Colin in a nutshell

Colin is truly a 21st century Renaissance man. Right now, he is co-founder and CEO of a Silicon Valley VC-backed AI startup, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. He has already co-founded other Silicon Valley VC-backed tech startups, and he even took one public through an IPO. Beyond his skills as a technology visionary (he was awarded a patent during his first job out of the University of California at Berkeley), he has managed a hedge fund, built a real estate portfolio, written a memoir, and, perhaps most importantly, founded a rainforest preserve in the heart of Panama.

Why Colin is one of my heroes

I first met Colin during our second year at the University of California at Berkeley when we were both 19 years old. Over the years, we have been roommates, co-founders (our first startup!), colleagues (for a time, I helped run his rainforest preserve), and close friends (he was in my wedding). It is hard for me to think of anyone I have met in my life who has greater intellectual curiosity (and capacity) than Colin. Despite his numerous and varied successes, he has always managed to maintain a precious work-life balance, carefully protecting his physical and mental health, his personal relationships, and his private free time. Finally, he is an incredibly generous humanitarian and philanthropist, focused on his own “passion projects” but also supporting the work of many others.

Learn more about Colin

1. Visit his rainforest preserve. He founded the Mamoní Valley Preserve in 2006 to protect a biodiversity hotspot at the narrowest point in the Americas.

2. Purchase his book. Co-written with one of his co-founders, The Big Long is a fascinating inside look into the minds of two Silicon Valley VC-backed founders.

3. Follow him on LinkedIn. He regularly posts insightful pieces on the future of AI and technology.

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Along the way, I was a husband, who also managed to be a father to three now-grown healthy and well-adjusted kids.

However, I have also been divorced, faced bankruptcy, battled depression, and fought physical and mental health issues. And I have made more than my fair share of questionable life choices that caused great pain to many people close to me.

Sadly, mine is not a unique story.

As you can imagine, many of my friends are also entrepreneurs. And as you can further imagine, almost all of them have faced similar issues, balancing our professional and personal successes against our many many failures.

This kind of life is most difficult for those people closest to us, who love us and care for us, despite the challenges of being integral parts of our lives. This article is dedicated to each of you.

Why is it so difficult to be in a relationship with an entrepreneur?

I have heard many answers to this question, with the two most common being the instability of the entrepreneurial lifestyle and the number of hours that the entrepreneur dedicates to each new venture. While I completely agree with that assessment, I believe it goes much much deeper than that.

I believe that the core problem is that non-entrepreneurs view entrepreneurship as “what we do” whereas entrepreneurs view entrepreneurship as “who we are.”

It is not an occupation, career, or job. It is not a conscious choice that we make, deciding to embark on a high-risk venture rather than simply “getting a job.” Rather, it is an integral part of our being, it defines us, and it absolutely never goes away. It is not something that we can just “get out of our system” and then move on with our lives.

In fact, for many entrepreneurs, this can elevate itself to becoming a “calling,” not unlike a religious or spiritual calling. As such, it becomes something much more important than ourselves. It becomes a selfless dedication to something that can help others, or improve humanity, or even change the course of human history. In this way, we have no choice but to follow that path and dedicate ourselves to it 100%. It is almost a moral obligation to do so.

And this is exactly what leads to difficulties in our relationships with people who love us, whether it be our parents, siblings, children, or friends. However, it is the most dangerous for our romantic life partners, who often make incredible sacrifices to support our efforts and just as often get very little, if anything, in return.

It all comes down to priorities.

For a non-entrepreneur, it seems logical that personal relationships should be the highest priority (unless, of course, your religious beliefs place your God in that position). Your relationships with a life partner, family, and friends should absolutely never take a backseat to your work. The same goes for your personal health, both physical and mental.

Therefore, in a “non-entrepreneur” family unit, the priorities might look something like this:

1. Children

2. Spouse

3. Family

4. Self

5. Friends

6. Work

(Again, you can place your God wherever your religious beliefs lead you, but most likely it will be above your work.)

However, that is not how an entrepreneur’s mind works.

Again, for many entrepreneurs, their vocation is not merely a “job” but rather a “calling.” Therefore, it must always be the top priority.

Worse (at least from a non-entrepreneur’s perspective), entrepreneurs quickly realize that in order to fulfill our calling in a selfless manner, we must also take care of ourselves so we can perform at our peak abilities, which means that we usually put ourselves–quite selfishly–as the second priority.

Therefore, in an “entrepreneur” family unit, the priorities might look very different:

1. Venture

2. Self

3. Children

4. Spouse

5. Family

6. Friends

Looking at these two lists side-by-side, it is clear where the schism opens between entrepreneurs and our non-entrepreneur life partners.

So … do I have any proposed solutions?

Unfortunately, not really. Other than perhaps recommending that fellow entrepreneurs be as self-aware as possible and completely open with our life partners, ideally before we start building a life together.

If we are in a relationship already, we must understand how our partner approaches their life and why they always seem resentful of the time we put into our ventures. We cannot allow ourselves to be angry with them, because their perspectives and expectations are not only normal but also reasonable and even desirable. Most importantly, their requests of us are primarily driven by their love for us, and we should always be mindful of that.

Likewise, if you are in a relationship with an entrepreneur (or are considering one), you must understand your entrepreneur’s philosophical approach to her or his craft. Most importantly, you must be comfortable with never being the top priority in our lives. This is nothing personal against you, nor does it mean that we do not love you (or our kids) or love you (or our kids) enough. It is simply the way our brains are wired.

