Thats what a ship is, you know. Its not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails... thats what a ship needs. But what a ship is ... is freedom. -Captain Jack Sparrow
We bought backpacks yesterday. Real, heavy-duty, go camping with, can-carry-everything-we're-taking-to-Guatemala style backpacks. The ones we bought are large and sturdy enough to carry 30 pounds of stuff, but strap down small enough to be taken as carry-on when flying. They were pretty expensive, but as we were buying them, I started thinking about the implications, and got really excited.
The next time someone invites us to go backpacking, the barriers to doing so will be so much smaller. Instead of having to figure out where to rent, borrow, or maybe buy a backpack, we'll have them already. We know they fit, and that they remain comfortable, and we'll already know how to pack them.
Every time I go traveling in the future, instead of having to deal with an awkward and unwieldy suitcase, I'll be able to just pack up my backpack and carry everything on my back. This means that upon arrival I'll be less dependent on wheeled transport, less dependent on having a place immediately to drop off my bags, and more free to wing it and explore.
Freedom
I've been getting more and more interested in other cultures and history for several years now, but I've had difficulty actually getting myself to leave my comfort zone and travel abroad. You no longer need a ship to see the world, travelling to almost anywhere on earth now costs less than a year's savings.
Unfortunately, there are still numerous barriers to the freedom of exploring it, most of them self imposed. My trip to Israel last summer (first international travel since I was leaving High School) started to break down the internal barriers, and as I've gotten more comfortable with our planned Guatemala trip I've also started daydreaming more and more about additional trips to locations around the globe. Owning a backpack is one more barrier down.
We'll see how things go. I'm sure this trip will stretch me not only in the ways I'm anticipating, but in others I have yet to imagine. But I'm starting to lose more and more of my internally created barriers to freedom, and more and more eager to travel beyond my current horizons.
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Thursday, April 23, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Five tricks for jogging your productivity
Ever had one of those days when you can't even get yourself out of bed? Where every time you try to do work, you end up checking your email? It's really easy to get sucked down into a spiral of less and less productivity. What's harder is how to get yourself out of it and going again. I used to think that this was a personality trait; I've always been a procrastinator, so it must be something inherent in me that I've got to learn a way around. More recently, however, I've started to think that procrastination is part of being human, and becoming more productive is less about changing your inclinations and more about learning a set of tricks. Here's a list of 5 tricks I've learned to help job productivity:
- One Dish at a Time One of the first tricks I learned (and wrote about) is the one dish at a time method. The name comes from doing dishes, and the trick is really about only committing to do one tiny thing. This makes it easier to do, but once you're started and have gotten past the inertia that was keeping you still, its usually easy to keep going.
- Go for a Walk Sometimes this is a long walk, especially if I've been feeling really stuck and it's nice out, but it can often be just a walk to the kitchen to boil water for tea. Somehow by getting up and moving, whatever sense of stuckness I'm feeling seems to drift away and be replaced with thoughts. By the time I get back, I'm activated and ready to make progress on whatever I'd been procrastinating.
- Do a Mind Map Mind Mapping is one of those techniques that seems a little silly in theory, but in practice makes a world of difference. Start by writing the topic you're thinking about in the middle of a big sheet of paper. Now start writing any fragment you can think of even vaguely connected to it, and connecting it. For each of these fragments, write down new fragments, and look for ways in which they connect. Don't worry if the first few things you jot down seem worthless or inane, keep going! Pretty soon you'll be generating new ideas, seeing new connections, and getting past your block. I've used these to get a better grasp on a subject area, to explore a new way of looking at an old idea, and to kickstart myself writing when I'm feeling uninspired.
- Switch to Editing Generating new content is hard. Really hard. Editing existing content, on the other hand, is much easier to do gradually and get going with. So you to write a new paper, and you don't know where to begin? Copy an old one and start hacking it apart. This trick works well for programming as well; cutting and pasting code is bad practice, but using existing code as a starting place and reference works strikingly well.
