Be nice to people. It's the single most important thing.

Music and links from this episode

Cylinder Nine by Chris Zabriskie

The Life and Death of a Certain K. Zabriskie, Patriarch by Chris Zabriskie

Sphere by Creo

Line-by-line notes

INTRO

I like to give out lots of tips to designers

And generally

They just apply to being a good human as well

Today's episode definitely falls into this category

Ever since we started Genius Division

The design agency I run with a few other conspirators

We've tried to live by one mantra

Work hard and be nice to people

Yesterday was work hard

Today is be nice to people

This is AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess

PLAY MID SONG

Manners cost nothing

Good manners are your beauty

Your mood shouldn't dictate your manners

I tried to find quote about being nice too

But they were all negative

And paranoid

Nice guys always finish last

Even the nicest people have their limits

Quotes like that

There's an inherent distrust of nice people

Especially in Britain, where nobody can take a compliment

People constantly that that if you're being nice, you want something

Or there's a reason for being nice

Beyond just being nice

I absolutely don't believe nice guys finish last at all

And you shouldn't either

The whole idea of finishing last

Suggests there's an idea of success that everybody buys into

Which is just not true

Being nice is the cornerstone of everything I do

I hate it when somebody thinks otherwise of me

I hate it when I've hurt somebody or somebody is annoyed at me

In an ideal world I'd love everybody to like me

And I'm not saying that I'm an egotistical way

I mean everybody should just like everybody

There's no need for backhanded compliments

Or silly games behind people's backs

Let's just all be nice

And let's get it out of the way now

Being nice doesn't mean you're weak

Or you're a pushover

Or you let others get their own way all the time

Despite what Hollywood and TV shoves down all our throats

You can politely decline

And you don't need an argument to solve a difference of opinion

I think in the design world, being nice is especially important

The design world is still pretty small

And most people know each other

It's quite incestuous that way

So you never know when you might stumble across somebody again in a different job

I don't believe in burning bridges no matter how hard the other side might try to set it on fire

Being nice isn't trendy anymore I guess

The corporate mentality is to drop things on everybody below you and throw stones at people above you

Everybody is a target and somebody to be stepped on

But in a meritocracy

Where everybody is out to get on the next rung of the ladder

It forgets about the people

Design is all about people

It's about the people you share a studio with

It's about your clients you help create amazing work for

And it's about your peers and other people who you ask for advice from

You have to be nice to all of those people, all the time

In fact, just be nice to people

It just feels

Well

Nice

OUTRO

This was AADA. I’m Craig Burgess.

Music featured in this episode was

Cylinder Nine by Chris Zabriskie

The Life and Death of a Certain K. Zabriskie, Patriarch by Chris Zabriskie

Sphere by Creo

For a line-by-line run down of this episode, go to askadesignernaything.com/ep109

I’m back tomorrow for another episode of AADA

Support Ask a Designer Anything

Ask a Designer Anything Website

Twitter (@craigburgess)

Ask a Designer Anything on Facebook

Leave me a review on iTunes