while(self++) { #1 } // So It Begins
This past weekend, I went to Catskills Conf. In its own words:
Catskills Conf is a gathering of Technologists and Creators at a retreat in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains. Our goal is to bring people together to be inspired by a diverse program and the landscape of the Hudson Valley. We’ve crafted a unique experience that aims to energize and motivate all attendees.
According to the illustrious Mike Zamansky — who attended the conference last year and who invited me this year—it’s basically a tech conference meets summer camp (even though it’s smack in the middle of Fall). Catskills Conf is many things, but the main thing is that it’s awesome.
One of the speakers, Jonathan Mann, struck me in particular. You may know him from some of his viral videos — We’ve Got To Break Up and A Duet With Siri. Mann told the story of his series, songadaymann, where he writes and sings a song every day. And he’s done so with amazing discipline over the past eight years.
His diligence made me think about my own, or lack there of in many cases. I’ve started and stopped many a task, usually tech side projects and books. Most recently, I’ve tried my hand at writing. But I know what holds me back. The sheer thought of how much time I will spend structuring, writing, editing, restructuring, rewriting, and reediting freezes me in my tracks at square one. My lack of discipline concerns me and I want to change.
I’ve decided to write a thought a day. It could be related to anything I think about during a day — a book chapter I read, a conversation I have, a song I listen to. The ultimate idea is that I want to understand as much as I can. Understand the world, its people, myself. Most of my understanding comes from self-reflection, and this venue will require me to distill my thoughts into writing. I’d like to become more disciplined and improve my skills as a writer. And if what’s holding me back is my fear of feeling overwhelmed, then I’m going to cut down the problem size. My daily thoughts will be succinct. They will be open. I will ask myself questions. I promise no answers.
Every one who has interacted with me non-trivially knows how much of a nerd I am. One of my preferred venues of nerdom is Computer Science. I code. For non-coders reading this, you may wonder what the heck the title of this series means. I think of it in three parts.
self
That’s me. More specifically, my knowledge of the world, my sense of self, and what I think it all means (and why).
self++
Here’s where my nerdiness comes out. There’s a common situation in programming where a number’s value may need to be increased by one. Many programming languages include the shorthand operation ++. Tack it on after a variable and its value increments by one. All in just two characters! Pretty neat. (Also, if you want any more proof about how awesome programmer humor is, look no further than the language C and its carefully named successor, C++. Yeah, I know. I love it, too.)
All this to say, I want to be a better version of myself. I want to understand more, learn more, empathize more. I want to raise myself from my current level to the next level.
while(self++)
While I have my self, I want this process of self improvement to loop continuously. There is so much more to know that I can’t possibly learn it all in one lifetime. Let’s take it one day at a time.
Thank you, Jonathan, for planting the seed in my mind. You the Mann. Starting from today, self == 1.
