Author: Rob Shearer

It is time for a New Renaissance. 

We are near the apex of uncertainty, and the world is transforming. 

People are increasingly worried about the impact they will have on the world. 

We worry about the value we can add to the world. 

We may want to contribute to other people,  

Or to the community 

Or to the world 

Some people want to help other people 

They just want to improve someone’s life 

Some people are builders 

They have to build something, have something to show for their work 

Some people are artists 

They are driven to express the beauty, or pain, within. 

We all have one thing in common 

We are searching for connection to each other 

In the New Renaissance the world has become more and more efficient around us 

Humans can not continue to do things the way they always did 

We need to do more with less, and we need to think differently 

Fortunately, we are also in a world where anything is possible 

If we replace fear with excitement  

Replace angst with drive 

Replace competition with collaboration  

We think of “The Renaissance Man” as the person who does it all. 

He could hunt an elk in the morning to feed his family. 

Write a sonnet before breakfast which draws the ache form our heart. 

Build a barn for his neighbor that is strong and safe. 

Paint a landscape that inspires us to dream. 

Invent a more efficient way to sow the grain in his field. 

Teach his children by the fire 

Gently bed his wife before she sleeps. 

The world then changed. 

People hyper-specialized to add value because it was the only way. 

Eventually, we needed people to act as automatons  

They each followed a single set of pre-programmed instructions 

Complete a set of tasks, over and over. 

It started as physical labor. 

Building our physical world more efficiently. 

Hauling materials. 

Sewing, bolting, polishing. 

Then transitioned into knowledge workers. 

Building our virtual world more efficiently. 

Organizing data. 

Coding, calculating, sharing. 

We are on the cusp of a new age that many people fear. 

We don’t need all the old jobs anymore. 

This create anxiety if we don’t look at the opportunities  

If we are stuck in the last century of human activity, then this looks like a dark time. 

This is not our way. 

Humans don’t get stuck.  

Humans adapt. 

Humans adopt. 

Humans take advantage of opportunities.  

That is what got us here, and that is what will take us into the future. 

We learn from the past and we build the future.  

We optimize for our needs. 

We need to feel that we have added value. 

We need to connect to other people. 

We have a unique opportunity ahead of us now to do this at a higher level than ever before. 

This blog is for those who are ready to grab the opportunity and thrive. 

Take your fear and convert it into excitement. 

Find your drive and create your mission. 

You don’t have to polish one skill, you have the power within you to do so much more. 

Be the Renaissance  

Start with today, and do more every day.  

I believe that each of us is connected to each other, and throughout time, within a dimension that we cannot perceive  

I believe that there is more than what we can perceive 

Call it spirit 

Call it god 

Call it our soul 

I believe that it is everywhere, and nowhere 

I don’t really care 

And I don’t try to call it anything 

There is no word 

But I have felt it 

I knew I loved you from that moment 

I can pinpoint the instant in time 

I see you so clearly 

Your white dress 

Your red apron with white spots 

Your petite frame 

Your powerful presence 

You smiled and the world went dark 

All I could see were your eyes looking at me 

Shining with a life I have never seen in anyone  

My heart still stutters when I remember that moment 

The most important moment in my entire life 

The moment I met you.  

I became detached in time 

I felt a lifetime of love unfolding in front of me 

I had clarity of who I wanted to be, and where I was going 

I was to be the man who loved you with everything he had 

And I would always be by your side 

No matter where we are, we are together 

We talk a lot about ambiguity. 

But we don’t spend enough time giving people the tools to deal with it.   

Ambiguity is the nature of life.  

The two most important tools to get through it are Creativity and Action. 

Creativity does not have to be a grand beautiful plan. 

Just an Idea will do.  

Any Idea.  

This is why we like to hire people from a breadth of backgrounds. 

Those ideas can come from anywhere. 

The time when you were young and you watched your Grandma fold the tin foil a certain way to perfectly brown a turkey. Maybe now we have an idea for a new thermal spreader.  

The time you had to use a screwdriver in your carburetor to start your old beat up car. Maybe now we have a new debug injection mechanism. 

Ideas feed all of our work, and they don’t come from doing things the way we have always done them. 

The problem with ideas is that they don’t actually get us anywhere.  

They lead to us sitting around talking about what we “should” do.  

The real path through ambiguity is Action.  

Any Action. 

Small Actions.  

Don’t talk about it. 

Just do something.  

Then have the discipline to track if it is working. 

And have the heart to let it go if it is not working.  

If you have to drop it and pivot, that was still a win. 

You still did something, and learned from it. 

That was more impactful than talking about it. 

The path through Ambiguity is Action. 

The military uses a concept called an OODA loop. 

This is the cycle Observe–Orient–Decide–Act. 

Some of you may also have written a simple AI pathfinding program at one point. 

This is the same thing. 

We are on a pathfinding mission.  

I see people spending countless hours sitting in conference rooms bemoaning the ambiguity in our product plans. 

If those hours were spent in action – imagine the progress we could make. 

Have an idea? 

Take a small step. 

Test it.  

Did it move the ball forward? 

