Hope is not a strategy...

So far 2016 has been a strange few weeks...
Mostly emotionally paralyzed, but also some of my happiest moments ever. Maybe the constant lows are heightening the highs?

Last weekend I spent an adventure filled 2-days with old and new friends in Kauai. The weekend prior I was on Big Island staying with my relatives in their awesome new ranch house: riding ATVs, feeding goats, and escaping to a completely different lifestyle where it felt like time was frozen. Meanwhile 3/4ths of the blase blase music crew have been stirring the pot on 2016 music travels! Finally sealed the deal with Movement Detroit's 10th Anniversary!! My first techno festival + RIDICULOUS lineup + rad, like-minded peeps = beyond excite!

Apart from that, every one-on-one and skip-level meeting at work convinces me that the new org structure will continue to setup IT as a bottom bitch. I feel like the same problems IT suffered in the last couple years will continue to plague us under the new structure because we choose to deal with the symptoms rather than the underlying disease. Are we asking ourselves the hard questions? The right questions? Why do we rely on the few over the many? Why is there so much throwing over the wall instead of having the difficult conversation? Why do good people get burnt out and leave? Why does everyone call our personal development program a joke? Why are teams so silo-ed despite the company's "one ohana" value? I understand there are no silver bullet answers to these questions, but the only thing being preached right now is better communication and what exactly does that mean in practice? I'm just tired of the talk.

Anyway, I started this post to share this video by Scott Hanselman on scaling yourself, which a former co-worker recommended to me. I've been watching it in 15 minute intervals the last couple mornings and it really hit home - not in the sense of being new information (Tim's WBW post is still my favorite articulation of this), but a reminder of how I've let the unimportant crap win. Kevin has been a really huge asset to the Cosmos program and when he announced his decision to move on, it was a bit of a wake-up call to me. Not only is he full of oodles of awesome architecture wits, but I also respect and admire his insights and opinions. I say this openly because I find myself agreeing with him on many things, yet still growing and learning in his presence. Perhaps he was a kind of unspoken mentor of sorts. That said, we talked easily during a farewell lunch and he more or less gave me the kick in the butt I needed to hear. Now the task for me is to make the next few months matter.