Paul Graham's essay from 2009 identifies two distinct ways of running your life. He calls them the manager's schedule and the maker's schedule.
Managers organize their days into well defined pieces containing tasks, meetings and calls. They manage their time. On the other end, the makers need to have uniterrupted, large blocks of unscheduled time dedicated to thinking, crafting and building. Interruptions or mundane tasks disrupt the maker's creative endeavor.
Not trying to advocate for one or the other, I'm bringing the idea to surface just to challenge you to identify your own work schedule, for it's important to know how and when you function best.
And now that this seed of thought has been planted, off we jump into the main recommendation of October.
(8 episodes, 2017)
It premiered on Netflix in January and explores eight creative minds. The focus is on their actual work process, ethics and schedule. Each episode is dedicated to one domain, varying from architecture and automotive design to photography and New Yorker magazine illustrations. I've started watching it and it feels polished and carefully crafted. It's something you'd expect from a documentary on design, right? Definitely worth a peek.
The (very blockbuster-ish) trailer for the first season is here.
To keep things tidy, we'll go into the UI/UX design category first.
Before I leave, here is a little bonus (to make up for not having open-source links this month). Remember, if it's not tested, it doesn't work.
Take a look at the other issues of This month in Around25 for more quality reads chosen by us!
The contributors of this issue are Alexandra, who's given us the main recommendation, Adrian, Silvia, Anca and Darius.
We want to hear your favorite reads and ideas too, so get in touch with us!