1. Wear colors every once in a while. Hey, we’re just as guilty as anyone – I tried to wear a white shirt the other day to fulfill my quota and was quickly informed that white is actually the absence of color. Touché.
2. Stop trying to “blur the distinction” between things. It doesn’t really matter whether you’re trying to blur the distinction between dance and architecture or concrete and broccoli – face it, things are distinct.
3. Go dig a ditch or vacuum up one of your jobsites. You’ll learn a tremendous amount about what’s really going on at the project.
4. Remodel your home and realize what kind of stress your clients are dealing with.
5. Do something in the industry other than architecture for a while. Go be a welder, work construction, size some beams. Get out of the studio.
6. Y’know that really nice, really expensive monograph you’ve got on your bookshelf of so n’ so – the one that you never open, let alone read. Take it to a used bookstore so that a knowledge hungry student can put it to good use.
7. Stop telling people about the dialogue between the _____ and the ______. Inanimate objects don’t talk. We all look like total idiots for this.
8. Be more realistic with construction budgets. When we tell our doctors how much we drink – they know to double it and add seven. Doctors are clever that way, that’s why they make a more money than architects.
9. Never tell a contractor or trade how easy or how quick such and such can get done. He or she, like all of us, would rather be on that beach, chasing down those travel plans or hanging out at the bar too.
10. Double your hourly rate right now and accomplish twice as much every hour.
For more harmless fun at the expense of architects read Annie Choi’s article: “Dear architects, I am sick of your shit”