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Lessons from a Tech Career in Progress

Part A: Business lessons 1 - Technology is easy, people are hard. The vast majority of people can learn - and even master - any technology, even the most complicated, with support, motivation, and time. Technology must be repeatable and predictable to be safe, much less useful. Consider composing on a mobile keyboard: complicated technology completely alien to even the most erudite barely half a century ago, but so ubiquitous today as to be globally influential.  The vast majority of people (myself included) also have: hidden agendas, biases individual and collective, mad political motivations, and normal human failings. This makes us challenging, unpredictable but influenceable, and fun! Working with the raw public has been the best and most consistent part of my entire career, from hosting and waiting tables at Big Boy, up to my most impactful consulting engagements.  From another perspective: tech skills as a general rule are teachable and learnable, but people skills must ...
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This Year, I Choose Christmas

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Christmas is problematic - we can start there. I usually have mixed feelings about the forced cheer, the empty traditions, the consumerism. My partner's helped me feel better about the whole thing with an approach that focuses on family, feasting, and the rhythm of the seasons. Parenting has helped even more, because my kid feels the magic. This year, though... All the things that Christmas is supposed to be: joyful, bright, warm - I really need that shit.  So I'm choosing Christmas. Not necessarily birth-of-Jesus Christmas (tho Jesus Was Way Cool ) and definitely not drive-the-economy Christmas.  I'm choosing Trailer Park Boys Christmas, about getting drunk and stoned with our friends.  I'm choosing Christmas In Hollis Christmas, about brightening our surroundings with intention.  I'm choosing Ugly Sweater Christmas, about color and humor and taking a break from our routine.   I'm choosing Nana's Crumbly Cookies Christmas, about treats that carry stories a...
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On the Unsustainability of Profit

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The cracks in our culture and our systems are showing tonight: jagged, ugly, and centered yet again around profit. Somebody somewhere still thinks commodifying people, making our planet unlivable, and brainwashing us into normalizing brutality for margins is sustainable. It's not, and none of the endpoints towards which we're hurtling are good. In fact, most days it feels like a miserable journey towards painful disaster is our most likely future as a species. It's a conscious choice to stay focused on my personal values of love, friendship, and art, and to cultivate hope as best I can. And when I think about what I can do on a personal level, I can't help but wonder: what will it take to awaken us collectively? As clear as an apocalypse seems some days, our power as a global people to both stop it and to build something better seems just as clear, not to mention more immediate. I know what I'm looking and listening for: vision, leadership, down-to-earth plans, cour...
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