"What surprises me most about humanity is man. He sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies never having really lived." - Dalai Lama

As we get down to business I realise I need to double down on my present. I can spend a lot of time thinking about the future: Where is this project heading? Where is Open Pit heading? Where am I going to live after I leave Toronto? That quote from the Dalai Lama helped zap me into nowness and I feel ready to get down to work.

I won't rehash what we are doing. There are some great posts by the other members that can fill you in. I did want to share some thoughts on shaping. Shaping came about as a way to fill a need. I wanted to experiment with creating sans director. Eventually I discovered that although you can survive on a day to day basis without a director, it helps to have someone who is guiding things on the outside. Hence, the shaper. The shaper is not the director. The shaper is in charge of their scene which they proposed. Again, there are lots of other posts covering our current process. So, after one week of working with shapers I came up with a few thoughts on what made a shaper successful. I want to share them here.

It’s ok to keep secrets from us. I like not knowing the full plan. It helps me not to get ahead of myself.
Try different experiments before trying to put it all together.
Work in chunks, present one element and then layer onto that.
Take the time to think about where you want to go next. Don’t feel like we always need to be doing something. If you need to plan your next move take the time so that you can effectively relay the information to us.
Don’t ask for feedback right away. It lets us gain momentum in the work and lets you get comfortable.
You decide which idea to follow. We might have 5 great ideas, but you choose which path to follow. Do it subjectively. Which one excites you the most?
I find working from an action, or an objective is easier than working from an idea. Can you turn your idea into something we can do?