A year of stories and sourdough

Throughout parts of 2020, I found myself looking back to the past longingly, clearly seeing with 20/20 hindsight how great things would have been if reality had not intruded. All these fantastic stories we would have told. The epic launch that was SO ON TRACK it would have blown people’s minds. The keynote that might have been, the demo which would have been perfect, and so on. Because of course I know that all these ideas were awesome, that we would have executed them perfectly. I mourned for all these might have beens.

I snapped out of it. Instead of longing for the past, I now ponder the Greek myth of Antaeus, the son of Poseidon and Gaea, a giant who compelled anyone who came into his territory to wrestle to the death. But as the son of Gaea, whenever he touched the earth his strength was renewed, and he was always victorious. Hercules figured this out, of course, and was able to defeat him by holding him above the ground, demonstrating Herc was not just strong but also smart.

So like Antaeus, I work to ground myself in the now, which should be a place of strength and renewal. Here, I am not jealous of what might have been. I am not fearful of what might be. I am here, working and planning and connecting. I see the past, but not what it might have been, good or ill, just what it was. I work for the future, knowing the harder I work, the luckier and better it will be.

I am here. And so were these fantastic stories, and plenty of sourdough!

What I learned in avalanche school, Heidi Julavits, The New York Times Magazine

On January 1, 2020, I read with total fascination this NYT Magazine article about avalanche school, that dug into risk, the perception of risk, the way groups make decisions, and traps to avoid in this decision making. It is a wildly interesting and entertaining story, but packs a punch as well. On the surface it is about snow and avalanche, but in the end, it is about team decision making, understanding the environment and human nature, and finally making the best possible decision. Looking back, feels like an appropriate first read of the year, right?

Vietnamese Food Any Day, Andrea Nguyen

Also in the New Year, I was thinking about diversity through the lens of my taste buds. As those of you who follow me on Twitter know, I have been cooking my way through Andrea Nguyen’s cookbook which I got as a Christmas present last year. I like to cook, but this was a new one for me. After all, I grew up in a German/Irish household of Midwest background, which meant that boiling and roasting beef until brown all through, Jello salad as a vegetable and frozen corn as an exotic side was standard fare. I have expanded since then, but my sweet spot has been more Mediterranean, and my in-laws now consider me an honorary Italian based on my Sunday gravy. But this cookbook was a revelation. My world is richer and better based on this diversity of food.

It's Time to Build, Marc Andreesen, a16z

By springtime, the rhythm of our days has really changed, and for me at least, no new rhythm had yet emerged. Out in the world, people were looking for a new rhythm as well. Sometimes it was about replacing one tradition with another – a video call over beers replaces meeting at the local pub. Other times it was reflected in a question about previously strongly held beliefs and values, as we saw in Marc Andreesen’s essay, It’s time to build, where he talked about the need to build, real things of real value.

The Stream of Death and Bread, Dahlia Lithwick, Slate

Over on Slate, Dahlia Lithwick wrote a beautiful and sad piece in May about how she feels. She wrote about being on a bridge, from one place to the next. I like this analogy well, in that I can apply it both at work and at home. We are on the way, somewhere, and there is work to do in getting there. As we travel we bake, we hold events, we watch out for each other, we make news and tell stories, bake some more. On this bridge, we look around at the ones we love who *are* missing things, and do not yet see what is on the other side, and hold them closer, remind them (and us, honestly) that we are all together, all moving.

One Day, One Microsoft

It has been fascinating to watch the surge of employee storytelling across companies and organizations around the world. In summer, we published One Day, One Microsoft, a short film that tells stories as seen through the eyes of our employees. It is a beautiful story that celebrates hopes, challenges and dreams, and the humanity and mission that unites us. There is a lot more goodness on our Stories site.

Artificial Intelligence: Threat or Menace?, Charlie Stross

Come autumn, like me, you may have begun opining about what the year ahead will look like. Given the year thus far, I had some fear that any prediction would result in what was left of this year going “hold my beer” because honestly, that is the kind of thing 2020 would do. But it is always good to think about the future, because we have a responsibility to be ready for that future. In September, I listened to our CTO Kevin Scott’s Behind the Tech podcast, and he interviewed science fiction writer Charlie Stross and as part of a fascinating conversation, Charlie talked a bit about how he created future worlds, and the challenge of this. I don’t know about you, but I have always thought about the future as mostly unknowable, but he had a different view – he said that a big chunk of the future was clear as a bell, and that in fact if we looked out 10 years, about 90 percent was known. He also wrote about this in his blog. I would bet that he missed COVID-19, but his point stands!

I will take the rest of the year off. A quick look into the future tells me that I will hunker down in Seattle, bake bread, and commit to not meeting Hercules or any of his ilk.

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