jstn:
Patrick Moberg provided this awesome illustration for normative.com.
When I was a freshman in college, I called Jakob Lodwick to get advice on how to proceed with the next four years of my education. He insisted that I read a book called “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie and that if I ever got into trouble, deny everything. He said that, “people in power very rarely know what’s actually going on.”
At the time, Jakob favored creating 30 minute videoblogs and writing one-off articles, rather then keeping a more traditional personal blog. The articles were fascinating and incredibly inspirational for someone thinking that they wanted to pursue computers and websites as a career. He approached his trade with a passionate outlook, giving off the sense that he was helping to mold the future. He gave a very unglamorous, technical job, an exciting face.
Over the past 3 or 4 years I followed his ups and downs, worked as an intern for the company he founded, and accepted an offer from him for my first job out of school. He’d always been in a position of power, me working for him.
This past weekend Jake approached me about doing an illustration for his music project, Normative. Although it was just a small illustration, it was a great experience, and one of the first times that I felt like an equal, collaborating with him on a project. I brought as much to the table as he did.
I think Jakob is someone who can inspire either the best or the worst in people. And while there is a lot of attention directed towards the decisions he makes, the much more fascinating phenomena is how people react to those decisions, and what their reactions say about them.
In the end, I checked out a ratty old copy of the book he’d suggested from the school library, made it about halfway through, and, of course, never got into any real trouble at school.
