Constrained Bliss Point

Two quick things:

First, the fan on my laptop died last weekend, rendering me without a PC at home. I can’t blame the poor thing; it’s been on it’s last legs for months now, and the laptop itself is over four years old. Without the internets distracting me, I’ve seen a boost in productivity, though my blogging will likely be more intermittent than usual.

Second! my favorite non-profit organization Creative Commons has kicked off its annual fundraising campaign. You should consider donating so you can get a sweet t-shirt, and also to support a worthy mission. Saving the world from failed sharing is a noble goal, the people are amazing, and come on, look how good you can look in a CC t-shirt (that’s me in my superhero pose, for those of you keeping score at home). I cannot recommend Creative Commons highly enough. And tell your friends to send them lots of money too.

This is the first in what I hope will be a continuing series on Really Important Choices that turn out to have Really Good Consequences. My time interning with Creative Commons (CC) has positively impacted my life’s direction moreso than probably any other event in recent history.

Most of what I’m doing now is for CC in one way or another. The most obvious is that I’m still a contractor. Half-hacker, half-data analyst is a good spot for me, I think. A few months back I helped the development team analyze their past fundraising efforts (statistics to the rescue!). My senior thesis was about Creative Commons. I’m still working on a broad research agenda — like, what do I want to study during my time in grad school — and I will almost certainly swing CC in there somehow.

The people I met at CC are utterly fabulous. I interned with Tim Hwang, Brian Rowe, Grace Armstrong, Steren Giannini, and Greg Grossmeier. Allison Domicone, who is particularly cool, was sort of an intern too, and of course who can forget Jane “I-can-drink-twice-as-much-as-you” Park.

I’m still doing some good work with Tim Hwang and his motley group of cool kids in Cambridge, MA. Tim also turned me on to Getting Things Done, perhaps the greatest productivity tool the world has ever known. And over time I have come to realize that a significant chunk of my t-shirt supply is CC swag. Check it out.