Guests galore!

Just put up a new podcast episode, so make sure to check it out. You can also subscribe in iTunes (or some other podcasting software.... if such a thing exists) so that you get the newest episodes as they come out.

This week we have a guest podcaster, Mary. Mary, Kevin and I all talk about depression in the face of economic hardships, and the importance of giving as an antidote to the depression and "lack" mentality.

Also, I was invited by Mary to do a guest blog post on her blog, The Art of Winning. It's not up there yet, but I'll let you know when it is. I'm just excited about cross-blog promotion is all. :)

A new feature

Hey everybody. Just a quick update. I rolled a new feature that changes the way that your button code is generated. All of your existing buttons should continue to work just fine, but any new buttons that you install are a little different.

Your users will continue to have the same experience that they always have had. However, now you can have as many buttons of as many types as you want. Check out the button configuration in your home page to see what I mean. It should be a lot easier and more useful for you.

More updates coming soon! Stay tuned!

no podcast this week

Hi everyone. There won't be a podcast this week because we used up all the time we normally allocate for it into new dev. That's the bad news. The good news is that that new dev time will directly translate to a better experience for everyone once we get it rolled out.

Thanks for the understanding!

Long distance relationships

So, I found this new web-app called Plinky. It's basically a service to help you overcome "bloggers block". Today, the question that it gave me was "What is the longest-distance relationship you have ever maintained?", and I thought that was an interesting question.

Obviously it's asking about romantic relationships. To answer that question is easy: 3,128 miles. But the reason that I thought the question was interesting was because there are so many different kinds of relationships. Theirs romantic relationships, friendships, business partnerships, family members, etc. Also, what does "maintained" mean? The 3k mile relationship failed (of course), but it was maintained for a time. Does that make it "maintained"? What about business relationships? I live in Colorado, but work with people in Florida and Alaska every day. Does that count as a maintained relationship?

The inherent ambiguity in relationships and their maintenance is interesting to me, because it goes a long way to point out to one's-self that the nature of our interactions with other people is entirely dependent on context. When I am working with the folks in FL, I know that they are my friends outside of work (I grew up with them), but business is business. Interaction with those people is different on the clock then off. Does that change the relationship? Of course it does! But that's the point: context is everything.

Have you ever had a friend who asked you to help them move, and you said that you couldn't? I'm willing to bet that you didn't go out for drinks right afterwards... A friend asking for help and you denying it, is awkward, and it changes the context of the relationship a bit. If that friend had been some random person you've never met before, it wouldn't be awkward at all. The context for that relationship (no matter how short of a time it lasts) is very different than the relationships you have with your friends. Context creates the relationship.

So much of what we are about at Propits is helping to clarify the context of relationships between people. Money (IE physical support) changes context. If you help a friend move, and they slide you a $20 from across the table, it would be weird. But that is kind of the point of money. How do you bridge that weirdness with the context of the relationship? Propits is made to help bridge that gap.

If you find some cool content online, that's a relationship. If you want to show them that they are cool (ie, maintain that relationship, even if just for a moment), send them a note to sign up with Propits and do it. Maintain relationships with people who you've never met. This is the information age; why should that be weird? Support the cool things and people around you. Isn't that was interacting with people is supposed to be; a maintaining of relationships?

What's the longest distance relationship you have maintained? Now, I can honestly say that it was 4,881 miles, and I'm still doing it right now. I think that's pretty cool!

New episode

What creates suffering? If suffering is just a movement in your life, and all you need is any movement to position for success, can suffering be a good thing? Just a fun conversation on the nature of complacency and how it can be used to your advantage.

Survival in the (not really) wilderness

When I was in boy scouts, back in the day, I used to teach first aid, wilderness survival, and camping classes to the other boys. I really loved going out into the woods for days on end with just a knife, and seeing what I could come up with. Because I enjoyed it, and was good at it, it seemed natural to teach it.

I know that a lot of people think of some crazy, grizzled-old man out in the woods building huts out of leaves, and trapping dear with his bare hands. There's a reason for that. A lot of stuff in survival classes really assumes the worst. "What if you crash-landed in the mountains, were the only survivor of the crash, and all you had left after the ensuing chemical fire (because flammable toxins is what was in the cargo hold) was a single shoe and half a stick of gum? GO!"

I stopped doing that stuff once I realized that the worst situation I was likely to find myself in was that a breaker tripped and my computer turned off in the middle of a really important quake match...

But have you ever known someone, or been the guy yourself, who says things like that? Maybe not regarding actual wilderness, but just in your day-to-day life. "If we don't get our ROI up, we'll all lose our jobs!". "What if the economy totally crashes and I can't fend for myself?". It's a tempting road for a lot of us to go down. Fixing problems is something that our culture tells us is a good thing. So, we try to think of problems that we might someday be able to fix.

But what about the much more mundane problems right now? What's more likely? The whole country descends into chaos because the dollar devalues, or that the people you are around every day secretly hate you because of your crazy conspiracy theories? I'm not judging here, btw. I used to be the crazy theory guy. I loved the stuff! Hell, I taught classes in it for Pete's sake!

It seems to me, that among all the problems facing our world right now, the far-off ones are not the ones for people like you and I to be dealing with. It's our jobs to just make sure that our lives, and the lives of the people around us, are happy ones. Whatever that looks like for you. It's our responsibility to make the world a little brighter where we can.

That's why we made Propits. It's not that money is evil, and when it all comes crashing down the wicked will see their folly. It's that money represents a feeling, not an economy, to the average person. So let's just bring back the feeling. Let's just remember that there are things in our lives, right here and right now, that matter. And that those things are the ones that we should be focusing on, not some imaginary problem that has yet to come.