This past weekend I had the great opportunity to go and camp on the Mississippi river with a number of my closest friends. We took our boat out to a place called Enterprise Island, quite literally, a big, beautiful, sand island in the middle of the Alton Pool (between Winfield Lock and Alton Lock). We had a fantastic time. Now, Jody and I along with my immdiate family spend a ton of time on the river and are quite comfortable with it, but for some of our camping invitees, this was their first time out and very much their first experience with a Mississippi River island.

All in all, we had a great time, my friends all enjoyed it immensely, but the one thing I took away was a conversation I had with a very good friend of mine. He said to me that, "Everyone needs their own river, everyone needs a goal, something they work to get to and a place away from everyone. Everyone needs something to work for and look forward to that isn't work." As was the gist with my last posting, I care immensely about the quality of life I afford my family through what I do, but my river is my holy grail. I daydream of cruising along glass-smooth water in the cool morning sun and about seeing my little boys laugh themselves off the big tube we tow behind out boat. My wife smiling at me and Odessa laughing hysterically when we take off fast. My boat, my river, is my goal.

A very small portion of my income goes towards it, but its a repose for all of us and a barometer of how much time were dedicating to our fun and our family. If I miss a couple weeks in a row on the boat... I know I've got to reel it out a little bit and focus on spending some fun time with my family. Whatever your 'boat' is, make sure you prioritize it. Find something that you and yours love to do and make it a priority. To have a goal that isn't related to a project, a customer or a position makes you a much more dimensional person, and in all regards; a much better employee. Work is just like life. Everyone has a story, a dimension... a boat of sorts. By expanding your mind, easing your stress and working towards something many benefit from, your customers will find it much easier to relate... and trust me, asking a customer how his ski trip was and having some insight on it yourself will yield you much better social & business results than telling him how you bailed on the family camping trip this weekend to work on his project.

All the best,
tann

I can't say that I withhold all the wisdom that has been imparted to me... in fact I'm fairly certain that my immaturity and my desire for self-created importance keep me from truly seeing the truth, but at times, I get a very welcome opportunity to speak with someone I stake a great deal of faith in and somehow, I shut my mouth and listen.

There are many things we work for: money, opportunity, confidence, lifestyle, that big boat we just bought, our hefty mortgage... There are many, many driving factors that cause us to rise at 6 AM, drink 52 oz. of a caffeinated beverage and punch the time clock. It's very easy to get caught in the system. We feel that we're tied into a lifestyle we must pursue, a vehicle we have to drive and a status we must maintain, but often, we're so, so wrong.

I spoke with this gentlemen, a long-time friend, a great reprographer and a world-class man's man on several occasions about work, life in general and mostly, family. I respect this man greatly. Now with grown, successful children, he's moving into his career again, but I had to know, if he could do it again... what would he do differently?

His answer? "Spend more time with my children. Never stay too late, never take one more trip, never volunteer for one more project. Take every single moment I could and give it back to them... they are your greatest investment..."

I have three babies, from ten years old to one. I take that dose of wisdom very seriously. We could live with a little nicer trappings, I guess, if my wife worked full time or I did more, but I have to believe that at the root of all of this economic madness, there are some children that probably miss their dad or mom. We may think or justify our endless work as 'providing them a better life', but honestly, is that life any better? Which would they rather have: nice shoes, a month-old SUV and a Dad they see on the weekends for a couple hours or garage sale shoes, Dad's old Wagoneer and a Dad that helps them with homework, baseball or just sits down to dinner with them on any given Thursday?

I know the answer... I've lived both.

Aside from all this rambling, my point is this: Don't forget why you show up every day. At the end of the day, our career and our life, our professional glory pales almost as fast as its built. Our money is spent, taken or otherwise... Family, friends and those we love are all that truly last... invest wisely.

tann

I've long held the idea that there are two bellwethers of change for technological progress in society as a whole. They are: 1) the general population's ability to assimilate it into daily life (essentially meaning the learning curve shortens and the users get smarter) or 2) the UI becomes so second nature that 'learning' the technology is no longer necessary. These two variables are opposing pendulums. They swing back and forth; end-user technology will advance in leaps while the general public lags behind, then, the public will make leaps in knowledge and the technology functionality will lag behind. At some points in time, however they both meet on equally advancing cycles and create something amazing. This, I believe is what's happening right now to distributed, group edited and moderated information like Wikipedia.

Last night I had the rare opportunity to sit with my brother from Chicago and talk in-depth about both of our fields of study. He's a doctoral student in Religious Studies at the University of Chicago and I'm a technologist. We talked about this advancing concept of 'Community Wisdom' (I hereby make that an official term, by the way... : ) In my trade, the newest wins. Always. We don't seek to 'preserve the art' of engineering. Nothing remains stable long enough to be established as 'tradition' or legitimate in anyone's eyes. Technology thrives on capability and change... often capability for the sake of capability, many times forgetting the greater need of technology; advancement of the end-user. His trade, however, is much different. Things are done, not because they're the most efficient way, but because they're the traditional way. He spoke of the access he now had to libraries of information that a decade ago, only an Ivy League professor could afford to explore. These tools could effectively make him as informed and capable as any professor on Earth, however, there is a major drawback. These sources; like Wikipedia, blogs, independent research, forums, etc. aren't considered 'legitimate' by the academic community. One must study the dusty volumes stored in catacombs in Rome to truly understand and gather the information or the perceived 'truth' of the topic. This inability, unwillingness or fear of change creates an interesting dynamic: As technologists, we're producing technology that most end-users aren't willing or capable of utilizing yet, however, in the educational field, the end-user is demanding technological capability that can't be provided.

Do you see where I'm going with this?

By applying the true concept of Community Wisdom, we start to see that the whole is much, much greater than the sum of the parts. The problem with community models, open source projects, etc. is that they've always been pioneered by the tech community that created them. To truly propagate advancement and legitimacy in Community Wisdom we must combine forces like superheroes and each provide a piece of the puzzle. By allowing information to flow freely through this model, we create a new truth. A truth not dictated by the top tier of academia or business or those lucky enough to have been published, but truly by the community, the end-user and consumer of the information. It is then that we have truly built a living, breathing community information store with unbridled capability.

This may seem like a far-fetched science fiction diatribe, but in all reality, we're not that far off. I've worked with different technology companies throughout my career and some of them are truly pushing the envelope. Developing applications that model data and data relationships with a 3D viewer, thus allowing the end-user to view the data relationship without any prior knowledge of training (remember those two bellwether changes)? This type of advancing user interface draws more people in, meanwhile our storehouse of available data on every topic in society continues to grow at an astounding rate and soon, those pendulums will meet. This time, its going to be incredible...