Author: Brok Howard

Granted, dRofus and excel are great on their own, but in combination they are awesome. I have found several ways of using dRofus data to learn how our users are using dRofus. Since you can build custom excel reports you can set up pivot tables and graphs in advance for analysis. I have done this for BIM managers so they can run a report on room data to know when rooms were last synced with which models using groups in the configuration settings. I look forward to the day we can create custom excel log reports to show changes using graphs to our project managers. I find myself showing how dRofus can export to excel has turned into teaching how to really leverage the power of excel. If you know excel and don’t know pivot tables…you are missing out. It’s like driving a sports car in first gear. If you are interested in building more advanced custom excel exports with nested formulas, you must bookmark this site http://archsmarter.com/excel-formulas-for-architects/ and share with your architect friends. 

I had a wonderful dream last night. I thought that this is a great place to share it. If anything, it is a great place to remind myself.

I was a teacher. I was not sure what type of teach until the end of my dream and after thinking about it…I understand why. It was a sunny and warm day at a middle school near the beach. I have seen lots of middle schools living here in San Francisco, so I am sure I was thinking of one of them. I had a class of about 15 students. They each had their different characters. I had a few that were difficult and a few that were a dream to have in my class and made the balance both a challenge and worth coming to work each day. I came to class unsure what the lesson was going to be that day, unprepared was an understatement. It felt like it was my first middle school class ever and yet I knew all the students really well and they all trusted me for the most part. Since it was such a nice day, I told my class that we were going on a field trip. Ignore the fact that there were no permission slips and over protected parents. We all left the school and hoped on the first train that came by the school. As the train moved I thought, where should we go? I knew to get on the train to go, but I was not sure where the destination would be or where the train was taking us. I just knew the direction was more correct that the alternative, staying where I was or going in the opposite direction. I liked that the train gave me a 50/50 choice. We traveled on the train for several minutes until it stopped. I did not tell the train to stop, it just did. This was my destination and I had no alternatives now but to get off the train. The kids following me off the train and ask, now what? I looked up and could see the ocean just over the sand in the distance. I said to the students, “to the beach.” And with excitement most of the students started to run toward the beach. The few rebels I had did not show the same excitement and started to walk a few steps behind me in forced protest body expression.  I gathered the students on the beach and had a class lesson in mind at this point. I told the students that they needed to now put on their imagination hats and I instantly felt that I was the guy from Reading Rainbow and the song started in my head. I told the students that they were the first people on this beach in human history and there were important discoveries that we needed to document. I handed each student 3 sandwich bags and said, each of you needs to collect three samples for us to take bag to the lab. I need a sample of soil, sand or water. I need a sample of an organism living on land. I also need a living organism from the water. We then spend the next hour collecting samples. I looked back at the few kids that were not collecting samples and thought, “are they my problem.” I am a teacher, not a life coach. I want to teach the kids who want to learn. I don’t want to waste time on the kids who don’t want to be here. I was reminded of the frustrations I felt as a student when kids in my own classes from middle school to graduate school got more attention than I did and it was because they were the lazy ones and unmotivated ones. Why do teachers feel they need to save the bad ones. Can you imagine if we did that with other professions. If farmers spent time trying to bring back bad fruits. If all professions focused on the bad fruit more than the good, where would we be. I started to feel sick to my stomach. Why was I feeling this way. I was focused on the good, attentive, excited kids. I was happy to teach them. I was a teacher of science and trusted Darwin. This is how it is suppose to work out. The smart students thrive and become doctors and cure cancer. The non motivated ones become garbage men or work at fast food places. It is the just science. For a moment, my thinking felt justified. I thought, this is why I am  a middle school teacher instead of an astronaut. I was a B student and those that fly rocket ships into space for A+ students. They were the ones who collected 40 samples instead of 3. If I had one student who collected 40 samples, wouldn’t I be willing to stay late after school and support his or her mission to discover more. He could be that astronaut I wish I had become. It clicked. I was more than a teacher, I was part of these kids evolution. Yes, I could focus on the easy kids. I could focus on the more motivated. But, I also have an opportunity to help the other, less motivated kid to become something more. Maybe instead of a garbage person or a fast food burger maker, they could be…an architect. It is no astronaut, but it is more than what is in store for them now. That is why a teacher’s job is so important. It is why it’s the highest paid job is many other countries. What a job! I felt the warm sun on my face and heard the crashing of the waves and was restored to continue teaching. Both the good apples and the bad.

What does this dream mean?

