make stuff, be nice

January 01, 2014

Here’s my to do list for 2014…

• Spend more time walking under trees and on the beach, looking at the sky and digging in the garden.
• Make time for awe
• Learn new languages like Clojure and Mandarin Chinese
• Write code that I’m proud of, while doing the simplest things that could possibly work
• More fear therapy: Let the experiences that I want to have pull me through my fear, and try a few new things I’m afraid of even if I’m not sure if I’ll like them at all.
• Speak more, write more. About things that matter, and some things that don’t.
• Do less, better.
• Remember that the most important part of my life are the people in it.
• Be kind.

I love making stuff, especially stuff that people can use. The act of creation is itself a joy, and I must admit that there are times that I get lost in it. Sometimes, when I’m making software, or otherwise swept up in some corner of my own mind, I lose touch with the people around me. Then I get kind of pissed off that they are interrupting my blissful state of self-absorption or I wonder why they won’t just get with the program which is all laid out in imaginary detail and coherence in my head. Of course, I like the people, and usually, other perspectives are needed to turn my imaginary solutions into ones that will actually work. This little list for 2014 is one way of reminding myself to stay in touch with the world, and the people in it.

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