GRIZZLY PEAR

written snapshots

Month: February 2021

  • Natto, 2020

    Over the past year, I’ve started making natto, the sticky, pungent soybean fermentation. The process is extended but fairly simple:

    • Soak the beans for twelve or more hours
    • Steam it in the Instapot with high pressure for 4 hours
    • Inoculate the beans with with a spoonful of older beans
    • Incubate it for 24 hours in a toaster oven set on warm (at around 100 degrees Farenheit).

    I started with a commercial natto product and have been backslopping it for multiple generations. However, I’ve hit a couple weak batches.

    These modern industrial mono-culture products are not considered particularly resilient, so maybe it’s time to start anew. However, I may also have been at fault. After an extended good run, I might have gotten sloppy and pushed my luck, using a smaller inoculating batch or not being vigilant during this process.

    Even though my general philosophy has always been to push for “good enough”, there are still limits on how lackadaisical I can treat the process, since natto is not as forgiving as sourdough.

    A sour batch (while still edible) invariably feels like a soul crushing disappointment, but I need to remind myself that I learn more from failure. One doesn’t find the limits via easy success. Boundaries are discovered by going awry.

  • XLOOKUP, Microsoft Excel

    My colleague made a blunder with his Excel file and lost two days of work. I wasn’t able to help him recover the garbled data, but before hanging up, he asked me if I could look up data on a separate worksheet in order to auto populate cells based off of a furniture tag on the main sheet. That quickly lead to a MS Teams call on a Sunday evening and a couple google searches later I hit the jackpot and save him two more days of labor.

    The tip of the iceberg was two grown men hooping and hollering about a successful excel formula.

    This moment was only possible with the powerful suite of technology in our homes. The laptops, the broadband, and our newfound familiarity with video calls. A simple text on a cell phone became a full blown weekend meeting in a few minutes.

    Under that were years of tinkering in Microsoft Excel, starting when my dad showed me formulas on a spreadsheet while I was in junior high. Normally, I’m not really into tech, but I’ve always had a soft spot for Excel. The spreadsheet is such a seductive way to numerically model the world. I’m nowhere near a ninja, but I’m in the upper percentile compared to other architects. I’ve never taken a formal course, but every time I’ve run into a question, I’ll make that extra web search to lock in the answer. Every little moment accumulates into a decent library of knowledge and an easy ability to search for what one doesn’t already know.

    And then there is my relationship with my coworker. We first met at a previous firm and worked together for a couple years. He moved on but soon invited me to pursue this gig with the state. We come from different worlds, but we’ve always had an bond with each other beyond the transactional relationship.

    We’ve always had each other’s back, especially on a quiet Sunday evening as the kids are wondering why daddy started dancing around the home office.

  • Flight Volume 2, Kazu Kibuishi (editor), 2007

    I bought this book so long ago, I checked the copyright to see if I had bought it before leaving California. From the date, it was published a couple years after my wife and I had started dating, so it seems that my memory of buying it in a comic shop in Texas might be accurate.

    Last week, I noticed it in the garage on top of my big row of boxed up books, waiting for a permanent home with bookshelves. My daughter saw me flipping through it and wanted to read it.

    It was time. I wrapped it up and gave it to her as a birthday present last week.

    The girl went so quickly from being a concept, through infancy and toddlerhood, and is now blasting through books and graphic novels with abandon.

    It goes fast. Even her prehistory can’t keep up with her.

  • Aging Well, George E. Valliant, 2002

    Last night I had a dream. I led some folks around on a wild foot chase around the neighborhood and then snuck into the office, pretending nothing had happened. To my chagrin, a police officer walked in soon after. Even though I didn’t hurt anyone, someone had slipped and broke their ribs during the run around.

    For goodness sake, what’s a more certain sign of aging than having your subconscious punish you for second order effects from your dream-state actions? Maybe its a budding sign of a grown up wisdom?

    The book itself is a pretty easy read. It’s a more or less heartwarming collection of stories. Even though your start isn’t as important as it may seem, there are definitely good and bad outcomes at the end.

    The main takeaways are to avoid alcohol and smoking, practice good mental acceptance techniques, and create a good network around you. Honestly, this isn’t much different from what everyone tells their kids. Even so, it’s nice to have a few longitudinal studies to lend common sense the authority of science.

    Other Takeaways

    There were three other key takeaways that I think are worth lifting straight out of the book.

    George Valliant identifies six adult life tasks:

    1. Identity: Finding a sense of one’s self, values, etc., separate from your parents.
    2. Intimacy: Finding a life partner.
    3. Career Consolidation: More than a job, this is one’s work.
    4. Generativity: Guiding the next generation, community building.
    5. Keeper of Meaning: Conservation and preservation of the culture and institution, beyond individuals.
    6. Integrity: Facing death and life at the end.

    Valliant also lists key “adaptive coping mechanisms” that will help you navigate the vagaries of life. Maladaptive ones are projection, passive aggression, dissociation, acting out and fantasy. There are also mature defenses:

    Such virtues include doing as one would be done by (altruism); artistic creation to resolve conflict and spinning straw into gold (sublimation); a stiff upper lip (suppression); and the ability not to take oneself too seriously (humor).

    page 64

    And finally, Valliant closes his book with a quote from E. B. White, via a valedictory address by Timothy Coggeshall.

    Be a true friend.

    Do the right thing.

    Enjoy the glory of everything.

    page 325

  • Ubongo!, Grzegorz Rejchtman, 2003

    Yeah, yeah, its a great game. It’s something that even our 6 year old plays well. It doesn’t surprise me that this game has sold 5 million copies.

    My one quibble with the game is the scoring system. Clearly it’s an issue because the publisher changed it between the original release to the copy we just bought.

