I have some unsolicited advice. Leave Facebook and LinkedIn.

They do not serve you. They use you to serve their investors. They track you even after you leave their sites, and they change their privacy and content ownership policies a lot. Be careful out there kiddos.

If you need social spaces, there are other options. I’ve started talking to people on the phone and sending snail mail letters. It’s slow and lovely. Want to chat? Leave me a message.

If you must stick around for one reason or another, try Facebook Container and use some filters to block the bullshit.

I couldn’t tell you honey, I don’t know
Where I’m going but I’ve got to go
‘Cause every turn reveals some other road
And I’m a traveler, oh, I’m a traveler

While I was 37, I had so much to be thankful for, and also plenty about which to be scared out of my mind. It’s an undesirable mix, but one I must deal with, as do all of you. In some ways, we are so much better than what we have shown of ourselves in this past year. In other ways, we have shined brighter than ever and been the people we need to be in order to resist the normalization of oppression and bigotry and hatred.

A few things I learned this year:

• Inaction is unacceptable. That person you think you can help? That idea you have? That thing you think someone else will take care of? That vote you don’t need to cast? That piece of trash someone else will pick up? No more. That’s your responsibility. Just fucking do it.
• Change is hard; and harder to explain. We go through life fearing change. We are taught that change is bad. But change is inevitable, and we need to learn how to adjust and be more flexible and prepared for change. We need to practice writing and speaking and talking to people, so when change happens, or needs to happen, we know how to communicate.
• Permission is something you can give yourself. You do not need approval from anyone but yourself. Love yourself. Trust yourself. Do the thing you want to do. Learn. Adjust. Keep moving forward. And, tell your story.
• Travel is so important. Get out of your bubbles. Explore the world. Meet people who live differently from you. Learn from them. Share with them. Be kind to them. Be a bright light in an often dark world.
• Share your stories. We can’t learn from stories that are never told. We should all share more. In work and life.
• Focus is the only way to achieve goals. I spent too much time scattered over recent years. I’m still proud of the work I’ve done, but I look back at time wasted because I said yes to too many things and people, and never found a method for focus and prioritizing.
• Life is short. The boxes you have left with people you care about are finite. Choose wisely.
• Music. Such a powerful thing.

I’m making some changes. I’m being more direct and honest with everyone. I’m learning how to communicate better and be a better father and a better friend. I’m learning how to focus and be more generous to myself. I give myself permission to explore and learn and make an impact. I hope to hear similar stories from some of you.

Also, more music and dancing and laughing. That’s an order!

Be well.

• I became an adventurer.
  Thanks in large part to two unconferences, Up To All Of Us and World Domination Summit, I am more determined than ever to make everything an experience worth having.

• I became a caregiver.
  This was an experience I wish could have been avoided, but I have learned a lot. We have to find a way for things like this to be avoided. We have to allow people the opportunity to leave this world on their own terms. Also, fuck cancer.

• I began to learn how to overcome rejection.
  WDS was huge for me if only for Jia Jiang’s presentation on embracing rejection. I’ve done things this year I never would have thought of doing, simply by not worrying if someone said “no.” I’m definitely still a work in progress, but I’ve found most of the time the answer is “yes.”

• I began to find my niche.
  I have many friends and colleagues who are freelancers on the side, and some full time. I have a true passion for helping them succeed. Some people might call it coaching. Some people call it consulting. I’m not sure what I’m calling it yet, but I’m still the guy you should call first.

• I again realized that I need a product.
  Is 2014 the year of the product for me? I hope so, in some form or another.

• I confirmed that travel is my passion.
  I want to explore everything and bring as many people along for the ride as I can. I look for opportunities to explore every chance I get. And now I’m buying a hippie van mobile office so I can do it more often and for longer periods of time.

• I started coaching high school rugby.
  Go Mustangs.

• I camped more.
  Outside. Campfires. Bike rides. Hiking. Cool, fresh air. Exploration. Get out there, people. So much to see and do.

