Self proclaimed super geek Nick Noble is leaving New Orleans for D.C. He’s worked with Dinner Lab, Lanyap Creative, NOLA Tech Week and others throughout his time in the big easy. Below is is exit interview, originally posted on his website, nndesign.co.
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I’m leaving New Orleans
To start off, how was your overall experience in New Orleans?
I’ve spent two years and it’s been great, but it’s time to move on. I learned a lot, made friends, built stuff, broke stuff. I still think it was probably a much better use of my time than going to college.
What’s your biggest complaint?
The majority of the tech community seems to have this vibe:
“Eh, it’s good enough…”
I’m not saying we don’t work hard, because we work very hard, but we could be seriously raising the bar.
We are so wrapped up in our own community, we forget to tell the rest of the world. We need to stop comparing New Orleans to New Orleans. You might be much cooler than the guy next to you, but you’re still not the coolest kid in class.
New Orleans has the potential to be the coolest kid in class, we just haven’t pushed the boundaries hard enought yet. Show off more. Put more pressure on each other to up the ante.
Hmmm, noted…You’ve been pretty active in the local advertising scene, any comments there?
Similar feedback. You guys are doing great work, but it could bebetter.
The larger players in town seem to be faltering, they can’t keep up. Their achilles heels are showing in the interactive space, because they can’t adapt as fast as a smaller, more agile team to the quickly changing trends and techniques in applications and on the web.
Now is the time to strike!
RapJab, Cathedral, Alford, Deltree, Skuba, Studio Mundi, Twin Engine, Dolce, Deep Fried, Trumpet, Iokon… the list goes on. You probably haven’t heard of half of them (not a good thing for an ad agency) …but they are all local, they all got mad skillz, and they all could be killing it (even more than they already might be).
If you work at one of those places, what are you waiting for?Go do it.
Every site must be responsive. Every campaign meaningful to the product. Every piece of work should be better than the last. Every client should go home happy.
And you should be happy about the work, and your time spent on it, or you are doing it wrong.
Interesting insight. Do you have any advice for those just joining the tech scene?
Make good work and share it often.
Ask for help when you need it, give help when asked for it. Be upfront when you don’t know.
Secrets are dumb, your idea is probably not a unique and sensitive snowflake, especially if you haven’t done anything with it yet. Plus, how do expect to get anyone on board? We all have good ideas, and we should help each other make them happen.
Bring your friends and hack more.
Stop talking about it and do it.
Thank you for answering our questions. This has been…enlightening. Any closing remarks?
Yes:
