I studied neuroscience in school because I was curious about how people work, and I still am. I learned about a lot of really amazing things our brains can do. For example, we are super good at understanding language. In fcat, I can wtrie a sentnece wtih all the lrettes in wdros scebramld up, and you wluod siltl be albe to urtnnesadd it pltefecry. You can understand someone who has a strong accent, slurs their speech, and uses improper grammar nearly as well as anyone else. Right?

We are also good at analyzing and classifying visual objects in 3D space. If someone throws a baseball, you can predict where it will land within about 5 feet just by eyeballing it. You can see a pattern in the stars and relate it to something you read about in a book 3 years ago. If you’ve ever taken a physics class, you would know that the calculations and measurements that are happening instantly and subconsciously in our brains here are pretty incredible.

If you think about the logistics of how our brains actually work, it’s mind blowing. Although some of the best programmers and scientists in the world still have not been able to crack these problems (speech and visual object recognition particularly), our brains compute them instantly, perfectly accurately, and subconsciously. That’s something to marvel at.

Our Lazy Brains

At the same time, our brains are mind-numbingly terrible at some things. Take, for example, remembering lots of things – we are so bad at this. You can be told someone’s name and forget it a minute later. And if I asked you to remember two phone numbers without writing it down? Forget it. Also think about math – although we’ve figured a lot out, we’re pretty bad at the calculations. We’re very slow and usually require a calculator to figure it out at a reasonable speed. In fact, we’re pretty bad all around at repetitive tasks. We do them slowly, and get bored with them quickly.

And this is for a good reason – the gorgeous and super talented brains we have shouldn’t be wasting time with trivial, boring, and repetitive things. We are born with the most complex and advanced logic in the world built in to us. Billions of dollars are poured into scientific research to try to figure out how our brains do it, and billions more go to computer scientists trying to replicate the things our brains can do. But guess what? We’re not even close – on either front.

Extend your brain

The power of programming is that we can use it to extend our brains’ abilities. When it comes down to it, remembering lots of things and doing repetitive tasks quickly is extremely important for many things in life, and it turns out computers are extremely good at these two types of tasks in particular. If you have a fluency in getting a computer to do what you want, you have transformed yourself into a superhuman – you can now do anything your brain normally can, plus you can remember vast amounts of information and you can do repetitive tasks extremely quickly.

In addition, offloading these kinds of tasks to a computer frees your super amazing brain to do more of… well, what it’s good at. You will inevitably run into problems that require remembering lots of info and/or boring & repetitive tasks, and if you can’t get a computer to do them for you, you will have to do them manually – this is a waste of time. We were not meant to remember tons of things, or do boring repetitive stuff – we were meant to learn, grow, and innovate. Don’t let yourself get bogged down by these wastes of time – the ability to program allows you to maximize your brain’s potential.

Increase your value

Many people see programming as a very domain-specific task. People who can program work in technology, right? Absolutely not. You can be just as valuable, sometimes even more valuable, in other fields when you can program. You add a lot to your base efficiency at work by being able to control a computer and offload certain tasks to it. But it’s not only you who will benefit. With your skills, you can create a more efficient work environment for everyone you work with. I bet you work with a bunch of people that waste tons of time on things computers could do better (almost everyone does) – stop that from happening. Build tools to make things you do often easier. Then build tools on top of those, and don’t stop there. If you keep doubling your efficiency, you will find that the way everything works tends to change very fundamentally.

So how to get started? Education is typically absurdly expensive and time consuming. Years ago, one would have said that the way to learn about computers is to major in computer science in college – a commitment of huge amounts of time and money. But today there are an overwhelming amount of resources available for free online (and offline) that can help you start to hone your superpowers. A couple that come to mind…

• Udacity
• Coursera
• Kahn Academy
• Skillshare
• Code Academy
• RubyMonk

…and there are certainly many more, but these alone should get you more learning than you can handle in a year of college, easily. So get out there and start upgrading yourself. Once you start, you’ll never want to go back.

