Wednesday, April 18, 2012

new era of cloud 9

Every day for the past three days, I have had a long conversation that shocked and amazed me.

The first was with a woman who is raising two kids on her own (one adopted orphan baby and one natural born), while having started several successful startups. Her companies are highly successful. I always hear people saying, "Raising a kid by yourself is hard" and "Starting a company while having a baby is tough" but she is relaxed!

She cheerfully talked about how it doesn't actually feel that difficult. Not in the hollow-eyed manner of someone trying to convince you that their life is perfect, but in an actually genuine and honest way.

I was so floored by the conversation that I completely forgot all sense of decorum or "playing it cool". The last five minutes of the group dinner and walking to our cars was filled with me obsessively stating how we must hang out again. I came home and immediately emailed her, added her on Facebook, and posted on her wall.

Now I know how stalkers feel.

The second conversation was with a writer. I've cut back a lot on public writing, mostly because I experienced a lot of criticism a couple years ago from someone close to me. But talking to this writer made me remember again how exhilarating it can be to share ideas with the world. Good writing is a thing of beauty, and watching it emerge can be wonderful.

The third conversation happened today, about 3d graphics and art, with someone who I deeply respect. We talked about SIGGRAPH and GDC, and how Blizzard spends months making detailed prototypes, which they then chuck away on the path to creating an even better prototype. 3d graphics is also about creating works of beauty. Sharing this wonderment was really inspiring.

...

Typically, awe-inspiring conversations only happen to me once every few months. So I don't know how I'm so lucky that it's been happening daily for the past three days. I feel like I'm winning the lottery every day. I wonder how long this can continue!

I also have conversations this good with Melissa, the cofounder of Minted, but she's working in Shanghai at the moment. Maybe I've entered a new era where every day I can have a conversation like this, and it becomes the new normal.  That would be an amazing world to live in!

1 comment:

Ryan said...

aww, that's great! i hope it's the start of an upward trend too. fingers crossed!

i'll +1 the part about writing in particular. i've always enjoyed writing on my blog, and in the last few years i've gradually started writing more essays as well as the standard "i did this cool thing!" posts. i'm obviously still an amateur, but i've tried to tkae the essays more seriously, doing research when necessary, writing multiple revisions, and getting feedback on drafts from family and friends. it takes work, but it can be very rewarding.