Diminishing Returns?
May 5, 2016
You may (or may not) have noticed that I have not been posting as often. This is primarily due I think to the law of diminishing returns. My primary goal for my "camp sabbatical" was personal growth. As with nearly all goals, the return on investment of time towards this goal has diminished. I'm not saying I have learned everything I can learn about myself; far from it! Yet the "aha" moments and insights are fewer and further between. I have read over 100 books since I have been here and close to half of those have been in the philosophical/self help vein. I am noticing that there is significant overlap in terms of useful concepts in these books. Most of the differences have to do with the examples used and the different ways these concepts can be applied in every day life. Also, the environment here is of course artificial and does not have the diversity of life experiences that occurs in the "real world." So I am experiencing diminishing returns in terms of the variety of situations in which I get to practice all of these great new "skills" I have.
The bottom line is that I have less truly interesting and/or inspiring things to write about as time goes on. One of the things I remember my prison consultant (yes, that's a "thing") telling me is to keep my blog posts interesting. People don't want to hear what you are eating in the chow hall or how your tennis game is going. Although I must say that the quality of the soups at lunch have improved dramatically since our very special "soup nazi" has rotated back into the camp kitchen. I'm tellin' ya: she makes a hell of a tomato bisque and cream of broccoli! It's the little things that make my day!
So due to the law of diminishing returns, don't be surprised if I don't post as often! It doesn't mean I'm not doing ok.
I'm coming up on 16 months here (time IS flying!) and lately I have started to feel disconnected from the real world and real activities (see above comment about artificial environments). It's definitely a weird feeling and you start to wonder if you will be able to easily integrate back into the real world when the time comes. All my friends are having real lives and even though I hear about it, I feel more detached from it as time goes on. I was talking to Kenny about this last week and how it was making me feel somehow that I am not in the loop and have less to offer (there goes that crazy brain of mine again!). And right after that I was lucky to have a visit from two good friends from San Diego who are in the eyecare biz. One of them sent me an email after the visit saying how much she enjoyed it and she couldn't believe how stimulating and interesting the conversation was considering how long I have been cooped up here. Well that made my day but it also made me realize that, even though I have been out of it for a while, I have used my copious free time to increase my knowledge! Wall Street Journal, CNN and NPR every day, Sunday NY Times, 60 Minutes every week, Vanity Fair, CRST, Glaucoma Today and Retina Today every month plus the aforementioned 100+ books! Having the time to consume and absorb all that is one of the best things about "camping." Too bad though there isn't someone here to say, "OK, you've learned all you need to learn, now click your heels three times... " (sorry! Couldn't resist! That's for you, Ed!) On that note.....
A big hug to everyone!
David
PS: Congrats to the Glaukos sales team on an AWESEOME 1st quarter!!!!!!!