Example

Remember that mixed up sentence from the first paragraph? I didn’t do the mixing manually – I wrote a short program to do it for me – and now anyone can use the program to sensically scramble any number of words. ‘Open sourcing’ programs (releasing all the code to anyone for free) is a great way to spread knowledge and build on what other people have done, and the open source community is vibrant and thriving among programmers. I open sourced the sentence scrambler program, and you should check it out! It’s hosted on github (the social network for programmers) and written in ruby.

Sensical Sentence Scrambler – Source Code

This article is copyright © 2012 

I was doing just that, more specifically, at the Zya Music Party with Nick Cannon spinning behind me. There I was catching up with some friends from PepsiCo when I realized I was down to the wire (8% battery) and it was only 9:30PM. As a compulsive mobile and social media user, this was the equivalent to seeing “last exit for 100 miles” when you have less than a 1/4 tank of gas, know what im sayin?

So, with the whole night ahead of me I knew I needed a charge. As you can imagine, the ladies bathroom counter was a congregation of makeup retouches, and …OUTLETS! Four outlets with a line longer than the one to use the restroom.

As a SXSW n00b, my impression of festival attendees is generally friendly and approachable. It certainly helps that everyone is wearing their identity around their neck most the time. Sidenote: when I bumped into Eric Friedman he brought up a great point about badges; it makes the most sense to wear a badge on your right shoulder so it’s in line with the sight path you follow when going in for a handshake. It’s so much more difficult to read a badge hanging from a lanyard with so many variables in height. Let’s be honest, it’s just plain awkward to watch someone attempt to read your badge without slowing down the pace of their stride, it becomes this neck-cringing side-eye kinda look, it’s just plain scary.

My point is, I met three really interesting people in the ladies room that night, all which could possibly result in future business for both Carrot Creative and Digital DUMBO. All in part because I had to charge my phone – in a bathroom – at a bar – at 9:30PM – in Austin at SXSW. You never know who you are going to meet, so be friendly, be open minded, and see every person as a new friend or business opportunity.

This article is copyright © 2012 

We’ve always been known as the most fun company on the block, and at the same time we’ve always been just as serious about who we hire. Thankfully, those people that we now call Carrots helped us grow from a tiny startup to a small company to a global family. Our culture still feels like we’re that that small basement startup, but Carrot Creative has had the opportunity to grow and mature right along with our work, clients, and employees.
We’re trying to grow this family of ours with even more of the best so we want to make sure candidates know what they are getting when they apply to Carrot. From our application process, to culture, to offered benefits – yes, benefits like 401(k), health care, dental, vision, and your weight in Cheddar Bunnies. Carrot.is/hiring was created to do just that. Visit the page and you are taken to every possible open position, information about our culture (but you already know about that), benefits, and even an explanation of what to expect after you’ve put in your application.

We put a lot of consideration into each and every application and we wanted carrot.is/hiring to reflect that process. We respect each applicant’s time and effort and really wish we were able to respond to everyone. We predict that this will become increasingly difficult for us, but we are making efforts to improve that process. In the meantime, check in with Carrot.is/hiring, check in with the orange couch, and stay connected!

This article is copyright © 2012 

SXSW has come a long way since its humble beginnings. My music business friends have been going since the early days, and the veterans among them tell me about the times of a twenty band music festival. Today the festival is part interactive, part film and all music, pulling hundreds of thousands of people to the epicenter of cool in the Texas capital city.

I’ve gone to SXSW for the last five or six years. They’re all a blur, and it’s difficult to actually separate one from another. One thing is clear though – each year’s conference gets exponentially larger. There are so many people there, and every attendee has a very different agenda. It’s no longer possible to experience every panel, or every band, film or event at SXSW. And then there are a few hundred thousand people added to the mix…

People complain that “the khakis” have arrived, and that the festival is now filled with brands, CMOs and PR people who have no idea what the festival is all about, but who attend because “we keep hearing about this SXSW thing”. To some degree, there’s truth here. SXSW has indeed grown past what the city of Austin’s infrastructure can handle. Its constituency has exploded to include the uncool, the politicians and the people who don’t belong there. And this is life. And like life, SXSW can be overwhelming at times.

