced mathematics, advanced physics and chemistry. Result? The most class hours I could get in school. But I was happy with it! These classes allowed me to be creative and very analytical at the same time. My goal was either to become a designer or an engineer. I became both as I got into web-development and design.

After college I went to university to get a bachelor degree in computer science. This was really hard for me as the school only allowed me to do thing their way. I almost fought for every class I took and I ended up doing all the thing I wanted to do myself without any assistance from the program. I was taking classes outside of the program and ended up with more credit point that were required. I did extra classes in human psychology, sociology, art history and other media classes. But they were not accepted… I did get more out of those classes than any other ones from the program.

I switched universities to do a master program only to discover that I crossed over. I crossed over to the side of self development… I quit after half a year to do my own thing. Still taking some classes at university because it’s fun to learn thing. But nothing that actually would fit the program.

Teaching yourself

How can I teach you anything with the way I learn things? I can’t! They only one who can teach you anything has become you… You are the only one that can change you knowledge, change your skill set and let yourself evolve in something you want to be. I can however give you some pointers and ideas when it comes to personal development.

Keep going

Keeping a steady rhythm is also important when you start developing yourself. It is easy to forget and actually becomes harder once you stopped doing it. Keeping that rhythm also ensure you don’t over load yourself and you spread the work more evenly. Self discipline is still required!

I personally have two deadlines every year. These are my language deadlines and I try to teach myself at least the basics of a computer or natural language. So, after a few years of doing that I can do basic to medium level programming in 8 new languages and I speak 4 new languages outside my starters (dutch, english and german). Another rhythm I have is that I have a reading topic carrousel. Every 2 months I will switch topic. Topics can be art, history, physics, astronomy, psychology, mathematics, business and other related topics. This can be a bit much to start with. build it up and slowly see if you want to take more. If you find that is not possible, don’t worry. Everyone has their own pace and depth.

Change it up

If you look at the reading topics I have you’ll see that I have a very diverse selection of topics. I like to switch it up a bit. This is also why I do not only do computer languages but also natural languages. Change of environment can inspire new insights into other topics. The main advantage you get is the new view of the world you get from other topics. Learning to write code in another language can show you new ideas and show other ways of doing things in other languages.

A topic is never just the information, it is also the whole community surrounding it. As an example the Ruby community is about testing and allowing for change. This while the fedora community is all about continuity and stability. Both have good valid points and by learning from both communities you can take the best of both worlds.

And just remember! Think outside of the box. I’ve planned to go learn how to sail in the future. Nothing that should connect it to the web in general… right!?

Self discipline

The most important thing in self development in any case is self discipline. Learning new things is not always fun and can be very frustrating at first. Have the patience to push though to the good part. This is where you can apply the newly learned skills!

A good way to self discipline is to set yourself a goal. This goal should not just be any goal… it should be THE goal. Give yourself an incentive to do it. I always promise myself a new computer game for my collection. As I reach my personal goal I can buy one of the games I really want to have. This get’s me into interesting situation around christmas… but it’s fun!

Keeping it interesting

I’ve seen students work on learning all the material from the books, do the exam and forget it all the day after the results are in. By adding some extra fun to learning you can retain the information easier and longer. I still know how gamelan (musical ensemble from Indonesia) works. This is because I got to actually play some instruments and together with a group. Because of that I still know a bit about the history, purpose and ideals that make the art. Make learning fun by doing small fun projects with the knowledge.

Learn from others

It might be called personal development. But you don’t have to do it on your own. Take classes at the university, go on special courses and go to conferences to meet people, listen to lectures and talk with others about the subject. I know courses and conferences are expensive… but sometimes their worth it. My half year at the master program got me more interesting contacts, conversations and other encounters. Although I quit after only half a year it was totally worth it!

Taking courses

Let’s be honest about something. Taking a 2 day scrum course is not going to help you more then picking up a book and just doing it. Neither does a 2 week HTML/CSS bootcamp… Yes, the advertisements for those awesome courses are not always what they are cracked up to be. There are some really good. Codeschool.com is a good example of education that does work!

If you are able to take the courses, DO! It has several advantages over self teaching. Taking such a course will almost always result in some sort of certificate. Always nice to be able to add that to you resume. Another one is that is has an exam most of the time so your employer will have a nice statistical result to add to your achievements. Some of these reasons might be as light as air… but they do have that hidden business value.

The mentor

Another advice that Chad Fowler named in his book the passionate programmer is that is good to find a mentor. He discovered that when he was playing in a band with all better players that he became better himself.

Taken from the passionate programmer: Legendary jazz guitarist Pat Metheny has a stock piece of advice for young musicians, which is “Always be the worst guy in every band you’re in.” Originally spotted by Chris Morris at http://clabs.org/blogki

Don’t just stick with one, have as many as you think you need. They will all help you grow in different ways and like yourself they will have their strengths and weaknesses. Move around try to find interesting mentors that can help you on your way. Also, don’t become a mentor yourself too fast.

Teaching others

The last thing you can do is to teach yourself by teaching others. Although I advise against becoming a mentor too quickly I do advise you start teaching under a mentor. As a teacher you get to re-teach yourself the basics, you get to polish your own skills by talking about them. Being a teacher is like the talking to a rubber duck to explain your problem. Talking to the duck allows you to think out loud and revisit the problem statement. In that way the students can become your own little rubber ducks.

So how to start teaching… Well it’s actually very simple and very hard at the same time. Just like most things… It’s easy to learn, hard to master and it requires just a hint of talent. Doing presentations or standing in front of class is as much of an art as it is a science. It’s not for everyone and it’s an extra step in your own development. Maybe it is talking on an intern at your job or teaching to kids. Do whatever you can do, but don’t rush it.

If you want to begin, start small. Do a presentation at a local meeting of your peers. As a developer I talked about HTML5 and CSS3 to colleagues from a consulting agency. As a designers I talked at a local UX group about web usability. Talking about what you are passionate about makes it easier. Start small and work your way up from there. If you can find a teacher to assist that is cool. If you can find a mentor you can teach for that is awesome!

In the end

This may be kinda obvious… In the end it’s all up to you! It’s up to you to develop yourself in the direction and way you want. Anyone can give you pointers and ideas but it’s all up to you. Find a way that you can learn things that you feel comfortable with. Find your thing and give it a go. Find your mentor to teach you to teach another. And most important, find yourself!

Freelancing can be a dream and nightmare at the same time. Working as your own boss can be liberating. It can also bring extra stress as you are the only one to blame. On the other hand you can choose to work without wearing pants…

Whatever your thrill is that you are freelancing you are a special breed. If takes special skills to be able to deal with life as a freelancer. You must have discipline to do work without someone pushing you. Knowing something about legal, taxes and other business related fields is also very useful. But how do you run a successful freelancing business?

My story

Starting as a freelancer is not always easy. I found myself with the age old problem… how do you get known? I had the luck to have some relatives and some friends that required my services. Some cheap and easy others without pay and very complicated. Doing things for free got me in contact with my first bigger clients. At that time I was 18 and doing this in my spare time next to a weekend job and university. Not the ideal situation but I got things done.

Growing client by client I found that most of my new work was coming in through former clients. I was lucky to catch this as this taught me the value of satisfied clients. These satisfied clients would not only return faster but they would also talk to their business friends about me. To date I do not have more than a small section in my portfolio to showcase that I am a freelancer. I never needed the extra advertisement.

I do work as a web-designer, web-developer, logo designer, photographer, PR consultant, social-media consultant, architect, project manager and many other roles. I’ve always been freelancing as web jack-of-all-trades. I make web solutions for many different types of clients; one-off campaigns, e-commerce, web-presence, portfolios and custom systems for clients with special needs. The type of companies are also very different. One of my clients was a goat cheese farmer, another was a holiday resort, several trading companies were also clients, another was a publishing company and of course I served stores and restaurants.

One thing none of these give me at this time is a challenge. All the needs are fairly standard; get more turnover from users, get more readers, promote this content or generate more revenue. Although these are interesting questions and they are not always easily solved. They are however standard questions. Not that all the work done is standard as clients to want exclusivity. But it is not as exiting as a start-up that is trying to change the world. That is why my freelance work is my day job and my day job is my hobby.

