I'm typing into a text file above the continental United States. It's the end of July. The year is 2022.
I was just in Mexico City for a little while to visit my friend Sean. Sean is one of my oldest friends ... we've been friends now for 17 years! We originally met in biology class in high school. I have to say, it's pretty amazing to have old friends. We still have a lot in common even though our paths have gone different directions. Sean is a doctor, specializing in family medicine. He also does research.
It's a little wild I haven't done any writing here in this notebook before now since I've been traveling so much this summer -- 2 months total!
In February of this year, I received two emails from designers in Europe who invited me over the Atlantic to give talks about design, etc. And one was willing to pay for my flight! So ever since early this year, I knew I would be going to Europe in the summer. Little did I know I'd also be going to Florida, California, & Mexico City. I guess something like that will happen when you sublease your apartment for two months and only have a plan for one of those months, and then you fill in the rest gradually & spontaneously at the same time.
It was an honor to come to Europe for work and to share my work. Especially since one of the events was supposed to happen in 2020 and got postponed by two years. That's similar to my friend Nina's wedding, which will soon be happening this August -- but was originally scheduled for two years ago. I designed & programmed her wedding website with my friend Dan.
Nina's wedding was one of the couple reasons I had to be back in NYC for August. I also realized, for me, "traveling full-time" is only possible for me for about ~2 months. Or maybe the sweet spot is in the range between 3 and 6 weeks, if I'm being more precise. At least, that's what I've learned so far. Last time I traveled this much, it was three years ago, in 2019 ... when I traveled for total 3 months! Then, I more-or-less flew around the world, gradually. I remember being kind of grumpy at my last stop and feeling bad about my strange mood, since it was such a special place I was visiting.
I'm listening to my friend's mix. It's so great! I have to admit it -- I did pay for some in-flight wifi on this trip. But it was just for some very specific missions. I wanted to download my friend's mix ... and I also wanted to update my website that runs on AirTable, and for better or worse, I needed to be online to do that, or even to preview my changes locally since I needed to fetch from the AirTable API.
Speaking of "offline first" -- what I wish AirTable was -- this year I started using an astrology app called "Time Passages" on my phone that's very easy to use without internet. I'm not sure how intentional it was, but this app is more or less completely usable all offline -- you can add new natal charts without being connected to the internet, and you can look at all your saved ones, too. It's truly perfect for reflecting on someone. Especially if you're about to visit them, or you just spent time with someone.
I looked at Sean's birth chart on the flight to Mexico City. I spent some of the trip sharing what I learned with Sean, and we chatted about what ongoing themes we notice in each other. We talked about a kind of chaos or intensity in Sean ... and then Sean told me the inherent paradox he sees in me is a balancing act between structured order and flowing creativity. I think that's really apt -- and my birth chart also shows this -- a lot of my work is about making systems that can accommodate chaos in a way that allows us to understand meaningful patterns within it. It's funny, because Sean talked about ways he's learned about himself and his internal chaos -- which is unpredictable -- and how strategies around managing this chaos helps him as he gets older. Sean and I both agreed we were short-term chaotic but meta-stable.
It was fun talking with Sean about hypothetical situations like -- if we each have kids, and let's say that kid is 14 years old. Will they think what we each do professionally is cool? Or will they think it's cringe? Perhaps any 14 year old will think any occupation is cringe. But I think my 14 year old self would think what I do is generally cool. But if I had a job that had more to do with animals or the natural biological world, I would have thought that was super cool. Maybe when I get a dog in the next year, my 14 year old self will be more pleased. I wonder how my job can incorporate more animals ... I guess I'll work on it!
We also talked about advice we'd give our future kids, or maybe anyone we mentor. Personally, I think a lot of adult life especially comes down to managing expectations. Working with clients in design -- this is especially important -- that is, managing others' expectations of you, your process, or the end product. Sean added that it's also important to manage your own expectations. Which is an area I want to get even better at. I think I've had rather high expectations of myself and what I want to achieve lately, and I think I'd benefit from opening things up a little.
In LA, I hung out with another friend. We went to a bookstore, then a walk by the bay, and then to dinner. This friend mentioned how difficult running their own practice has been over the years. It's a lot of ambient stress. But what keeps them going is one long-term goal. This goal is special because it's helping them align their work towards it; and the projects they're doing are directly related to this goal. This goal is also quite specific. I can't tell you what it is specifically, but just imagine a dream project for a designer. My friend told me that, when the time for this goal project comes around, and for whatever reason the goal isn't attained ... they'll be ok with that. Because the process that lead up to the goal was all gratifying, and probably had much of the goal within it. Without the goal in sight, the process would have been quite different. North stars might be more about orientation than anything. Arriving at a north star might be quite hot, anyways. We might melt a little.
We also talked about opportunities in life that only open up after prolonged activity. For example, Sean has gotten into road biking recently. He said he was recently invited to a club around biking. But it only formed after the same people kept seeing each other biking on the road, for like over a year or more. We agreed this invitation felt like a video game, "bike club unlocked" with a special sound like in Zelda. I thought about invitations I'd like to unlock. Of course, life isn't totally like a video game, but sometimes imagining myself as a Sim grinding or leveling on some skill or career path feels worth it just for the potential. Sometimes life satisfaction seems all about learning to enjoy the grind. Or learning to make admin work joyful.
"If you're using a computer, you have about 10 minutes before you have to power them off." Not a problem -- I'll even stow mine away a little early.