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[fictivecameron-blog]

Backing Jack Cheng

When I sat down to write Jack Cheng's "bio" for his Brooklyn Beta 2011 badge, here's what I came up with:

" You are in the presence of one of the best writers on the Web. As such, I think you should make him write out his part of the conversation instead of saying it. Make sure he writes to you about the Disrupto team, the Disrupto culture, Memberly, custom arcade game cases. All of those things will make you envious. Not in an envy mood? Get him to write about tea or habit fields. Both awesome."

I love it when Jack writes. I had no idea until last week that he was writing a novel. I couldn't be more excited. So, of course, I backed it. You should too. http://kck.st/NbD2xC He's just $500 shy of his goal. Can't wait to read this thing.

[fictivecameron-blog]

Rainbow Parade

On Saturday I set a world record. I joined Jessi Arrington's colorful cohort and marched across the Brooklyn Bridge in the World's Largest Rainbow Parade. It was supposed to be a cold and windy day, but Mother Nature loves her some chromatic celebration so instead we got sweet, sweet sunshine. 

As we marched across the bridge, people were naturally curious. We kept getting asked, "What's this for?" As it turns out, that’s not an easy question to answer. The parade is part birthday party, part regular party, part reminder of all things good & wholesome, but most of all it’s a celebration of color. Jessi likes to put color on center stage.

I’ve been to two other rainbow parades and both times I took the easy way out. I have blue jeans. I wear a blue plaid shirt all the time. So done and done. I’m blue. But because I always showed up in what is essentially normal attire, I never had the experience of really putting on a color and going out into the wild.

This time around I went red and the experience was completely different. When you're dressed head to toe in a single bright color, you tend to stand out. When you're standing next to similarly garbed humans, the effect grows exponentially (the result most often being stares and smiles). You also pay extra attention to what others are wearing. There were lots of greys, blacks, and navy blues. I started to think what the streets would look like if everyone was a bit more colorful. Would people be in a better mood? Would the kind of joy that we spread going across the bridge spread more readily?

Anyhow, not sure about all that but I want to say thank you to Jessi, Martha, Workshop, and the Hungry March Band for a perfect Saturday and for helping me to see color in a different light (pi).

considerately places mic back on mic stand,

Cameron

[fictivecameron-blog]

Grokity Grok Grok

Just wanted to tap out some quick notes on the lovable Greenvile Grok before it got too far into the past (curse you week long sickness!). Last year in my Grok writeup I was able to get super personal, but this year, because it was a significantly larger event, I can't really pull that off. Instead, I remember Grok as a blur of good feelings, nice conversations, reconnections, beer drinkings, game losings (sorry Bethany), and most of all10/20s. 

Even though Grok tripled in size, Matthew, Erin, and the GG crew were able to keep things intimate and once again I came away with a lot of food for thought. I also came away with a lot of food in my belly. Tasty. The caterer did a great job and there's no shortage of great restaurants out on the town.

Last year, we were mostly at CoWork and I didn't get out and about into Greenville proper all that often. This year, I walked all over the town and felt more a part of the community. There's a great park along the river and one of the coolest bridges I've ever been on. It was impossible not to get caught up in people's enthusiasm for Greenville. It’s like the whole city is in a good mood. There was gorgeous weather, more people outside than I often see in Brooklyn, and live music. Sweet, sweet, live music. 

For those who couldn’t make it, it’s worth noting that what Matthew & Co. have done is create not just an event but a format as well. Anyone could put on a Grok in their hometown. They’re remarkably extensible. Grok requires no speakers because everyone is a speaker. It requires only a decent venue, some thoughtful folks willing to share what they’re thinking, and a bit of your time. A Grok could be a half day, a full day, or three days as GG was. The point is, if you want to bring a small, friendly web conference to your town, Grok is just what the doctor ordered. I’m not even being abstract here. Bermon Painter who I met at last year’s Grok has already run 3 groks in his hometown of Charlotte, NC. What are you waiting for?!

I’d really love to see the Grok format spread and hopefully Matthew will have some time to share what he’s learned in two years of running them when he’s not reinventing how commerce works. 

I'm gonna wrap up this post by saying... 

...to the old faces - It was great to see you again. You haven't aged a day over 365 in the past year.

...to the new faces - Nice meeting you. Cool story and high fives.

...to those I missed - Names not known - Sorry we didn't get to Grok it up. I was the big, loud guy in the plaid. No. The other one. No. The other one. No. The other one. No. The other one. No. The other one. No. The other one. The other one. Yep. That one.

...to Matthew, Erin, & crew - xoxoxo

Gently places the mic upon the ground.

