It was while watching Despicable Me with my kids that the concept of a vector lodged itself into the synthesis storm that is my brain.
"I go by the name of Vector. It's a mathematical term, represented by an arrow with both direction and magnitude".
Having recently been introduced to the concept of finding your "North Star" - the guiding principal which informs your purpose, ambition and vision - by my sister on one of our weekend runs, the concept of a vector seemed to be related to, if not part and parcel of, the concept of the "North Star". That is to say, in the process of discovering your "North Star", reviewing your personal narrative and plotting the points to see what vector/vectors you're on is the ground-up approach.
One of the main goals in creating this website was to do just that. To review and reevaluate my personal vectors in order to glean some further clarity and insight, and to use that insight to hone the direction. To that end, especially in the crafting of the Work History and Projects pages, I have succeeded. The theme and trajectory of my efforts came into stark relief by way to two defining vectors - the vector of my work/employment history and the vector of my personals projects.
When reviewing my employment history over the last decade, from cutting my teeth at data collection and management as Data Warehouse Manger at a renewable energy company a decade ago, to creating, managing and sharing an entire knowledge base as Knowledge Manger, the theme was borne out. The theme being collecting, organizing, and disseminating information.
When reviewing my personal projects for the last decade (and beyond), from co-founding a local, free-press, alternative newspaper in SW Washington from scratch to sale, to co-founding a trail running company, and especially my current TBA project that will be up and running in a matter of weeks, the theme was clear - community.
After charting these lines and looking at where they intersected, I was finally able to fully understand and articulate something to myself that has been growing over the years. Not only do I have a near embarrassing appetite to collect and organize information, but also to constantly reshape, whittle and hone this information (both data and content) to achieve the most clear and efficient means of understanding and communicating it. This involves firstly entity and relationship mapping, and then strategically strategically structuring it across multiple platforms and technologies in order to concisely communicate it to the communities I care about. I aim to focus these skills to build, engage and enhance the communities I am in and care about.
Another biproduct of this effort, was the clarifying of a central hypothesis that drives these efforts. That is:
With the invention of the internet and computers/servers, humanity now have one of the most essential tools for integration - namely a central nervous system. As with all new technologies (and they are new), there is an initial Wild West period, where people and companies take advantage of the disparities between the capabilities of the new technology (and their ability to quickly monetize them) and the legal and societal structures that do not account for them - characterized by magicians, opportunists, profiteers and hucksters. I believe we're coming to the crescendo of this period, and the need and desire to move on to the next phase and right the ship has hit critical mass. That is to say, sane people are conscious, to one degree or another, that they are being feed a linty inflammatory non-sense at an ever-quickening pace as they become increasingly isolated. The situation engenders a level of powerlessness that leads to a type of social participatory paralysis. I believe the answer to this is to create thoughtful and intelligent networks where the motive and ethics are towards our individual and collective health. That is to say, employ various digital technologies an cohesive, thoughtful way in order to build curated environments to enrich the communities they serve. The idea being that the war between those whose point of reference is the "I" and those whose point of reference is the "We" is a false dichotomy. The best communities are full of healthy, informed, and capable individuals - a win/win.
