Existential Week

We're near the end of Boulder's annual cloudy week. It's a nice change of pace from the constant sunshine, but it always produces an odd lens through which life gets considered. I'm looking forward to some sunshine; go away clouds!

Over the past several days... a handful people in my life (not to mention myself) have been going through massive life changes and questions. From big career shifts (up and down), to significant relationship realizations and changes. Deep self discoveries. Deaths. Births. From people shedding parts of themselves they don't want anymore, to clarity around aspects of their lives being exactly what they've always wanted. Friends getting their companies funded. Friends NOT getting their companies funded.

Intermingled with the above, a few pieces of content have really affected me this past week. Didn't help that my therapist was out of town this week.

• The Ex Machina film. Obviously lots of questions about the singularity and humanity and machines. One quote really bent me and drove to the core of the work we were doing at Gnip. Nathan was talking about breaking out from his search engine company into the R&D thing that yielded the AI project. I'll botch the quote, but it was something like "everyone thought the interesting part of all the data collected by a search engine company was _what_ people were searching for. I realized it's not _what_ but, _how_ people are searching." Great scene, and Cecily Strong illustrates precisely how I felt when I saw it.
• HBO's Kurt Cobain documentary, Montage of Heck. Motivated by a friend, and that a neighbor is one of its principle producers, I started watching it. I'm only half way through, but wow. Pain. Hurt. Artistry. Disgust. Love. Relationships. "Here we are now, entertain us!"
• Anthony Bourdain tours Chile with a guy named Raul who nailed this (for those of us in, or past midlife) "Now is a time in our life when we really know what is good and we enjoy it more. Before, we did something because we *thought* it was good. Now we *know* that it is good."

Our life experiences comprise us; "I Am" by AWOLNATION.