I set out to write one thing, and then this turned into quite something else. I have visitors this week. A friend and his wonderful family in need of a short respite from their lives in a crowded city. He's a brilliant software developer who earns upwards of $300/hr. He is the person who is called in to solve the serious problems that the code camp developers don't have a prayer at fixing. He always explains his work, but I never understand the specific details very well. If you absolutely, positiviely don't want your business to go down, and if your business going down will cost you millions, this is the guy you call. I picked up on the importance of his recent review of the Charles Schwab website. He was brought in by a Schwab contractor who couldn't figure out a problem. He found it, and discovered several other issues that would have taken the site down on a specific date. He is a smart person who isn't afraid to dig deep into the underbelly of ancient code and to give it new life. I have known him since college and I respect his opinion. From what I was able to gather from our annual update: He takes the world as it is. Though the world as it 'was' feeds his livelyhood, the world as it 'is' sustains him and his family. Perhaps to him, changing the world isn't as important as maintaining it as it is. Change to him is somewhat of an inconvenience, while maintenance is the opportunity. Though he is creative in his problem solving and forward thinking, the world is always as it is. And while he is empowered to maintain it, he has neither interest nor motivation to change it. This is probably why we have been friends for so many years. We view the world differently, but we're both curious about the other' odd perspective of it. Since a child, I've had a streak that resists the world for how it is. I try to remake it for myself in ways other see as futile and uninteresting. I can't say that bucking the odds against success has always been fruitful, but at least I have been honest with myself. Take gopher for instance. "Why are you wasting time on something that is 30 years old, when you could be doing something meaningful." Translation: "Is there money in this? If not, then why fuck with it?" I don't always have good answers, nor do I often hold the patience that persuasion requires. Nor do I always have the interest to respond when I know I am not going to win. And I may not possess the intellectual gifts to explain myself clearly with impressive words. And I may just know that I am flat wrong, but still and unwilling to adjust a wrong course of direction. Or I might be bored with the other's lack of curiosity and vision. Or I might just be pissed off enough to ghost someone for no apparent reason. Whatever the case, its always interesting to hear the other's opinion, though a response is optional. I reminds me of something someone once said to me long ago in a meeting at a job I didn't like very much... 'Your opinion, however interesting, is irrelevant.' In terms of gopher, I think my interest at this moment is like many people I see taking refuge here. Its a place I can hear myself think. Its place where I can generally roam and listen in a private with a minimum of inconvience. I don't like, and so I resist, the stop & frisk policies of the WWW manifest in Google's surveillance, captcha and Cloudflare. It's that healthy place that sick people want desperately to get back to for restoration. A world with fewer rules, less oversight, less sickness and more possibility than the world at large. For me, gopherspace is a place where I can compare what I've been to where I'm going. And gopher is a place I can be heard without having to compete with the voices amplified by professional troll factories. As my friend brought his family out my rural domain to give his family respite, perhaps gopher is that rural respite from the world wide web. Maybe, maybe not. I dunno. If someone who is looking for status quo and predictablity... if someone is not looking to learn from a community that is a collision of time, technology, art, possibilities, anger and optimism... if someone sees the present surveillance state as acceptable and inevitable, that person probably wouldn't understand me no matter how hard I try to explain myself. So I often just don't. Do I think I can change the world? I am certain I do not know. I am certain I do not care. I think that its possible I might change the world. But first I have to change myself while those around me are trying to prevent me from changing. And why speak when I can amplify impressive voices that have said it so much better than I ever possibility could. Be the change that you wish to see in the world. Mahatma Gandhi Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. Leo Tolstoy Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. Nelson Mandela The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking. Albert Einstein Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself. Rumi It's only after you've stepped outside your comfort zone that you begin to change, grow, and transform. Roy T. Bennett Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. Barack Obama They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. George Bernard Shaw Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself; I am large -- I contain multitudes. Walt Whitman The present changes the past. Looking back you do not find what you left behind. Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss Stepping onto a brand-new path is difficult, but not more difficult than remaining in a situation, which is not nurturing to the whole woman. Maya Angelou And that is how change happens. One gesture. One person. One moment at a time. Libba Bray, The Sweet Far Thing I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples. Mother Teresa If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write. Martin Luther Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change. Wayne W. Dyer Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most. Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment Maturity is when you stop complaining and making excuses, and start making changes. Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. Buckminster Fuller I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself. Aldous Huxley, Point Counter Point No matter who you are, no matter what you did, no matter where you've come from, you can always change, become a better version of yourself. Madonna You cannot change anyone, but you can be the reason someone changes. Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change. Brene Brown Let him who would move the world first move himself. Socrates Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does. William James [eophlog] Price of Bitcoin as I write this, $11,900. $38000 to target.