A
Trace in the Sand
by Ruth Malan
Architects Architecting Architecture
February 2012
This journal holds a trace of my journey of discovery (at least the part that has nothing directly to do with work with clients). I write to think, to learn, to play with and connect ideas, find insights, track what I've read, and interact with it... So, a new characterization for my Trace emerges -- this is my own personal "maker" space, where what I am building through exploration, discovery and experimentation is myself, my point of view on architecture and being an architect. This is, then, a learning lab/playground of a curious mind... hence it is, well, messy! Consider yourself warned! :-)
Until February entries mass, may I suggest you take a look at last
February"s Trace? No? Well, if you only stopped by here for the pointers
elsewhere, you'll find an excitingly extensive list of blogrolls on the
right. Or you can look at
the not-yet-completed
Journal Map.
"Code Wins Arguments" and Other Culture Defining Aphorisms
Zuckerberg's The Hacker Way letter to shareholders is a must-read for architects as it is a wonderful articulation of leadership and culture-creation.
6th anniversary post, short version:
Six Today...
SIx years of tracing. That's too many.
(I love Buttercup Festival!)
6th anniversary post, long version:
Oh Joy (you sIgh), On Joy (I thought)
No expressions of gratitude and wonder on this the 6th "birthday" of this Trace?
What? It's not that special? Messy. No coherence. No navigable organization to find what meets your concern of the moment? No answers. No code.
Hmpf! Well, it's up to me to celebrate it a little then. Uh. Perhaps not.
But what did you think when you saw the sun rise? Not that special? Just another day. Wintry tree skeletons sketchily etched against the fog? Not that special? Just fog.
What is special, remarkable, amazing is as much a property of the (stance of the) beholder as it is of what is beheld.
This Trace may indeed be not that special. But we do have to question the willingness not to see it as special, do we not? It is a big work. The Trace of a mind at an amazing time, a time of unprecedented access to the thought-products of minds across the ages and across our own time. We talk of pouring over a book, but I think it is helpful to conceptualize reading as pouring the thoughts of other minds into our own. A parade of minds, influenced by their own unique blend of what they've poured in through reading and doing and reflecting. Blending in us together with our unique sets of experience, our unique journey through mind and space and time. So, goodness! It has at least the possibility of being that special. My mind has, after all, been much influenced by yours! By what you bring to my attention, and the sense you make and share.
Can we follow our Bliss in dispirited drudgery? Or does Bliss invite us to open our spirit to Joy? And do we celebrate when we feel joy, or feel joy when we celebrate? To celebrate is to notice.
So I want to celebrate those who have seen this Trace kindly. Thank you for affirming my sense that this is that special. If only in its frabjous way. If only among those capable of mimsy.
For those who think it's not so special, keep your tie on. There are plenty of other places to stretch the mind. None with quite the gyre and gimble. Not as fine places to learn to make the vorpal sword go snicker-snack.
Sara's teacher told her class she believes Lewis Carroll was "under the influence" when he wrote Alice. Sara and I were appalled at the need to conclude that he had to be under the influence of anything but imagination, a glorious heritage of mind-work, and a mind-heart open to the experience of the amazing that surrounds us!
Of course, it is beyond audacious to mention mimsy in an at least obliquely work-related journal/Trace...
But hey. This Trace is 6 today. If I can, I should pack it in. Do the "writing in a business suit" thing. But on this day, I will protest "twas brillig" and leave it at that.
I culled the long form lest it be misread. Then we watched Sarafina! and I scolded myself for self-censoring. And I reposted it in part as an affirmation of my self-sense, and in part realizing that those whore inclined to be judgmental are best warned off early on this page. :-)
Mocking Up Wisdom
Well, naturally I had to come up with a rationale for continuing to abuse the i-way with a Trace of my exploring. :-) It's in the title to this post. You see, my eyes fell again on this quote:
"The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom." ~ Isaac Asimov
It seems to me -- but perhaps I'm just too foolish -- that wisdom is hard stuff. Hard to acquire. Hard to know you got it "right." And highly contextual anyway. And yet if we don't learn, if we don't seek to approach wisdom, to find a path to a more beautiful life, a more beautiful way to be on this planet, then we're lost individually and as a species. And we have amassed such an array of powers to undo this planet. To undo in the worst and the best ways. If that is approximating any degree of truth, we need ways to approximate, to experiment and recourse our way to something more like wisdom. Which is a much more palatable way to think of what I do here. ;-) (Need me to write the rationale for your architecture choices?)
Geekery
I love Saturday geek humor:
CAP Theorem
- Brewer's CAP Theorem The kool aid Amazon and Ebay have been drinking, Julian Browne, January 11, 2009
- Eventually Consistent - Revisited, Werner Vogels, 22 December 2008
I also write at:
- Bredemeyer Resources for Architects
-
Journal Archives
2012
- January
2011
- January
- February
- March
- April
- May
- June
- July
- August
- October
- November
- December
Feb. Posts
Architects
Enterprise Architecture
Chief Scientists
Enterprise Architects
-
Architects and Architecture
- Todd Hoff (highly recommended)
- Anna Liu
- JD Meier
Architect Professional Organizations
- CAEAP
- IASA
- SATURN
Software Visualization
Domain-Driven Design
Agile and Lean
- NOOP.nl
Agile and Testing
Software Reuse
Other Software Thought Leaders
- CapGeminini's CTOblog
CTOs and CIOs
- Werner Vogels (Amazon)
CEOs (Tech)
- Jonathan Schwartz (Sun)
CEOs (Web 2.0)
- Don MacAskill (SmugMug)
Innovate/Tech Watch
- Mary-Jo Foley's All About Microsoft
- Gizmodo
- slashdot
- Wired's monkey_bites
Creativity
Visual Thinking
Social Networking/Web 2.0+ Watch
- Mashable
Visual Thinking
- Dan Roam
- David Sibbet (The Grove)
Leadership Skills
Strategy, BI and Competitive Intelligence
- Freakonomics blog
Um... and these
-
Nick Carr
Green Thinking
- CNN Money Business of Green videos
Comics
- xkcd
- Dilbert
