Simple

I am all about simplification. Over the many years I have been in Information Technology leadership I have preached the need for simple solutions. The most sophisticated solution need not apply. I am interested in mastering the requirements necessary with the simplest solution possible. Albert Einstein said it best,

"Everything should be kept as simple as possible, but no simpler."

The additional complexity that is unnecessary only adds burden. Perhaps it makes problems more difficult to troubleshoot and elongates mean time to repair. Or perhaps it demands additional life cycle management planning that could otherwise be unnecessary. Or maybe due to tightly coupled integration, invasive technical procedures require herculean efforts for stakeholder approvals.

It is my opinion some of the more innovative web applications recently are, at their core, simple. Facebook with it's simple interface. Twitter with its 140 character messaging. I think you can even make a case for Google's search engine success with its straight forward interface and business model.

So why is it that as inventors we gravitate towards complexity?

I can't explain it, although I am sure someone out there has a theory. Perhaps it is because we attach negative associations with simplicity. We use simple as synonymous with dim witted. We refer to simplifying messages so that the uneducated can understand it. But even with my own propensity to preach this principle, I myself tend to fall into the trap of designing solutions with too much complexity. I require of myself to reduce my solutions down after I am done to identify the meaningful elements for implementation.

Simplicity ensures and requires broader understanding. It requires greater discipline to provide solutions that are elegantly simplified. In simplification, there is greater freedom.

"If you can't explain something simply, you don't understand it well enough." - Einstein

The Runner

My wife is a runner. I am a walker.

This morning is another morning that I am reminded that my wife is the runner in the family. She has never before been an athlete and only running for about a year now. Earlier in 2011, she took 4th place in her age group in a 5k running race after only about 6 months experience. She has now ran through the winter, spring and summer, and is coming full circle now back into the fall. In Colorado, she has been averaging near 10 minute miles at our higher elevation. On her trip to California this summer, she continued her running, and averaged nearer to 8 minute miles. And by the way, I am super proud of my wife.

I on the other hand have been an athlete pretty much all of my life. I have won many wrestling championships at both state and national level, having started when I was 5 years old. Running was a necessary consequence of making weight and having the cardio needed to last 3 rounds with tough competition. A few years ago, I was starting to enjoy running in a different way. It was becoming a variety in which I could work out differently. I had been riding a road bike and lifting weights, and working my P90x routine. Running gave me an opportunity to balance those with something I could do in 30 - 45 minutes, get outdoors and get a good work out in.

Then came the injury.

I hurt my ankle running. And now every time I start running it swells up and becomes painful with any weight bearing activity like running. I have had an MRI, x-rays, and ultrasounds. I have seen 3 specialists, and sports doctors. I have spent more money in medical co-payments than I care to recall. No one has been able to figure out what it is. And each of them have suggested I stop running and do other activities. I remember telling the last specialist I could have come in with a sealed envelope that he could have opened saying he wouldn't know what my injury was. I was right, he got mad. But I dutifully wrote him a check anyway and left the office bitter.

So I walk.

While I walk, I wish I could run. But I can't. I occasionally try and test it out and end up having to limp back home, literally. Instead, I must swallow my pride and do what exercise I am able. My most recent walks I go at a fast pace and try not to let those slow joggers pass me. Not long ago I took my walking to the mountains and walked a few miles up a mountain in the Rocky Mountain National Park past Alberta Falls and up to Mills Lake. I picked up some snowshoes and trekking poles this summer to carry my walking into the winter this year. If I am going to walk, I am going to make it as interesting as I can.

I haven't given up yet on getting my ankle repaired enough so I can enjoy running once again. But in the meantime, I do not prefer to think of myself as a walker. I prefer to call myself a hiker, it just sounds better.

Be Still

This past summer, I had the opportunity to go camping with my son for a few days in the Rocky Mountain National Park. One of the mornings I woke up very early, started a fire and sat down in my camp chair and quietly listened.

There were squirrels chasing each other back and forth up the hill. Birds filled nearby trees and greeted the morning with song. As the fire crackled, I surveyed landscape and the beauty of the surrounding trees and mountains. A mule deer took a wide berth of my campsite with two fawns in tow. It truly did look like a painting as the sun slowly crept over the eastern mountainside and graced the meadow just below my campsite with a warm brightness. The memory is etched in my mind.