If I’ve learned one thing through my years at SXSW, I’ve learned that like anything, SXSW is what you make of it. You can go to learn. To have fun. To see great things. To eat BBQ. To make deals. To catch up with friends. What you get from SXSW is very much dependent on how you approach it, and what you desire as an outcome. Sound a lot like life? It is.

I’ve spent early years at the conference going to panels, meeting with friends, and making deals. And every year, came home smarter, more inspired and filled with business. Early on, I went without goals. Today, I approach SXSW differently. I approach the conference not too dissimilar from the way I approach a project, my career, and life. Set goals, aspirations and plans. And shoot for the best.

Before hopping on a plane to Texas, I’ve answered a few questions for myself:

• What would be a fantastic outcome to my participation?
• Who would I most like to meet for the first time?
• Who would I really like to catch up with that I don’t have time for in normal life?
• What kind of experience(s) would leave me inspired?

The answers to these questions (and the importance in the way they’re prioritized) will be different for everyone. Asking yourself these questions before attending SXSW…or any event in your life, for that matter…will directly impact the results of your approach, participation and success. (And finding great BBQ is pretty cool, too.)

The photo above is one that I snapped of St. Lucia immediately before interviewing them as a part of a video series that my team produced while at SXSW. This shot is reflective of my experience this year – outside of the conference center, surrounded by creative people, and filled with soul.

This article is copyright © 2012 

To make a long story short, my computer died. Yes, my precious little machine baby. The devastation! Oh, I’m sure it’s repairable and at some point I’ll lug it over to the Apple store to have it resuscitated in the most glorious and dramatic of fashions (imagine Anakin slowly rising in his Darth Vader outfit in the 3rd film after he rolls around like a jackass and gets all burned up on whatever planet that was), but for now, I’ll let it sit dead on my shelf because I noticed an interesting and important shift since it bit the dust.

Recently, I’ve been finding that an easy way to fall into a creativity rut, nay, abyss, is to succumb to the idea that constantly consuming content online will somehow translate to producing. It’s the mindset that if you look at enough pretty designs or scroll through countless pages of Tumblr posts or read enough blog entires that you’ll overflow with creative thoughts and ideas yourself. Does this help with the inspiration process? Sure it does. Is it necesarry to staying alert and aware in regards to thinking and making and being a Creative in this field? Sure it is. But there is a delicate balance. At a certain point, you overload yourself with things that others have made, and you yourself stop making. You aren’t consuming content that your mind can do anything with. The gears upstairs aren’t turning and instead it’s just a mindless intake of stale media. And it drains you.

I realized that after my computer died, I stopped coming home and hopping back online to mindlessly surf after having been in front of a computer all day at work already. As my MacBook slowly collected dust, I used this time to unplug. I read all the books I’d been meaning to get to. I caught up with people I hadn’t spoken to in awhile. I took walks around my neighborhood and checked out things I’d never seen before. I watched movies and actually saw them instead of just listening to them while I looked at random Facebook profiles for no apparent reason. (At this point I’m aware I sound like a recovering internet addict. That isn’t the case, I just like to use a dash of hypberole for dramatic/comedic effect.)

And joy of joys, ideas started coming back to me without much effort at all. I had, for too long, been sitting in front of my computer, consuming the creativity of others and hoping it would translate to ideas for myself. That doesn’t work. At least it doesn’t work for me.  I won’t say that people often ask me how to be creative because 1. it’s been written about to death and 2. no one asks me that anyway, but the answer (since you didn’t ask) is to take in as much real life as much as I possibly can. Go outside. Walk around. Listen to new music. Read new books. Visit new places. Talk to people. Ask them questions. Wonder about things. Write stuff down. Draw things. Appreciate everything. Notice everyone. Notice everything. Soak it all up. If you give yourself enough raw material to work with, your mind will make sense of it and do the rest for you.

For the record, I still love the Internet. It is a vast and magical land that constantly surprises (and often horrifies) me. It has affected and changed everyone’s life far more than most of us can appreciate and without it, my job and possibly this company wouldn’t exist. I’m not renouncing the Internet or computers, but I am emphasizing the importance of unplugging every now and then to appreciate the balance between consumption and creation.