I do still get a lot of joy out of my freelance work. Clients still surprise me, I get to meet interesting people and visit interesting places. It is also something that pays the bills for me. I’m not cheap, I can tell you that! For all the work I’m getting in I can not take every request. I do only get a very select group of requests at this time due to the price but I still need some help! This is why next to my client network I’ve also created a nice professional network that I use. I hire other freelancers I know and trust to assist in projects. This way I can deal with more projects at the same time. This way I created some sort of mini company of freelancers. All type of companies, requests and projects are welcome in my book as long as they fit into my agenda…

I do have some things that really make me different from other freelancers. I work in a certain way to ensure maximum client satisfaction, my time and the result. Interested?

Agile projects only

I will tell anyone this up front. I do not do fixed price! Why? might you ask… Well, I have a good reason…

As a professional I cannot and will not tell you how much money you are going to spend on something. I can give an estimation, but I cannot give you a detailed description. In my experience nobody is able to do it accurately enough took keep a client happy. I do approximations of how much time it will cost me and then I’ll calculate the cost for that time. Contracts are never written down in functionality or delivered product. It only accounts for the time that will be spent on it.

I had mixed reactions at first. But as my clients were seeing the results and the open nature of things they began to understand it’s power and love it’s advantages.

The agile system

I got into contact with agile via one of my first jobs. I loved the openness, honesty and freedom of the methodologies. Centralizing around the work and the customer instead of centralizing around processes and procedures. This is why I use this way of working with all my clients.

During the first meeting with a client I will talk about what they want. While we have the meeting I will be planning things for them, creating feature stories, breaking them up into tasks and making a rough estimate of how long it will take. I will talk about this and make rough sketches of what the result might be like. By doing this I come to an agreement on how much time I will need to spend in total. This time will be split up into iterations that can be done and we’ll take it from there.

The iterations are important for the control I give to my clients. They have the power to change the complete assignment every iteration if they life. The estimated time will stay the same so a client will have to think about such a change carefully. Things can be added during the process but other things will have to drop. This allows the client to get the best result out of the budget that is given. If a clients wants more then the initial budget would allow he will need to expand the budget. This is why I always advise clients to “under budget” their project. This way at the end of the road the client has the choice to add extra’s as they are found important.

Taking the iterations, time budget and agility of this system has made my clients happier than with the other methods I used before.

Client involvement

In any freelancing project it is important to communicate with the client. In the system I use it is even more important than other systems. I also ask special time from client to involve themselves into the project. At the end the client should know just as much about the project as any other team member.

I want to involve the client more to get them to know the result better. This way it will meet the expectations of the client better. Continuously talking to the client also ensures that problems are spotter early. If I’m working on a piece of functionality we discussed and the client sees that it will not work for them it can be corrected on the spot. Continuous integration tools are very important in keeping the client up to date with the latest development. I also tend to open up the iteration and project backlog to the clients. This not only enhances the feeling of involvement by the client, it also helps clients to make better decisions when it comes to picking the right feature to do or not to do.

Involving the client this closely will basically boost overall satisfaction as the client was there when it happened and had control over what has been made.

Honest payment

Not having fixed price projects comes with a neat little advantage. A feature can be estimated as 8 hours of work. Due to some reason it only took 5 hours to build. The client will only pay for those 5 hours, not the 8 hours. Making estimations more accurate as I will not overestimate to ensure I get enough. This also goes the other way. As clients change their minds or want to have other functionality they will not pay the same for more work. If the original was estimated at 8 hours and eventually it took 12 hours due to changes the client will pay for the 12 hours of work.

Remember that the project budget it there. It will be more likely that a feature will be pushed outside of the time budget. If that feature is really important it can still be build by either swapping it with a less important feature or by extending the time budget and paying more. The choice is and can only be made by the client. This is where his freedom is most appreciated.

When it comes to sub-contractors, I charge 1%, that’s it. This might not seem a lot, it does not need to be a lot. I do work myself and I find it more important to have a satisfied client and contractor then to have more money. If the contracter has another rathe than me the client will pay those rates. Do discuss this before using a contractor to do a specific job… Keep it transparent for yourself and for the clients.