• I found new people, and deepened relationships with other people, who are all awesome.
  Overused word? You bet. But it can be true. From new people I just met this year to acquaintances turning to friends to friends turning to best friends, it’s been wonderful to find support, laugh and cry with humans that truly care. People who just want to make things better for everyone.

• Once again, I realized we live in the future.
  I love the future. The technology. The progress. The openness. The opportunity. Don’t let the media fool you, this is a great time to be alive.

• I fell back in love with games.
  Cards Against Humanity. Relic Expedition. Magic The Gathering. Geeksboro Cafe. All wonderful.

• I received more confirmation that life is short. Vita brevis!
  All you people saving all your money for a rainy day or retirement, think again. Do you really want to limit your adventures to a time when you can’t walk or talk or do anything else very well?

Live now. Travel, explore and have fun for as long as you can. Enjoy the ride.

Links For This Post

• Up To All of Us
• World Domination Summit
• Jia Jiang: “Embracing Rejection“
• “And Acquaintances Turn To Friends“
• Cards Against Humanity
• Relic Expedition
• Geeksboro Cafe

Shoeboxed is one of these services.

Here’s my process:

1. Shoeboxed sends me Magic Envelopes.
2. I stuff Magic Envelopes with papers and receipts and even kids’ artwork.
3. I drop Magic Envelope into mail (they include prepaid shipping).
4. Shoeboxed scans all my docs with OCR.
5. Shoeboxed sends the docs back (alternatively, you can have them securely shred and recycle your papers).
6. I access my files online, export expenses to Freshbooks or export everything to Evernote.

Not much to it. I have a ScanSnap document scanner. It works very well. But you know what I found? I never took the time to process all that paperwork. It takes a long time to scan files and organize them, even when scanning directly into Evernote. My time is very valuable to me. So $1 per day to have someone else send me Magic Envelopes and do all that work for me? Sounds like I’m ripping THEM off.

Here’s another use case: last year I was way behind on getting my taxes organized (shocking, I know). I had a bunch of receipt to scan, process, organize and import into my accounting tool, Freshbooks. I simply sent all my 2012 stuff to Shoeboxed, then exported to a CSV file and imported all of that into Freshbooks. That was easy.

We’re all “busy”. But I think we’d be less so if we let experts do things for us for reasonable prices. Delegate, people. It’s ok. You can thank me later. Try them out and let them help you catch up. You don’t have to pay for a full year, just sign up for a free month and send them as much as you can stuff in.

Links for this post:

• Shoeboxed
• Evernote
• Jane Bozarth
• Freshbooks
• Magic Envelopes

I look around my office and see a giant, distracting mess. The mess itself doesn’t bother me from a visual perspective. It’s the fact that it’s unfinished business. Papers that need scanning and filing, computer equipment that needs to be repaired or recycled. Hard drives that need to be tagged and archived. Stuff everywhere, and each with an unfinished task item (or four) associated with it.

This happens in business and in life. I need to manage this better. I’ve gotten help from services like Shoeboxed, but I don’t even use them as often as I should. Part of my “Better Brian” experiment is to recognize these issues and take action to make them better, if not rid myself of them altogether.

How? Process. Strict times to process information. Not do any work, just processing. Friday afternoons are typically filled with last second work to meet a deadline, or just abandoned altogether because a cold beer is sitting right outside my office. Being more disciplined to stick to my scheduled planning/processing time on those days will certainly help. And, I can still enjoy that beer.

In addition to a shorter daily reflection and processing time, I need to stop working at noon on Fridays, and use those 3-4 hours to clean up, plan for the next week and process any outstanding documents, invoices, etc. that will bug me all weekend. This is clearing the mental clutter and giving me a sense of accomplishment at the same time. Plus beer!

