Event: Houston AAF Luncheon
Date: Wednesday, Feb 17th from 11:30a-1p
Venue: Junior League of Houston
Pricing: AAF Non-member ($35), AAF Member ($25)

For more info on the event, visit here.

- Intuit CEO Brad Smith spoke for an hour on leadership lessons. It was killer stuff. Best line of the day, in my opinion, was “Be both Greek + Roman”, or be both a lover of ideas AND action-oriented. It’s fine to philosophize, but be MOVING.

- I experienced the magical stylings of Jamy Ian Swiss, who designs illusions for Penn and Teller (among others) and has consulted and taught magic to many of the greats. In addition to wowing all of us with his sleight of hand, he talked about his work with Edward Tufte on a project illustrating magic. The killer line was about using the “smallest effective difference”, or the least amount of difference required to effectively illustrate data. He also talked about magic as a model for disinformation design. Fascinating.

- I was approached after my talk by someone who volunteered to start a San Francisco AC Group with some friends/colleagues. (Thanks Rochelle!)

- Mmmmmm….dinner at Izzy’s. (Enough said.)

Click here to view the embedded video.

This was my favorite moment in Seattle. We took a wrong turn, (actually…several of them…) and ended up at the base of a street called Troll Avenue. We decided to turn onto it, and when we arrived at the top, the above sculpture greeted us. Jennie tossed me her camera and I grabbed a quick shot.

It was unexpected, cool and memorable. (And we almost got into a…well…”creative accident” as I was taking the shot…)

- On the flight, I finished Steve Martin’s UNBELIEVABLE autobiography Born Standing Up . All artists or anyone wishing to build something meaningful must read this book. Really.

- I finished the plans for AC Groups. They’re coming soon to a city near (or surrounding) you.

- I managed to go through the entire landing with my seat not in upright and locked position. (Symbolically slapping myself on the wrist.)

- Today we’re visiting the Experience Music Project.

- I’m currently in the University District staring through a coffee shop window at my favorite all-time movie theatre sign. The Neptune advertises Scorsese’s “Shine A Light” and beneath it says, “Let’s Spend $9.25 Together.” Beautiful.

(By the way…that whole "Southern hospitality" thing is real. They arranged for me to stay in an amazing condo right on the beach. This was my view from bed each morning. Again – wow!)

If the technology holds up, it looks like I’ll be releasing part of my talk as a podcast next week. (Fingers crossed.) The recorder ran out of steam before I did – key learning: if I must stay within 60 minutes, I can’t be given access to a whiteboard…it’s an impossible task.

Leading into Easter each year there are fabulously elaborate ceremonies and processionals in Antigua Guatemala . As part of this ceremony, dozens or hundreds of people set about crafting this:

What appears to be a woven carpet is actually painstakingly created from…(ready for it?)…sawdust. (It’s not really sawdust, it’s a material derived from a plant, but it looks just like sawdust.) The carpets take 6 people about 10 hours to make. They are respected and revered throughout the course of the next day, then they are swept away. We caught one in mid sweeping.

Here’s another view:

When Pope John Paul II was visiting Guatemala City several years ago a sawdust carpet was made that stretched from the airport terminal to the main cathedral. The carpet was over 23km long!

So here’s a question for you:

How do you measure your devotion to your craft? If you knew that everything you worked painstakingly to create tonight would be enjoyed for a few hours and then destroyed by tomorrow night, would you work with the same energy and focus?