Well, I've finally pulled the trigger

So, that's it. I gave my notice today, so I'm now fully committed to doing Clipper. Still have to send in the contract, pay my money, finish my training, etc., etc.... But let's face it, I've quit my job and given up everything that goes with it, so I'm not turning back.

My boss was surprised, which I guess is good. But the fact that I wasn't just going to some competitor made it a much different conversation than it would have been otherwise. My favorite comment of his, "I don't know whether to say 'You bastard' or 'You lucky bastard'. Downside is that it looks like I'll be working out my six months notice instead of getting some nice gardening leave. He's also asked me to keep it quiet for a while, until he has time to line up a replacement. Going to be a bit weird. But then, I've been keeping this quiet as I've been thinking about it myself for the past few months, so I guess it's not really much difference.

This does mean I can really start telling people other than at work. Probably going to be toughest news around the rugby club. They'll be losing a Treasurer and a prop. (Not that my performance as Treasurer has been that great of late! Or my performance as prop! But there aren't any obvious people to step in to either role. Had to happen sometime though, and this is a good reason for it.)

Evil

I listen to a number of Slate podcasts -- sports, culture, politics, money....  It's good quality general-interest discussion. And, when they get into political docs, it's a good exposure to center-left thinking.

Recently, it struck me that across several different podcasts, I'd hear a lot of references to "evil":
-- Walmart
-- Amazon
-- Uber
-- for-profit colleges
-- the SAE guys from Oklahoma singing racist songs

I'm certainly not defending the SAE racists, and the for-profit colleges seem to have engaged in at least some very bad practices. I can even see the case against the other businesses, even if I don't agree with it.

But here's the thing. I'm about 85% sure all the people saying these things would have been mocking George Bush for using the word "evil" to refer to Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. What does that say?

Level 1 training

I think I'm doing this.

I just finished Level 1 training for the Clipper Race. This was a week of learning the basics of crewing a big racing yacht. I've done a little bit of sailing before, but nothing like this. This week was all about finding out whether sailing a big boat in bad weather had as much appeal as sailing a 35-footer in the sunny Mediterranean. And the answer is... not exactly. But it has something different, and something I could use just now.

There's much more of a team aspect to this kind of sailing than I expected. That's great when it works, but it also got frustrating at times. Each evening, we did a round robin, "What did you think of the day?" session. Night one and night two, it was all the same. "I really learned a lot. I had fun. I liked this. I liked that." But night three, it got around to me, and I broke form. "Honestly, I found today really frustrating. We're not functioning well as a team. Everyone is jumping to do everything, getting in each other's way, and leaving the last job with nobody doing it. It's like six-year-olds playing soccer, all swarming around the ball. There needs to be one person leading things. When Max (the skipper) is bossing us, we're fine. But when he just says 'go do it', it's chaos. Maybe my expectations are just going up faster than our ability, but it's driving me nuts."

Fortunately, people seemed to take it in the spirit it was intended. Not sure it made much difference, as fundamentally my expectations were going up faster than our ability. But as we got a few more days of experience working together, our communication got better, and I could see how a team could emerge out of all this.

There was a lot of technical learning as well. Winch handling was key, how to safely and effectively get lines onto winches, grind them on, and ease them off. Hoisting sails, changing them, packing them away. Tacking, gybing, taking in reefs and shaking them out. Rowing around the dinghy. Man-over-board drills every day, sometimes twice. And we were doing this in some weather. It was near freezing much of the time. At one point, as we headed out, it was 30 knots of wind and hailing.

And of course, the people. I really wondered what kind of person would be doing something like this. You'd think that the fact I was thinking about it would be some assurance, but it wasn't that simple in my head. But as it turned out, it was a really good group. A lot of people I could really click with. A few others who, honestly, didn't feel like as much potential for a connection, but I could definitely see working together with them.

A little thinking about the timing of the race, the World Cup, and my notice period, and I think legs 4, 5, and 6 would work for me. I'd come in thinking I wanted to do the whole thing or not bother, but this compromise feels right. It's still about six months. It's the Pacific. It's Australia. And while it would be much cooler to say "I sailed around the world" than "I sailed almost half way around the world", this just works better.

News to some

It's an old piece -- never mind how I stumbled across it -- but the "public editor" of the New York Times asks "Is the New York Times a Liberal Newspaper?" His answer, "Of course it is."

It's worth reading in its entirety to see what exactly he means by this. It's not likely to satisfy the Times' harshest critics, but it should give supporters something to think about.

Ezra Klein might be right on this one

Interesting analysis of a recent Pew report on political polarisation. And by "interesting", I mean "supportive of a number of my pre-existing views, with a slightly new take and actual data".

I like the distinction between extreme views and polarised views, especially as someone who holds a few extreme views but in what I like to think is an eclectic mix (legalise drugs and free markets, expand immigration but crack down on those who've already violated immigration law, libertarian(ish) domestically but neo-conservative(ish) in foreign policy....).

I also like the fairly symmetric view of the world here. Polarisation is happening on both left and right. Democrats, Republicans, and their partisans spend a lot of time painting the other side as extreme where I see a fair amount of moderation of positions (albeit not in all areas) but both sides digging in more.

One thought on the 50th anniversary of of the assassination of JFK

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

- John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address

In recent years, a recurring assertion of many Democrats has been that various past Republicans would no longer be welcome in the party, Reagan and George Romney being two favorites. This may or may not be true. But I'm not so sure JFK would be welcome in today's Democratic party either.

Uniqueness

I dare to believe that I am different from any man who exists. If I am not worth more, at least I am not the same.

- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Confessions