How I Became Myself Again: What Writing Did for My Self-Worth in 2019
By: Jason Forrest
Tags: Career Advice, Advice, Careers, Data Visualization, Writing

How I Became Myself Again: What Writing Did for My Self-Worth in 2019 Jason Forrest Follow Jan 2 · 12 min read

I love year-end lists not only to learn about the best movies, books, articles, and events of the previous year, but also because I really value the act of self-reflection. Just like the end of a sprint in Agile development, this time of the year is for retrospection.

I want to share my story of 2019 so that anyone can see what is possible with some planning and a bit of luck. Often simply beginning is the hardest aspect of doing anything, and giving yourself the freedom to experiment and get things wrong is equally important. But in order to tell you who I am now, I need to tell you who I was a year ago.

My Story (Or How I Went From Being Relatively Famous to Missing Something in My Life)

Looking back at the last year, I’m struck with how far I have come not only as a writer but also as a person in search of a passion.

The author performing with the Birthday Party Berlin crew (link for more)

Here’s my story:

What many in the dataviz community may not know is that I am a very well-known figure in a small but global electronic music scene. Just before the turn of the last decade, and shortly after the birth of my son, I decided to move into the next chapter of my career. Much to everyone’s surprise, I had literally accomplished all my dreams as a musician and it was time to move on.

Over the span of a few years, I stopped being a professional musician and moved into iOS development, and then co-founded a start-up for online video called Network Awesome. Going into Network Awesome, I knew that there could only be two outcomes: (1) that my company would work and I could do that as a job, or (2) I would gain the skills to “get a real job.” After a few years, Network Awesome was almost successful (i.e., not) and after a painful job search, I found myself working as a UX Designer. It was a job that I liked a lot, and it taught me how to use a system and leverage a process to make something with a purpose. But despite how interesting it was, it was ultimately just a job — not an identity like I had as a musician.

Not having a purpose (or a passion) was extremely difficult for me. I had gone from being a person that others sought out to just a guy with a job. Certainly happy in my life, but missing that certain spark.

“A2Z+ Alphabets & Other Signs” (amazon)

In 2017, after working in UX Design for eight years, I started to go back and re-explore the foundations of design that I first learned in art school. I had always been interested in typography, so I spent a few months learning and experimenting. Shortly thereafter, I chose to move into data visualization as a way to marry my design interests with my technical and UX process knowledge. It all seemed related and I guess I wasn't wrong.

One day I found a book of rare typographic specimens and diagrams called A2Z+ and that’s where I stumbled across some charts created in the year 1900 by the African-American political activist W.E.B. Du Bois. There wasn't much information in the book, so I hit Google and started to look around. I was shocked. My initial search showed no substantial writing on his work. I found myself digging further and further into research. Despite feeling so massively unqualified to write about his landmark series of charts, I published my first article on his charts in July 2018. That piece is my most-read article to date and eventually led to a presentation at the Tapestry Conference in November of that year.