The living contradiction is a concept I first encountered in my days as a teacher. Through my professor and friend Tom Russell I learned of Jack Whitehead, who was very interested in action research, reflective practice and living educational theory.

Jack talks about experiencing oneself as a living contradiction — when we experience our actions being at odds with our beliefs and values — as the impetus to improve. When we experience that feeling, we are motivated to act. To change. To iterate.

This is different than hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is the when we pretend to have certain beliefs and values, when we don’t really have them. With hypocrisy, we are lying.

A living contradiction, however, is about the truth. Finding a way to live true to what we believe — both personally and professionally.

Feeling the Pain

In the final two months of 2009, I did precisely the opposite of what I should have been doing. In October, I wrote two posts “What Gives?” and “Needs More Whitespace” — both of which explored the need to give things up, to slow down, to create space in our personal and professional lives in order to achieve a better balance between the personal and professional parts of our lives as part of long term “success” and happiness.

I wrote the words, but I couldn’t live the ideals. I slept less per night than I had for the last 2.5 years. I didn’t log my hours of sleep, but I know that more often than not, my alarm woke me only 3 or 4 hours after my head hit the pillow. Not healthy.

I believe, like Jack, that I can make a positive change after feeling and experiencing this dissonance. Feeling it so acutely is certainly more than enough to provoke me. I need to reflect, plan, act and evaluate. I am a living contradiction, and I’m okay with that, as long as I do something about it.

What are you doing — right now — that shows you are a living contradiction? What are you going to do to make a change to bring your actions in line with your ideals and beliefs?

We both need to change this now, while we’re still in the tone-setting, habit-building infancy of 2010.

That is part of the reason that I signed up for Project 52. It isn’t just a kick start to get me writing more. I’m using Project 52 as a means for me to understand myself and others more deeply and thoroughly.

In processing the past year of triathlon training and racing, I came to the realization that last year’s activities were focused entirely on the long haul. My wife and I competed in two races: IronMan Lake Placid, and IronMan Muskoka 70.3. Both are long distance races, and are spaced such that they ended up being the only races we trained for. And ultimately, that hurt us. We resented training. We weren’t having fun. We just didn’t want to do it any more.

Mentally reliving the experiences of the past 12 months while kicking off 2010, connected our world of triathlon racing to my world of work. Last year’s long-haul-only tri pain was that of 2008 in business — where we worked almost exclusively on one project for one client for the entire year. That singular focus for an entire year nearly burnt us out completely (ask Jeff Smith — he’ll tell you!), and I’m determined to never let that happen again.

Just as we need variety in our training and competitions in triathlon, so too, do we need variety in the projects we take on in business. It can’t just be the long haul.

It seems to me that in many ways, my ideal year in triathlon would be very similar to an ideal year of business. For the company to be healthy, and for us to maintain our passion, to feel good about what we’re doing, we need a well-balanced mixture of activity. Mix some short term projects — the sprint distance triathlons where we push our limits to go fast and furious — with some longer term projects — the long haul, IronMan and IronMan 70.3 races that take long, slow preparation and lots of endurance building — and a good dose of fun — projects where we experiment and scratch our own itches, doing things just for us.

Now, more than ever, I’m looking forward to the year 2010 — with a clear path forward for the right variety — in business, and in health.

What’s the right mix for you for 2010? How are you going to maintain variety so that you don’t burn out and keep the passion for what you do alive and well?

Know your banker. That kind of changed in the era of electronic banking. I didn’t need to actually go into the bank did I? We have drive thru banking/ATMs everywhere. Just let me stay in my car, drive thru and carry on with my day — I’m extremely busy, dontcha know?

The Inconvenience of Convenience

It all worked well. Until ATM deposits started having a hold on the funds until they could actually be verified.

This bothered me to no end — the electronic transactions that are supposed to travel at the speed of electrons were actually slowing things down. It meant that I got access to money later rather than sooner.

So I talked to my bank’s manager about it one day, and she explained to me how it worked. And now, every time I have a cheque, I take in to see the real, live people that work at the bank. Because they know who I am. They can see my banking history. They can ask me if I’ve had cheques from that particular client before or if they are a new account. They can look me in the eyes and we can TALK.

That’s something that a machine can’t do.

Going Backward to Move Forward

The electronic has become (or maybe always has been) impersonal.

So I need to take it back to the beginning. Talk with my banker. Take an extra 30 minutes to have a face to face chat with clients about new ideas for their businesses and ours. Take 30 minutes to pick up the phone and talk with friends that run other businesses — yes, some will be with friends that in similar businesses to us, but some will be with those that are most definitely NOT in the web design/development or UX business.

As a business owner, as part of my business strategy, one of my big goals for 2010 is simply this: spend more time talking with people face to face or over the telephone instead of via email.

