Adrian3.com

The Day Abstraction Died and the Quest for Perfection

Adrian — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 06:16:34 +0000

There was a time when you drew pictures. With crayons and fat pencils you traced your world, oblivious to constraints that now stifle your creativity. There wasn’t a right or wrong way to draw, you just created. Your eyes savored everything they saw and you learned to explain this on paper with scribbles. You drew [...]

The Pirate Club: Now Accepting New Members

Adrian — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 02:22:50 +0000

Yesterday on the kitchen table was a newspaper. That in itself would be unusual given that I don’t subscribe to a newspaper, but this one was particularly different.The masthead of this paper said, “The Pirate News.” It was hand-written, photocopied, then colored by some eight-year-olds. It was fantastic. I asked my son what the story [...]

The Cult of Lego, and the Genesis of Creativity

Adrian — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 17:27:47 +0000

I was recently included in a book called Cult of Lego. I am honored that my Lego camera continues to resonate with people six years after it made the rounds on the internet. Cult of Lego is a really impressive book, weighing in at almost 300 pages of fascinating photos, amazing projects, and colorful personalities. [...]

The Parable of the Thousand Dollar Nail

Adrian — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 05:10:57 +0000

Squeak. Creeeeeek. Squeak. Every time Mr. Smith walked through his living room the wood floor would squeak. It drove him crazy. “I would pay anything to get this old floor fixed,” he told himself. He had tried calling the local flooring specialists, but after a close inspection the specialists told him that there was nothing [...]

Inspirational Videos Describing How Our Brains Work

Adrian — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 04:15:49 +0000

It is fascinating to study how our brains work. Understanding what makes people do what they do opens the door to seriously powerful abilities. You can influence behavior. You can predict people’s actions. You can inspire people. You can overcome fear. You can produce meaningful work. Here are some videos that talk about our brains [...]

How to escape zugzwang

Adrian — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 06:01:51 +0000

For the last week or so I have been thinking about the term zugzwang. Have you ever heard that word before? Zugzwang is created when you put someone in a situation where they are forced to move even though any movement would weaken their position. Isn’t that a beautiful idea? In our hyper-competitive society it [...]

Best Music of 2010

Adrian — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 05:04:26 +0000

I have been sitting on my best-of list for too long so I decided to just get it up before it got buried in the my pile of unpublished posts. Better late than never, I suppose. Here’s what got the most play on my iPod last year: Best Alubums of 2010 1. The Suburbs, by [...]

Coming up for air: an update on my new job situation

Adrian — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 04:13:49 +0000

If you happened to catch my recent Facebook or LinkedIn update you may have noticed I have a new job. Less than two weeks ago I started working for Burns Marketing and Communications. I am starting to get the hang of things and I am finally able to take a breath and make a quick [...]

Year Review: Things Shipped in 2010

Adrian — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 18:55:08 +0000

Seth Godin is encouraging people to post lists of things that we shipped in the last year. The idea is that we have a tendency to kill ideas, procrastinate, and make excuses. The result is that we don’t complete things. Our projects don’t ship. He explains it better than I do, so if you aren’t [...]

Counterintuitive Coffee: The Alignment of Perceptions and Expectations and Your Brand

Adrian — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 04:11:09 +0000

As I made myself a cup of coffee this morning it struck me how loud the Keurig coffee maker is. It buzzes, rattles, and hisses louder than any coffee maker I have ever used. In my pre-coffee daze I told myself, “that machine really works hard to make me a perfect cup of coffee.” I [...]