Collected works and current thoughts
Co-authored with Perplexity AI
Winter warnings crackled across Oklahoma City: ice storm inbound, power outages looming. Targeted prep kicked in, I purchased a pure water pitcher for filtered water through possible blackouts. The storm? Snow, now ice, a fizzle. Pitcher sat dormant… until it didn’t. Clean water for thirsty plants, fresh hydration for the dogs, unexpected pivots that turned “waste” into quiet hero, revealing daily needs I’d overlooked in the panic prep.
Flashback to the ’90s: Taekwondo class, nailing full side splits, a thrill of openness and control. Fast-forward, decades of air travel on ever-narrowing seats and sitting in front of computers all day long. A quiet goal reignited: reconquer side splits. I turned to Science of Stretching, long-hold, gravity-assisted stretches, letting tissues unwind under load, with optional PNF reserved for deep hip sessions. Over time, separate isometric work (inspired by Yoga Body) built neck and supporting strength as new routines emerged. Side splits? Still elusive, perhaps forever. But the pursuit? Life-altering, a compass redirecting everything.
From this unmet goal, unanticipated doors flung wide. A question about neck tension question sparked more shaking.
A new routine emerged with better core engagement. Deeper qi gong tremors followed. Fluid tai chi flows turned mornings
into poetry. Chronic tension dissolved like fog in sunlight. Blood glucose steadied, syncing movement with green smoothies.
Flexibility cascades amplified nutrient uptake and deepened sleep. Even YouTube filming gained fresh energy.
One targeted “miss” birthed holistic wins, revealing health layers I hadn’t known existed.
This is proactive preparation’s true magic: targeted intent as compass, not checklist, pointing true even when the destination shifts, boosting response ability and opening what we call “good luck.” The “unnecessary” pitcher, side splits? Both examples of this idea.
Cue Gerald Weinberg’s railroad paradox (from Gause & Weinberg’s Exploring Requirements, often called the Railroad Paradox). Suburbia’s residents rallied, 250 signatures strong, for a 2:30 PM train stop to Gotham’s shops. Railroad scouts checked the platform at that exact hour… found it empty (no train stopped there yet, so why wait?). “No demand,” they ruled. Request denied. A perfect self-fulfilling loop: poor service breeds no evidence of need, locking mediocrity in place. Pitcher, no storm, return to store? Splits unachieved? Quit? We miss the gold rush beneath.
Katas: The Broader Compass, Patiently Etched
What if preparation widened its gaze, moving beyond the narrow horizon of a single anticipated crisis? Enter katas, those rhythmic forms from martial arts, where practitioners repeat intricate sequences not to mimic one rival’s style, but to forge muscle memory, cultivate poise, and nurture an adaptability that quietly blooms in any skirmish that arises. No single “fight” is required for the value to emerge; the persistent practice itself forges a readiness that often surprises even the most dedicated practitioner with its depth and reach. Software development mirrors this ancient wisdom faithfully: platforms like CodeKata or Codewars offer bite-sized challenges that invite endless loops of refactoring and TDD rhythms, all without a single production bug demanding attention, yet these drills hone instincts sharp enough to pivot gracefully to GraphQL quirks or Kubernetes container tweaks when real chaos inevitably calls.
My own qi gong and tai chi routines embody these living katas, vague whispers of “health prep” that, over time, deliver profound resilience, proprioceptive grace, and a somatic awareness stretching far beyond the confines of any one pose or stretch. Consider a simple string-parsing kata in code: what begins as an abstract exercise stealthily equips you for the practical demands of async Kotlin coroutines or Kafka stream surprises when they surface in the wild. This inherent vagueness reveals itself as the true gift: missing the anticipated “fight,” the expected “storm,” or those stubbornly elusive “splits” doesn’t unravel the work already invested. Instead, it compounds quietly, transforming broad exploratory strokes into precise artistry when the moment demands it. Just as the pitcher refreshes plants while the splits pursuit unlocks deeper qi gong flow, this style of preparation echoes across scales, cultivating serendipity in the most unexpected corners.
The Hybrid Path: Compass Meets Rhythm
When you blend these approaches, the synergy doesn’t just hum, it sings with a clarity that reshapes entire routines. The storm pitcher stands as a humble testament to targeted preparation’s daily utility, bought for crisis but cherished for routine. Likewise, the front splits goal serves as a weekly stretching compass, providing steady direction amid the uncertainty, while daily kata practices—whether qi gong shakes, tai chi flows, or quick 10-minute code drills build the enduring rhythm beneath. Here, the miss becomes utterly irrelevant; the path itself pays lavish dividends, from cascading improvements in flexibility to cleaner APIs humming smoothly in production, all the way to that quiet, reborn confidence echoing the thrill of Taekwondo days long past. This is good luck not as chance, but as readiness manufactured through deliberate, curious motion.
Critiques do shadow even this shine, as honest paths always invite scrutiny: katas can whisper temptations of time costs, with those alluring 30-minute dives clashing against the press of Azure pipelines or the simple rhythm of salad prep; domain gaps persist where no single kata nails GraphQL federation with perfect precision; and repetition carries its sly undercurrent of boredom when visible wins feel distant or elusive. Yet counters arise as naturally as breath in practice, micro-katas slip effortlessly into morning walks or glucose checks, curated challenges arrive tagged precisely for your technical stack, and progress etches itself indelibly through something as tangible as FFmpeg timestamps layered onto YouTube shorts, turning raw practice into shareable, living proof of the transformation. The pitcher, for all its simplicity, needed none of these tweaks; its pivot unfolded as effortless, organic proof of the principle at work.
Weinberg whispers through it all: explore requirements beyond the obvious, lest empty platforms fool us into stagnation forever. Pitcher waters on, splits pursuit transforms quietly, code deploys hum with newfound grace—prep curiously, let the compass guide your hand, and watch those apparent “misses” weave themselves into profound, life-altering transformations. Your own impossible goal? It’s probably mid-pivot right now, humming with potential. What’s stirring in your story?