- Talk to a Friend Most programmers have experienced the embarrassment of spending hours debugging a particularly difficult problem, finally interrupting a coworker to get help, and in the midst of explaining suddenly seeing the solution, allowing your friend to walk away having helped you without saying a word. This has led to a form of debugging known as rubber-ducking... explaining the problem to a rubber ducky. This technique is useful not just for programming, but any time you're stuck on difficult problem. Havi Brooks, one of my favorite productivity bloggers, has taken this to an extreme. The power of relating why you're stuck to a second point of view, even imaginary, is not to be underestimated.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
KBall's First Law of Simplicity
There's an asymmetry between simplicity and complexity. Simplicity seems easy, its straightforward to comprehend and interact with, but its devilishly hard to create. Complexity on the other hand, is hard, intimidating, and bogs you down to interact with. However, its incredibly easy to add to any process. Can't decide between feature a and feature b? Build both! That should resolve the problem... and yet... somehow the resulting product is worse than it was before, because it is more complex and harder to understand.
This happens in everyday life as well. Packing stuff up to move has made it abundantly clear to me; stuff just kind of accumulates. Its wayyyy easier for me to buy a new book than to donate an old one (I might want to read it again!), and the same goes for clothing, gadgets, and a variety of other household items. Before you know it, you're bogged down in stuff and doing things like moving or packing up to go to Guatemala for 3 months are downright intimidating.
This leads me to posit a rule which seems to apply to just about anything related to human behavior. KBall's First Law of Simplicity:
Without outside influence, things always get more complex.
Though the text of the law has no mention of simplicity, I named it as I did because I'm much more interested in how to make things simple than how to make them complex, and it has major implications for simplicity. If things naturally tend towards complexity, that means that not only is creating simplicity something that requires effort, but maintaining it is as well!
When structuring your home, or considering a purchase, the idea of maintaining simplicity should be an active part of the decision making process. When making a life decision about what to study, where to live, or how to travel, simplicity should be something that is assigned a value and used when measuring tradeofs.
Similarly, within a business organization, an advocate for simplicity is a crucial piece of the product making process. Such advocation is likely to be difficult: Its an unpopular position to advocate for cutting features, or not building them in the first place. However, without such a balance the first law will assert itself and the product will gradually come to resemble a hydra: multiheaded, difficult to maintain, and intimidating to those crucial new users/customers you are trying to attract.
This happens in everyday life as well. Packing stuff up to move has made it abundantly clear to me; stuff just kind of accumulates. Its wayyyy easier for me to buy a new book than to donate an old one (I might want to read it again!), and the same goes for clothing, gadgets, and a variety of other household items. Before you know it, you're bogged down in stuff and doing things like moving or packing up to go to Guatemala for 3 months are downright intimidating.
This leads me to posit a rule which seems to apply to just about anything related to human behavior. KBall's First Law of Simplicity:
Without outside influence, things always get more complex.
Though the text of the law has no mention of simplicity, I named it as I did because I'm much more interested in how to make things simple than how to make them complex, and it has major implications for simplicity. If things naturally tend towards complexity, that means that not only is creating simplicity something that requires effort, but maintaining it is as well!
When structuring your home, or considering a purchase, the idea of maintaining simplicity should be an active part of the decision making process. When making a life decision about what to study, where to live, or how to travel, simplicity should be something that is assigned a value and used when measuring tradeofs.
Similarly, within a business organization, an advocate for simplicity is a crucial piece of the product making process. Such advocation is likely to be difficult: Its an unpopular position to advocate for cutting features, or not building them in the first place. However, without such a balance the first law will assert itself and the product will gradually come to resemble a hydra: multiheaded, difficult to maintain, and intimidating to those crucial new users/customers you are trying to attract.
Monday, April 20, 2009
A travel philosophy
One of my new favorite bloggers, Chris Guillebeau, posted a list of recommendations for international travel on zenhabits.net. Not all of the recommendations apply to our coming trip, but one that my wife and I really liked is to come up with a travel philosophy for our time in Guatemala.
There's never enough time to do everything in any location, and while a 3 month stay makes it easier than a lightning vacation, its still a problem. It makes sense to figure out ahead of time what you really want out of the trip, and use that to guide you.
So while we were running other errands trying to prepare, T and I talked out our priorities for our time in Guatemala; luckily we had a very similar set in mind.
Our number one priority is to get to know the people and the culture. To get a feel for how people in this very different place view the world and live life. This was our big reason for choosing to go to one city and stay there for three months, rather than traveling through a number of places.
Beyond this priority, we have a few others: improving our skills in Spanish, stretching ourselves by being outside of our comfort zones a little, and of course having fun!
