16 Apr 2015
Inertia of a heavy object is a hard force to oppose and life can feel heavy.
I had a good gig at Microsoft. They treat their employees really well on every metric, my managers were great, my coworkers were all good people, and I worked on Outlook, a product that ~10% of the world uses (kinda made that up, but I don’t think I’m far off). But I was unhappy for reasons that don’t really matter (in fact, like love, you don’t need reasons though having them will help you in the future). After a year or so, I didn’t know exactly what kind of life I wanted and so I let inertia take over. I stayed for another year. I didn’t take the time to really think about what success looked like for me and as a result wasn’t able to visualize my future life.
However, attempting to visualize every element of a possible future life and how it compares to your current situation is an impossible task! You should have a direction to life, but you’ll never know specifics. I was using this lack of assurance as a reason to stay where I was; unhappy and inertia bound.
I have learned more about my goals and desires in the past 2 years of failing than I have at any other point in my life. I would never know what I know now if I had simply tried to imagine my future life.
So I encourage you to go out and fail. You get to decide what kind of life you live. In life, as in love, if it’s not a resounding fuck yes, it’s a no.
30 Mar 2015
What is your definition of success?
Money, children, professional recognition, the company of good people, a creative life?
For most of my life, success was defined for me. I was expected to do well in school and get a good job. It was well defined path that many of my peers would walk with me and it ends after college. I know I struggled (and still do to some extent) with how to define success for myself after completing the prescribed path set out by my family, community and peers.
Once I entered the “real” world I had to suddenly define success for myself. Did I want to really commit my time and energy to the corporate ladder? Would that extra money make me happier? When there are no due dates, how do I justify ditching my friends so I can sit alone in a room and draw? Who should I surround myself with? How much time should I devote to those relationships? How important is exercise and fitness? How do I want to balance work and life?
These questions and answers are unique to everyone, and I know it’s a privilege to have the definition of success as something I grapple with. But it’s something that everyone should examine. I know I don’t have it figured out entirely, but I’m ok with that. I’m aware of the question, and I have been implementing systems that work for me, help me define my own success and keep me on track. I encourage you to do the same.
18 Mar 2015
I thought these were an interesting set of questions, so I’ve decided to post my answers for your edification :).
Why are you interested in Teaching?
I’ve been teaching computer science at a local high school for most of this year and I really enjoy it. I’ve taught a number of different topics over the years from pottery and glassblowing, to dance, to computer science. There’s something about the successful transmission of information that is exhilarating.
Teaching is also really difficult. I’ve recently started reading more about the craft of teaching (TLC anyone?), and have been successfully applying those lessons to my teaching. I like crafts, I like learning about systems (clay, movement, cs, …) and as such teaching is a wonderful combination of my passions. It lets me explore an existing system in a logical way since I need to break it down for students, and teaching is itself a new system and way of thinking at which I can improve.
Describe your background with computer programming, and with teaching/working with students (if any, regarding both teaching and programming).
I studied CS (and Sculpture) in college and worked for Microsoft for about three years after school. I ran and taught a Ceramics studio for five summers where I taught kids aged ten to fifteen how to throw and work with clay, and I have TA’d glassblowing classes in Seattle. I am currently the primary developer for my own startup and did full stack work on my previous two startups bandpass.fm and Shuhari. Shuhari was also an idea (and philosophy) I had for a more structured way of learning. The idea arose from my own experience teaching myself multiple disciplines. I subsequently created a syllabus for Poi which I had most recently taught myself. I love teaching and learning, I think about it frequently, and I would welcome a more formal introduction to it as a craft.
The ability to think in a structured way, both creatively and quantitatively, to solve complex problems is an important element of being a successful developer. Can you tell us anything that demonstrates your abilities in that realm?
A story that I get a kick out of comes from an engineering contest back in college. We were asked to create a structure out of toothpicks and marshmallows, while maximizing for height. However, each toothpick and marshmallow had a cost, and the winning team would have the highest height-to-cost ratio.
I looked carefully at the objective and the materials, and realized I could split the toothpicks with my teeth and insert one into the other (Robin Hood split arrow style) to make a very tall narrow thread of connected toothpicks. We used three toothpicks as a tripod base connected with a single marshmallow and carefully balanced the spire vertically out of that marshmallow. While most teams were forced to use multiple marshmallows (which were expensive), we only had one in our tall, if flimsy, design.
Some people accused us of cheating, but we just hacked the challenge. We didn’t break the rules.
11 Mar 2015
Just rewatched this amazing video and I wanted to share some of my thoughts, interpretations and reflections about Burning Man.
Burning Man is where 70 thousand people show up to the middle of the desert and bring amazing things to share.
