Munchkins, Victory, Travel, and an Attack

8 Bits from a Brain That Drove Too Many Miles in too Little Time and Still Found Time to Paddle Harder

I'm back, and more pumped than ever! I'm sure you missed me and are going to be immediately overwhelmed by my bro'd out excitement (brocitement?), but you're just going to have to deal with it.

First, how about a little recap of my past week?

Friday 5/2: Packing for two trips while trying to tie up client work, racing the clock to not fully abandon my responsibilities. Then? Off to see my eldest’s first play (The Wizard of Oz. He was a munchkin. It was wonderful), and straight from the curtain call to the freeway at 7:30pm. I made it to Santa Ana by midnight and crashed hard (in bed, not car).

Saturday 5/3: Alarm goes off at 4:30am. Coffee, oatmeal, road trip part deux. Arrive in San Diego right on time for my first outrigger race. Paddles up at 8:30 and we're off! What a site that was, waiting at the start line and seeing 400 other boats on the water. So fuckin' cool. Know what's even more fuckin' cooler? WE FUCKIN' WON! Sorry, let me clean that up a bit for you... WE FUCKING WON!

We crossed the line thinking we might have it, then waited hours for the official results. When I say I’m still buzzing from it, I mean I could (inconsistently) power a small town.

From there: BBQ, more races, boat loading, and back on the road at 5:00pm. Home by midnight. Showered off the salt, sweat, and stench. Collapsed.

Sunday 5/4: Wake up, pack everything I ignored on Friday (which as quite a bit), tamp the bags and the kids into the car, and head to Anaheim for a trip to Wally World Disneyland. Three park days. Pool. Water park. A possible gallbladder attack (still investigating). Got home Saturday. Slept. Woke up Sunday and... went paddling again. On Mother’s Day. (Sorry mom. Sorry wife. Two separate people, to be clear.)

What a whirlwind of a week that was. Yet, it also doesn't feel out of place. It's not uncommon for us to be shoehorning things into schedules to make something fit. Is this how others live?

Alright, my little binomes, let's get on with what you probably came for... some bits!\

Let Me Use the Damn App

Why does every app feel the need to interrupt me with a "Check out our new features!" tour the second I log in? I didn’t come to your invoicing software for a multistep, guided tour about how you added a feature I probably won't use. I came to send a damn invoice. Let me do the thing. Show me the new bells and whistles later, or maybe send over a notification that I don't have to click through to accomplish what I came to do.

There Is No Later

It sounds like some YOLO, carpe diem-esc messaging, but that's not how I mean it (this time) - it’s executive dysfunction realness. Especially if you’ve got ADHD (or live like you do). It's the idea that you won't remember to do the thing later; it's now or never. You aren't going to remember to fix that sprinkler line on the side of the house today; it's out of site and out of mind until you see it again in 2 weeks. You’re not going to circle back and schedule that appointment when you finish the thing you're working on. Either do it now or accept it might never happen. Future You doesn’t have it together either. Trust me.

The Netflix Effect

Maybe I’m just turning into an old man (plot twist: I am), but it feels like everything now is built for instant gratification. Don’t like the show? Switch. Start another. Start from the beginning. Nothing’s lost, nothing’s gained. Back in my day, if you left the room and missed what happened, you just didn’t know. Maybe every generation says this... but also, maybe Socrates was right, and it's just another New Wave of advancing into the future and I'm too anchored in my own past.

Vacation ≠ “Work Later”

While we were out, my kids got work contracts from school to make up an entire week’s worth of assignments (I have opinions). While trying to crank through it, one of them hit me with this gem: “It’s not really a vacation when you just have double the work when you get back.”

Ain’t that the truth? How often do we “take time off” only to return to a mountain of emails, missed messages, and problems that patiently waited for us? Wouldn’t it be wild if vacation actually meant rest, and someone else picked up the slack without turning it into a boomerang of extra work when you got back? Dream big.

Bumper Stickers ≠ People

Yes, I definitely judge the hell out of people based on their bumper stickers, especially when I disagree with them. However, when I’m forced to talk to them those people real life? Turns out they’re usually not evil; just human beings who generally want the best for others. I blame the echo chamber that is the internet for helping us flatten people into caricatures, but when you break bread with someone who thinks differently, most of the time you find common ground. When you don't, just kick ’em in the nards and walk away.

Not Everyone Needs to Be a Manager

Don’t make “management” the only path up. Some folks just want to be amazing at what they do, not run meetings, write performance reviews, and do 1:1s. Give people multiple forks in the career road. Your rockstar dev might want to go deeper technically, not deeper in middle management.

Infinite Scroll, Infinite Regret

This one’s stolen straight from my wife (without permission). We both try to avoid social media, but running businesses means we’re unfortunately pulled back in to a degree. The more we use it, the more that little check-in turns into a two-hour scroll. Drawing us away from reading books, going to sleep later, and generally feeling worse. You know the drill: have the realization, delete the app, wait X amount of time, re-download it, feel like garbage, delete the app. How can we get out of this cycle?

The Post-Work Flow

Speaking of being on your phone all the time... I came across this Reddit post that hit me in the gut (in a good way): Finding the Post-Work Flow

It's a reminder to be more intentional with how you wind down. Replace doomscrolling with something slower, and more human. A walk. A book. A conversation that isn’t through a screen.

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That’s the brain dump for this week. If you read this far, thanks for letting me relive my race win and emotional rollercoaster of a Disney/gallbladder hangover.

Let me know what you’re reading, what you’re deleting, or call out that app forced you through a 9-step tutorial when you just wanted to do something quick and simple.

Still fist pumping (and still unpacking),

//Trevor

P.S.: Curious about my consulting work? I help build people-first workplaces that actually function. More here: //TREVORFRY.TECH