Transcribed with Otter.ai
Guest Yves Behar
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Hey. Hey everyone. Welcome to unique ways with Thomas Girard and audio podcast, we have a distinguished guest on today. He’s a Swiss born American designer, entrepreneur and educator, and he’s the founder and principal designer of fuse project, please join me in welcoming and celebrating. Yves Behar, welcome.
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Thank you, Thomas for having me. Are you ready for 20 questions?
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I am. I am ready for you. Great. Okay. Question one, tell me a little bit more about yourself. What do you do?
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So, I grew up in Switzerland, and I moved to the United States, la in my early 20s to finish my studies in design, and I was always driven as a as a young person by writing
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fiction ideas. I wanted to be a journalist actually, until I realized that I could tell stories through design. I didn’t have to write them down. I could actually draw them up or build them up, and people sometimes would understand what I would what I was trying to say through my work.
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Perfect question two, what’s a key piece of knowledge that makes you different? I so I read this question in your in your brief before
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I didn’t,
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I didn’t have sort of a clear answer, because in some ways,
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there’s a lot of things that make us different from one another, and in some other ways, I think we’re,
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you know, we’re, we’re all
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similar.
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In the way that, you know, we’re humans and we share,
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you know, histories and backgrounds and some you know. So I don’t know, could I start over?
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Or no? Yeah, please just continue and so,
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yeah, it’s an interesting question, a difficult question for me, because
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I know that I have a certain propensity towards
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new ideas and new constructs, and I really try to be in tune with the world around me to and I mostly, I think, experience it
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emotively.
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And, you know, I feel that when I’m given a problem, and usually it’s a new problem. I’m not a specialist. I work on a vast array of different
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projects and companies
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and even disciplines, and I feel like the first thing that I always do, and I spin those questions, I spend the challenges in,
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you know, in my head for a long time. And I think maybe my special, if there is a special talent there, it’s maybe the one of observation and the one of
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curiosity towards, you know, what makes us all
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sometimes kind of desire the same things, the same change, the same progress without really being able to express it. So how do you how you dig into that? How do you extract that? By observation, I think, by being sensitive to
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the areas in people’s lives that people aren’t really discussing or aren’t really expressing, or don’t really know where that should go, and maybe having that sort of search mindset that observing and search mindset is
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what kind of keeps, keeps me on these problems and eventually to find something interesting to say.
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Great. So that segues nicely. So number three is, why this of all things? Why do you do what you do?
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Huh? I do design, because when when I was a teenager, I realized the power of creativity. I was on a university track in the equivalent of high school in Switzerland, and.
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Yeah, and I wasn’t very good at learning linearly. I realized that I,
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I was more of a maker, builder, and, you know, at the time, this was the, this was a mid 80s,
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I was a punk. So
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the superpower of the punk movement was to not be afraid to do new things that you’re not skilled at.
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So you could be a fashion designer, you could be a music a musician or a music producer. You could be a graphic designer,
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you could be a furniture designer, and you could be self taught, you just you could go out there and make something out of the sheer belief that
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you have a right to do so. You have a right to try. You have a right to fail. You have to write to a right to show something that is eventually different and personal. And I think that power really sort of took over in a way,
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and I and then, and since, basically since I’m 16 years old, I haven’t
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pursued or had the idea of any other profession or any other
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direction in my life. So all that to say, I’ve been doing this for a long time.
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Great. I love it. Some people struggle with number four, but the question is, what does your future look like?
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I think I only struggled with that briefly
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because I chose, I chose this profession, as I said at 16, and actually a year ago, I bought fuse project back. Fuse project is the design studio I founded 25 years ago, and it was sold 10 years ago, and I remained CEO. And I remained,
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you know, I remained the creative here and with with, with my team
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for the last 10 years. But then I really, I had a realization, which is,
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it’s really what I want to keep doing and as long as possible. And it felt I gained, sort of the belief that the next 25 years will be just as good, or if not better, than the last 25 years. And so I want to continue to learn. And for that reason, I purchased fuse project back, and that means that I’ll keep designing and learning and getting into new fields.
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And, you know, most recently, I designed my first humanoid robot.
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We will be presenting a solar yacht, all kinds of projects and all kinds of activities that
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I haven’t,
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you know, I haven’t done in the past, so
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my future will be to continue building and continue imagining what the future can be.
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Great. Number five, we say, is unique to this show. And the question is, let’s talk about location. How does the notion of place play into what you do,
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the notion of place has played a huge role in my own development.
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When I when I was in my early 20s, I moved to San Francisco. I think I was 23 or 24 I had studied in Los Angeles, and very early on
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in my career,
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I would just be when I used to work for companies like Luna design or Frog Design. I used to be in these big meetings with people that were much older than me, very accomplished, both in business and sometimes academically, and just being thrown into a room of
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leaders and experts and being such a young designer,
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you know, I was really kind of blown away about how I was welcome to contribute, and how, in fact, I was expected to contribute and and that was a unique trait of San Francisco and Silicon Valley in the in the in the mid 90s, because it was A place of
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a tremendous amount of geographical diversity, people from all around the world. We’d be sitting around the table, people with all kinds of different academic and business backgrounds. And I felt like everybody had a role to play. And I think that was I.