This article is copyright © 2012 

It is certainly in your best interest to be prepare yourself for this major adjustment (especially if you’re managing client accounts), so we here at Carrot have decided to give you the rundown on the most important highlights of Facebook’s new Timeline. Feel free to download the PDF or or take a quick peek at it below.

This article is copyright © 2012 

Look, I work for a social media agency. It’s part of what I do. Being able to be fluent and understand the complexities of each platform has such great value for this line of work. The ability to know the ins and outs of each platform helps establish Carrot as an expert in the industry. But there’s a delicate balance you have to strike with your online presence. As cliched as it might sound, being “online” and having a “brand” (ugh, I hate myself for saying that) is all about curation and providing some sort of value to your readers/followers/stalkers.

Funny enough, it’s because of my involvement in Tumblr that I wound up at Carrot. In a round-a-bout way at least. You see, I have a blog. No, not one of those blogs. I don’t post my deepest, darkest secrets. I mean really, my parents read it. But this blog is about me. It consists of photos I take, food I make, food I want to make, music I listen to, and funny things that happen to me on any given day. I’ve been told that my blog “sounds” like me, that the tone represents my personality, and that you can get a good sense of me as a person from reading it. And this should be your goal.

Ultimately, it was through someone I met at that startup that I got the job at Carrot. So forget what everyone says, being on social media can be good for you career. However, I think the real question is what sort of things can you post that will help you get a job, rather than hurt your chances. And frankly, I think the answer is to be yourself, focus on a specific interest you have (for me it’s eating as much dessert as I can possibly stuff into my body), and connect with people you find interesting. Keep your internet presence friendly and never hesitate to reach out. The truth is that most people are more than happy to talk to you over a cup of coffee. But don’t come off as creepy. I think you know what I mean — “Hey I saw on Foursquare that you love Mudspot in the East Village and go there every weekend. Wanna get a cup of coffee there together?” No. Please don’t take that route.

Use common sense. But really, become a pseudo “expert” at something. Okay, maybe expert is too strong of a word. But essentially, showing your interests in a positive light on social networks will connect you to those with similar interests. Connect, reach out to people, and be your genuine self. Positively contribute to the online community and your efforts will pay off in dividends. See you on the internet.

This article is copyright © 2012 

For me, that moment was in between my freshman and sophomore year in college while studying abroad in Spain. I had just arrived to my host family’s apartment in Madrid, and was anxious to meet them. As it turns out, my family wasn’t so much of a “family” as it was a 75-year-old grandmother named Manuela. When the door opened, I extended my hand out with a big smile on my face to meet her with a proper hand shake. She then proceeded to stare at me with the most confused expression on her face, shook her head, and reached out and embraced me with a huge hug. I quickly learned an important culture lesson: social customs are not always, if ever, universal.

In today’s globalized world you will no doubt find yourself working on an international project. Social media has rapidly expanded to all regions of the world, and if seeing its impact on the Arab Spring isn’t enough, then take a look at the shift in global economies over the next 10 years. China is predicted to be the largest global economy in 2016. There will undoubtably be a global demand for work, and these opportunities shouldn’t be turned down. However, breaking into and succeeding in a foreign market is extremely difficult, and even the most successful international and global companies have failed at times. Here’s some tips on how you can get it right:

Know when to adapt: are you a global, international, transnational, or multinational company? They’re easy to confuse, but knowing the difference between them and knowing where your company falls will set the tone for all business decisions you make. This will help you decide how much to adapt and change your product to the local market. Companies like McDonald’s have used global localization as a means of breaking into a foreign market in a way that says “Hey, we’re here, we understand your culture, and here’s how our product can benefit you”.