During the hour or so that I sat there, I fought to be still. I didn't want to miss a detail. I just sat there and took it all in. I tried not to even think or else my mind would race back to the cares of the world. I tried to remain present. I don't get to the mountains as often as I would like, so this morning I didn't want to spoil it by stirring around or thinking about what awaits me in the valley below when I return. I was still.

Later, after the sun was well established, my son emerged from the tent to join me. As we fired up the camping stove to start coffee, I reflected on how much I enjoyed that hour and how little time I spend being still as I had just been. The clutter of noises of everyday life drown out the things that might otherwise be noticed in times of stillness. But perhaps being still is exactly what I need to do more often. Just like the need for sleep and food and water are required to be healthy, perhaps I need to also be still. I am thankful for that morning and the reminder that not all moments need to be driven at top speed. But that sometimes to make the most progress on a journey one may only require absolute stillness.

Throw your Best Punch

"All the time he's boxing, he's thinking. All the time he was thinking, I was hitting him." - Jack Dempsey.

This is one of my favorite quotes. I consider myself a man of action. I just like getting things done that need to get done. I do believe in planning, but not at the time when fists are flying. That is when you need to step in and throw your best punch. I appreciate this common sense quote by Jack Dempsey and frequently remind myself of it.

With a little Google searching, I found Jack Dempsey was born in Manassa, Colorado on June 24, 1895. Dempsey rose to sports fame in the 1920s. As a nomadic traveler from 1911 to 1916, Dempsey began boxing in the small mining towns of Colorado under the name Kid Blackie. My brief search revealed he emerged from numerous saloon floor-boxing matches to professional heavyweight boxing champion in 1919 with his knockout victory over Jess Willard. Dempsey was perhaps best known for his heavy hitting and thrilling knockout victories. He had an aggressive and powerful style that had a lasting impact on the sport of boxing.

But prior to his boxing career, Jack Dempsey held jobs of digging ditches, picking peaches, cutting timber and being a circus roustabout while traveling from town to town. Nothing special. Except that the context of his humble beginnings is what makes the quote itself special to me. No one gave Jack Dempsey the boxing heavyweight title. He had to beat a 6' 6 1/2 inch tall 235 lb monster by the name of Jess Willard. Jack Dempsey boxed at 187 lbs. Rumors have abounded for years about Dempsey cheating as Willard was widely reported to have suffered a broken jaw, broken ribs, several broken teeth and a number of deep fractures to his facial bones. Whether he had or hadn't I cannot debate. But I can emphatically say that Jack Dempsey climbed in the ring and stood toe to toe with a giant of a man in true David and Goliath fashion, and won in 3 rounds.

If Jack Dempsey had never entered a professional ring and seized the moment, he would have not been remembered at all. If he had not stood in the face of adversity and overcome it, he might never have been known. If he had settled for saloon floor-boxing matches and picking peaches, I would not have his quote to inspire me to take action. Throw your best punch.

The Gardener

I am the worst gardener ever. I can tell you stories upon stories of gardens which have not survived under my care, lawns that have been ruined only to be replaced and ruined again, and fruit trees that never bared their fruit. A gardener, horticulturist, or botanist I am not.

However, I appreciate the analogy that gardening offers my own life. I still toil in the yard battling weeds, sowing flowers and celebrating when I prevail over a corner of the yard that has been my nemesis. Each of these things and more reminds me of the care that goes into any activity worth cultivating.

In my own start up company, of course this analogy of gardening is also relevant. There are some activities that require greater care to grow and flourish. And the things that grow rapidly, those that sprout tall in the least amount of time, might not develop deep roots nor survive unfavorable conditions. It is the things I am attentive to, the details I sweat, that allow for growth that is from strength and not easily withered. I am further reminded when there is pruning required, that this act of cutting off results in the promise of healthier growth. Even though at the time I may only feel the bite from the teeth of the saw.

Growing something from nothing requires care, attention and time. It requires the labor of digging deep, preparing the soil, and the eradication of invasive weeds that threaten to choke what it is you mean to grow. Does it require work? Yes. Are there forces at work both for and against you? Yes. Is it worth the effort? I say, yes.

"All gardeners live in beautiful places because they make them so."
- Joseph Joubert

Gaming for everyone

I know, I know. The latest buzz words are games and gamification. But I have to tell you, I love games. I have always been a gamer of some sort. In fact, the original game of Might and Magic on PC swapping in and out 5 1/4" floppy disks was the reason my career has been in Information Technology the past 23 years. I programmed on the Commodore 64, played pong and Pitfall on Atari, and dropped quarters in Star Castle at the arcade. In more recent years, I have enjoyed some team building online with Battlefield 1942 and City of Heroes.

