Why write?

It is an interesting pattern to notice in my IM recently where a number of friends and colleagues are asking about why I am writing these days?

"Dude, great posts. By the by, why are you writing these days suddenly, are you shifting out, are you looking out (we have an opening)? Love the way you bring it out in your posts. Keep rocking Karthi :)"

I was surprised and at the same time thrilled to hear the questions as it gave me an opportunity to think why I am doing what I am doing. Here are the reasons for the recent (abnormal) activity in LinkedIn. I will be honest.

1) I was scared to death to write but I also know that I have a strength to think with hands. All my designs spring from writing and not sketching. My chaos gets to clarity only through writing. Writing is a way of me talking to myself and clear out the cognitive dissonance. This designer side of me loved working in Amazon as everything needs to be written as a one-pager or a two pager or a six pager. Thinking with hands is what writing means to me.

2) I am very consistent with inconsistency. Outside people awe at me keeping strides with things but I know what is really inside me. I am dreaded by consistency. Boredom kicks in too soon and I keep looking for variety in everything I do. Be it gardening or movement or health or design problems. It is ironical that I don't move out of organizations (career paths) so much. In fact, if someone wants longevity they must hire me. Knowing me so well, I hired myself in my own organization as I know I will be at it until the grave and will give my best. One of the silly reasons to start out but hell ya, it works. Different problem statements, different clients, different teams and it is all about hands-on design every single day. What more to ask for wrt career? Blessed.

3) I needed to comply with the assignments at Institute of Product Leadership as a part of my EMBA and they forced the hell out of us to write in public. I created a blog only after the PUSH from IPL in Medium and some profs were particular we must have an article posted on LinkedIn for assignments. Till then LinkedIn was far away for me as I never needed marketing for my work and to be honest, the user experience of LinkedIn sucks. It is getting much better but there is still a long way to go. All said and done I am very thankful to all the faculty @IPL who trusted in the process and stood by it.

When all the above was happening I decided to beat the heck out of consistency and fears this year as a new year resolution. Like a clockwork, I have been doing things consistently. Whether it is running or nutrition or blogging or office work or sleeping, been crushing it for the past 60 days and surprising myself.

Einstein said, "compounding is the eighth wonder of the world". As a follow up I would say "consistency is the ninth wonder of the world.". If we can consistently compound things, the world would be a better place.

Well, how did I overcome the fear of writing? Thanks to Prof. Thatagat Varma. He said, 7.2 billion people are busy with their own lives and who cares about what you write and who has the time to read all those rambles. It soothed me enough. To check it out, I wrote a blog and saw how many people liked it with no marketing from myself (sending to friends and asking for their opinion is also marketing), there were hardly 9 likes. I was convinced that the world is busy.

You could write for yourself right, why put on a public medium like LinkedIn or Medium? As social animals, we human beings are highly compliant and even when no one reads, the responsibility with which you write is phenomenal as it is public and you cannot take back what you put on the internet. So in my view writing is a way of expression like art, dance, design etc. Basically, you express to yourself about things you care in this lifetime (all things design for me). So, in a nutshell, I write for myself, responsibly. As a side effect, if it helps someone who is a fellow traveler on the path, I treat it as a bonus. If someone shares a different point of view, I thank them inside as he or she has triggered some grey cells in my brain to think more. The humility writing has brought in is humongous. Whether someone reads or not, I have the contentment of writing consistently about something I care. I am better version compared to yesterday. A little more vulnerable, a little more tender, a little more gentle and a little smaller than before.

The intent is not to market, not to get likes, not to measure shares, not to get clients, not even to evangelize design but just to share my thoughts the way it is. Everyone will take what he or she wants as value and the rest is any way garbage so what should I be worried about?

In the days to come, I truly want to beat consistency with consistency and compound the learnings as days go by. I am humbled by the number of requests that have hit my IM with mentorship requests, recruitment help, design audit, consulting gigs etc without any agenda. Some designers have opened up their heart and life stories in the past week and i am really humbled to be of some value to fellow designers.

YOLO let us spread the love for all things design.