Try keeping it very transparent as it allows all parties to leave the project with a good feeling!

Client satisfaction

The agile methodologies are client and result oriented. This shows itself in the readiness to change in the middle of a project and the close client involvement into the project. I found my clients to be better understanding and more satisfied. This although the result might not be better when using other methods to manage the project. Communicating to the client in time and being open about the situation has helped me to serve customers better.

Centralize the work you do around the client. Keep the “enemy” closer!

Using your network

As I started I had no idea how important that network really was until I got my first enthusiastic referred client. I wasn’t that big on advertisement at that time so I had no idea where it was coming from. I figured it was just dumb luck. The second time got me thinking. I got two new clients out of one satisfied clients. So good work equals more work?

I talked about this a little bit. The network, the most important and most valuable piece of equipment you have as a freelancer. It starts with the Family, Friends and Fools but it becomes a valuable network of clients. I currently have a nice network with clients. I keep detailed records on this client, what I’ve done with them, what my previous experience is with that client, maybe a review from that client and the referred new clients I got through that client. This allows me to measure the value of that client. It also allows you to show potential clients what you’ve done for other clients. Keeping these kinds of records can be really helpful, even if it only were to send a winter holidays card to them every year.

As I said before, I don’t work alone. During my work at companies, projects as freelancer and visits to meeting I meet interesting professionals. I know people in software development, systems management, design, art, photography, copywriting and all other kinds of useful professions. I do with them the same as I do with my clients. Keeping this network updated allows me to pick the best professional for the right job. Basic information as project history, rates and specialism are all part of this. This helps me to determine the best match for a client and allows me to keep on the ball when it comes to separating the good from the bad.

I do use public networks like linkedIn, Facebook, Google+ and others but all important information is private. The black book is only meant for my eyes only. Be sure to keep this as it is your most valuable information and their privacy.

Ask help

As a jack-of-all-trades I know that I’m able to do everything myself. I also understand that I’m not the best in the world with everything, even I specialize. Getting help from sub-contractors really helps me out in several ways.

Sub-contractors are very useful for specific jobs. I do a lot of larger projects and it allows me to distribute the work to more specialist hands. Photographers have better studios and camera’s than I could ever have! Another advantage of sub-contractors is that they can take work away from you that you would not have time to do. Freelancing it not the only thing I do, it’s extra! Sub-contractors take work away from me that I would not be able to do. Distributing and specializing work like this get things done faster and better.

But there is still the question… How do you know how to find good contractors? This is where my network comes into play. I go to a lot of meeting, pub nights and geek fests to meet people. Not all are as good as the other but some are worth giving it a go. Sometimes sub-contractors did a bad job, sometimes a surprisingly good job! I always want to give people a chance to prove themselves so I try and get to do smaller projects with them. Currently I have a group of about 20 regular developers, artists, designers, photographers and copywriters I work with regularly.

Another hidden advantage of sub-contractors… They can also refer you to do work for them. I had a photographer connect me to modeling agency that needed a new website for their models. The photographer was pleased with the work that was done for me in the past so referred the agency to me. A good deed done can come back to you.

Having contractors on your side can help improve quality, speed and you can sometimes get something extra from them.

Do what your good at

I’m crap at financials and contracts. I had the opportunity to do some work for an accounting agency. They offered to help me with my legal and financial stuff I had to deal with as a freelancer. This way I could focus on what I was really good at. So now taxes, incoming and outgoing payments, contracts and other legal issues go directly to my accountant.

I understand that an accountant is expensive, I can only agree with you on that one! But I also see the value of paying a contracter to do a job better and more efficient than myself. An accountant is the same in that way. I would have probably had to pay more taxes, get less returned to me and I would have more issues with the contracts I sign with client. Yes, they cost money but in my case they have saved more as I would have had to put in a lot of hours I’m now spending working for clients.

Start

Interestingly enough I hear this from a lot of professionals they want to be a freelancer. I never see them actually doing it. My suggestion; Just start! Its not hard and you can start doing it on the side of a regular job or even during your time at university/college.

