What we are, what we were, what we can be...

I was reminded recently of a tendency in Americans.  Multiple individuals pointing out the same phenomena.  We don't accept the word "No" for an answer.  Many times in our history, we were told things were impossible.  The Panama Canal, dredging the Mississippi, winning a war on two fronts, sending a man to the moon and returning him safely to earth.  Our response as a collective, "We can do it."

We have traveled far.  In many cases, we have gone astray.  In some cases we are prone to delusions.  But the truth is that whether or not the rest of the world likes to admit it, we are the best hope.  One may view this as "ignoring the facts" or "tragically optimistic" or a dozen other things, but in the end I believe most of the world would agree with such a description of Americans.

As I've said before, we are the center of the empire.  The only threat to us being the internal decay that happens to all empires.  We must adapt to survive.  In some ways, we do this extremely well.  However, we have some obvious failings.  This is the country of Microsoft, Google, and Apple.  However, it was also the country where Atari rose and fell.  It is the country that built and destroyed IBM

For we are a country that was built on rugged individualism.  Many cynics will indicate that we were founded by wealthy slave owners.  This is true, but they did not build this country.  The first 2 years of our founding Revolution were fought by militias.  An organized army and intervention by the French brought it to an end, but it was started by a bunch of farmers standing before the line of trained soldiers.  We now use terms like "guerrilla" and "insurgent" and forget our birth.

Our story continues from there.  We as a colony declared our independence.  We declared war on our owners.  We spent years as an uprising.  We spent years as a "problem" that Great Britain had to deal with.  Then we presented a legal argument for separation.  The nerve.

We have stumbled, but ever since then we have looked upon the "impossible" and labeled it "difficult".  By 1900, people such as Nikola Tesla were coming to the United States.  Two American bicycle mechanics, not an Oxford trained physicist, developed controlled flight.  The Victorian era ended with, whether the continent of Europe would agree with me or not, the rise of a new empire.  An empire with territories that spanned half the globe.

We have allowed ourselves to fall in recent years.  Our rise too meteoric not to end with some decline.  However, our errors are obvious and can be easily corrected.  Carnegie built U.S. Steel regardless of who changed the name.  When it was sold to a financier, its demise became inevitable.  Atari destroyed itself by turning on its founder.  Apple rose and fell and rose again with Steve Jobs.  Bill Gates built Microsoft, Steve Balmer presides over its decline.

Strong-willed individuals allowed this country to rise.  Committees, boards, and focus groups have chipped away at it for decades.  Private industry has tried to model itself after government instead of the other way around.  I am certainly not saying that publicly controlled organizations cannot grow and flourish.  They just do not do so here.  A strong-willed individual is by definition someone that does not fit in with the crowd.  Groups, collectives, and societies are able to do good things.  However, it is my opinion that only individuals can have the singular vision to do great things.

The founder of a company will always be referred to as such.  He or she is the individual with vision.  Now as none of us can continue a task indefinitely, the titles of Chairman, President, CEO, etc. are passed on, but the title of Founder cannot be.  A founder creates something.  We often find founders simply leaving companies after they have reached stability.  They are inventors.  They are visionaries.  Their replacements can be well chosen.  The do not seem to have been often in the last 50 years.  A venture capitalist should never be involved in day-to-day operations.  An accountant should only run an accounting firm.  An investor should be bought out as soon as possible.  Money does influence many things in our culture and many will say that the purpose of business is simply to make money.  If this is the case than "businesses" are lifeless things that will never create or adapt.

Money keeps the doors open so you can do what you do.  The moment an organization forgets that, it has resigned itself to failure.

Inescapable...

The beach reminds us of the inescapable... the inexorable... The constant march of waves, the sand going where it pleases, the annual return of tourists.

I think of power whenever near the ocean... A power beyond our control. I also see a future. a chance for my young species... A doorway to the rest of this world... The other 70%...

We are of water. It is our birthplace. I do not spend much time with it. My body seems ill designed for it. I feel uneasy in its presence. I always have. Whether it be the power or the possibility something always makes me uncomfortable in its embrace. I am an invader. It is an ecosystem in which i have no niche... No place.

I will always think of the beach as a place where everything else is paused so that life can move forward. It is a place where everything is by choice. It moves as slowly or as quickly as we do. It ignores us. It does not ponder our intentions. It reminds us to just be. We all come with our own thoughts, our own goals. The ocean remains the same. We can effect it. Everything effects evrything and no power is absolute, but we will never see our own changes.

And so the ancient one teaches... Of time... Of power... Of desire. The rest is up to us. The ocean doesn't ask where we go from here.

Enlightenment

There is much to say and nothing worth telling. I do not always feel the need to write. I think that perhaps separates me from those we call writers. I write now. It is not the beginning of a great work. It is not a bit of prose that will change the world. It is simply scribbling. It is the realigning of thousands of bits in a patterned way.

Yes, somewhere in the universe a collection of creatures went to work. A collection of projects, plans, and ideas allowed for another set of projects, plans, and ideas. As of this moment, this is where one of these creatures sits.... writing... pushing on a series of buttons to form symbols the other creatures recognize. These buttons are part of a communication device. His body sits some distance above the planet he calls home. He is traveling at a relative velocity many times greater than his physical form is capable.

As he does this, a thought remains held by his consciousness. The thought that the amazement should be shared. The thought that while great members of his species made this moment possible, they brought millions of others with them. Whether they understood it or not, they set the stage to move forward. The elite are not of a single stock or bloodline or group. Those that do not wonder can be the progenitors of those that do. His species ability to adapt had made them what they were. The acceptance of those around him would allow them to take the next step. The things now thought impossible would become reality. The things he now considered a waste of the power they had been given would in some cases lead to greater powers.

He felt now and had always felt that there was no limit to the power his species could wield. He had looked through their histories. Again and again he had found instances where they thought things impossible. Instances where many had thought that things could not be done only to be proven wrong by a few. His species had physical limitations, however, by some great gift or accident they had been released from them. They had been able to leave the physical world. They could envision places where the rules were different. They could dream. They could envision. They could plan. They could then make things real.

The initial vision and the resultant reality did often differ. This was the true beauty of adaptation. The craft this human traveled in was far different than its predecessors. A clear path of iterations could not be calculated from its construction. The original idea had worked but had some limitations. Rather than accept those limitations, members of his species, had reconsidered the original idea. They did this without dismissing the knowledge of their peers. In some cases, conventions and traditions had gotten in their way. However, experiences had always yielded results and it was only the interpretation of those results that need be considered suspect.

His species was relatively young when he was born. The species was an odd predator. It's untold strength appeared in subtle forms in related species. The ability to use tools. The ability to throw objects. Social instincts. When combined they had led to a relatively successful group of species that were not viable prey to other species. Bipedal movement, the opposable thumb, and larger skulls were the last components. The effect of these was monumental. A species able to repel predators became a predator. A species wielded a weapon. The previous adaptation cycle of generational selection for traits was overcome in a moment. A concept was made real. An idea was put into practice. Something that had never been tried before worked. A question was asked. Within a few thousand years, a single species had changed the pace of adaptation.

He now sat thinking of some of its pitfalls. It had let itself go astray several times. It had failed to grasp its own power. It had let itself imagine that adaptation would stop. But thought cannot be limited. The power that each member of his species possessed offered infinite possibilities. His fellows may not wish to wield that power, they could even ignore it, but it existed regardless. A thought. A dream. The next step.