Interviewing the interviewer
Kyra Maya Phillips on stealing ideas and being productive in 4 paragraphs
Kyra Maya Phillips chooses listening over talking, interviewing over being interviewed. She and her co-author, Alexa Clay, have been investigating and interviewing ‘misfits’ for over 2.5 years. The result of their research on innovation — the principle all misfits have in common — will be published by Simon & Schuster as The Misfit Economy in June 2015.
We worked with Kyra on her presentation about pirates and hackers (Look on the Dark Side) for TEDxLSE in 2013. This interview is our third in Bruns & Niks client conversations.
1. We don’t read
Because there’s such a tremendous arsenal of interesting information out there, we’re struggling to consume everything we’d like to consume. And when we do read, watch, or listen to anything, we often do so quickly and in a cursory way. I don’t think that’s great. We’re missing out on a lot of the nuances that enrich content and make it worth taking in.
And some people don’t even read, actually. NPR proved the matter with this year’s April fools joke in an article titled: Why Doesn’t America Read Anymore? In it, they wrote:
“Congratulations, genuine readers, and happy April Fools’ Day!
We sometimes get the sense that some people are commenting on NPR stories that they haven’t actually read. If you are reading this, please like this post and do not comment on it. Then let’s see what people have to say about this ‘story.’”
Readers eventually did comment. My favourite one:
“This article is horrible. Americans DO read, it’s disrespectful to intelligent americans to state as fact that america no longer reads. My daughter is second grade and her class is assigned at least one book a month to read. My wife is an avid reader and is even takes part in a weekly book club. As for myself, I read mainly ESPN and Sports Illustrated. America is a great and educated country, and one I am proud to live in.”
Brilliant.
2. Reading properly
I spend every morning reading and meditating before my son wakes up. While reading, I take notes and keep them in a folder. Every Friday, I re-read my stolen notes and think about whatever it is that I thought was interesting enough to want to remember.
Austin Kleon, the author of Steal Like An Artist, recommends that you start a “swipe file,” which is essentially a large file which contains every idea you like. I love him.
3. Snail Mail
Nico Luchsinger (co-founder of the Sandbox Community) and I started Snail Mail, a newsletter of things that have really, really stuck with us. It’s our attempt to ditch virality as a filter, so we can only share content that’s three months old or older. It’s been a fun experiment and we’re really excited about it. Our second issue is coming out this Thursday (September 4th). Subscribe here.
4. Children’s books
I love reading to my newborn son, Leo. Here’s a bookshelf where I keep every book he owns and that we read together. There’s this really great quote: “A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest.” (C.S. Lewis). Children’s stories are so pure, and they teach you things that you have long forgotten about.
In all of these things Kyra tells us about the value of mindful reading: clearly understanding of what we have read and especially learning from it by keeping and re-reading the latter we found most interesting. Kyra told us that it all starts with understanding why we’re doing things, which values we have, one step at the time. Hear, hear!
Bruns & Niks is a design agency based in Amsterdam and with clients all over the world.
This interview with Kyra is part of our Client Conversations series. Instead of sharing the specific design work we do, we highlight the work of our clients.
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