I am married to a Dead Head. My husband Mark didn’t discover the band until he was in college, so he missed much of the touring that makes the community vibrant, but he’s made up for it ever since. Like most Dead Heads, he has listened to the 200+ versions of Fire on the Mountain and could tell you what date and venue the best version of the song was played. He loves the Dead so much that he plays keys in a Dead cover band called Peak 2 Peak (they gig locally so check them out if you live around here!).
Read More »Category: Musings
My secret rock
I have a secret rock. It’s 3/4 through my weekly hike, and I always stop there to relax for a few before returning to my car. It’s obfuscated by the tall golden grass of the hillside meadow in which it sits, with views south and east in Boulder. It’s a glorious spot because it overlooks […]
Crown complications and musings on details
The vegetable plate was the only item at the Starbucks near my gate I can eat. First of all, it was literally the only food item I could eat since I’m trying to avoid gluten. I’m from Boulder after all. And we, in Boulder, avoid gluten, alongside other curiosities, like sugar, high heel shoes, GMO foods, nail polish on our fingers (toes are okay though), and carbon emissions. But today I can’t eat the gluten-laden muffins and croissants of Starbucks even if I wanted to because I can’t open my jaw wide enough to get my toothbrush all the way in. See I had dental surgery last week, a cracked wisdom tooth resulting from a large filling, and a few years of grinding in my sleep. The temporary crown back there is rougher than my other teeth, and is supposed to get replaced with the permanent crown 3 days from now. It’s doubtful I’ll be keeping that appointment since I can’t even yawn, as this complication with my crown surgery has put me in considerable pain. And for some stupid reason, I feel like toughing out the pain rather than taking ibuprofen. So… I’ve bitten the tip off the pointy cherry tomato foot and am sucking the juice out because I can’t open my mouth any wider.
Read More »Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
I am surrounded by change, in fact my very career in tech entrepreneurship bets on change. But sometimes we don’t fully understand the impact of our actions and our innovations. And in tech, we have been accused (rightfully so) of not understanding how the rest of the world lives. The tech bubble isn’t just economic, its also a bubble of perspective. Case in point, this hit me hard when Trump was elected because I couldn’t fathom anyone believing he would make a good president.
Since then, I’ve made a commitment to expanding my own awareness and getting out of the tech bubble. I am in a unique position where getting this exposure doesn’t have to be hard, and I just need to pick my head up to look around. If successful, maybe, just maybe I can help “sides” better understand each others perspectives.
That’s why I’m pleased to share that I’ve joined the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s Economic Advisory Council. Our role on the EAC is to help inform the Federal Reserve Bank’s leadership about regional trends, concerns, and opportunities. Helping the Fed understand the sentiment and trends of tech – I can do that – especially given I’m standing amidst the maelström that is crypto-currency, investing, startups, and entrepreneurship.
However the thing I’m most excited about is learning how the Fed thinks and works, and hearing from my peers in the non-tech ecosystems. How does hospitality feel about the current state of affairs? Construction? Transportation? Agriculture? What are the trends affecting those industries that I might not be aware of because I’m submerged in tech? What does the government really think of our economy today? How do the checks and balances put in place really work?
I’m on a perspective quest, and joining the Kansas City Fed’s EAC is just one step of many in expanding my awareness.
If you’re in the Denver area and would like to have your opinion represented at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, shoot me an email with your thoughts and I’ll ensure they get represented.
How connected are we, really?
I’ve been thinking a lot about the word connectivity.
In tech, we use the word ‘connectivity’ to talk about our devices – how our devices connect to the internet and to each other. As one who travels a lot, connectivity is my tether to work and home. I can survive without my cell connection, but sever my data connection and much is lost. I can’t check my email, I can’t work, I can’t see if that company’s round is closing or what startups we decided to invest in or sign that board agreement. I can’t FaceTime or text with my kids, can’t see the news, can’t check in on Twitter or Facebook. I have no idea what’s happening in the world around me. Being connected to the internet helps me support not just a few investments and Techstars programs – but hundreds. Being connected to the internet broadens my reach from what’s immediately around my physical person – to the global reach that Techstars has across 5 continents, 500+ cities, and 100+ countries. Connectivity helps me scale my productivity.
Read More »Shel Silverstein’s boundless genius and the eclipse
Shel Silverstein is a hero of mine, his writing always speaks to me with its multi-layered meanings, rhyme, and rhythm. I think it’s hard enough having to write something with substance, but when you add rhythm and rhyme to it, it becomes genius.
