Mental Gear Stripping

February 25th, 2010 § 0

As a member of generation Y (or the millennial generation, or my favorite, Generation ME) I work differently than other people in the office. I don’t like the office culture, something I alluded to in yesterday’s post. I feel it to be cumbersome and largely a distracted environment held over from a time when communication and collaboration took on an entirely different character.

On today’s Wall Street Journal site Sue Shellenbarger wrote an extremely interesting article on how people are adapting their work days to the recession. I think it’s taking on a style more akin to what Generation Y workers, like myself, find to be the most efficient. Breaking our days up into small work, personal and creative chunks allows more to get done with less burn out. After all, nothing is more depressing than sitting in an office on a beautiful San Diego day when there’s no reason to. When more work can be accomplished with a netbook on the beach, then dammit, the office ought to be on the beach.

I’m glad to see these sorts of trends gaining popularity and acceptance. While it spells even more trouble for an already damaged commercial real estate market, I think that, in the long run, the country and it’s workforce will be better off. Maybe the transition is going to be difficult or perhaps impossible for some of our older workers who weren’t able to get out of middle management, but for the rest of us, for us youngsters, the transition is long overdue and certainly welcome.

The only downside, the title of this post, is a phenomenon called “mental gear stripping.” It’s true, to compete in this type of work environment, a worker needs a different mindset. They need more mental agility, or need to rely on technology to fill in the gaps when the human mind brain reaches it’s cognitive limit. There’s no shame in that. Not since the time of antiquity, perhaps not even then, could a human brain hold and access efficiently everything that a given subject has. Changing gears is jarring, unless you’re using the clutch. The tool designed to make changing gears smoother. Rely on your blackberry, smart phone, netbook, google account or date planner and I bet you see a lot less mental gear stripping.

I think I could have several traditionally “full time” careers if each didn’t require my physical presence. I think my mental presence is a lot more valuable than my physical presence. Unless it’s that modeling job I’m seeking…

Do I Need An Office?

February 24th, 2010 § 1

I don’t think so. I was reading Jen Nedeau’s recent post about her time working on freelance assignments in the lobby of the Ace Hotel in New York City. You can read that post here.

Aside from being an entertaining post, it got me thinking about a recent conversation and experience I had here at the office. Last week I took a couple of days off at the end of the week, hopped on a plane and went to San Francisco. Aside from being a much needed break from the office, I had the strange experience of getting more work done away from the office than I ever do at the office.

It isn’t exactly rocket science to figure out why. When you aren’t being constantly bombarded by questions, interruptions and distractions that come along with working in a cube type office, you can concentrate on what it is you need to do. Your own projects, own phone calls and your own deals. You’re not beholden to anyone else or obligated to help them finish their projects. Frankly, it’s nice.

What was amusing was a colleague of mine was giving me a hard time about having taken off in the middle of the week for “vacation.” Well, the jokes on her. An hour later she was screaming about how she is constantly worrying about other people’s problems and can’t get to her own problems. Guess what… you need a “vacation.”

Offices are completely unnecessary. The ability to go and share in the communal experience, as Jen points out, is nice, but the ability to wall oneself off from the constant din and emotional roller coaster of office minions is invaluable. Let’s just say I think I’m going to earn my A plus rewards with Southwest.com this year.

2010 Goals: Law School

February 19th, 2010 § 0

2010 wasn’t going to be a year of resolutions and goals. But who am I kidding. Without setting the bar to high, I’m not sure how to slide in under it. One of my goals for 2010 was to really focus on law school.

Yes, I go to an online law school. Not prestigious, but functional. It’s one of those experiences that will give me about as much as I put in. I spent 2009 disparaging the experience and playing down the reasons I went. I went because it’s cheap and I didn’t want to commit to being a lawyer. Pure and simple.

The result was I didn’t get as much out of the experience of my first year as I could have. I certainly didn’t study as much as I should have and some information tended to glance off my brain without so much as feigning to put down roots. I assured myself 2010 was going to be different. I assured myself I would make up for lost time. And so far…

I’ve been successful. Even with the new work projects and social engagements, I’ve been able to make law school a higher priority. I’ve been able to say no when I need to and drop out of life when I need to.

That being said, the impetus behind this post is procrastinating in the coffee shop long enough to go home and finish this weeks readings and briefs. Once that’s done, I’ll feel a lot better about tomorrow and even better about Sunday.

I need to remember that thinking five years down the road can be more uplifting than thinking three months down the road. Three months down the road seems an awful place full of woe. Despair if you will. After that, I think it’s going to look up, and law school should be a defining characteristic of that recovery.