BM at its core is an amazingly inclusive and expressive atmosphere. It’s about people from all walks of life expressing themselves and bringing whatever they think would be amazing to see, do, taste, feel, and experience to the desert to share.
This creativity and joy manifest themselves in everything from breakfast pancakes, to all night dance parties, to giant wheels of fire. There is no money, bartering, or exchange of any kind. Everything is presented as a gift, and as such there is a purity of intent in everything.
I have never experienced an Art scene like BM. As a sculpture student, I was constantly blown away by the scope, creativity, and execution of the art. The variety of art ranged from paintings, to lily pads of light that change color as you jump across them, to Mutant Vehicles that can look like neon ships, unicorns, or a Pac Man ghost, and everything in between. All of it was also shipped out to the desert and displayed for an audience that would only repay the artist with gratitude and appreciation. It felt like the purest display of Art I’ve ever experienced.
I was personally humbled by the immensity and evident creativity inherent in everything I saw and experienced. Being there, made me want step up my game as a person so that I could be worthy and valuable participant in the social experiment of BM.
26 Feb 2015
I’m cheating with this one a little bit, as I wrote this a while ago for a company idea. But, I have found that the concept of Shu-Ha-Ri is a fantastic way to describe the stages of learning. I’ve also found that internalizing the different phases has given me the patience to exist comfortably as a beginner while knowing that I will eventually progress beyond that.
##Shu-Ha-Ri
Shu-Ha-Ri is a concept that stems from Aikido and describes the stages of learning a skill before achieving mastery. It can be loosely compared to the European apprentice-journeyman-master phases.
###Shu
Shu, loosely translates to “maintain.” Shu students are novices who should focus on imitation and following a clearly defined path to a goal. Comprehension of the entire problem space isn’t completely possible at this stage as it would only confuse the beginner who simply wants to accomplish a goal correctly.
In my experience, this is the stage where I am solely focused on mastering basic skills. I find a variety of choice to be overwhelming as I don’t have the understanding necessary to easily distinguish the pros and cons of my options.
If I was teaching a Shu stage student how to center clay on the pottery wheel, I would describe a very specific technique to practice. I would teach them one way to do it, describe the concepts in play, and demonstrate exactly how to position their hands, but I would not show them a variety of techniques. I would want the student to be able to consistently reach the goal, a centered ball of clay, using only one technique before moving on.
When teaching and doing at this stage, a clear path to a goal is necessary. There is very little space in the student’s mind for nuance and experimentation. The most important thing here is imitation to achieve a desired goal. This provides a student with the technical and theoretical foundation necessary for further exploration.
###Ha
Ha, or “break”, is when the student has a solid foundation and can begin learning alternate ways to reach their goals. These different techniques take into account nuances that a Shu student wasn’t prepared to deal with. The Ha student can start bending the rules learned in the Shu stage, and can begin to synthesize these variations into a comprehensive whole.
In the Ha stage, I have a basic grasp on fundamentals and have the capacity to explore the differences between techniques I already know and new ones I am learning. This exploration of alternate paths to potentially similar goals, helps me discover and push the boundaries and “rules” of whatever it is I’m doing (often with a healthy dose of failure).
When teaching a Ha student how to center clay, I would be more interested in the nuances of their specific throwing situation (Are they throwing a large or small size, are they trying to wedge as they center, are they trying to center as quickly as possible?), and I would tailor my lesson to account for those nuances. There are many different techniques with different strengths and weaknesses, and this is the time for to explore that variety and assimilate those differences into the student’s practice.
###Ri
Ri, “transcend”, is when the student has become a master of their craft and is no longer thinking about the right or wrong way to do things. They simply execute. They have combined all of the techniques they have learned into a cohesive skill-set that fits their individual style perfectly.
In the Ri stage, I have found glimpses of flow in the work that I’m doing. I can simply execute towards a goal without caring how exactly I’m doing it. I love those rare moments when I can get lost in the work at hand and don’t need to think about specific techniques.
Discussions between people in the Ri stage can sound surprisingly vague. At this stage, specific techniques may be referenced obliquely or more as a reference point for a philosophical or theoretical way of viewing the problem and path to a goal.
I discovered the concept of Shuhari while reading some of Martin Fowler’s posts about coding. I have learned or taught myself a number of skills, and his description of Shuhari as learning framework rang true. I hope that by sharing it you will benefit from it as I have.
Being aware of Shu-Ha-ri helps me as a teacher and student. It’s important to approach and teach students at their level as Ri answers to a Shu student are generally vague and unhelpful, and teaching Shu techniques to people in the Ri stage is generally unnecessary and boring. Being able to assess my own level of mastery allows me to question my teachers at level that makes sense for me and knowing the level of my students allows me to teach in a way that they will be able to digest.
