Geek Philosophy

What’s a blog relaunch without a few memes here and there? I requested 5 questions Jen of WorldWideWatercooler and, just like that, she delivered.

1. I often have moments where I’m sure I’ve said something completely boneheaded and left a terribly negative impression with someone (totally unwittingly). I end up replaying it a few times in my head, wishing for a do-over. I think (hope!) everyone does this. What’s your most oft-replayed do-over moment?

While I have had course had moments like this (I try to review the interactions I have with others on a pretty regular basis), no one moment really stands out from the pack. So, although I can think of a few that have happened in the past weeks (like misspeaking on the phone to someone at the UBC tuition desk), there’s no long-running, constantly replayed do-over. This could mean one of two things – either all of of my slips of the tongue are equally benign, or perhaps they’re all so awful that it’s hard to pick just one.

2. If you were into resolutions, and you were going to work on something for 2009 that you had to sum up in one word, what would that word be?

I think the word would “Create”. From increasing the efficiency and production of my team at work, to cooking, to gardening, to writing this blog, I want to work on creating more this year. It wasn’t a particular resolution, but it’s what immediately sprang into mind when I read the question.

3. Which one place on earth would you most like to visit?

Hrm. That’s a tough one. There are a lot of places I’d like to visit (most of Europe, New Zealand, South America), but there’s never been a single place I’ve always wanted to go. Since Mel and I are planning a trip to Europe sometime in the next 2 years, that’s going to win out. If I had to narrow it down to a country, I’d say either Austria or Switzerland. Either way, I need to brush up on my German.

4. If you had a completely different career – not in computers, or music, what do you think you’d be doing?

I could see myself doing something in theater – I’ve enjoyed the acting and stagecraft aspects of the musicals I’ve done just as much as the music itself. Another possible career would be doing some sort of work for with an environmental organization (David Suzuki maybe?). The last thing that springs to mind would be a university professor – if not computers or music, I probably would have gone for math.

5. Four Hour Workweek: Brilliant or Bullshit? (if you haven’t read it, feel free to speculate)

At first I thought this said “four day workweek”, and thought that it would be great to have a long weekend every week. Then I realized you were talking about The Four Hour Workweek. Unfortunately, I haven’t read this yet – it was on my radar a while back, but I haven’t thought about it in a while. I don’t want to speculate too much on the practices put forward in the book, but from what I understand the book presents a way to structure your life (responsibilities, income flow, etc.) in such away as to only require 4 hours a week at “work” (for some definition of work), with the rest of your time doing things you really want to do. I like the idea, but without reading the book and actually having some of the things work for me (or fail spectacularly for me),  I can’t really describe it as either brilliant or bullshit. Maybe I’ll put it back on my to-read list so I can give a better review sometime in the future.