José Manuel dos Santos

I don’t have complete answers for this, but I know this means we still have a lot of work ahead of us. And while John Maeda has done an incredible journey, we still must travel our own journey to change and transform the future in line with the vision for this new millennium, quitting is not an option.

You may have a name for people like me, the guy who has 15 shirts in four colors and 5 pairs of pants that coordinate with the shirts, and I rotate between them, almost always starting with a white shirt on Mondays, it mentally helps me to feel like a clean slate at the beginning of the week. I don’t even think in the morning, my head is usually at work very early, and the act of getting dress is routinely the same step by step process that includes shaving twice a week and morning chair exercises thrice a week. Yes, I am sure you have a name for people like me, I’m fine with it.

When I was 18 years old, I came to the United States for the first time, I can on an exchange program from AFS America Field Service and went to San Diego CA to do my 12th grade, after that I returned to Portugal. When I went back, plenty of people approached me with their assumptions and biases about the US, and I had to explain to them that the US was a very large country, with many contradictions and differences in both place and people, and that I had found the best and the worst of human beings during my stay. This friend represents the best of America, a fine American that I happily call my friend.

As we get closer to Nov 5th, it’s impossible not be involved in the political discussion going on. I believe it is impossible for a functioning member of society to be apolitical, I believe we must all participate in politics, even when we don’t believe in the justness and fairness of the political process, even when we don’t see politicians as the best emissaries of politics. I believe staying out of politics is more harmful than participating, no matter the result, voicing your opinions, discussing what you believe in and why.

I spent a few days in Cincinnati, and with no offense to all Cincy lovers, this city never really came up in my head as a destination, nothing bad, nothing good, just didn’t come up. So, I arrived with no expectations, and that is probably a good thing. I went because of two events that aligned blissfully, not by chance but by careful planning by the organizers of CODA Summit and BLINK!

I have two children, 32 and 22, and they both say I’m a workaholic. I explain to them that I don’t agree, that I love my job, and I see a continuum between my job and my life, I am a designer. Could they be right? I keep saying I’ll retire as soon as I can, and my wife laughs out loud saying I will work till my company (or life) kicks me out, could she be right?

What connects these things, at least in my head, is the impact and limits of human actions, weather by causing damage, or by attempting to fix it. I agree that it might be hard to consider all the systemic unintended consequences of complex decision making tied to any human action.

Sometimes I think about where my life would have led me if the Portland option had become true, and the reason I keep going back to this “fork in the road” is because I have not stopped thinking and dreaming in systems and, every time I go to a design gathering, the topic keeps on coming up.

I have come to believe there are human qualities that supersede any training for people leadership, I believe some people are just more natural at it, and while we can all improve in every domain, I believe natural and organic people leaders have an invisible advantage. When you are lucky to have a good people leader you know it, you feel it, your life improves, you learn and you evolve, you grow and many times you will end up moving on, and those people leaders will be a part of your life.

There is something about a crowd of 40,000 people singing at the same time, you look everywhere, and you capture the ecstasy via their shining eyes, you relate and connect with other human beings in this shared experience, independently of who they are, what they eat, who they vote for.