Creative freedom isn't what you think it is (video)

In this talk, James Archer explains how creative freedom isn't what most people think it is.
YouTube captions transcript (auto-generated):
the theme for this month is freedom and
I want to tell you a little story this
is edward steichen who's one of the most
influential photographers in history and
he has a you know a great portfolio of
his own but according to him the
culminating moment of his career the
biggest thing that he ever did was an
exhibition at the museum of modern art
in 1955 in New York and it was called
the family of man and so he curated
photos from 273 photographers from
around the world and you know kind of
gathered them all together in an exhibit
that was intended to kind of showcase
the universality of the human experience
and to show the ways that we're all sort
of tied together it was a hugely
influential exhibition is still one of
the most influential photography
exhibitions of all time and you know
being in 1955 I was never actually able
to attend that but I did happen to find
the the book for it at the library one
time I just stumbled across it you know
many many many years ago and it was
actually really influential to me it
kind of you know it showcase and gave a
broader perspective of what the human
experience is and showed the ways in
which you know there really is a massive
diversity of culture and and you know
different different kind of societies
but there's also a lot that we we all
have in common so that was something
that was sort of hugely influential for
me and it helped to reinforce the idea
of society to me and it really helped me
to understand the interconnectedness
that we all have so this is this is
thomas hobbes this 16th century british
philosopher and if you're curious he's
the same hobbs that Hobbes from Calvin
and Hobbes was named after and he wrote
a book called Leviathan which was it was
essentially a about politics and how
politics works and so this was in the
16th century so it worked a little bit
differently back then but he sort of
popularized the idea of what he called
the social contract and the social
contract is this idea that when we enter
into a society we're sort of making a
mutual agreement that I'm going to
compromise on some things in return for
the benefits of being able to associate
with other people and get the benefits
that come with that and it's in a way
we're sort of giving up some freedoms
but we're doing it voluntarily and we're
doing it for a lot of benefit that we
then receive
because without that without you know
without us connecting together as
societies and you know having that that
interconnectedness and collaboration you
know the natural state of man is no arts
no letters no society and which is worse
of all continual fear and danger of
violent death and the life of man
solitary poor nasty brutish and short so
that's what happens when we don't have
society to kind of help us get all those
benefits that we get from from
connecting together and sharing those
things now that thought process was kind
of continued and in 1762 this is Jean
Jacques Rousseau and he wrote a book
called on the social contract that kind
of further explored that particular idea
and in it you know one of the things he
talked about was you know there were
struggling to sort of define freedom you
know are we free in our natural state
apart from anyone else when we have no
connections no affiliations no
dependencies and nothing is that freedom
or are we free when we enter into a
society we make some of those
compromises and we get then the benefits
that come with that which a lot of times
are additional freedoms that come of
freedom to be healthier freedom to be
safe freedom to you know accomplish
bigger things that we can accomplish a
loan and so they kind of went back and
forth way you know he sort of fell on
the side of you know when we enter into
a society we actually gained freedoms
even though we're giving up some things
and and and that we're also very much
free to enter into and leave those
societies and that's kind of a
controversial concept in an era when
people were used to things like the
Divine Right of Kings and that Kings
were divinely appointed and they had
absolute rule just because they were who
they are and he kind of positioned it
you know much much more our view of its
by the consent of the governed and that
you know we voluntarily enter into a
society and if we don't like it we can
leave that society and go somewhere else
and this was hugely influential in the
the French Revolution and this kind of
thinking also in the American Revolution
had had a big influence and a lot of
society comes down to the idea of
compromise and you know when we tend to
think of having to work with other
people we think of it as a struggle you
know what if they don't want the same
thing that I want and what you know what
if we have to do that but when we
learned that the mechanisms of
collaboration and the mechanisms of
society we're actually able to
accomplish a lot more and we
have to chafe against it we can actually
sort of go with the grain and make it
work really well for everyone involved
your old familiar i'm sure with you know
the golden rule or the ethic of
reciprocity you know do unto others as
you'd have them do unto you that's sort
of the the biblical version of it that
we're culturally familiar with but
almost every culture in the world has
some variation of that that basic ethic
and that's that's sort of the the
foundational element of what makes a
society work you know it's that idea of
I'm gonna I'm gonna treat you okay and
you treat me okay right and we'll do we
have a deal here and you know if you
think about it if you're you know let's
