Ode to SummerSource
So I'm back from the incredible adventure that was SummerSource. I have a truckload of impressions in my mind to deal with, scores of new friends, dozens of ideas, and in general a very busy and exciting time ahead (optimism rocks).
Dureing the weeks mad camp, I practically carried my PalmPilot around with me all the time. I used it to jot notes of the actual sessions, but even more importantly to jot down words, thoughts and ideas throughout the week.
On the plane journey home, having slept only about 5 hours total in the last 2 nights, I put myself in stream-of.consciousness mode and merged my on-the-spot emotions with these obscure notes from the week. This is the result:
source code code is free free to hack
hack hack hack
secure
the hangover.
gunner gunner wojtek wojtek
wojtek wojtek gunner gunner over
low connection, slow connection, no connection. I ping, I ping, I ping, but noone answers. The world is empty.
luckily. Right here, next to me, a hive of inquiring minds. Probing, pinging, hacking.
My mind.
my mind this morning
i'm feeling
dynamic, diabolic
dyne:bolic
AND WHY IS THAT? I ask. Again and again, as morning becomes circle, becomes session. Why is that? you ask. What came before?
wakeup call,
stumble to the bathroom.
Suddenly remember that croatian army toilets are non-intuitive interfaces. Stumble back.
Again. Like an ancient screensaver. Again.
shower. A failed attempt to dampen the pain of my thundering frontal lobe. but then. Breakfast. Chit chat, morning circle. Colors. Groove. Energy disperses and recollects in another plane of being.
What a week. Who are these people with such extreme inquisitive minds. These heroes from all over the world? Who are they?
I hand them a little nugget of my knowledge. They leap at it. Tear at it. Expose it's faults. Shine on it's strengths. Remix. Reinforce. Rethink.
As morning becomes circle and reenacts the previous day. As session flows into freeform, and training is replaced by learning, i absorb. It is the nature of this beast. It will pry open the fortress of the mind, and force a retreat. Never before. Never in so few days have i reconsidered so many assumptions. And reinforced so many beliefs.
how? Why? And why here?
Routing
dynamic routing
dynamic routing of minds, conversations, relationships. A gently coaxed dynamic routing protocol.
coaxed, nudged, guided into new paths. Always trying to find the optimal path between minds.
A geeky metaphor but so appropriate for this place outside of time.
in retrospect i find it hard.
Hard to focus. Sleep deprivation will do that.
As i remember 4am discussions. Lack of mental faculties apty replaced by ample volume. Remember exhaustion from answering questions. Asking questions. Questioning both questions and answers.
remember the healing properties of an adriatic backcrawl. Remind myself of the beginning of the week. So far away now. so remote. as i think back to sessions. Skillshare. Screwdriver drills and the bizarre. I taste again the salty yoghurt, the pivo and the soy. I hear again the voices of fifty new friends. Kind words, warm hearts, amazing people.
The quiet excitement of the moment. The infinitely less quiet excitement of some of the other moments. My face is tired from smiling for a week. My mind is tired from being open. My body is tired from being attached to this beer drinking machine at the end of my neck. I am exhausted. excited. exstatic. explosive.
