GHDR Reboot 011: Can't Dodge the Hard Stuff

The Best Girl

In my mind’s eye I’m always a girl, but it’s not very specific since it’s just the best version of me feeling comfortable in my own skin. Maybe a specific person will come to mind as I type.

The Engaging Shopkeeper

I can imagine myself behind the counter of a cool shop, with an array of interesting tools that dazzle with their powerful functionality and sublime form, serving a need with precision and exactitude. I like the idea of "empowerment tools" too. I like engaging with people, listening to them, and producing just the right item that addresses their needs on levels they didn't even know they were looking for!

The Magician

I’ve always liked the idea of being a magician, and wanting my job to have those elements of performance and wonderment. The way I approach every day experience is to look for hidden patterns that suggest secret connections that when properly catalyzed become surprisingly powerful. I love the multi-disciplinary approach to thinking and pattern reconciliation.

The Infectious Sunflower

I would like to be a person that has an inexaustable supply of positive empowering energy served with a heaping scoop of accessible know-how. Nurturing, pleasant to be around, inviting people to also be sunflowers. An infectious sunflower!

The Investigative Designer

I’m just thinking of this because of the previous descriptions fitting the pattern. This is not so much something I want to become these days, because that’s pretty much who I am NOW. There’s no need to expand on this.

The Reluctant Assassin

I feel the need to balance-out all the positive with a healthy dose of pragmatic self-defense. The world has plenty of pockets of unkindness, with people who are out to deceive or exploit those who tend to see the good in people. Being able to see these machinations and know what counters exist for them, as well as being able to take some kind of protective action, is a skill set that I would keep under the counter at the shop; this is the idea behind Defense Against the Dark Arts.

The Catalyzing Incubator

There is one thing I live for, other than petting cats, and that is being around people in the moment of catching inspiration and putting it into action. I love this energy and want to be part of it. A lot of what I’ve described above is about being a catalyst, but the idea of combining this with an incubator role is new. Basically, I want to be able to provide the practical resources that are necessary to actually start something that is self sustaining and financially empowering. It could be teaching. Maybe it’s providing a small project fund. Perhaps it’s donating some of my time to help scope and run a limited micro project.

The Job Creator

Ah, this is important! It occurred to me recently that my ultimate challenge is how to create a job that pays a living wage to another person, while still also supporting myself. The difficulty is that I am also newly-diagnosed with ADHD, ASD, etc, which explains a lot of the self-care practices that I’ve had to adopt over the years to deal with them. I’m extremely fortunate to even have work, but the conditions under which I work are also NOT conducive to the stereotypical How I Became a Success write-up you’d read in The Wall Street Journal or even Fast Company.

The Conceptual Curator

I like collecting knowledge. I also like collecting excellent examples of applied knowledge. These feed my understanding of the world and help me become a better magician/catalyst. The items that I collect demonstrate principles and concepts that I think are fundamental; to understand them is to be a better designer says I!

The Time Traveling Librarian

I had called this "The Best Girl, Again", but framed in terms of the "fashion trope/cosplay" I think as a time-travelling librarian, who is from the future and is a bit anachronistic in her dress. In practicasl terms, though, the idea is to purposefully have a personal style challenge that ALSO is the physical storytelling interface that tells people that I'm about something outside the mainstream. There is an undercurrent of magical realism to this idea that I find very appealing, and I want to be a conduit of such possibilities.