say you're the hermit off on your own
you know trying to survive and there's
someone else who happens to build his
Hut next to yours that's probably the
first thing you're going to agree on I
won't kill you if you don't kill me and
that's like the foundation of society
everything is based on that even though
even that very first thing is a taking
away of freedom yeah i mean it could be
seen that way but really then grants you
other freedoms like the freedom to
survive and the freedom to you know do
other things because of course without
that our lives are you know solitary
poor nasty brutish and short and so we
have to have those things to have the
freedom to to continue and you know a
lot of philosophers throughout history
kind of came to those same conclusions
these are you know some of the guys that
topped and wrote and thought about this
idea of the social contract and they all
kind of came to that same conclusion
which is that through society we gain
sort of a fuller sense of freedom and we
sort of are able to reach the human
potential and so you know by making
those compromises we gain freedom and
you know it's important to kind of think
through that stuff because america right
if there's if there's one word that you
know about America it's probably freedom
because that's the thing we just keep
saying over and over and over and over
and over again and it is it is drilled
into us from birth that we should be
free we should do whatever we want we
shouldn't have to listen to anyone it's
sort of we sort of gotten this like
weird corrupted version of it we don't
spend a whole lot of time thinking about
what that word actually means what does
freedom actually mean and so you know it
means something very different to us
than it does when you know the the
Declaration of Independence was first
written they were they were declaring
the freedom to associate and create a
society and to you know collaborate in
the ways that they wanted to without
being oppressed or without being
artificially forced to not do those
things that they were trying to
accomplish and have that sense of
society but now you know if you if you
look up freedom on any stock photo site
including sponsor shutterstock you're
going to see this basically this photo
over and over and over and over again so
so so let's try this let's have some
freedom so put your hands up and look at
the ceiling right the field it feels
good right like you feel if you
liberated but the thing is you know the
thing you notice about these people is
there all alone anytime you search for a
photo of freedom you're not going to
find a group of people being free
together it's always a solitary person
far away from everyone else alone and
sort of in that natural state of no
obligations no dependencies you don't
have to answer to anyone you don't have
to do anything and the reason for that
is that society is hard like it's hard
to deal with other people and you know
you you you know any you take any two
people in this room and try to do
something together and you're going to
start doing this you're almost right
away like oh why do you want to do that
I want to do this well I thought we were
going to you know and so we have we have
that tension that tension makes society
hard and when things are hard we have
the natural reaction to want to just get
away from it so that's what makes this
feel so appealing even though this is
actually sort of distant from that that
broader sense of freedom of freedom
within a society in freedom to
accomplish big things and do the things
that we want this is garrett Hofstetter
he's a judge sociologists and
anthropologists and in the 70s he worked
for IBM and IBM huge company at the time
offices all around the world and part of
his job was to figure out how to make
these offices work better together
despite their massive cultural
differences so he started evaluating the
different cultures based on a scale that
he put together one of the scales he
looked at was individuality versus
collectivism so individuality is sort of
a an ego-driven it's about me it's about
what i want to do versus collectivism
which is you know it's for the greater
good and all sacrificed myself to kind
of help everyone and what he found was
that the United States is the most
individualistic country in the world and
you guys probably kind of knew that but
quantitatively we are the most
egotistical country in the entire world
and it's important to know that so that
we you know we know where we come from
and we know what our society is all
about so this is the kind of stuff that
as Americans especially young Americans
we value and admire and we like the
people who just fight the system and do
whatever they want they don't care they
don't give a crap what anyone thinks and
we've come to idolize that and you know
we sort of created this you know a
subculture of admiration for people who
just completely break with that system
you know they're not worried about the
social norms and you know we admire
their bravery and we say things like I
wish I could be more like them and just
do whatever I want well you know the
interesting thing is there's another
word for this sociopathy psychopathy and
if you look like the actual attributes
if you look up the definitions of
sociopathy and psychopathy it's
essentially the same thing it's people
who don't care at all about that social
contract that we have voluntarily
entered into and so they sort of abuse
the system in a way you know they come
into the site they take the benefits of
society but they don't do that giving
back they don't do the participation and
that that collaboration that makes it
all work for us and the fact that you
know I might have to sacrifice my
