(no subject)

[hartmans]

Back from Swedish AFSIG. It was fun; I enjoyed meeting the KTH/SU crowd. I guess I've been at conferences with some of them before, but it was fun to actually spend enough time to start getting to know them. Good design work was done. I am dubious it will be implemented. I'm sort of glad I don't have to justify the trip to MIT on technical grounds.

I need a social life. I used to have one. Through a combination of being busy at work, needing some time to myself, traveling too much and being appointed to the IESG, I've let my subscription to my social life lapse. I need to find social activities and go to them. Suggestions welcome; I should be able to find things on my own but am always interested in suggestions for venues to hang out with interesting people.

Finally, I'm wondering how long to stay with a sinking ship. I guess I should decide whether the ship is actually sinking at some point. However there are some serious problems and I'm not sure the leaks can be plugged before things fully fall apart. Thus, I am beginning to consider what my exit points are while considering whether things are actually sinking in parallell. I'm reasonably certain that if I leave, the ship sinks. If things can be recovered then there's a good chance of influencing the world in some directions I consider important. Sticking around trying for that influence and wasting more time only to ultimately fail would suck. Also, I'm not sure what happens if this particular ship sinks; perhaps there's enough external momentum that the right thing will happen anyway. Lots of stuff to think through.

Comments

[hartmans]

Sure. The challenge is knowing when something sucks. Having down-sides isn't quite enough. If it meets your goals, will get you where you're going, will improve in the future, or has some side benefit, it may be worth doing even if it sort of sucks. I've never been very good at being decisive about what I want to do with my life.