Links From This Post:

• Shoeboxed (save 20%)
• A Better Brian

Three simple reasons why I <3 WPEngine:

1. Speed. Good grief they are fast. And that affects the user experience and search engine rankings. One client site jumped into the top five after I made the switch, something I hadn’t been able to achieve through other campaigns and techniques. I give credit to the speed improvement I got when jumping to WPE.
2. Support. This is critical. I must have good customer service or I will walk. I don’t care how awesome your product is. These folks are great. Early on, they had some issues with response time, but they quickly resolved that, and even in those few cases they were very friendly and helpful. Now I know I can jump into their awesome live chat to get a quick answer, or submit a ticket and they’ll take care of everything for me. Need SSL added to a site? Simple. Ticket. Bam. Done.
3. Peace of mind. This is the big one. I just don’t have to worry about anything. My sites, and my clients’ sites, are just up. And secure. And backed up. And fast.

I’ve never had this level of quality and service with any other host. So, if you’re running WordPress, go get you some WPEngine. It’s worth it.

Bonus: Coupon HappyNewHost14 gets you 30% off through the end of the year.

What’s that? You have an external hard drive? Okay, that’s cool. That’s a start. But I bet it’s sitting right next to your computer. So, what happens when mother nature pays a visit, or your kid sets the cat on fire and he runs into the Christmas tree and your house burns down? You lose your main hard drive and your backup. Which means that local back is just NOT ENOUGH.

I get it. There are lots of options for online backup. There are too many things to choose from. You don’t know how to get started.

Let me simplify it for you.

Go get Dropbox if you don’t already have it. Now. No, really, right now. Then, tell your friends and family. You know how much space I got for free from Dropbox? 17GB. Yes, 17GB! But even if you don’t accidentally send your invite code to your entire frickin’ address book, you’ll still get 2Gb for free. That’s a ridiculous amount of free online, synced storage. Maybe not enough for your entire photo collection, but it’s perfect for important documents, business files, etc. Still haven’t signed up? WTF!?

Ok, now that we’ve got Dropbox covered, what about your photo library, or, perhaps, your music library? Enter CrashPlan.

$60 a year. That’s it. For unlimited online backup. Yes, unlimited. Now, you shouldn’t go backing up everything, but even if you’re super lazy and didn’t want to selectively backup, CrashPlan can handle that.

Too cheap for $60 a year? Really? Fine. You write a comment or email me with a very good reason you can’t afford CrashPlan and I’ll fucking gift you a year. Why? Because I don’t want you to be the poor sap who has to explain why you have no photos of your dad’s worst Christmas sweater ever, or how you lost that video of your awesome dance moves at your wedding. Okay, maybe that last one is one reason NOT to backup.

Go. Now. Dropbox and CrashPlan.

Boom. Done. You’re welcome.

P.S. Scared of “the cloud”? I’d be more scared of me coming over and finding out you don’t have online backup. Ok. For reals, if you’re scared, let me know and we’ll set up another form of offsite backup.

Passavant and Lee

The interface is shiny and the dashboard is decent, but it is slow, and it doesn’t have the basic feature I require now from a PM tool when adding projects and tasks. In MST, like many other PM tools, you have to enter the task, then click a button, add another task, click a button. Asana and Basecamp understand how painful that can be when setting up a project or just doing a brain dump of tasks and ideas. They allow you to just type and hit enter over and over as you build out your list.

Besides the dashboard, the interface is clunky. There’s a lot of wasted space. Here’s the “add new task” screen.

Notice in the background for this project, the actual project details and lists are way down on the screen rather than front and center. Every panel of this interface has a huge header area with counts and data that isn’t really critical. I’d like to see this information on the dashboard, but not taking up this much space on every screen.

The big draw for some people will be the pricing. It’s cheap. Dirt cheap. $3 per month for a freelancer gets you unlimited everything except for additional staff. $25 per year ($2.09 per month) gets you two staff members and unlimited everything and more storage. That’s very cheap.

I tend to spend a lot of time signing up for apps to test and never end up writing my review, so I wanted to throw this one out there while I had a few minutes. My recommendation: stay away from MST unless you are so strapped for cash that you can’t afford a few more dollars per month for a better system like Freshbooks or Harvest. And, if you’re that strapped for cash, you probably shouldn’t be worrying about an invoicing system.