freedom to help you guys receive
something you know as an example I mean
I don't like public speaking I'm really
afraid of public speaking this took a
long time to prepare I'd rather be at
home playing video games but it's
actually it's more important for me to
be you know to have the opportunity to
come and communicate with you guys so I
give up the freedom of just not caring
and doing whatever I want and making
sacrifices for the society to it you
know to to help you in to kind of move
things forward and then that comes back
and benefits me and I get greater
freedoms because of the contributions
and all that stuff found it works
together so this little bar is one of
the the main philosophies that I have in
my life that helps me kind of sort
things out and make decisions so it at
one end of the bar you have an extreme
and that could be anything any any
extreme and so what happens you know if
you're dealing with an extreme either
you're you're there and you're
passionate about it for some reason
you're all the way over at one end of
the spectrum and sometimes you know that
doesn't work or there's something you
dislike about it or you want to
l against it usually what you do is you
go over to the other extreme and the
thing about extremes is they actually
don't work very well at all I mean when
you're in one of those extreme states
things are just sort of non functional
and you're missing huge numbers of
opportunities you're missing lots of
ways that you can can sacrifice and
compromise and collaborate and do some
of those things in between so it's
actually really not very healthy to be
at those extreme ends the right answer
and the things that eventually makes us
happiest and accomplishes the most in
our lives is usually somewhere in the
middle and but the problem is you know
moderation is not the sexiest thing in
the world it's not the most fun it
doesn't get our heart pounding so you
see this with politics for example I
mean you know really most people are
somewhere kind of in the center of the
spectrum but it's way more fun over at
this extreme and way more fun over that
extreme and to butt heads because that's
just kind of our natural inclination is
to be sort of tribalistic about it like
oh you're this well now I'm going to be
this and you sort of fight it out so no
even though the right answer is almost
always somewhere in the middle we
actually have very little incentive to
get there because it's way more fun and
exciting and exhilarating to be over on
the extremes and interestingly the
Buddha actually talked about this a
little bit so you know during during his
kind of you know spiritual progression
you know one of the things he tried to
do was sort of overcome his physical
constraints by what he called
self-mortification and basically just
starving himself and spending all his
time meditating and just giving up all
you know physical necessities to sort of
transcend his physical being and then
eventually he was like well that doesn't
work and so he's stopped and it was
actually a big crisis for his followers
because his followers were like you're
giving up like we got it like we were
doing this thing remember and he's like
whatever this doesn't work and he kind
of walked away from it but he also knew
the right answer wasn't to go to the
other extreme which is just a you know a
hedonistic sensual istic kind of
lifestyle that's a that's a great
picture right that was from a chironomus
Bosch painting so he knew that wasn't
the right answer and so you know he
developed what he called the middle way
or the middle path which is you know the
right answer is probably some sort of
harmonious thing kind of down the middle
it's not this extreme or this extreme
it's somewhere in between and and that
principle applies you know kind of
throughout our lives I mean healthwise
this isn't right
but you know this isn't right either
like that neither of those are
particularly good for you the right
answer sort of be like a normal human
being somewhere in the middle that's
that's our best state where we are you
know the healthiest and can enjoy it the
most but similarly you know we as
Americans and when it comes to
individuality and egotism and doing
exactly what we want and not caring
about other people we are at the extreme
and it's important for us to know that
to know like what our baseline is you
know we're not in the middle and then we
kind of vary from the middle we are
already at the far end of egotism and
doing exactly what we want and we have
to know that to have that broader
perspective of maybe it's okay to come
back a little bit from that you know but
at the other end you've got you know
maybe a country like China there's a
highly collectivistic culture where you
pretty much always sacrifice the
individual for the greater whole that's
the other extreme that's not very good
either and the problem is you know when
we talk about going back and forth
between these extremes if you're at one
extreme and you start to come back to
the other one it feels like you're just
going to the other extreme and so your
brain rejects a but really you're not
you're just go into the middle where
things are actually kind of healthy and
stable and harmonious now I don't know
what's in the middle of their there's no
flag for that but yeah that's that's
something that we have to figure out
like I mean if we give up some of that
individual ality that we have and and
not not go to the other extreme but give
a little bit and kind of be in a society
and take advantage that what does that
look like and the truth is we really
don't know because in the United States
there is so much pop culture from birth
driving us toward that that complete