Boredom vis a vis Meaning

February 8th, 2010 § 0

The war between being and nothingness is the underlying illness of the twentieth century. Boredom slays more of existence than war. - Norman Mailer

I came across this quote this afternoon while reading a blog post on Zen Habits entitled “30 Things to do to Keep from Getting Bored out of your Skull at Work.” How apropos.

I think of all the things that bother me about a “job,” the mundane tasks that inevitably lead to boredom have to be near the top of the list. The time sinks that keep you from doing what you ought to be doing. Your calling or your passion suffer under the cruel thumb of a workplace.

Work ought to happen when inspired… or at least attendance ought not be required when there there is so little to do. It’s stifling how much time is wasted, literally wasted, staring at a rectangular screen, trying desperately to wrench any sense of meaning from the surrounding neon glow. To no avail.

Saving for my new venture and new departure has been a trying exercise. But days like today remind me that I’m getting ready to make a difference again. I’m getting ready to do something that matters and, with any luck, define some semblance of self and independence in my career. It has been long time to move on, but financially speaking, I didn’t see the opportunity.

Now I see nothing but opportunity. Opportunity being squandered. It’s about to get interesting… to say the least.

Personal Development

February 1st, 2010 § 0

It’s true. I read a ton of personal development blog posts, books, manifestos, etc. Some may think that they’re simply there to create some ad-sense revenue or sell an e-book or two, but I think they have some value. If for no other reason than to remind the reader that with effort comes results.

They’re a bit like the motivational posters that are made fun of constantly in sitcoms, web comics, and the general cultural zeitgeist. Simple by their very nature. I’m not saying they add as much value to the sum of human consciousness as the works of Aristotle or Kant. At least not directly. The value added by these types of writings is indirect. A little bit of motivational caffeine to propel an otherwise lethargic day.

Last year, I stopped reading them. I stopped making a daily effort to grow in the smallest ways. I’m not sure why. I think I just became to busy and the idea of spending time on these sites seemed a waste. But I was wrong. My experiment in deprivation proved to be an exercise in screwing up my daily productive routines. Between eschewing my routines and not adhering to any unified philosophy, it’s no wonder I found the last quarter of last year adrift in a sea of gin and tonic.

So, February is now upon us and I’ve taken to a new blog. http://www.dragosroua.com. As I read over it, I’m reminded why I started writing. To express small maladies before they develop into caustic ulcers of thought. While these personal development blogs may be the equivalent of philosophical romance novels, but hey, they get the job done in the middle of a mundane Monday.

On Stress

January 27th, 2010 § 0

Stress, and this is not exactly news, is wildly corrosive. In my own life, stress seems to have taken root in a way I never thought it would. I distinctly remember sitting in college philosophy classes or playing music without a care in the world. Yet, looking back on that time, I seem to think of my former self in a negative light. Somehow I was mortgaging my future.

I’m not sure that’s entirely accurate though. While I may have been putting off what is a “traditional” future, I feel like I was happier. I feel that through the philosophy, constant reading, exploring ideas and generally doing what I wanted, I had some sense of world view. I had an overarching life philosophy. If not goals, at least I had an ethos.

In my transition to a professional self, I think I lost a lot of that philosophy. For better or worse, I had one. It may have been selfish, virtuously so I would think, but it was a philosophy. Articles like this one tend to express that an intrinsic “religious” orientation provides a wildly effective buffer against stress. I tend to think that simply having an intrinsic life philosophy will provide the same sort of guidance and more importantly the same tools to answer life’s questions.

Over the past few months I’ve been trying to reassert some sort of overarching principles for which to live by. Silly as it sounds, I retain some affinity for Randian ideology. Perhaps the aspects I enjoy are more eloquently expressed in buddhist philosophies or even some existentialist thought. The virtue of selfishness was always a concept I enjoyed. If everyone did what was in their best interest, we’d have a more positive result. Instead of feeling guilty for not volunteering when I can’t (or have some other issue more pressing) I can feel good about studying, which, for me is in my best interest right now.

I believe a lot of my personal stress comes from constantly feeling like I need to apologize for not delivering. I over commit because I feel as though I ought to give of myself. That’s the moral thing to do. But ought implies can, and right now I can’t. I’m ridiculously busy and to ignore that is to ignore my better interests to the detriment of my health, studies and ultimately the quality of my giving.

So, I write this, if for no other reason, than as a public manifestation of my intent to return to my more virtuously selfish life philosophies I used to follow with great tenacity. In the end, I believe the sum of my charity will be greatly enhanced if I just focus a little more on self interest in the short term.

