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My favorite Christmas ornament.  

Its shine is from old candy wrappers, glued to notebook paper. It’s hook is a bent paperclip.  

It was 1995; our first year together as husband and wife.  

I was working three jobs and going to school full time. We were broke, but we had a roof overhead, food on our table, and young love in our hearts. 

While I was at work one evening, Laura set about to make our ridiculously small apartment feel festive.  

We had a little two foot tall hand me down imitation Christmas tree, but no money for ornaments.  

I clearly remember coming home late at night and finding her finishing up making the last ornament. I can still clearly see the smile on her face and the light in her eyes. The tree was beautiful; with home made ornaments, and a colorful paper chain. 

For 22 years I have hung this ornament, and then carefully stored it in January.  

This piece of candy wrappers mean more to me than any other Christmas item we own. 

Life has changes a lot in that time, but this always helps me remember where we came from. 

Tonight, in the still air of a peaceful room, while Laura and the girls were singing Christmas carols, it twisted back and forth one time, winking at me. My soul smiled. 

Have we forgotten how to love each other? 

Have we forgotten how to feel? 

Maybe technology is not the problem, maybe technology is the solution. 

Maybe the industrial revolution was the problem. 

Maybe the religious crusades were the problem. 

Maybe Agriculture was the problem. 

Humans adapted and learned how to thrive in its environment. 

Humans have always fought to stay alive and to thrive.  

Perhaps some of us actually learned how to live. 

What if technology frees us? 

Enables us to connect to each other at a level we have rarely found.  

Enables us to take the time to connect to something deeper.  

Something that we have sensed all along, but never figured out how to touch. 

The older I get, the more I understand.  

The older we all get, the more we learn as a people. 

When we stop learning, we die inside.  

What if we never have to die, can we continue to learn forever? 

I do not fear technology.  

I look forward to using technology to improve lives.  

I do not fear AI.  

I will not live in fear.  

If I can have hope that people are good after all that they do. 

Why would I assume that machines are any less so? 

There are plenty of people worried about the evils of General AI. 

If there are actions to be taken to avoid it, then those actions are going to be taken. 

I chose to take actions to develop the positive and not fight the negative. 

As it develops, it will help us be better. 

When it surpasses us, we will work together.  

Richard Branson … You are the Host of the party, be the first to jump in the pool  

I will often kick off a meeting by vision casting, and then I later wonder if I did the right thing.  

Did I just plant a seed in peoples mind instead of nurturing the seed they already have? 

Did I set an expectation that this is the path we are following and I am not interested in other views? 

Did I create an environment where people are comfortable sharing opposing ideas? 

I tend to be the one in the room that is the most comfortable with change and ambiguity. 

I tend to push harder than anyone else.  

After pontificating, I like to step down and work through the room to get people’s feedback. 

I am human, I love it when they agree and confirm. It makes me feel good.  

It also makes me proud when they disagree.  

I am proud of them for clearly articulating their disagreement and concerns. 

I am proud of the team for coming together and collaborating instead of mailing it in.  

I am also proud that I have created an environment where people feel safe to disagree. 

Sometimes I am wrong. 

I am comfortable with that. 

I am happy about that.  

That is how I learn 

That is how I find out that our team has checks and balances that work 

So you want to be an engineer?  

Why? 

Do you want to build things? 

Do you want to change the world/ 

It is an amazing feeling 

Inventing, creating, building, launching, seeing how it is used. 

Using the powers of the universe 

Tapping into math and physics and chemistry to manipulate the fabric of the physical world into a product that serves people or nature 

Do you want to feel like a god? 

Do you want to turn an idea in to a physical object 

You can will an item into being, simply by dreaming it up, designing it, and building it 

This is an amazing amount of power. 

We harness the elements and we understand how they interact with each other.  

We study and manipulate the electromagnetic forces around us. 

We get to ask questions, and get the freedom to test out our ideas. 

We build tools to make ourselves more effective 

We have infinite strength as we scale beyond human capability with technology. 

Do you believe that anything is possible? You just haven’t figured out how to do it yet? 

It does take a certain kind of person. 

We are wrong a lot. 

We screw up a lot. 

We look crazy a lot. 

We keep driving. 

The vision in our mind consumes us. 

It takes stubbornness 

It takes creativity 

It takes a little bit of dysfunction 

I never listen to naysayers. Except to drive me further and harder. 

Go ahead, tell me something can’t be done. 

It makes me smile. 

Let me show you how it can be done. 

If I can make an impact, I will. 

And then.  

Sometimes we are wrong. 

Eventually. 

After you have pushed miles beyond where everyone else told you to quit.  

Sometimes, Eventually, we do have to abandon a path.  

Most of the time it is because we just don’t have one ingredient that you need. 

You have tapped every person on the planet and discovered that we are 5,10, or 100 years away from the key enabling technology that you needed. 

This is where we choose to either redirect and invest in that technology. 

Or wait. 

A lot of Engineering is also patience.  

Acceptance. 

And moving on to the next big thing.  

When you pull your head up. 

After months or years of driving towards that one goal. 

You will look around.  

And see 100 other things that need to get built or fixed. 

And you will move on. 

This is the life of an Engineer.  

The world needs you. 

Don’t let them down by giving up. 

What you get out of your labor is up to you. 

Do you want glory or riches? 

Do you want freedom or fame? 

You get to choose the rewards.  

The engineering is the same. 

Do the work. 

Build the world.  

Then sell it, promote it, give it away, or hide it. 

Just do the work. 

I had a mentor very early in my career who set the course for my future in Engineering. 

This man was respected Engineer and Architect.  

I was young, and slightly intimidated. 

I had never had a mentor before. 

I had no idea how this relationship was supposed to work. 

