Members Tim Girvin

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About me

I'd offer this in the history of my self. My legacy, the work that I do, it's all about curiosity -- a willingness to learn, to get heart fully into challenges that are set in play. My clients, their business paths and what it means for me to aid them -- they are for me: ... More »

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  • More about me

  • I'm passionate about

    Exploring Risk | Being Content | Making Difference | Story Telling | Finding Anew | Rejuvenating | Seeking Resonance | Listening Loud | Speaking silently | Attention getting.

  • An idea worth spreading

    I offer this: the story of you is worth something; it's good to know more about who you are, and how you are living in this world, In my personal experience -- the element that changes things, that changes the way that people connect with eachother, is about sharing your story. There's real power there, and speaking your story, your path, helps me to understand more about you, what you do, what you are exploring, and where you are going. You can share it with me, or you can share it with others. But please -- share it. Think of it this way, if you can: be your content. Be content. Being content. What you do every day is really about that, isn't it? You are, in your actions and explorations -- and offerings to the world: content. Get it out there.

  • Talk to me about

    Tell me about you and what you are doing -- and really, how can I help you? For a long time, I've been working as a designer and strategist, all over the world. So, maybe you have a question? Help?

  • People don't know that I'm good at

    Paying close attention. I think that I have this character that's all about experiencing things. And when people connect with me, they start talking. I'll listen to them. And everything. All at once.

  • My TED story

    I made some friends. That's the best part of TED, for me. What stories learned, what friends encountered. But there's one thing that I really learned -- and it kept repeating itself. One, was -- that sometimes in listening, you're really not (listening). So the real key for me, to the learnings of TED; it's: pay attention. And I know that I've mentioned that in other parts of this line of query @ TED.com. So, for example: I'd never really paid attention to the music of Tracy Chapman -- so, for once, I listened; and I met her and told her that. I didn't really know about the amazing layering of mystery(ies) in the story lines and developments of JJAbrams. So I listened, met him and told him about it. Then, there was Edward O. Wilson -- and he'd changed my life as a child, and in speaking, he reminded me about that, the sensing of the curiosity, the character of paying whole attention to the world. So that's it -- paying attention; holistically thinking about the sphere of who you are.

  • Comments

  • TEDCred score: +2

    TEDCred gives you a total score on all your comments on TED.com.

  • A comment on Talk: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on flow

    Oct 25 2008: Amazing human. And I feel blessed to have connected with him earlier in my life, and my explorations, of optimization -- and actualization, making things real and truthful. What I find compelling is that idea of fluency, fluidity, flux...and how that connects to the idea that flow, is somehow about fluency in experience -- it's liquidity, it's "flown", to return to an antiquated treatment of "flowing". Looking back, just like Mihaly did, in his opening connections with Carl Jung, the mandalas of the past -- I look to the etymon, to find the heart of things. Flow, what's that mean, really? From the most recent, to the most distant -- flow is: Old English -- flowan (past tense fleow, pp. flowen), from Proto Germanic. *flo- (cf. Dutch. vloeien "to flow," O.N. floa "to deluge," Old High German -- flouwen "to rinse, wash"), probably from Proto Indo European *pleu- "flow, float" (cf. Sanskrit -- plavate "navigates, swims," plavayati "overflows;" Armenian helum "I pour;" Greek -- plyno "I wash," pleo "swim, go by sea;" L. pluere "to rain;" O.C.S. plovo "to flow, navigate;" Lith. pilu "to pour out," plauti "rinse"). It's an ancient word, in the genetics of language. The conventional messaging predominated from the 14th century, but the stronger sense -- flown -- is occasionally attested through the 18th century. But what's interesting about that concept -- that idea of flow -- flowing, flown, and fluidity -- it's about becoming one with something; you -- and the entity | the action | the engagement -- are the same. It's a profoundly "loving" idea -- that connection of being one with something, without destroying it. Flow is love. I love flow...

    Thanks.

    Tim Girvin | New York City Seattle | Tokyo | girvin@girvin.com | blogs journals: http://blog.girvin.com/ | http://tim.girvin.com/Entries/index.php
  • +1

    A comment on Talk: Phil Borges on endangered cultures

    Oct 4 2008: I met Phil in Seattle, at an event here. Talked to him, off and on, over time. And we've stayed in touch, exploring the work and character of his missions -- even, to a degree, the Seeds of Compassion event in Seattle, focusing on children, learning, compassion in community and communion -- worldwide. His Holiness Daiai Lama was there, for the entire event.

