Sunscreen

Today the essay written by Mary Schmich and published in the Chicago Tribune as a column in 1997. It was used in its entirety by Australian film director Baz Luhrmann on his 1998 album Something for Everybody, as "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)".

Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young

Inside every adult lurks a graduation speaker dying to get out, some world-weary pundit eager to pontificate on life to young people who'd rather be Rollerblading. Most of us, alas, will never be invited to sow our words of wisdom among an audience of caps and gowns, but there's no reason we can't entertain ourselves by composing a Guide to Life for Graduates.

I encourage anyone over 26 to try this and thank you for indulging my attempt. Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97:

Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room. 

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young. 

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen. 

 —Mary Schmich

I discovered this essay and movie a week ago. In my opinion they describe my current feelings very well. I am not over 26, but giving even imaginary commencement speech could be a wonderful exercise. After seeing this movie hundredth times I feel more motivated to realize my targets than I was when I started this blog. Remember: wear sunscreen!

Why did I create this blog? Few words about targets and time management.

Probably it should be the first post. Better late than never.

First of all, this blog is for me.

It would be an electronic diary on my way to half-independence. It is very easy to assume that we will do something but without any superior it is hard to achieve any of our goals. One of the subjects of this blog is 'how to avoid becoming a modern slave', so superior is not the best solution. I will omit the part about finding someone who will keep his eye on us 24/7, maybe our parents but it is a bit too late for that. How about becoming a superior of myself? This question came to my mind many times. The main problem with self-control is that we have never been reporting back about our progress to anyone. What is more, the Parkinson law is against us. Throughout my whole adult life I had a very long list of 'TODOs'. I assumed that if I accomplish even very small fraction of dozens of ideas it will be a spectacular success. The main drawback of this way of thinking was that I started a few things at once and in majority of cases I did not finish any. My way of thinking evolved after I came across agile development. It was during my second (and also current) job. I am working as a software developer. I joined my team in a very interesting time, exactly during 'scrum transformation'. Scrum is one of agile methodologies which help team members control the whole process of software development (from specification to sale). 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_(development)

It is based on splitting whole work into small pieces, which could be finished in a fixed unit of time (for example two weeks). Now I have many valuable experiences with scrum process and impediments it faces. My intention is to port somehow the best ideas of scrum to my daily time management process. It is worth to mention, that scrum is mainly about: team work, how to make teams more efficient, what is the difference between the team and the group of people and so on. I am 'the lonely rider', but some ideas are very universal and it should not be hard to apply them. I am aware that I am still not perfect and I would never be. Now my list of things to do is a bit shorter, but it is still too long. I am also trying to do only continuous tasks (PhD studies, blog) and a few single ones during one week. The single tasks should be small enough to finish them during two or three days. When I finish a task I can pick up next one from the queue. Each task should have its priority, from engineering practice I know that it should be unique, so there would be now problems with choosing more important than the others. Of course, the most important task should be done first.

Now my tasks do not have documented priorities and I can see that sometimes, because of my laziness, I start from the easiest one. It is such a fantastic feeling to see a big list with majority of tasks marked as done :) . I think that this small digression grown enough. 

This blog should allow me to check how my vision of my life evolve.

George Santayana

It will be as a photo album. It is a lot of fun to sit in front of the fireplace with dozens of photos, recalling passed, often better and always different times. 

This blog will make my failures and successes visible.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." —George Santayana 

We are constructed in a way that we are allowed to remember only good things which happened to us. There is a rule saying: to allow people to learn you have to let them fail. By writing down my progress I will be able to check what happened long time ago, what were the problems, what were the conclusions and what I should do if similar situation happens again. Sounds handy,  I am curious to know if it really will be.  

Finally, I hope that after some time it will allow me to obtain many valuable comments form people with similar and different outlooks.

New Year's Eve fever

http://www.flickr.com/people/35614822@N08

Every year when the end of the year is close enough I can observe collective madness or mental illness. Every one have to go somewhere to celebrate New Year's Eve, get completely drunk and have terrible hangover. Situation looks similar probably all over the world. As I know only the Fare East (especially Buddhists) celebrates beginning of New Year in different, gentler way.

I, as majority, used to behave exactly same as a rest of the world: I planed how I spend this time a few months before 1st January, I did all the preparation, bought alcohol (more than I could consume),  finally I got drunk and suffer hangover all next day (or two).

This year was completely different. I made all the preparation and shopping two days before 'day of doom'. I was invited by my friends, there was a plan to drink all the alcohol, dance, watch  the fireworks and suffer the next day. After all the preparations I stand up Friday morning and asked myself one, very important question: 'why?' Why I have to be one of the stars in this big circus? You can not imagine how was the astonishment when I declared that I am staying home. And do you know what? It was the best New Year Eave in my life. I spent it with my girlfriend, a bottle of wine and 'Bad Santa' movie. By the way, a thousands thanks to her, because she supported me in my operation.

www.filmweb.pl

This story is excellent entry to write a few words about term known as a comfort zone. Following Wikipedia comfort zone is 'a behavioural state within which a person operates in an anxiety-neutral condition, using a limited set of behaviours to deliver a steady level of performance, usually without a sense of risk'. How big is my comfort zone? At the moment not so big. I have no problem with asking a random question to passer by, but if you asked me to resign from my current job, go to some tropical country for a two year journey, I would definitely refuse. Now, after eight years of full-time work I fell limited by my comfort zone. It is probably first step on a way to make it wider. How? By exercises like experiment with the New Year Eve described above.

Our comfort zone is created not only by ourselves. In my opinion is a kind of legacy of our parents, teachers, neighbors. When I was younger it was thought to me that studying is a careless time in life which could never been repeated. It was thought by my parents, grandparents, neighbor, even Dean of my faculty during graduation ceremony. Is it really so? Were they right? Not far before I would agree, but know I know that depend on my own. How hard I will be working on myself? How bereave will I be to follow my dreams?

Now the New Year starts it is good occasion to clear an account and start from beginning. I am not a fan of New Year's resolutions but it is coincident that I started this blog at the and of last year.

All the best in New Year! Work less, earn more and be really, really happy in your life!