Doing Something Else

When I think about work and what would make me happy, I am always clear in knowing that I do not forsee myself working in "tech" for the long term. The simplest way to put it is that I don't really like it all that much. It pays well and I seem to have a knack for it, but I get no real enjoyment out of it and find the majority of my effort and the greater efforts of the organizations I work for as meaningless in the long run. I might help the company make money and maybe the company helps others make money, but we don't really create value. We aren't helping to build anything that will stand the test of time, we don't help people in their daily lives, we don't make anyone's existence any more enjoyable or productive. Frankly, much of today's economy seems to be a glossed-over welfare state for the well-educated, slightly bored middle class and their progeny. We get jobs that we don't have to work too hard at and that ultimately don't produce anything tangible. We are moving bits around, bits in the binary sense, and we get paid - but our pay is just a bunch of bits transmitted over the wire to a bank account that is nothing more than a record in a database somewhere. Everything is virtual in this economy and I can't help but feel entirely disconnected and disinterested.

I yearn to do something else; something that has more meaning, something that I can touch and feel and experience. I have a number of ideas as to what it is, but none are fully formed. Okay, some are more well formed and thought out than others, but my detailed plans are rather precious to me and I'm not ready to share them with anyone other than my wife. However, speaking or writing about the looser stuff is satisfying and helps me to organize things as well.

Here is one - I've always loved the idea of doing radio. I have no background or experience whatsoever. But, I think I could do a pretty decent job of talking with people and of entertaining folks as they sit in traffic. Sure, I have a pretty dirty sense of humor, but I think I am wittier and more intelligent than simply a pack of fart jokes. Maybe this blog is my way of saying the things I want to say that I don't get to say since I don't have my own radio show. I don't think that the current state of radio really provides a venue for me to have the kind of show I'd want to have in the first place. A mix of music and talk with no strict boundaries on what subject matter needs to be covered or what demographic needs to be targeted. If I could get on air and just do what I think is interesting radio, I think I could build a decent audience. But, I'll have more luck doing pirate radio out of my basement than I will trying to get a job at a commercially run radio station here in the DC area.