Given today’s eclipse, it would be àpropos to share his poem “A Battle in the Sky” which comes from his famous book Falling Up. I read this book regularly to my children and find the same amount of joy in it that they do. If you haven’t read any of his poetry books recently, I highly recommend it, for adults and children alike.
A Battle in the Sky
It wasn’t quite day and it wasn’t quite night,
‘Cause the sun and the moon were both in sight,
A situation quite all right
With everyone else but them.So they both made remarks about who gave more light
And who was the brightest and prettiest sight,
And the sun gave a bump and the moon a bite,
And the terrible sky fight began.With a scorch and a sizzle, a screech and a shout,
Across the great heavens they tumbled about,
And the moon had a piece of the sun in its month,
While the sun burned the face of the moon.And when it was over the moon was rubbed red,
And the sun ha a very bad lump on its head,
And all the next night the moon stayed home in bed,
And the sun didn’t come out ‘til noon.
Shel Silverstein
We bought a bed.
Today marks a monumental day in Mark (husband!) and my life.
We bought a bed.
Now, I know this doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it is. Our mattress has been sitting on plastic-wrapped box springs, on the floor, for 5 years. Prior to that, our old mattress was on one of those free frames that come with the mattress when you bought it, and I think it was the same frame I got in college.
The bed represents the first piece of furniture we actually *bought* in our adult lives. You know, something that we didn’t get on Craigslist, or Ikea, or was a hand-me-down or gift of some sort. In fact, the Ikea furniture that’s currently in our master bedroom replaced a used, falling-apart dresser that I literally bought for $20 FROM THE CLASSIFIED SECTION OF THE NEWSPAPER when I was a sophomore in college. It was that old.
Read More »We need more people like Phil Weiser
Phil Weiser is running for Colorado Attorney General and he is a man we should all support with our time, money, and voices.
I’ve known Phil for nearly a decade. Phil has demonstrated, time and time again, his commitment to the best interests of our community. Among other things, he’s worked on Governor Ritter’s Innovation Council, was critical to bringing the Blackstone Entrepreneurs Network to CO, and when he was Dean of the CU Law school, he successfully pioneered an entrepreneurial program at CU that successfully integrates the local business community. (Imagine that, law and entrepreneurship!) More importantly, he’s already working to transform the government from the inside out through the Governmental Entrepreneurial Leadership Accelerator (of which I am a quasi-mentor) which takes motivated individuals inside of the government and gives them resources to make big changes with civic issues.
Through his list of accomplishments, you can see that Phil knows how to execute. But looking more closely, you can see that Phil is phenomenal at navigating complex situations between powerful institutions and groups that result in a mutually beneficial outcome for all. He knows how to drive positive change and collaboration among people because Phil’s values and motives are in the right place. He is one of the best humans on the planet, and individuals like Phil will be the catalyst to getting our government on the right foot. With Phil in a leadership role in our government, great things can and will happen.
When Trump was elected, I vowed to get more involved in our government. For me, this means supporting individuals that I know bring the right qualities to office and that I trust to make hard decisions. Phil is that guy.
Consider donating your time, voice, or dollars to help Phil’s campaign.
The lost art of a constructive debate
Because I was so surprised when our country elected Trump, I’ve been on a personal campaign to get out of my information bubble. In order to achieve this, I’ve been deliberately exposing myself to media sources I wouldn’t otherwise read, and most importantly, diving into the comments sections of these channels to attempt to understand people’s perspectives.
In reading comments – I thought I would discover why people think building a wall is a good idea, or why banning muslims is a sound move, but what I discovered was much worse.
Have you ever been in a conversation with someone where you stated an opinion, and the other person took such an antagonistic stance that you ‘fought back’? In fact, it became more about the fight than about the topic you’re fighting about, just to win?
Almost every single comment thread I read devolved into throwing insults. I honestly don’t recall a single thread where the individuals engaged in a healthy debate. Rather, it quickly got personal, people insulting others’ intelligence, with the original topic being lost in a sea of vitriol. Don’t believe me? Go head and read into almost any comments thread in political news right now. The anger people feel is downright terrifying.
And it strikes me – maybe this is the core of our problem today. The core of our problem isn’t that we all have different opinions, or that we elected Trump, or Dems Vs GOP, or any of the issues people are fighting today. It’s that we, as humans, have forgotten how to treat each other with respect when we disagree and stakes feel high. And because we’re treating each other with such antagonism, the fights keep getting more and more vicious. If we continue on this trend, pretty soon we’ll forget what we’re even fighting about, we’ll just be focused on winning regardless of what we’re winning. Then, we all lose. IMHO, electing Trump was merely a symptom of this underlying problem in the US.
