How to rule the world

I love a whiteboard brainstorm. This one's derived from a conversation with a coworker about how to influence within an organization, but I think it has broader applications:

1. Engage with genuine interest and confidence.
2. Develop an opinion.
3. Create an expression of that opinion.
4. Publish it. Speak it. Embrace it. Evangelize it. Live it.

(rinse, lather, repeat)

Dropping into research mode

I tend to veer from one thing to the next. It's a process not entirely unlike driving a '72 eldorado fast on a icy road. It's usually an interesting journey, but it can be a bit polarizing in that I'm usually all in or all out on something. I think I have problems with moderation. I do this with art, food favorites, skateboarding, biking, writing, work, design, photography, you name it. For months I'll be carving lino cuts intensely, then the next day that vibe has passed and I'll pick up my camera with the same intensity. Then it'll be on to making snowboards out of cedar fence boards. I'm sure there's medication for this, but I'll take a pass on it.

I guess this is just a long way of saying that I seemed to have slipped into a heads-down working-on-ton-of-things mode. Lots on the plate keeping me very busy lately. Coinciding with this is that I also seem to be in a deep research mode. There's so much cool stuff happening out there, and I'm on a heavy intake spree. Some things I've found interesting this week include:

• yayeveryday. I'm probably the last to know about this. An amazing flow of fantastic ideas. Thanks Jim Schnieder for cluing me in to this. It's the proverbial tip of the iceberg to a lot of great work and talent out there in the big wide world.

• Scipsy. Way interesting science information, plus an author who is ridiculously committed to responding to questions that come in. In the era of the curator, it's nice to see somebody curating science knowledge. Growing up with a physicist dad and a math teacher mom, science is my comfort food.
  
• 500 Photographers. Always interesting. Always gives me good rabbit holes to go down into and poke around. Love it. I bet he had no idea what a monster he was creating, but I thank him.

• This AdAge article on how Home Depot is creating an army of social media peeps on their store floors. It's pretty cool in how they're developing a genuine and useful connection to their customers, and see the value of keeping those experts in the stores where the action is real. Huge relevancy to what we work with at REI. We've been trying to bring the stores peeps into more broad interaction with our customers, and it sounds like Home Depot has similar issues and is making good steps.

• Bring a trailer. My motor head self contemplates the purchase of many of these rigs, and envisions the perceived and cascading life changes it would bring about. (Especially this jacked up 70s wagoneer, which I envision mud bogging while blasting Queens of the Stone Age.) These guys do a great job at curating a very cool bunch of vehicles.  

• George Greenough. I bought one of his fin designs at a swap meet this weekend, and you can feel his funky vibe radiating from it. I stuck it on a board and can't wait to get it on the water. The dude was an innovator. (the fin above is not his -- it's what his replaced.)

Dig through. See what's good for you. For me, it's wonderful, frightening, intimidating and inspiring to see all of the great work that's happening out there. Let me know what you find interesting. I'm soaking it all in, and can't wait for the next bout of whatever to hit me.

Camping with a filmcrew

As a combination platter of my "let's get sh*t done" and "put your self in unfamiliar/uncomfortable situations" I recently went camping with a film crew, my family and another family. We were filming to gather content for an idea the team had about taking two families camping and making a series of mini-episodes out of them for REI's summer campaigns. As usual, it was a good time, and it makes me want to get out camping more.

Cool illos

Loving these illos from ThisThisThis. Very cool, calm and beautiful renditions of natural and not-so-natural things. There's a nice vintage feel to these, and I have to say one of the nicer about me sections I've seen. Gotta love a picture story. After the monkeys, mannequins and machetes, I needed something a little a tad soothing and peaceful.

Ebay finds for today

These are not my pictures. They're just a few I scraped from that fabulous gallery of ready-made photo art called ebay. Kind of makes my heart jump every time I see them. Found photography is good stuff, and ebay is littered with amazing moments. Bad lighting abounds, but there are some crazy juxtapositions and odd situations that I just find oh so compelling.

500 Photographers by Peter Wisse

Still from a video project by Justin Maxon

It seems like I've referenced Peter Wisse's 500 Photographers a lot lately. It's a fantastic project where he's going out and searching the big ol' internet for great and interesting working photographers, and putting a few samples and writeup on his blog. He's got a great goal of adding five a week for 100 weeks until he hits 500. So far, the variety and range of work has been eye-opening, and the following the breadcrumbs laid down by the work has taken me into some really fascinating places. Not just stills, but of course the fascinating and beautiful mix of video and stills that is the new world order.

If you haven't been there already, head there and check it out, people. And if you happen to get overwhelmed or intimidated by the amount of great work out there, remember, it's all a remix. So you might as well add your noise to track.