I met a C-level leader at a 3D printing startup that described his functional role as the “Chief No Officer”. His job was to say no to almost everything.

The promise of 3D printing is that it can it can (supposedly) make everything. The reality is that it can rarely make anything.

His version of this was “just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should do it”. Hence the CNO’s job was to shut down most of the ideas, to keep the company focused.

Reflecting on this interaction, I am seeing how I have not been very good at saying no. The potentiality of yes is exciting. The possibilities. The novelty. The excitement.

Are you sending mixed messages?

The best things that have happened in my life were not planned, they were intended.

I did not plan to meet my wife. I did have an intention of being open to a romantic relationship.

I did not plan to join Cyclotron Road. I did have an intention to combine my interests in physical science & entrepreneurship, as well as an intention to live in the Bay Area.

Are you making a plan, or setting an intention?

Multiple Choice Monday.

In my in-between moments, I am most likely to:

• Scroll
• Text
• Tap
• Type
• Feel
• Breathe
• Ask
• Swipe
• Sense
• Sit
• Pee
• Wipe
• Worry
• Rest
• Rage
• Snipe
• (None of the above)

A.I. doesn’t blink. This was the vision of Haley Joel Osment and Steven Spielberg. The red doorknob. The origami unicorn. The subtle tell that is only obvious when it’s too late.

Make sure your friends are blinking.

My friend manifests stories. She doesn’t write them, she writes them down. She has a protocol. She asks for them. From whom? I’m not sure she could tell you exactly, even if she wanted to.

Mommy, where do stories come from?

The very tools that promise to give us superpowers simultaneously (and perhaps necessarily) erode our intrinsic superpowers. If we haven’t yet discovered our innate superpowers, these technologies make it very hard to get quiet enough to notice them. Especially when our tools talk back, they can make it difficult to find time enough (and attention enough) to hone our (super)natural (super)powers.

As a small child, I had a recurring nightmare of getting trapped inside of the family computer. It took me more than 30 years to appreciate the wisdom in this dream. It was not the irrational fear of a four year old boy. It was a warning, a prophesy – and it has now come true.

What is your Job? (with a capital J) A story more powerful than money. A calling. A vocation. Where did it come from? How did you find it? What is in the way of you doing your Job?

Some days, no matter where you walk, you can’t seem to avoid the garbage trucks