‘I can’t afford it’ – a common and well understood phrase that clearly ties a rejection to reasons regarding finances. Its counterpart, ‘I can afford it’ is a little more complicated. I offer my thoughts on what a number of hypothetical people mean when they say it. 1) The Hopeless I am able to get someone to give me the item in exchange for nothing but a promise to make future payments with interest. I am borrowing the full value and, if I did the math, I would not see a clear path to me being able to actually make the full payments. If I did the math I would probably also see that I will end up paying much more than the listed cost of the item. Most likely they will be reclaiming the item shortly and I will have wasted any money I gave them up to that point. 2) The Naive Optimist I am
I’ve long wrestled mentally with the idea of ‘normal’ and what it means to to fit that definition. To be a part of the middle section of the bell curve. To be one with the masses. I don’t think anyone in my acquaintance would describe me as wholly normal, but when facing decisions I often ask myself if I want to move closer to it or away. Should I reject or embrace the long tail? There is a part of my history where this dilemma surfaced itself in shallow ways. In college I stopped liking bands once they became popular enough to sell out shows at my favorite local venues. It became a matter of principle rather than just musical tastes. But, is liking only obscure bands solely a point of elitism? Or is there in fact value to that thought process? Even if the band and music did not change,
I read 6.5 books in the first half of this year. Half of what I needed to be on pace, meaning I’m 6.5 books behind schedule. To date this year I’ve read: The Omnivore’s Dilemma Death on the Nile No Country for Old Men Fluke A Scanner Darkly Managing Brand Equity I am currently reading: The Kite Runner Looking at the positive side, I’m doing pretty well at my sub-goal of reading more fiction. I wanted to split things 50/50, since I usually tend towards non-fiction. Of the 6.5 books I’ve read so far, 4.5 of those were fiction. I’ve been enjoying my selections so far. Most of them have also been made into a movie – I’ve made a habit of watching them afterwards while the book is still fresh in my mind to compare the two. Another positive, I am also doing better than last year when looking at books read as opposed to
creating excellencI got to go on a tour of the Pixar studios this week. A friend & former colleague now works there and invited me for lunch. The campus is awesome – everything about it exudes the excellence you would expect from Pixar. I loved seeing first hand the the strength of their culture. The company doesn’t just create great stories, but it falls in love with its own characters. They are present everywhere on campus in the form of sculpture, paintings, lego, etc. That shouldn’t be surprising if you’ve ever spotted hidden references in one Pixar film to a previous film – they like to reference their successes. One thing really stood out to me, though. As I entered the campus I walked past a giant logo for Cars 2. I didn’t even think to take a picture of it, but found one online so you can see what I’m