Please won't you be my neighbor.

The mass murder at Tree of Life Synagogue this past Saturday is tragic, and infuriating, and crushingly close to home for me - I'm from Pittsburgh, grew up in Squirrel Hill, was active in the Jewish community. Although my family only belonged to that congregation for a short while, my sister's Bat-Mitzvah was at Tree of Life and we have friends and neighbors who attend services there.

As a Pittsburgher I'd like to point out something that may not be common knowledge.

Fred Rogers' house is just down the street from Tree of Life. This mass shooting, this hate-filled act of anti-semitism that took the lives of 11 people and irrevocably changed the lives of countless more, literally took place in Mr. Rogers' neighborhood.

Election Day is almost upon us. Please, please, please vote. Please.

Stereotyping

I had a meeting last week with a client to review his custom wardrobe designs. We were looking at eyeglasses compartment inserts and comparing the standard sizes with the drawer widths in his particular closet to figure out how many eyeglasses he could store in the configuration the wardrobe designer was proposing.

He pulls out a pair of glasses from his pocket, folds them onto the table, and says "These are what, 9 or 10 inches wide?"

...

They were 5 inches wide, and it was all I could do to stop myself from laughing out loud.

What the...: An Ongoing Series

The kitchen consultant: "We want to make sure our client is ecstatic about the finished product."

~pregnant pause~

The architect: "I have a hard time imagining our client being ecstatic about anything. Maybe we should shoot for pleased, or satisfied."

What the... : An Ongoing Series

A thought that just passed through my mind about half an hour ago:

10am is too early for harmonicas in this office.

What the ...: An Ongoing Series

My colleague sent this image to me out of the blue with the caption: I'M COMING FOR YOU.

Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, by Zaha Hadid Architects

and all I could think was

Professional Correspondence: Part 5: "WHEN" and Review

This post continues from Professional Correspondence, Part 4: HOW.
(Lost? Start here, with Part 1: Professional Correspondence)

How many times have you sent or received business correspondence after 10pm? From someone ostensibly on vacation? Over the weekend? I’m working with a consultant now who habitually sends submittal responses after 11pm on a Sunday. This person is based in Chicago, not in Shanghai.

It is important to recognize that the timing of a message has meaning just like the content or the medium of the message. Habitually sending correspondence long after business hours, during vacation, or over the weekend sends the message that your work life has greater priority than the rest of your life, and sets expectations that you are “on call.”

Professional Correspondece: Part 4: "HOW"

This post continues from Professional Correspondence, Part 3: WHAT.

Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase “The medium is the message,” which appeared in his 1964 book “Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man.” McLuhan describes a message as “the change in scale or pace or pattern” introduced by a new invention or innovation. Look at how much communication has sped up and increased in volume with the wide adoption of email. It’s been ten years since the first iPhone made it possible to take and send high quality pictures from the same device. Can anyone here remember the last time they used a fax machine?