[fictivecameron-blog]

Brooklyn Beta & Summer Camp

Lots of BB news today. I've got some thoughts here, but the more official launch post is on Tina's blog. First, we’re super excited to announce the dates for the 2012 conference. They are October 10th,11th, & 12th. In case you don’t know, BB is the conference that Fictive Kin puts on with our friends at Analog. It’s a good time. Chris has a mini-recap of last year’s event and this video by Nate Bolt and Captain & the Fox probably does the best job of capturing its spirit.

If you head over to the new Brooklyn Beta site and give it a looksy, you’ll notice something else new besides the conference dates. We’re calling it BB Summer Camp and it is our take on Y Combinator. As I mentioned in my ALA article, I’m a huge fan of what YC has done for developers and developer co-founded startups. We’re hoping to show some of that same love to designers because we think the best teams have both. If all goes according to plan, we’ll be able to support a group of campers whose products show off just how great a designer-developer team can be.

Summer Camp is our first step towards creating something that is bigger than a conference without simply creating a bigger conference. It’s another way to try to deliver on our twin goals of bringing designers / developers together and encouraging people to make something they love. We think this is a step in the right direction. 

I’m really excited about the new BB stuff and it objectively would not be possible without the help from these fine folks. 

Eli Rousso, fffunction, and Nate Abele made the site possible and sultry.

MailChimp, Hoefler & Frere-Jones, Engine Yard, and Etsy made Summer Camp a reality with their generous support.

All our advisors. You are heroes and saints and professional athletes all in one.

Betaworks, our new PICs. Keeping it real.

Love you all.

Cameron

[fictivecameron-blog]

2012 Wrapup

I usually try to do my yearly wrapup by February 1, which is already late, but this year has just gotten ridiculous. Last year, I went with a nutrition facts theme which was kind of cool, but we took down the other pieces of my blog for a bit so there is no link. This year is busier so I’m going old school with just a regular post. Here’s how I did on my plan for 2011.

Throw an awesome Brooklyn Beta 2011

Against all odds, this went very well. Chris and I were both very terrified that conference wouldn’t live up to expectations but somehow the combined forces of Analog, Fictive Kin, & Workshop were able to pull it off. I’m really proud of the event we threw and it feels good to know that people enjoyed it. Extra major thank you and hugs to Jessi, Josh, Creighton, Teams Fictive & Analog, Studiomates, our speakers, and all the attendees for making it great. 

Finish off our TeuxDeux bug / feature list.

We did zero things on TeuxDeux this year. Goose Egg. Nada. Considering it is an app that I use every day, I don’t feel great about that. We’ve got some ideas for how to change that in 2012 and I hope they turn out to be good ones. 

Publicly launch Gimme Bar

We did this. Gimme Bar is a maaaaaaaaaaassive app with tons of major components and nuances. Our little team has handled that challenge very well and I feel lucky to work with such nice, dedicated, and talented people. We’re deep in a redesign / rearchitecture that we hope will knock your socks off in the next month or so.

Lose 22 pounds

If you looked at me with your eyeballs right now, you would not be especially impressed with my level of fitness. That said, I met this goal. I’m down 34 pounds from my high of this year which is probably higher than when I wrote the resolution. So I can’t count all 34 pounds towards the goal, but I can still feel good about trimming down a bit. The key to it all was the diet I invented called Scotchkins. I hope to talk more about that later this year.  

Attend 10 Concerts

I killed it on shows this year. I saw incredible concerts, comedy shows, & broadway plays. Gonna be hard to top that in 2012.

Concerts

Jamie XX @ LPR

The Knocks @ Some random church

Fang Island @ Bowery Ballroom

James Blake @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

Godspeed You Black Emperor @ Brooklyn Masonic Temple

LCD Soundsystem @ Madison Square Garden (final show)

Animal Collective @ Great American Music Hall

James Blake @ Bowery Ballroom

Surfer Blood @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

Best Coast & The Decemberists @ Prospect Park

Bon Iver & Rosebuds @ Prospect Park

Jeff Mangum @ New England Conservatory

Nicolas Jaar @ Mo MoMA PS1 (5 hour show)

Comedy

Norm MacDonald - Cobb's Comedy Club

Bill Cosby - Cerritos Center for Performing Arts

Louis CK - Beacon Theatre (the show he sold for $5 online)

Broadway

Importance of Being Earnest

Book of Mormon

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

Sleep No More

Jersey Boys

Concerts Skipped (sadly)

Mt. Kimbie - LPR

Nicolas Jaar - LPR

Air Guitar Competition - Bowery (So sorry Rob.)

