The New

Today is not just the start of a new year – it is also the dawning of a new decade. I’m a big fan of symbolic events1 , and today is traditional time of year to create a fresh start.

Thinking back on the decade, I started it in Melbourne in the final stages of my degree while working at a web company using HTML and Microsoft ASP. I’ve finished the decade in London, contracting as an Adobe Flex developer. In meantime, I’ve backpacked through South America, lived in 10 different houses, and changed my career path from client to server and back again.

Thinking back on the successes and failures of the past 10 years, I think I’ve got a mini-manifesto.

The New.

Learn new skills. Meet new people. Read new books. Visit new places. Consume new foods. Listen to new music. Play new games. See new sights.

I like the new. The new is interesting, and potentially unique. My career is balanced somewhere between the cutting and the bleeding edge – as new as new gets. Although the old and familiar is very comforting, the new can in time become just as old and familiar whilst not taking anything away from the previous old. And even if the new ultimately turns out to be something not to continue, in the meantime the rush of the new is enjoyable.

So, for the decade to come, I will be chasing the new with everything I can.

It should be fun.

  1. New Years Eve is an example of what I call the Speedometer Effect: people pay more attention to the changeover at 199,999 km than they do at 125,954 km for example, even though they are the same change in distance. In a similar way, life changing resolutions occur more frequently at New Years – thus the name – than at any other time of year [↩]
2010
01/01
CATEGORY
Life
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  1. Best of luck chasing the new, Robin! And Happy New Year! :)

  2. I feel the same way about symbolic events. The moment the sun rises above or sets below the horizon is more important than when it crosses, say, 15.4 degrees above the horizon. 2010 is a horizon crossing moment. And the number even looks good. 2020 will be even better. That’s just a sexy looking number if ever there was one. :)

    Best wishes for all your endeavors. Hopefully I’ll make a trip over there soon to see you and the UK-Flex peeps. If the exchange rate wasn’t such a death blow I’d consider living part time in the UK.

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