Carl Setzer

"We do not receive wisdom. We must discover it ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can make for us, and which no one can spare us. For our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world." ~Marcel Proust Our role in life, as teachers, friends and parents is not to spare our youth this journey. Rather, grant them fearless hearts able to embrace the journey, trusting themselves to come through better. Also, accept that they will change, and that we will love that person equally.

My son and I exploring rocketry, then me messing around with iMovie. Possibly the first of many: both launches and dollars spent.

My thought of the morning: I don't think I believe in mistakes. The hedging quality reflects the newness of this notion. It's reflects a rather radical shift in my mind. There's sloppy execution, then there's discovery.  Sloppy execution isn't a mistake, it's a lack of care and diligence. Clearly, more effort/better focused effort would've overcome the obstacles. Accepting a challenge which doesn't go as expected isn't a mistake, either. We learn deeply from those moments. Amazing, cosmos shifting events resulted from unintended consequences. I mustn't let my fear of mistakes paralyze me. This ruins so much joy, limits life's delights. I've seen this, up close and personally. And desire the removal of such life denying scripts from my psyche. Walking that path, slowly but surely, reaching that destination.

Today, one of the main sites I work out of is struggling with a DDOS attack. Well, it's actually been the past few days. This site tracks my workflow, and houses my to-do list. Being locked out has moved from annoyance to inconvenience to problem to serious issue. This has me wonder, though: is technology really ready for "prime time"? For those of us who have shifted our calendars, tracking systems, CRM to the web, what is at risk? A relatively simply action can create significant paralysis. To be clear, I'm not ready to abandon all my tech solutions and grab paper and binders yet. But I am considering what I can do, analog or otherwise, to be better able to react to these nuisances. There is no guarantee that any website will remain in business tomorrow. There are technological snafus. How do I minimize the risks inherent with going all-in with tech/web solutions? I'll be meditating on that for the next few days. 

Talking with a friend, I see my writing has shifted solidly digital. I tend to create on a device, mostly my tablet, or my phone, then computer. I'll go weeks without touching my notebook. I love the ability to edit, and unedit. There is a zen-like impermanence to this medium.  Changing things feels powerful. On occasion, I wonder what historical research will be like. Probably an archeological dig through our data, sifting through millions of photos, notes and stories, aggregating our lives. Strange combination of fluidity, impermanence and ageless data shall flow together into a richer understanding of who we were, collectively and individually.

In Steven Covey's "Seven Habits..." book, he relates a story of a consulting gig. After asking "what's the best way to motivate..." some one spat out "hand-grenades".  Apparently a bit of a debate broke out. I've wondered what would say during that, and think I have my answer. "That's effective if your goal is to build a subservient fiefdom. If you're trying to build a dynamic team of effective contributors, this will fail gloriously." In today's economy, a company of meandering automatons who only act directly upon orders is a recipe for failure. This is a blind bureaucracy. Any need for independent thought or action induces a fear based paralysis. These are non-agile orgs that cannot react nimbly. Their only strength comes from sheer mass. Most of the entities which remind effective do so because they command immense resources, enabling them to catch up with innovators...eventually. Or they just acquire them. Many mana...

In case you missed the announcement , Amazon has launched Prime Music . As you can guess, Amazon is the latest tech animal to enter the online music fray. I downloaded the iPhone app last night and have been streaming music at my desk at work today. For now, the music selection is pretty small for the streaming service. As a heavy Spotify user, Amazon is not going to displace my current habits. Prime looks to be supplementing/feeding their mp3 download service. That's not where I am, at this point. Key phrase: at this point. I fully expect that Amazon is "in it to win". They're fierce competitors, and I expect that they'll push this service further. Probably, there will come a point that Spotify's $9/mo service will seem redundant to my Prime membership fee. Then it will be tough. I'm not keen on giving too much control over my life to one vendor. However, I value my cash. Yeah; tough. Or, perhaps, Spotify will be bought by one of the big players and th...