Brady Helps

Remembering Michael P from August 2020: “don’t give labels power.”Read the article to understand the history. The TL;Dr is: the labels you attribute to yourself are only as powerful as you allow them to be. I’m white, black, brown, woman, man, nonbinary, Latinx, German, musician, artist, creative, engineer, introvert, extrovert, serious, fun… I appreciate that people use labels for themselves. I try not to use a label for myself if I can help it. I prefer you to interpret my actions and my body of work in your way. If I have to give myself a label, it’s just that I’m David and I am me.

I thought about time the other day. What does it mean to give time to something?You can’t see time. You can’t hold it. Time may not exist at the moment you need to give it.What does it mean to give time to something?Perhaps it means to give something, or someone, the opportunity to tell themselves the story about themselves that they’ve always wanted to tell.

I heard a recording of myself today. For the first time since I can remember, I am not cringing. I can listen and say, “you know, Brady, you sound like all of your years.”When the artist finishes mastering the material I’ll share with you.In the meantime, an important lesson: be thankful for the years your body has given you. Don’t let any learning moment pass without observation and reflection. Experience compounds.

There’s a Filipino restaurant an hour from my house. On their menu is pork and chicken adobo.

Making adobo is easy. You need a meat, soy sauce (optional), vinegar, black pepper, more garlic than you can tolerate, and bay leaves. You mix it all together in a pan with some oil. You cook it until it’s done. Maybe reduce the sauce to your desired thickness. The entire thing costs less than $10 per serving… easily.

The restaurant charges $20. Why?

What story does a restaurant owner imagine we tell ourselves about Filipino food? Do we think it’s exotic? Uses ingredients we might not have readily available?

The value of something may be more associated to the story the purchaser gets to tell themselves about your product than your costs.

If you want to make a bigger impact, help people tell themselves a better story.

I’m trying to learn the big idea of quantum physics. Here’s a classic thought experiment involving a cat.Put a cat named Schrödinger in a box with a radioactive device. Close and seal the box. Give the cat a 50% chance of being alive when you open the box an hour later. At the time you open the box the has a 50% chance of being alive and a 50% chance of being dead — therefore, the cat is both alive and dead. It’s only when you open the box and observe, or measure, the cat that you’ll know it’s fate. Well what if our problems were the same way? What if our stuck’ness had a 50/50 chance of being real or a product of our fear? What if it’s through our critical analysis of the problem (our measurement) that we discover what we think might be getting in our way is in fact not there? Learn more about Schrödinger’s Cat here.

I began learning about type. I want to learn more about how type is used, what makes good type, and ideas for how I might think about type as a function of communication. I am reviewing the blog, and noticing all kinds of opportunities to clean it up. I may do that soon. I am thinking about power point decks I have to create. How might type choices better communicate the story I am trying to tell?I think about posters, books, and all the places type shows up in my life. How many small details, like type, do we stop to notice each day? How many of those details influence the way we see the world?

The pressure to ship work that’s building up inside of you is generous and beautiful. You are ready to enjoy the rewards of time invested in collecting, noticing, reading, learning, and thinking. It’s not safe to remove the top from an active pressure cooker. The best practice is to release the pressure using the prescribed methods on the cooker. Your mind is like a pressure cooker. Gradually release the pressure and direct your energy towards mindfully shipping your work. The world needs you and your voice. However, we can’t take all of your ideas at once.

When the ideas are running fast, the leg bounces to an unknown beat, and the eyes dart across the room as if every little thing surprises them; then you might have too much energy.Too much energy may be a sign of a restless mind. A mind that cannot be content in its present. Take all of the energy and simplify it. Focus it on one thing. Tell yourself, “I’m going to give this thing my full attention and energy for 5 minutes.” Then go at it.When five minutes are up, see if you can give yourself another five. Go at it.Give the mind’s eye a target to look at. Use your hands - write out what’s in your head. Make your eyes see that you’re doing something with your thoughts.When the time is up, get up and walk away. Don’t look back.Go at the next thing.

Protect your mind from over investing in passing interests. It doesn’t make sense to put your money in something that is here today and gone tomorrow. Better to invest in ideas that will likely stand the test of time.

I struggle to make ideas simple. I don’t always want to take the time.I have an idea. In my head it makes sense. The words flow out of my consciousness through my hand and onto the keyboard with ease. When I stop to wonder, “is this as simple as I can make it,” I freeze.