I’ve worked some challenging jobs in my career. One such job taught me how long I can go without sleep and still function, to a point. Long hours, presentations, meetings, followed by taxi, bus, and train journeys to the next destination and hotel, then repeat. High stress and anxiety meant that with each hotel stay sleep rarely came, or when it did it wasn’t deep enough.
After the first day I can function at about 60%. After the second it’s 40%. By the morning after the third sleepless night I’m at 20%. I can function, I can get through meetings and presentations, but anything not scripted and my brain is sluggish. I Don’t drink caffeine or other stimulants so I’m running on energy and sheer willpower alone. I Don’t drive on day three. It’s too dangerous.
By the end of day three I’m a zombie and I will sleep for around 10-12 hours. The next day I’m at around 80%. It generally takes about two days to catch up and get back to normal.
This is not a long-term strategy for dealing with stressful situations. If I can, I generally avoid them. But if not I know I can function without sleep, but only for three days.
Ethics
I was asked to come along to a local company’s offices to discuss some work. I arrived on time and was taken to a store room. I was shown a pile of laptops. I was informed that the company had purchased the assets of a company that had gone bust. Office furniture, chairs, printers, a photocopier, and a lot of laptops.
So what’s the job? I asked.
Them. They pointed at the laptops.
What about them? I asked.
We can’t unlock them came the reply.
It appears that the laptops new owners wanted to see what was on them. I explained that they owned the hardware but not necessarily what data is on them.
Would I unlock them?
I passed. I didn’t take the job.
My childhood
My childhood was a series of John Hughes movies mixed with an overlaid DIO, Def Leppard, Van Halen, and Iron Maiden soundtrack, with Rodney Matthews and Roger Dean posters on the walls and ZX Spectrum cassettes mixed in with Commodore Amiga floppies. There’s cans of diet pop on top of worn copies of Heavy Metal magazines and faded Nemesis the Warlock graphic novels. William Gibson and Neal Stephenson look down from the bookshelves with Rudy Rucker, Piers Anthony, and Harry Harrison for company. Evil Dead II and The Terminator rest by the VCR while my Raleigh Grifter needs a new back tyre. Kenner Star Wars and Palitoy Action Man are under the bed along with a mixed box of electronics. A puppy eyes me from the foot of my bed while a goldfish swims aimlessly in a nearby tank. I stare out the window wondering what the future holds while an engineer installs a satellite dish on the wall outside my room.
When you’re gone
I’m at a wake. We are all wearing colour. It was mandated.
We are in a large garden. There’s drink, food, laughter and sadness. People are having conversations about their lives, upcoming holidays, birthdays, parties. Living their lives.
All but one. The gone.
When you’re gone you’re gone. People may be sad for a while, you may be missed, but you’ll be gone. You are not here to see what happens next, to enjoy the food, the drink, the company. To take part in the conversations, the future plans. It’s sad but nothing is forever.
Looking around it made me think. People come and go. You can’t live in the past. You have to enjoy the here and now. Enjoy every day, the people you love, and the things that make you happy, no matter how small. Nothing lasts.
When you’re gone, your gone.
Video arcades
I came across a video arcade the other day. I didn’t realise they still existed. I figured everyone just played video games at home now with their game consoles and computers. This one felt fresh, like it hasn’t existed for long. The games and graphics looked recent. I didn’t recognise any of the titles.
I wandered around looking at the peripherals. VR googles, mounted weapons and weapons connected by cable, steering wheels, and seats. Flashing lights and glossy logos begging for your coins. At least the gold ones. Electricity isn’t cheap these days.
I didn’t play any. I have a console and computer at home that will last longer than a life tied to a coin credit. No one else was playing them either. The few patrons were either at the penny pusher or fruit machine ends of the arcade.
I glanced around again remembering the arcades of my youth. Galaga, Space Invaders, and later Operation Wolf and Timecop. Thanks for the memories but I’ll stick with my games console.
Making other people money
When it comes to making money I appear to be good at making other people money. There seems to be no end of people asking for my time and using it to make themselves money.
I’m constantly asked to lend my time and expertise to worthwhile endeavours that will help build the community. Giving talks, writing articles, judging events, hosting events, giving my time freely, only to later learn that those doing the asking are being paid or are making money on the back of my time and efforts.
So I’ve started to say no. No to giving away my time and sweat for free. I think I’ve banked enough karma to earn a break and to focus on giving time to me and mine.
For now I’m taking a break from making other people money.
Travelling without a phone
I used to travel without a phone. I couldn’t imagine that today. Being totally disconnected from everyone digitally. If I wanted to phone home I would have to go purchase phone cards and find a public phone box. Are they still around today? For email I’d have to go to an internet cafe and pay for computer access by the hour. Do they still exist?
These days our smart phones can do everything and work in most countries. Or you could just purchase a pay-as-you-go SIM card for each country you travel through if you wish to avoid roaming charges.
The point is that technology and communications move on and when I first started to travel the world there was a greater feeling of disconnect. These days everyone is just a smart phone away from one another.
Could you travel without your phone?
Your best Me day
A Me day is a day all about you. Where you take the time to enjoy life as you do best. No work, family responsibilities, or chores. Just pure unadulterated laziness or activity that entertains you. With your favourite foods and drinks.
Now what would your best Me day look like if money was no object? What would you do if you were filthy rich and wanted a break from it all?
How about a house on a tropical island with no one around. There’s a tiki bar on the beach with self service. A pile of your favourite books on a stool by a lounge chair by the pool. A personal chef delivering whatever you want to eat by boat when you call.
Or maybe flying on a private jet to a far away country to dine at an exclusive restaurant followed by a play or movie?
Maybe a luxury cruise or train journey?
Or a remote cabin with a laptop so you can work on your writing with no interuption?
What would your best Me day look like?
What is a career anyway
A career doesn’t have to be a detailed plan or focused path. It is a series of jobs not necessarily connected. You receive remuneration in return for your time and skills. You don’t have to work on the job title and description so that it perfectly matches what you are doing so that your CV and LinkedIn profile look good. Essentially someone needs someone else with a particular set of skills and amount of experience to work for them and are willing to pay an amount that you both negotiate. The role is then executed under a contract or agreement of some form with taxes and insurances paid in the process.
Simple?
Somehow we have made it more complex than it should be. Recruitment agents, headhunters, job boards, CV profiling, keywords, AI matching, career consultants. Sigh. All wanting their cut for services rendered.
There are career days, career planners, and career mentors. Thinking of changing careers to something completely different? There are role transition experts, CV tailoring to highlight your transferable skills, career conferences and seminars, and industry experts to tempt you to work in their field.
How’s your career looking so far? You can rewrite history adding skills and tools you have encountered but not used, connect to people you met over a coffee and biscuit for a minute’s chat five years ago on the off-chance their connections may be of use. You can take free or paid online courses to enhance your skills and profile. They do come with shiny badges and rarely any substance. How about some accreditation from a company you’ve never even heard of? No one will check.
You could make a career out of making a career. Or you could just enjoy what you do and look for fun jobs without caring too much about how your ladder or path looks. But if you do there’s someone for that too.
Upscaled nostalgia
It’s weird how we remember computer games from our childhood being better than they actually were. I recently started playing with emulators and played a few of my favourite games from my bygone years such as Attic Attack and Turbo Esprit on the ZX Spectrum, Alien Breed and Dreamweb on the Commodore Amiga, and the first Tomb Raider and Fear Effect on the original Playstation. The graphics of each game was very blocky and the sound effects and music wasn’t as smooth as I recall. It’s almost as if my memory was upscaling the graphics and sound quality. A kind of upscaled nostalgia!