Sylvia's Journal

Axel wrote me an email late in the morning that set all our minds to rest: “My condition seems not to be a major issue. Nothing dramatic in my sleep-deprived EEG. [the doctor] said it was combo of altitude (8,885 feet altitude not recommended for people with head injuries) and head congestion (which I had from the minute I landed in USofA). Am taking a full dose of Benadryl. Off to sleep a bit. Sita has just rolled in. Her presentation to [a potential new client] was a hit. Everyone’s in international development now, except me. I’m in bed!”

Yesterday was a day devoted to exploring edges. These places are not edges in the world that people like Sita and many of her friends inhabit although I suppose that even their edges are other people’s boring old stuff. But in my world they are edges. When I started to get into facebook this was already old school for most of my younger colleagues but an edge for me. When the director of HR of your company wants to be your friend on facebook you know it is time to look for a new edge.

So I got to twitter and am now riding on the coat tails of Sita’s twitter list. I got a better understanding of what twittering is all about and realize that instead of seeing all these new ways of communicating as bothersome (and hazardous) intrusions on one’s life, not to mention the potential time sink they represent, they are the building blocks of (new) life – without them things are likely to be variations on old themes.

By following tweets and twitters (I am still learning the language) you become hopeful that somewhere someone has already discovered a solution to problems that, in the settled territory far from the edges, are considered intractable or even unsolvable. The settled territory is informed by old media. These are full of doom and gloom. In contrast, life on the edge, and the media that report on them, is full of new and exciting growth; such a perfect antidote for my depressed state earlier this week.

Other people’s ideas create new ideas. With our neurons programmed to look for connections, these ideas will combine with others and create new stuff. It is inevitable and it has always been that way, just a lot faster now. How all this meshes with the more traditional ways of doing business is a source of tension and friction for me.

In my world of work there is much clamoring for ‘thinking out of the box’ and ‘innovation’ but the work habits don’t allow for that. You can’t come up with totally new ideas if they aren’t allowed to simmer without cooks looking into the pot every second. And whatever fragile new ideas arrive they are soon squashed when you have to fit them into predetermined cells on Excel spreadsheets or dress them up in rational explanations of how the idea will work and what metrics you will use to prove that it will fulfill the company’s mission.

Last night I accompanied Sita to an emergent new network, the first meeting of the Boston chapter of VizThink, a global community dedicated to the use of visualization in all forms of learning and communication. About fourteen of us got together, a broad range of professionals, in the swanky and artsy 18th floor cafeteria of a company that claims to unleash the full possibilities of a digital age. The company does not appear to be in dire straits and, at the end of the work day, serves beer to its employees (the ones who don’t have to relieve babysitters I suppose) in the company pub.

We talked about what we do and how we use visuals. I learned about the process by which art is created: hunch, immerse, simmer, click and verify. These words were presented on a Gantt chart, with ‘simmer’ having the longest bar. There is no corresponding language in my line of work – the closest would be ‘plan, do, act and measure’ – the two realms are worlds apart except in those businesses that want to be at the edge; where even accountants are taught to listen to hunches, let people explore and let ideas simmer before expecting a click.

Since we are reporting directly to the US government, I don’t think we’ll have any simmering right now – it is after all workplanning season.