DrewMyler.com

Freelancing in Retrospect

May 04, 2010

After a successful two years working for myself, I left the freelance world last December for a full-time job with this crew here.

The decision was surprisingly easy; having contracted with the company for awhile, I liked both the folks I’d be working with and the work itself. Plus, I relished the idea of being part of a team again. I really enjoy working collaboratively, and that was missing when I was on my own. I suppose I’m a social beast at heart, though I still work from home and use IM for most of my communication with my coworkers.

Looking back over those years on my own, I’m struck by a few things:

  1. If you have the chance to work for yourself at some point, you absolutely should. Two sizable freelance projects simultaneously knocked at my door, convincing me to take the leap. It was the best thing that could have happened. I was forced to build out  my skill set, learned a bit about business, and met a ton of people (including my current employer). It was freeing to know I could work for myself; my decisions became focused more on want to’s vs. have to’s (though of course there was a healthy dose of the latter).
  2. Working for myself was easier than I expected. I say that to underscore the reality that there’s a lower barrier to entry to self-employment than I initially thought, not that I’m a savvy entrepreneur. I’m sure it depends on the industry, and there’s plenty of web work out there. But I did little marketing beyond my online portfolio and business cards; every project or client I took on came through friends, clients and a trusted network of fellow freelancers (who also fall under the friends category). Anchoring project-based work with regular clients made things a bit more predictable and sustainable.
  3. Meeting other self-employed folks was huge. I got involved with IdeaXchange in Chicago, a fantastic group of writers, artists, designers and PR folks, most of whom worked for themselves. We met monthly to talk shop and share ideas, and it didn’t matter that we all worked in different industries (though I got mixed up with crew of local web design freelancers shortly thereafter, which was/is great for talking nerdery that no one else understands).
  4. The benefit of setting your schedule when self-employed is only partially true. There’s a glaring catch to this concept; time off actually costs you double, as you’re paying for travel expenses while not working, and thus not billing. I probably took a total of two weeks off per year, partly because I enjoyed the projects, but also because every hour was billable. My experience was definitely not cocktails at 2pm every Friday afternoon.

By and large I felt challenged and engaged by my work, and that’s fortunately still the case with my new role. Now if only the company would move to Indianapolis so I could fully enjoy the team lunch on Fridays…

Thoughts on Logos by Paul Rand

Apr 26, 2010

Should a logo be self-explanatory? It is only by association with a product, a service, a business, or a corporation that a logo takes on any real meaning. It derives its meaning and usefulness from the quality of that which it symbolizes.

[...]

The role of the logo is to point, to designate-in as simple a manner as possible. A design that is complex, like a fussy illustration or an arcane abstraction, harbors a self-destruct mechanism. Simple ideas, as well as simple designs are, ironically, the products of circuitous mental purposes. Simplicity is difficult to achieve, yet worth the effort.
— Logos, Flags and Escutcheons, Paul Rand

I love that last sentence (emphasis mine). There’s so much in that article that relates to design in general, but that one held my attention for awhile.

I Hate Your Comments

Mar 31, 2010

Trading anonymity for accountability has led to radically improved conversations.
— There is an inverse relationship between level of anonymity and quality of conversation

I can’t stand the state of comments on news websites. If the internet is the great democratizer of content, it’s a horrible place to have an actual conversation with people.

Name-calling runs rampant. Commenters belittle one another. People make up nicknames for politicians — Barack Obummer. John McShame.

What’s the point of hosting this kind of feeding frenzy? To prove that you have readership to support ad dollars? It certainly doesn’t add any value, and it depresses me to think that we can’t be just a bit, well, nicer to one another in our disagreements.

I’d love to see a comment stream that projects thoughtful, respectful debate, and there’s really only one way it’ll happen: we have to use our own names.

I’m not sure how this could technically be implemented, but wouldn’t that be a better conversation? No more “looney libs” and “stupid rethuglicans”. No more contests to see who can leave the wittiest comment about people who’ve died in unfortunate ways. Just grown ups having a talk using their inside voices.

“It’s dehumanizing to have thousands of people passing through our computer screens, so we do things we’d never do if they were sitting next to us.”
— A Real Person, A Lot Like You

It’s true. And it sucks. Someone fix it.

Mind the Dust

Mar 29, 2010

I know that absences of, oh, well over a year don’t really make for good blogging, but there’s a lot to do besides update this website. For example: did you know there are a full five seasons of The Wire available on DVD — and that the show only gets better with repeat viewings?

I can’t blame the lad for my lack of writing; our life settled into a routine after a few harried months of negotiating with a newborn. I don’t have the free time I used to, but fortunately he still requires sleep.

No, I’ve just been happy with Facebook and Twitter for keeping up with folks (and, recently, Kontain).

These social networks have spoiled me; I’m now used to simple, fast updates. While we still sporadically post to the photoblog, the process of posting pictures feels laborious compared to posting pics to social networks via mobile phone. The boy does a heart-melting interpretive dance to ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’ in the car? Moments later it’s posted where folks will see it. That’s fun and spontaneous.

Remembering to take the camera with me, then downloading, organizing, cropping pics and uploading them to the blog — well, that’s a bit less spontaneous and easy. (Don’t worry, mom – we’ll keep updating the photoblog.)

Plus, there’s a vibrancy to a social network that makes a personal blog seem like an outpost. I’m used to Facebook emailing me when someone comments on something I’ve commented on. You get sucked in to the pulse, the dialogue.

To hopefully bring a bit of that energy here, I’ve incorporated disqus comments, which makes it easy to keep track of chit chat on a post and share comments elsewhere. That said, you don’t need a disqus, Twitter or Facebook account; you can simply post as a guest.

