One year on. Our 12th note. Not bad!
This one comes to you from the Bay Area. Berkeley to be specific. I’m in town for a week of work, and the wave of all-encompassing thought is real. New thing, this note, other research-related thing I’ll explain later. So, this won’t be a long note.1
I’ve been back to work long enough that the distance between life as a soloemployed person and an employed human have settled. And I have thoughts.
Three, specifically. They’re some form of personal lessons, takeaways, and strong feelings I have from the journey.
The time is not right for me to be solo.
Energy brings about more energy.
If you’re even remotely considering it, you should quit your job.2
First, it’s not the time for me to be solo.
When I left a long-term post in June 2020, I wanted time to explore the different pulls I was feeling. Being in one place for a decade frames how you think. Getting beyond that would happen, but only in time and seeing other things.
And, inevitably, as I roamed the Chicago streets, wrote in parks, and sketched out cool (to me) software outside, I was excited. About everything.
So excited that, my eyes honed on a certain community.3 I sat in on calls, talked to folks, asked (probably simple) questions, and figured out a lay of the land. Then, a project opened up, and I joined. It was a delight that I needed.
I’ve talked about working with Rob + Joel, but the gist was a focused dive into a scientific topic area, a lot of discussion, and a lot of software use and understanding in the space. The style was right. Questions were welcomed, and loads of learning happened. I totally needed a project. My brain was going in a focused direction. I got far better at different things than I’d been good at in the past.4
When that wrapped, I took ~2 months diving into projects here and there, but as it tends to happen when I don’t have a steady sounding board to advance and build with, I lose focus + desire to work on the thing. At least that’s the present situation. So it goes.
So I was itching, and it just so happened my energy attracted more energy.
Which is the second takeaway. One that feels universal.
Energy brings about more energy.
Donna would probably tell me there’s a physics-related condition to this.5 I see simply as momentum. When the ball is rolling, it’s going and it won't be stopped.
This also smells like a power law. The more I do, the more I dive in, the clearer I’m thinking. My possibility space of ideas is more diverse. I’m waking up early and finding myself (happily) lost in thought and work.
Again, it’s the collaborators. Most of my time I’ve been spending with Sam + Samiur, the two founders at Heyday. We trade thoughts rapidly amidst deep thinking stretches, and then, we do the work. No barriers. Gosh, it’s fun.
On top of this, there’s progression from the research work. All of it adds up to less sleep, far more energy, and another sense of being absolutely locked in.
Which leads to the most dramatic claim I’ll make.
Quit your job.
This enters the territory of unwarranted life advice. I don’t care. If you read it and it hits you, then it’s time. If not, so it goes.6
Primarily, because you’ll force yourself to figure it out. Your body won’t let you fail.
There’s obvious caveats needed. Make sure you can afford it, that whomever in your life is supportive, and that you’re putting in the work to be good.
You’ll blow yourself away. Somewhere along the line, an opportunity will bounce into another opportunity, and next thing you know you’ll be doing the projects you dreamt of doing, with partners who demand the best of you. It’s wonderful.
In my case, the research work of the past year boiled into a grant project - SamePage, a tool to connect any software notebooks without needing to learn a new tool. For collaborators, it’s like sharing a Google doc, except without leaving your working environment, and neither do they.
This concept has an extensive set of uses, but for now, let’s connect the different tools people use without making them learn a new one. Simple. The work itself is being done by David Vargas and I, and Joel’s advising us on the space. We’re up for a separate grant, so you know what to do. Again, energizing.
The gist is this. I’m super fortunate to be in the situation.7 I wouldn’t be here without Donna, a base of hard work, a deep interest in an area, a positive spirit, and a whole metric f-ton of good fortune.
And the feeling of going for it…well, that’s what you should find out for yourself.
The trust in yourself is amazing. You’re going to figure out what you want to do with your life, and you’re going to believe you can do it. What could be better.
So that’s the spiel. If it doesn’t apply to you, you’re probably not in the attended audience, right now.
If it does, godspeed.
love,8
bren
tunes wise, i’ve been listening to a ton of oddly-shaped rock music. namely, revisiting grizzly bear’s catalog and re-loving this. almost 50 minutes on a wave. i’m listening again now.
Footnotes Exist!
and time is thinner than ever, making this a quite focused late-night effort as the clock ticks towards midnight.
yeah, this can be seen as an outrageous claim. go with it. or don’t. in the classic words of a great old coworker, woohoo!
tools for thought, namely. but that meant a lot of learning about computing + design that i was never exposed to.
namely, critiquing work and . connecting the dots (the synthesis) has never been the big challenge. learning the rigor of how to properly read and write was tremendous.
but she’s in Chicago still, so, yeah…the details evade me.
i’ve really enjoyed Maggie Appleton’s framing on her posts. she begins with her audience, thus setting the context. maybe i’ll steal this at some point.
it would likely help here, as the assumed audience is people who have: the means, the support, a base of skills in the area, and the thought of doing something massive in their life.
even while you likely don’t know my background fully, i recognize the privilege there. it’s real.
more news coming soon. promise this will be it for a bit. :)
Lessons from an important year — No.12