Tend Your Fields

This week I had my first call since Idaho with a former colleague who has become a friend. Part of it was about what I brought back.

I told him what I wrote here last week: that part of me wants nothing more than a dark room and a blinking cursor. That's still true. When I sit down in front of an empty terminal and start building, I get lost in it. It's calming. There's purpose in it.

He told me about a man he knows who left corporate life, the rat race and the ladder, and started growing blueberries. He talked about him the same way I'd just talked about a terminal. The man just likes to tend his fields.

Then my friend told me he had mentioned my trip to someone in his life who was drawn to the idea of a trip alone like mine. He said it doesn't do it for everybody. Some people can't imagine five days on their own.

That's when it clicked for me. The field isn't blueberries. It isn't code either. It isn't even a solo trip, because for plenty of people that would be the opposite of peace.

A field is whatever you'd pour effort into even if nobody asked you to. It isn't rest, and it isn't doing nothing. Blueberry fields are hard work. So is climbing a mountain, or writing a book, or reading a hard one. Work might not be the right word. It's closer to the pursuit of purpose, and it looks different on every person.

Here's where it meets what I build. I don't know how much of what AI promises will happen. If even part of it does, a lot of us are about to get time back. That's the reason I build tools for my team in the first place: let the system take the time-consuming work so people have room for the parts only they can do.

But time back is only a gift if you know what it's for. Some people don’t know how they would fill that time. That's not a reason to stop building. It's a reason to take the other half of life seriously.

The other half is figuring out your field before the time shows up, not after.

And it's worth doing even if AI never does any of it. I didn't need a machine to see mine clearly. I needed five days and a river.

Mine has a blinking cursor in it. His has blueberries.

Jordan

P.S. What field do you tend? Reply and tell me. If you don't know yet, tell me that too.