Why Do New Media Types Like Multiples

I think it’s just that people in this space are used to an overload of things. Look at whats happening right now with Twitter and Jaiku. Do we really need both, do we really need to be on Facebook, MySpace, Friendster etc? This environment is just so conducive to multitasking it makes it easier. I also think that you have to act on an idea when you get it. If you don’t it’s either forgotten or someone beats you to it. And hey if you get a chance to work with some really cool people who’s gonna pass that up?

I’d get so bored working on one thing, I have a very low threshold before I get plain bored. Put me in a straight 9-5 and I’ll slowely melt into a zombie.

So by juggling lots of things, or spinning multiple plates in the air, I can shift from one to the other with high energy levels, and not long one fall.

That’s one reason, the other could well be financial streams, and not wanting to miss out on opportunities.

So I run Audiocourses.com, with a team of staff helping me out, I’m busy upgrading thephonecam.com with humpa, to remove adult, I operate malebits.com and various other sites and blogs. I lecture in UK Universities, I podcast, I run an island in SecondLife, I’m helping to organise PodcampUK, I play guitar, I run.. .. dayum!

hmmm I need to think about this, perhaps too many plates, but I always make time for the family.

From a business perspective, you never know where the next big thing will come from. You never know who you’ll meet or under what circumstances, so you branch out, diversify, and in the process of doing so, learn more about what’s possible.

I have often said that I would make a horrible 9to5′er. I am sure its because of my need for constant change. Beside a half dozen podcasts, I have a video production company, a computer services company, oh yeah – and a new gig with the “soon-to-be” 800lb gorilla of podcasting. Those are just the paying gigs… the hobbies are waaaay too numerous to mention.

Bottom line is that I love having a rich life that is full of uncertainly and the kind of experiences that the clock-punchers of the world can only imagine. I think us creatives are hard-wired to need stimulation… which is why we are drawn to the tools provided by the internet. (Gotta run… three meetings this morning, including a meditation session with a visiting Tibetan monk – don’t worry, I will be recording it.) Fun stuff.

Dead easy. Without all these elobrate answers.

“because most of the time paying un(web) clients have no idea what they want from a website and getting information from the client can take a long time to gather”

Simple.

I will add this also, that creative types are open to a mass of new information with “beta” websites like twitter which highlight great ideas and usage of new ways of working. This sparks the creative gene and in turn makes you wanna get “involved”

Our business approach has been to run with the ideas that excite us, and we see what sticks. It has enabled us to be extremely agile and maximize opportunities when they come; the rest sits on the back-burner until further development is warranted.

We’re also kind of spastic. :)

It could be that it feeds some people’s creative process. Cross-pollinating between projects or something. It could also be as simple as short attention span.

I find that I need to put difficult projects down when I get stuck and do something else so when I come back, I can discern the issues better. I can’t really do more than one significant project at the same time. It takes me a day sometimes, to make a context switch and get fully back into another problem space.

It could be that it feeds some people’s creative process. Cross-pollinating between projects or something. It could also be as simple as short attention span.

I find that I need to put difficult projects down when I get stuck and do something else so when I come back, I can discern the issues better. I can’t really do more than one significant project at the same time. It takes me a day sometimes, to make a context switch and get fully back into another problem space.

i think it’s because creative projects (art, code, events, whatever…) tend to flow iteratively w/ differing velocities, thus your able to start them at different times, stack them one on top of the other, yet be performing different aspects of each from a timeline perspective – so for example, while deciding on the concept for one, building another, testing another and productionalizing another (really simplifying the whole concept-to-production flow) – it maximizes the person or team doing the multiple projects of course – but thats ok, multitasking is in itself an artform…

I’ve always been involved in a hundred things at the same time, it seems. I think I get the trait from my parents, who, when I was growing up, were always on the go with this community group or that charity, organizing events, attending events, all while working full time jobs and raising two kids. Even in their retirement, they have barely slowed down. They just take more vacations now.

For me, it’s more than just “keeping busy”. My business partner and I were just joking yesterday, that between the two of us, it seems as if we know just about everybody in our city. Or at least we know someone who knows someone. We are well connected because we have worked on so much stuff. It’s critical to be involved in order to build your network. And now that we are doing our many projects for a living, it’s even more important to have a lot on the go.

It is the nature of the creative process. In new media projects, one is juggling mixed-media assets – graphics, photos, video, text, code, visual information often in collaborative publishing environments with multiple content creators. Trends change dynamically, design styles reflect individual perspectives, and multi-tasking is the norm. Adding multiple projects into the mix stimulates interaction and creative energy. Project production is anything but a linear process and possibly reflects the natural neural pathways of creative minds.

For me, it is usually because of technical delays. I started as a painter, I’d get to a point on a painting where I had to stop for the paint to dry before I go further with it – I’d pull out another canvas, work for a while. Now, on my projects there are often delays while I wait for others to complete their contribution or to review my progress or perhaps a technical need, like rendering might force a pause. Rather than stop work all together, I prefer to move to another project. This is often mentally refreshing. Another important benefit of maintaining simultaneous multiple open projects is that a breakthrough in one often informs the others – I think it makes for better work altogether.

