We recently connected with Sean Rice and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Sean thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Has your work ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized?
The more outside the norm a person is, the harder it is for others to understand them. This is not a fault of the others, it is simply that there are so many more ways to be outside the norm than inside. From my earliest memory I have been outside the norm, and my parents, siblings, and myself have been trying to understand why. This is a common quest/struggle people go through, that is if they’re lucky.
When I was young, there was not an impetus to label “disabilities”, I simply was different. I looked “normal”, but my mind was always seeing the world in ways that others did not. I have subsequently learned that I have ADD and am dyslexic. It would be very hard to determine how much this shaped me through out my life, but there is little doubt that it did. Without a name for these specific aspects, and the fact that they do not work well with the standard educational system, I struggled. Not in all areas, I seemed to have an aptitude for Math and Science, but struggled outside of that. I am fortunate that I had areas of strengths, but it is human nature to focus on what we are not good at. This is not a failing of humans, but the manifestation of our intrinsic goal to better ourselves.
I am also a person with a high curiosity, I want to know how things work, what is inside them, how it is all put together from a fundamental level. I believe curiosity is something that can be created in an individual who seems not to have it, but in those circumstances it needs to be cultivated. For myself, it was present at my inception. Additionally, I seem to have a gift for abstraction. All humans have this, but many do not exercise it. This allows me to take what I have learned in one area, alter it slightly, and apply it to another area. There have been times where someone asked me “how did you learn that so fast”, I would answer “I didn’t, I already knew it”.
These are two of the greatest mental gifts I was given. These created a drive so strong in me, that it pulled me along when I was misunderstood and felt uncomfortable as a consequence. It was like a rope. Part of me would want to look normal, to be understood, to fit in, but, and without my consent, I would be pulled forward. There are those who believe I have a lot of self control, and am disciplined, but for the most part they are wrong, there is a drive deeper inside me that it would be harder to fight against than to simply move with it. That is not to say that there is not the necessity of work, there is a lot required for this path. The irony is that, even with this immense amount of work, it is easier and more fulfilling than pushing against these deeper drives.
As I have grown and matured, I have learned that those things that are now considered a “disability” are in fact another gift, but a gift that needs to be controlled, or given the proper environment to show it’s power. A demon, if you will, that needs to be trained. About 15 years ago I made a plan, a plan to create an environment to allow these aspects of myself to be what they have always been, the force on the rope. I cannot say that I understood myself so well that I could create the plan that has been executed over these past 15 years. I was guided by an idea, that if I have to spend all my effort to do what others seem to be able to do easily, that being to have a regular job and a “regular” life, there must be a life I can live that does not take all my effort just to move in that direction, and that the motion will be more of a flow.
In retrospect it is now clear that the changes I have made to my life over this time were the result of an accumulation of all I had gained, all my parents, my family, my children, and the world had given me, all that was given to them, and so on. It is also clear that following this path I have gained another gift, a desire to push into those things I was not good at. To me, an obvious result of all this is that the life I am currently living, and very much enjoying, is a result of those sometimes aptly, and sometimes incorrectly labeled “disabilities” and “gifts”. Once someone lives a life that is truly them, they find that there is no space in that life to live based on the expectations of others. I wish I could give everyone the courage to reach that point.
I want to close with a quote I heard somewhere, “There is not, has never been, and never will be someone like you. It is therefore your most sacred responsibility to be that person, for otherwise, they will never exist”
Sean, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am an inventor, in the most abstract definition of this I would say I bring ideas from the mental world to the physical world. The source of these ideas comes from 3 areas, random ideas, solutions to problems I see, and people asking me to create a physical representation of their ideas.
It has only been in retrospect that I have come to realize I was always an inventor. I grew up on a ranch in Wyoming. My father was a technician for AT&T, and the combinations of the two laid the groundwork for the particulars of my invention methodology. Growing up on a ranch often requires a quick fix as there was always a required time line forced by nature herself. There was also, as you can imagine, a plethora of random parts and machinery laying around to pick from. This along with the fact that my parents both grew up during WWII and were extremely frugal people gave me the base training to bring me to today. Having a mechanical, mathematical, and science mind I was naturally drawn to these areas. I started college with a computer science major, but after attending a college Physics class for only 2 weeks, I quickly changed my major, finishing this education with a Masters Degree. I have had many jobs in engineering, mathematics, and computer science, and slowly became aware that the work for any one company was always too restrictive. My creativity seems to have no preference for a particular discipline, medium, or process. This along with the fact that companies need to make a profit, requiring them to focus on a small range of products and disciplines, made me realize that there was not a fit for me in any one company. After executing a 10 year plan, I work for myself. In the 20 years I worked I have gained many skills, and continue to gain many more. All this I use for my inventions. As people or my own mind present ideas of something to create, I very seldom find myself feeling that I cannot find a solution. The more you fill you toolbox with skills, the more likely you will be able to do a job presented.
I would describe the medium of my particular brand of creativity to be the interplay of parts. It is in this interplay that the creative work shows its identity. This is why it is difficult to describe the things I create without a long dissertation. If I was a painter, I could show the work of art, but a picture of my creations is not sufficient to show what they are, how you interact with them, or what their true purpose is. I can then only say that the works I am most proud of are those that have crossed disciplines. One such creation is a computer interface paradigm I am creating that takes into account how the human brain works. It takes into account the visual cortex, memory, and processing of the mind to create a more seamless interface. It is by expanding my knowledge into areas of the human brain and mind that I was able to come up with this idea, and while I feel the idea will be very useful, it is the fact that it came out of a cross pollination of disciplines that I am most proud.
One final concept that I follow extensively is reuse. I believe that we are in an era where products are created so the user never has to know how they work, and that it is cheaper to buy a new device rather than repair it as we used to do. This creates a mountain of waste. Through my background, curiosity to know how things work, and frugality I will take things that are intended for one purpose and apply them to another, or simply dismantle them for their parts. The things we buy are built to work in one way, but most often cam become something completely different.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
While there are many goals which drive my creative journey, there is one that stands out. I believe creativity is a gift given to us by eons of evolution to help us survive as humans. In humans this gift is augmented and intricately interwoven by our ability to imagine the world not as it is, but as it could be. We have been able to take creativity from a tool for survival, and implement it as a tool to advance our world, protect ourselves and other species, and develop the area of aesthetics. By imagining an alternate reality, I have been able to see amazing things in the universe of the mind. The goal that drives my creativity is a feeling of responsibility, that if I have been given this amazing gift, I must create in the physical world as many ideas as I can from my mental world. The fact that this is a very enjoyable process, is the reward for the hard work necessary to fulfill that goal.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The simple answer is feelings. I am, as everyone is to some extent, driven by ego, but the true reward of my work is when I am able to stand back and see it’s completion. The joy felt at seeing an idea come to life, the knowledge of the power gained by the effort and how that will add to my ability for future projects is a big part of the reward. Also, when I watch people enjoy the results of my work, when it gives them serenity or inspiration, I am again rewarded with a feeling of joy.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Dr. Flimflam
