Perform a Grand Project

This week, I wrote a column encouraging U of M students to perform their own Grand Projects. Thanks to Cal Newport for the idea.

I highly encourage you to start one. Submit it to the e-mail address mentioned below if you'd like feedback/accountability.

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If I could turn the clock back to my freshman year, one thing I’d make sure to do is thoroughly read Cal Newport’s blog, Study Hacks. His blog has changed how I view success and how I aim to achieve it during and after college. Here are a few things I’ve learned from Newport’s blog: Master a rare and valuable skill; don’t spread yourself too thin. Send your e-mails in large batches; don’t whimsically check your inbox throughout the entire day. Focus on working right; don't brood over finding the “right work.”

But perhaps my favorite idea of Newport’s is one — if I had implemented earlier — I believe would have significantly improved my student experience: Have a Grand Project.

It’s unfortunate because these projects were the experiences that would have enriched my life personally, socially and professionally. Amid many of my academic requirements that failed to elicit my complete engagement, these were the opportunities to actualize what I truly wanted and believed in. Of course, it's never too late, but it’s better to start early.

And it’s not like such ambitious, exciting projects are simply unrealistic. My friend Alex O’Dell, Public Policy Senior, filmed a documentary a couple summers ago in India, and then presented it on campus this past weekend. My friend Allen Kim, College of Engineering senior, started his own business last year, Bebarang, and this year he is working on it full time. Alumni AJ Holmes, Ali Gordon and Carlos Valdes (who I would like to have as friends), wrote an entire musical in one summer and then gave a captivating performance at TEDxUofM last year.

These projects were not completed through any formal programs. These students pursued their passions on their own terms.

What they did was perform Grand Projects.

If while reading this, you’ve been thinking, "Well, I’ve always wanted to do 'X,'" or if looking back at your years at the University, you’d be incredibly proud of yourself if you accomplished a certain “X,” then I implore you to make that your Grand Project — to at least try “X.”

A Grand Project is an opportunity for you to pursue your passions, or to merely explore your interests. It’s also an opportunity for you to combine your class work, extracurricular activities and free time into a personalized project, customized to your beliefs, talents and idiosyncrasies. A Grand Project may even help you, as it did Allen Kim, discover what you would like to do after college.

A Grand Project will leave you bustling down the hallways, induce exciting ideas when you least expect them and infuse your daily life with a sense of purpose and significance.

But what if you don’t have an idea for a Grand Project? If your “X” is, like mine was, “something impactful” and “you’ll just know it when you see it,” then pursue an interest on the side, and see where it takes you. Or perhaps you already have a full schedule with classes and extracurricular activities. That’s fine, as long as they satisfy the “X” condition mentioned above. If they don’t, find a way to tailor your current activities into a Grand Project, and if that’s not possible, it may be helpful to re-evaluate.

After you decide what you’d like to accomplish, where do you begin? Newport provides some recommendations: First, talk to people who’ve done something similar in the past. Learn where they succeeded, and learn where they failed. Second, set clear expectations and goals for yourself and your Grand Project. Third, ensure that you receive feedback consistently. Applying to a competition, publicizing your work or sharing it with close friends will confirm that you are either on your way to achieving your goal or that you are behind and need to catch up.

As a matter of fact, a great opportunity exists on campus to receive feedback for your Grand Project: 1000 Pitches. Hosted by MPowered, 1000 Pitches is an entrepreneurial competition that collects ideas for businesses, social ventures and improvements to the University. Submitting a pitch will allow you to outline your Grand Project, and other incentives will help to hold you accountable.

If you would like further encouragement and feedback on your idea, send it to Grandproject@umich.edu, and MPowered will evaluate how it can help you. Who knows? Perhaps in the future, with enough interest and participation, some organization may hold a 1000 Grand Projects competition.

Engineering Innovation

Here is a column I wrote about innovation a couple of weeks ago.

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In LA I had the luxury to pick a screenwriter's brain about innovation. Over dinner, he mentioned the following.

1) Most ideas are either bad or unoriginal.

2) It's important to know the field you're trying to innovate in. His recommendation for screenwriters is to see lots of movies and tv shows.

3) "Live a robust life". Most aspiring screenwriters write about an aspiring screenwriter who moves to Hollywood. Have a personal story worth telling.

While he meant these specifically for aspiring screenwriters, they apply to anyone who wants to come up with valuable ideas. Especially that last one.

NELP, a university program I went on a few years back, has the adage: "how vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live."

The Art of Non Conformity

As I am looking at potential travel opportunities and evaluating my options, namely, whether to undergo a formal program or just wing it(!), I was happy to run across Chris Guillebeau's blog, The Art of Non-Conformity.

I pulled some good quotes from one of his longer documents:

"Here’s a quick side lesson: if you want to know who your real friends are, start telling your craziest idea to everyone you meet. Some people will slowly back away from you as if you really are crazy, but others will latch on to your idea and help you any way they can. The people in the second group are your real friends"

and here:

“You see, the conformists of the world will tell you to do one or the other, or else they’ll tell you to go make money for a while and then use your resources to help people. This is a deceptively satisfying answer for people who want to be reassured that it’s okay to put off thinking about the second question. It’s a satisfying answer because it pro­vides temporal relief. It’s deceptive because it’s not true, and over time most people gradually begin to correctly sus­pect that they’ve missed something big by believing this idea.”

Part of me feels that this is the stuff best-sellers are built on, challenging conventional wisdom: Take the road not taken, Follow your real dreams! And, having just read the Black Swan, his logic also seems to be susceptible to confirmation bias. He did it, and is telling us about it, but we don't hear about the others who try it and fail. Consequently, we have an inflated belief that we can do this too.

On the other hand, a large part of me agreed with his two quotes and with most of the stuff I see on his blog. He does a good job of balancing the ideological in an individual sense (he wants to visit every country in the world) and the practical (among his goals is a PHD in international relations).

If you'd like to see more of Chris's ideas, I'd recommend here, and here.