by PD

It’s been an enlightening week. This week was one of the first where I think I have been successfully productive every day in our Daily Check-In/FiveThings project. This week Probity met with one of the most perceptive and insightful people I have ever had the honor of meeting. This week we began considering our roles in making an industrial shift in Chicago. And this week we hosted the first Probity Salon.

I think I am still trying to unpack everything that happened this week, but undeniably I find myself hurtling forward through these events, realizing that each event, singularly and in tandem with the others, is pressing our group forward at an increasingly breakneck speed. Yet even with barely time to look over my shoulder, I think that reflection, if only to recount what events transpired, gives me the opportunity to uncover and extract more value from my experiences.

In terms of my personal productivity, this week I accomplished all the tasks I had set out for myself. I completed them on time or early, and I felt great about the work that I have been doing. I started up programming once again, and although I’m still more than a few lengths behind the leader, I’m getting my chops back. Putting in a little bit every day is something I had struggled with in the past; I tended to rely on the last minute insane sprint instead of the long haul vision. I am finally making the proper strides to break that habit. Steady, reliable strides.

This week Probity took a trip up to the house of a businessman and periodic professor at Northwestern to get feedback on our projects and our aspirations. We found quickly that we had gotten more than we had bargained for–the man was extraordinarily perceptive to our team’s dynamic and our purpose with very little predication. I found value in his identification of our team as a rare breed of individuals who have not only passion and ambition to realize our aspirations, but as a collection of individuals who have each other. With complementary skills and an aligned goal, we can accomplish great things. He evaluated our team’s internal dynamic and interactions; I found his quick recognition and understanding of some of our internal relationships especially refreshing. Finally, he elucidated the most important thing we need to do going forward: to finish something. Without a completion under our belt, we will lose at least some of our momentum. In order to maintain our acceleration, we need to keep our focus, buckle down, and meet our goals to make our releases. A completion will cement our feet on the gas.

We considered a new problem this week. Learning to program is far from simple. We’re slowly realizing how difficult it is to become fluent in the languages of the browser. We’ve noticed that, although many have come to similar conclusions about how our society has been for years shifting away from being “Makers”, turning towards service-oriented professions, the accessibility to the tools of becoming a Maker is still extremely limited. We want to be able to not only open those doors for ourselves, but also have the wherewithal to prop the doors open for those who follow us. We may be in an advantageous position to do that; I’m not entirely sure how we would do it, but it’s a cause well worth considering.

And finally, as the capstone to the week, we hosted our first true Probity Salon. Neal Sales-Griffin and Zach Damato took the lead in bringing together a group of fantastically skilled individuals with whom we were able to spend the evening. Although the evening was relatively unstructured for the majority of the time, when we (and by “we”, I mean everyone in attendance) spent the last couple hours doing in-depth introductions to the each other in front of the whole group, I realized exactly how skilled each person there was. How thoughtful each was. And although there was at times lack of understanding between the wide variety of skills in attendance, there was complete understanding among the people there. The Salon felt like and was a true nexus of innovation.

So we hurtle forward this week once more. Continue to chug, working every day towards something better. I’m excited.