The designer who wants to go beyond the ceiling, all the way to the roof, with an open sky

[rapidcore]

Hi all

Maybe I shouldn't write designer in the title of my thread. I don't want it to define me. But it sounded better than just man

My name is Matt. I am a Polish designer who has lived in several European countries (Netherlands, Germany, and now Norway).
I'm 34 years old, I live at a level above the average of Western Europe (90k), but it certainly doesn't allow for retirement.

I have maybe $150,000 set aside through Slowlane. It's not a tragedy, but I'm certainly not going to get my dream house with a garden and a nice view without taking out a loan for 30 years. Not to mention a car. It has always amazed me that people spend two years of their savings on a car. I believe I can't afford a car if I can't save for it in 3-6 months.

For the last 10+ years I've been climbing the slowlane ladders until I get to the point where I feel I'm close to the ceiling. Norway is a slowlane in a golden cage to say the least, but still people here have everything on credit and consider it normal.

I have the feeling that I want to break through the ceiling and finally get out onto the roof where there is no ceiling at all, and when you think about it, all we have above us is the infinite universe (which, by the way, is constantly expanding!).

I have quite a few interests, from design, software, nature or psychology to AI, infographics or spirituality.

I am very happy to join a forum with people with a growth mindset

 

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[lifemaker]

Hi all

Maybe I shouldn't write designer in the title of my thread. I don't want it to define me. But it sounded better than just man

My name is Matt. I am a Polish designer who has lived in several European countries (Netherlands, Germany, and now Norway).
I'm 34 years old, I live at a level above the average of Western Europe (90k), but it certainly doesn't allow for retirement.

I have maybe $150,000 set aside through Slowlane. It's not a tragedy, but I'm certainly not going to get my dream house with a garden and a nice view without taking out a loan for 30 years. Not to mention a car. It has always amazed me that people spend two years of their savings on a car. I believe I can't afford a car if I can't save for it in 3-6 months.

For the last 10+ years I've been climbing the slowlane ladders until I get to the point where I feel I'm close to the ceiling. Norway is a slowlane in a golden cage to say the least, but still people here have everything on credit and consider it normal.

I have the feeling that I want to break through the ceiling and finally get out onto the roof where there is no ceiling at all, and when you think about it, all we have above us is the infinite universe (which, by the way, is constantly expanding!).

I have quite a few interests, from design, software, nature or psychology to AI, infographics or spirituality.

I am very happy to join a forum with people with a growth mindset

Hi, nice to see you here!
Do you have any specific plan on how you will break through the Slowlane ceiling?

 

[rapidcore]

Hi, nice to see you here!
Do you have any specific plan on how you will break through the Slowlane ceiling?

Hey Lifemaker!

I'm planning to use the pain-points I've seen in my last three jobs and come up with a product that will reduce it.

1. I already know the world of software, technology, AI and design very well, together with typical painpoints in Saas companies and scale-ups
2. There are not too many designers who can create something on world-class visual level and can code at the same time. That's why I'm learning Front-End. I already know some basic HTML/CSS but I want to know enough to make my ideas real
3. When I will read to code in the background, I will also look on the market and see where my ideas could give the most value and where the amount of competitors is the smallest (or where the quality bar is pretty low).
4. I'm planning to make some table/matrix where I would compare my ideas and ideally pick one where I would spend the most of time.
5. I'm considering spending around 20% of my time on experimenting with other smaller projects, but it might be risky because my focused might be fragmented.
6. I read already many psychological books about human centered design, good UX, general psychology facts that could be useful. This is also the area where I want to make a positive difference.