Jun 13, 2013

Every time I stop giving classes…

Every time I stop giving classes, basically on holydays (even though Touristologists don’t take holidays, they just travel around and abroad in order to know other markets, make international contacts, plan future business…), I try to finish the big summary of everything-that-matters-to-me intellectually: Touristology, Web-Engineering, Economy, Psychology… I had an unfinished version of this big summary on my laptop, on several hard disks, on older desktop PC...
Every time I stop giving classes, I start a new version but… I have never finished it!
Why will you begin again if you know that you will be unable to finish it, Jordi? Because, this big summary is one of my utopias, Touristologists. It is something that highlights the way to follow.
This is the key, I start each new summary with the same passion and energy, using the knowledge that I squeezed in the previous ones as a base. Then I build up an improved structure over it. Each time, the big summary is better, still incomplete, but better…
Something similar happens to me when after holidays I face a new subject… a new bunch of future Touristologists. I try to build the perfect Touristologist (I’m a Touristologists builder, remember?).
Jordi, don’t you see that it’s impossible to create the perfect summary, to build the perfect Touristologist?
Maybe it is impossible BUT what if one day I achieve my goal? What if you don’t get it because you don’t try with all your guts/soul? I prefer to live this way! Trying is much better than saying it is impossible and not trying at all. This idea is carved in my brain. The day I was born I appeared in this world together with liters of water. Doctors slapped me in order to provoke the first cry… no answer… they decided that healing was impossible and they left me on a table. Then the doctors and my parents, quietly, left the room… I don’t have any memories of this moment, the only thing I know is that just thinking about it provokes in my mind, emotions, guts, a silent scream “Wake Up! You have unfinished business here!” 50 years later when experts decide that something is impossible… Well, I try! What about you?
Furthermore, I have been around here long enough to know that time isn’t linear it is cyclical. You can apply this idea to relationships if you wish, but let’s focus on intellectual activity. If you have been working with/on the web from the beginning (I mean since the first popular browser in 1993) you know that change is the only constant BUT also that, like life, its evolution is better described as a circle than as a line.
Let’s see a few examples. Shall we?
 In the year 2000, XML became very popular and everybody was talking about how this language, or meta-language to be precise, will (apart from other interesting features) allow your content to be multiplatform (using, for instance, XSLT templates), then this idea became less relevant, until now where everybody is talking about Responsive Web Design. Same idea, different terms /concepts and methodologies BUT same goal! Do you believe that it is easier to understand/achieve your goal, if you remember both events?
The same thing happens with Intelligent Systems. In the year 2000, they were very popular, then the market, academics… seemed to lose their interest. Nowadays, it appears again with a different name: Machine Learning.
Another example, is the creation of a lot of enterprises using a new technology and then disappearing when they are all are copying the same business model.
As I said, life, knowledge, evolution can be better explained with a circle than with a line! So, I will begin a new circle after holidays. I’m sure that with the right attitude I will end up near my goal!
I live with faith, dreams, hope… and those are food of the soul.
I eat and sleep properly, I exercise my mind and my body and also I feed my soul! What about you?
Finally, why does something become important to you? Because you dedicate time to it!  Do you want to be a coward? Think over and over about all the bad things that can happen to you. Do you want to be courageous? Think over and over about the prize!
Do you want to become a Touristologist? Give time, energy and dreams into it!
I choose to spend as much time as possible with my family, then with my Touristologists, then with my big summaries, because I know that you have to dedicate time to the most important things. What about you?
So, in a nutshell…
1) Try it! Because you can win and because trying is far more rewarding, far more healthy for your soul than not trying.
2) Create a framework before you change subjects! When you are tired or you don’t feel like continuing, take notes, make a summary. I can’t emphasize this point enough! It’s like climbing a mountain. You don’t want to start from the beginning again, do you?
3) Think that it is possible! As Henry Ford said “Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.”
So, here I go. After these holidays I will finish my big summary. After these holidays I will build the perfect Touristologists! I’m sure of it!
I see the bright future of Touristology before my eyes!

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