Michael Mentele

The Sabbatical is Over

1/12/2016

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I've been on sabbatical for a year and a half in an effort to get my mental ducks in a row.

I've finally answered the question that has been plaguing me since leaving Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories.

See, in the course of any project (and certainly my life is a project) I always circle back to, what is my purpose? This is a focusing question. When you are writing software and get confused you clarify: what outcome I am trying to achieve. I think all endeavors are the same. Once you have clear purpose... the rest is almost trivial. Once you have the constraints and the scope, or the spec, for your activities, the rest almost takes care of itself. It's like a math problem, clearly understanding the problem is half of the solution. More than half. 

But a year and a half? Was that much time necessary? Yes. Yes, it was. I had to experiment and had to grow. This time has been critical, and I could not have invested this time any better. I experimented with different life purposes, then gave up on my lesser ambitions to make room for the greater. I disposed of ideas of working in game development, and other entertainment. I pruned, and simplified my options.

Now I have certainty. Certainty, and clarity as to the purpose and direction of my life and the pathway to get there. I am going to positively impact as many people as I can on a global scale. Yes, on a global scale. I believe this is possible through a few avenues/trends on the horizon. The one I am most excited about is the coming biological revolution (think computing revolution).  The 2010 - 2020 decade is going to be much like the 1980's were for computers and personal computing.  This combined with my excitement about applied intelligence is just as interesting.

It is going to take a lot of hard work, and there is going to be massive resistance to entry into the synthetic biology market. Perfect because it means it will be that much more rewarding to those who pursue it and dominate that space. I am willing to pay any price, and others are not, this means that the higher the price the better. It will be worth it.

The capacity to help the species is massive.

Synthetic biology, I believe, is the pathway to control over our destiny as a species and as individuals. The eradication of disease, the extension of life, and the ability to eventually engineer novel biological systems to integrate into our own physiology is waiting. I think the potential is boundless.

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Compartmentalization

1/4/2016

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Time to dual boot in linux.

My computer is too messy. It resembles an overfull toolbox. I also don't much care for the way Windows is organized. If I owned a Mac (or could afford one) I would go that route. But I've used Ubuntu in the past and loved it. The advantages of this change are:
  • Clear compartmentalization 
  • Reduce clutter
  • Cognitive association i.e. I boot into Ubuntu that sends a subtle signal that I am programming and nothing else
  • Build further context comfort with the Unix environment for development
  • Opportunity to clean up extra tools from my Windows enviroment

And the cons are:
  • Reinstall IDE's and dev tools 
  • Context shift and learning curve will take a small time investment
  • Installation process (backup, iso image for boot installation, partitioning etc.)

I think it will be worth it. I can be a bit nit picky about different projects touching. It creates a soup that bothers the programmers OCD in me. 

Hopefully I don't obliterate my hard drive somehow. 
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    Strategist and athlete by nature. Engineer by purpose. Voracious learner by necessity.

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