On Doing

I am a huge fan of Laws Of Simplicity, a blog hosted by an artist called John Maeda. As a matter of fact, i think Mr. Maeda must be thinking that I am kind of a lunatic, commenting on every post he makes (in the last month or so the posting activity has been pretty reduced, so don’t you think my life turns around this blog)…well, if he ever reads this post…I am not a lunatic, just an enthusiatic…lunatic.

Well, in this blog, thinking on time it’s been a very recurrent theme. Maybe because Mr. Maeda is a very busy man, maybe because time is what we all lack, or we all think we do.

image link: http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/3080450/2/istockphoto_3080450_sand_watch.jpg

But there’s is one peculiarity about time that has always caught my brain: time it cannot be saved, like money; neither can be accumulated. So, if I am now 30, and expecting to live at least till 80 (hope for it!), can I actually say I have 50 years?

There are two misleadings in this affirmation:

-As it is obvious, you can’t affirm that you will live 50 more years. You can’t even affirm that you will live 50 more hours (this is the exciting side of life)

- If you could, you still can’t have it all at once, or save some minutes you didn’t use today for tomorrow.

So then, when we save time (by doing our banking on the internet instead of an office), what do we mean by it? Time is, by nature, a currency meant to be spended at the very same moment we recieve it (otherwise, you loose it).

The natural answer is that, since we are forced to spend, we like to spend it in the things we more care or like. And the less we spend in boring obligatory stuff, the more we can spend in fascinating and soul-stirring things.

So, there is a certain economy about time. You can take time from somewhere to put it somewhere else. It is a bet, but you should not fear a Margin Call (unless you are taking some neccesary time from your work to put it in your stamp collection).

But what does this has to do with design? Design can and has been two things:

-In what we spend our surplus money. There are millions of examples. A diamond laptop, a house, a sports car, a gold pen, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. Anything different.

-What makes us save not our money, but what we more like: our time. Just think on this little object.

It is up to us what path to follow.

P.s.: I recently bought the book of Mr. Maeda, The Laws Of Simplicity (it took me no more than 2 minutes in amazon). It hasn’t arrived here yet. There’s a whole chapter entitled Time. I whish time could pass rapidly so I can read it. Funny thing this time thing.