From Idea to Identity
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Last year I decided to start my own company. At the time it wasn’t completely clear to me what the company would do. But I reckoned that the only way to find out was to give it a go. Naming the companyOne of the first challenges I met was naming the company. My professional life had been spent working at interfaces.
So I wanted to include the word “interfaces”. My wife provided the inspiration for the second part. When we first started dating I couldn’t believe how much more effectively she used her phone than me. For example, she is a WhatsApp wizard, using it to keep constant contact with her family and friends distributed across the world. Her boss was saying that the phone was an extension of her arm. 🤳 At that point I realised that we are all cyborgs to some extent these days. “cyborg [noun] in science fiction stories, a creature that is part human and part machine” - Cambridge Dictionary So that’s how the name came about: “Cyborg Interfaces Ltd”. Creating a logoA more recent challenge was creating a logo. For this I decided to get help from a professional designer. He managed to generate a lot of cool ideas around the concept of a cyborg. However, it soon became clear that the challenge was representing the concept of “interfaces”. Hiring a professional designer was a great move, because it forced me to focus. I kept iterating with the designer, and thinking about what it was that I wanted. What did interfaces look like? Then one night I woke up at 4am and drew the sketch below. Over breakfast I expanded on the idea and sent it off to the designer. Who made it into something beautiful. Progress reportI’m glad to say that I now have a better idea of what my company does. Cyborg Interfaces offers services for people and organisations that need scientific computing support. I’m currently working on two bioimage analysis projects, and I’ve got another two lined up. So things are busy — and it feels good to be busy. 😊 Do you know anyone that needs scientific computing support?If you know anyone that needs help with bioimage analysis I may be able to help. Here is a page describing my services in this space: https://cyborginterfaces.com/profile/bioimage-analysis. Also, feel free to ping me about other scientific computing requests. Alternatively, if you just want some tips on how to get better support out of your existing scientific computing teams then have a look at this post: 5 Approaches for Getting Better Scientific Support. Or if you want some general advice on how to be successful with bioimage analysis see: 5 Generic Lessons Extracted From 20 Bioimage Analysis Projects. So what’s the deal with all the posts about leadership and soft skills?Over the summer I started posting about leadership and soft skills. One of the reasons for this was to cement my learnings on these topics from my experiences over the past 15 years or so. I believe that leadership and soft skills are essential foundations for anyone that wants to be successful in science and engineering — even though these disciplines have traditionally been associated with technical skill. If you are interested in developing your soft-skills you can download my free guide here: https://softskills.cyborginterfaces.com. Thank youThis year has been exciting and stressful. One of the things that has helped me the most is the kindness of the people around me. Both in real life and virtually. If you’ve taken the time to read all the way here I want to thank you. Your support and engagement gives me energy and helps me. Thank you very much! 🙏😊 Tjelvar |