Artful Design Chapter 8 Reflectio, Wesley Larlarb

The section on the ideal of the PI shaped person feels like something I’ve been struggling to put words to for a long time. In particular I loved Mantra 8.15, the idea that “doing without thinking is dangerous,” “Thinking without feeling is baneful,” and “Feeling without doing is powerless.” It feels like our society separates people into roles so often based on whether they are meant to think, feel, or do.:

Mathematicians, scientists think

therapists feel

construction workers, truck drivers do

Some folks find functional roles within our society which allow for two of these…

engineers think and do

artists, waitresses, teachers feel and do

philosophers, anthropologists, journalists think and feel

Yet to find an individual who is prized for their ability in all three areas, thinking, feeling, and doing feels quite rare to me. I’ve seen so many adults in my life fall into dissatisfaction from being underdeveloped and unvalued by society in one of these areas… 

My dad has been a software developer and startup founder for years, given so many chances to think and do, but it seems like the business world has rarely cared about how he feels. The time he felt most satisfied with his career was when he was working at his own one-man company making educational app/games for preschool aged kids; I think a lot of that satisfaction came from the vicarious satisfaction he got from seeing kids enjoy and learn from his apps.

On the other hand, my mom has been a marketing/product executive and consultant in the health insurance industry for years, given so many chances to think and feel, but I feel like she’s never really been valued by business for what she can do. Because of this, despite her position in the company being relatively powerful on paper, she’s never had much autonomy in actually getting anyone to implement her noble and well-researched ideas about how to improve health insurance. Getting more people cheaper health care could be an insane boon for humanity and really fulfilling… but she’s always seemed relatively powerless to implement her ideas. Since she doesn’t have the skills required to do this by herself, she’s always had to rely on software developers, professional writers, social media campaigners, financial clerks, lawyers, regulators, actuaries… the list goes on.

I’ve always wanted all three aspects of Mantra 8.15, but I think I’ve historically seen them as more separate than they are or should necessarily be. I’ve: 

made music to do and feel

studied, written and discussed to think and feel

programmed to think and do

But what if I could combine all three aspects into one singular activity, an activity which could be as broad as simply “living life,” or as narrow as writing one function in one class in one demo of one game. If I can find a way to fuse these aspects, I don’t think that would be a bad definition of my own eudaemonia.