Infusing Design with Presence and Purpose: a Conversation with J.B. Chaykowsky
Our special guest, J.B. Chaykowsky, is a designer and creative who leads a globally dispersed design team for Intuit, the storied Silicon Valley fin-tech company.
When the aroma of fresh coffee beans became J.B.’s ritual for grounding his creative spirit, it was evident that his approach to design was intertwined with staying firmly in the moment. Our conversation takes you on a journey through J.B.’s philosophy, where the essence of being present is not only a practice but a testament to the rich tapestry of life as a designer at creative professional. We explore the profound ‘why’ behind every stroke of creativity and how it breathes life into his work.
There’s something magical about the crossroads of fate and decision-making. As we unravel stories of pivotal changes, such as JB’s leap across the pond to London, we uncover how every choice carves a step closer to the person we yearn to become. Settle in and relax. Over the next nine minutes, you will discover why J.B. Chaykowsky is one of the wisest people I know.
More About Our Guest
J.B. Chaykowsky’s personal mission is to make technology more poetic. He enjoys traveling with his wife and son. J.B. is enamored with the intersection of people, technology, and philosophy. J.B. joins us from his home in London.
Resources
J.B.’s personal website
Connect with J.B. on LinkedIn
Book recommended by J.B. in this episode: Principles by Ray Dalio
Episode 94 featuring mutual friend Pamela Kesling
Credits
Editor + Technical Advisor Bob Hotchkiss
Brand + Strategy Advisor Andy Malinoski
PR + Partnerships Advisor Rachel Bell
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Episode Chapters
[0:03:02] – The art and social fabric of coffee
[0:04:50] – J.B. takes us inside the creative life; being a design professional
[0:05:51] – How Skip and J.B. are connected
[0:06:26] – The power of every decision
[0:07:35] – J.B. reveals his Main Thing
[0:09:23] – Gleaning wisdom from Ray Dalio and Dwight Schrute
[0:13:12] – Recognizing the need for wisdom; living with intent
Full Transcript of Episode
0:00:00 – Announcer
Wisdom. It’s an incredibly valuable asset, someone say, more precious than gold. It’s attractive, appealing, admirable. Conversely, a lack of wisdom is the basis of immaturity, blind spots and bad decisions. Wisdom, it can be gained over time, but it can’t be rushed. But wisdom can be shared. That’s precisely what we are here to do right now, today. We are here to hack wisdom, to distill it, to understand it and to process it. Why? To get better at life.
Welcome to The Main Thing. This is your new 9 minute podcast. I’m your host, Skip Lineberg, and I’ve set out to interview the wisest people I know. We’ll see what we can learn from each one when they’re faced with an incredibly difficult, soul piercing question.
0:00:58 – Skip Lineberg
Welcome back to The Main Thing Podcast. I’m your host, Skip Lineberg, coming to you today from Parkwood Studios.
In just a moment you will hear from our special guest, who’s a full-blooded creative, a gifted designer, who works for one of the world’s most respected technology companies Into it. He lives in London and is very intentional, like all of us, on living a full, purposeful and joyful life. What wisdom flows from this person whose life and giftings sit at the crossroads of creativity, technology and compassion? But first, a warm welcome to our first-time listeners, so glad to have you here with us. To learn more about all the wisdom offerings available to you, please head over to our website http://themainthingpodcast.com. Once there, I encourage you to sign up for our wisdom newsletter. It’s an excellent supplement to our podcast. A special shout out of gratitude to our newest patron, JD, from West Virginia. Thank you, JD, for your encouragement and for helping to keep this pipeline of wisdom flowing with your monetary support.
Now for our special wise guest. J.B. Chaykowsky is a designer and creative who leads a globally dispersed design team for Into it, the storied Silicon Valley FinTech company. He enjoys traveling with his wife and son and enjoys the intersection of people, technology and philosophy. His personal mission is to make technology more poetic. J.B. joins us today from London. Settle in and get ready. Over the next nine minutes, you will discover why J.B. Chaykowsky is one of the wisest people I know.
0:02:52 – Skip Lineberg
J.B., good morning, welcome to The Main Thing Podcast.
0:02:57 – J.B. Chaykowsky
Good morning Skip. It’s great to be here. Thanks for having me.
