Developing Usable Experiences

Push, pull, resist, concede

September 26th, 2007 11:08 pm —  250 views

class.jpg

The last couple days have been…well…par for the course. It’s easy to say how crazy things are. That seems to be my default assessment most often so I’ll shed some light.

Once again, it is almost midnight. W. has also been in “leadership” training the last couple days so we are both out of our normal routine. If there is such a thing. We chatted like crazy for a spell then I came downstairs to watch one of my favorite shows, “House”, that I had recorded last night. This didn’t happen. Faced with the choice to catch up on email and blog about my life, I decided I’d delay watching House a day or two.

My leadership training illuminated areas where I haven’t been applying the most effective leadership style when needed. This understanding and awareness should prove useful and was delivered in a way that made it easy to digest. Thanks Nancy (the teacher).

The group project that has consumed so much of my time lately is going well. Check out our progress here. The professor in this class posed a question to me tonight that has left me thinking. He asked me what my biggest challenge was. When he asked me this I naturally assumed it was in relation to our group project, as he had asked other groups the same question. Turns out he was asking me what MY challenge was. He tells me that he is aware that I have a certain “expertise” in the things he’s trying to teach in the class and he is wondering what I’m focusing on as a challenge.

This question made me aware of a couple things. First, he recognizes that I’m not terribly challenged by the assignments. Besides being time consuming, he’s right. The other thing was that he took the opportunity to call me out. The fact that he is concerned about whether or not I’m recognizing and addressing things that challenge me gave me some hope. I’ve been skeptical about this guy since day one and am a little concerned we might square off at some point. I know myself, and I know I’m often too willing to enter the cage for a vicious round or two. When I understood what he was asking I paused for a second and gave him an honest answer, “My biggest challenge is learning to work effectively with others.”. He seemed satisfied with that answer, said “good, good”, and commenced to shut me out like normal. Okay. This is progress. A bit of educational aikido, but I respect it.

Crap, it’s one minute to midnight. AGAIN.

Today has been about finding the balance between being too direct and not being direct enough. This is something I know I need to develop a better awareness of…and in an eerily coordinated fashion, both work and school are forcing me to focus my attention on it.

Image: Wired magazine described a way of applying a filter in Photoshop this month so I practiced on this picture I took during one of my classes. One benefit was that it protects the identity of those in the picture while allowing enough for those that know to know. How is that for finding that razor’s edge?

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9 Comments 

Comments

9 Responses to “Push, pull, resist, concede”

  1. Dawn on September 27th, 2007 8:27 am

    Who said we don’t learn anything in school! Sometimes it’s the little things, the quick conversation, the passing extraneous thought that makes it all come together. And it’s not eerie that work and school are parallel…that’s just a sign you’re where you are supposed to be.

  2. Dawn on September 27th, 2007 10:46 am

    PS: Just reviewed your website for the project. This looks just exactly like 501. Sticky notes and all! But a great group will make a great project!

  3. Spike on September 27th, 2007 1:34 pm

    It is a good group. The challenges I’m facing are my own and time is showing that those in my group are really sharp and willing to work hard.

    As for 501, there are a couple minor differences.

    First, we got to form our own groups. While I feel pretty lucky, I see some imbalance across the teams.

    Second, we’re doing in a few weeks what we took a few months to do in 501. The pace is a lot different.

    The affinity diagram was a lot easier to do this time…but still took us over 6 hours. Yuck.

  4. Baldrick on September 27th, 2007 7:27 pm

    Somehow I knew you’d use Photoshop instead of GImp ;) (just teasing.. thought I’d show my face/nick) :)

  5. Spike on September 27th, 2007 8:54 pm

    Well, being more familiar with Photoshop…and being able to buy the Adobe Creative Suite for an amazingly low price because I’m a student….well. Gimp just lost it’s appeal and I forked over the cabbage.

  6. Mick on March 2nd, 2009 6:08 pm

    I am the professor mentioned (and pictured) in this post. Just saw it, 1.5 years later, while googling for info about Spike. I still remember the brief conversation referenced, partly because Spike was so intensely engaged and partly because it had been unclear for a while whether he needed the class. Interesting to hear this perspective on that moment all this time later. Spalding Grey claimed that you need 7 years to assimilate views of yourself, so hopefully I’ll check it out again in 5.5!

  7. Interaction affordances >blog.interspike.com on March 4th, 2009 7:41 am

    [...] got me pondering that class was a recent comment the professor left on a post written here during the start of that most interesting and challenging class. It’s funny looking back. Not [...]

  8. Spike on March 4th, 2009 8:10 am

    Interesting that my link to this post attached a comment to it. Now I’m all confused about tense and person perspective. My blog is quoting me on my own blog? Hm.

    Thanks for leaving a comment Mick. I’m wondering if you’re still open to the idea of me interning with you somehow doing data analysis. I’m considering my options. We’ll see if you see this…and when. Maybe post-facto?

    Like in 5.5 years?

  9. Human Computer Intuition >blog.interspike.com on September 25th, 2009 3:55 pm

    [...] years ago, an inspiring professor1 taught me about [...]

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