{"id":7148,"date":"2021-08-11T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-11T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/?p=7148"},"modified":"2021-08-08T22:47:13","modified_gmt":"2021-08-09T02:47:13","slug":"charting-his-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/2021\/08\/11\/charting-his-course\/","title":{"rendered":"Charting His Course"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Matt Shirley \u201904 maps out the ups and downs of adulting in his new self-help guide.\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are many reasons why Matt Shirley \u201904 could never murder someone.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Matt Shirley <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

First of all, he doesn\u2019t have any weapons. Then there\u2019s his weak stomach. Most of all, though, murder sure does sound like a lot of work. Shirley is forthcoming about the reasons for his crime avoidance. In fact, he made a bar graph measuring the level of each of his hesitancies toward murder and posted the chart to his Instagram account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s not some weirdo: Shirley has made a career out of the charts he posts on social media, mixing his penchant for dark humor with topical, relatable material. Those charts got him noticed \u2014 he now creates them for marketing departments at businesses like T-Mobile, and his book, A Visual Learner\u2019s Guide to Being a Grown-Up<\/em> (Running Press, 2021), was released in April. One review for the book: \u201cIt might be my favorite thing to emerge from the dumpster fire of 2020 that doesn\u2019t rhyme with \u2018Maxine.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Entering the world of charts with a dry erase marker in hand, Shirley began crafting his messages via whiteboard in 2017. Back then, he spent his days at a \u201cboring desk job\u201d and needed an outlet to spark his creativity. To keep things interesting, he challenged himself to make one new chart each day: \u201cI started doing it just because I wanted to have something to hold myself accountable for,\u201d he says. He\u2019s since ditched the corporate life and the marker, trading them for full-time innovation and digital software. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Charts by Matt Shirley<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Zeroing in on the topic for A Visual Learner\u2019s Guide to Being a Grown-Up<\/em> was easy for Shirley because, like his charts, he drew from his lived experience. On the cusp of 40, he\u2019s meditated on the modern definition of adulthood for years. Unmarried, childless, and career-focused, he\u2019s pondered it even more as he\u2019s approached midlife. \u201cI think a lot of people are struggling with this idea of what it means to be a grown-up,\u201d he says, \u201cbecause it\u2019s not like our parents, where they would just buy a house, have kids.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The guide is divided into the usual life sections, such as work, dating and breakups, and growing old. Like the infographics he displays on Instagram, the book is full of witty breakdowns of the ups and downs of adulting, including a corporate lingo translator, \u201cThe Periodic Table of Social Anxiety,\u201d and a bad habits timeline from ages 0\u201390 (Spoiler: You\u2019ll develop terrible habits, then do everything in your power to undo those habits with very little success). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Looking into his future, Shirley sees more books. But for now, he\u2019ll continue his process of waking up, driving to a coffee shop, opening Adobe Illustrator, and starting a new chart. \u201cIf I\u2019m feeling creative, it\u2019ll be based off of something that has happened to me recently or something that I just think is funny out there in the world. If I\u2019m feeling not creative, I\u2019ll go to the well of things that I know does well, like anxiety or \u2026 airplanes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[Colgate] influenced my way of thinking about growing up, especially because that felt like my formative years,\u201d says Shirley, who was an international relations major and forward on the basketball team.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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