0:03:00 – Skip
Oh, likewise, likewise. Hey, J.B., you are a self-acclaimed coffee aficionado, like I am. Tell us a little bit about your morning cup and what you’re into these days in the coffee realm.
0:03:14 – J.B. Chaykowsky
Yeah, I got into coffee in the pandemic mainly because of it was one of the few shops open here in London and it was the way to get outside human impact. So I look at coffee as sort of like a way to start the day in a personal way. Right, that’s how it started, and then it moved into. I’m paying a lot for this. How can I reduce the cost? And then that’s when I purchased this amazing coffee maker which separates the grinding from the brew, and it really has become an important part of my day to kind of start that day off and a ritual. You kind of just gain an appreciation for something the more that you begin to study it. It’s slightly interesting in how you can perceive things when you begin to really take notice of them rather than just take them for granted, and I think that’s what coffee allows me. To do now is like be present for that first moment before things get maybe a little hectic.
0:04:28 – Skip
Folks heard me introduce you before you came on air with us as being a creative designer. I wonder just if you would share some thoughts with our audience on your lifestyle as a creator, a designer, a maker, and how you live into that, how you fuel that and how you maintain your creativity.
0:04:50 – J.B. Chaykowsky
I’m happy that I can do that. I think one of the things that keeps me creative is to just continually immersing myself in the human aspects of life, like coffee or the arts, watching a film and asking myself, why did they make the decision to do X or to do Y? And then you start like kind of rolling things back and you’re like, oh, I can actually understand why they might have made that decision.
0:05:19 – Skip
Not just consuming something, but trying to appreciate and go inside ‘The Why.’
0:05:24 – J.B. Chaykowsky
Yeah, exactly Every day is an opportunity to give the world like your expression, whatever that might be. You have a point of view and you’re trying to impose your point of view on the world in some way, hopefully positively. It becomes almost to a kind of like breathing, and so for me to not act creatively, it’s like a shark not moving. I can’t breathe, and it’s just a part of me.
0:05:51 – Skip
I’m so blessed to get to know you and I consider you a new friend, but I think that’s all thanks to Pamela Kesling and I wondered if if you would share how you and Pamela are connected.
0:06:02 – J.B. Chaykowsky
Pamela I’ve known since college and, like I’m a big fan of Pamela’s and she’s someone I root for. I admire her because I can see her living and loving kindness every day. And she’s fearless, she’s herself, and she’s open with her challenges.
0:06:25 – Skip
Well said. Thank you, Pamela.
0:06:28 – Announcer
192. 192 extra minutes of wisdom that’s what you get when you become a patron of The Main Thing podcast. Many of you continue to say we want to hear more from these wise guests. That’s precisely what patrons of our podcast get exclusive access to bonus episodes, called the whole thing. These 30 minute special shows bring you a deeper dive into our guests’ wisdom. Less editing, more laughter, less time limits, more stories. Unlock those 192 extra minutes of wisdom for yourself for as little as $9 per month through the Patreon platform. And when you become a patron, you also get access to wisdom essays, behind the scenes glimpses and access to special patron only wisdom gatherings. Head over to http://patreon.com/the mainthingpodcast. Go unlock your 192 extra minutes of wisdom.
0:07:28 – Skip
J.B. Chaykowsky what’s the main thing you’ve learned in your lifetime so far?
0:07:35 – J.B. Chaykowsky
Skip. the main thing I’ve learned in my lifetime so far is that every single decision you make either takes you closer or farther away from the person you want to become.
0:07:49 – Skip
Unpack that all the nuance and meaning for us. I’d like to hear more about that from you.
0:08:00 – J.B. Chaykowsky
Yeah, so I can give you kind of the background of how it just stated for me I’d love to hear that yeah. It’s a little bit over a year ago, that it codified. So in design and in creativity, you’re always balancing all these things and your lived experience, like I don’t think you ever fully pull yourself away from the work, and so I think that’s part of it is that you’re always bringing in new information, and I was reflecting last year, maybe around this time a little earlier, about from 2019 to 2022. I had just moved to London in 2019. Six months later, the whole world shuts down. The pandemic was not kind to me. Okay, it was a very challenging environment. I had a new role, new team, new place, new support system … no friends, really.
0:09:01 – Skip
I could imagine that would be hard, yeah.