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For me, at least, probably the secret of the success of Silicon Valley is that, you know, out of the rest of the world, it was the least homogeneous place that I could work in innovation in technology, new technology
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in design, really anywhere. So being here, being in San Francisco was
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really transformed, I would say even my brain, even, you know, just the way my brain functioned, the fact that I had to to step up to
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to participate, to contribute,
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at a young age really sort of pushed me and and brought out a different personality from what I had grown up with, which is Switzerland and Europe, which at the time,
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you know, seniority was was regarded, as,
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you know, probably the most important
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element of credibility in the room. And so here I was giving an opportunity, which I found to be completely unique and and that’s,
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that’s what made San Francisco and Silicon Valley really a unique place to to practice design.
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Okay. Number six, you’re starting from the beginning. What advice do you give your former younger self?
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That is another question that I found challenging when I read through them, and part because I don’t believe in not making mistakes. I actually do believe that the mistakes that I made
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helped me learn and grow and
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so, you know, the advice maybe I would give myself is patience. I think, I think there is
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a tremendous expectation that as a creative
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you know one when one gives himself or herself, which is to find a solution, but we never know how long it’s going to take. We never know whether the inspiration, the direction, will come in five minutes,
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five hours, five days, five months. And of course, you know, when you’re in design, you’re under deadline. People expect you to produce something. And I find some, you know, I find that tension really interesting, the tension of you know, the nervousness, the anxiety, the
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you know, the intensity of not knowing
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can be, you know, paralyzing. It makes you kind of cranky, or it makes you,
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you know, continuously explore, and, of course, all creative fields come with a certain amount of frustration.
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But what I realized is, when I set my brain in motion, and we all do that the problems tend to,
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you know, tend to
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resolve themselves over time. I mean, it’s one of my favorite quotes,
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you know,
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from from Pablo Picasso is, you know,
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inspiration. It’s something I’m prefacing, but it’s something along the lines of, inspiration exists, but it needs to find you working,
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which is you need to set your brain in motion,
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and you need to be patient with the fact that a result will come by, as long as you apply yourself to it nice. What’s the day in your life like
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well, I would say My average day is that I show up at work at 830 in the morning, drop off my kids before that, at their school at 815
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and start working,
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usually with Europe early in the morning. So I have a few calls, a few brainstorms that I do from 830 to 930
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and then
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I start working with a team here. We have a team in Lisbon,
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which is eight hours ahead of San Francisco. And we have, of course, the team of fuse project here in San Francisco, so
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and I think the rest of the day kind of goes by mostly applying myself to the different projects we’re working on, from the tele truck that we’re designing
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to, you know, we actually.
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Bringing one into the office, so it’s, it’s front and center of our activity here
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and
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and, you know, I don’t have much of a lunch. Usually it’s in the office or a quick thing with the team outside,
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and I’ll exercise in the afternoon.
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Sometimes I’ll go surfing, if the conditions are good, and then I have
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the kids responsibilities in the evening, so
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meals and
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and work, I mean, and homework. Rather,
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okay, um, lifelong learning is a popular topic. How do you stay up to date?
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That is the most important aspect of what I’m excited about of my life, which is a sense that learning is
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what I love to do. And I’m very lucky, because we work on so many different types of projects that I’m constantly learning the context, the environment in which these projects will will live. And so I love being in a room, being presented with a completely new, new challenge, and spending spending my time solving and resolving it.
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I would say that’s my biggest form of education.
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You know, I do read, I do listen to some podcasts and watch some documentaries.
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I’m not a big consumer of media. I don’t know, spend any time watching movies or Netflix,
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but I tend to, I tend to do this sort of,
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what would you call that,
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in context, learning or on the job learning, really, on a daily basis?
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Great. Can we talk about tools, your use of digital and analog tools?
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So,
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I mean, in our office, it’s a typical office with
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D and 3d printing and CAD and
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machinery, CNC, laser, etc. So those are the digital tools that we use. I mostly use sketching,
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writing down of ideas.
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I do some graphic design work on the computer. But I would say my tools are there for expediency and speed. I find that putting my ideas on paper by hand is significantly faster. My ability to try lots of different things
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quickly, to explore
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more deeply. I think the nature of an idea is through drawing and through making prototypes.
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We have tried. We have looked at
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AI tools for design, not a successful area, as far as my experience so far. So it’s very hands on. But I love that, because
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the hand and the brain are
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very connected. And I think all the, all the best thinkers, you know, we’re designers, all the best designers, we’re thinkers and makers. And so I feel, I feel I stay, I stay connected to
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the essential tools of how things are made and built.
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Great. Okay, halfway. Number 10, how do you deal with work, life or life work balance?
