Shifting Perspective: New Tools in the Tool Belt
I was speaking with a student yesterday who brought up that his internship wasn’t really what he wanted and not all that much fun. This student was kind of disenchanted and wondering if he had made the right call on a few things.
The truth is that not everything is a lot of fun, but it CAN lead to really big changes and potentially some different new paths. New experiences tend to give you new tools to utilize. I’ve been recently considering the different things I work on now and how they are giving me a much broader perspective on how to achieve results in differing businesses. Even if you don’t LOVE every last piece of work you are doing, you may well be adding to your skills in such a way that will pay dividends long term.
Case in point, today was my first day of being a board member for St. Paul Smart Trips. A friend of mine who is also interested in Sustainability had told me he was leaving the board membership and that I’d be a good fit. He asked if I’d like to apply, which sounded cool, but I didn’t know if they’d want me. I’m the exact opposite of what they are striving to achieve as I drive myself to the job at 6:30am and then drive home. Kind of a poor example, right? Well turns out that there are a lot of people like me and having that experience and perspective IS valuable. I interviewed with the executive director and am now in a two year term for the organization.
Is this always going to be fun? Probably not. It’s additional work, no getting around it. But I love meeting new people and learning new things, always, and this is a prime example of it. There is a LOT of value to understanding more about how a non profit works, especially one that is so closely intertwined with the city planning and council. I’m already positive it will be a good experience for learning new things and adding tools to the tool belt, as well as some fun occasionally too. It’s really all perspective. So if you look at things in a different light, as an experience that will empower you for having gone through it, that might change your appreciation (or dissatisfaction) for it.
I’ll try to write more about my work with St. Paul Smart Trips as well. It seems like a great organization and really fits my outlook too.

The book is a series of small adventures that Mr. Feynman had throughout his life. Some of these interesting stories include is jobs such as fixing old radios as a child, working in hospitality, working on the atomic bomb at Los Alamos (The Manhattan Project), and learning to draw and sell art.
Slightly over 3,400 page views in 2010. Under 3,000 of those were 

You have likely already heard of this book, if not read it. In 1997 it was incredibly popular and by some hailed as
The book is not meant to be a high level overview of details regarding the evolution of human societies, though it does so much more admirably than your basic textbook. Diamond meticulously covers multiple aspects of variables that held sway over how groups would come to establish advanced technologies, the most primary of which is food production. Hunter gatherers are at a great disadvantage to farmers in the macro trends due to concentration of peoples, which allows for exponentially advancing technologies in positive feedback loops of creating value for societies.