Also, you can subscribe to the blog and receive an email when I’ve (finally) posted something. Click ‘subscribe’ at the top of the page (or just click this link right here).

Lastly, I’ve done a bit of optimizing so the site renders well on iPhones and Android-powered smartphones. Take me with you, eh?

Apologies for the radio silence. Hope to be back in fighting form right quick.

These Go to Eleven

Dec 08, 2008

Popped in to the hospital today for a quick EMG on my LUE, or Left Upper Extremity. If you’ve never had the pleasure, an EMG is a test whereby doctors (in my case, five) cram into an exam room and shoot electricity into you for a good half an hour to determine if your nerves work.

“It’s not the most pleasant procedure,” my doctor said apologetically last week.

I’d made an appointment to see the doctor due to some recurring numbness in my left hand combined with a dull ache in my upper left arm. For my trouble she also talked me into the first flu shot I’ve had in thirty-one years on this green earth.

“You’ve got a little one now,” she said. “You don’t want to bring it home to him.”

It is surely a low blow to use one’s child against him in this way. For the next two days it felt as though someone had punched me in the Left Upper Shoulder.

Turns out it was good practice for today’s session.

One of the lab coats stuck a few sensors to my hand while another doctor was brought in to show them how to reset the computer. For the next 30 minutes they talked mostly to one another, asking which knob did what, sharing keyboard shortcuts (“so I just hit pulse twice?”), wondering why the results didn’t show up on the monitor, etc. Apparently the approach during an EMG is: crank the intensity up until you get a result or the patient can power their own appliances.

“Uh, that hurts,” I had to pipe up at one point as the dial went past 15 to 30 to 45 to 60.

“Oh yeah,” one of them laughed, “it is up kinda high.” Ha ha, good times! It felt like someone was continuously snapping a rubber band on my arm from six feet away. My hand flopped about as if in its death throes.

Finally satisfied, they all left the room to share results with the Head Honcho doctor, who returned only to zap me a few more times. Then she turned to me and said, “now they will put the needle in the muscle.”

And thank goodness, because silly me thought the unpleasantness had ended. Nope! For the next twenty minutes they stuck a needle into various spots on my arm, twisting it around as if it were a key and the corresponding keyhole was around here somewhere…

“This next spot is kinda tender,” Lab Coat said before sticking the needle into the flesh between my thumb and forefinger. “Now try to relax this hand. Heh, I know it’s tough, I got a needle in there.”

I mean we had fun today.

Now It’s For Real

Oct 27, 2008

Ever since the family photoblog launched, I’ve found the archives page design lacking. A photoblog archive page should be visual. It should not contain a long, boring list of titles and captions that only make sense when the picture is visible.

Last week I found a handy little snippet of PHP for WordPress that could do exactly what I wanted. Now, instead of seeing a list of post titles, you’ll see a thumbnail of the picture/video in that post. The subject and date archives also work the same way.

Small update, but a fun one. I love that I can see all at once just how the lad has changed in three months.

You’re Either With Us…

Sep 18, 2008

I have studiously avoided Facebook because I heard it was a huge time suck, and I’d rather waste spend my time online reading news or blogs. Plus, I’ve already left a Twitter account languishing pathetically by the side of the internet. What am I doing? I’m trying to think up something amusing to write on Twitter.

But last month I caved, and so far Facebook strikes me as enjoyable and peculiar. I’m quite happy to connect with my ‘now’ friends and reconnect with the ‘whatever happened to’s. However, I’ve started receiving ‘friend’ invitations from Mylers across the globe, which just seems very sideshow-y to me. ‘And over here, a TENTFUL OF MYLERS!’ I imagine people lining up to stare at us and pay a quarter to poke us with a stick.

Seems you get out of Facebook what you put into it, and my energy level has been Twitterrific so far. I’ve yet to change my status since first logging on; “Drew got himself a new baby boy” seems like it should carry me to at least Thanksgiving, and possibly Christmas, at which time I can change it to “Drew’s baby boy is almost six months old!”

Getting a close-up of people’s personalities played out online is pretty fascinating, though — even the ones you don’t know. The other day in my news feed, I saw this gem:

“Tim became a fan of Nutella.”

Nutella! Yes! I need to know these things about people. I seriously heart the fact that someone out there loved Nutella enough to start a fan group about it, and that 541,435 people joined it. This is the kind of world I want to live in, where people find common ground through a chocolaty hazelnut spread. Drew is now thinking about Nutella.

No Stories Here

Aug 28, 2008

When I returned to work a few weeks after Bennett arrived, one of my colleagues eagerly asked to hear stories.

Those of you out there with young’uns may recall differently, but in my experience there are no stories from the first month. He ate, slept, cried, pooped, peed (sometimes on me), and got a bath every few days. He didn’t do anything funny, though perhaps nothing feels funny on four hours of sleep.

That said, he has surprised me from time to time.

First, he does not hate baths, which floored me. He wailed through sponge baths as if we were wiping him down with acid. The first time we plunked him in a tub, I gritted my teeth, and what did he do? He sat there quietly, biding his time, burbling only when the water hit his head. Go figure.

He changes every week. He loves his car seat, he hates his car seat. He loves being swaddled, he hates being swaddled. He loves his pacifier, etc, etc, etc.

Less surprising are his eating habits. Sir was formidable at birth (8 lbs 15 oz) and he weighed in at 10 lbs 11oz during today’s one month checkup. Atta boy.

Of course what goes in must come out, and it frequently comes out with gusto. We refer to these audible evacuations as ‘butt explosions.’ He let one fly today just as the Doctor was discussing his admirable weight gain.

“He’s in the ninety-fifth percentile for weight,” she said, showing us the chart of national averages.

BLATT.

She blinked in surprise. “Maybe ninetieth percentile now.”

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