Liquid Nonsense

I have undervalued the importance of community at work for far, far too long. It's funny, even as writing this, I can't recall the last time that I've thought of work as a place where I would actually make new friends. Colleagues sure. Acquaintances sure. Friends? That's a bit more of a gray zone. For the first time in years I actually feel like I'm working in a community of my peers as friends. I think the last time I've thought of it this way would have been in college. Maybe.

Regardless, I have noticed a huge improvement in my morale. I knew the last place sucked, but it's a case of not knowing how *badly* it sucked until it was replaced with something preferable. I know I was working there two weeks ago. I *know* that in my mind, but somehow that already feels like it was a past life. This is where I allude to Plato's Cave idea.

The most salient examples I can point out is 1) a community-involved discussion on the nature of fostering creativity, and 2) Hacknight at Gangplank. On the first: Apparently Integrum has talks on Wednesday for lunch that range from technical matters to much more nebulous ideas like "what constitutes creativity." Today we had the creativity talk and it was interesting to hear the different ideas. It's one of the very few times I feel a conversation on something so abstract didn't turn into a complete cluster fuck. On the second: Hacknight is awesome. It's not only great to see community involvement, but it's even better that it happens at the same place I work. This ties back into the earlier morale statement. I love that I work at a place that also serves as an intellectual hub for technical professionals EVERY Wednesday.

All in all, Chris is super happy with his recent job change.