I actually only met with him once as a specific “Mentoring meeting” 

I clearly remember sitting in his office.  

I remember the layout of his furniture and the wood grain on his table. 

But I only remember one thing that he said to me.  

He told me that I have a choice to make.  

I could be tall and narrow, or short and wide.  

Both paths would bring me success, but I had to choose early. 

I could become a subject matter expert and know more than anyone else. 

Be the guy that everyone goes to for that one thing. 

Or I could be the jack of all trades. 

Learn everything I can about everything I come in contact with. 

I left the office thinking yeah, that’s a good point. 

There are things that I am very good at. 

I would love to be “The Master” 

I would love to garner the respect that I see the subject matter experts get. 

I knew specific people at IBM who were the best in the World, and everyone knew it. 

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that was not me.  

Later that evening, I realized that was not who I am. 

I am the person who needs to know the stack from top to bottom. 

I have to see the big picture. 

At that moment my entire future career unfolded before my eyes. 

I would take all of the disciplines and bring them together. 

That is where invention lives. 

That is where solutions come from. 

At that moment, an Architect was born. 

You are in a hurry. 

I get it. 

You don’t want to waste your life away as a slave to someone else. 

You have Big Ideas. 

You have Big Plans. 

You have Ambition. 

Are you making progress every day towards those plans? 

What did you do today to move the ball forward? 

If you are making progress, keep at it.  

Keep pushing, keep driving. 

If you are stuck. 

If you are hitting roadblocks.  

If you don’t know where to start.  

It may be time to ask yourself a hard questions.  

Do you have the tools to start building your dream? 

Is it still just a dream and not a plan? 

Have you put in the time to learn? 

Impatience is a great thing when it drives you to act. 

Impatience will destroy you if it prevents you from preparing. 

There is always more to learn. 

There will always me more time. 

We have a long time on this planet. 

Sometimes we have to put in the time. 

Learning from other people who have gone before. 

Learning how things are done elsewhere. 

Learning how NOT to do things. 

Don’t be afraid of the shit jobs. 

Don’t be afraid of having a boss. 

Don’t be afraid of getting trapped there. 

If you are here reading this, then you do not have that personality. 

Some people get comfortable in those roles.  

That is not you. 

You can get in, learn, then get out. 

Maybe you will stay longer than you think because you can do more there than you thought. 

Or maybe it will be a great place to identify all the traps that you don’t want to fall into. 

You are a learner. 

You are determined. 

You are preparing. 

Experience and Knowledge are never a waste of time. 

It’s ok to take that shit job. 

It is actually recommended. 

Beat up former athlete… Don’t come here for an ego boost, come learn something you can use the rest of your life. 

We see it a lot. 

The former football/soccer/basketball player.  

Ten years ago they were a star.  

Ten years of beer and hamburgers and watching football games on TV have changed things a bit. 

Their wives are still hot. 

They have noticed they are getting a little soft. 

Ego is a powerful master. 

They finally look deep inside and realize that it is time to make a change.  

This is a huge step. 

An important step. 

An agonizingly difficult step. 

To come in and tell us that they need our help. 

Then something happens.  

It was actually pretty easy.  

Opening our front door and coming in to chat was not like running the gauntlet.  

It was more like coming home. 

Their heart started to race a little at the excitement to feel young and strong and virile again.  

These men are ready for a change. 

Ready to take back their lives. 

Driven. 

Ego is a powerful master. 

We have to have the strength to stand up to that master.  

Or it will destroy you before you even get started. 

The maturity to not listen when the cocky SOB in the back of our head says 

“You got this, Bro!” 

That 10 years took a toll on our bodies, it will take time to get it back. 

Those men that have learned to be patient … 

Listen to their coach and their body 

Know the power of compounding interest – even on their body. 

Those men find a new beast inside. 

They find the power getting stronger than they ever were. 

They find the power of mental discipline that comes from internal sources. 

They find the pleasure of success.  

They find the comfort of confidence again. 

We live in a world which believes that information is power

We drown in information and don’t know what to make of it

So we study more, looking harder and harder for the answer

Then we regurgitate it to each other

Sometimes, it’s not what you know from reading and talking 

It’s what you do consistently that matters 

We can all learn from reading  

But take it from a writer 

Words fail.

Words will never tell you the whole story

That’s why we obsess and keep writing 

We can never quite give you all the details that you need 

Sometimes, you have to DO 

Sometimes, you have to be there

Sometimes, you have to live through the challenge

Sometimes, you have to feel the pain yourself

Sometimes, you have to see the expressions on people’s face

Sometimes, you have to pick up the puppy yourself

Sometimes, you have to fire someone who needed the job

Read.Talk.Think.Simulate. 

Then get out there and just do it

Do the grunt work

Write the code

Pick up the hammer

Talk to the person being a PITA

Make the sale

Then tell me about how you know what you are doing

Chris Sacca: “Your inbox is a Todo list to which anyone in the world can add an action item” 

I have liberated myself from my inbox, and it feels amazing.  

I am not a slave to my email.  

I check my mail several hours after I get up in the morning. 

After I have taken care of what I want to take care of. 

Take back your morning, take back your day.  

Impatience and frustration are huge reasons most people fail to reach their goals. 

Having unreasonable expectations of time leads to this frustration. 

Work Ethic and Will Power always overpower this frustration.  

My Father used to say that he could “out-stubborn” any problem.  

Strive for that level of tenacity.  

It takes the time that it takes.

It takes the effort that it takes.

Resistance to the real world variables will just make it take longer.  

You can add more resources to move things faster.  

But adding drama, complaining, loosing focus, and getting off track will delay you. 

Yes, we have to move fast.  

But only a fool moves fast today, just to move backwards tomorrow.  

You are smarter than that.  

You can see the path to the long game. 

Play the game. 

Win the game.