Finally, whatever you do, do not try to change us. It is who we are. This is not a life or career that we consciously chose for ourselves; rather, it is how we were born and eventually grew into it. And it is exactly how we will be until the day we die. So asking us to give up on our dreams and just “get a job” will never ever work with us.

A closing note …

I have to address the elephant in the room.

If you are an entrepreneur or a non-entrepreneur in a relationship with an entrepreneur (or considering starting one) and if you cannot handle the schism in priorities, then you should both consider the option of ending the relationship (or not entering into the new one). Yes, many entrepreneurs’ marriages end in divorce, including mine (amicably). And more often than not, it is because of this misalignment of priorities that creates “irreconcilable differences.” It is certainly not a path that fits everyone, but it is worth considering, since the alternative is a lifetime of misery for both of the life partners.

I really do not want to end on such a somber note, so please know that all of this still leaves me completely hopeful and optimistic about my own personal relationships and by extension those of all my fellow entrepreneurs and your loved ones.

The first step in solving a problem is admitting we have one, and as I often say “90% of solving a problem is identifying the right problem to solve.” Open and transparent communication with those closest to us is a solid first step in the direction of healthy relationships, so let us start with that and build from there.

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The bulk of my professional life has been focused on helping to make humanity a multi-planetary species while improving life here on Earth. This personal “why” has tied together all of my work across a wide range of fields.

So … where does music fit in? And why is it such a prominent part of my life today?

Well, a few years ago one of my space friends shared part of his personal philosophy, and it resonated with me in a very deep way:

“If humanity is going to become a true multi-planetary species, then we have to send into the cosmos that which makes our species unique, namely, our capacity for creativity.”

When we head off to the Moon, Mars, Venus, and beyond, we cannot just send our scientists, engineers, doctors, and pilots (and military?). We will only become truly multi-planetary when we also send our poets, painters, musicians, filmmakers, writers, sculptors, and other storytellers. They will be sorely needed in these new worlds, both to entertain those off-world communities and also to inspire the rest of us back here on Earth.

But Why Music?

When I was 11 years old, I had a recurring dream that I was the commander of the first human colony on Mars. I have been focused on space since that young age. However, I started taking classical piano lessons when I was 8 years old, so music has been an integral part of my life even longer than space has.

When I was 13, I added jazz guitar to my repertoire, and one year later I jumped to playing electric guitar in a rock band. During my senior year in high school, I joined three of my friends to play bass guitar in a rock band called “Sterling.” Even though I never pursued a professional career in music, to this day I still play guitar and piano as personal hobbies. I also have numerous friends who are professional or aspiring musicians, and I enjoy listening to live music performances.

Being Human in a Post-AI World

More recently, given the accelerating disruption that AI is bringing to almost every corner of our modern society, I have found myself trying to figure out the best way to continue “being human in a post-AI world.” The most sage advice I have received from some of my Silicon Valley friends is to focus on those things that require human interactions, since those will be almost impossible for AI to replace.

In music, I believe there are three areas that will be safe from AI for the foreseeable future:

• The feeling that a human gets from playing a musical instrument (or singing).

• The feeling that two or more humans get from playing music together.

• The feeling that humans get when audiences and musicians interact during live performances.

Therefore, I find myself focusing more and more on music as a key part of my strategy for holding on to my humanity as AI continues to revolutionize our global civilization.

Fortivo Music

Specifically, a few years ago I decided to leverage my entrepreneurial experience to dive into the world of music by launching a new venture designed to help emerging musicians become full-time professional artists. I called it Fortivo Music.

As with most startups, we have gone through several iterations and pivots, trying a few different models in an effort to fulfill our founding vision. Along the way, I have met so many incredibly talented musicians from around the world, across a wide range of genres and instruments, and spanning all ages. We still do not have everything figured out, but I believe we are on a solid path and will share updates in the next few months.

What’s Coming Up for Me?

I fully expect to continue with my lifelong work in space and oceans, but along the way I also look forward to growing my commitment to music and to helping aspiring musicians around the world. It is my own way of ensuring that humanity brings the creative arts with us as we expand into the cosmos. Stay tuned to see how it all evolves!

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Gaelin in a nutshell

Gaelin is a marine scientist, photographer, and filmmaker, but mostly she is an avid explorer who feels more at home in, on, and under the oceans than anywhere else on Earth. She has documented nature and science all over the world, and now she shares her experiences with live audiences through her speaking engagements. She has a special place in her heart for sperm whales and recently published a beautiful photo book of her expeditions diving with these “gentle giants.”

Why Gaelin is one of my heroes

I’m not sure when or how I first met Gaelin, but most likely is was around 2012 through The Explorers Club in New York. From the start, her passion for the oceans shone through, and it was infectious. Over the years, every TEC member I met had nothing but good things to say about her, and she truly exemplifies the values of the club. More recently, I was surprised to learn that she used to sing in a punk rock band, which solidified her place as one of my heroes!

Learn more about Gaelin

1. Visit her website. The body of work she has produced during her career is truly impressive.

2. Purchase her book. It is an absolutely beautiful compilation of stunning photographs.

3. Follow her on Instagram. As a photographer, this seems to be her preferred platform for sharing her work.

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Scott in a nutshell

Scott is a retired NASA astronaut, who flew five missions to space, conducted seven spacewalks, and joined the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2016. During his career, he executed one of the most ambitious unplanned spacewalks in NASA history, strapping himself to the end of a robotic arm in order to make emergency repairs to one of the International Space Station’s solar arrays … while the power was still running! As an MD, he was also the flight surgeon assigned to care for American icon and U.S. Senator John Glenn during the 77-year-old’s return to space in 1998.