I’ve been testing Teamwork PM’s new version for the last few months. I’ll try to post a review for that one soon as well.

Cheers!

Links for this post

MakeSomeTime
Asana
Basecamp
Freshbooks
Harvest
TeamworkPM

“In my opinion, there is no more qualified a demographic than engineers to measure the value of leadership structures and to consequently tear them down if they have no obvious value.”

– Rands: “Tear It Down”

“Tokyo Texas” Levis Concept Design Film. from Dana Shaw on Vimeo.

My favorite quotes from this short film:

Utopia sounds great, but I would fucking hate it.

I do not tether my boat.

Things that don’t change, die. That’s just a part of life.

while I tend to agree with the cowboy in this film, about utopia, I do think the intersection of technology and freedom is amazing. But I don’t seek utopia. I seek freedom, and all that comes with it.

I hope to be taking part in the van life very soon. Stay tuned!

Since taking my business full time, though, I’ve struggled to find my happy place with a project management tool. Until recently. A few weeks ago, Asana and Harvest introduced time tracking within Asana. This was a great integration for me.

I had been using Basecamp for about six months, but had not completely committed to it. Most of my clients and subcontractors never used it, and it was moderately expensive for a tool that only I was really using. Finally, time tracking and scheduling was pretty weak.

I’ve played with Asana for over a year, but also never committed to it. When I finally decided to switch to Harvest full time from Freshbooks, and I heard that Asana had added Harvest time tracking right inside each task item, I was sold.

So far, it’s worked well. I still have one issue because I have separate Harvest accounts for Duce Enterprises and Learning Ninjas, and only one Asana account with different workspaces. As far as I know, you can only link one Harvest account, so that’s something I’m still working and I’ll let you know what happens.

Basecamp is excellent. It’s simple, easy to manage, has project templates, calendars, and many other features. But it’s limited in time tracking (none in the new version) and is a bit on the pricey side for one user. If you have a team, or a committed group of subcontractors, or clients who love to “watch” a project, then Basecamp is a solid choice.

Most of my clients don’t want to watch the task lists. And if they did, Asana still allows for that (though it’s a bit more work for the client to set up an account and join a project in Asana than in Basecamp). So, for me, Harvest time tracking inside of my task manager was perfect.

I’m still looking for the ultimate calendaring and project management tool. Somebody go build it for me, please!

Links for this post:

• Asana
• Basecamp
• Freshbooks
• Harvest
• Duce Enterprises
• Learning Ninjas

Late in the evening on September 30, 2013, the House Rules Committee Republicans changed the Rules of the House so that the ONLY Member allowed to call up the Senate’s clean CR for a vote was Majority Leader Eric Cantor or his designee — all but guaranteeing the government would shut down a few hours later and would stay shut down. Previously, any Member would have had the right to bring the CR up for a vote. Democracy has been suspended in the House of Representatives.

I was on Devour.com (warning: you could lose hours on this site) and clicked through to the trailer for “Double”, which looks a little creepy but very good. Anyhow, the music in the trailer was perfect for it, and a great blues song, so I searched for “the song in the Double trailer” and came up with Son House, a name I’d never heard. First hit was for the Youtube video, which in turn had a link to the album on Amazon (a steal at $5.99). He’s in Spotify, too. Check him out.

So, in a few short minutes I’ve got a new movie added to the watchlist and a new album to listen to this morning while I work.

Post Links:

• Who is Son House?
• “Double” on Devour
• Buy the MP3 album on Amazon
• Son House on Spotify

As long as there are heroes, evil will never win.

Never forget.

As software developers, we often think our job is to develop software, but, really, that is just the means to an end, and the end is to empower businesses to reach their goals. Your code may be elegant, but if it doesn’t meet the objectives (be they time or business) it doesn’t f***ing work.