Typing has become laborious

January 26th, 2010 § 0

2010 is now solidly out of the gate. Which means my resolutions were due roughly a month ago. They will not be forthcoming.

And that’s quite alright if you ask me. Since this is my blog, that’s exactly who I will pose the question to.

Every year it seems as though I make quite a few resolutions, some I complete and many I do not. Either way, there’s some growth there, and that’s pretty much all I’m concerned with. The journey rather than the destination. I know where the destination ends up anyhow.

So, for this year, for this 2010, I’m going to have a goal of growth. Broad and vague in it’s very nature. That may take the form of doing extremely well with law school, business, buying a car (done), buying a house, conquering anxiety, or simply enjoying life, growth will be the goal.

I think it’s one I can achieve. Anyway, the year is off to a good start. The NLC is taking off, my tenure on the SDCYD board is winding down with the club still solvent, business is picking up and work is going surprisingly well. Should be a good year, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

I am looking forward tot his decade though.

As the Year Winds Down

December 6th, 2009 § 0

Life has been exceptionally busy of late. Which is something I enjoy more than I probably let on in polite company. Being busy gives me some sense of daily purpose. A purpose that I lose so very quickly when I’m on vacation or don’t have something continuously percolating. It’s just a matter of balance.

I’ve been thinking of my New Year’s resolutions lately. I’d like to have an honest shot at accomplishing them this year. I think that 2009’s came up fairly short. It’s not as though I didn’t accomplish quite a bit this year, I certainly did. I finished my first year of law school, no small feat, had a productive year with the Young Dems, did a lot of quality work with the New Leaders Council chapter here in San Diego. Plus work. It looks as though we’re going to close on the $80 million deal on Thursday.

Still, there’s something lacking. Perhaps it has to do with very few of those aforementioned accomplishments taking the form of a finished project. I didn’t get to cross a lot off the list this year. I started a lot more than I finished.

For 2010’s resolutions, I’m going to put a few more measurable, quantifiable goals. I’d like to cross a few more things off the list while I’m moving on down the road with my long term goals.

Lessons Learned

November 1st, 2009 § 0

It’s alright, because there’s
beauty in the breakdown - I. Heap

–

Not as though it’s a new revelation, but I think we as people learn more from our mistakes, our failures, than we do our triumphs and successes. Success is overwhelming in its joy and ecstasy, but for a true lesson you must plumb the depths of failure.

Only in failing do we realize that we’re not nearly as competent, as perfect, as we’d like to think we are. Continued success, especially in absence of effort, tends to breed a particularly heinous form of hubris. A hubris that can only be cured by the inevitable collapse.

Failure for most is a chance to wallow in self pity or to shift blame away from one’s own efforts (or lack thereof) and onto some dastardly third party. I’m guilty of this as much as anyone else. Sometimes more so.

So today when I failed the exam I’ve been talking outside of my mouth about for about 8 months it was a chance to take stock of what I’m doing, where my faults lie and where my strengths are falling short. To do anything but this soul searching would be at least disingenuous and at worst fraudulent.

In Dan Airely’s book Predictably Irrational he proposes that as a species we tend to rationalize what is inherently an irrational circumstance. We leave ourselves many possibilities instead of committing to anyone. As a result we tend to do all of these in a haphazard or half assed way. To this point I am surely guilty.

So, tomorrow, Wednesday, is a new day. A new chance to regroup with the slate clean. A refocused plan. Not new, but refocused and with new effort. New strength as I’m not sure of what this undertaking will require.

Time to cut the fat.

Computers = Tools

October 26th, 2009 § 0

I’m always amazed by how much work I can get done from anywhere in the world while sitting in front of my laptop. The basic macbook first generation configuration has served me well. Wireless access at coffee shops and cafes powering the Generation Y workforce has become ubiquitous. Especially here in San Francisco.

Which is why it’s especially appalling to work with paper. When someone works with paper, there is a single copy that must be protected as if it were the Constitution itself. Every move that document makes must be accounted for, lest it be lost. For instance, I’m now sitting in San Francisco with a document, a paper document, that I need sitting on my coffee table inside my locked apartment in San Diego.

This paper snafu has completely derailed my morning. As we move away from paper as a staple of the office we’ll all be a lot better off. I think it’s just going to be a generational shift that takes place. The man that handed me that paper document typed said document on the computer, saved it, printed it and then walked it to my office. Why? I’m completely capable of receiving email. It’s just not how things used to be done.

While I appreciate the personal touch, my plate is too full for me to be dealing with too much paper. Now I need to make a copy of my house keys and fedex them back to San Diego overnight. Argh.

Let’s all make a concerted effort to move away from hard copies.

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