A Meatless McDonald’s Menu in India

Utilize Hofstede’s Four Dimensions: This is a really useful tool I use when trying to get a basic grasp of another country’s culture. Invented by Dutch psychologist Geert Hofstede, it essentially gives you a broad look into how a country’s culture operates by comparing it to one or more countries. And remember, rankings are all relative to which countries you’re using, so just looking at one country’s score won’t do you any good. Let’s break it down:

1. Power Distance Index (PDI): This basically tells you how a culture perceives and accepts unequal distribution within their society.
2. Individualism vs. Collectivism (IND): This one is pretty self-explainable, although, it is important to note that this has nothing to do with politics, but instead, the state as a whole.
3. Quantity of Life vs. Quality of Life (MAS): Cultures that fall in the quantity of life category value competition, monetary success, etc. over the quality of life ideals of modesty and caring.
4. Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI): How comfortable is a society with the unknown? An in depth analysis of this could tell you a lot about their purchasing behavior and adoption rates.

Research local customs: If you want to truly succeed in a foreign country, then you’ll no doubt want to research their local customs and social norms. Kellogg’s failed to do this when they launched Corn Flakes in India. The idea seemed simple enough, but they failed to realize that their eating preferences differed. Indians prefer warm breakfasts over the traditional American breakfast of cereal and milk. Their assumption was ethnocentric and caused them valuable time and money.

Use a human translator: Many brands have made embarrassing mistakes here. Your team has put a lot of thought into developing a concept, and creating the copy. Simply plugging your text into freetranslations.com won’t be doing you or your agency any justice. Often with automated translation, the essence of what you’re trying to convey gets lost in translation. Back translating your text to your native language is always a valuable thing to do. It makes you aware of how ridiculous you can sometimes sound. Read this list of infamously translated slogans and learn from their costly mistakes instead of committing your own. On the other hand, brands like Kit Kat flourished in Japan primarily because the name is similar to the Japanese saying “Kittu Katsu” which means “surely win.” It is now the #1 confectionary brand in Japan with over 19 varieties, in part to its coincidental connection to luck.

But really, knowing your audience, their likes, their dislikes, their preferences isn’t any new marketing concept, is it? These are the core elements of marketing, and the same tools you’re already utilizing. And now that Carrot is global, we will be taking these elements and applying them to all our projects in the Middle East.

This article is copyright © 2012 

Pinterest is not a unique idea.
We can all admit that Pinterest grabbed the best parts of our favorite platforms.

In addition, many have preceded Pinterest in their attempts at a similar social-sharing concept. To name a few:

1. Stumbleupon and Gimmebar help you discover and share great websites. However, they make it difficult to find your friends. By not forcing users to sign in through either Facebook or Twitter, these features are hidden behind too many clicks.

2. Tastespotting shares a collection of mouthwatering dishes and recipes, but if you want to upload a photo, it has to be reviewed and approved. Too many rules and legalities make it difficult to keep users participating.

3. Flickr offers online photo management and sharing, but the UX is very difficult and it’s built for a very specific niche audience. Many features are hidden behind too many clicks, and the thumbnails are so small that you have to click on them to get a worthwhile glimpse of the actual photo.

Pinterest is the first platform that combines everything into one easy website for all levels of web competency. Aside from smart marketing tactics (such as their invite-only feature, browser bookmarklet, and genius use of Skimlinks to gain revenue by avoiding paid advertisements), they took expectations from other platforms that were already built and managed to further simplify and refine the experience. Pinterest’s low barrier to entry has an average of 80% of female users (ages 18-54) generating over a million pins per week. The simplicity of the website’s functionality makes Pinterest’s UX unbelievably easy for just about anyone to use without creating a learning curve. Within seconds of signing up through Facebook or Twitter, your friends are there waiting for you and you’re hit with an influx of images that you can “Like,” “Repin,” or comment on. Anyone can pin at any time from almost any website through their easy bookmarklet, and all the thumbnails are big enough that you don’t have to necessarily click on them for the larger view. In just one click you can do a multitude of actions.

Now… would this social platform be just as successful without a beautiful UI and a superior UX? Absolutely not! Because the truth is, if it’s not easy to sign up, if users are confused, if it takes too many clicks to get to desired content, or if it takes too long for something to pique their interest, they’re gone and on to the next website. Say goodbye to your good idea and its content. Often times, the importance of UI and UX is overlooked. The idea and the strategy, although incredibly important, disappear without an effective user interface and experience. Jason Gross states it perfectly in a recent article on Smashing Magazine:

And because the content on Pinterest is user-generated, this means the ability of users to interact with the website and each other will be completely driven by the interface.