If that wasn’t enough, Scott is also an accomplished alpinist, who summitted Mt. Everest in 2009, one year after having to turn back close to the peak due to severe back injuries. He served at the U.S. research station in Antarctica, he piloted a deep-sea submersible, he climbed an active volcano, and he even tried out for the U.S. Olympic team in the luge while he was in medical school. Currently, he is a tech entrepreneur with his own innovative startup, he serves on various Boards, and he is a sought-after speaker at events around the world.

Why Scott is one of my heroes

I first met Scott in 2011, and it has been clear during all of our interactions over the years that he is absolutely the epitome of a “curious impact-maker,” with the rich personal and professional history of a life well-lived. However, he is also one of the most humble, mild-mannered, and kind individuals I have ever met. He is a true inspiration and role model for anyone seeking someone to look up to.

Learn more about Scott

1. Read his Wikipedia article. It will exhaust you and humble you … and inspire you.

2. Purchase his autobiography. He narrated his own audiobook, so you can also hear his life story in his own words.

3. Follow his startup. A new venture with a unique solution in the VTOL space.

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Snapshot

Why Humans2Venus is special

This group has an audacious long-term vision with very tactical near-term objectives. The founding vision is to establish a permanent human presence of 1,000 people in the Venusian atmosphere by 2050. To create the proper framework, they offer grants to young scientists and scholarships to undergraduate students, while fostering a global community of Venus-focused professionals and curating the Venus Road Map.

How to support their work

1. Join the Community. They foster a global group of Venus-focused professionals, including scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, educators, investors, marketers, and government officials.

2. Suggest content for the Venus Road Map. They curate a long-term road map on behalf of the global Venus community, showcasing ventures, missions, programs, and organizations that are building humanity’s future today.

3. Donate here. Click on the “Donate” button at the top of the page.

4. Create sponsorships, partnerships, and unique giving arrangements by contacting Mr. Ro Muhundan, Executive Director, at ro@humans2venus.org.

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Snapshot

Why MVP is special

Talk about surgical pinpoint precision for conservation! Find the narrowest point in the Americas, identify one of the most sensitive biodiversity corridors in the world, and then set about working with the local communities to preserve it. This is a “hyper-local” conservation group that also has a regional, if not global, impact.

Even better: you can visit the preserve and experience it first-hand!

How to support their work

1. Visit the preserve! They offer two life-changing experiences: the Ocean-to-Ocean CrossPanama trip and the Discovering Panama trip.

2. Donate here.

3. Create sponsorships, partnerships, and unique giving arrangements by contacting Daniel Sanhueza, Development Director, at daniel@mvp.ngo.

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“Why should we spend even one penny or one minute working on going into space when we have so many problems here on Earth that we still need to solve?”

That is by far the most common question asked of anyone working in the space community. I have been doing this for twenty-five years, and honestly I am tired of answering this question. However, I will do it here one more time.

Let me start by saying that I would defer to my fellow space professional, Will Pomerantz, who gave a TED Talk a few years ago entitled “Why we go — leaving our beautiful home and exploring outer space”. I think Will’s presentation is perhaps the most eloquent and succinct response to this question that I have ever heard, so I encourage you to watch it.

I should point out that Will’s TED Talk focused primarily on the first part of the question, namely, “Why should we go into space?” He had so much good material to present on that part that I think he just did not have time to address the second part of the question, namely, “... when we still have so many problems here on Earth?” I would like to tackle that part of the question.

There are two ways that I usually address this issue, but both are related.

Do “Space People” Hate Earth?

The first is that the question comes across as a bit of an accusation that seems to assume something that I have never seen in my entire career. It assumes that someone working in the space community would prefer to have humanity go into space rather than solve any of the many problems plaguing humanity here on Earth. However, this is completely false. I have never met anyone working in the space community who thinks that space is more important than Earth problems.

In fact, I would argue that most of the “space people” I have met are also some of the greatest humanitarians, philanthropists, environmentalists, and conservationists that I have ever met. There is something about dedicating your life to the pursuit of the vastness and harshness of space that makes you truly appreciate Earth and the frailty of human life. In fact, taken to its extreme, this logic could even imply that people who study space and work in the space community potentially have the best perspective on how important it is to solve all of Earth’s many problems.

Time for an Abundance Mindset

The second–and larger point–that I usually like to make is that this question is always stated in an “either/or” format, when every space professional I have ever met considers it an “and also” issue. We all believe that we should push humanity forward into space and also solve all of our problems here on Earth. Anyone who positions this question as an either/or situation is really approaching it from a “scarcity mindset,” where in reality we should be approaching it from an “abundance mindset.”

Why does this happen?

Well, taking a scarcity mindset makes sense historically. After all, until a few years ago, space was the exclusive purview of a small handful of national governments. These governments had finite budgets from which they needed to allocate funds for space. By definition, every penny that was allocated to space programs was a penny that could not be allocated elsewhere. Therefore, it made sense–maybe as recently as twenty years ago–to ask this question. After all, why should the US government, for example, spend even one penny on NASA when it also needs that penny to help build roads, hospitals, homeless shelters, and schools, and to support important programs like social security and medicare?

This is probably a good spot for a side note. Even when people were asking this question in the context of the US federal budget, very few actually knew the numbers they were talking about. Every few years, studies are conducted asking random people how much of the Federal budget they think goes to NASA. The answers are almost consistently between ten and thirty percent. In reality, NASA’s budget is less than one half of one percent. So, even taking a penny away from NASA is not really going to make a big dent in some of the other important federal programs.