Do remember that being a freelancer is not easy. It’s not always certain and it does take a lot of work to get things going. Dealing with clients, negotiating contracts and having the uncertainty of not having a project can make it a different ball game all together. However, you are not the only one. Ask for help, seek out others that do freelancing work and try to stick with it long so it can grow.

Having a steady income can be important. Normal office hours from 9 to 5 can be southing and can bring some order in your life. This… does not sound very much like me… in any day job my hours were more like 10ish to 6ish and maybe even later…ish. I don’t feel a lot for a day job with all the regularities, managers and regular payment. I’m more a guy that get’s out of bed, does work when he wants to, is his own boss and gets paid whenever he is working.

Okay, I have a day job. I could consider this as a bad thing. Working in an office by day so I can work as a hacker at night. But I’m switching that definition around. My freelance work became my day job and my day jobs allows me to do the cool stuff.

My story

I stated out early as a freelancer. My first websites were made for my friends, family and other fools (the three F start-up clients). I started doing other work with companies and I got more and more picky on what kind of project I wanted to do. I discovered that as a web-developer my work was always done in about 1 to 2 years. After that the project was either finished of failed. As I’m not someone to do maintenance and client support issues, I develop software!

My jobs became more project based while my freelance clients were beginning to pay more and more. I had to hire other developers to do work for me and I currently run an operation with about 10 developers, designers, photographers, animators and other freelancers at the same time. I discovered that not just my skills as a developer mattered but even more so my network. About 70%-80% of my clients are connected to previous clients. Apparently I do a good job at keeping the customer satisfied.

This allowed me to take on a day jobs that were more and more experimental en innovative in nature. Not paying as well as other might the job satisfaction for me was so much greater that these projects were better. Finding a project has always been an interesting challenge. Recruiters trying their best to get your attention and companies that have interesting vacancies. It has always been a problem how to get to interesting companies that are not on the map yet!

In many cases I found it to be more like dumb luck than a good search. I got picked up by Joost Technologies almost by accident as I looked for a place to do research for school. My latest project was an interesting choice between two projects of completely different backgrounds. I picked the one that was furthest away from what I already did. I made the right choice as the other project has not even begun to taken shape and will probably be dropped before it even started. This gets us to another problem. Picking a project that is at that initial stage and will get to actually start. A bit of gut feeling and some research does wonders.

I’ve now done several day job projects, starting in publishing, going into web distributed video platform, to company social media network and at last working in content discovery. If you look closely at what I’ve done always had media, social and web written all over it. I did stay in my niche but I transcended over technology, ideals and goals. I worked with ASP, PHP, Prototype, Java, JavaScript, Python, Perl, Zend, jQuery, Ruby, Rails and .NET

A through M

Have you ever tried looking at your job as a product? Well, this is what I did and I found that mine is attached a lot to the project I am working on. If you look at any job you will find that you have an start-up phase, a middle section and an end. We plan for the start, we work in the middle but we always let the end come to us. I don’t do that! I plan ahead for my stay at a company to have a beginning, a middle and an end. My end is connected to the product life cycle my job cycle is connected to. At a certain point my services are no longer required and I will move on to start a new job cycle.

I’ve said it time and time again, I’m an A through M guy. If A is the idea and Z is end of life of a product I tend to bail out somewhere in the middle. I work on ideas and concepts, develop them into working software, do research with clients and I do product delivery. Maintaining content, distributing installations, getting new campaigns on there is nothing I do with a lot of pleasure. The M in this story is the Moment it will run with a client that is happy with it.

The A through M philosophy for me came from that several ideas. I didn’t want to get stuck on a project as a developer doing maintenance work. It also describes to position I’m placed in best. I can deal with ideas, designs and implementations very well. Maintenance on the other side makes me a bit cranky… So it is best to place me somewhere at the beginning of product lifecycle.

In my experience you are most productive and will learn the most new things on a change in phase. As a starter you will need to learn the culture, business and technology. As you will move to the middle section you will be able to face new challenges and you will be able to experiment. But like in the starter phase there will be a point in time when you will grow less and less because there is nothing new on your path. That time will be your M point and the end of your job cycle.