    Phil seems to live wholly in the space of giving.

    Giving pictures of the Daiai Lama to Tibetans? I did that. And the only expression I experienced was one of profound joy. I would imagine it would be like heading into some other dictatorial scenario and offering something else -- that celebrates the center of their spirituality -- but is completely contrary to the regime ideology. What then, to do?

    Hold back, then?

    i say give -- in the very spirit of Borges efforts. Put your Self at risk, at the same time, to make it happen.

    Tim Girvin | girvin@girvin.com | Girvin | Strategic Brands -- New York City Seattle | Tokyo | http://www.girvin.com | http://www.tim.girvin.com/ | http://blog.girvin.com/ | http://tim.girvin.com/Entries/index.php

  • A comment on Talk: Liz Diller plays with architecture

    Oct 4 2008: I had a chance to speak to Liz, after the talk, and later in NYC. Modest. Wildly intelligent. And very disciplined in the character of the work that she and her team explore, make, and actually get built. Like Blur. That building, that concept, really seems like something that it's not possible to build -- a building wrapped in mist. Convincingly, it was. The green mile installations on the over-rail line in Manhattan is something more I'm waiting for. It's not there, yet. Those two conceptions are the most resonant to me.

    I'm missing something in the commentary on the "egregious waste" of resources. I must've missed something. But my attraction, to resonance, are two projects that are perhaps less to the character that's been noted. My compulsion is place -- and the making of it, from a design perspective.

    Beautiful work. Beautiful places. And I like places. Not spaces. Green first, then made. And green after, preferably.

    Tim Girvin | girvin@girvin.com | Girvin | Strategic Brands -- New York City Seattle | Tokyo | http://www.girvin.com | http://www.tim.girvin.com/ | http://blog.girvin.com/ | http://tim.girvin.com/Entries/index.php
  • +1

    A comment on Talk: J.J. Abrams' mystery box

    Oct 4 2008: J.J. Abrams. Having had the chance to connect with him as a designer for Mission:Impossible -- with some added work on Star Trek, I'd comment that contrary to what a lot of others have noted, Abrams is incredibly well organized -- as a creative -- and extraordinarily focused. That intensity -- which some have called manic, others in the blogged commentary as excessive, or obsessive, is what actually drives anyone to work in the motion picture business; it's crazy complicated. And to get anything to happen requires a real sense of vision -- the ability to lead vast teams to get that visual out to...well, hopefully millions of people. I'd add that J.J. is first and foremost a writer, then director -- and surprisingly, given his career path, a family man. In the preponderance of circumstance, people who live in the space of directing films couldn't hope to hold a semblance of familial "connection". That, as he mentioned, is a priority. Beyond that, I'd offer that the key takeaway for me was that idea of mystery -- that creative execution is like something in a magic box. There always needs to be something left -- that remaining mystery, that draws us into a tale being told, a creative expression that carries us someplace...further. But still, the Mystery Box remains. More, a string, here: http://blog.girvin.com/index.php?s=JJ Abrams.

    Tim Girvin | girvin@girvin.com | Girvin | Strategic Brands -- New York City Seattle | Tokyo | http://www.girvin.com | http://www.tim.girvin.com/ | http://blog.girvin.com/ | http://tim.girvin.com/Entries/index.php

  • A comment on Blog: Announcing 2008 TED Prize winners

    Nov 22 2007: There's something about inspiration -- and the TED prize -- that always finds, reveals, for me, something personally empowering. That is, you see the new winners -- and there's always some index that speaks to some memory, some story, some touch, some connection that you've had with the winners. For me, Karen Armstrong is one of those people, in this years line up, that reaches to moments of epiphany in reading her work, knowing more about her, learning from her. But the one thing that I find compelling in her explorations is her struggle and search to find the meaning herself. Her Self. Finding that place of personal reckoning in the history of her search for meaning and spiritual potency that lead her out of the nunnery (so to speak!) and to another level in her quest for, and in, being. It's a wonder full thing. And it's grand that TED, as ever, has found that gem in the sea of humanity that is -- in my personal exploration -- a shining, a light, a teacher...and a real person, in the elegant frame of living and learning. Here's to the granting of her wish, and that we all continue to benefit from her discoveries and interpretations...And surely the same to all this year's recipients! Wonder full. Thanks, TED!
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