Your life needs more whitespace. You told me so in your comments on “What Gives?” When you have no whitespace in your life — like a design — it doesn’t feel right. Crowded. Sub-optimal. You can get the job done, but something just doesn’t feel right.

To create more whitespace in a design, we take things away. We create margins. Padding. We add more line-spacing. How can we do that in our lives?

Quit working through lunch. I’m not talking about time here. I’m talking about the activity. Stop eating your lunch at your computer. You may need to eat at your computer once in a while, but when it becomes every meal of every day, a vital part of your whitespace is gone.

Meetings take up your whitespace. Get rid of any that you can. Yes, other people have written this before. I write it here because I feel the sharp pains of them being right. And if you can’t get rid of them, work hard to avoid back to back to back meetings.

Boxes must go. You know how you want to draw attention to something in a design? You draw a box around it. Then, you want to draw attention to something else and you draw a box around it too. Pretty soon everything has a box around it. And when everything has a box around it, nothing does. Don’t draw attention to or separate various aspects of your life with boxes. Separate them with whitespace.

The beauty of whitespace is contrast. Whitespace accentuates contrasting elements and allows them to stand out based on what they are and aren’t, rather than what visual treatment they have to make them stand out.

Like the elements of a great design the elements of your life don’t need a visual treatment. They just need some room to stand on their own. The elements of your life need more whitespace.

A few weeks ago I was feeling particularly rough about what direction life was headed between work, friends, our crazy passion for endurance events as a hobby, family, and everything else that needs to find a place in our lives. I actually felt like things might have been unraveling at the seams.

So I asked a very simple question on Twitter — are we all just burning out?

The responses people posted had one common thread: YES. Either people were feeling that they were burning out, or that they were already there, or were actually engaged in achieving multiple burnout.

Like it is normal. An expectation of our industry.

That is not acceptable.

I’m tired of seeing my friends across the globe at the wrong times. I shouldn’t be awake and neither should they! My friends on the west coast of North America? If you’re still awake and working at 3am when I’m waking up at 6 or 7 am, then something is wrong. Those in the UK and Europe? When I’m doing a bit of extra work at 9pm at night and its 3am for you? Not cool. My Kiwi and Aussie friends? Get. To. Bed.

I was honoured to speak at Webstock in Wellington, New Zealand in February this year. I was incredibly motivated by Mike Brown’s words. I’m paraphrasing, but Mike’s  opening address resonated with me:

The work we are doing on the web is critically important. We’re working at building the most important communications network in history. What we do today matters. It matters for today, for tomorrow, forever – and it deserves our very best work. We owe it to each other, to ourselves, to everyone.

Doing our best means not burning out. That should be the accepted norm in our industry.

If you’re burning out (yes, I’m talking to you) something has to give — because if it doesn’t, we won’t be producing our best work. Be conscious in your choice of what gives though — if it is family, personal health and well-being, or our relationships with friends, we’re in a lot of trouble. Those are supposed to be the most important things. It seems that they are the ones that we take for granted or sacrifice first.

Over the past few months I’ve realized that the sacrifices I have made haven’t always been the right ones — partly because I’m conflicted. I’m sure we all feel this pressure in some way: in order to provide for my family I feel more pressure for the business to do more — take on more work, expand what we’re doing, have more income so that I can provide more comfort, more food, more whatever. more. more. more. But at the end of the day, it just feels like less and less and less.

I don’t know what everyone else is feeling right now, but I know where I am. So the question is, what gives? I have no clue. But it can’t be family or me. Those are the wrong things to compromise. I owe family and me, my very best, because what I do with them, matters.

If you can’t make it to Ottawa, are interested in other workshops, or if you’d like us to bring the workshop to another location, let us know where and when you’d like us to make the workshop happen and we’ll be happy to investigate bringing it to your area or to your in-house team.

If you can’t wait until June 15th, you might also check out what we’re doing at other conferences in the next few months (please, check out the full list of events where I’m speaking)

Web App Summit, Newport Beach, CA, April 19-22

I spoke at the Web App Summit last year, and it was a fantastic experience; I’m really excited that the UIE team has asked me back for the 2009 Web App Summit. This event brings together an amazing pool of talent — the attendees, the conference organizers and the other speakers.

In addition to my main conference talk, I’m turning out a new full-day workshop for this conference that pulls together foundational concepts in Ajax technology and design with best practices for implementation and execution. The workshop — Designing Great Interactive Experiences for Everyone: Implementing Ajax and Accessibility — is for those that are looking for a kick start with Ajax, those that are looking for opportunities to use Ajax in their new or existing web apps, and those that need to ensure they follow best practices for developing with Ajax.

