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WHY SETTLE FOR THE LESSER DEATH RAY? | 19 “That’s the best answer I’ve heard from the few people that I’ve asked the ‘how do you do it’ question: ‘well, you just sort of do it.” It is, as The Hobbit’s (now an Oscar-nominated feature film, shot right here in New Zealand—design work by none other than Weta Workshop) Bilbo Baggins reminds us, all the same road, and it can take you anywhere—you just have to take that step out your door. “That’s what I’ve been doing.” This approach has clearly worked for Greg. “Figure out what it is that you do,” I said, “and do it and keep doing it over and over and over and over and over again and get better at it. And that will turn into something. It may not be what you expect it to be, but don’t try to be me, try to be you.” It’s something I think a lot about both professionally and personally—and a value I really want to instill in my daughters. This level of thought called for another round. Fortunately, a pair of bottles hit the table a moment later. Our server apparently recognized a thirsty conversation when she saw one. “Exactly,” Greg responded, a veteran of many more such engagements than I. “And even if it doesn’t work, the means is often a bit of an end. If you’re thinking at it from the point of view of: ‘I want to get to this endpoint,’ like ‘how do I become a film designer?’ or ‘how do I become an artist?’ or whatever, you’ve got the thinking about it the wrong around. You should be thinking of the means. What is it that you want to do? ‘I want to illustrate a picture.’ ‘I want to write a story.’ That’s the important part and if you enjoy that, then hopefully you’ll make something good out of it and that gets you to the next point. The end? Maybe that matches up to somewhere close to where you were hoping you would get to. But it shouldn’t be the goal. I don’t think anyway. That’s the way I think of it anyway. I don’t think so much in terms of a definitive goal. Now I’m confusing myself, I’m thinking: ‘do I do that?’” We both laughed at that. I love talking to other people who think as they talk. There’s something more authentic about sitting down with someone who’s clearly processing what they are saying as they say it. I know it’s more polished and professional to have a set of things you say—more memorable, perhaps, to have a single speil. But some of us think through our ideas out loud, and when we get together, I think we learn a lot more than if either of us was just running through a script. But back to the subject at hand—a lesson on life as much or more than steampunk—doing, making, improving, changing, becoming. I was thinking about motivation. “There have been some psychological studies and books recently about what motivates people. The thing I’ve read most recently is a book called Drive, by Daniel Pink. It’s about what motivates people and
20 | STEAMPUNKING OUR FUTURE: AN EMBEDDED HISTORIAN’S NOTEBOOK about the assumption that is still a fundamental part of corporate culture—this idea that what motivates people is offering them more money. It actually turns out that financial incentives function on your brain almost like cocaine does. It just eventually ends up numbing you and doesn’t produce the best work. What really what motivates people is first, pay them enough to take the question of money off the table, and second, to present them with challenges and interesting questions that feed what excites them, what they do best. What truly inspires people is the drive towards mastery. Pink presents it as a curve that never quite reaches the line. You know, like when you keep cutting a number in half over and over again you’ll never actually get to zero. You are always striving to get to the point, but you never make it—and that’s the fuel that really produces the best work.” “That’s the frustrating thing,” he said. “I think what it’s like for a lot of young people is that you feel like you’re going towards mastery, and then the realization you have as an older person is that there is no such thing.” “Right.” Well, he was. Greg nodded at the waitress’s unspoken offer of another round. “Even if you spend your entire life aiming towards that, you are never going to get there, because if you do get there you’ve failed. What are you going to do after that? That’s no satisfying point. You always want to be learning more. If you stop learning, something has gone drastically wrong with your life.” “Yeah,” I responded, “the minute I stop learning might as well be the minute I keel over dead.” “It’s only if something satisfies you and inspires you,” Greg continued, “then you want to keep on doing more of it. Then you get to the point where if it doesn’t satisfy and inspire you and you find something that does and learn that way. You always want to be learning more and more. I mean that’s what I think of art and creation: it’s just the process of learning.” The Roots of Ray Guns Tired of waking up to miscreant martian meanderings on your es- tate? Fed up with rival corporate ninjas pilfering trade secrets? Or merely out for a spot of endangered beasty butchering? The MAN- MELTER 3600 is the thing for you! Buy a second for that lucky neph- ew or niece. — GREG BROADMORE Doctor Grordbort’s Contrapulatronic Dingus Directory (2008)
Page 1 and 2: AN EMBEDDED HISTORIAN’S NOTEBOOK
Page 3 and 4: STEAMPUNKING OUR FUTURE: AN EMBEDDE
Page 6: Futurehunting and Historyhacking |
Page 9 and 10: 4 | STEAMPUNKING OUR FUTURE: AN EMB
Page 15 and 16: Greg Broadmore (photo courtesy of S
Page 17 and 18: 12 | STEAMPUNKING OUR FUTURE: AN EM
Page 23: 18 | STEAMPUNKING OUR FUTURE: AN EM
Page 44 and 45: Index A Armadillo (movie), 29 B Bro
Page 46: About the Authors James H. Carrott

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