José Manuel dos Santos

This is my reflection, about my day, a day in my life. I do not intend to pass judgement on those that think and feel differently, nor I am advocating this as a way of life for anyone else, but as I am here listening to classical music, having a drink and writing about my chaotic day, I feel relaxed but want to embrace my entire day, including the chaos.

This detailed explanation might make the whole thing seem simple, attainable. Nothing further from the truth, it is very hard to design and maintain. The result is that you end up feeling good when you are in the lodge, you spend hours in there, doing absolutely nothing that you can remember, taking it all in, creating memories that are deep down in your subconscious. And that is what matters. Well done.

It seems we have lost the battle for beauty and aesthetics, we lost sight of the value and function of emotion. I understand the impact of having architecture be the playground of creative architects sponsored by deep pocketed investors wanting to create their own obelisk, but I think we have gone too far to the other side of the pendulum, we have homogenized human experience and humans along the way. Bllahhh!

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.