individualistic state of just doing
exactly what we want not caring what
anyone else thinks think think about
half the movies you watch growing up you
know it's there's never there's never
never been a movie made about why it's
good to listen to your parents you know
it's always like I'm you know I'm gonna
you know my pit my dad wants me to do
this but I'm just gonna follow my dreams
and he'll see I'll prove it to him and
then in the end that always works out in
real life sometimes you should listen to
your dad you know it's like sometimes
he'd do something you didn't know and
but we're not taught that at all we are
only taught do whatever you want follow
your dreams don't listen to anyone else
and go do it sometimes that's good
advice sometimes it's not and we need to
have the balance of being in the middle
so we can choose and we can choose which
one might be right in the in the
situation you
instead of a hundred percent of the time
defaulting to I'm just gonna do whatever
I want and so you know this this idea I
totally get I mean there are times where
that's all I want I just I need to just
get away and get to that but we have to
remember that's like a snack you know
that's a that's a vacation that
shouldn't be the lifestyle of choice
because that's ultimately what leads to
isolation being removed from the
benefits of society and missing out on
the opportunities that have come with
collaboration and association with other
people and so in my mind you know
freedom really probably looks more like
this that family of man exhibit where we
really are in an interconnected society
we really are dependent on each other
with all the pain and hassle and
annoyance that comes with that but
that's where our freedom comes from and
you know the question is what does that
have to do with you so why are why are
we even talking about this so I want to
talk a little bit about design and so
I'm you know I'm going to talk about
designing a very general sense design is
creative problem solving and so whether
you self-identify as a designer or not
you might be a copywriter you might be a
videographer you might be something else
entirely maybe you're a project manager
you're still coming in and helping
people solve some sort of a problem and
so in my mind you're a designer so I'm
referring to you when I talk about this
stuff so design if you've heard me talk
before I talk a lot about how design is
fundamentally related to empathy and I
would go so far as to say the word
empathize er could be a substitute for
designer in almost all contexts and if
if what we're doing doesn't fit that it
may not actually be designed you know if
we're just putting pretty graphics
together and delivering them and we're
not really thinking about who has to use
it how they feel about it what it does
to their lives what it encourages them
to do or not do where I don't think
we're really designing I think we're
just throwing stuff together and
shoveling it out there but I want to
give an example of how empathy ties into
design so this is a this is an amazing
remote control so this is the highest
highest ranked remote control in terms
of ratings on amazon com I went looked
it up and I was because i was expecting
the highest rated remote control will be
empathetically designed and it is so if
you think about how you use a remote
control you don't you don't hold it up
in front of your face and do this to it
usually
you need to know where the button is
you're just pointing and your thumb
should know what to do and half the time
you're doing it in the dark so you need
to feel your way around it and kind of
okay there's the volume button you know
on a poorly designed remote have to time
you hit the wrong button you're turning
the volume up when you wanted it down
and everything's go change a channel in
the middle of a movie but this one very
well designed the buttons are shaped
differently positioned differently
there's kind of a symmetry to it you can
find your way around your thumb knows
what to do there's lots of different
types of interfaces this is an example
of how empathy leads to good design and
and there's almost a one-to-one parallel
I mean if the design is empathetic and
you thought through what the user is
dealing with and address those issues it
will be good design and if you look at
anything that is good design you can see
clearly the ways in which was designed
empathetically it not aesthetically but
empathetically so I don't own that
remote but i do own one of these so we
have this we got a DVD player for the
our cabin up in northern Arizona and
this is probably probably the cheapest
DVD player money can buy the the cyber
home DVD player and it came with this
remote which you know I was I was going
to try I couldn't I couldn't remember
the brand name so i was just gonna find
like a generic bad remote and i spent 45
minutes looking and could not find one
as bad as the actual one that we own
that we have to deal with so i thought i
finally figured it out and found the
exact photo of this one but if you look
at this one this one is not only
impossible to use without looking or
impossible to use in the dark you can't
even look at when you're holding it up
and trying to figure out how to change
the channel i mean it is because
everything is the same there is no
empathy at all in the design it was
designed exactly to some circuit board
that an engineer put together and they
just use a stock button panel right on
top of it and put the buttons right over
it and said okay well let's assign the
buttons to these functions is now we're
done there was no thought about what
it's like to actually try to use the
thing so bad design is almost always
directly connected to lack of empathy
