Wanted: Simple and Genuine

Last week I quietly slipped over the keynote threshold marking 40 years of life. I find there are lots of interesting things going through my mind, searching for new meaning, etc. Among the tangled threads of thought and emotion is a pretty big desire for a back-to-basics approach to living that permeates a lot of areas of my existence.

Take software architecture for example. For years I worked to grow my technical skills and amass expertise in several complex framework systems. I can now integrate these frameworks like smashing planets together. Great fun...and totally useless. After more than 10 years of reaching ever higher technically I've now come to the thoughtful conclusion that 80% of it is unnecessary. What benefit is there in having an application that "only has 10 lines of code" if you also have to master a complex framework with hundreds of lines of configuration? No thanks. A simple approach that I can hand to someone else and they immediately understand how it works--that's a good system.

I've also developed an itch for a classic car. A BMW 2002 tii to be specific. I like my newer cars but they lack soul. Its like they are all extruded from some tube of plastic somewhere and the whole system would come to a halt if one of the electronic bits conked out. The 2002 is a machine through and through. The only thing remotely electronic is the radio. Yep--roll-up windows, no electronics in the engine, and manually adjusted seats. Chrome bumpers! Everything clearly bolts together unlike new cars that try to hide every connector furthering the illusion that somehow these new cars simply sprang into being from a single lump of plastic and alloy. Not the 2002--someone had to build it bolt by bolt. I can't explain why, but that speaks to me.

Here's a guy who restored an old 2002 over a period of years. Gorgeous work, but why would someone go to all that trouble? I think I understand. Its a quest to have something genuine. There aren't that many genuine things in the world but when you find one they ring true. Think of a Harley Davidson, Airstream trailer, or an iPod for that matter. Genuine things aren't pretending or striving to be something else--they are what they are. They are things that will stand the test of time and be just as cool 25 years from now as they are today. I think the fact that it took this guy several years, and probably a good chunk of cash, only added to the value of the exercise. He was reclaiming something.

As I turn 40 I'm looking to recapture the simple--the genuine. My hope is that these things become an externalization of an inward quest to become more simple and genuine myself.