Seeking Coastal Utopia

Maybe we should even restate it by saying that simple is always better. “eyeglasses with black frames” by Jess Watters on  Unsplash Simple. The word itself is simple. The opposite of complex, the opposite of making it so confusing that it requires three people to work on it. It is as simple as one element, one piece. Simple is elegant in its scarcity. When you say “ wow, that was simple, ” you say it with a smile. When you say “ wow, that was complex ” it is usually prefaced or closed with expletives. Now, this is not a treatise against technology, even though technology is taking over. It is adding more complexity to our cars (e.g. self-driving vehicles) or that our appliances are now connected to the web and have browsers and screens built into them, enabled to determine where you are short on foodstuffs. There are (lots of) times when you want simple. It is recognized that self-driving vehicles are required to be complex because of the daunting task for eng...

“silhouette photo of a mountain during the nighttime” by Benjaminrobyn Jespersen on  Unsplash Okay, okay, before you start getting all “ well we can’t travel at the speed of light so that’s impossible ” as your response to the title, think a little closer to home. Slightly more realistically for the next three minutes. Instead, your challenge is to think about the accuracy of the words that you use every day around your work and your home. It is highly suspect that the word impossible comes up in your normal discussions a few times a day, potentially multiple times each week. Is the effort or the solution to the problem that you were trying to describe really impossible ? Let me get back to the cosmic principle like the speed of light remark above. In terms of impossible , think about the human race. Think about our existence on this planet. Think about the fact that our planet is in the perfect location away from the sun. Those are all impossibilities but yet, these rand...

This is tough. This is big. Standing up for anything is hard. Difficult decisions need to be made. Discomfort creeps into your chest, your guts. Your soul. “man on body of water during daytime” by Mubariz Mehdizadeh on  Unsplash Do you fold like a cheap lawn chair, or do you stand proud and strong and weather the storm?  Face into the wind, one step at a time, fighting and clawing for every inch forward? You damn well should. Crush your fears and be strong against the tide. That is why you are here, you are strong and want to be stronger. This is why you are in the role you are in. This is why you level up; to be better than sheep and lemmings . Fight mediocrity. Fight passiveness. Fight entropy. Fight apathy. Now, could you sell your soul? Find a job with the least amount of responsibility with the most pay? It probably doesn’t exist in the way you imagine it. Could you jump from one role to another for $XXX more today? Tomorrow? If y...

Are you a giver or are you a taker? Do you try to share everything that you have or do you try to keep things close so that no one can steal it? How do you get those around you to level up? You should share your ideas and share your concepts. Always. Often. Why? “Do Something Great neon sign” by Clark Tibbs on  Unsplash It allows you to leverage the ideas and thoughts of a different worldview . Someone else’s perspective will help you build on those dreams. Ego check. The reason why you do this is that you are not an expert in everything. Seriously. You may be an expert in photography . Or one that can articulate and present engineering development in a rich and impactful manner. Or in helping others see their full, true potential , and teach others to be more empathetic in their actions, but you too can use the help. The help you need to level up . You can certainly be the one that comes up with all the ideas, the creator. You can be the one that’s driven to pus...

Evil replacement water cooler Change is hard, really hard. People say they like change, and they say that they thrive in change. Lies. Most people hate it. We are creatures of habit. Wait, who moved my cheese ? Change is a significant part of my daily work, figuring out how to instill change within an organization. I live, eat, and breathe changes, yet I hate it too. One day I went to fill my water bottle at the cooler and to my dismay, the old water cooler had been replaced with a new one. [pause — huh, look at that a new water cooler ] Then I lost it. My cool that is. After a few expletives… Why should I try it out? Screw you, I want the old water cooler back! Stupid thing. I hate these fill buttons. What the…I can go outside and fill my bottle in a rainstorm faster than this thing — [um dude, you live in Arizona, it rains like 2 inches a year here]… Uuuuuuugh. This water is taking too long to fill. OK, deep breath, it will be ok. Fuh. It’s not even...

Have you seen the NSFW music video from Childish Gambino ?  Or this NSFW one by Joyner Lucas ?  One shows a stimulating and violent visual worldview; the other is an audible and mental worldview (yet still visual but a stark contrast) - both provide a dichotomous perspective on today’s U.S. society.  You have to watch and listen to both songs multiple times to capture items that you missed the first time you watched. Because of those songs and videos, your worldview has changed.  Did you feel the shift?  Do you now look at people differently? What is your worldview?  Everyone has their lenses and filters that they see the world in. I recently had a debate with my nine-year-old daughter about color.  She asked if I saw a particular object as blue, but she said, "What if I said it was red, who would be right?”  How did I learn it was blue ?  How did she learn it was red?  This debate with my nine-year-old daughter about something we ...

Have you ever sent a flaming email? Have you ever received one of those flame emails? How did you feel when you wrote that evil email? Did you feel powerful?  Did you feel that you were in a better position after sending it, letting the world (your recipient) feel your fury?  Did it make your arguments stronger? How about when you receive one of those emails? How does that make you feel about being on the receiving end of a flaming email or of an angry letter? What sort of flooded feeling did the email give you?  Did you feel the anger boiling inside? The dropped feeling like your guts were liquefied?  Think about the end result, was the objective reached? Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln were some of the many notable figures in history to learn the art of writing this poison pen letter.  Yet most often those letters were never sent.  Each of these men and others understood the purpose and reason of writing these letters.  They also understood the ...