Miles' Thoughts

It's the oldest law of nature, yet somehow it's so one of the most difficult concepts for us to truly accept. The vast majority of people talk about how they are open to change and we talk about how great change is in public forums, but I'm afraid the truth is that when it really comes down to it most people are not willing to actually accept, embrace, or incite change. On a biological level I can somewhat understand that. Change is a shift away from the unknown, and why shift to the unknown when the known is perfectly safe, especially in the big scary world we live in. Yet there are many instances in which as a species we have made the conscious effort to resist our instincts; in fact "civilized society" is often defined by this ability to overcome some of our basic human instincts. Even more interesting is that living organisms are constantly adapting to their surroundings, both on a biological level and a behavioral one. Nature has long since proven out the b

Just outside Barton Springs - Austin, TX There's a beautiful world out there if you'll just open your eyes once in awhile. One of my favorite aspects of the wave of technological innovation that we're experiencing is how much easier it is to immerse yourself in nature. From access to information on far away destinations, to the infrastructure to cheaply reach them, to the tools that allow you to continue to be productive and connected (should you so wish) once you get there. I find it troubling that most people haven't made a very simple connection yet: just as easily as you can check your Facebook on a flight to Brazil you can add value to team meetings from a hammock in your backyard, respond to emails from a picnic table next to your favorite swimming hole, or engage with clients to accomplish projects from the front porch of a cabin deep in the Rocky Mountains. For the vast majority of you, there's no reason you can't too. The question we need to be

How in the hell did we become so accepting of the idea of indebtedness? When did the word usury - which is referred to as a sin in many religious texts - shift from the practice of lending money and charging any  interest to lending money and charging too much  interest? How did we build a society in which people decide to purchase goods and services without even checking how much money is in their bank account? That's like saying I'll trade you this cow for that lumber but you don't even know if you have a cow. That's insane, and the fact that no one thinks twice about it is even more insane. These questions and a 1000 of their closest reincarnations fly through my mind in dizzying fashion. I'm afraid we could spend the rest of our lives talking about how we got here - from greedy profit-seeking useless-widget makers shoving consumerism down our throats to banks who lock their customers into contracts with language that might as well be hieroglyphics the story is