Shipulski On Design

Archive for November, 2025

Some have more than you, some have less. Can you be thankful?

Things will go well, and things will go poorly.  Will you be thankful?

Some will support you, and others will diminish.  Can you be thankful?

Truth will be told, and so will lies. Will you be thankful?

You can prevent some problems, but others you cannot.  Can you be thankful?

Some of your hypotheses will be validated, and others will be invalidated.  Will you be thankful?

Sometimes you will be supported, and other times criticized. Can you be thankful?

You will be healthy, and you will be sick. Will you be thankful?

You will get old.  Can you be thankful?

Sometimes you will be calm, and other times anxious.  But can you be thankful?

Sometimes you will agree with family, and sometimes you will disagree.  Can you be thankful?

You will have everything, then it will all go away? Can you be thankful?

Things will be better and worse. Will you be thankful?

There will be success and failure.  Can you be thankful?

You will be happy and sad. Will you be thankful?

Some family members will live close to you, and others will live far away.  Can you be thankful?

Some friends will support you, and others will bail. Will you be thankful?

Sometimes you will rise to the occasion, and other times you will bail. Can you be thankful?

You will be understood and misunderstood.  Will you be thankful?

Thankfulness is a choice.  What will you choose?

Image credit — Cindi Albright

When you start something, by definition, you will end it.

All good things come to an end.  So do all bad things. That’s how it goes with things.

All new things start with the end of old things. That’s how things are.

What does it say when a phase of your life comes to an end?

Doesn’t the start of a new phase demand the end of an existing one?

When something ends, do you curse it or celebrate it, do both, or neither?  And how do you decide?

If you stay with the old thing too long, what does that say?  And how do you know it was too long?

Can you know it will be too long before you stay too long?

If you leave too soon, can you know that before you leave?

The follow-on results of a decision do not determine the quality of a decision.

There is no right decision to make.

Make the decision and then make it right.

Image credit — Karissa Burnett

What’s the rule?  Are you sure?

Where did the rule come from?  And how do you know?

When the rule was created, was there also a rule that it could not be changed?

Show me the rule book!

Is the rule always applicable, even after hours?

If the rule is limited to a certain location, work from home.

Is it a rule or a ritual?  It’s easier to abstain from rituals.

Is it a rule or a rut?  Ruts aren’t rules; they’re just how we’ve done it.

Is it a rule or a guideline? Squinting can easily transform a rule into a guideline.

If there’s a disagreement about what the rule is, take a position that’s advantageous to you.

If you don’t know it’s a rule, there’s no need to break it.

If one knows who broke the rule, was it really broken?

If the rules are unknown, don’t follow them.

If the context changed around the rule, the rule is no longer applicable.

If no one remembers why the rule exists, it’s no longer a rule.

If you don’t like a rule, run an experiment to show its shortcomings.

If a rule blocks progress, make progress.

If no one knows a rule was broken, it wasn’t broken.

Image credit — nirak68

Don’t tell me what I can do; tell me what I cannot do, so everything else is available to me.

It’s faster if you give me smart, hardworking people with little experience.  I won’t have to re-teach them, and we can get started right away.

Tell me what you want done, but not how to do it.  Choose someone else because I won’t listen.

Don’t ask me to do something that’s been done before. That work is for someone else, and I will teach them how to do it.

I won’t have an answer to your question if it’s not yet time to know the answer.  I know you’ll likely be uncomfortable with that.

With administrative requests, I’ll be minimally compliant.  I want to conserve my energy for work that everyone else is afraid to try.

Tell me what cannot change so I can constrain that out of the approach.  There’s nothing worse than trying to change the unchangeable.

Don’t give me a destination or an idealized future state.  I’ll define our location, and we’ll discuss several directions of travel we can investigate in parallel.

Give me an unreasonable time constraint.  I’ll have no other choice but to be immensely productive right now.

If at the time of your question, there’s no way I can know the answer, I will tell you.  I’m sure you’ll be displeased with me.

Don’t judge me on efficiency because I’m all about effectiveness.  Solving the wrong problem efficiently is highly ineffective, and I don’t like that.

When I say no to your request, I always have a reason. But I’m not always aware of the reason.

When I see things differently, I’ll tell you.  I’m not being disagreeable. My cynicism is a sign that I care.

When you’re doing new work, it’s okay to be misunderstood.  More strongly – if you’re not misunderstood, you’re not trying hard enough.

May you find work that demands you’re misunderstood.

Image credit — Marian Kloon