Some locations never work out. There’s a location in San Francisco like this. Every year a new shop opens up, and about a year or so later, the shop has been shuttered. A couple of months will go by, then up sprouts a new business. This time instead of a coffee shop, it’s an ice-cream parlor. After the grand opening, the slow melt begins, and we all know how the story ends.

Other locations have high energy, and the shop that’s lucky enough to be there rides that wave all day long. The service is shitty, the waits are long, and the food is meh, but that doesn’t matter because the location has good juju.

Some homes are the same. It’s doesn’t matter how much work you do to the garden or what color you paint the walls, it just looks depressing and worn out. It’s not the house, it’s the location.

Bad juju could be because it’s right on a noisy bus line, or a cold, windy corner or place where people drive to fast and unsafely. It’s hard to reverse the funky juju flow, so instead, pick a winning spot with a great history. Good juju has good momentum.

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It’s refreshing to discover a group of people who informally get together regularly to talk, or exercise, or enjoy a craft.

There are no email subscriptions, no monthly fees or dues, no reactivation specials, no websites, no apps, and no waiting lists. The love of what they are doing brings them together. People turn up at the agreed-upon time and place. Accountability to themselves and others in their community governs their punctuality.  The magic happens once everyone has gathered together, and afterward, they disperse. There’s no headcount or points system. It’s great if they turn up, and there’s no logbook noting their absence. There’s no gamification, points system, or boy scout badges.

Organic groups ebb and flow. There are peaks and troughs of participation. When nobody turns up for a while, the group evolves or goes dormant for a while. Then someone decides to energize it again, and it appears again somewhere else. Sometimes it just dies, and that’s okay too.

You don’t have to monetize or sell everything you do. Life is not one big transactional exercise. The joy of doing and communing together is sometimes enough.

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Have you ever been to a restaurant when the table next to you is on their first date? They are both so polite and nibble at their food instead of scoffing it down. When one of them goes to the toilet, the other one (usually a guy) shovels down the food like it’s his last meal. When his date gets back to the table, then it’s back to over-polite sparrow eating mode for both of them.

People do the same thing with their phones. Someone goes to the bathroom, and the phone is out in a split second, and the bingeing begins. One person is devouring their phone at the table, and the other person is probably doing it on the toilet.

We love our food, and we love our phones. Once our guard is down, we don’t hold back!

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During my morning and evening commute, I see the same old man sitting on the same bench every day. He has a Big Lebowski dude / Mr. Miyagi vibe. In the morning he’s reading the local newspaper, listening to a portable FM radio and smoking a cigarette that he rolled himself. In the evenings he’s normally holding court, talking to someone on their smoke break. People are attracted to him.

Now and then we acknowledge each other as I scurry past on my way in and out of the office. I think he’s from another planet. When the shit hits the fan, imagine something like Big Trouble in Little China, he’s going to transform into a powerful being and his bench will be a gateway to another dimension. Maybe he’s here to save the world.

When we have eye contact, I think he knows that I know that he knows. For now, he’s just hanging out on the bench.

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My walk from the ferry to my office takes about 10 minutes. There’s a plaza halfway up the hill where there’s a lot of pedestrian cross-traffic at rush hour. If there was a drone filming the flow of people, it would look like ants colliding on an anthill.

Sometimes when I hit the plaza, there’s a clear line through the chaos. It’s like a pathway through the madness was preordained! The timing just works, and I don’t even slow down. I take a few side steps, and I’m through at full speed. On other days I’ll hit the plaza, and I hit a brick wall of cross traffic. No gaps appear, and I have to slam on breaks and wait for an opening.

The plaza is a good metaphor for my whole day. Working with other humans means that I have no idea what to expect each day. We are unpredictable animals. Will I just speed through, and will the gaps appear, or will I need to course correct and recalibrate. Once I embrace the uncertainty and surrender to the unknowns of the day, it’s more relaxing and fun.

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An older dad with grown-up kids gave me some advice about parenting that I thought a lot about yesterday. It was about quantity over quality. His advice was to just spend time with your kids. It doesn’t always have to be a special moment. Sometimes the best moments and memories are just driving to school together, walking the dog, hanging out after dinner, or reading a book.

Don’t manufacture or wait for the perfect moment. Just turn up. And turn up often.

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The most valuable thing I’ve accumulated throughout my career are the friends and colleagues I’ve met over the years. Especially those who made me laugh and learn.

Alumni networks have a very long half-life. The relationships will stand the test of time. Skills, information, locations, domain expertise will change, become irrelevant, and evolve.

Being kind, and in service to others will be a currency that never devalues and appreciates over time.

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The greatest scientific discovery was the discovery of ignorance. Once humans realised how little they knew about the world, they suddenly had a very good reason to seek new knowledge, which opened up the scientific road to progress.

Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

The world is your oyster if you stay curious and creative. Learn and unlearn. Change your mind. Speak to smart people. Write stuff down and get feedback. Enjoy 🙂

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We had an afternoon hail storm yesterday evening. Before the storm, the sky was pregnant and everything around us took a deep breath before the heavens unleashed thunder, lightning, and hail. My son was interested in seeing more videos of hail. A quick search on Twitter revealed a goldmine up to date footage. It was so much better than Youtube. No pre-roll ads, less spam, no crappy UX.

YouTube is a superior archive and repository for in-depth, long-form research. Twitter is excellent for real-time, user-generated stuff. If Twitter can fix its search functionality then it will be a force to be reckoned with.

There’s so much goodness buried in the Twitter timeline with no way for it to be discovered!

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A sense of community: get to know your neighbors, play a team sport or join a club – and keep showing up. Look out for one another.

Have people who depend on you: people live longer, purposeful lives when they have a responsibility in their lives like grandchildren, pets, a job.

Exercise daily – even if it’s 10 minutes.

Share a laugh.

Get up early and greet the sun.

Connect with nature: swim in the ocean, get on a bike, take a brisk walk, walk the dog, go outside and stretch.

Visit the ocean or the mountains: the mountains and the ocean have the same energy. It’s humbling and restorative.

This principle is the most important one:

Be in service to “the other” – The other could be other humans, nature, animals, place.

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