Use the promo code FEATHER to get your discount.

Access U, Austin, TX, May 11-14

Access U 2009 is full-on accessibility. I’ve been speaking at Access U since 2005 for Knowbility. If you’re looking for more accessibility than you can handle, this is the place to get it. From Accessibility 101, to CSS, JavaScript, Accessibility Policy, PDF, Flash, and a lot more. New to this conference is the UPA track.

I’m also debuting a new full-day workshop: Breaking New Ground: Designing for Accessibility with Emerging Technologies. The workshop takes a look at different technologies: PDF, Flash, Flex, Silverlight and others from a fresh perspective: how do we work with these technologies in a modern world where WCAG 2.0 is the standard and the days of WCAG 1.0’s “use HTML or it isn’t accessible” are gone.

An Event Apart, Boston, MA, June 21-22

No workshops for me this time, just a brand new presentation that explores “Accessibility – Experiments at the Edges of Experience.” In this talk we walk through a host of examples of accessibility at the edge, looking at solutions that solve problems and shine light in some of the murkiest, greyest areas of accessibility for web sites and apps.

Use the promo code AEAVIP for your discount off the registration fee for An Event Apart Boston 2009.

• I believe that accessibility helps us to innovate and create.
• I believe that accessibility is something that must be provided.
• I believe that accessibility is different than interoperability.
• I believe that accessibility is not a hindrance to progress.

There is much kerfuffle over Bespin, a <canvas> based tool that was put out by Mozilla Labs. (Incidentally, I’m really hoping it is Bespin as an homage to Star Wars’ Bespin and not BeSpin, as in the conjoining of the two words “be” and “spin”)

Many people are crying foul saying that <canvas> is inherently inaccessible at this point, and therefore the accessibility problem must be solved before the launch of the product/project. This fits perfectly well with the notion that technologies/projects/products need to be accessible from the get go. Generally, I support this sentiment.

Reading the emails, blog posts and twitter reactions has me questioning one particular aspect of this accessibility challenge. The question is not whether or not a technology should be made accessible, but when?

Accessibility Investment

Many individuals and organizations take accessibility very seriously and invest a lot of time and effort into making their work accessible. These efforts and investment are not to be taken lightly; they are precious and should be undertaken wisely.

As an example, when faced with issues of limited budget, time and prioritization, we’ll often suggest that organizations ensure that when JavaScript is on, their applications work properly with assistive technology rather than ensuring that their applications work with both JavaScript on and off. JavaScript on/off is an issue of interoperability — if your app doesn’t work with JavaScript off it sucks for people with or without a disability. Interoperability is best practice, but it doesn’t discriminate based on disability.

So, given that significant investment needs to be made in accessibility in terms of time, effort and money, when is the appropriate time to make that investment?

Consider a couple of scenarios:

1. in dealing with an experimental technology such as Bespin, we don’t know if anyone is going to use it, let alone people with disabilities. What if it sucks for everyone? is there any reason to make that suckiness accessible to everyone?
2. in addition to not knowing if anyone will use it, we don’t necessarily know how they will use it. Accessibility is part of user experience. Simply providing an alternative may provide a basic level of technical accessibility but may be unusable by people with disabilities. I would suggest that it is at least possible that until we know how people are going to use something, we have no idea with the most appropriate alternative will be.

Other emerging technologies such as AIR and Silverlight did not address accessibility in their 1.0 release of their product. Should they have? What if the technology was fundamentally unusable? What if, after 1.0, they looked at the product and said “this stinks, we have to start over.” Would it have been worth the investment in accessibility for a product/project/platform that died on the vine?

Accessibility in Mind and Implementation

Is it possible to include accessibility support “too early?” I’m not saying it should be an add-on at the end of the process/project/product development cycle, but I’m very seriously wondering what the optimal time for integrating an actual accessibility implementation is? Is it enough to keep accessibility architecture in mind from the beginning, but not implement right away? Should we get the basics right first, and then build in accessibility support based on that previously envisioned architecture after we know we have a viable product? We continue to say that accessibility should happen throughout rather than just at the end, but would it actually be better if we left it out,  just for a little while, at the beginning?

Is it a better “business decision” to say very early on “we are committed to making this accessible, but we know we’ll fall short of the mark on our first cut; we want to get this right for everyone, and will, but in order to make it accessible, we need to get this out into the real world to see how people will use it, what they want from it, and then build in accessibility appropriately.”

My feeling — at least right now — is that our job is to ensure that accessibility and accessibility architecture is kept in mind from the outset of a project/product/technological exploration, but not necessarily implemented at the outset.

I’m just throwing these thoughts out there for discussion — there is nothing definitive in here, other than the fact that I don’t think there is going to be one correct answer for this. What do you think?