And though I have spent countless hours with video gaming across the PC, Playstation, Nintendo and other platforms, I also like non-video games. My son and I play a card game with each other called Magic the Gathering. We have hundreds of cards now that we mix and match to build a deck to conquer one another. (I have even been known to buy some cards off of ebay to try and get the upper hand). We have chess boards in the house where we can sit down on a moments notice and go for the best two out of three. In these more recent years, I have enjoyed sharing the fun of games in all kinds of forms with my son.

But there is a big difference between my son and I. I can be highly competitive, and he generally is not. In fact, given the choice he would prefer to play cooperatively and be on the same team as opposed to one of us having to come out the loser in a contest. At first, I found this to be curious, even odd. I remember my oldest daughter playing Monopoly at age 7 and refusing to explain a rule to my father in law in hopes he would make a mistake she could capitalize on. And I thought to myself, "right on". I thought maybe I could work on this inability to compete with my son and perhaps help correct his behavior. It didn't take me long to realize that it did not need correcting at all, but this skill of his needed encouragement. It is not a flaw. It is his strength.

With this profound discovery of mine, I have found it curious in the manner by which many companies are engaging in gaming tactics to motivate people. Often the formula is simply to get people to compete for status. However, as I have found, not all gamers are equally motivated by the same things. Throwing competitive gaming elements together will not engage all possible participants in a one size fits all strategy. It is necessary to accommodate the competitive and the cooperative types. The meek and the assertive. The passive and aggressive style players. There are more than just competitive people who enjoy the fun of playing games.

Gamification needs to be fun at its core and engaging for all types of players. The individual who prefers Solitaire and crossword puzzles should not be left out. A rich playing experience incorporates storytelling and character development for some types of players. Game mechanics are fun when the level of difficulty matches the skills of the player. When gaming elements are too easy, they quickly become boring and erode their engagement qualities for the player. Why not let players determine those boundaries for themselves. It is my wish that software developers and designers who are incorporating gamification go beyond the short term quick hit earn points and badges model. I wish for them to implement more experiential frameworks that allow openness for players to explore the game elements in the style they are most attuned with. Not having to feel defeated or even having to engage with others socially if they prefer not to. But to enjoy gamification for the pure love of playing the game, however they choose to interact with it.

The Classics

Humphrey Bogart, Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne are some of my all-time favorite actors. By today's standards, their movies aren't flashy with computerized special effects or budgets in the unheard of millions. They just brought raw classic acting to the screen. They were loved for their own styles, each different from one another. Yet all of them legendary leading men. Every now and then, I pop an old classic on and enjoy simpler times by the likes of films such as The Maltese Falcon, The Man who shot Liberty Valence, or El Dorado.

These days I myself occasionally feel like a classic. A throwback from days gone by. I am part of a startup community and I am over the age of 40 years old. This is counter culture to the entrepreneurs of today. There is an expected formula to follow for big box office hits and large startup successes today. My profile doesn't fit, simply because I am considered too old and haven't done it before now. Yet the actors I mentioned are considered iconic, even to this day. They are legends who proved themselves time and again to defy the odds in film after successful film.

• Humphrey Bogart was short and had a lisp, flunked out of Phillips Andover and didn't break into the A-list of actors until the age of 42. Yet in 1999, the American Film Institute named him the Greatest Male Star in cinematic history.
  
• Jimmy Stewart was a boyish-looking, skinny unlikely leading man some have referred to as even biographically boring. Yet he is one of the more highly decorated award winners in film history starring in more than 100 films and considered one of the more beloved leading male actors ever.
  
• John Wayne began his acting career as an injured football player losing his scholarship and with an unlikely screen name of Marion Morrison. However, he went on to act in a reported more than 175 films. His work on the Searchers has been singled out by filmmakers and actors alike as the greatest performance by an actor on film, ever. When you want to watch an epic western, there is no equal.
  

Each of these men in spite of their drawbacks were reportedly driven, hard-working men of high integrity. These men of the past are inspiring to me. They give me the courage to be my own self and take all of my own experience and pour it into the stage I am given. I may not hit it big right away. My first few startup efforts might not be blockbuster hits. However, perhaps with persistence my own Oscar awaits. I share the highly driven, hard-working and high integrity philosophy of these leading men. And if I am discarded by some because I do not fit the profile, I am all the more fueled to become a leading man in my own style just as these men did.