Readings of 2014, June Edition

As you may have noticed, the title does not have a "Part x" element. That is because I slacked off this past month and only finished 1 book. Fail.

The Ten Faces of Innovation by Tom Kelley:

The most common role played during meetings in large companies: Devil's Advocate.

In this book, Tom Kelley points out how the Devil's Advocate is a dangerous role to be played, as well as introduces us to 10 roles that are much more beneficial to organizations. Not going to go over all 10 of the roles, but will go over the ones that I found particularly interesting.

First up is the Experimenter. I find the Experimenter role particularly interesting primarily because it is the role that I feel closest aligned to. The Experimenter has to be willing to take risks, and be able to fuck stuff up over and over without taking it personally when things don't turn out how they expected(if there is even an expectation of the experiment). The quintessential Experimenter, Thomas Edison, is credited with what can most accurately sum up the Experimenter's role, "I have not failed 700 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work."

Next we have the Cross-Pollinator. The primary strength of a Cross-Pollinator is their ability to apply lessons that they have learned in one endeavor to something that is seemingly unrelated. I commonly find myself drawing analogies among cooking, software development, lifting, and the meaning of life, so relating to the Cross-Pollinator role was far from a stretch for me.

Finally, we have the Storyteller role. I love this role, not because I find it a strength, but because I am extremely envious of those who do. Being a great Storyteller can strengthen pretty much any role; a realtor who can more effectively paint a picture of the potential in a house, an engineer can more effectively communicate painpoints in a project, and comedians can suck their audience in(Dane Cook isn't the funniest comedian in the world, but he is second-to-none in his role as Storyteller).

Happy Birthday Ma

My ma already(hopefully) knows that it is her birthday, but I figure I would embarrass her in front of my other 1 or 2 readers by wishing her a happy birthday here.

I will unfortunately not be back home for her birthday, but it will just make us cherish the time (and Eggslusive meals) that much more when I am home next.

Possessions, Un-learned

I may have been ranting and raving lately about how we tend to lose some awesome traits as grow up, but I have also noticed that a lot of folks my age are losing a not-so-awesome trait: our desire for possessions over experiences.

When I was a kid, I was always wanting the next shiny toy, the next video game, or the next pack of Pokemon cards(sorry for spending so much of your money mom, but they're going to worth something someday, promise). Almost as soon as the wrapping was off of the first one, the newness would wear off.

When I moved off to college, I was struck with the realization that I couldn't possibly bring everything with, some of my oh-so-important possessions would have to stay(the Pokemon card didn't make the cut); the most important stuff that could fit in a U-haul and truck came, the rest stayed. When I moved to Boulder, that amount shrunk from what could fit in a truck and U-haul to what could fit in a Jetta and suitcase. In my latest move, San Francisco, that Jetta(rest in peace :'() and suitcase shrunk to a backpack and suitcase. If I keep it up, I think I may be moving with just the clothes on my back, if that.

On the flip side, I am replacing those possessions with experiences, and so are a lot of other 20-somethings. Crossed a couple off my list this year, EDC and Spring Break, but still have many left to go: lifting at a national-level powerlifting meet, Burning Man, Coachella, Oktoberfest in Munich, and some serious overseas backpacking to name a few.

Granted we do still want things as we get older, and they do tend to be more expensive, like cars(I will eventually blow a stupid amount of money on my dream Toyota Supra), cell phones, laptops and homes, but at least those have some utility outside of just being a shiny toy.

Shiny toys only stay shiny for so long, but experiences will last as long as your memory.

Dancing, Re-learned

I spent this past weekend having the time of my life at EDC in Vegas. For those not aware, EDC stands for Electric Daisy Carnival, is a multi-day event held in many cities where hundreds of thousands of people get together to listen to DJ after DJ play music on various stages, all through the night. Literally all through the night... it goes from from 7:00 PM to 5:30 AM each night(may-or-may not be a little sleep deprived as I type this).

But the most important part: all of us want to dance, so we danced.

Standing in the sea of 300,000 people, we somehow forgot that we were supposed to be self-conscious of our dancing abilities, that other people actually care whether we can actually dance or not. We learned that people couldn't actually care less about other's dancing abilities, because they were too busy being focused on what they really wanted to do.

And that was to dance.

Dance, If You Want to Dance

Like my last post, this is another about amazing traits we somehow lose as we grow up.

A few weeks ago, I went over to one of my old neighborhood buddie's, Steve(not to be confused with my uncle of the same name), house. Inevitably, his mom whipped out old an old VHS tape of the 8 year old versions of the two of us dancing our hearts out in the basement, not giving a care about who was watching.

We didn't care if we weren't the world's best dancers.

We didn't care what anybody else in the room thought of our awesome moves.

We just wanted to dance, so we danced.

Here, Uncle Steve, Open Your Shirt

That is what the 3-year old me said to my Uncle, whose name is Steve(if you didn't gather that much from the title), as I handed him his Christmas present, which just so happened to be a shirt(another thing that you hopefully picked up).

Kids have a knack for such amazing honesty.

If they love you, they will tell you so.

If you're not being very nice, they will also tell you(could have also named this post, Mommy, you're not being very nice, which I may-or-may-not have been prone to saying when she didn't get me a toy that I just had to have).

Somewhere along the way, though, we lose that amazing quality.

We stop building quirky cards that say I love you in macaroni and glue. We gossip to others about someone not being very nice, instead of letting them know to their face. We get a little better about keeping christmas presents secret.

Start tapping into your inner kid... let people know when you love them and when you're not so fond of them. Maybe even ruin a surprise every now and then.

Dragsters

You don't need a 2000 horsepower dragster to get groceries.

You don't need a Mac Pro to check Facebook.

You don't need the fanciest parallel algorithm to process a relatively small amount of data. Learned that one today.

Many problems get hard at scale, but many times things simply don't get there. Don't bother building(and maintaining) a dragster, when a simple one-speed bicycle will do.