    The original scoring system with the jockeying pawns looks a bit fussy, so I suspect that randomly pulling scoring gems from a bag is a better fit for the light filler mood of this game.

    But better doesn’t mean correct.

    I’m not the only one who is uncertain about the new scoring system. Otherwise the rules wouldn’t have included a variant where one merely earns set points for each place you finish.

    I get the conundrum. Some puzzles are just harder than others. So there is already some randomness backed into the game, even if skill matters in the aggregate.

    Which brings up the interesting design question, does adding randomness on top of randomness improve the game? Is it better to stack unfairness upon unfairness?

    I don’t know, but I suspect we’re heading into philosophical territory about life, the universe, and everything.

    I’ll give it 42 stars.

  • John Adams for the next Generation

    I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.

    John Adams

    I’ve played with various mission statements over the last couple years slowly condensing into the motto “Mutual Delight and Refinement”.

    In spite of our current political and medical turmoil, I still hope that the world will continue to improve. I’m well aware this is not guaranteed, just look at the Dark Ages or the brutal centuries of war after the Zhou and Han Dynasties. However, I suspect that staring fully into the abyss would only cast a shadow over today while doing little to help prevent a dark tommorrow.

    So I hope. Every time I imagine a future for my own kids, I find them producing something of beauty, making things better around them.

    Life is both about enjoyment and betterment.

    Let’s make it real.

  • 13, 14, 15

    My boy had picked up an odd habit of skipping the number fourteen when counting to twenty, while washing his hands in this COVID shaped world.

    On the one hand, that makes him a good Asian (14 is an unlucky number that is a homonym with death in Chinese). However, we have no idea where that came from because we aren’t a superstitious household.

    We didn’t make a big deal about it. He hasn’t even turned three, so we’d rather celebrate that he’s nailed nineteen of the numbers on the way up to 20. Then again, we couldn’t just let this mistake stand, so we would correct him every time as he washed up for a meal.

    Yesterday he got it right.

    He was so pleased with himself he stumbled past sixteen through twenty.

    Meanwhile, I stood at the sink, struck with a lingering sadness as another phase of his life suddenly came to an abrupt end.

  • OPM.000000 (Thought Manager)

    Hello World!

    Thought Manager

    As with any project, a good first step is to start by making its goals concrete, and the aspiration of this newsletter is best condensed by this odd phrase.

    I’ve been out of college for twenty years, but Architecture is an old person’s game. I’m still learning new things every day, and I’ve only been an OPM for three years.

    Then again I’m embarking upon the back half of my career, so I hope I’ve got some valuable ideas worth sharing with my colleagues and the next generation of architects.

    I believe that writing this monthly newsletter will force me to think sharper while providing a vehicle to connect with fellow OPM’s. In more detail, my definitions of success for this project are:

    • Develop a library of work related musings for future personal reference.
    • Create content that can be easily shared on my portfolio as well as email and Linkedin.
    • Push myself to keep improving. I’m at a dangerous moment where I’ve developed just enough experience to become complacent. I’m hoping that sticking myself out in public every month will keep me from getting too comfortable.

    Fortunately, these three goals are attainable by my own effort. Just sit down and write a few hours every week.

    Ideas should be shared, not hidden. I wouldn’t be blogging if I didn’t have this bonus goal in mind – to develop an audience and spark conversations with folks I might not otherwise meet. If that happens, I think I’ll have become a Thought Manager.

    ~

    What are your goals within this modern information-connection economy?

    Hit Reply and lets chat!

    ~

    My OPM notes from January

    Apologies for the self indulgence, but it seemed fitting to start the year and this newsletter with a post with an introduction of a hundred words and ten photos.

    It Doesn’t Have to be Crazy at Work is a an aspirational manifesto for a calm workplace. However, the foundation starts in one’s mindset. Calmness starts with being satisfied with enough.

    Seth Godin repeatedly touts Linchpin as his masterpiece, even when he is on the book tour circuit selling his newest books. He’s right. It’s his most earnest attempt to push us to risk failure over guaranteed stagnation.

    When I finished reading it, I thought Tiny Habits would be the most influential book of the year. I was partially correct. Some of its tips have helped me develop better personal habits, but its biggest influence was introducing me to the world of ebooks and revolutionizing my reading and audiobook habits.

    One from the Archives

    I’ve always taken a fairly personal approach to work and business. If I am doing something for the better part of my waking life, then I might as well bring my best self to this effort. However, one’s compatriots in a project are not always the most obvious folks. The conversation with the past is one of the great joys of renovating older buildings.

    … and a public domain photo.

    Coil winder, RCA Victor New Jersey Radio, Lewis Hine, 1936

  • Labyrinths, Jorge Luis Borges, 1962

    I was originally introduced to Borges via his short stories while in college. Twenty years later I finally got around to reading the essays and parables.

    Wow. Just as with his stories, these pieces are tight, dense, and well worth reading. Then again, that was pretty obvious – all the adulation that could be written has already been written. Hell, I couldn’t write a collection of hosannas more effusive than the introduction at the start of this anthology.

    So let’s talk about the librarian and the Librarian.

    One is lionized as a god from South America, the blind protagonist in the rose. And the other is a teacher who makes my daughter excited to live with books. In this time of distance learning in pandemic, where I am an ever present spectator of my girl’s education, I now know why my daughter loves her school librarian.

    Ms. Douglas brings the heat. She can control a room even over a video call, with an infectious generous energy every Friday afternoon wrangling first graders for an hour. It is a mundane display of exceptional skill.

    As in my profession, there are the great and the Great.

    The masters of our universe are revered in legend, but we ought to praise the vast cohort who have quietly mastered their craft, spreading the love to the next generation.