Dad likes, uh, not great coffee. After our walk downtown yesterday, and having the proprietor tell us they were open today, I knew that I wanted one of Dad's birthday gifts to be those new coffee drinks. Which is to say, an espresso drink.

Today, we drove at least.

So today, Dad had his first espresso-based drink: a latte.

His review?

"It was pretty good."

I have this note I wrote to myself that reads:

Not about catching the absolutes, it's more ups than downs ⬅ about having more ups than downs.

I looked at that note, and wondered what I was thinking about when I wrote it. After casually considering, I determined it was about mindfulness and paying attention to the ups more than the downs. We have evolved to notice the bad more than we notice the good. That balance kept us alive. Maybe in this world when we don't have to worry about being eaten by a lion, generally speaking being aware of the good could be a way to balance out millions of years of evolution that has turned into negative thinking, and live a more satisfying life.

Seems a good thought, except that thought wasn't what the note was about at all. Worth a chuckle when I remembered the actual topic.

I have a coworker who knows a lot about a lot of technical things. Ask him a question, and he will answer it. The answer will never be "I don't know." Ask a question in a meeting with experts, and he will answer the question. The answer from the experts will be different. Ask a question with him nearby, and he will likely answer it. The answer may not be actually relevant, but he will answer it. Look in Slack for the answers from other employees encountering similar problems that you are experiencing, and you will find answers from this coworker. The answers may or may not be relevant, may or may not be accurate, may or not be complete enough to actually be useful, but he will have responded to the question.

Which would be absolutely wonderful if his answers were correct, tested, useful, and accurate.

Said coworker knows a lot about a lot of things, but he doesn't actually know things.

He knows where to look for answers, but he hasn't actually implemented most of the code, library, packages, software, APIs, solutions he suggests you try.

He has heard about someone else talking about this problem, and tells you to try some solution, too, without knowing if the solution is applicable or actually worked for the other someone.

He cannot demonstrate mastery of the tools he tells you to use. He cannot help when you run into the next problem when following his original answer. This is key.

Knowing about something is reading the teaser on the back of the book and thinking you know the plot. Knowing about something is watching a movie trailer and thinking you know the plot. Knowing about something is listening to a marketing pitch and repeating it back, having never actually run the product. Knowing about something is watching a 30 second tiktok video and arguing with your cousin about the merits of some foreign policy at Christmas dinner because you think you understand the nuances. Knowing about something is copying documentation from a service's API into a Word document and thinking you have an RFC, having never tried to connect to the API or write a small program using the API. Knowing about something is partner programming with someone, manipulating the partner into doing all the work, and thinking you could have implemented the solution, having never actually written any of the code.

Watching a 2 minute video does not and cannot give you the knowledge sufficient to understand the nuances of pretty much anything. Reading a headline deliberately written to outrage you does not and cannot convey the nuances of history. Copying and pasting documentation from a service's API into a Word document does not create a RFC. Spending 2 minutes on a 4 page change request review does not improve the code.

People listen to my coworker because his answers are said with confidence. Unearned, misplaced, inappropriate confidence, to be sure. Say things with confidence, and people will think you know things. Stay with those people long enough, however, and they will figure out you know about those things, but you don't actually know those things.

Working with this coworker, this kind of people, is unbelievably frustrating. Working with someone presenting competent and actually being incompetent has to be one of the biggest professional disappointments.

I've had this site up for 20 years. Many of those years have been the barest of up, but many more have been quite prolific. After Melissa asked me, "Why?" I switched to paper journalling instead of writing here, but haven't ever quite taken down the site. Mom doesn't visit here any more, and very few people do. Lots of crawlers and spammer visit, which is less that thrilling.

Still, 20 years is something. 20 years is a long, long time.

And yet, 20 years is a short time.

Around this time a year ago I was training for Vinson, heading south to Antarctica in a week.

Around two years ago I was on Antarctica with Denny, Randy, and Larry.

Around three years ago, Chase died.

Around four years ago, I went to Antarctica for the first time.

Around five years ago, I was still living in Canada.

Around ten years ago, I left working at Twitter.

Around 11 years ago, Bella died.

Around 14 years ago, I met Jonathan.

Around 15 years ago, I trained at Velocity, had an amazing social life with the Gulls, and MMMM (now MMMMM), Brynne, Bridge, ultimate.

Around 16 years ago, I "convinced" Andy to come play with us, and became one of the Three Amigos.

Around 17 years ago, we won Nationals in Sarasota.

Around 20 years ago, I started this blog.

Around 25 years ago, I met Kris.

IDK, seems lots of highlights at the years and the half years. Lots of life lived seemingly very large. And yet, much of it so mundane.

Happy blogiversary, me.

I don't recall which trip, which is pretty terrible that I can't remember, or maybe pretty remarkable that we have journeyed so much that I can't remember.

Update: Jonathan says, "Train ride to Paris." Whoo!