Finding Kindness for the Horizon

Now at the prime age of 44, I’m hanging up my whistle. I first had this job at the age of 18. It has been a pretty good swim, I mean run.

I have also done a few other things in between.

Hard, cold fact: I can no longer hide at the pool. And now, it is time for something new. Is it ever! Almost daily I hear of new developments, inventions, and capabilities that are difficult to believe as true, aside from the fact they are now reality. Even that word, ‘reality’, is in the process of being redefined in-and-of-its-selves at such unprecedented rates and magnitudes that it begs &/or screams the question of: ‘to what end?’. Instead, let us focus on ‘to what beginning?’, shall we?

I want you to take this opportunity to close your eyes and cycle thru 9 deep breaths in-and-out without losing count, at as close to the same time interval for each inhale and exhale as possible.

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Now with a more oxygenated brain and hopefully slower heart rate, what clearly comes to mind? [absolutely irrespective of this post or any other immediate stimuli in your current view] What is your consciousness prioritizing at this point in time? It tends to be a good place to start. Ease or further whatever revealed itself when you opened your eyes or just prior, and you can set off a set of dopamine dominoes that can improve outcomes for the rest of your day. What DOES living come down to? [Dopamine, Oxytocin, Endorphins, Seratonin (DOES)] #ActAccordingly

I have been distanced from Tech for a decade now for a number of reasons, both good and bad; yet I cannot ignore the intrigue in now finding an occupation where I could directly utilize modern compute to pursue positive impact. But given the significant gap in my resume of more 'professional' jobs over the last 10 years relative to my education/previous experience, I now find myself open to a very broad range of roles to further my career. At present, closer to entry-level is the writing-on-the-wall in terms of hard skill sets of some of the Qualifications I read, accompanied by insight/intuition well beyond my years filling the room of which that wall is one side. My current challenge: do not allow a one-dimensional barrier to continue to block the volume of value contained in the 3D room of me. [Side note: a helpful hint for those that insist on using the phrase 'outside the box' to refer to the exact practice of NOT using such cliched thinking in life, try thinking 'outside the sphere'. The metaphor is more apt and less limited.]?

If you have some type of test, task, or question I can take a shot at, do send/ask.

Whom else do you know that has done research at the Poles (Arctic or Antarctic) and seen first-hand how quickly humans have changed Earth's energy balance in the last 200 yrs? Layer that then with DC legal experience originated when I thought it unlikely George Bush Jr would be reelected, given he chose to prioritize his 9/11 blank check to bring down Iraq as quickly as the attention could be shifted away from Afghanistan and its difficult terrain [via Cheney and Rumsfeld's WMD false pretense no less]. I miscalculated, and it would not be the last time. The firm encouraged me to take the LSAT, even saying Georgetown and the like wouldn't be required (their recruitment schools), given I had already demonstrated I could contribute to their Practice. But in general, many lawyers are simply the highest paid waged workers in our society, you make partner as a direct function of how many hours you bill the client. [Don't get me wrong, the Rule of Law is superior to that of the Gun, but in America we have taken the pairing of the law and capitalism a bit far don't you think?] That fundamentally stands at odds with the way I think, I would much prefer to pursue and provide the succinct solution that saves time and energy, not the adequate answer that makes the most money. So ... it was off to b-school. That makes complete sense, right?!

Looking back on it, it did not. It was the choice I made in terms of asking myself: 'how can I attain the most appreciably better job (higher paying) in the shortest amount of time?' For the purpose of that question, it worked like a charm. But that is the risk you run in asking the less appropriate questions. I am REALLY excited that we are now entering an Age where the instrumental task of asking the right question at the right time is being made significantly easier to attain, and thus far more probable in real-time.

Being accurate and wrong simultaneously is a reality not many find the time to pay credence?to, it can be a paradox that becomes too complicated too fast in many ways; but at least attempting to include more 'both & and' in decision-making versus the rudimentary 'either/or' is the difference of deference. It is a core difference of/for me.

Since moving to NorCal in 2007:?Silicon Valley, SF, and the Bay overall has taught me a great deal. What a diverse collective geo- to have in one's backyard.?Where better to experience the modern melting pot in America or the World? #EVERYoneisHere?The Peninsula stretching N<-->S from the City to San Jose and bisected W<-->E by 280, is fertile ground for not only circuits and software, but also orchards and redwoods if you know where to look in space & time. I arrived post- GOOG IPO and pre- Facebook IPO, and it is quite clear, at least to me, the difference that has made. The former sought to organize the Internet's information, the latter to socialize the Web. And one big, often conveniently unproductive, cesspooled social it has become. Arcade Fire has a line: "make me famous, if you can't, just make it painless".?I sincerely hope this new AI-assisted era of tech can be used to soothe the vitriolic animosity and anger for those that so choose in the name of common-ground productivity, versus inflame it into psychological?cultural warfare even further by those able to monetize the confrontational energies therein.

San Francisco: where does one even start? Perhaps at the gold-rushed Barbary Coast. Such periods of exponential growth and change personify this City, and in some ways, that remains the defining criterion even today. You don't have to wait in SF, like it or not, for better or worse, you're already there. I have now been a resident for 4*4 years.?

Green-spaced Marin makes me happy, and if you haven't taken the time to walk up to Tomales Point, PLEASE do so. When you get there, you're on a Northern point of the above-sea-level Pacific Plate headed North, while the North American Plate and the rest of the continent heads South along the San Andreas Fault. It's a powerful place and maybe it's just because of the Titanium fusions in my spine, but it feels different out there, the energy, magnetism, gravity. The elk don't hurt either, the trailhead in Point Reyes National Seashore is 60 miles from the City, GO! It's an immense gift that so much of Nature and Earth's raw strength has been preserved so close to an urban mecca. There's also a family of otters in Abbott's Lagoon last I checked.

And speaking of raw strength, Oakland and the East Bay keep us honest. I don't know of a place that keeps it more 'real' than Oaktown, it's where the Black Panthers are from for a reason. From Mt Tam to Mt Diablo to Big Basin; from Palo Alto to Berkeley to Bolinas; from the Mission to North Beach to Lands End: our access to such a variety of human-beings, environments, businesses, and cultures makes me feel lucky (even right now when I am not making enough income to sustain it open-ended any longer). Which brings me back to that 'something new'.?

One might ask: ‘if your goal is to move back towards a more Information driven position, why disclose this now when more recently you have been doing anything but?’

And I would reply: "In order to genuinely move forward, one needs to acknowledge where they are".

I am available, I am hungry, and I am not the same human last we met. Over the course of the next few months, I would like to make better use of emailing personal accounts and making calls. You know, that rarer and rarer use case for the all-but omnipresent device we carry around called a phone? Right there within the thousands of connections I made while working with/for startups from 2007-14, there is a life changing conversation to be discovered.?[I am asking for your help.]?

A new job aside, mostly I would like to converse with interesting people about where they are in this year 2024 CE as we head towards November, as the news becomes both more difficult to believe and avoid, and as it brings you to your here-and-now. Convergence is an interesting aspect of Time.

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I wish I may, I wish I might, have this wish I wish outright?

To be of use, to work for good, to do more than just 'I could'?

I wish to help, I wish to see; more than that, I wish to Be.

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#HumilityisHard #DoNotKnowWhy

#SomethingtoOffer #GiveitaTry