Disintegration Loops @ The Met (Major Regret)

Read 10 Books

I read 13 books. A lot of them were short books, but whatevs.

Elements of Content Strategy

High Output Management

Managing Oneself

On writing

Impro

Born Standing Up

Why We Get Fat

On booze

Endurance

Delivering Happiness

Design for Emotion

Mobile First

Old man and the Sea

I also read a whole bunch of comic books. Work was hard this year, so comic books seemed a more manageable meal than a full-fledged novel.

We3, The Mighty 1-2, Locke & Key 1-4, Batmans, RAFL 1, Shazam, Incognito 1 & 2, Northlanders 3-5, Baltimore, Astro City Dark Ages 2, All Star Superman Vol 1, The Amazing Screw on Head, Daredevil, The Homeland Directive, Ex machina 4-6, & Silverfish (and frankly probably a lot more).

LCD cover miss you

I tried my darndest to get LCD Soundsystem to cover Miss You by the Rolling Stones. Give that a listen and tell me that’s not a noble cause. Anyhow, who could have predicted they would go and break up. I haven’t given up on this, but it’s not a 2012 goal either. It’s a long play. 

Close out NYC tourist mode

I was supposed to do The Statue of Liberty, The Empire State Building, and Harlem Jazz. I did none of those things. Gonna try again this year, but am more skeptical than I was before.

Speak at one conference

Great Success! I spoke at Colly Con this year and had a great time. This is the second time I've made the trip over to the UK to work at Mild Bunch and then catch up with everyone in Nottingham. Being a speaker at an event is very different and a bit more stressful. Really glad that the first place I spoke was at a conference run by my friends (Simon & Greg). Was also pretty darned cool to speak alongside 3 Brooklynites (Travis, Dan, & Frank), old friends (Trent, Robbie, Naomi & The Standardistas), and new friends (Denise & Ben).

Start a design R&D group

We ran two Design R & D projects this year and learned a lot about how they should work. I'll go into more detail later about what all this means. Gonna wait until we launch the relevant projects first.

Write a comic book

Once again in 2011, total fail. Given that this is two years of failure on this front in a row with no sign of even starting such a project, I think I’m gonna table this for 2012 and look to a possible 2013 reunion.

Discover Fountain of Youth and / or Holy Grail

I had no luck on this front. In 2010 I tried for atlantis, but Frank Chimero beat me to it. In 2011 I set out for everlasting life, but Jack Sparrow beat me to the punch. As it turns out, I’m terrible at finding ancient monuments, but excellent at predicting the years in which they will be discovered. 

Miss every single Nicholas Cage movie

This was easier than you might expect. Had I proposed this resolution in 2010, Kickass would have turned out to be a problem. But in 2011, it was a breeze. Monsieur Cage came out with 5 movies:  Season of the Witch, Drive Angry, Seeking Justice, Trespass, & Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. None of which were especially enticing and the last of which was mildly enfuriating. I’m going to try to keep the streak alive in 2012.

2012 Goals

10 concerts

15 books (i want to read more)

52 blog posts (I don’t think our industry writes enough)

Lose 25 (more) pounds (fighting shape!!)

Surprise people with the new Brooklyn Beta gumbo we’ve been cooking up. (It’s got shrimp!)

Launch 4 new applications (Rushmore, News, DnD, & Bright!)

Release a massive Gimme Bar redesign / rearchitecture (now with 50% more gimme!)

Miss every single Nicholas Cage movie (even The Frozen Ground w/ Vanessa Hudgens & 50 Cent!)

Exclamation Point (!)

[fictivecameron-blog]

Heroes

As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.

-Ernest Hemingway 

Understatement of the year in whatever year he said that. I’m not old, but I’m getting older and I’m hurting for heroes. Once you leave school, learning is no longer structured. You have to figure things out for yourself. You still want to learn because learning means growing and growing is the most enjoyable way to live, but it’s gotten a lot more difficult. I’ve discovered that I learn much more from other people than I do from textbooks. I also realized that these people - my heroes - come in three flavors, one of which is in short supply.

The first group of heroes I think of as “role models.” The role model group is composed of my peers who are smarter and more talented than me in one way or another. I try to spend as much time as possible with people like this and, on that account, I’ve been very lucky. I’m surrounded by tremendous role models in my family, among my friends, at Fictive Kin & at Studiomates. Their proximity makes them incredible sources of learning. I can see their behaviors and ideas in action on a daily basis or I can go deeper with them on a walk home or a fireside scotch conversation. As such, no other group has done more to shape me into the person I am today.

