The Adnostic

Russell Davies gave out an unofficial assignment today asking people to become more interesting and therefore better creative generalists. We have to pick three of ten options and do them consistently over the next three months....

1) Take at least one picture every day and post it to Flickr.

I haven't been very good about this in the past. I usually save them on my phone for long periods of time until I have enough to do a massive dump that no one ever fully looks at. But, I think I can do this one. It's going to be tough with the long commute (I won't have a lot of free time to find something worth taking a picture of), but I think I can make this one work.

2) Start a blog and write at least one sentence every week.

I don't do this, but I should. Hence, I will be doing this one too. (In my defense, I posted six entries this week alone.) (So there.) (Ha.)

3) Keep a scrapbook.

I don't do this either, but I like the idea of it, so I'm going to give it a shot. I have an extra notebook that I can use and carry around in my massive computer bag. Now all I need is a glue stick and some bits of inspiration.

4) Every week, read a magazine you've never read before.

I like this one too. I'll start with the November issue of Wired for the plane ride to Marbella this week and an old issue of Business 2.0 for the flight back. Now, I know that these aren't new, but the issues themselves are new to me. Doesn't that count?

Oy. This list is getting long.

5) Once a month, interview someone for twenty minutes and work out how to make him or her sound interesting. Podcast it.

Not going to happen.

6) Collect something.

No way. I'm anti-stuff.

7) Once a week sit in a coffee shop or cafe for an hour and listen to other people’s conversations. Take notes. Blog about it. (Carefully)

If only I had the time.

8) Every month write 50 words about one piece of visual art, one piece of writing, one piece of music and one piece of film or TV. Do other art forms if you can. Blog about it.

Probably not. It would be a good exercise, but I hate making critiques on something I have little direct experience with.

9) Make something.

I'm not much of a maker. I'm more of a doer. Besides, this infringes on my policy of being anti-stuff.

10) Read: Understanding Comics - Scott McCloud, The Mezzanine - Nicholson Baker, The Visual Display Of Quantitative Information - Edward Tufte

All books that I would love to read, but I doubt that I would get to them in time. I'm still working my way through Testing to Destruction and then I'm committed to reading John Steele's Truth, Lies, and Advertising: The Art of Account Planning. I'm also a slow reader. I'll put them on my wish list instead.

.... Okay, so that is four things that I'm committing to do for the next three months. This is doable. I can handle this. I won't be overwhelmed. (I hope)

(ps - the title is an inside joke for geeks regarding Flickr's move to patent "interestingness.")