Ten Thousand Ideas

This is the first one.

Before AI, we might hoard notebooks or Trello boards of ideas hoping one day we might get to execute on one of them. Maybe one of those ideas could make us rich. It’s just something we did naturally as creative or tech adjacent people.

Now, in the age of genAI, we can produce endless amounts of anything: documents, images, videos, code, entire functional websites, and more. The cost of maintaining an idea has grown exponentially, not in terms of financial cost but mental bandwidth.

What was once an email or a few bullet points is now hundreds of lines of code, a very full downloads folder, several open browser tabs, and as many chat windows with various AI tools. We are so beyond information overload there is no point in describing it.

Yet, in any single moment we can only truly focus on one thing. So, what do we do when one idea can instantly carry a day’s worth of context?

Return to the Paradox of Choice, the more options we have the more difficult our decision making process is.

So It Begins

This is the critical backstory to the founding of 10k24. The first idea of many.

My whole life I was plagued with wanting to do 10x more than possible with the time and energy available. Until recently I felt torn between the desire to focus and being constantly inspired by another “what if?”. The dance between the two has defined my career. I always operated across disciplines. As a programmer, I thought like a designer. As a compsci student, I studied business and philosophy. Now, a year after completing my MFA in Graphic Design, I can see how everything connects.

You see, every industry showed me a limited number of paths. During my thesis research for Applied Designer I found an article saying there are only four career paths for graphic designers. I was shocked by the closed-mindedness that is still so prevalent. We are creative people, why are our career paths so uncreative?

The Ethos

It does not have to be so rigid.

10k24 is the culmination of everything I’ve ever been interested in, with a name and identity system I love. This is THE thing that can hold all 10,000 ideas despite my limited 24 hours every day. Early in my college career I read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. The 10,000 hours to mastery concept stuck with me — enough that it’s part of the name of this company.

10k24 is Built on Three Pillars

1. Creativity: we refuse the default solution and build our own tools as needed
2. Computation: we use digital tools from design to modeling to code to get the job done
3. Collaboration: we prioritize people who inspire us over projects that pay

The whole reason I became a designer was a vision for the future, where I can create anything that I can think of. Over the past eight years I’ve followed this vision through fashion, graphic design, branding, interactive installations, architecture, AI, and more. This all builds on my decade of experience in mathematics, software engineering, open source, entrepreneurship, and philosophy. The synthesis of these diverse and complementary areas is the unique intersection that fuels everything 10k24 does.

A Vision

When I came up with the name for 10k24, the long form wordmark came to me in an instant. I saw words typeset on two lines (bold, uppercase, justified, grotesque sans serif) exactly like it is.

Ultimately, 10k24 is a studio practice. We do projects that interest us with people who inspire us. If this is you, let’s talk.

We all have the same 24 hours, how will you spend yours?

With gratitude,
Shakeel
10k24 Studio