Many aspects of my job today incorporate teaching. I teach software, process, and in many ways – I support thinking differently. I ask, can we do this differently almost everyday. In the architecture world we are trapped in many ways by the old way of doing things. The old way of working is our biggest weakness. If we could use quill pens and linen, we would. The experienced architects talk about those days like they are WWI vets. They are so proud of how hard it was and unproductive. I deal with good apples and bad apples all the time. I get frustrated when I can’t motivate someone to think differently. I want to just leave them behind and only teach those who are interested in what I have to say. I don’t want to spend all my time trying to convince someone that, “this way is better!” But, I have to. If I can just swing the pendulum a little more in the other direction. If I move them just a little bit in the innovative way of thinking and working, maybe something will click. I did not find this path, of teaching. It found me. I have been a teach of sorts almost my whole life. It is a calling. Maybe one day I will find myself teaching a biology class by the beach and will get to try my sample collection lesson. We are all participating in evolution every day. We have constant opportunities to influence those around us to be a little better, think a little different than they did the day before. We all know the good apples and bad apples in our lives. Maybe, one day – we will just see more good apples around us and we might truly evolves as people and leave a generation behind us that is better than our own. I know that I will try a little more today than I did yesterday.

I was reminded today listening to my Spotify Radio station of a song by Macklemore called Ten Thousand Hours. An amazing song with really deep lyrics.

…
See, I observed Escher
I love Basquiat
I watched Keith Haring
You see I study art
The greats weren’t great because at birth they could paint
The greats were great cause they paint a lot

I am still shocked by these words, so true and relatable. If you want to be great, a professional…you must work at it. It frustrates me that some people I work with struggle with this concept. It will take time for you to master this software, to build a network, a reputation. I know that reading and writing was never my forte. I spent my 10,000 hours focused on math, scratch that…sports. And even with that focus, it was still not 10,000. It was when I was told to practice. I went through conditioning every year and it was hard every year. If I did run or workout all the time…conditioning would have been easier. Reflecting on the last 10,000 hours I have focused on a single thing…it has been software. No surprise if you know me. Now I am the BIM guy in the office. My job even has the word “specialist” in it. Now I have to work harder to learn deeper into the parts that no longer come easy. I am using software I had never heard of 4 years ago. I am starting to get into writing code…and that is exciting for me. Funny, now…reading and writing is my business. Maybe after 10,000 hours of writing on this site with encourage me to write a book worth reading. If I want to get in shape, I should run for 10,000 hours (or at least 10 minutes to start).

I had the pleasure of presenting to the local San Francisco CSI Chapter last week. It was a repeat of my presentation at CONSTRUCT 2013, so there was not much prep. I appreciated that part. What I did not expect it for the audio from my videos to not work. The lesson learned was to not mix too much technology in one presentation. I did the presentation in Prezi, using my IPad via an Apple TV linked via HDMI to a projector with speakers plugged in. The HDMI video and audio trumped the audio from the speakers…so no audio since the HDMI send audio to the projector, but no audio. Anyways, it still went well and seemed to have made the room full of AEC professionals happy. We started a little late, cause we were waiting on the food – then I had the video/audio meltdown. You will not see it in the video, the beauty of video editing. I will keep it simple next time, but I am glad I recorded it.

So I was not going to submit to present this year, even though I have for the past several years and honestly enjoy presenting at the CSI National Convention. It just seemed to be one more commitment that tends to stretch me beyond my comfort zone. I had the excuse of moving across the country this year. I started a new job. But when Cindy emailed me, telling me that they would love for me to speak again and that my class had the highest rating (she knew how to make me feel important), every reason why not just sounded like excuses. I am not a man of excuses, but I really would like an excuse to see Baltimore though. CSI knows we as the BIM Guy, so the category is going to be BIM. I wanted to think of a topic that would be interesting to me, if I were looking to attend. I am a tough critique. It would need to be controversial as well. I asked Cindy for an earlier time slot if possible so that there might be continued debate during the conference. I also thought it would be better (and different) to co-present. So I asked a fellow industry colleague if he would like to join me. Mark Green, from Old Castle agreed. Now, the topic. It is no argument that BIM is the industry standard and if you are still thinking about it, you were also the group that thought computers were a fad, we can’t help you. But what is the future of BIM, where is the challenge, where is the controversy?
Model based delivery was the first thing that came to mind. When will we honestly start delivering fully intelligent models and stop printing drawings. I see some history slides in my future. Master builders use to deliver physical models and detail mock ups. When did we move to plans and sections? Has it hurt the industry? Maybe that is another class?
What are other industries doing? What are the liability questions? Are we standing in our own way? How can we improve the building process? Design to fabrication? Could owners use a model? Do they even want the drawings? When will paper die and we as design professions deliver a real BIM deliverable? What would (could) it look like? Mark has a unique perspective coming from the material, product, and fabrication side of the industry.
We might not find all the answers, but maybe we start asking the right questions. What should we be teaching in school? What should the software do? What do the lawyers need to figure out with insurance providers? Is the industry ready…at least some of us are.

Going to work means you are no longer doing something leisure or casual or fun? Having to go to work means you have bills to pay and therefore have no choice. A work of art is labor that has resulted is something someone appreciates. To work out means to preform some form of labor to improve the conditions of ones body. Someone, maybe yourself can see your work of art if you work out instead of having to go to work unless your job is to work out, but if you enjoy it as a leisure event is it work?
My goal is to work cause I want to, need to…but not because of bills, but because I want to. If you never feel like to have to go to work, and are working, is that called something else. I want to redefine work.