Places I Want to Go In NYC

The Summit Bar
David Burke's Treehouse
Fishtail
Huckleberry Bar (maybe ... Williamsburg)
Red Rooster

A Decision NOT to get more Education

Original thought is frightening, especially when it comes to big decisions but I think this is a very important decision.  Now I know how great thinkers must feel when they truly start to think frightening original powerful ideas.

I have decided not to go to graduate school for Statistics.  I want to.  But that want is the want of an employee, not an entrepreneur.  And I want to be an entrepreneur.  This is a maverick move and for the first time in my life I feel like I'm being a true maverick, taking a real risk.  Here's the logic.

Developers are plumbers.  We build the pipes that move the data.   We design the systems.  The best of us can do the marketing to gain the attention.  Then we scale up and continue the process turning from developer to architect to businessman.

The customers provide the data.  The data is the water that flows through the pipes.

The data scientists are the gauges.  They measure and slice and dice the data, the water, to instruct the engineers on which way they should go.  

But it's the developers that own the pipes and that can change them.  It is better to gain a specific expertise in development, building pipes, and then hiring data scientists as opposed to being one yourself.  

Data scientists seem to have a much higher probability of being employees and not entrepreneurs.  That is not my goal.  

It is my familial mindset that leads me to want security, to want to prepare for a higher paying job.  But in order to gain something great you must let go of something good, even if that good thing leads to higher pay.  You can have a good paying job or you can have enough to significantly help others, you can be an entrepreneur.
I want to be a great entrepreneur therefore I can't be a good employee.  It's just the way it is.

Update:

I believe in signs.  Today I'm listening to the Diane Rehms show and there is a story about Thomas Edison, someone who I greatly admire, the original Elon Musk, this is a guy I really want to be like.  We have some striking similarities.  First, Edison was fired often.  Second, his monumental success came late in life.  His monumental success was the light bulb, though he was a serial inventor (and commercializer of his inventions).  He started working on the light bulb at 39.  He solved the issue by 46.  In a day of instant billionaires I take some inspiration from this.  I take it as a sign.

Racing School

http://www.scca.com/clubracing/content.cfm?cid=44466&tag=52

Artists I Like

Anton Perich
http://www.microscopegallery.com/?page_id=2313

Bill Murray Joke Poster
http://society6.com/product/Bill-Murray-replaceface_Print

Cool Rugs
http://www.thomastramp.com/home.html

Learning Github

http://pcottle.github.com/learnGitBranching/?demo

Trap Doors

In my life I've discovered that when you're on your way to a goal, on your way to happiness open doors are often trap doors in disguise.  

So I'm well on my way in my plan to build GFM.   It's coming along nicely.  There's still a lot of work to be done.  But I'm working my way through this project at a considered pace.  But just like when you're in a relationship, happy and calm, then comes the date requests that never used to come.

In the exact same way as I'm working on this project two offers come out of the blue: my sister offers me to write a movie, tempting me with that Hollywood siren song, and a potential job offer that I turned down long ago arises.

But I get the distinct feeling that both of these are red herrings.  Perhaps they aren't . Perhaps this job offer is necessary and a good thing.  But in my experience when things are going according to plan the best distractions and detours are dressed up in the nicest clothes and the longer you drive toward your goals the better the distractions look.

The key is to ignore them and to keep your eyes on the prize.  No distractions.  No looking around.  Just stay focused and do your job.

Shawshank Success

I knew I would be successful when three things happened.

First, when I woke up one Monday morning angry.  I was angry because I had to go to work.  But I enjoy working actually.  It makes me a bearable human being, being able to put my energy into something constructive and structured.  Rather what made me angry was the fact that if I didn't go to work someone would deprive me of my lifestyle.  Namely that my time wasn't my own, therefore my life wasn't my own, therefore I was a slave.  I used to say I wanted to be rich but I wasn't sure what that would buy me or what I wanted to buy.  I got very clear that afternoon at work.  I wanted to be rich because I wanted to buy my freedom.

Second, this actually happened today.  I imagine when Andy Dufresne started digging his way through the wall until probably about 1/3 of the way through he was frustrated, angry, depressed, upset, tired, hungry, bored, scared, and doubtful.  I imagine that sometimes he'd quit.  Sometimes he'd give up.  Sometimes his mind would wonder and he'd only put some effort into it.  But then there had to come a point when it just became a habit.  His being, his soul even, just became a tool.  He just began to dig.  He began to dig because digging just became his habit. It didn't bother him.  It didn't scare him.  He still became hungry.  But he was accustomed to it.  All of the emotion became routine and therefore managable and his being, not his mind, but his being began to just focus on the task.  This happened today.  Normally I go through a range of emotions depending on the day about working at my keyboard on my system.  Sometimes I feel like it.  Sometimes I don't.  Sometimes I'm frustrated.  Sometimes I'm eager.  Sometimes I'm driven.  Sometimes I'm bored.  But today it wasn't any of those feelings.  It was habit. My hand, without me really guiding it, simply went into my laptop bag, pulled out my laptop, turned it on, and began programming.  There was no thought, no emotion, nothing.  Just work.  My soul, my will, my hands, my being just became a tool.

Finally, I understood why I had to do what I had to do.  I always knew why I had to do what I had to do: why programming, building systems was the best route for me to get where I needed to go.  I knew that because I knew that building a system and making money off of it, having a global shop, that I was able technically to expand, and could be sold as a business thereby buying my freedom was the logical progression.  But there is a difference between knowing and understanding.  In the movie Shawshank Redemption, I'm sure Andy Dufresne thought when he was frustrated what other options did he have.  Everyone does when they're doing what they don't feel like doing but know they must.  How can I get out of this?  How can I move on without going through this?  Andy must've weighed his options.  One, work for the Warden  and accept this dirty crumb for a life.  Two, don't work for the Warden and become a lesser man thereby losing his soul (and what's a life worth without a soul?)  Finally, dig.  When you understand your only choice in life is to dig everything becomes crystal clear.  You dig.  And you dig with single minded determination because you understand there is nothing else but a single line of escape.  My choices were simple:  work for someone else forever and accept that crumb of a life, two, try to trade stocks or do some other venture and scrape by, never really getting to where I want to be and putting myself through a lot of emotional wear and tear until I was eventually exhausted of trying, losing my ambition to waste.  Or three, dig.  Program.  Work.  Build.  I chose the third.  

But I never really had a choice.