My ongoing goal is to never attack someone for a differing opinion, rather try to understand their orientation and perspective, and help them try to understand mine in a constructive, non-antagonistic way. If you’re looking for skills on how to do this, I loved Difficult Conversations – it helped me improve all my relationships at work and at home, and really helped me identify how I was shaping the world around me.
Moving forward post election
While I do vote at every election, I have always stayed out of public conversation around politics. As a child, when the extended family dinner conversations turned to politics, it always resulted in anger and yelling, ruining the evening for everyone and dividing the family. I don’t remember constructive, curious conversations, only defensive and offensive ones. And with the proliferation of political rhetoric on Facebook, I deliberately opted to keep my opinions to myself, wanting to preserve the relationship with my family and friends and not wanting to add to the political raging in people’s feeds. I believed (wrongly) that, in this case, silence could keep us together.
This last election was no different for me. I did vote. I voted for Hillary, with confidence that I selected was the right one “given the options”.
But I kept silent on why I voted for Hilary b/c I didn’t want to invite argument. At the time, it didn’t feel like it mattered anyway, most everyone I knew were voting for Hilary. My twitter feed was full of Hilary supporters, ditto on Facebook. The news was basically mocking Trump for his last imbecilic contradiction. I went to Lisbon for WebSummit mildly nervous for being out of the country during the elections, but predicting that Hilary would win by a landslide.
Wow. Was I wrong. Horribly, terribly wrong. I was blindsided. My bubble, and my silence, was a huge part of the problem.
My initial reaction to Tuesday was total disbelief. The election was rigged! It HAS to be rigged! Trump yelled so loudly and often that the elections were rigged, of COURSE he’d rig them! Then I was convinced we needed to move to a different country and honestly thinking about where we would go. Basically I’ve spent the last 5 days feeling scared, angry, and betrayed. Scared because what does this mean? Trump likes to hurt anyone who speaks negatively about him, does that mean my first amendment rights are at risk if I speak negatively about him now? Angry at myself mostly – how I could be this insulated from how the rest of the country feels??! Realizing the thickness of my bubble, and the insulation I have from the rest of the country was a harsh and painful awakening. And I feel betrayed, betrayed that the media led me to believe (or I let myself be led to believe) the rest of the country felt how I did. Betrayed that my fellow Americans don’t have the same set of values that I have. I’m not talking about position on political issues, I’m talking about values. Values like respect for one another, regardless of race, gender, or socioeconomic status. Values like truth. Values like modesty. Values like respecting our planet. Because to me, this election wasn’t about political issues. It was about values.
As I’ve slowly started to accept what has happened, I’ve talked to a handful of Trump supporters (to get out of that bubble I mentioned above), I hear that their election wasn’t about values, but it was about change. Hilary meant more of the same to them, while Trump represented radical difference. It was less about his stance on issues (although some did believe his stance was better), less about what he thought about building a wall, or his position on global warming, or disrespecting women – it was about the radical shakeup he’d bring. Trump was, as Norman Lear said in his talk at #SummitAtSea, the proverbial middle finger of America’s right hand.
In America, I don’t believe we’re having the same conversations, which is why nothing ever feels like it’s moving forward. And I think the only way we’re going to start having the same conversations, is to get back to the basics of values. Let’s all get on the same page about values, because until we can all agree that “all people are created equal” and “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses…” and “religious freedom” that our constitution and history declares – we can’t ever agree on the political issues at stake today and we will continue to have subpar candidates, on both sides of the aisle.
So today, in order to become a more active participant in the shaping of our futures, I uncomfortably and publicly commit to 2 opposing actions:
1) Actively seek out and listen to others who don’t share my beliefs, for a genuine attempt at understanding those outside of my community. We can’t move forward if we don’t understand. Understanding doesn’t mean agreeing, but it does mean hearing and embracing and respecting those who disagree with me.
2) Speak out about the values I hold to be self-evident, not to preach but to invite conversation, and to help shift media’s attention from negative hate mongering, to positive attributes like love and trust we share as humans. As Seth Levine has just said, “…the US needs a strong and vocal counterbalance to the hate and bigotry we just empowered”.
I hope you join me in both actions.
Nearly Nicole 