Archive for October, 2006

• 10.29.06 "Why I haven’t written" is posted in Reflections

I haven’t felt like I have a lot to contribute these days. I look around the web and see people sharing more cogent thoughts. The older I get the more I realize that my theories aren’t concrete enough. Here’s something I wrote in an email today to Brianne:

I’m still trying to figure out both the why’s and the how’s of a lot of life’s questions. Some days I like it all, some days I question it, but rarely do I have time to think about it long enough to make progress.

What did I really mean? Well, there’s been so much on my mind of late and I haven’t been able to come to complete clarity with it. Maybe to set a tone for what’s going to come up in the next few months I’ll share some of it with you:

• How on earth I’m going to grow SET? I have more work than I’d like to have…but I haven’t figured out the next types of people to hire (there’s presently five of us) and in what method to hire them. Yes, that sounds like a trivial question. But think about it coming from your wallet and that there are about a hundred thousand things taking place every day and then it starts to get a little more complicated.
• What is it that makes me happy, in addition to work and dating? I have so many things that I think make me happy, but when I break it down it usually just leads back to good conversations with people I respect. Which leads me to figuring how to have more of those people that are either (a) my age or (b) local. Preferably guys, too. But once again, I don’t think it’s all that simple.

Hopefully I’ll take the first of these conversations to technotheory.com. Making a service business independent from its founder is a challenge and I’m going to have to work very hard on that over the next few years–maybe technotheory.com will be the place for that discussion. As for my personal quest for happiness beyond that one significant relationship, just check back here for more thoughts on that.

• 10.1.06 "Symbolism on the big day" is posted in Reflections

I woke up to an email that threw me for a loop. I had applied to be featured in a series, and had spent much of this week thinking about what I could offer. This morning, rather than birthday wishes, a rejection to my application was the first note I read. Sometime in the next hour or two I should probably the read the letters from my friends…

Seriously though, it’s hard not to find symbolism when you’re primed for it. I discussed this topic in depth before, essentially with the point that it’s up to us when we choose to find meaning. In this case, there may be significance to it…but the only lesson I’ll take to heart is that regardless of the successes we’ve accomplished, the most important arbiter of our merit is our selves. And if I’m going to do anything about that rejection it’s the same as I’ve always done–find more reason to prove them wrong.

The real significance I ought to look toward today, however, is my friends. I spent yesterday evening with my favorite people (and my favorite food). I’m so lucky to have fantastic and exciting friends. I don’t know where I’d be if it weren’t for all their support, vicarious lessons-learned, and just good times.



I want to start this year off where I ended it–happy and confident. I think about the series I applied to be featured in, a series about growth and change and tangible accomplishment–but sometimes that’s just not what it’s about. It’s about knowing you’re doing the right thing and being happy. That I am.

As for the future, I just want to “keep on keeping on.” I hope to have more people working with me this time next year. I hope to spend more time getting to know some of the fascinating people whose work I keep up with every day. And, well, I guess the theme here is that I just hope to be surrounded even more hours of the day by people who I respect and enjoy. So my party last night was really the start of my birthday and those wishes. Here’s to the next year. Oh, and l’shana tova.