12 Mar 2016
I find myself looking for new apps to help me be more productive, more reliable, and just generally a better person. I look for other’s opinions and reviews to find a better way of doing things and to also feel that I am not alone in this struggle. The struggle is Real. I am learning that this response to the struggle is distraction. Searching for a new tool takes hours, and then more time getting it set up and doing the test drive.
Then, glowing in its minimalistic icon glory etched into my home screen it sits. And it sits. And so I sit. I didn’t make progress in the struggle, I simply distracted myself by looking for something that would make the struggle less painful. Oh fleeting joy of $1.99, you have tricked me again! It isn’t an app I need but rather a process. Process is hard but is the way I can progress against the struggle.
03 Feb 2015
Am I proud of the things that I have done? Was there a better way for me to do something? Could I have achieved the same result more effectively or easily? Did I screw something up?
The answer to these questions is a resounding yes. What differentiates greatness is the ability to learn from the scenarios and then apply that knowledge in the future. (Not that I know. Easy to type. Difficult to do.)
What I do know is that we made a few decisions last year at Symph that after taking stock needed to be reconsidered. We needed to change, as what we were observing and learning from the result was not the intended outcome. It felt scary at first to admit this - would the team think that we have lost our way? Would they question our ability to lead? They might; they probably did and they should.
Our premise as a startup is to always be learning and therefore be constantly trying new experiments and adapting to what we learn. Therefore, taking stock without acting upon it is futile.
16 Oct 2014
“I don’t know.” I said in a hushed voice in reply to my wife’s question about a baby born at Glory Reborn. Silence followed my reply as we both tried to find an answer for this situation.
I’ve said this countless times throughout my life. I’ve used in when replying to “Who ate the last cookie?” “What’s the square root of 4,792?”
In most of these situations there was an answer. “I did.” “69.2242731995”
Sometimes I knew the answer and other times I did not.
Recently I faced a situation where there wasn’t an answer. It is an unsettling feeling to not have the answer, or to appear that you don’t have it all figured out. It makes you ponder why and question what you are doing.
I have a theory that life in the developed world has a lot of insulation. We typically have insurance, savings plans, retirement funds, and government programs or welfare as a cushion of last resorts. The developing world typically does not have as much insulation. Insurance, savings plans, retirement funds are a luxury. The city hospital of Cebu was destroyed after sustaining damage in a 2013 earthquake, until now there is not a public, Cebu City hospital - only the public regional hospital and other private hospitals.
I never came up with an answer on that phone call. There have been countless times and challenges that we have seen at Glory Reborn, however these I Don’t Know situations are the ones that keep me up at night. They keep me awake as I (and Hilary) want to solve them, wanna help - drop me an email: david {at} gloryreborn dot org.
What situations have you faced recently in life and the answer seemed to be “I don’t know.”?
24 Sep 2014
Never in all their history have men been able truly to conceive of the world as one: a single sphere, a globe, having the qualities of a globe, a round earth in which all the directions eventually meet, in which there is no center because every point, or none, is center — an equal earth which all men occupy as equals. The airman's earth, if free men make it, will be truly round: a globe in practice, not in theory.
Science cuts two ways, of course; its products can be used for both good and evil. But there's no turning back from science. The early warnings about technological dangers also come from science.
What was most significant about the lunar voyage was not that man set foot on the Moon but that they set eye on the earth.
A Chinese tale tells of some men sent to harm a young girl who, upon seeing her beauty, become her protectors rather than her violators. That's how I felt seeing the Earth for the first time. I could not help but love and cherish her.
For those who have seen the Earth from space, and for the hundreds and perhaps thousands more who will, the experience most certainly changes your perspective. The things that we share in our world are far more valuable than those which divide us.
The Final Frontier
There can be no thought of finishing for ‘aiming for the stars.’ Both figuratively and literally, it is a task to occupy the generations. And no matter how much progress one makes, there is always the thrill of just beginning.
There can be no thought of finishing for ‘aiming for the stars.’ Both figuratively and literally, it is a task to occupy the generations. And no matter how much progress one makes, there is always the thrill of just beginning.
The dreams of yesterday are the hopes of today and the reality of tomorrow. Science has not yet mastered prophecy. We predict too much for the next year and yet far too little for the next ten.
Spaceflights cannot be stopped. This is not the work of any one man or even a group of men. It is a historical process which mankind is carrying out in accordance with the natural laws of human development.
Reaching for the Stars
As we got further and further away, it [the Earth] diminished in size. Finally it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful you can imagine. That beautiful, warm, living object looked so fragile, so delicate, that if you touched it with a finger it would crumble and fall apart. Seeing this has to change a man.
To go places and do things that have never been done before – that’s what living is all about.
Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.
As I stand out here in the wonders of the unknown at Hadley, I sort of realize there’s a fundamental truth to our nature, Man must explore, and this is exploration at its greatest.
Placeholder text by Space Ipsum. Photographs by NASA on The Commons.
18 Sep 2014
Never in all their history have men been able truly to conceive of the world as one: a single sphere, a globe, having the qualities of a globe, a round earth in which all the directions eventually meet, in which there is no center because every point, or none, is center — an equal earth which all men occupy as equals. The airman's earth, if free men make it, will be truly round: a globe in practice, not in theory.
Science cuts two ways, of course; its products can be used for both good and evil. But there's no turning back from science. The early warnings about technological dangers also come from science.
What was most significant about the lunar voyage was not that man set foot on the Moon but that they set eye on the earth.
A Chinese tale tells of some men sent to harm a young girl who, upon seeing her beauty, become her protectors rather than her violators. That's how I felt seeing the Earth for the first time. I could not help but love and cherish her.
For those who have seen the Earth from space, and for the hundreds and perhaps thousands more who will, the experience most certainly changes your perspective. The things that we share in our world are far more valuable than those which divide us.
The Final Frontier
There can be no thought of finishing for ‘aiming for the stars.’ Both figuratively and literally, it is a task to occupy the generations. And no matter how much progress one makes, there is always the thrill of just beginning.
There can be no thought of finishing for ‘aiming for the stars.’ Both figuratively and literally, it is a task to occupy the generations. And no matter how much progress one makes, there is always the thrill of just beginning.
The dreams of yesterday are the hopes of today and the reality of tomorrow. Science has not yet mastered prophecy. We predict too much for the next year and yet far too little for the next ten.
Spaceflights cannot be stopped. This is not the work of any one man or even a group of men. It is a historical process which mankind is carrying out in accordance with the natural laws of human development.
Reaching for the Stars
As we got further and further away, it [the Earth] diminished in size. Finally it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful you can imagine. That beautiful, warm, living object looked so fragile, so delicate, that if you touched it with a finger it would crumble and fall apart. Seeing this has to change a man.
To go places and do things that have never been done before – that’s what living is all about.
Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.
As I stand out here in the wonders of the unknown at Hadley, I sort of realize there’s a fundamental truth to our nature, Man must explore, and this is exploration at its greatest.
Placeholder text by Space Ipsum. Photographs by NASA on The Commons.