Richard Ziade at basement.org has a very nice article with an interresting quote about the software development teamwork and workflow. I read this article after the memo Pierre send to me via email for the (future) organisation of our company, Electronest. They are echoing each other in my mind: it’s nice to see Electronest is already able to do things quite differently.

And along my morning’s reading - there are more echoes, memories and thoughts:

Maki gave me a little piece of paper once - we were working on the Never Odd or Even website for the Serpentine Gallery with Patrick at that time. It never leaved me: first in my moleskine, and then it finally made its way to my desktop.

This is a piece by Fischli & Weiss, and the title is ‘How to work better’, below is a couple of images from my collection.

How to work better

1. Do one thing at a time

2. Know the problem

3. Learn to listen

4. Learn to ask questions

5. Distinguish sense from nonsense

6. Accept change as inevitable

7. Admit mistakes

8. Say it simple

9. Be calm

10. Smile

Ryan Gander who amongst other thing makes lectures he calls ‘Loose Association’, wrote a wonderful book ‘Appendix’ (where Stuart Baileys is a bit more than involved) and created a word: the Mitim, which I spoke upside down. Ryan Gander wrote an exquisite short article about the ‘How To Work Better’ in ‘Working it out’ - where he speaks also about the artists’ process:

Taped to the wall of my studio is an A4 photocopy of a short ten-point manifesto by Fischli/Weiss entitled “How to work better”. I don’t know who put it there, but it has been in place for at least three years. It’s a tongue-in-cheek work using a motivational statement, which is a piece of found text they subsequently enlarged and had painted on the exterior of a building as part of a public commission. I sometimes show it to students at the beginning of slide lectures, and always point it out to assistants who come to the studio.

(Maybe Maki put it here… )

There are a couple more links to follow the ongoing reflections:
- In computing, lookup usually refers to searching the internal and specially crafted database for an item that satisfies some specified property.
- ‘Appendix’ by Ryan Gander, designed by Stuart Bailey is findable at Amazon - the ISBN is 90-75380-60-7
Stuart Bailey & Ryan Gander: Appendix Appendix (Christoph Keller Editions)

- Here’s is the my re-interpretation/citation of ‘How to work better’ as a desktop background - GTD, efficiency, design and process always in mind; you can download and use, the picture size is for a (black) macbook screen (1280×800) but should be easy to crop/expand with the black zone all around.
- On the 14th of January there will be a simultaneous launch of DOT DOT DOT #15 and F.R. DAVID #2 in London and New York. Both publications will be available and accompanied by a live lecture transmitted from the other location. According to the international dateline, Cubitt Gallery in London will launch at 7pm GMT with a live talk by Stuart Bailey, DDD editor, from New York, while Dexter Sinister in New York will also launch at 7pm (12pm GMT-5hrs) with a live talk by Will Holder, FRD editor, from London.

London, 7pm CUBITT Gallery and Studios 8 Angel Mews London N1 9HH

New York, 7pm Dexter Sinister 38 Ludlow Street (Basement South) New York, New York 10002

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 12th, 2008 at 4:58 pm and is filed under designing, offline, thinking loud. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.