Regardless, what was true when Will did his TED talk and is even more true today–more than ten years later–is that space has become increasingly globalized and privatized. While NASA and the national space programs in China, Europe, Russia, Japan, and India continue to play significant roles, today just about every country has at least some space activities and also every year billions of dollars are pumped into new space ventures by private investors. The relatively modest slices of national budgets dedicated to space are now dwarfed by the amount of private capital available around the world. Again, this is no longer an “either/or” question but rather an “and also” question.

However, for many reasons, people still tend to have trouble adopting an abundance mindset. They still contend that even if we took a global and public/private view, we should still ask why space instead of Earth. We see this every time someone in the mass media asks why Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, and other wealthy individuals are spending their money on space instead of helping the rest of us on Earth. (By the way, the obvious flaw in that line of questioning is that it conveniently ignores the fact that Musk, Bezos, Branson, and others also give millions of dollars every year to support organizations working to solve non-space problems here on Earth.)

Regardless, let us use this as a jumping off point for a thought exercise.

Let’s solve all the world’s problems!

A few years ago, Elon got into a Twitter spat with David Beasley, the head of the World Food Programme. I am paraphrasing, but essentially Beasley said that Elon could eradicate world hunger if he would just donate six billion dollars to the World Food Programme. Elon replied that he would be happy to do so, if Beasley could provide transparency into how the funds would be used to provide food directly to those who needed it. After Beasley clarified that he meant six billion dollars per year, the high-profile spat eventually just died out quietly.

However, this exchange provides a good framework for bringing an abundance mindset to the question at hand.

Let us assume that Beasely was correct but underestimated. Let us assume that we could eradicate world hunger, but for, say, ten billion dollars per year. That is one of the many problems facing humanity on Earth today, and we could solve it with “only” ten billion dollars per year.

And how many other problems do we want to solve?

Well, a few years ago the United Nations adopted its Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs. This is a collection of seventeen interlinked global goals designed to be “a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.” They include David Beasley’s goal of eradicating world hunger (which is SDG number two), as well as other critical issues like poverty, health, education, gender equality, clean water, energy, etc. While this is likely not a comprehensive list, for the purposes of this thought exercise we could use it as a proxy for questioning better uses of space resources.

Now let us assume that we want to eradicate all seventeen of the issues covered by the United Nations’ SDGs. In fact, let us allow some leeway and assume that the United Nations left out a few, so let us call it an even twenty issues.

Let us also assume that Beasley’s low-ball estimate to eradicate world hunger could be a proxy for eradicating each of the other issues, so we can estimate ten billion dollars per year for each of the twenty issues, which gives us $200 billion per year for humanity to solve twenty of our most pressing issues.

In fact, let us assume that this is also a low-ball figure because some issues (say, health) may require more than the ten billion dollars per year needed for world hunger. Therefore, let us take the $200 billion per year and double it to $400 billion. In fact, let us increase it by another 25% to an even $500 billion just to make it easier to do some high-level math. What we end up with is an estimated budget of $500 billion per year to completely solve all of the world’s problems today.

Can humanity actually afford $500 billion per year?

Well, according to the International Monetary Fund, the global Gross Domestic Product (“GDP”) for 2025 was estimated to be $118 trillion. That is “trillion” with a “T,” or 1,000 billions. Let us call it an even $100 trillion, again for ease of calculation.

This means that we could solve all of the world’s issues if we simply dedicated a mere one half of one percent of our annual global GDP to this effort.

That is all.

Think about this, and let it sink in.

Yes, I admit that my model is quite basic and perhaps oversimplified. However, my general point remains: clearly the world has more than enough financial resources to solve all of our many problems. We also have more than enough human capital to solve these problems, since our global population is more than eight billion people.

So why do all of these problems still exist?

That is a very difficult and complex question, and honestly I do not know if I have a great answer for it. Regardless, that would be the subject for a completely different article. For the purposes of this narrative, I just wanted to refute the notion that the “why space?” question should come from a scarcity mindset when clearly it is much more rational to approach it from an abundance mindset.

So the next time someone asks, “Why should we spend even one penny or one minute working on going into space when we have so many problems here on Earth that we still need to solve?” my simple answer will be, “Because we can do both.”

We are fortunate enough to live during an unprecedented time in human history when we have an abundance of resources at our disposal. We have the financial resources, the human resources, the technological resources, and the natural resources to both make humanity a multi-planetary species and also solve all of our problems here on Earth.

It is just a matter of getting it done.

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Dreams. You know, I’ve always loved to dream. Especially daydreamin’. Boy, I always daydream. I mean, always. Sometimes it’s hard to tell what’s a dream and what’s reality. But I can usually tell, especially at school. Every time I daydream at school, it really gets Miss Johnson’s goat. Miss Johnson, see, she’s this young, beautiful teacher at the high school. She’s nice, usually, but, boy, if she’s in a bad mood, Look out! She’s been my teacher for two years now. You see, this is my fifth year at Bancroft. That’s the high school. I started in ‘53, but, for some reason or another, they always tell me to come back next year. That’s all right, thought. I like it there.

But anyway, like I was tellin’ you, Miss Johnson hates it when I daydream, and, believe me, she won’t hesitate to let me and everyone in the next county know either! She’ll always stop her lectures to help me return to reality.

“Steven. Oh, Steven,” she always starts in a whisper. I guess she doesn’t wanna startle me or somethin’.

“Steven. Napoleon. Mr. Edison. Whoever you are this time. Could you please tell me who the 15th President of the United States was?”

God, she always did that. I’d be on some far-off planet fightin’ aliens to save the Earth colony, and she’d asked me somethin’ stupid like who the 15th President of the United States was. Who cares? I guess she handled it pretty well, thought. I know I wouldn’t like it if I were lecturin’, and some dumb kid wasn’t even payin’ attention.