So, I’d like to give a nod to Pinterest for proving that you don’t need to reinvent the wheel if you put your efforts into the areas that count most. Its low barrier to entry, beautiful UI, and streamlined UX are certainly the drivers of their success. Now start pinning!!

This article is copyright © 2012 

You’ve spent countless hours gushing over shots on Dribbble, bought every book from A Book Apart, and followed every Brooklyn Beta presenter on Twitter – all in preparation for that first “real” design project where you’ll prove you have what it takes. The time has come and you’re pumped to start. You open a blank canvas in Photoshop, head buzzing with inspiration, and begin. A few hours pass…then a few more. You begin to realize that it’s not as easy as it looks…

Unfortunately, this is far too common an experience amongst aspiring designers, and a situation that can be quite stressful for someone trying to make their first mark in the industry. Passion for good design lends itself to setting high personal standards, which in the competitive world of design, is a must. These standards can become somewhat of a catch 22 as you find yourself in the middle of a project that isn’t living up to personal or professional expectations. Nagging questions like “Why doesn’t my design look as good as theirs?” or “What are they doing differently?” may begin to surface, and the effect can be sobering. When plagued by thoughts that you may not be good enough or that you may never be able to attain the level of skill necessary to excel in the field, it’s easy to give up. Design often is a roller coaster of emotions – one minute you can’t wait to hit the ground running on a new project, and the next you’re at your wits end trying to make it look top notch. Every good designer strives to create compelling work that stands out from all the rest, so it is easy to feel disheartened when you become aware of the gap between your work and the work that you admire.

In times of self-doubt, it’s important to think about why you chose this field in the first place. Chances are, you had a passion for it – a gut feeling that moved you when you saw something you liked. Maybe you pushed a button on a site, not because you cared where it took you, but because you had to see if it looked just as polished when pressed. Or maybe you spent hours figuring out what made that combination of typefaces work so perfectly in that header. Perhaps it was the subtle background texture that you felt was so unexpectedly fitting. The irony of it all is that as successful as you are at qualifying good design from bad, you’re not yet able to create the things you admire.

This is perfectly normal. It’s okay to just be okay in the beginning of your career. In fact, as difficult as it is to believe, even great designers have gone through a period when they knew what they were making wasn’t as good as they wanted it to be. It is incredibly rare for someone to consistently create amazing work without pushing through those awkward learning phases, and it has happened to the best of them. Take a look at Jason Santa Maria’s first web design. Or how about an early design by Cameron Moll. These designers have willingly displayed their old work to highlight a very important point: never let go of your passion for design. They began their careers in the same position as everyone else but their love of design pushed them to work incredibly hard and enabled them to create a large body of work over many years. Thus, they were able to refine their skills and become great. The point being, this stuff takes time. But as long as you keep producing and building a solid foundation, your ongoing passion will fuel the momentum of your career and carry you through periods of self-doubt. Even if the improvement is slow, thrive and build on small victories – use them to propel yourself forward.

Consider yourself lucky to have joined a group of people who thrive on change, excellence, and collaboration. Because of shared enthusiasm and passion for their work, you have entered a community that provides an enormous network of support, and has many forums that can be used to your advantage. If you find yourself losing momentum, don’t be afraid to ask designers that you admire for advice. I have found that most people are more than willing to take the time to provide insight and personal knowledge for a fellow designer, regardless of experience or standing. Try using social media platforms for exposure and feedback; I think you may be pleasantly surprised by the magnitude of the response. Leslie Jensen-Inman, when speaking about the journey of a designer on A List Apart, stressed the importance of creating connections in saying “…that is what the web truly is – people collaborating and learning together.” And it is all of these things – practice, dedication, interest, immersion, transparency, and maintaining your passion – that will bring you closer to closing the gap and propel you toward becoming the designer you are striving to be.

Remember, design by its nature isn’t science; you can’t get it right every time, but every failure is an opportunity to grow and expand. So be persistent, be passionate, be collaborative and take chances because at its core, that is the creative process.

This article is copyright © 2012