Ending a job cycle can be done in several ways but two are the most common. Move to a new position within the company, or get a new job somewhere else. Whatever suits you best, what feels right and what will work for you will be fine. But you must realize that there comes a time to move on.

I challenge you to look at your own job. See what phase you are in (start, middle or end) and when are you planning to stop and move on to start again?

18 month rule

With my A through M mentality I soon figured out that I had to be switching jobs frequently. I found that 18 months is about the average a project will run from A all the way to M. On arrival on the M position I will start looking for a new job to begin on the A position. It’s not that I do not like the company or that the project isn’t any good anymore. It’s more about me and not being happy with the N through Z phase of the product life cycle.

There are other reasons for the 18 month rule. In the type of projects I do there is only a limited space to grow in. Most of the projects have small to medium size teams that will work on a product. Not really the place to have a career at. This combined with the fact that software engineering is the fastest evolving field in the world will say that I will HAVE to move after being with the company for a while.

This is why I actually introduced the 18 month rule as something I will do in any situation. After 18 months I will start looking for a new job! I’ll be putting word out that I’m becoming available and recruiting/searching will commence. I will vary a bit as start-up time differ and the M station is not always in sight yet but I have yet to find a company that could retain my intrest and attention for more then two years.

I had many offers from companies I worked at to stay. They promised me new projects, other positions, more money and all other kinds of things to try and keep a hold of me. I have never found a company that could keep me interested. A project is specific, it has a certain goal, it has a philosophy and it is unique. I have not found a project within the same company that matched all the criteria for an exiting project for me. Sorry, but those are the facts on the table…

Ow… and this is probably something more will do in the future…

Picking a project

When you are switching projects like I am it is always hard to find the right project. Is it in the phase where I can join in? does the project intrest me? does it have potential? All these questions are not answered straight away when you talk to a companies or recruiters about possible projects. How do you get this information and how do you determine the project is right for you?

Requirements

In company vacancies there are always requirements on what a future employee would need to be able to do before he or she could join. As company and employee are a two way fit in my opinion it should be that the employee also has some requirements. But how do you go about setting requirements for something that does not really have one single description?

I found myself looking for that same answer when I was setting up my own requirements. Several were obvious like salary, type of position and other benefits. Others had to do with what I would be able to do for a company but I would need assistance with. Things like I’m willing to move for a company but they will need to help me in finding a place to live.

I also found myself in the situation where I could not really point out THE thing that made me want to work at a company. All my previous employers had a foosball table… We had common lunches together… Company trips and activities were a regular thing… But these are things that are extra. Company activities are nice and very useful but I also have a life outside of the company… And these are not the only thing. I found for me it was always a pain to integrate my “work tools” with my “freelance tools”. Simple things like mail forwarding to a personal mail account can become very important! And it’s never one thing that would get you to join.

I discovered that the overall feel was the most important but yet ungraspable thing that would make a company work for me. I would instantly join in at the Google plex or work for companies like Livingsocial, 37signals, Pixar studios, Atlassian or even Apple just to enjoy that magic feel. These are the environments and values that would make me happy. Try and discover for yourself what kind of environment you prefer. I need buzzing around me, other have completely different needs.

I’m also a strong believer in shaping your own environment. I decorated offices, dressed up my desk, added toys and done many thing that were actually not there or not even allowed in the office at the time. So, an employer that allows you to create an environment is even more important then an existing environment.

For me the reasonable benefits, proper position within the company and the freedom to do whatever is needed to make you happy are the most important things that make or break a company. I don’t always find a company that meets all requirements… But like the employer, we both need to fit. Both the employer and the employee cannot always get exactly what they want, that’s just a fact of life.

Check viability

For me stepping into a company is starting out with a client. If the client has no chance of success I will tell him that and will move on to other clients. This allows me to work on mostly successful projects with happy clients. It is also very honest and can save someone a lot of money if you don’t see it working out.

The same goes for companies that would want to hire me. A project might be really interesting, the company doing it can be really cool and the benefits for me could be really good. But if I feel that in a couple of months the project will be cancelled I will not start. My main concern and prize is still the innovative project. If that goes out of the window there is no reason for me to join in the first place.