0:09:04 – J.B. Chaykowsky
I had my family, I had my son. But at the same time, when you’re going through things and the whole world is literally going through something. And I was going to be like, “Hey, I’m going through this thing” to somebody … because they’re also in a very negative state.
So I was coming out of that fog and, at the same time, I was re-reading Ray Dalio’s book on principles. And it’s a great book, but it’s an extremely thick book of hundreds of principles that he’s used for work and life. I was re-reading it … trying to put some type of new structure in place. Like, “2023 is going to be my year … it’s going to be amazing!” And I just kind of took a step back, and I said, “This isn’t me.”
0:09:55 – Skip
All these rules.
0:09:56 – J.B. Chaykowsky
It’s not simple, it’s not elegant. I don’t want to be a machine. In fact, I want to be more human. Tired of being caught up in the hurriedness, and so I just boiled it down to that. One thing is that when I make a decision, it will always be about getting closer to the person that I want to be, rather than I have a principle for this or principle for that or principle for this. It’s just distill it down to this and it’s made everything so much easier, rather than thinking about all the options in front of me, all those rules or the thousands of different permutations of if I make this decision, what then? It’s about my values and who I want to be, and does that get me closer to that person?
0:10:48 – J.B. Chaykowsky
So, we go from Ray D’Alio to Dwight Schrute, who once said in an Office episode, “Before I do anything, I ask myself would an idiot do that? And if the answer is yes, I do not do that thing.”
0:11:05 – Skip
Such simple wisdom right there. [Laughter]
0:11:09 – J.B. Chaykowsky
And I’m kind of like it’s the distillation of all these things and just being like … life doesn’t need to be complicated. Life doesn’t need a giant manuscript or instruction manual on this. We’ll go back to the coffee shops for a moment.
00:11:23 – Skip
Sure, let’s do. Gladly!
00:11:26 – J.B. Chaykowsky
The next time you’re in a Starbucks, stop … look at the person in the eyes and just say, How are you doing today? I guarantee you will be one of maybe five people, a handful of people out of the hundreds that have been in that shop that day just to ask them and look at them in the face and acknowledge them as a person how are they doing today?
0:11:49 – Skip
I love that. I love that.
0:11:52 – J.B. Chaykowsky
That’s all it takes. That is a decision you get to make about being the person you want to be.
0:11:57 – Skip
I’m envisioning that right now, and I’m seeing that person on the other side of the counter exhale. Their shoulders drop, and then they’re relating to you in a humane fashion. I’m relating to them in a humane fashion. Now we’re dealing with each other … as people.
0:12:20 – J.B. Chaykowsky
They are a person and they have been acknowledged as a person rather than a service provider. It’s just small little things like that, the decisions you make, every decision. That’s why I say every decision that’s small, really doesn’t matter. It’s like small decisions really do get you one percent better every day. It’s really important to treat every single person like a person.
0:12:53 – Skip
Your designer brain, your designer heart really came out in that example. Spoken like a designer.
0:12:59 – J.B. Chaykowsky
I appreciate that.
0:13:03 – Skip
So your main thing: every single decision that you make brings you closer to, or farther away from, the person that you wish to become. If someone listening right now has not yet embraced that wisdom, what might be some things that they’re crashing into? Or pain points they’re feeling? Or what would be evidence that they need to spend some time there?
0:13:26 – J.B. Chaykowsky
For me it showed up as like I need to do more to be myself, or something. It felt like this: have I lost who I am? I thought about what I was known for. Can you put more of what goodness out in the world? So that way, you just start acting in that way. It becomes the habit that you do every day. Is that treat people, you shake their hand, you look them in the eye. Every action, when you start doing it with intent, becomes almost automatic. I think you bring a sense of magnetism to yourself when you do those things and you invite success versus chasing it. You can really start living with intent and become the person you want with every decision that you make.
0:14:21 – Skip
J.B., that’s a great place to leave it. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your wisdom here on The Main Thing. As you head into the weekend, I hope that you have a great weekend. Can’t wait to talk again. But so long for now. Thank you.
0:14:36 – J.B. Chaykowsky
We’ll chat soon, I’m sure.
0:14:38 – Announcer
Wow, that goes by incredibly fast, doesn’t it? Time flies when you’re hacking wisdom. I hope you’re left wanting more. Sync up with us again next time on The Main Thing, for nine more minutes of wisdom.
Transcribed by https://podium.page
