good post. I agree, we must continue to stay current and learn new things. This goes for everyone involved with web work one way or another – designers, programmers, copywriters, marketers, on and on and on….this is great and no-so great at the same time.

Experimenting and research too much and you risk never mastering anything, but on the flip side – become a master at one thing only and risk your long term career, should that one thing up and go away….flash development might be one such example.

(btw, if you accidentally type the letters directly next to n, i, and k – your name becomes Molo. )

See, I've been kinda blaaaaah myself, too. It's difficult, because I let a lot of outside things inspire me. I shouldn't let situations and circumstances affect my creativity, but what do I do when my best work is a result of a bright morning, 65 degrees…. or a busy coffeehouse atmosphere… especially a place with a warm, New York flair. My other favorite place is my job… I work at an Orchard. I get so many ideas there.

But with this cold dreary weather… I'm depressed, and then not to mention my un-motivated, 35-going-on-14 year-old classmates

How to I NOT let these things get to me? How can I train myself to do my best work, even in an unsatisfactory environment??? Sometimes, I try to use "learning new things" as a mode for motivation, but sometimes, I don't even WANT to start something, knowing I'll be too "blaaaaah" to finish

After some basic understanding from the mentors and friends i knew in Design Democracy, I finally concluded i know nothing about design (i put all knowledge to design at once for 'dispose purpose' so i can better absorbs new information), i know very little of it. So i have a long term goal, learning the basics from the peers. I have a full time job which is not design related (sort of).

So now my biggest challenge is to master the basics – Starting from grids.

btw, i have a habit of denying what i've learn as to challenge myself to be able to look and learn things from different angles again. It's fun!
My recent post Rick Hocutt

On the flip side, it has (already) opened up massive collaborative opportunities (oh hai mah back needz scratchin'), and in general has forced me to streamline things. For instance, I'm so much more organized now than I've ever been.

In other words, to grow you need to keep on learning.

Learning makes me excited by the possibilities and frustrated that I don't have more time to devote to it. I have a laundry list of things I'd like to learn and picking which thing to go after first can be tough.