Leon Fayer: “Your Code May Be Elegant”

The same goes for the field of learning. Our job is not to “develop learning”, but to empower businesses and/or individuals to reach their goals. Your eLearning course may be elegant, but if it doesn’t satisfy the real business or performance objectives (notice I did not say “learning objectives”), it doesn’t f***ing work.

“An elliptical told me it missed me more than any of the three associations to which I paid dues and was an active contributor has since I failed to renew.”

How do organizations address the ones who got away?

I have problems staying focused, staying motivated, and completing things I start. This is not news to many of you. I’m hoping to change that. I’ve got it pretty good, but I think I can have it better. I think I can have and do more, and I think it’s going to take a better version of me to get there. So this is my kick off; my pledge; my accountability post.

Here are my goals:

Writing

It starts with writing. I’ve always enjoyed writing. I’ve recently found some old elementary school stories and will probably publish a few for fun, but it reminded me how much I just loved to write. As I got older, I had to write. For school. For work. I hated it. Then I started blogging and enjoyed it, but never committed to it. Never took it seriously. So then I just stopped. I still wrote a few things here and there – mostly recaps of experiences I’d had, and a few publications – but I wasn’t writing regularly or the way I wanted to. Now’s as good a time as any to start. To make the time for it. To enjoy the process. To reach into the drafts folder in Dropbox and the Drafts app on my phone and finish those thoughts and share them with you.

Doing daily and weekly writing exercises will help me accomplish this goal.

Health

I’m not a perfect model of health. I’m also not terribly unhealthy. I have cholesterol level that should be 30% lower, a little too much around my waist and a tendency to binge eat when I’m bored or depressed. But I’m pretty active. I have two active kids and I enjoy time with them. I play soccer and some occasional rugby. I bike to the mail room and the bank when I am motivated enough to do so. I enjoy my stand-up paddleboard, again when I’m motivated enough to lug it to the lake. But I am often unmotivated, and undisciplined with workouts, training, eating, etc. That can and will change.

Logging my food intake and exercise, and doing at least one active thing each day, will help me accomplish this goal.

Work

I quit my job almost exactly one year ago to continue to grow Duce Enterprises and to launch Learning Ninjas. I’m thrilled with the results. But I could have done more this past year. I could have been more focused, delivered things ahead of schedule, sought out some bigger projects and set some bigger goals. But I coasted more than I’d like. I want to do better. Notice I didn’t say I want to do more. I was happy with my work/life balance over this last year. I want to do better. Better projects. Better decisions. Better management. Better risks. Better pricing. I want to enable more adventures and more experiences, not only for me, but for my family and my friends.

Doing better work and saying “no” more often will help me accomplish this goal.

Life

I’ve got a good life. I know this. I need to recognize it in key moments, though, and really enjoy life even more. I post about and share a lot of inspirational quotes and videos because I believe in the messages they hold. Life is full of sacrifice and bad decisions and consequences, but it’s also filled with unexpected joys and good decisions and amazing results. I can do better to focus on the positives and embrace the negatives and hold on to them, and learn from them and use them to teach others.

Volunteering, coaching and taking adventures with my kids will help me accomplish this goal.

I’ll be posting results, but if you want to know how things are going, get in touch.

While reading this article, I opened a new tab to search a company name from the article, then went back to the article, only to click on a link in the next sentence. I realized inline links to reference articles or videos are only encouraging readers to leave your site, get distracted and perhaps never finish reading what you wrote.

I’ve made a concentrated effort recently to read an entire article before going back through and clicking the links. Occasionally, a link out is a required prerequisite, but unless it is, I stay away.

In the interest of making it easier for you, the reader, to use my site and do what you came here to do, I’m going to start putting the reference links at the end of my posts. Perhaps, occasionally, I might use footnotes (if they add value and I ever learn how to do it quickly).

Anyhow, this might be nothing; it might be something. I’m going to experiment with it, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

Post references:

• The article: “The Only Way to Get Important Things Done” by Tony Schwartz
• I heard about the article from Shawn Blanc, who also references this great article by Kathy Sierra, and this one by Matt Gemmell.

