Walking the line

I close my eyes and I see a man walking a line. One step at a time over and over. Never changes direction. He has gone to far to turn back now. No distractions on either side. Nothing exists outside the line. The line is so defined that its a black line on white paper. He never stops, he can't stop, he does not see the end.

He knows that its a line. He knows that every line has a beginning and an end. Never questioning the details he knows. No reason to question the facts. Limited only by his own mind, he never discovers that the line has no end.

That the line he does see is only a piece of a much larger circle. He will forever be a prisoner of his own mind. Unable to escape the reality that only exists in his head.

I open my eyes and think to my self. Is this how I see the world.

Every problem is a nail

The full quote is "If your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail" and the original quote is "He that is good with a hammer tends to think everything is a nail." A quick search lead me to a entry on www.brainyquote.com that indicates Abraham Maslow is the author of that line.

This is why you expand your set of tools. Every new tool expands your skills and gives you new solutions to new problems. Sometimes a hammer is the exact tool you need. The better you know your tools, the more confident you will be in knowing that the hammer is or is not the solution.

I write code and I see how this impacts me all the time. I find it important to learn new tools. I also find it hard at times not to over use new tools. New tools are like a new hammer, you look for a reason to use it.

In the end, I know I should be bound by the tools I have. In some ways, I am. In other ways, I know the tool I need does exist. Even if I dont have it already, I know its available to use.

Without direction

Have you ever felt lost without direction? Not knowing where you are, who you are, or what to do? One day passes on to the next. the day shifts to night, time and time again. Yet nothing changes. Things stand still yet again as they have for days.

But what must change to give you direction? If nothing changes where can you get direction? If you are lost waiting for direction then you are not changing anything. Without change, direction will never come. You will be lost forever in and endless loop of nothing changing.

Direction is something you decide for your self. Waiting for direction is waiting for change. Without the first step on your own, you have neither direction or change. You will not know where you are, who you are, or what to do. You will feel lost without direction.