cameron avenue

John Piper:

We need to live in this hope again and again: fearsome enemies can become precious friends. Adversaries can become advocates. Critics can become comrades. For most of us its pretty easy to believe that an intimate disciple can become a deadly betrayer, like Judas. Thats the way the world is. But we need to remember that a deadly persecutor can also become a great ally and partner in the cause of Christ. Thats the way God is. Thats the kind of power he has.

Look on your adversaries with the eyes of faith—that someday, by the power of God they could experience a turn-around as amazing and unexpected as Sauls.

Psalm 13

How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
    How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I take counsel in my soul
    and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

Consider and answer me, O LORD my God;
    light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
    lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”
    lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
    my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD,
    because he has dealt bountifully with me.

Paul Graham:

…there’s nothing magical about a degree. There’s nothing that magically changes after you take that last exam. The importance of degrees is due solely to the administrative needs of large organizations.

The link points to an article about the future of startups, but this snippet stood out to me as it’s something I’ve been saying for a very long time. A large number of incredibly successful entrepreneurs that I know personally don’t have degrees. One of them didn’t even graduate high school the first time around, and it hasn’t prevented him from becoming incredibly successful.

One thing I’ll add is that degrees have also become a tool for those inclined to over-emphasize a degree’s importance to establish an ad-hoc class hierarchy based on institutional achievement. I often wonder how many young people lacking a college education choose to temper their ambition because they’ve been fed the “no degree = loser” propaganda by our public schools for so long.

DISCLAIMER: I did not finish my degree ;).

Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand, Six Hundred Minutes

About a year ago, I announced to the the world that I was leaving Toolhouse after 5 years to begin a new chapter here at AudienceCentral / PIER Systems. Looking back through my email archives, I think I actually accepted the position on May 10th, but I didn’t actually start until June 12th, so it hasn’t been quite a year.

What a difference a year makes.

As I look back over the reasons I originally had (and gave others) for leaving Toolhouse, I’m struck by the degree to which I got exactly what I had asked for. When I made the jump, I said I was doing it because the new job would provide me new opportunities to learn and grow. It has certainly done that, and to a greater degree than I had anticipated — just not quite in the ways I had imagined ;).

It has definitely been an adventure so far.

David Heinemeier Hansson: “Don’t be a hero.”

In other words, stop being so afraid of calling it quits. You’re playing to win the full season, not a single game. Every time you play the hero card, you’re jeopardizing the next game. Heroics are for when you have no other choice. When you can afford to take on tremendous risk because there’s no alternative.

Food for thought…

Cursed

I’m cursed. Or, at least my career track-record suggests that I am. Each time I’ve taken a new job, with one “sort of” exception, the individual immediately my senior is either fired or quits within 6 months. It’s definitely not intentional, but so far, it’s inevitable. In this two-part series, I’ll cover the details of the two (out of four) of the more interesting (at least to me) situations.

Read My Curse — Part 1