Chris….these aren’t multiple projects…they are a mash up of creative forces. Not everything works. Not everything sticks. One project has energy that feeds part of another project. And from that collective but unrelated energy, comes the possibility for something new.

So there!

It’s because I am completely insane.

I sometimes get too many ideas in my head. Often, I need to ‘make room’ by initiating an idea for ‘real’ (be in tangible or virtual – like code)

Though all the ideas can be maddening, I also get HUGE amounts of energy from having them and especially implementing – even if it’s just to make a start. Not all ideas make it to a screen though, which is why I need cloning or funding.

Who knows, a few of them just might might some money.

Most ideas I have had have always led to better things, be it a greater knowledge and understanding of something, or a new job.

I’m a self-made ‘citizen geek/programmer’ – self-taught on the web and trial and error. I left college studying Manufacturing Systems Engineering ( I wanted to design robots) and failed on Computing (in Turbo Pascal)

Opportunity ROCKS! – used to be my motto. And indeed it did. And thankfully still does.

Always having a new idea based around a new technology will make you ‘Future-Proof’. ;)

Because I can’t say no to:
a.) cool projects
b.) cool men
c.) another round

I have a lot of ideas, and I fall passionately in love with some of them.

The thrill of coming up with ideas, and thinking about the possibilities is better than the process of implementing something.

So when I’m working on making a project a reality – often largely by myself – and feeling frustrated by the slog of doing it by myself, I’ll find myself freshening up my mind by sitting on the toilet or in the bath or on the stoop with a coffee and a fag and falling in love with more ideas. Then I might tentatively embark on advancing some of them – or I might suddenly work obsessively on advancing and exploring an idea that I feel particularly excited about.

So at any one time, I’ve got a lot of things knocking around my head.

And that’s just my OWN ideas, let alone the things I see other people doing and want to get involved in – or otherwise boring work projects that I try to think up cool ways of enlivening (and thus make needlessly complicated).

I’m addicted to the high of falling in love with ideas, and with the thrill of interacting with other people to make them a reality.

Also… I think that the solo nature of a lot of creative work means that you aren’t constrained by perceived peer pressure from work colleagues to focus solely on the project that they’re working on. You’re not ‘betraying’ one set of people by working on something else.

And I guess it gets a little lonely when you’re working away on something by yourself and more projects means more social contact.

Creative brains are always popping with multiple ideas, different ways of looking at things, moments of insight. I truly think it all comes down to the way we’re hard wired.

But ah the luxury we have in our ability to share this! Think about how much easier it is to feed and grow those brain sparks, not to mention exist in a world where we may not be the norm, than it was when Leonardo was struggling with his need to invent, create, express himself in multiple ways.

For me, it comes from two main sources: first, i don’t have a clue where the money is in this industry. everything is so young, fresh and without market leaders, that it is wise to spread your investment.
the second reason is simple – it is so much fun to do tons of projects in parallel, see what works and what not, and try to stay ahead of the curve.

for me one has led to another….. sick to death of waiting for other people to make my dreams come true I sat down to write a film, the purpose of which was to create a profound and important creative opportunity for me… and for all my friends who I believed in and who also were still struggling artists (In fact I turned down more than one producer who wanted me to cast celebrities instead of my friends)..that dream is still in progress but my passion for my project and my determination to make it happen inspired me to think out of the box. A user generated web site was born, the hope being to build a community around the ideas of the film before we had even shot a frame, so that when the film was finished (I have raised $100,000 of the $350,000 I need to shoot) my market would already be established. From there sprang the idea of my vodcast… which seems to have taken over everything at this point!!!!! Next…????!!!!!

Because if you throw a bunch of crap at a wall, a little might stick :)

-Jeff
http://blog.zemote.com

We collectively have addictive personalities relating to our work. Everyone is a little different so your mileage may vary. The freshness of a new project with possibilities and meaty challenge? That’s like someone else’s cigarette. I hate the term “serial entrepreneur” just sounds so cheesy, as if the only goal is to make a bunch of money. Serial/parallel project creator, that works.

Another great by-product is the unintended ways multiple projects augment each other. Was just listening to a biography about Einstein on NPR, did you catch yesterday’s Fresh Air? If he wasn’t in that patent office, reviewing applications for clock synchronization, looking out the window at the trains coming and going, might he not have formulated his theory on space/time relativity? Juxtaposed context breeds brilliance. And lack of sleep. And crazy cat lady behavior. Just remember to bathe once and a while and apply deodorant.

I was gonna post a comment but I’ve got too many other things to do.

I’ll also add that I like to ‘dovetail’ knowledge which I acquire from one project idea to the next.

ie: The skills learned from one ALWAYS benefits or inspires the next.

Good value! :)

I didn’t choose to do so many projects but they chose me. I also find that you can experiment with new smaller projects that augment the success of other big umbrella projects. It’s my nature to give a new application, idea or client a chance to prove value and evolve. It’s fun to be part of all of it.

I like to freelance as a way to see what everyone is thinking about doing and to pay the bills. I also podcast on wine-tasting travel, I make short films, I write lyrics, and I make jewelry.