Find your constraints and your dimensions of success. Ask yourself what is the question that will get you the most interesting journey and story. Know that there’s a time for meandering exploration, and a time for focused execution. Remember to lean into the risk. This year is a rare opportunity.

Amit didn’t quite use these words, but that’s the gist of what our first thesis class this afternoon.

Find Your Constraints

“I don’t even know where the boundaries ought to be. How do I know I am even in the neighbourhood of the right thing to do?” I asked Amit. “What are your constraints?”

Echoing Liz’s first thesis class last year, Amit asked us to consider what we are uniquely positioned to do, “What can you do, that others cannot do, or wouldn’t do? What are you put on earth, put in this program to do?” Amit called this our internal constraint. These are tied to our capabilities, our experiences, and our passions. There are external constraints too e.g. What do you want your thesis’ legacy to be? What story do you want to be able to tell? How much time do you have? Who needs to be excited by your project?

Internal constraints: Psychology, Education, Advocacy, Citizenship. Those are the topics I keep returning to, time and again. Whenever I am not thinking about design and technology, I am thinking about those things. Seems like an internal constraint if I have got one.

Exploration and Execution

Amit drew this fairly reassuring diagram.

The diagram roughly illustrates two stages of our thesis project. The first section with the wandering line represents the meandering exploration we ought to embrace. During this wandering we gain insight, run into serendipity, and gather momentum for the next stage. The next section with the straight line represents the stage where we buckle down, stop second guessing ourselves, and focus on execution. Amit emphasized that both are necessary for a fruitful thesis process.

The diagram is reassuring mostly because I do feel I am meandering right now. I have some vague ideas, but nothing concrete, and nothing compelling has come through yet. Perhaps I need to meandering more, and find more opportunities to let my ideas collide with other people. I suppose that’s what exploration is about.

Lean Into the Risk

“What is the story you want to tell about this year? And what matters more to this story? That you succeed? Or that you attempted something crazy and awesome?”

It’s a rare opportunity to get a year to devote to a personal project. Amit implored us to take advantage of amazing support we have here a the program to go on a journey worth talking about. Ask a big question. Find a place with tension and relief it. In the long run, the nominal success or failure of the project doesn’t matter as much as the boldness of our attempt and the meticulousness of our process.

Miscellaneous Awesome Ideas

“Interaction Design is in a good position to impact all kinds of industries. Think about the industry you want to be in, and whether you want to kick that industry in the balls.”

“So go as far as you can into this weird place. The further you go, the more valuable the berries you bring back will be.”

“There’s far more technological advancements than there are ways of making that technology useful for people right now. Interaction design gives you the tools to make technology useful for people.”