Write down what happened.  

Take another step.  

Every once in a while climb up on a ladder and look back and look forward. 

Are you still going the right direction? 

If not, learn from it and move on. 

It really is as simple as that. 

We don’t have to wring our hands in despair of ambiguity. 

We need to strengthen our hands working on an idea. 

We have never done anything harder than say goodbye 

It was time to let you move on. 

We knew it would be hard. 

We had no idea.  

A gaping hole was left in our lives. 

I missed your smile and your attitude.  

I missed your perspective and your open mind. 

I missed your opinions and your silence.  

I can still see the depth of thought I noticed in your eyes. 

I remember your frustration when we did not understand.  

I saw every time you rolled your eyes at us and I smiled inside.  

You have always been your own person. 

Strong 

Opinionated 

Brilliant 

Naive 

Free 

I love you more than you know. 

Some day you will understand 

It will hit you like a ton of bricks.  

You will have an awakening  

We all go through it 

In time 

Until then, know that we love you 

We support you 

We will always be there 

Just a thought away. 

Know one thing 

Out of everything we have ever done for you 

Everything was easy 

Compared to saying goodbye  

Setting you free on the world 

You are ready 

It hurts to let you go 

More than I have words to describe 

But I still smile 

I smile that the world can have you now. 

That you can now leave your mark on it’s front page 

Show them who you are.  

And text your mother once in a while. 

Most of the physical world can be reduced to math, in one form or another.  

We can quantitatively describe every phenomenon.  

We can create an equation, and compare one thing to another.  

It may feel like and insurmountable task. 

But it can be done once we know the variables and the values. 

They can all be defined, and proven. 

That way we all agree on the inputs and the outputs. 

And we can agree on the results. 

That’s cool. 

There’s a funny thing though.  

Pain does not work that way. 

We all hurt. 

In one way or another.  

Your hurt can not be compared to someone else’s hurt.  

There are no units of varying types of pain.  

So don’t try to compare yourself and your issues and pain.  

It won’t work and will leave you feeling like a child attempting calculus.  

Then you will walk away with stomping feet in a tantrum. 

Your pain has value. 

Your pain is real.  

You do not have to compare it to mine, or to theirs.  

We all hurt, and every day we battle.  

Every day we fight for peace and happiness. 

If you try to compare, you are only hurting yourself more.  

You are wasting the energy that you should save for the real battle.  

Focus inside.  

Then maybe do some real math problems. 

I always feel better when I solve one. 

I meditate. 

I breath. 

I live like the water. 

To keep the beast at bay. 

The beast that wants to burn cities to the ground. 

We all sweep through this duality in our own way.  

It is very human to explore ideas and feelings. 

Sometimes those feelings rage. 

Sometimes they sooth.  

We all have a different sine curve.  

We do what we need to do, to dampen the amplitude. 

It is comforting to have control. 

It is scary that we could lose it.  

The beast could gain footing. 

But drawing on its energy can be helpful. 

We are not inherently good or evil. 

These parts of us simply exist.  

You are in control. 

Only if you choose to be. 

Once you see it, you can manage it. 

I give you my raw red center. 

This is my heart and soul. 

These are my angels and my demons. 

They are my ideas and my memories. 

Do with them what you will.  

I cast visions for the future. 

I opine on the past. 

I attempt to inspire. 

I lead by serving. 

I share my failures. 

I am an Engineer by trade, 

An Architect by choice.  

I talk about Love and Fitness 

Nutrition and Finance 

Managing and Drinking 

Children and Wives 

Philosophy and Technology 

I am an Architect.  

Leave me comments, I’d love to know your thoughts. 

Positive and Negative. Feedback is a gift.  

Sometimes I feel like we are stealing from our children. 

When I was a teenager, I thought I was in love.  

Many, Many times.  

It was how we learned. 

I was also depressed.  

Deeply, deeply depressed.  

For no real reason.  

But I pushed through it all. 

I don’t even remember now why, or how. 

We have sheltered our children too much.  

That first love is an amazing thing.  

It is a confusing and fleeting thing. 

But it is powerful. 

It teaches us. 

Who we are, and who other people are.  

I can still feel the fire of every love I have had. 

I want my daughters to feel the power of that feeling. 

The elation. 

The pure joy where light seems to shine from our eyes. 

The racing heart rate. 

The inability to think or even breath. 

But then comes the pain. 

It always comes at some point. 

It always will.  

It crushes our soul. 

Feels like a boulder on our chest preventing our heart from beating.  

The world goes dark and we lose faith in ourselves. 

Then one day we wake up. 

And the sun has come back up. 

We have a cup of coffee that tastes good again. 

There is a rabbit twitching it’s tail in the back yard  

Maybe the world did not end.  

Maybe we are still a good person. 

Maybe we are going to be ok. 

To my dear daughters.  

I wish you love. 

And God forgive me. 

I wish you loss.  

It is the only way that you will learn life’s hard lessons. 

That you are strong,  

and you will survive anything.  

Come see your papa when it happens. 

I will hold you tight. 

And say I am sorry.