the two are inseparably connected if you
find something that's not empathetically
design it will be badly designed and
vice versa now beyond just designing
things you know there's also empathy for
the client you know we have empathy for
the user but we need we really need to
have more empathy for the client and
create the experience for them because
you know this
is kind of how designers talk about our
clients you know I mean we're happy to
their face and we smile and me take
their request and we go in and change
them but then when designers get
together this is how they talk and to me
what that shows is a complete lack of
empathy for the client who's coming to
you who's who's got their fair share of
stuff to deal with and the logo that you
want in one font versus another is just
such a small part of their life and and
all the things that they're dealing with
and and the truth is they're not they're
not designers they're not paid to be
designers nobody trained them to be
designers they haven't spent all the
time obsessing about it that we have so
they just don't know and so we have to
give them a little bit of slack for for
being in a situation that they don't
understand they're trying to figure it
out as best they can it's one of many
things that they have they don't have a
whole lot of time to commit to it they
don't even know what questions to ask
you they don't know what kind of
feedback to give you we have to take
that into account and just be a little
bit cooler with our clients because you
know how would you feel if your doctor
acted like a designer when it came to
patients you know you'll get your
results when I'm ready you know it's
like that's not that's not how doctors
are supposed to act you know beat be
this doctor be the empathetic one the
one who explains to you that you you
don't have lupus no matter what you read
on WebMD for the seventh time that day
she's explaining that to someone and but
you know what she's cool about it she
gets it she knows people get confused
she knows they don't have the
information that she has so she's just
cool about it and explains it and and
i'm not talking about putting on a
smiling face for your client and then
you know badmouthing behind their back
if you really have empathy for them and
you get where that clients coming from
you're not feeling that anger you know
you're not you're not angry at them for
making wanting to make revisions because
you get where that impulse is coming
from so you have to spend a little bit
of time kind of putting yourself in
their shoes so let's talk about creative
freedom for a minute so we got it we got
to make the pose again freedom feels
good field of sunshine so design isn't
art you know art art is about
self-expression and say you know
sometimes designer art get get confused
and you're very often designers are also
artists but
design is not art they're very different
disciplines design is about making
things happen it's about accomplishing a
particular goal it's about persuading
someone to do something or about
creating a certain kind of experience
that makes them feel better about it and
but it's not art it's not about us it's
not about us expressing ourselves and if
you go back to the dr example you know
the thing that adopter knows that a lot
of designers don't is that the doctor
knows it's not about her it's about the
patient and the patient's disease but
it's not about the doctor so not about
the doctor wanting to express herself
it's not about what disease the doctor
wants to diagnose that day it's about is
just about the patient and the disease
and that's kind of how we need to
approach design everything we have a
client the client has a problem that's
what we're solving it's not about us
expressing ourselves or us wanting to
like well I really wanted to do the logo
like this wait doesn't it doesn't matter
what we want that much as a matter of
how we solve the problem in the most
effective way possible and sometimes the
client doesn't get in it's a little you
know we have to make some compromises
and that's the social contract right we
have the social contract with our client
of two people are gonna come together
and we're gonna try our best and it's
gonna chafe a little bit but we'll come
up with a pretty good result now they're
they're generally for reasons that kind
of lead to us feeling like we don't have
creative freedom so I kind of want to
walk through them the first one sounds
harder than it is but it's it's really
that you know if we don't understand the
craft that we do enough to consciously
explain it we're going to have a really
hard time explaining to people and
getting them to understand where we're
coming from you know because I'm the
designer is not a valid reason for a
certain design choice you know we have
to explain why we chose that fog and to
do that we have to know why we chose
that farm so there has to be a lot of
kind of intentionality and conscious
thought put into the design process so
the the solution to that is just you
know embrace your craft and seek to
understand it you know you shouldn't
design by the seat of your pants you
should actually have a pretty good
understanding if you think this is the
right font think through consciously why
is that the right font and how do I
explain that to someone because that's a
really helpful thing to have you know
you're another problems you're not
getting into their head and usually that
is just the result of empathy you know
if you can if you can get where they're
coming from you can you can turn your
explanation around in a way that
resonates with them and the day value
and it get get some benefit from another
one and this is one that I do a lot is
you fall in love with the concept