Working at Wolfram

Is versus Ought: "Minding your isness"

Pages aren’t stories.

Websites aren’t products.

Wireframes and mockups only do so much. What if you’re missing something? How are things connected?

If someone assigns something to you, do the research to truly understand where they’re coming from. What they want. Their perspective.

Concept modeling is a process to develop a concept map/diagram.

Concept diagrams are graphical tools for organizing and representing knowledge.

Concept diagrams are made up of nouns and verbs. Nouns = concepts. Connected by verbs (link).

What they are NOT:

• Sketch notes
• Affinity diagrams
• Mindmap

Five steps to building diagrams:

1. Ask a question (you need to know what you want to understand)
2. Do research (materials, competitive, interviews with experts, mind mapping)
3. Make a list (parking lot, brain dump, big freaking list – nouns and verbs, interactive words for UX)
4. Arrange the pieces (allow yourself to move around, shuffle – stickies, notecards, omnigraffle)
5. Create links (trust your gut, your understanding)

Then, refine, refine, refine…or don’t.

Start with basics, then introduce size, color variations. What happens if you pull out the central concept? Can someone understand what your diagram is describing? Introduce larger circles, then you have Venn diagrams. Introduce icons or visuals that represent things. People, especially. Personas, etc.

Uses:

• Use content diagramming to do some Gap analysis
• Concept model plus content model for strategy
• Stakeholder meetings: can be tricky. But these are your propositions, not theirs. Remember that.
• Tell a story with one or more diagrams
• Works really well as a suggestive device

Other thoughts: Concept maps are never finished. Start with something you know well.

References:
Dan Brown
Stephen Anderson

Maybe eventually we get to a place where we see that books and music and art are created by us, people who have school and day jobs and other shit we care about. And we’re not rich celebrities, and we are all always being pulled in different directions, but we’re present and engaged with the people in our lives? And we value what we contribute as much as what we create? And we create things because want to, and not because we have expectations for what it will get us, or how it will cause society to value us? And we don’t berate and hate ourselves for the very human failure of having a lot of complicated shit to juggle in our lives? That might be kind of cool?

— Kevin Fanning

This brings to mind another article, "Why Passion Shouldn’t Drive You". I like how Thomas Keller differentiates passion and desire. Passion only gets you so far, or only lasts so long. Desire is what keeps you in the garage or office until it’s finished, or shipped. Desire is what brings you back after failing. Desire is what pushes you past exhaustion, what makes "normal" people think you’re crazy. It’s what most people don’t understand because they haven’t experienced it.

I’m lucky enough to be doing something I strong desire for on a daily basis, but it’s not all the time. And that’s okay. I have other shit I care about. If I get to do what I really love or what I enjoy at least some of the time, that’s a win. Because the other things I truly care about that fill the gaps.

What do you desire? Figure that out, and start doing it, at least some of the time. That is important. But, understand that it will be a challenge to find the time, and that’s okay, because you have other shit you care about.

How to automatically incorporate edits into your course (via Tracy)
Export and import “translation” Word files. SMEs and content reviewers can update text (on-screen and in Notes section) and you can import the changes right into Storyline. This is wonderful for large course reviews and even better because the reviewer only gets to review the content, not images or styles. In other words, they can’t complain about the gray box you’re using as a placeholder and ask you why it’s not yellow or green.

WYSIWTF
“The preview button is a lie.” This. Exactly. I’ve loved pretty much everything Karen has written for ALA, and I get to see her next month, keynoting Penn State’s Web Conference. Yay!

There Are Only Four Jobs in the Whole World (via Dave) Interesting read. I agree, mostly. But I think you can be decent at more than one of these four, and even be happy in more than one of these four. For instance, I consider myself primarily a Thinker, but I work a lot as an Improver, and I enjoy both roles.

Textastrophe (via Robin)
“That dude is not even in the Black Eyed Peas, asshole.”

What it actually is, though, is a bad mashup of Rambo and Die Hard, set in the White House.