But anyway, I guess I should get on with my story, seein’ as how you came all the way from Kansas City to talk to me. I still can’t understand why a newspaper writer like you would drive 20 miles to our little town just because some of the grown-ups thought that what happened last week was somethin’ special. It really wasn’t nothin’ at all, but I guess when you live in a small town things tend to get blown out of proportion sometimes.

As you can probably tell, I tend to wander off the subject every now and then. It probably comes from daydreamin’ so much. But now back to my story.

It all happened last Tuesday. No, it must’ve been Wednesday, because I had to help my pop lift the engine out of the truck on Tuesday. Yeah, it was Wednesday. School got out at three o’clock, as usual, and I began to walk home. About the only thing that had made that day any different than any other day was that we had had a substitute teacher, seein’ as how Miss Johnson had been home in bed with the flu and all. So, when I started walkin’ home, I did what I always did, I began daydreamin’. But this time, it was sorta weird. It wasn’t like I’d never had any weird dreams or nothin’, because I had. Lord knows I had! It’s just that this one seemed so real.

Well, anyway, in my dream, I was walkin’ home from school, and I saw some smoke not more than two blocks away. Out of curiosity, if nothing else, I went over to take a look-see. I couldn’t believe it, but there was Miss Johnson’s house, all covered with black smoke and yellow flames almost so’s I couldn’t recognize it. But it was hers all right, so I started askin’ some of the standers-by what had happened. No one seemed to know anythin’ except for this lady who said she’d called the fire department just five minutes ago. It cracked me up just thinkin’ of how much good ole Charlie Wheeler’s firetruck was gonna do against such big flames. That guy spends more time waxin’ the engine, cleanin’ the firehouse, and gettin’ people’s kitties out of trees than actually puttin’ out fires.

Well, it finally hit me that I hadn’t seen Miss Johnson anywhere, and, after askin’ around, I found that neither had anyone else. At that instant, we heard her cries and saw her in one of the second-story windows, flames slowly working their way over to that part of the house. Before I knew what I was doin’, my legs were carryin’ the rest of my body into the blazin’ structure, needless to say without my mind’s consent, let alone my heart’s.

Inside, the heat was unbearable and the smoke hurt my eyes and chest. I looked around, found the stairs, and clambered up to where Miss Johnson was now alternately yellin’, coughin’, wheezin’, and sobbin’. I found her near the window of her small room, but I didn’t feel she recognized me. Maybe it was because she called me Tommy. Imagine confusin’ me for her fiancee! Well, seein’ as how I had neither the time, breath, or willingness to set her straight, I let her believe what she wanted and helped her to her feet. When we turned to leave the room, half the roof caved in like a huge mass of fire. And, as in many of my dreams, the fire conveniently blocked the only route of escape, the door. But, alas, the window had yet to be tried!

I went over, and to my combined surprise and relief, a couple of the neighbors had fetched a ladder and were now puttin’ it up. Once that was secured, I grabbed Miss Johnson, flung her over my shoulder, and started out the window and down the ladder, the whole time havin’ her call me Tommy and say how much she loved me. When we finally touched firm ground, someone put blankets over us and eventually ushered us into a car. I blacked out then. About the last things I remember are the pain in my chest, Miss Johnson’s jibberish, someone marvelling at what a “heroic deed” she had just witnessed, and, as I looked up, ole Charlie Wheeler sprinklin’ some water at the fire as the remainder of the house crumbled to the ground.

When I woke up some three hours later, I found myself in that hospital you folks have in the city. I felt like I’d just woken from a dream, but I soon found that I had actually just lived my dream. I always fantasize about being some great hero or doin’ somethin’ courageous, and it seems that I finally did somethin’ of the sort, only through it all I thought I was just daydreamin’ on the way home. Kinda spooky, huh? I mean, always dreamin’ of doin’ somethin’, and, when you finally do it, thinkin’ it was all just a dream?

Well, that’s about all I can remember. I hope you weren’t too bored, and I certainly hope you feel it was worth the trip to come here. Can I ask you somethin’ before you go? Do you ever dream? I mean, really dream? Maybe you should. You know, I used to feel bad about it, since everyone kept tellin’ me it wasn’t healthy. But after what happened to me, I know I’m always gonna keep dreamin’. Who knows, maybe someday one of my other dreams will come true. Now wouldn’t that be somethin’?

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What is the one thing everyone seems to remember about the OceanGate accident? The video game controller!

You cannot forget the infamous video of Stockton sitting in the sub with a journalist and tossing him the controller like it is a toy.

However, no one–no journalist, no investigator, no expert–ever bothered to ask the most obvious common sense question: what did the video game controller actually control?

It was almost like this was the world’s most closely held secret. No one asked, but I am going to tell you:

the video game controller controlled the thrusters.

That is correct. The thrusters.

Not any mission-critical system. Not the oxygen that is keeping the crew alive. Not the carbon dioxide scrubber that is keeping them from suffocating. Not the ballast system that brings them safely to the ocean floor and back to the surface.

No. The thrusters.

Which, of course, leads to the next obvious common sense question: what the heck are the thrusters?

Well, to understand the thrusters you have to remember that submersibles are designed to do only two things: go down and come back up. Just like an elevator.

This means that if you want to do anything else while you are at the bottom of the ocean, like, for example, heading over to take a look at a large 100-year-old shipwreck, then you need to have a way of moving around.

To do this, we strap a bunch of motors to the outside of the sub, each with little propellers. These propellers are controlled from the inside of the sub, and that is how we make the sub go forward, backward, left, and right.

