Science Fiction as an Excersise
Claiming that science fiction is your genre of choice is not an easy statement to make, although, these days it seems a large number of mainstream films and shows gravitate towards it. Growing up I was taught that the genre was is for children, and that just as children grow up to be adults to take on adult responsibilities and behave more or less “adultly,” so should enjoyment from science fiction and fantasy be replaced…
Process-First, Technology-Second
As technology advances, it’s often its wake that teaches us the most. At the cusp of an advance, at that edge, it’s difficult to understand and comprehend the breadth of its effect and therefore its value. It’s after the technology’s been around for a while, tested, batted around, stepped on, and resurrected that we tend of have the wide-eyed realization of what exactly this all means. One such lesson that we’ve both learned and are…
Labor’s double-edge.
Our relationship to labor is curious. We need it, we want it, but trudge through it, we dislike it. That’s the spectrum with all sorts of grey in there. What’s even stranger is our relationship to the product of our labor. I’d just finished writing what was probably the most laborious 1000 words for my short story. At the end of it, I hated those 1000 words. I compared them to the words before and…
Discovery and Surprise
I listen to quite a bit of Pandora largely for a way to focus on my work. I’m unfortunately unable to do this when I need it the most (client calls and the like), but it works well during the evenings. Recently, however, I’ve been using Pandora as a place to find new music. In fact, I’m actually trying out genres I wouldn’t have thought of trying before. What I’ve learned is that Pandora is…
Unlimited Tomorrows
I was reading this post by Fred Wilson on his blog, when my all my thoughts culminated to a single word: tomorrow. To broaden it more: an unlimited tomorrows. Because that’s what our story, at a human level, is about. Sustainability, social responsibility, stewardship, the B Corporation, the triple bottom line, and several other “movements” are all about surviving (and if we dare, thriving) until tomorrow and the possible thousands after. As Stewart Brand mentions in…
Magnetic Dots
We are magnetic dots on the surface that is this world, our lives drawn to problems which need solving. Allow me to explain. I was at lunch with a group of friends, all entrepreneurs, when we launched into the topic of hiring versus contracting. Several of us live in the software development world and, as was often the case, were lamenting the difficulty in hiring excellent talent. The conclusion we had come to was that…