Gerard Butler as a secret service agent. Really? A character named Mike Banning with a bad accent? Not buying it.

Aaron Eckhart and Ashley Judd as President and First Lady? Riiiiiiiiiiight. When have you seen people anywhere close to that attractive in office?

And then the Rambo/Die Hard effect: Banning survives a ridiculous number of attacks, is the only one left to save the world (but not really the world, because it’s just the White House), saves a kid, saves the President, and survives. I especially like the scene where all the idiot secret service agents run out onto the front steps with no formation or concept of weapons, into a barrage of high-caliber bullets, presumably to jack up the number of bodies Banning has to step over to enter the building, for effect. Lame.

Tons of inconsistencies and other annoyances as well.

• Freeman’s character (Speaker of the House) negotiates with terrorists, then doesn’t, then does. WTF?
• The White House bunker is pretty damn easy to get in and out of, apparently.
• When two of six SEAL team helicopters get blown out of the sky by some super weapon, the obvious, and surely realistic, military tactic is to keep attacking with the other four until you’re down to only one. Then retreat.
• Gerard Butler as a secret service agent. Yes, I have to mention it again. It’s that bad.
• The codes to the stupid disarming mechanism for our nukes, which, of course, if activated, would detonate them on our own soil. The whole concept is just absurd.

Okay. I’m done. It’s lame. Skip it.

Shit, G.I. Joe is going to be bad, but at least I know that and go into it with different expectations.

Local backups are great, but where do you store your local backup drive? Probably next to your computer. Probably on the same power strip. What happens if there’s a fire, or a major storm and it fries BOTH? What will you do then?

You don’t need to backup everything to the cloud, but important documents, photos, home videos, etc. should be up for consideration.

Here’s my setup:

1. Local backup (plenty of options here)
2. Dropbox for daily access and key files
3. Crashplan (I also recommend DollyDrive and BackBlaze)
4. Amazon S3 for business, websites, audio
5. Smugmug for photos and videos

I feel pretty confident I’ll be covered in an emergency. Total dollars spent per year? About $75.

Need help figuring out what you need, or where to put what? I can help.

And acquaintances turn to friends
I hope those friends they remember me
Hold the night for ransom as we kidnap the memories
Not sure there is a way to express what you meant to me
Sit around a table and use those years as the centerpiece

– Macklemore & Ryan Lewis: “Cowboy Boots”

This is my first full day back from Up To All of Us 2013, an unconference focused on “Co-creating revolutions in learning and technology.”

I chose that verse from Cowboy Boots because this event was all about connections: making new ones and strengthening old ones. We learn from each other and share experiences, like telling stories of risk around a campfire. We can encourage and say “do it”, or respectfully disagree (“yes, and”) and move on to the next topic. It’s an open format, and almost anything is acceptable, except excessive negativity.

How does something like this come together? How does something like this work? Planning and good people. This kind of event does not happen with out fine human beings. Herding those humans? Coordinating the event to make sure each of these complex, brilliant beings has his or her needs met? That is a challenge, and one that Aaron and Megan met head on for the second year in a row, with great success.

I’m amazed at the talent I’ve been connected with over the last two years at these events, and the willingness they all have to help me solve a problem, work through an idea, or simply draw a duck. After last year’s event, several attendees took new jobs, made the leap into entrepreneurship or freelancing, or did something else that made them happy. I can’t wait to see what comes out of this year’s event.

How does one come down from this high? For many of us, it’s back to reality, back to the grind, back to chores and articles and research and development. This is the time to keep cranking. To build upon what we’ve already built. To finish those projects we demonstrated. To learn even more about topics that we were introduced to. To find a way to make that thing we want to do actually happen.

I quit my job last September, but it was last February that I made the decision. I don’t have a job to quit this year, but I do have things to build and people I want to work with. I’m not waiting until September. This is accelerating.

“Not sure there is a way for me to express what you meant to me…”

But I know we’ll all sit around a table next year and use last weekend as a centerpiece for what WE built in 2013.

DO IT.