Do you know what happens if the thrusters fail? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

You go down. You spend some time enjoying the bottom of the ocean. Then you come back up. That is it. At no point is anyone’s life in danger. It may be a boring ride, but at least the crew will survive to dive another day.

Why Use a Video Game Controller?

So ... why use a video game controller to control the thrusters?

Well, let me ask a different common sense question that no one ever asked because they were too busy laughing at OceanGate for using a video game controller to control the sub: what would you use instead?

Since most people had never even heard of a sub, they had never really thought about how it might be controlled. Maybe a steering wheel, like a car? Maybe a yoke, like an airplane? Whatever you imagined, you just never envisioned that it would be by a video game controller, right?

What Came Before the Video Game Controller?

When Stockton and I bought our first sub, it came with a state-of-the-art customized thruster control system. I wish I had a photo to share with you because it was absolutely insane. I worked with Claude to create a top-down view. Yes, it is comical, but it is also frighteningly accurate!

Imagine a steel shoe box that weighed around five pounds. On one end it had a cable sticking out that was the thickness of a garden hose, and that cable was connected to the inside wall of the sub. On the top surface of the box were six 3-position toggle switches, one for each of the thrusters on the outside of the sub. Each thruster could go forward, backward, and neutral, hence the three positions on the toggle switches.

Now imagine that you are a sub pilot sitting in the middle of that vessel. You have to sit with that heavy steel box in your lap, carefully keeping both hands on either side of the box while always keeping three fingers on each of the three switches on each side. So six of your ten fingers are always on a switch, each controlling a different thruster. In order to move the sub in any direction, you had to imagine what you wanted each thruster to do and then manipulate the switches accordingly.

For example, if you wanted the sub to move forward, you would have to flip the switches to the two left and two right horizontal thrusters into the “forward” position. If you then wanted to turn left, then you had to flip the two left horizontal thrusters into “neutral” while keeping the two right horizontal thrusters in “forward”.

That is how you would have had to pilot our first sub. All while keeping this heavy steel box carefully balanced on your lap and managing the garden hose cable connecting you to the side wall.

This is “SAFE”?!?!?!

By the way, in case it was not clear already, this meant that you had no hands free to deal with other non-thruster activities like working the navigation sonar or making sure the life support systems were keeping everyone alive.

This was the state-of-the-art thruster control when we first got into the industry in late-2009. This was what was approved by the American Bureau of Shipping as part of our sub’s “class” certificate, which presumably proved to the world that our sub was “safe.”

If the box broke or malfunctioned in any way, then we had to hire an electrical engineer to come in and fix it, even if the malfunction happened during a dive at the bottom of the ocean. And, spoiler alert, these controls broke all the time.

Stockton and I were shocked that this was the level of technology and safety that was accepted by the industry.

Thinking Beyond the Box

At one point, Stockton had the brilliant idea of rewiring that garden hose cable to a Microsoft Flight Simulator joystick (similar to the photo below), and guess what? It worked like a charm. It was far easier for the pilots to use, it was safer and cheaper, and it never broke at all. It was like magic.

The best part was that ABS accepted this as a “minor change” that was covered by our existing “class” certificate, which meant that this organization considered the new joystick controller to be “safe.”

From there, it was an easy progression to eventually move to the Logitech controllers, since they were wireless, light, and programmable. And ... Logitech designed them for active teenagers, so they were volume tested to make sure they never broke, which they never did.

The Tragedy of Unasked Questions

It was a tragic irony that what ended up being the core of the public criticism against OceanGate after the accident was actually one of the easiest design decisions we ever made in the entire history of the company. The whole debacle could have been avoided if someone–anyone–would have simply asked some basic common sense questions instead of instantly capitalizing on the cheap laugh to scoff at what seemed like a ridiculous idea … that actually was quite genius.

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A seminal moment in our Comparative Legal Systems class came when our professor, who was visiting from Italy, started with a well-established principle:

“A society’s legal system is a codification of its morals.”

United States v Japan

He gave the two counter-examples of the U.S. criminal justice system versus the one in Japan.

He walked us through some of the familiar foundations of our American system:

• Presumption of innocence and burden of proof

• Right against self-incrimination

• Due process rights, including probable cause, right to counsel, and jury trial

He then walked us through some of the foundations of the Japanese system, which I do not remember today except that they were the exact opposite of ours. As I recall, he mentioned that every complaint had to be investigated, every investigation had to render an arrest, and every arrest had to be prosecuted, and during the trial there was a presumption of guilt and the burden of proof was on the defendant to convince the judge or jury that s/he was innocent, all without a right to be represented by legal counsel.

My fellow students were appalled by the Japanese system. It seemed absolutely barbaric.

Then our professor gave us some sobering statistics to consider: at the time, the U.S. had the highest violent crime rate in the world, and Japan had the lowest. He asked us again to think about which system was more “barbaric.”

He explained that the two systems were complete opposites precisely because the two societies had been built using completely opposite moral codes. As he put it,

“In the U.S., we would rather let 99 guilty people go free than wrongfully incarcerate a single innocent person, whereas in Japan they would willingly wrongfully incarcerate 99 innocent people if it meant ensuring the conviction of every single guilty person.”

The U.S. was founded with total apprehension against a tyrannical government, so we instituted societal pillars to protect every individual’s personal liberty. On the other hand, in Japan, to paraphrase Star Trek, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few (or the one), so individuals gladly sacrifice certain freedoms to ensure the success and safety of the entire society.

Cornell University Sexual Assault Case

Why am I writing about this today?