While we've both spent some time in Europe, and Israel, neither of us has been outside of the US for any length of time, especially not in a third world country. Living abroad for three months is a definite stretch, and I think that having decided to do it has already changed my perspective on traveling and living simply. I am looking forward a lot to the experience.
One final thing that doing this exercise made clear: While Guatemala has amazing Mayan temples, incredible volcanos and hotsprings, and some fascinating jungles, pushing to see all of them is not a priority for us. I certainly hope we'll have the chance to see some, but if we don't I won't be too disappointed. We'll have another chance, and for this trip the focus is on living in Xela, not in touring Guatemala.
There's never enough time to do everything in any location, and while a 3 month stay makes it easier than a lightning vacation, its still a problem. It makes sense to figure out ahead of time what you really want out of the trip, and use that to guide you.
So while we were running other errands trying to prepare, T and I talked out our priorities for our time in Guatemala; luckily we had a very similar set in mind.
Our number one priority is to get to know the people and the culture. To get a feel for how people in this very different place view the world and live life. This was our big reason for choosing to go to one city and stay there for three months, rather than traveling through a number of places.
Beyond this priority, we have a few others: improving our skills in Spanish, stretching ourselves by being outside of our comfort zones a little, and of course having fun!
While we've both spent some time in Europe, and Israel, neither of us has been outside of the US for any length of time, especially not in a third world country. Living abroad for three months is a definite stretch, and I think that having decided to do it has already changed my perspective on traveling and living simply. I am looking forward a lot to the experience.
One final thing that doing this exercise made clear: While Guatemala has amazing Mayan temples, incredible volcanos and hotsprings, and some fascinating jungles, pushing to see all of them is not a priority for us. I certainly hope we'll have the chance to see some, but if we don't I won't be too disappointed. We'll have another chance, and for this trip the focus is on living in Xela, not in touring Guatemala.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Hard meditation days
Some days its really hard to meditate. Days like today when my mind jumps like a frog in a griddle from subject to subject, planning this or worrying about that. Its all I can do to sit still and focus on my breathing.
What happens if my big project at work doesn't pan out? We're having problems with some of the open source tools we've built it on, and I'm leaving so soon...
Focus on the out breath.
What if I wrote a bunch of blog posts today so when I'm feeling less energy, I can get away without writing at all?
Breath in, breath out.
How can I bottle all of this energy up and let it out some other time when I need it?
Focus on the out breath.
Breath out...
Breath out...
Nonstriving is the hardest part of meditation for me. Not trying to achieve anything, accepting days like today as just as valid as the days that feel successful, where I could sit forever just being, and where I spend the rest of the day feeling what my wife calls 'blissed out'.
That probably makes nonstriving the most important part of meditation for me. Reminding myself that not everything I do has to be part of a plan, or progress towards a goal, or building something. Some things can just be.
Thus I can practice meditation as a way to learn how to do things without always needing reasons or goals. Ironic, no? One of my reasons for meditating is to learn how to not always need reasons for doing things. I guess I still need practice.
What happens if my big project at work doesn't pan out? We're having problems with some of the open source tools we've built it on, and I'm leaving so soon...
Focus on the out breath.
What if I wrote a bunch of blog posts today so when I'm feeling less energy, I can get away without writing at all?
Breath in, breath out.
How can I bottle all of this energy up and let it out some other time when I need it?
Focus on the out breath.
Breath out...
Breath out...
Nonstriving is the hardest part of meditation for me. Not trying to achieve anything, accepting days like today as just as valid as the days that feel successful, where I could sit forever just being, and where I spend the rest of the day feeling what my wife calls 'blissed out'.
That probably makes nonstriving the most important part of meditation for me. Reminding myself that not everything I do has to be part of a plan, or progress towards a goal, or building something. Some things can just be.
Thus I can practice meditation as a way to learn how to do things without always needing reasons or goals. Ironic, no? One of my reasons for meditating is to learn how to not always need reasons for doing things. I guess I still need practice.
Transitions and Groundlessness
My wife T and I are in the process of packing up our entire apartment in preparation for 3 months in Guatemala, followed by moving to San Diego. T is starting graduate school in the fall, and we decided to take the transition as an opportunity to live abroad for a while. We'll be in the city of Quetzaltenango (commonly known as Xela), first taking language classes and then volunteering with a women and children's shelter.