so you you put something together and
then as soon as you see it you're like
this is it this is the one true concept
and then you show it to them and they
want to revise it and you just feel
completely betrayed like how do they not
see this is the one true concept you
know really there's there's a whole lot
of ways to design a solution to almost
any problem there are dozens and dozens
and dozens of different ways to solve
any problem so for us to fall in love
with any particular one that we came up
with that's more of our sort of
resistance to change our wanting to you
know wanting the thing to be done and
finding out that it's not done and
feeling bad about that more than it is
the fact that that really was the ones
from answer the truth is you could
design something seven different ways
it'll probably still work really well
there are lots of different valid
choices so you know embrace the revision
process you know trust that the first
thing you do isn't going to be the best
one it's a it's a prototype and you
iterate the prototype and at some point
you'll get to an answer that's really
good that both you and the client are
happy with and you know the truth is
most things that go through a revision
process and we don't talk about this a
lot but most things that go through a
really hearty revision process actually
come out a lot better and when you look
back at that initial concept a lot of
times it wasn't as great as you thought
it was and sometimes it goes a different
direction than you wanted but sometimes
the original one was kind of weak and
it's good to put it through the paces
and make it make it make sure that it
gets good so revisions a beautiful thing
take advantage of it and then the last
one and this is a really frustrating one
but you know you have time and budget
constraints you know you want to do this
but the client has this budget and you
have to find something that works within
that and and to do there I'm really it's
about embracing the context that you're
in you know when you're designing a
solution the the timeline and the budget
are part of the constraints that you're
designing for that's the box that you
are designing in you know you have a
frame and you're designing something in
that frame and that's fine it's fine for
those to be part of the constraints so I
want to tell you another story this is
Ferdinand Porsche and in 1931 he founded
a company in Germany and auto company
called Porsche they didn't manufacture
cars in the beginning but they you know
essentially did consulting and
development work for automobile
manufacturers and you know around that
time in Germany Germany was going
through a rough spot I mean that you
know the the Great Depression in the
United States kind of affected everyone
Jeremy was having all kinds of problems
of their own
you know at the time they had about
thirty percent unemployment the economy
was terrible the average German family
couldn't afford a motorcycle let alone a
car and so in you know in 1933 in
Germany they happen to elect a new
chancellor you might know him and so he
had part of part of his wanting to
resolve this problem was he basically
demanded that someone come up with a car
concept that could take two adults and
three children at least about 60 miles
an hour and it had to cost no more than
a motorcycle so those are those are some
some constraints right there right
that's that's pretty tough constraints
so Ferdinand Porsche went at it you know
there were a lot of companies kind of
vying for this project and trying to
compete and come up with solutions but
he just went for it and he said I could
I can totally do this and eventually he
developed a prototype a functioning
prototype that would take a family of
five people at 60 miles an hour and cost
no more than a motorcycle and that's
that's that's a pretty amazing design
accomplishment and the more amazing part
is this is this is a picture of the last
version of that car it's basically
essentially the same car the entire time
rolling off an assembly line this is the
last one in 2003 in Mexico see the
mariachi band in the back I thought that
was great you know over that time so
this car in the same form was in
production for 65 years they made over
21 million of them it is the most
successful car in history so you know we
all have time and budget constraints but
keep in mind Ferdinand Porsche was in
the middle of essentially a depression
with thirty percent unemployment
designing a car for a family of five
that cost no more than a motorcycle and
his client was literally adolphe Hitler
so you you can probably work this out
really you know design isn't about this
this this isn't the context that we
design it it's not about us expressing
ourselves and having complete creative
freedom and we do what we want because
we're the designer and we're right and
they're just a stupid client that's
that's not really designed I mean
honestly this is design you know it
happens within a context it happens
within society it happens with
collaboration it happens with
associations with other people who may
not think exactly the way we want to but
somehow we make it work because we're a
society and we have that social contract
that we have entered into of you know
I'm going to help you and you're going
to help me and we're going to make this
work as best we can because we know that
benefits everyone best in the long run
and as designers you know we need to
know where we're coming from we need to
know we are Americans and we are we are
by default deeply egotistical and it's
sometimes we have to come back off that
a little bit to make these relationships
work and to function effectively in a
society and that's what I think about
freedom