I believe that most Americans forget the pillars of our criminal justice system and why they exist in the first place, especially when they read certain news stories about heinous alleged crimes, like the recent sexual assault at a Cornell University fraternity house.

In order to protect every American from spurious criminal prosecution by an overzealous government (a District Attorney at the state level or a U.S. Attorney at the federal level), a key cornerstone of our American system is that every defendant is presumed innocent until a judge or jury reviews legally admissible evidence during a proper court proceeding and finds that this evidence proves every element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Moreover, there is absolutely no obligation for a defendant to actually defend themselves, to testify, or to present any evidence of innocence. If the prosecutor fails to meet their burden, then the presumption of innocence holds, and the defendant is acquitted.

We also have to keep in mind that the victim is not actually a formal party to the legal proceedings. In a criminal case, the defendant is prosecuted by the government. The victim is merely a witness, and even then only if the prosecutor decides to call them to testify.

If we think about why our system was set up the way it is, it makes sense that we made it incredibly difficult for anyone to actually be convicted of a crime in this country.

Also, since the government is the prosecutor, the government is funded by taxpayer monies, and the government’s budget is finite, the prosecutor has a fiduciary obligation to safeguard the taxpayer funds by being extremely selective on what cases they choose to prosecute. This is also why so many prosecutions are resolved via plea agreements rather than going through the presentation of evidence at trial.

Again, why am I writing about this today?

Without making any commentary on specific facts or taking any position on any particular case, I feel the need to remind everyone that our system does, in fact, require the government prosecutor (presumably advocating on behalf of the victim) to prove every element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt, and this includes the sexual act, the intent of the attacker, and the lack of consent. This is not “victim-shaming”; it is the law, and the very core of our American legal system.

Until and unless the government can provide evidence to prove each of these elements beyond a reasonable doubt, the defendant must be presumed to be innocent. In other words, until proven otherwise, we have to assume that (a) no sexual act occurred, or (b) the defendant did not intend to commit the sexual act, or (c) the sexual act was consensual.

I am the father of a daughter, so if anything like this ever happened to her I would hope that the perpetrators would end up in prison for the rest of their lives. However, I am also the father of two sons, who I believe were raised well enough to never get themselves into this type of situation. If they did, I would hope that the entire government apparatus would be held to the highest standards in conducting their duties without violating my sons’ constitutional rights.

Certain crimes are so egregious that our natural knee-jerk reaction is revulsion and a desire to punish the perpetrator. This happens with sexual assault, but also with homicide, pedophilia, and terrorism, among others. However, we have to fight that knee-jerk reaction.

For the good of our society, we have to remember that we put certain safeguards in place specifically to protect us from unfounded government prosecutions and also from individuals taking the law into their own hands via vigilante justice. We chose the rule of law, and, in fact, we actively evangelize it in countries around the world.

Conclusion

During my time on active duty as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, I served 18 months as Senior Defense Counsel on our base. As with all criminal defense counsel, our primary responsibility was not necessarily to prove our clients’ innocence but rather to make sure that they got a fair trial and that the government honored our clients’ constitutional rights to due process. We were there to protect our clients against powerful government prosecutors, and we took our responsibilities seriously, because they form the core of our American society and reflect our founding principles and morals.

Perhaps this is why I am so protective of defendants’ rights.

Those legal safeguards are a codification of our country’s morals, and they are one of the defining characteristics that sets the U.S. apart from so many other countries. Yes, they lead to situations that often make my blood boil, because I would love nothing more than to personally dole out punishment against the defendants. However, in those cases, I have to re-focus on the bigger picture and remember that, when it comes to America’s criminal justice system, we have to take the bad with the good.

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I will likely write a future piece about the modern conflict between the First Amendment right to freedom of expression and the various protections in the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments, among others.

In the meantime, I am curious to read your thoughts and comments on this issue.

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“Dammit! We’re going to lose 41,” the Senior Scientist said without taking his eyes off the screen.

“What happened this time?” the Junior Scientist asked, walking over from her station.

“The homo sapiens virus again,” he explained. “It spread too far, too fast. We’re not gonna be able to stop it. It’s destroying everything in its path. In only a couple million years, it killed its own home world, several others in its solar system, and took out a few more throughout its galaxy. It’ll only be a matter of time before the whole system breaks down. Again. And then we’ll lose the universe. Again.”

“Argh! This damn ‘intelligent life’ disease is driving me crazy,” she said. “I’m sure we can find a cure, but we’re gonna have to get creative with 42.”

“Honestly, I’m at my wit’s end,” the Senior Scientist admitted. “Why don’t you take a crack at the next one?”

“Really?” she said incredulously. “Do you think I’m ready?”

“Hey, kid, not to be condescending, but there’s no way you could do any worse than me, right?” he joked. “Seriously, of course you’re ready. In fact, we can use this as your final qualification test before becoming a Senior Scientist. You’re much more talented than I was at your age, so … go for it!”

“Now?”

“Now.”

The Senior Scientist moved aside, and the Junior Scientist sat at the controls for the first time, nervous energy pushing her forward. Let’s do this! she thought.

“Well, what should 42 be?” she asked.

“Whatever you want it to be,” he replied. “Whatever you want it to be.”

“OK, let’s think through this,” she started. “Why don’t we work backwards from the end goal? First of all, since it’s so dangerous, we want to keep ‘intelligent life’ from emerging at all. Anywhere in the universe. Period. We can’t seem to figure out how to stop this from happening, but we’ve learned enough about the disease to at least minimize the risk. It seems to require some basic elements, like water, carbon, gas atmosphere, and proximity to a warm star, so let’s just make sure there aren’t too many objects like that anywhere in the universe.”