The second group of heroes leaves the idea of proximity behind altogether and enters the realm of imagination. It may seem weird, but I look up to a lot of the fictional characters (Holmes, Protagonist, d'Anconia, Dantes) and historical figures (Franklin, Edison, Lincoln, Hemingway) that I find in books and movies. These heroes tend to excel at some aspect of human ability or spirit that I would like to see more of in myself or in others. Because they are essentially imaginary (even the historical figures) these heroes are aspirational in a sort of unrealistic way. Sure I’d love the observational powers of Sherlock Holmes, but that’s not very likely. That doesn’t mean I can’t learn from his character to be more observant in my day to day life. It does mean there are limits to the impact these heroes can have on my life. You never fully feel like it’s possible to accomplish what they accomplish.

The final group of heroes is a marriage of the first two. I like to think of them as the big “H” heroes. Mostly because I don’t have a better name. These Heroes are people have done astounding, almost unbelievable, things and yet they aren’t imaginary. They’re real. You can see them. You share the air with them. They’re existence makes the world seem full of possibilities because they stand as an example of just how far one person can go. My first love is products, so for a while now my only version of this Hero has been Steve Jobs. This article, which I wrote when I first heard about the SJ biography being released today, was meant to be a thank you to him for setting that kind of example. I’ve had to edit things because he is dead. Overnight, he was transformed into a historical figure. There is no next chapter. As of today, I have no living Heroes. I’m pretty bummed about that.

[fictivecameron-blog]

Brooklyn Beta 2011 Schedule

Wednesday

9:15 - morning hang

10:00 - in session

10:30 - small group love

12:00 - lunch

13:00 - in session

13:15 - small group love

14:45 - break

15:45  - in session

16:15 - big group love

16:45 - dinner & drinks

Thursday

9:15 - morning hang

10:00 - in session

11:05 - break

11:55 - in session

12:30 - lunch

14:00 - in session

15:00 - break

15:50 - in session

16:55 - dinner & drinks

Friday

10:30 - morning hang

11:00 - in session

12:10 - lunch

13:10 - in session

14:10 - break

15:00 - in session

15:50 - break

16:40 - in session

17:30 - dinner & drinks

[fictivecameron-blog]

Internships Part II: The Implicit Contract

For part one, go here.

There is an implicit contract that the intern and employer enter into when an internship begins. I think that because it is implicit, it is rarely heeded. I’d like to take a moment to make it explicit for both parties. This post has the same disclaimer as Part One which is that I am talking about internships with individuals or small teams, not larger agencies that have whole processes in place for chewing through interns.

Interns

Interns. It is your job to lighten the load or increase the capacity of your employer. You do this in exchange for valuable experience knowledge and industry connections. In most cases you should be paid, but not a lot. You are making a sacrifice early in your career for much greater gains as you develop. While you should expect to work on some interesting projects, not all of your work will be knowledge work. Gopher work should be a part of it too and you shouldn’t shy away from it. 

Because many employers are too polite to request help with menial tasks, you can distinguish yourself by spotting and doing them proactively. Offer to go on coffee runs. Clean up the office space without asking. If you see your employer, for example, taking out the trash every Wednesday, offer to save them the time & effort. If you find yourself without anything to do, feel free to suggest a project or a couple projects to your employer. It will be easier for them to pick something from a list than to generate something on the fly.

During your time as an intern, your goal should be to ship as many quality projects that you can show off in your portfolio as possible. Before you start your internship you should set this expectation and hold your employer to it. You should measure the success of your internship by how much work you ship and how much fun you had. The next step is either a full-time position at the place of your internship or some other interesting company.

Employers

Employers. When you take on an intern, you are agreeing to mentor them and help develop their skills. You should be consistently imparting industry knowledge and meaningful feedback to them. If you are doing that right, the intern will leave the internship more talented and more employable than when they started.

It’s ok and give interns some amount of gopher work as long as you are balancing that with meaningful project work that gets completed and published. Don’t take on an intern if you don’t have specific projects lined up for them. It’s not fair to either of you. An intern does not simply want to bask in your glow. An intern wants to ship. They may bask for a little while, but soon they will realize that you, like everyone else, are just a person. 

Set your internship for a finite period of time. This is a jumping off point for the intern and you need to ensure they do not get stuck. As the internship is coming to a close, you should be attempting to help your intern find a job. You should consider your internship a success if you either decide to hire your intern on a full-time basis or you are able to help them find a full-time gig somewhere else that is cool. If your intern struggles to find a job following your internship, odds are you didn’t do right by them.

This contract is sealed

If each side lives up to their end of the bargain, you have a smarter, more employable intern, a lightened load for the employer and a long-term industry friendship. This contract is sealed.