Losing my keys...
and why I couldn’t care less
I would argue that when you get to a certain season of life the absurdity of priorities assigned to aging fail to resonate with you—at all. Squinting at the alarm clock all of a sudden? Get a pair of fashionable readers. Slowing down while running on the trails? Run further. Youth is fast, we are stubborn and persistent.
Losing my keys? Girl, we are losing so much more at this moment in America that losing keys sounds precious. The equivalent of chasing after an ice cream truck on those summers that seemed to last forever.
We lose so many more important things. Family, friendships, jobs, contracts our pets. The big stuff.
But it reminds me of an idea I had for a short talk I was invited to give about the craft of geospatial story building.
6 keys (or tips) to making it small in geospatial
If you are a fan of Michael Birbiglia, you might recognize the inspiration from his 2016 New York Times Article, Mike Birbiglia’s 6 Tips for Making It Small in Hollywood. Or Anywhere.
Don’t wait make the map, learn the code or new platform whatever challenges you — jump in
Fail don’t be afraid too suck — more delicately, don’t compare your beginning to somebody else’s middle
Learn from the failure practice, practice, practice and practice
Maybe quit I was recently asked why I share so much about the process. My honest answer is because it is so hard, few folks will actually begin. The hard work may not be your cup of tea or more than likely your energy is focused elsewhere.
Be bold enough to make stuff that’s small but great You can’t please everyone. You aren’t a pizza. When I wrote my first book it was because I didn’t want to learn another coding language. I wanted just enough python to access geospatial data. If you didn’t realize the point of the book and were looking for a deep dive into geopandas, naturally it wasn’t for you…
Cleverness is overrated, and heart is underrated I know where the money is. It is going all in for AI. But I can’t. We need to move forward but not by pretending there isn’t a cost or trade off we are making with finite natural resources.
Birbiglia is a storyteller. He is definitely a comedian but not a ‘badump bump’ get to the next joke sort of a guy. He is in it for the long haul and you should be too.
Keeping it small means different things to different people but for me, it means control. Make things you like, make them for yourself.
Many of our colleagues are jumping on the AI band wagon like it is the last ride out of a burning city. It might be. But I am an entire person. I like clean oceans and deep forests. The wonder of biodiversity and watching birds, deer and coyotes share the trails and beaches with me never gets old. Pretending that there is “0” cost to technologic advancement serves nobody but the big 5 gazillionaires that won’t have to live in the ecosystem they are wrecking. Pick the part that you have something unique to contribute or say something about and stay there. Think of it like focusing on character development.
What is the single key you are unable to move forward without?
I've never had a writer's block, but still I think: 'Is it going to happen this time?' You never know what you're going to get; you just put your fingers on the keys and hope.
Sir Elton John
Toolbox:
What am I:
reading?
Where Cloud Meets Cement: A case study analysis of data center development
listening?
Computer says maybe A podcast about the politics of technology
exploring?
