Always Be Hacking

The thought behind the phrase “Always be selling” is that you should constantly be marketing yourself to others, since you never know where the next customer will come from. What about new ideas/inspirations?

I propose that you should “always be hacking” as well - never stop learning, growing, and thinking about improving the world around you:

Keep aware of your surroundings at all times. At work. At home. Out in the world. Note situations that are frustrating or that slow you down - can they be improved in some way? Can that manual task be automated without a negative time cost? 

Explore your ideas - Learn a bit about the subject matter around the idea. Table it, then come back with a fresh perspective.  Build small insights bit by bit in order to eventually form a cohesive revelation.

Inspiration hits at random times - always write ideas down! I use mobile note-taking apps and a notebook for designs/sketches at home.

Don’t limit yourself to a small “work worldview”, i.e. your immediate day-to-day responsibilities.  I won an innovation challenge at work by creating something that fell outside the normal scope of my team.  As long as feedback is constructive, why not give input into other team’s processes or products? Everyone works for the same team, right?

Invest time in learning - seeing how others have changed the world, even in small ways, can lead to inspiration and new ideas.

Always be learning. growing. “hacking”.