Thus, for the month of April, I am working only two days a week, and we're going through everything in our household deciding whether to put it into a storage box or a donation box. This has me feeling somewhat groundless, and as I tend to whenever I'm at loose ends, I'm now thinking about all of the various business and nonprofit ideas I'd like to try starting. The problem with this is that most of them are programming related, and we're about to spend 3 months in a 3rd world country with intermittent internet access and no computers of our own. This makes it slightly less than the ideal time to start a web business or major project.
It is a relief, though, that the burned out feeling where I was no longer having energy for my own side projects, thinking about startup ideas, or writing is starting to go away. It turns out working 9+ hours a day at a startup, commuting 3 hours a day on public transit, and trying to plan a wedding and a trip to Guatemala all at once reduces my ability for spontaneous creativity. With the commuting and working happening only twice a week, the wedding behind us (it went wonderfully!), and the trip close to happening, now I'm itching to start working on new projects.
The one thing I think I can start now that I should be able to keep going is regular blogging. Quetzaltenango has a fairly good supply of internet cafes, so while I won't have a development environment for programming projects, I should be able to regularly check email and blog.
I'll use this extra time and pent up energy as an opportunity to start a habit of blogging, so check in regularly (or subscribe using the links on the left) for updates on life in Guatemala, musings on productivity, mindfulness, and other random thoughts.
Thus, for the month of April, I am working only two days a week, and we're going through everything in our household deciding whether to put it into a storage box or a donation box. This has me feeling somewhat groundless, and as I tend to whenever I'm at loose ends, I'm now thinking about all of the various business and nonprofit ideas I'd like to try starting. The problem with this is that most of them are programming related, and we're about to spend 3 months in a 3rd world country with intermittent internet access and no computers of our own. This makes it slightly less than the ideal time to start a web business or major project.
It is a relief, though, that the burned out feeling where I was no longer having energy for my own side projects, thinking about startup ideas, or writing is starting to go away. It turns out working 9+ hours a day at a startup, commuting 3 hours a day on public transit, and trying to plan a wedding and a trip to Guatemala all at once reduces my ability for spontaneous creativity. With the commuting and working happening only twice a week, the wedding behind us (it went wonderfully!), and the trip close to happening, now I'm itching to start working on new projects.
The one thing I think I can start now that I should be able to keep going is regular blogging. Quetzaltenango has a fairly good supply of internet cafes, so while I won't have a development environment for programming projects, I should be able to regularly check email and blog.
I'll use this extra time and pent up energy as an opportunity to start a habit of blogging, so check in regularly (or subscribe using the links on the left) for updates on life in Guatemala, musings on productivity, mindfulness, and other random thoughts.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
The domains of head and heart
As I ride the BART in to work, I feel like I am transiting from the domain of heart to the domain of head.
At home, I have been learning to sit, to breath, to live, and to love in the moment. I have been practicing patience, appreciating the world as it is right now, breathing in the scent of the flowers in spring, the sounds of music, and the endless moments of now.
At work, I reside primarily in my head. This is the domain of solving problems, where we are creating the world as we would would have it. We continuously construct the future, thought by thought and line by line. Instead of casually passing across the surface of experience, thoughts are the edifice of our day to day.
I am happy in both places, but to date they feel like two parts of me, not yetknowing how to coexist, and each somewhat fearful of the other. The train ride between has become a time of uncertainty and transition, with the domain of heart resisting and the domain of head eagerly pressing forward.
At least now I am aware of both, and perhaps by noticing them together they will begin to learn about each other and make peace.
At home, I have been learning to sit, to breath, to live, and to love in the moment. I have been practicing patience, appreciating the world as it is right now, breathing in the scent of the flowers in spring, the sounds of music, and the endless moments of now.
At work, I reside primarily in my head. This is the domain of solving problems, where we are creating the world as we would would have it. We continuously construct the future, thought by thought and line by line. Instead of casually passing across the surface of experience, thoughts are the edifice of our day to day.
I am happy in both places, but to date they feel like two parts of me, not yetknowing how to coexist, and each somewhat fearful of the other. The train ride between has become a time of uncertainty and transition, with the domain of heart resisting and the domain of head eagerly pressing forward.
At least now I am aware of both, and perhaps by noticing them together they will begin to learn about each other and make peace.
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