On our recent trip to Bandon Dunes, Brad and I chose to make the drive in his Tesla. Two reasons factored into our decision. The first was $6 gas prices. Second was trying out the charging experience on a long distance road trip. Kettleman City was our first charging stop, and I’m here to tell you that I’ve seen the future, the future of what a gas station (aka charging station) will be.
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On the way back from our epic Bandon Dunes experience, Brad and I stopped off at Half Moon Bay to play a round. I’d been wanting to play Half Moon Bay for years, and this was perfect way to end the trip.
Originally, we had only planned on playing the Old Course. However, after completing our round in a tidy 3 hours, I twisted Brad’s arm and convinced him to play the Ocean Course. It was a treat since I wasn’t sure when I would get a chance to return to Half Moon Bay.
Below are my thoughts on the two courses, including which I liked best.
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With each passing day, computer algorithms are increasingly controlling and directing our lives. The big tech companies have developed algorithms that touch every part of our daily activities. They dictate our search results, filter the articles in our news feeds, show us the products we didn’t even know we want (or need), recommend places to go, suggest who our friends are, tell us who we should date, and more.
In theory, all of these computer controlled algorithms are designed to optimize our existence, but what if things go awry? What if the algorithms are wrong? What would happen if they instead made a complete mess of things?
Welcome to Qualityland by Marc-Uwe Kling.
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A few years ago, a good friend asked if I had golfed at Bandon Dunes. I told him that I had heard of the place but didn’t know much about it. He attempted to explain his experience. While he struggled to find the right words, he used a lot of superlatives. Exasperated, he finally gave up trying to describe it and said, ” You have to go. You just have to go.”
Having just returned from Bandon Dunes, I can finally understand and appreciate his fascination with the resort. Words cannot adequately describe the experience, nor will I do it justice in this post. However, I’m going to give it my best shot and will tell you in advance – if you are a golfer and have a true passion, love, and appreciation for the game, it’s a place you have to go.
Wait, let me rephrase that – Bandon Dunes is a place you MUST go.
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Is it possible that everything we’ve been taught about nutrition is wrong?
Are the nutrition and health guidelines developed by the USDA and FDA designed to improve our health, or are they contributing to the epidemic of diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, dementia, obstructive sleep apnea, autoimmune disease and others?
Are doctors being taught how to prevent sickness or how to treat symptoms?
Are “Big Food” and “Big Pharma” companies looking out for our health or are they more concerned with generating profits for their shareholders?
These are just a few of the questions that Dr. Robert Lustig explores in his book Metabolical: The Lure and the Lies of Processed Food, Nutrition, and Modern Medicine.
Continue readingFor years, I assumed I was a bit crazy. I thought I was the only one who had constant, on-going discussions with myself. I did my best to suppress it, to ignore the voice inside my head.
Imagine my surprise when I became aware that we all have this “inner voice.” Some refer to it as “inner chatter.” I like calling it “the stories we tell ourselves.”
As it turns out, the stories we tell ourselves are important, extremely important.
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When you work in the technology space like I do, reality gets distorted. It’s easy to forget that people outside the industry don’t understand what goes on behind the scenes in the software, websites, and mobile apps they use. For example, I’m careful, some may even say paranoid, about how much information I share on social media, if any at all.
Why the paranoia? I don’t trust that any of those companies have our personal privacy and best interests at heart. As the old saying goes, if you’re not paying for the product, then you are the product.
Because I work in this echo chamber, I find it interesting when a person outside the industry shares their perspective on what goes on inside of it. That’s why I chose to read Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener.
Continue readingIt’s been almost two years since I started baking my own bread, among other things. Baking appeals to me, more so than cooking. I think it’s because I see baking as more science than art, whereas cooking is more the opposite.
Baking speaks to my analytical, engineering mind. Each bake is a like a science experiment where I am trying to find the right mix of ingredients. Even the slightest of changes in ingredient ratios can have dramatic effects, which is why I like to measure everything with a scale. The ultimate goal is to find the right mix and ratio of ingredients to create a repeatable process.
As part of my journey baking sourdough bread, I’ve experimented with lots of different variables. My latest experiment involved trying different hydration levels.
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Whether or not we are aware of it, we live our lives through stories. If it’s not the stories that others tell us, the ones we read, or the ones we watch on TV and the movies, then it’s the ones we tell ourselves. Given that stories are such an important part of how we view the world, the ability to tell compelling stories is important. It’s especially important when you are building a business and trying to market your product and services. I know because I’ve been there and am living it now.
I hadn’t given much thought to studying how to tell a story until I read this article on Matt Blumberg’s blog. It was this excerpt from the article that inspired me to learn more about the art of storytelling:
“In business, the best story wins.” That’s another quote from a former manager of mine that I have found to be universally true. People in business respond to many things: numbers, bullet points, graphs and visualizations. But they respond to all of those things better when they are wrapped in stories…. When you can present your hypotheses in the context of a story, about your business, your customers, what you want to achieve, how you will do it, and why it matters, you will build consensus and show leadership.
In his post, Blumberg recommended reading Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee as a way to learn about and improve your storytelling. While the book is primarily targeted at screenwriters, Blumberg asserted that it would help you think about “all the elements that go into a good story”. I figured it was worth taking a flyer to see if I could improve the way I present things to people, in particular my business, and the products and services I offer.
Continue readingBeing present and living in the moment is one of the key principles I’ve learned through my meditation practice over the past few years. Meditation reinforces the principle by having you sit quietly and observe your thoughts. It’s an interesting process, and one that can be unsettling and sometimes a bit scary when you have a mind as active as mine.
Anyways, my meditation practice has encouraged me to look for ways to improve being present when I’m not sitting alone with my thoughts. There are so many things that vie for our attention during the day that it’s easy to get distracted. If I were to list the biggest offenders, the internet and my phone would be near the top of the list, if not at the top.
While I’d like to experiment with disconnecting for multiple days, it’s not something that’s easy to do given my work. So I find it interesting to read (and learn) about others’ experiences. The latest experience came courtesy of David McCain, who runs the blog Raptitude.com. You can read about his full experience here – https://www.raptitude.com/2022/02/what-i-learned-during-my-three-days-offline/
I really enjoyed the post and figured I’d share the things I learned from it.
(Not lost on me is the irony of having to be online to read a post about what I learned about someone else being offline, but that’s a topic for another time.)
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