A Person, Artist, Software Engineer, Geologist.

OK, not really random thoughts as I've been thinking about this for quite some time.  Sometimes it take a lot of reflection to understand what reality is (at least as I've perceived it). There are a number of sayings that are too simplistic on review.  Hey, there are a lot of sayings that sound good in the moment but other than a quick emotional appeal, do not help with the needs at hand.  They are the quick 2 min fix that does not fix anything and still leave you as directionless as before. So there is my software saying : "Don't pre-optimize your code". At first glance this sounds correct and certainly applies for architectural issues and design, that may change to reflect implementation issues. But at a personal level, does this really apply? I mostly view the world through my own eyes and from my perspective, my toolkit, knowledge and experience is rather deep so that any code that I write is already efficient to a large extent.  So much so that I ra

Just finished our big move from Park City, UT to Mars Hill, NC (by Asheville).  Long story of why we moved, but lets just say that, why not change everything while we are at it.  Plus, my wife wanted to try to live in this area after being in Utah for 30 years. We still have our house in Park City (we are not fools mind you), that we have rented out. (From the www.cosmichappycardass.com card shop in Asheville, NC) So, lots of changes and we are still working out the last misc items that need to be addressed.  The first thing I noticed is the misc bills for switching.  Fixing all the small things in the old house being rented out and all the things to fix / change / add to the new house to make it more of our own.  An example of this is the light fixtures, the yard, the matching towels, yada yada yada.  Well it does come to an end and after a couple of months we are just about there. Now comes the time to get into a routine.  Not the same old routine as the weather, locatio

It can be hard to see the trees when you are in the middle of a forest.  I've always been a busy person.  My wife claims I do more in the first few hours of the day than most people do all day.  I like to keep up to date and track what is occurring in my field. But this has a down side for software engineering.  There is so much to be aware of, so many changes, so much hype and distractions that it's easy to loose focus of just the important things. In Buddhism there is a sutra about how the land is on fire, the sky is on fire, the world is on fire,....  Not literal fire but "stuff" all around us that distracts, deflects, misleads and the like.  The Internet and Mobile just ramped the fire up to 11. Imagine just stopping for a bit (I mean really stopping, not just a vacation) and clearing it all away?  What would it be like? I've kind of done just that. I moved 2,000 miles from my home of 30 years, I've quit my high paying job of 13 years and stopp

Time marches on and maybe e a decade or more has passed and you wonder what happened. We'll, it has been over a decade with working for Oakley / Raytheon / ForcePoint "powered by Raytheon" (same job, different ownership / structure), but for the last number of years, I've been planning another path for myself. Can't really complain about the job per say, good pay / benefits and people, but it NEVER changed.  That is a huge issue with me.  (this is all just my opinion you understand)  It maybe just my perception (I did ask others to confirm) but it's hard to see the same process, thoughts and actions or in-actions occur over and over, for more than a decade.  This would have been fine except the nothing else in life stays the same and this very much holds true for software companies. What may have worked for a few customers may not work for twice as many customers. Keeping all the old features and adding more and more features may not scale. Releases ap