IRALOT #03 — I Read a Lot Of Things 👍
Why should Millennials be scared about their financial future
I curate inspiration for design thinkers, curious humans and adventurous readers.
1. Why is the future so scary for Millennials?
Who exactly falls into the category:
If you were born between 1982 and 2004, you got the Millennial badge! I was born in 1983 and if you are one as well, I will tell you the truth… it's not easy. But no one ever told us life would be easy, so it is going as expected 💸💸
This amazingly beautiful article from Highline, written by Michael Hobbes explains it all in a digestible and scary step-by-step way.
(regardless, if you don’t want to read about millennials, go through the article, because the design/art/illustrations are amazing)
Check these quotes:
I am 35 years old — the oldest millennial, the first millennial — and for a decade now, I’ve been waiting for adulthood to kick in. My rent consumes nearly half my income, I haven’t had a steady job since Pluto was a planet and my savings are dwindling faster than the ice caps the baby boomers melted.
😢
Add it all up and it’s no surprise that we’re the first generation in modern history to end up poorer than our parents.
And one of the scary parts:
Plus, as Uber and its “gig economy” ilk perfect their algorithms, we’ll be increasingly at the mercy of companies that only want to pay us for the time we’re generating revenue and not a second more.
Be brave, be resilient, be persistent, and never stop learning. This is what I do and I believe it's a good start to change this future.
👉 The full article is HERE.
2. Strategic business trends for 2018
How is your workplace looking? How is the morale of your colleagues? Is the coffee machine working? ☕ (please tell me it is?!)Does your office have a foosball/ping-pong table?
Long story short, I think some trendy CEO's add too much "cool" stuff in the office, when what really matters is the people. Below is a quote (warning, loooong quote) from Steve Jobs in the 80's! (the source is HERE)
We’ve got the most incredible collection of people in the planet. At least the most incredible collection that I’ve ever seen. And that are working very very hard, and if you actually look at why they are there, why people have come to Apple, why people came originally… Certainly wasn’t for the salary. Lots of people came by for a 50% cut of their salary initially. We pay competitive salaries now, but we certainly don’t attract people on the basis of salary. We attract people on the basis of an opportunity to work your butt off, and get something done right. An opportunity to work with professionals that are as good as you are in other disciplines. So what we are going to judge ourselves by is: can you maintain this atmosphere of tremendous creativity and tremendous productivity. A company where you find and follow your pace as long as you pick up yourself pretty fast. An environment where we give people enough rope to hang themselves and hope that they don’t. If we can maintain that for 10 years and beyond we’ll have been successful and the rest of the stuff will take care of itself… the rest of the stuff will take care of itself.
Going back to 2018, here are some business trends for this year.
"High staff turnaround makes it difficult to maintain domain knowledge in-house. 83% of today’s students believe that three years or less is the appropriate amount of time to spend at their first job."
👉 The full report is HERE.
3. What I wish I knew at every age
99U published a very stimulating article about life and it's different moments.
They invited a bunch of creatives to share what they wish they had known during different decades of their careers.
I believe there are always the two universal rules: "Be Kind" and "Don't be a dick". 🙌
Also, recently I came across the work from Anthony Burrill with his nice typography art "Work hard & be nice to people."
Even though all this sounds obvious some people try hard to do the opposite 🤐
About the article from 99U, for example, in my twenties I wish I knew:
“Acknowledge that no one has it all figured out — even your mentors, bosses, or design heroes — and that’s okay. The important thing to remember is to keep creating. Spend more time and energy on making your best work, and less on comparing yourself to others.” — B.W.
👉 The full article is HERE.
4. Building a user-centred UX portfolio
How's the portfolio redesign going?
Don’t think about portfolios as a burden you have to create in order to find a job. Think of it as a way to show your personality and who you really are.
If your portfolio has good taste, it might indicate that you have good taste as well. If your portfolio has a spelling mistake, it might indicate that you don’t pay attention to detail (really, typos in CV and Portfolio… 🙄). If your portfolio is organised… if your portfolio is minimalist… whatever your inclination might be, above all, be yourself. That’s what companies look forward to hiring, not your skill isolated from the rest, but the person with the skill.
Are you working with UX? Do you have a portfolio? Below is an interesting point of view about creating one.
The tips are from Jack Strachan ,an intern in the user experience team at Bosch Power Tools.
👉 The full article is HERE.
5. Basic tips for illustrating
Isn't it beautiful to watch a talented illustrator working? The way they draw, the way they use colours, the way they design in such a fluid way. Very interesting to watch. Even when they tell me to go away and stop looking so they can focus/concentrate, I go full stealth mode like:
Al Power, a Product Designer from Ireland wrote an article with 5 basic tips to master illustration.
Shading should always be an opacity of your stroke colour
👉 The full article is HERE.
Also, the other day I stumbled upon this funny (amazing) animation from Max Kravchenko showcasing his art in the "Walking Cycle Rig". The “cool guy” checkbox 😁
6. What is your secret weapon?
If you could pick one? A real one… not like "I wish I could be invisible", or "I want to fly". Think deeply about it, because you are responsible for your own decisions.
What can you do at this moment that will impact your life greatly in the future?
Jon Westenberg wrote a very inspiring article about his secret weapons. He reads.
I read books because there’s always something new to learn, something that could shift my point of view or expose me to a different way of thinking. And because when I want to quit, the paths and advice of those who’ve gone before me act as a guide.
Jon, also (by my understanding of this quote) sees great books as mentors. I read for the same reason. There is always an opportunity to learn from someone else. By being exposed to lots of different ideas I can make more connections between my database of experiences so I can later drawn upon to make more enlightened choices/decisions/designs.
If you want to accomplish anything of value, challenge yourself to read.
👉 The full article is HERE.
7. Tribe of Mentors
If a book can become a mentor… than imagine a book about mentors with lots of mentors called "Tribe of Mentors".
Tim Ferriss, is one of those guys that is unstoppable. He is an early-stage tech investor/advisor in Uber, Facebook, Twitter, Shopify, Duolingo, Alibaba, and 50+ other companies. He also has many many successful things, such as podcasts, books and why not, a blog…
In his most recent book "Tribe of Mentors" he interviewed some very amazing humans, such as Steven Pressfield, Tim Urban, Ben Stiller, Yuval Noah Harari, Kelly Slater, Larry King, the Designer Debbie Millman and many more.
The book is a collection of these interviews and there are a bit more than 100 of them. Look how thick the book is.
If you are thinking "so it's just a bunch of interviews?" I will answer YES in capital letters. Imagine the amount of hard work to achieve this?! I learned so much and am still learning. I can read this book at any time and without a specific order.
Here is one quote from Naval Ravikant, the founder of AngelList, investor in more than 100 companies, including Twitter and Uber.
The means of learning are abundant — it's the desire to learn that's scarce.
✨
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