Tested: Adam was the closing speaker at this past weekend's BoingBoing Ingenuity theatrical event. He gave a rousing speech about being a maker, and shared his ten rules for success in his work. For new Tested readers, these are themes we've touched on in many episodes of Still Untitled: The Adam Savage Project.
7 comments:
So good advice! My favorite is the #9 Fail, a good Friend told me that you ALWAYS learn from FAILING but not always from success. So Adam (HAHA ME, J/K) is right you must take on a mindset and not be AFRAID to fail. So take the EDISON mindset, learn a 1000 ways NOT to create the light bulb!
I do agree with #4 TOTALLY!! One must learn to have the Reward in doing things well.
Last thing I just see how so many of these things are not independent at all. They are all together. Learn to WORK HARD, Find something you like to do, WORK HARD at doing it well, Find your reward in that, and then take people along with you.
These are a great group of ideas that all seem to be very self evident. The part of this list that I absolutely love is the idea that you should be nice to everyone. Being in an environment where when you are an asshole you can apologize and you make sure that animosity does not fester and turn into an adversarial relationship is a critical part of working collaboratively. Keeping the idea of being honest and open about interactions and relationships is great. The other idea that I love is the work as if your life depends on it. Most people, when they are given jobs they feel are beneath them, will give less effort as a protest against their assignment. Working to give forth the best product every time without an attitude about what you are doing was a cornerstone of the American rise to power after World War 2 and it is something that we have lost in the following generations.
I agree with basically this entire list. These are a lot of things that I have put into practice in my own life and is partially how I am here today. I also think in general CMU students and the university as a whole embodies these ideals. Compared to a lot of other schools, CMU students work harder and everyone seems to have elaborate goals for the future that they are willing to work to achieve. I also like how it mentions that you have to be good/obsessed with something, but it doesnt matter what that something is. Throughout the university as a whole, i feel like that is also a core value.
I follow Tested regularly and my favorite videos are of Adam Savage making something cool. He gets very passionate very quickly because its something he loves to do.
If you like doing something youll be more likely to put the hard work in to become better at it and be more motivated to improve your craft.
I like his point about talking about your work. It can not be understated the importance of networking and communicated with people who share your interests and passions because through networking is how we share ideas and collaborate for greater projects and products.
Adam's tips are basic, valuable and points that nobody should forget. After reading the list and letting it stew for awhile it dawned on me that one thing I've noticed about myself over the last few years is that I've been increasingly more interested in a lot of stuff and the list of things I want to be good at or learn is growing longer by the day. But it's challenging to find the time to master those interests. But the one thing that we have to remember is that no matter how much other stuff we have going on you just have to keep working your ass and not get bogged down when you run into obstacles.
Number one is totally true. I believe that’s why we spend freshman year getting a general knowledge of theater. Number five is something people too often overlook. People get nervous about sharing their work because they don’t want to seem like show-offs. However, if we are artists and we want to grow as artists, the only way to do that is to show people what you create. Number nine is essential to success. If you never fail at what you do, you are not challenging yourself enough.
I think this list has some very important points. Loving what you do, showing off your skills, and once in a while failing in order to gain experience is crucial to becoming the most successful at any field. This especially true in an art related filed when confidence is crucial as well as critical advice. Ive come to find that as a design student, your professors will hardly ever tell you that they like your work. You have to know that you are good at what you do, and that they are there to give you constructive criticism, not coddle you. They want you to make big goals and get the most out of your 4 year design instruction. The fields we are studying are hard and unforgiving, these ten rules for success sound like they will help us get what we want.
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