“Sounds like a good start,” he said.

“Then, just in case ‘intelligent life’ does emerge on any planet, let’s make sure that every planet is equipped with self-defense mechanisms to prevent the disease from taking hold and evolving,” she said. “So in 42 let’s add some of the things that worked in 37 to 41, such as earthquakes, wildfires, hurricanes, volcanoes, tsunamis, tornadoes, droughts, and floods. Also, we’ll add some of the longer-term mechanisms that worked well in 19 to 29, like ice ages, rising sea levels, global warming, and shifting magnetic fields.”

“You’re throwing everything but the kitchen sink at it,” he said. “I like it. What else?”

“Well, if you remember back in the early tests, we tried eliminating the destructive traits of the disease,” she said. “We already learned that we can’t fully eliminate that, but perhaps we can soften its severity by mixing in an offsetting trait? Something like, say, creativity? Maybe the best we can hope for is that the next strain of ‘intelligent life’ will be as creative as it is destructive.”

“I guess that’s a compromise we’ll have to accept,” he said. “If we can’t avoid the disease, at least let’s try to prevent it from becoming too lethal.”

“OK, so now, let’s keep building defensive perimeters,” she continued. “Assuming the disease emerges again, let’s do whatever we can to kill it off. Let’s be ready to bombard the planet with external weapons of mass destruction, like meteors, comets, cosmic radiation, and solar flares. Whatever is in the neighborhood, even other smaller planets. We should also keep our policy of stars periodically exploding, just to burn out the disease in surrounding planets.”

“I’ve always liked that Supernova Policy,” the Senior Scientist said, approving of his protege’s progress on this assignment. “Unfortunately, the disease usually grows and spreads faster than the host star can explode to kill it, but maybe we’ll get lucky on the timing of this next one. Keep going, kid. You’re doing great!”

“Let’s see. What else?” she said, carefully considering her next move. “Through all 41 prior tests, we’ve learned that this disease is the most resilient disease we’ve ever encountered, so we have to assume that it will emerge again in 42, despite our best efforts to fight it. If that happens, then we need to keep it from spreading.”

“How do you propose we do that?” he asked.

“Well, this was the big lesson from 41, right?” she explained. “We need to keep large distances between planets where the disease might take hold. As aggressive as the disease is, its cells have very short life-cycles, so they don’t survive well across long distances. We know that it will try to spread, so let’s make its odds of success as low as possible.”

“Good thinking,” he said.

“Plus we need to make sure that the space in between potential host planets is filled with cosmic radiation, since that seems to kill off the disease,” she continued. “It will likely find a way around this, but if we can somehow limit–or at least slow down–the spread of the disease, then we might have a chance to save 42.”

“This is amazing,” he said. “Truly impressive. You’re weaving together all of the lessons learned from our 41 previous tests. If I’m not careful, in no time you’re going to take over my position as Department Head.”

“Ha! No chance, sir,” she said. “Oh, wait. There’s one more thing we’ll need to deal with. Remember what happened in 17?”

“How could I forget?” he said.

“That was really strange,” she said. “Several different strains of the disease emerged at roughly the same time on different planets in different solar systems across multiple galaxies. They shocked us by actually communicating with each other, and that led to the quickest destruction of the universe out of any test we’ve conducted. I’m not sure how to prevent this in 42, but hopefully all of the other safeguards we’re implementing will save this next universe.”

“Well, there’s only one way to find out,” he said. “Do you have anything else you wanna try? Or are you ready to run 42?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I guess I can’t think of anything else. What’s the worst that can happen? We lose 42 and try again with 43?”

“Exactly,” he said. “There’s always time for another test. You’re young.”

“So I can press the button?” she asked.

“Just do it.”

She did. And for the 42nd time, she crossed her fingers as she watched the Big Bang light up the screen.

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What’s in a name?

I chose the name “Curious Impact” intentionally to place it at the intersection of “intellectual curiosity” and “leading a positively impactful life.” Specifically, I want to grow a global community of “curious impact-makers”!

Over the years, I have met many incredible people all over the world. Some of the most fascinating are the ones striving for intellectual growth, always questioning what they hear, learning from other people’s experiences, and researching when they reach the limits of their knowledge. Some of the most inspirational are the ones fighting for causes greater than themselves, always giving selflessly for the betterment of society or the protection of others.

However, the most powerful people are those who combine the two.

Yes, they possess intellectual curiosity about the world around them, but they also turn that knowledge into action. Yes, they sacrifice themselves for a greater good, but they also remain open-minded to new ideas and perspectives.

These individuals are my heroes and role models. I hope my writings here will help foster a global community of fellow “curious impact-makers.”

I have mine, but what about yours?

When Simon Sinek presented his now-famous “Start with Why” TEDx Talk in 2009, he launched a revolutionary way of thinking about personal and organizational motivation. I have found that every single “curious impact-maker” I have met in my travels has their “why”.

Mine is “to help humanity become a multi-planetary species while improving life here on Earth.” This is the single common thread that has tied together the entirety of my otherwise scattered life. It is what drives my intellectual curiosity, and it is what focuses my desire to make a positive impact on the world.

• What is your “why”?

• Can you clearly articulate it?

• Does it wind itself throughout your entire past, present, and future?

• Do you feel confident sharing it with others, especially strangers?

I hope that some of the writings I share here will help you discover, refine, and grow your “why” … and connect with others traveling a similar path. There are over eight billion people on this planet, but we need more like you … a “curious impact-maker”!

Let’s do this!

I am truly excited to begin this Curious Impact journey, and I look forward to the many conversations I hope to have with you along the way.

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