Text and Hubris

I made it back from Seattle. One week early in fact.

Quick breakdown of what I learned:

• Trains are an awesome way to travel, but they’re much more fun when you’re not travelling alone.
• Seattle is an okay town but not nearly as impressive as I was led to believe.
• Being sick in a strange city and trying to work is a special sort of hell.
• If you lose your phone in a cab, it’s gone. Accept it and be glad you backed everything up and that you can disconnect it from your services almost immediately.
• Those long distance calls that you desperately made from the hotel to your lost phone will be charged at $19.00 a pop even if you hang up after getting to your voicemail. I made six and still had to get a new phone. Luckily, such charges can be—and were—contested.
• I love Minnesota and St. Paul. There is no place like home.

Finally, as I lay clutching my head after a day of work and training just willing the Tylenol to lower my fever, I realized something. I’m really, and I mean really, a stupid kind of fellow.

• You can’t go back. Not Really.

I was done. After 2010, I was done. I loved this field. I loved everything I did and I learned a lot, but I was done and I wanted to be done. I thought I could find a balance. I really did. Once again, I am working with the elite of the elite and that is a great thing. I listen to them, though. I hear hear what excites them and drives them. I hear all of that and I realize that I am not that person anymore.

• All things happen for a reason.

For good or ill, this job got me up here. I need to be up here. This is the right place for me. Now, I need to accept that my time in these technical positions is truly coming to an end. The knowledge is there, but the chemistry isn’t. I’ll do my best while I am there, of course. I always do. I just need to be true and honest to myself first.

The good news is that I have the luxury of being able to work while I search for this transition. I am not happy where I am, but last year I learned that I could be a hell of a lot more unhappy than I am right now.

• Jump at new opportunities and don’t give up.

I am looking everywhere and anywhere. I am more than willing to be hungry and foolish and I have the support of an incredible partner who backs me every step of the way. That is a treasure beyond treasures and I am not about to squander it being miserable every day.

What I learned? Life is short and we make mistakes. They don’t matter, though. the only thing that matters is that we keep pushing ahead. No giving up. Not now. Not when we have already come so far.

Wish me luck!!

When you have to travel on business it’s best to do it on your terms.

Surprisingly enough, I was able to do that this time. I’m actually taking a train cross-country from St. Paul to Seattle.

I leave tonight.

Why?

Because I could. Because I never have before. Because I am curious.

Is there any better reason?^*

A similar write-up on the dangers of believing all of the praise your work is getting.

Chances Are, You Suck

Do you know that feeling? The one when you’re showing images to someone (perhaps an editor that you were hoping to work with) and you get to that picture, the one that looked perfectly acceptable moments before, but as soon as you show it, you’re filled with regret.

Yeah, I hate that feeling.

The difference between Apple as an evil empire and Microsoft as an evil empire player is simple. Where Microsoft’s technology was often a cheap imitation of what was already available in superior products, Apple’s technology continues to be solid, forward-thinking, and well designed. The game has changed and advocates of the open Internet as a creative platform need to step up.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that Microsoft has changed a lot. I am no longer embarrassed to dual boot and I do find MS Office 2010 to be a fantastic suite of applications. In a lot of ways, Microsoft has done a lot to repair an image that needed it. That impetus for change didn’t happen overnight and it didn’t happen without an economic incentive. The same is true of Apple. If you want to help stop the proliferation of dumb licenses, help make the competition better. I am not asking you to code. I am not asking you to become a software designer. I am not even asking you to switch operating systems. I am just suggesting you look at the tools available and decide what works the best not just in the short term, but for the long haul. Use the open tools that are available or push your vendors to create standards-compliant products that can compete.

I know it is hard to compete with a free product. Then again, I don’t really think Apple’s iBook Author software is free. It is, potentially, the most expensive software available today. It pre-emptively takes full commercial control of any creative work designed in the software. I keep reading these arguments that try to liken it to a publisher buying a book and sharing the profits. Some point to Amazon’s publishing its restrictions that I would also strongly suggest everyone pay careful attention to. That said, as far as I am aware, Amazon isn’t dictating licensing based on a software package. I am able to create my work using whatever software I see fit. I can then shop my work to other publishers or sell my creation myself. Amazon only cares when they are the method by which I choose to sell, and that (like choosing Apple as a channel) is purely the author’s prerogative. More realistically, Apple’s stance would be like Microsoft demanding the right to sell and publish every commercial novel that was written with MS Word.

Hmmm….on second thought, let’s not give Microsoft any ideas. I am not so sure they have changed that much.