It was this:

When this piece first arrived in the mail, I looked at the time (1:59:18), but didn’t think much of it. Then I read the text below it:

Derek,

This is not just any time. It is yours. A time that represents your goals, your determination, your journey. A time that represents a destination reached in May 2008.

Now the question is: What will your time be in 2009?

Oh! That’s my time! Brilliant. You got me. Count me in.

Why? I think it is because this piece speaks directly to me — not just that it is addressed to me, and personalized with my name and time. But it speaks directly to what motivates me as an athlete. They hit this on the head with their copy: “your goals, your determination, your journey” and then the call to action — the implied invitation to register — “What will your time be in 2009?” They really know how to push the right buttons!

This simple mailout really nails it as far as I’m concerned. If you can think of any other examples off hand, I’d love to know about them. It doesn’t need to be about direct marketing copy either, it could be anything.

You are great at something. Speak about that. I don’t mean just “good” either — this is your chance to figure out what you do BEST. For Anton, I suggested he talk about his illustration. Anton’s digital artwork is stunning (I’ve actually hired him before to do illustration work for some of my presentations). He’d be smart to start there.

Pitch the practical. In almost all cases, a person wants to come away from a talk with things that they can use right away. For Anton, I suggested he talk about his illustration with a hands-on bent. I think the hands-on is an important piece of this when you’re starting out — a common concern for conference and event organizers is ensuring that audiences get enough of the practical techniques that they crave.

Be proactive and approach people before they approach you. This is a fact of life as a “new” speaker. Being a known speaker has a huge advantage because it is harder to get a speaking gig if you don’t have experience and if you don’t have experience… well, you know how that goes. So, go out and hunt them down.

Seek and ye shall find. Search engines are key — look up those keywords and find conferences that fit the bill. For Anton we searched for Hands-on illustrator workshops and hands-on illustrator conference and could easily expand to include the phrases how to, demonstration, speaking. The point? It isn’t that hard to find places if you know how to use Google.

Find speaker related sites. Sites like SpeakerSite or the freshly launched SpeakerRate are filled with other speakers. And where there are speakers, there are conferences and organizers. SlideShare is a great starting point as well — a quick search there will help you find people and conferences that are related to the topics you have identified that you want to speak about. Once you’ve identified those, go hunt them down.

You must choose wisely. Pick the right conferences. Looking at Anton’s logical topic choice — hands-on illustration, focused on technique — he needs to target specific types of conferences. Off the top of my head I could think of two conferences that would be a great fit: TODCon and Adobe MAX . TODCon is a smaller conference that alternates between Orlando and Las Vegas with a focus on practical how-to sessions. MAX is the pinnacle of how-to sessions for Adobe products. They aren’t all how-to/demonstrations, but a large portion is and this would be a perfect match for Anton.

Get an introduction. The next step, of course, is to get Anton an introduction to the right people at those conferences. I’ll be introducing Anton to my contacts for both TODCon and MAX so that he can get on their radar.

Tell it like it is: You have to tell people that you’re looking for speaking gigs. Much like Anton did to me :) Who should you tell? Everyone of course, but I’d focus on friends and clients as a starting point.

Certainly LinkedIn and Twitter can be part of your search as well — leave no stone unturned and I’d bet that you can come up with several opportunities within a week.

Have other suggestions? Things that worked for you? Would love to hear them in the comments!

You can donate via the Australian Red Cross.

The fine folks at SitePoint have put together a significant deal whereby you can purchase 5 PDF versions of SitePoint books for the price of one. This really is a great deal and an opportunity to learn more about creating a better web for everyone.

After having just come back from Web Directions North and the complementary Education focused Ed Directions North, my mind is buzzing with education. Teaching and learning best practices for web design and development has been my passion for the last 10 years. It only seems logical to combine these two things together.

I donated online via the Australian Red Cross, but I thought maybe there was something more we could do via the SitePoint book sale. I have many of those books though — either because I bought my own copy or was involved in reviewing them or making other contributions. So, to support both the Australian relief efforts and education of the next generation of professionals, I just tweeted that the next 12 students/teachers to tell me which book you need and where you teach/go to school its on me.

The first one goes to William Price III (despite the fact that his name includes Roman numerals! just kidding. not really. ok, yes, I’m kidding), who replied by tweet. He’s an Interactive Media student at Art Institute International Minnesota in Minneapolis and he chose “Build Your Own Web Site The Right Way Using HTML & CSS” by my friend Ian Lloyd (I’m not just saying that either, he really is a friend!).

So, if you’re a student or a teacher in need of resources on doing things the right way, the SitePoint books are a great start, and for 11 more people, they’re on me. Get in touch, leave a comment below or reply back to me on Twitter.