Colin Wright's Blog, page 36

Never Again

Of the many benefits found in working for myself, most vital is the knowledge that I never again have to put my name on something I don’t believe in.

If I decide to endorse the inadequate, apply my talents and time to trite trivialities, or shape the sub-par, it’s because I decided to do so. No one made me do it. My financial security was not held hostage; my hand unforced.

I have the opportunity to shape my own creative destiny, absolutely and unflinchingly. I have the ability to build the thi...

Finite but Flexible

Twenty-four hours in a day doesn’t seem to be enough sometimes, and yet that’s all any of us has to work with.

Divvied up between sleeping, eating, spending time with loved ones, and the requisite survival-level efforts (usually a job, these days, rather than hunting and gathering), there’s generally not a lot of time left over for you. For your cares and passions.

This is the excuse I hear more frequently than any other from folks who are frustrated over not being able to pursue the things th...

Mean Universe

The following is a story from my new short fiction collection, Mean Universe, which can be had for $.99, or free if you subscribe to Exiles.

Dr. Nikolas Caley was surrounded by robots and seconds from death.

As one of the founders of Simulacrum Sentry, Nikolas was no stranger to artificial intelligence and the pursuit of consciousness beyond organic life. It was a goal he and his historical peers had been working toward for centuries — using whatever technologies made the most sense in a given...

Lenses

We view the world through lenses.

Some are easy to identify — being brought up in a nationalistic country will impact how you view things related to your mother-nation, as well as those related to your country’s enemies — while others are trickier to lock down.

While the obvious lenses we wear function like glasses, out in front of our faces for the world to see, and requiring frequent adjustment from us, the more subtle ones are like contact lenses; essentially a part of our bodies, and too cl...

Intentional Luddite

I’m all about new technology — space travel, uploading consciousness, connecting to each other via increasingly sophisticated means — but I also recognize the value in technlogical traditionalism.

That is to say, I enjoy keeping up with the ultra-modern. The edgy. The ‘next big thing.’ But I also like to hand-write sometimes, rather than thumb-typing on a touchscreen. I sometimes enjoy the feel of an artisanal whatever, over the mass-produced-but-technologically-sophisticated alternative.

But w...

Negotiate Your Life

In the business world, it’s said that anything is negotiable.

This makes sense: why would you enter into a contract that didn’t fulfill the needs of all involved parties? If you just sign paperwork as it’s handed to you — without considering the terms, making changes as necessary, and handing it back to the other party so you can hone in on an equally beneficial situation — you’re going to find yourself with a sub-par job, trade deal, or anything else to which you sign your name.

Negotiation is...

Let’s Assume

Let’s assume other people are not assholes.

It can feel like a monumental effort to do so, I know, but let’s give it a shot.

The guy who cut you off in traffic? Not trying to imply he’s somehow better than you, or trying denigrate your masculinity.

The woman speaking loudly for what seems like hours on her phone at a nearby table? She doesn’t realize the impact it’s having on those around her, or wasn’t raised to view such behavior as inappropriate, or is having a discussion that seems so vitall...

Normal is an Anchor

Exponential Experience

There’s a famous exponential growth illustration that makes use of a chess board and grains of rice placed upon the board. Starting with a single grain, you doubling the quantity of rice on each subsequent square.

The punch line is that by the time you reach the 41st square, you’d need over a trillion grains of rice, and by the final, 64th square, there wouldn’t be enough grains of rice in the world to meet the square’s quota.

The point here is that exponential growth is a powerful thing. You s...

Reset to Zero

At least once a week, I like to reset to zero.

I wash the dishes, drying each piece of flatware and cutlery until it’s ready to be tucked away into its respective cabinet. Laundry is done — washed and dried, or hung up, if I’m living in a country where clothes dryers aren’t common. Anything scattered about the floor is picked up and put in its proper place, the floor is mopped or vacuumed. Every surface is cleared of clutter, the trash taken out; my entire home reset to its resting state.

My in...