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Very good question. So I feel that I’m working all the time, and I also feel like I’m living all the time,
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or having fun all the time. So I don’t really,
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I don’t think about it too much, but I definitely have a discipline around,
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around exercise, around growing around certain, certain sports and physical activities that I do.
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So I’m very committed to that I don’t tend to sacrifice time with my kids or time on my health or
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time exercising for work, but I’m
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you can find me working really at all times of the day or all kinds of different situations.
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Hours, weekends and after hours. But it’s it’s not.
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It doesn’t feel like a struggle from that standpoint. It feels like it is just part of the fluidity of creating, building, being a designer and entrepreneur at the same time.
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Great 11. If you weren’t doing what you do now, what might you be doing?
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I truly believe that is the only thing I can do.
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I’m
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I mean, if I wasn’t doing what I’m doing right now, I would be probably chasing a swell somewhere, chasing some waves as a surfer.
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It’s a midlife pursuit that I’ve taken on.
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But I think in general, if we’re talking in general, if there was another profession or another activity that I would be, that it would be practicing,
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it probably would be
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entrepreneurship around an environmental project, around ecological or environmental
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opportunity.
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What would you not like to do with your career?
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Become an accountant, being a manager,
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dealing with legal,
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none of these things I’m very good at,
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and I think it was really a blessing that I took on design early on,
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I find myself being very binary in the sense that I’m, I believe I’m. I have a strength
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in the things that I enjoy, and I have real weakness, weaknesses in the things that I’m simply
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that I that I’m not having a good time doing
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great. So you mentioned 13. But do you have a favorite word, quote or sentence?
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Yes, my favorite sentence, which I use on a regular basis, is that design accelerates the adoption of new ideas.
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Do you have a least favorite?
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Good question? Least favorite?
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I
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can’t think of one right now.
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You’re choosing maybe, maybe,
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maybe the the one that says, What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, I don’t really believe that.
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Um, great. Uh, you’re choosing one word to describe yourself. What word do you choose?
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Only one
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more, if you like.
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Well, freedom,
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grit, loyalty, those are all important words for me.
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What keeps you up at night?
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My own spinning mind. I’m still working on controlling that.
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I think that that is the
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that is sort of the
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your your default brain is. It’s something that you have to sort of keep in check always and forever. It is easy to be self consumed.
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So final stretch here, number 17, what’s a dream you’re chasing?
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I think I’m chasing the dream of
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building experiences that
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that make people feel and act smarter.
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I’m very interested in these out of left field ideas, these constructs that people seem to be very reluctant at and and then, you know or afraid of, and I love the superpower that designers, architects and other creatives are, which is to change our minds, to show us through good design, good experiences. That’s something that they may have thought was impossible, that it is actually possible, enjoyable and desirable. So I think I have a bit of a contrarian, or I love a challenge to bring something new to fields or areas of our lives that are.
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And
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that need, that need it, that require it
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great and 18. What inspires you?
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What inspires me, I’ve been saying this for a while, is the idiosyncrasies of modern life, of our existence. I’m not inspired in particular by shapes or nature or, you know,
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sort of more inspired by the psych, psychological and emotional needs that we have,
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especially in in our kind of modern
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recent times, when we’re becoming extremely efficient and powerful with computers in our pockets, and yet, there are big gaps in
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how we live, how we could live better, how we could be happier, how we could
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have more fulfilling existence. So I try to
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I try to find these, I try to observe these in the way that we live our modern lives.
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Nice and any advice you’d like to share, I’ve
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asked this question a lot, especially when it comes to young people and young designers, and I feel that
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at least what worked for me, I can share that, you know, initially, there was a lot of opportunities to become
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a generalist or
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to learn a lot of ancillary skills that are not sort of focused on design, and I feel like you know, in this world of infinite choice,
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Infinite Opportunities to learn different things at a young age, it is actually more useful to be extremely focused on one super human skill that you may you may be able to develop. And the reason is all the opportunities for diversity to spread your wings, to explore them.
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You know, the confines of of a certain profession and and you know, become more diverse in one’s practice. Those come after you’ve created tremendous value by being focused. And so I what I would advise is to focus on something that
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you can be really good at, that you can derive pleasure and excitement from, because all the other opportunities will come,
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will come after that. And
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sometimes, I think in in our education, we get
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too many opportunities to dilute. I think that’s core talent that that we have the opportunity to develop at a young age.
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Great. And finally, number 20, how can our listeners keep listeners keep tabs on you, and what’s our call to action?
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Well, I
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we have a website. I have IG page at Eve Bihar.
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I i mix sort of personal and work, because that’s just the way my brain, my life is,
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and I do find
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inspiration and in rare moments of life, whether it’s whether you’re presenting something new or whether you’re living something new.
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So let’s
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give it a follow, see, see what you see,
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great. Well. Thanks so much. Such a privilege to have you on today. Thank you absolutely. Thank you very much. Bye.
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