I had the option to work on a world changing project. It was to bring audio-visual content providers closer to the consumers and had an element of crows sourcing in it. I had previous experience with building a content platform like this so I automatically was enthusiastic about the idea. This was to be up my alley! The project that didn’t start yet had philosophical potential but was hard to implement, had been done before and failed and would be done by a team of 3 people. I know from experience this is more then 3 people worth of work. In my book not the best cards to start the game with. I declined the offer.

Make sure that all the conditions are right to get the project off the ground. If your project fails every 3 months or so you must become really good at being recruited otherwise you’d be searching longer than you would be working on it.

Pains of a company

I found that companies are far from prepared to get an employee like me. Staying with the company for a short period of time, having all these tools that I bring with me (I bought my own adobe, microsoft, oracle and other licences for my freelancing practices and their also allowed for other work) and a very goal oriented approach. Sometimes a company is no equipped to deal with this.

My advice, be honest and tell them early! Telling them your about to leave in x months, even if it is 2 years away, can reassure them your there to do the job. Ask them if they can integrate with you. Ask them if they could forward email, connect to a different calendar. This might not always be possible, but it’s worth a try. Offer them to work on your own machine (laptop is preferred of course). They might look strangely at you for a moment but you can tell them they can use your licences and they’ll probably be fine with it.

This part is directed at the companies that do project based software development. Get ready! Project workers are becoming a more frequent sight and have different needs then the “classical” worker. Becoming ready for it can be as easy as arranging easy email forwarding for people who want it. Making sure you allow them to continuously carry over work to others as they might be gone a few weeks from now. Improving the small things will help in a lot of cases.

Job vs career

As my last note I would like to mention that working at a company as a project is not in any way better then starting a career at a company. It is just different! Some positions within a company require you to work your way op to that position. This is not easier or worse than doing projects, it actually takes hard work and dedication to get there. I respect that! But it’s also not something I currently would like to do, maybe in the future as I will be seeking more stability. For now being agile in jobs suits me better personally.

I think Corey Haines made one of the best remaks about this; “Get paid to do things you enjoy”, “We have the greatest job in the world. Except maybe fighter pilots”.

Turning the hobby into a job sounds easier then it is. Look at how much work musicians and other artists need to put into their work before they can taste the fruits of their labor. And remember that not all artists make good money, but they are happy with what they are doing!

My story

So, let’s begin at the beginning. It all started when I was young. I started drawing out ideas for about everything; cars, houses, theme parks, under-water bases, race tracks, landscapes and many other things. I also figured out very quickly that I did not have the skill to actually create it. I’m just a bit clumsy I think. My solution was to have ideas and let other execute it for me. This worked fine until I was like 5-6 but I had to do more and more myself as adults would not help me anymore.

At about that age I also got into contact with my first computer and we soon had one of these new devices in our living room (remember, that’s around 1990). I started drawing like I used to. Taking MS paint from Windows 3.11 I was able to create anything I wanted… on paper. Then I discovered games where I could build things. Games like Stunts 3d and transport tycoon assisted me in creating my own worlds. I had a game called GP2 by Microprose and I had an editor for the levels. I actually created updates to the cars from 1993 to 1999. I wanted more.

I figured out a way to get even more out of the computer. Changing code was becoming my new interest, a lot of hacking skills came from trying to get things to work or finding a way to get things done. I still like to adjust code a lot and I get to do it on a day to day basis… and their paying me to do it!

As I said before I’m an idea man. I wanted to create things… and what is easier to do then to create a website! So I started creating site for everyone… my goldfish had a website at some point I think. Rolling into the pre-web 2.0 era as kid allowed me to grow with the standards as it is today. But again I wanted more. I took my hacking skills and applied them to website code and it worked fine for some time. I started programming things at school and together with arts as one of my classes I had everything I wanted covered.

During my stay at the university I continued to work in the direction of arts and IT. More IT then arts but I still tried to pick classes and projects that would require both. Although it was not the best education it set me up to become a programmer. I did attend a Master program that was called Media Technology but it was better suited for art majors to get in touch with technology. I quit after 6 months but learned a lot about myself and about what I really liked. All those years I took the right path.

