I’ve reached a point in my life, perhaps later than I would have liked, where I have concluded that there is an observable pattern that describes how society evolves. I am not sure how it manifests itself, only that there is a continuity with which things change, and it fundamentally limits what is possible in the present.

As discontinuous as I’ve wanted  to believe freedom to be, all events are connected. Ironically, with great effort thus far, I have rejected the idea that such a harsh constraint could irrevocably bind free will.

“Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains.”

 – from The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

I get it now. Despite the sharply nonlinear growth that I have experienced over the past year, from floundering startups, the journey of marriage, and the leap frogging into a new career path, the conclusion has still managed to catch up to me that life has no reachable singularities. Finite curvature is still continuous.

I’ve often been accused of “living in the moment”. But this is a shallow excuse for a deeper existential struggle. The energy with which I’ve moved my wife and I has not come from within myself but from our battle against the outside world. I have had to grip truths that have been difficult to integrate. I have failed greatly thus far. And as gruelingly drawn out as these series of experiences may have been, there is no escape from the result that is the present. Failures have brought me to where I am now.

Although life is sufficiently fugue for the illusion of “limitless possibilities” to persist, I now see that pursuing the meaning of that catch phrase is futile. No matter how disparate life may seem, there is a story that strings together events. Now that I am on the edge of a generation, I see where lies the arrogance of youth. Youth blindly supposes the impossible because it has not lived enough to know better.

The thing about youth, is that it is resiliently and shamelessly destructive. It makes mistakes, it forgives quickly, and it enflames the moment. When you give up your youth, you trade it in for responsibility, lingering grudges, and cynicism. I ask that we never give up on our youth.

I want to use my age to help string together products that inspire youth to not expire.

So I learned to program. With software eating the world, tomorrow will be a place where freedom is leveraged by your ability to hack systems.