It's all good so far

The “Next New” event is going on in Austin right now.  While the news and social media is full of stories from this event, I find myself reading a novel about futurists by an Austin Author.  So there is a lot of the next new thing floating around right now.  

The trouble is that after awhile, the next new thing becomes just that thing, and if wasn’t a really can’t live without it item, it just becomes unused stuff.

A friend and I were discussing this yesterday.  Although we are from the tail end of the baby boom, we were at the start of the digital revolution.  We have had time to accumulate stuff.  A closet/garage/basement with stacks of old audio, computer tech that is not used anymore. 

But it was stuff we could not live without. We have spent part of our lives working so that we could acquire that stuff.  Time that we wont get back.  That is the accepted trade off, your labor allowing you to buy goods.  Makes you wonder what is a durable good.  

What is our expectancy on the life cycle of these new necessities.

Our parents did not celebrate the next new big thing every six months, the product they could not live with out.  Think about how many times did our parents change out appliances versus how often our generation does.  They had a greater expectation of the product.  Things were built to last.  

Something is wrong when you have replaced more than two garbage disposals in your lifetime. Shouldn’t our business model include a period of ownership where we are not either making payments or making repairs on an item? 

Yet we shelf our phones, laptops, netbooks, and tablets and replace them with new.  We accept the need to change because we are told that we aren’t going to be part of the herd if we don’t have the latest and greatest widget.

One of the new corporate phrases is “management of change”, a result of seeing lost productivity/continuity when people, projects, or programs are abruptly changed.  Perhaps we need to look at management of change when new technology is pressed upon us. 

Do we realize the total cost of changing an item, not only the item cost, but its required accessories, learning curve, etc?  Will it interface with our old stuff (our historic data)?  

Perhaps if instead of asking if  this new thing allowing us to multitask in a herd approved manner, we should ask about  its sustainability. As we age, our personal space beings to shrink, we need to re-evaluate what is essential.

I am in discussions with family about an online family business presence. We have mineral interests in East and West Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Florida. Some of the initial transactions are over 90 years old. Maintenance of and access to public records leaves something to be desired. Record searches are done manually. Those used to doing these paper archiveological digs are retiring. The new generation of land persons are used to doing all their research online.

So we are discussing setting up a family partnership profile and providing a history lesson about our historical involvement, our family changes through marriages and deaths, heirships, and successions.

This has me thinking about our meta selves. I imagine most of us have more than one online profile. One for the social networking, one for professional networking, an internal company profile, one for volunteer organizations and perhaps others.

I custom tailor cover letters in response to opportunities, trying to showcase different areas of talent as the position may require, to present the most favorable picture of my skills.

Those researching me are likely wading through various layers of data. The picture can vary with the skill of the researcher. How much data is out there? How much is public? How far back does one look? How does one interpret what one finds? Will their impression be colored by a particular incident, a point in time that we have moved past. Will they see how we have evolved and how we continue to evolve? How is my college grade point average pertinent now that I have been out of school for 30 years?

We need to be aware that our net self, if not greater, is at least different from the parts that we put out there. I am glad we are teaching situational awareness, and teaching to review reflect and evaluate actions as well as activities.

Things are slowing down now and I am at that point where I need to stir stuff up. The 2012 books for the company are ready to go to the accountant, and we have Dad’s books working too.

I have pushed Dad for the 2013 data so we can keep the editing even with the initial entry, but that will only take a couple of days to prepare. I may have to break down and do my own 2012 books for tax estimations only.

Time to review more geology of our areas of interest. It would be a good review for me and would help in the archiving efforts.

I also will try to do some more exercise. We have the two dog walks per day. The regular route covers about 3/4 ths of a mile so we get 1.5 miles in per day but that is not enough to get the weight off. I will shoot for post am dog walk walk at the track and see if I can get the mileage up to where it needs to be. It is the best free exercise opportunity available.

The slow time is the challenge. Time to stay off the couch, away from the tv, and see how productive/proactive I can be.