Now I’m a web developer and designer. I get to code, do artwork and create new ideas. I got what I wished for!

how to achieve it yourself

Reading this I can only tell you one obvious fact… If you didn’t start already you will probably be too late. I know that not everyone has the luxury or luck to figure out early on what one would like in the future. When I was 4 I had the idea I wanted to be a barman in my own cafe. Not something I would dream of a few years later. It is something that grows, something that builds over time where it will be vague at first and become clearer as you come closer to the end.

I’m not saying I have THE answer (we all know that is 42). But I can share some insights I had over the year figuring out my path.

Be honest

Especially to yourself! You probably know already what your good at and what makes you happy. A lot of the time someone just needs to admit and be honest that one would be happier being a kindergarden teacher than be highly paid lawyer. Everyone has their thing, be honest to yourself and stick with your truth. Even if you are already there, think about what you really like to do and check if it’s the thing you picked. There is always still a chance to change.

We get influences a lot by our parents. The father of a friend of my owns a trucking company. His father also ran the company and now my friend is also forced into the company. Does that really make him happy? Does that do anything with his potential? Maybe it is the right thing to do for him, maybe not. In any case it shows that our environment also needs to let us make that decision on our own. And yes, sometimes you will need to fight for it!

Keep your eyes open

As you are on your journey on becoming that image you want to. Don’t put on blinders to be able to reach your goal. Yes, you might go off the original course and you might end up in a different direction. But as said before, you are taking a journey and there is not one way to get there and there is not just one end station.

To do this, start yourself out broad. I started by looking at arts, technology, natural sciences and human sciences. I ended up taking all these parts with me in what I do as a web specialist. They are not waisted parts of my education because they had nothing to do with the original subject. I know how stars and atomic power works. It does not apply to what I do in design but it helps me understand certain other aspects as why we like certain colors, shapes and textures. Allow yourself to broaden instead of only narrowing down.

“If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” – Dr Carl Sagan

Keep you eye on the prize

In life we see many things as prize. But what is the real prize when doing a job? Is it the payment we get from our employees? Is it the recognition we get for what we have done? Is it the status we get from having that specific position?

I think none of those reasons is true. Not completely anyways. Yes, money, recognition and status are important as they provide you with the fuel to life and do your job. I think the reason why we wake up in the morning is that we actually like what we are doing. They joy the work can bring to us. I actually like refactoring code and solving bugs. Yes, I curse at the code when it is not doing what I want but I get satisfaction out of the fact that it now is better then it was before and I solved the puzzle. We almost always forget the hidden satisfactions in our jobs and overlook the joy they can bring.

There is no good without bad

This I learned in high school. I did an extracurricular activity that involved the in-school theater we had. I was part of the group that dit al the technique, the light, sound and decor were all part of our responsibility. Next to parties, musical shows and theatrical performances we also needed to help with parent evenings and other “boring” gatherings.

This is where I learned that I had to do the boring things to enjoy the good thing even better. Some of the group only did the “cool stuff” and found themselves becoming bored with it after a while. I kept enjoying the “cool stuff” as I knew what labor needed to be done to get there. I did the “boring stuff” and it allowed me to do even cooler stuff during the parties, theatrical performances and other events.

Take the good with the bad to appreciate the good even more.

There are exceptions

Following a passion can be a dream for many and can be hell for another. Following a passion takes a lot of time and effort and will not always pay enough to keep yourself afloat. I’ve seen artists try soo hard and still not making it after years of hard work.

Sometimes it doesn’t work and sometimes it is just not something for you. It might be that you switch a lot in what you want. It might be there is no money to be made in what you like to do. It might be you cannot find what you really want. Like I said, it is rare for one to be able to really follow their passion. I do think that one should still always try!

I developed my own way of working and looking at work over the last couple of years. I’ve seen similar thing popping up as we are changing the way we work. I have been wanting to write this for about a year now as I get so many questions about how I manage to do it, different problems that may occur and the different perspective I have. So, I’m writing it down so everybody can read the basics before they start asking questions.

In the upcoming weeks I would like to touch a couple of subjects when it comes to how I work and why I do things in a certain way.

• From hobby to job
• The day job
• Freelancing
• Personal development
• Managing time