Where are you thinking?

What are you thinking is a common question that all of us have been asked on occasion but I would ask a different question, "Where are you thinking?"

As a programmer and a user of more than one Enterprise Resource Management System I am constantly faced with challenges of a cognitive type. I've found after more than a decade solving these problems, one of the best ways to get a fresh perspective is to change my location. I often get up from my desk and go for a cup of coffee (which usually gets cold sitting on my desk) or for a short lap around the office.

These are the times when some of the hardest problems are solved. You can't stare at a computer screen and force it into revealing to you the intricate solutions you desire. The truth is, I can sit happily programming for hours most of the time once I know which direction I'm going in, what techniques I'm going to use to achieve my goals. Getting to that point, however, might take me on a half mile walk around the facility or just down to the break room for a snack. I might even be found making coffee or even cleaning out one of the microwaves in the office. I thought up the idea for my start up while I was washing dishes. Most managers who are worth their salt understand the process. Even those who don't will accept it if the output is where it needs to be

Now, get up and get that cup of coffee or at least find a window to stare out of for a few minutes...

Design Inspiration

The picture I've included is an original I did back in the late 90's when I was first learning how to use Photoshop. I remember how incredible it seemed to be able to create digitally without any limitations, on an infinite canvas. It still amazes me how free we are to create, design, share and judge in less time than it takes to mix paint for a physical creation.

With infinite options, we can often over-think, over-create and over-emphasize. That fact has lead to a scaled down design trend that is stark and has little to no depth. I can only believe that this trend will give way to a resurgence of shadow and gloss in the near future, a continual ebb and flow of contrasting styles with each cycle bringing about subtle enhancements on the historical until we might at some unknown point in the future, reach the Nirvana of design.

Nature has had millions more years to experiment and so has, not suprisingly, handed me a gift this fine evening. The moon is approaching full and normally dominates the sky with a radiance that mimicks day, but this spring, the moon's leading roll has been usurped by an unassuming, simple, but magnificently beautiful product of earth...the dogwood tree. The blooms this year on the white dogwoods posess seemingly magical radiance in the evening, absorbing the moons own light to reprocess it into something more magical before releasing it like a sigh of contentment into the night.

To capture that...to be able to recreate that in design would be mastery...

The Long and Winding Road

We are here. Right here, right now, irrevocably traveling through the present. The road we've walked to get here was necessary only in that it got us to this fleeting destination. Technically, now is ever changing, instant by instant, quantum tick after quantum tick, sliding from now to then, but the now I reference is not so finitely defined as that.

The picture I've included is of my very dear friend, Dr. Blues or, as I first new him, Chuck Beattie. He and I traveled wildy different roads to get to this point in time, but either would kill for the other. That is the nature of time...of human existence.

Chuck is a blues man in the truest since. His life, all of his experience, his laughter and his pain, flow freely from him when he performs. Chuck and I first collaborated, not on music, but on technology. Dr. Beattie, you see, is also a programmer, a technology junkie and a true geek in the most flattering since of the word. There is where we first found common ground.

The point I'm meandering around to is that we never know how today will fit into the bigger puzzle that we're working on but it's important to realize that today and everyday that follows has the potential to change our lives. For that reason, I feel like we should pay attention and give each moment the respect it deserves. Otherwise we might just miss out on something grand!

The wind is a muse

The rain is falling now and strangely I am awake, stubbornly holding on to a consciousness riddled with complex thoughts framed by the melodies of Leonard Cohen backed by the sound of the wind.

I spend my days immersed in technology, solving problems, researching and delivering solutions while enjoying myself immensely. The nights...the nights bring out the contemplative poet, the ageless philosopher speaking in whispers to reconcile the thoughts of the programmer with the heart of the artist. By no means am I an insomniac, most nights I sleep like a baby, but when the rain falls, the wind blows and the moon waxes, I am wakeful and thoughtful.

Breathing in the night through the open window, I absorb the unsettled nature of it and, rather than toss and turn, I embrace the night, the thoughts, the possibilities. Here in these fleeting moments, I am no longer the technician, the tactician, the provider. I become instead the observer, the thinker, indifferent to the outcome but involved entirely in the process.

These are the moments that make us who we are, or rather, who we should be.

Zed Shaw

Still one of my favorite talks :)

Zed Shaw - The ACL is Dead from CUSEC on Vimeo.

Masterpiece

We do things. We can't help it. Being alive means doing at least the basic necessities, stop those and you would no longer be alive. Occasionally, if we are doing more than the basics needed to sustain life, we might just create something beyond the normal, something beyond exceptional, a thing that can be described as a masterpiece! If that thing happens to be a painting like the one in this post, it might live on to inspire countless people. 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' is a masterpiece, no doubt. Created by a man who was able to produce more than one masterpiece and a personal favorite of mine, Vermeer. What if, however, our masterpiece is not as striking, not as accessible as a painting. I think we would all agree that the general theory of relativity is a masterpiece, but most of us don't bother to take the time to truly understand why.

The most recent transient masterpiece I've encountered happened to be a cappuccino. I kid you not, it was a cappuccino whose taste, temperature and composition, if possible to frame, would be worthy of any museum.

I write code for fun, I program for a living and I do IT work because it has to be done and I'm not guilty yet of creating any masterpieces in my work so I stand free of bias on the subject. I have had the pleasure of seeing other peoples code that, to my eyes, was obviously the work of a master. The funny thing is, that code isn't displayed for all to see and even if it was, few would see it as a master work, few would take the time to understand what makes it great. Therefore, it is my conclusion that the responsibility for enjoying our own masterpieces, whether they be works of art, poems, pies, passionate statements or digital manipulations, rests first with us, the creators. Whether the world at large discovers them, has the ability to see them for what they are, matters not at all.

That Which Inspires Us...

It's interesting to think just how many parts there are to the puzzle that is a person. The machine that houses us isn't nearly so difficult to explain as that ethereal stuff that makes us the person we are; the intangible perception, insight, expression and emotion that defines us as the individual.

As identical twins, my brother and I are a good example of how genetics represents only a small part of who we become and, in fact, how environment loses out to our individual inspirations. We are profoundly different people who share the same genetic makeup, the same upbringing and nearly the same education.

The first computer program I ever wrote was in the style of one of those books that asked you to make decisions and turn the page to a particular place based on that decision, then the story would unfold as a result of your choice. It was based on Star Trek and quickly became rather complex as the paths diverged. I'm of the opinion that life is much like that program in that at every juncture, we have decisions we make, some without much thought at all, that profoundly change the options we have down the road. These decisions are the hands at the potters wheel that shape us into the creatures we are and they are always active, never tiring and wonderfully within our control.

The image at the top of this post is one I put together on the fly to represent some of those who inspire me. Thrown together in no particular order or pattern, they are all present in some way within my thoughts, actions, abilities, interests and attention. Through no intention they have found me and given me gifts to carry and hopefully at some point, pass on again.

I find this world, this existence, fascinating beyond words and as a perpetual student, I put one foot in front of the other and welcome those past, present and future who will add to my experience, my knowledge and my inspiration.