“The search for life elsewhere is remarkable in our age because this is the first time that we can actually do something besides speculation. We can send spacecraft to nearby planets; we can use large radio telescopes to see if there is any message being sent to us… And it touches the deepest of human concerns. Are we alone?” – Carl Sagan
Are we alone? That fundamental question that Carl Sagan posed in that 1985 radio interview, pondered the possibility of extraterrestrial life. But that question is not only relevant at the astronomical scale, it is relevant at the terrestrial and even personal one. Are we alone? Are you alone? Do you feel alone? PIXAR’s latest movie, Elio, takes an unsurprisingly emotional and profound look at that query. We’re fundamentally social creatures, often introverted, reserved, or timid, yet we crave connection. We seek belonging and meaningful relationships. We hunger for community, either in person or via digital venues. We aspire and yearn for recognition by others. Feedback, we often say, is pure gold. It touches us deeply. Connecting with others seems to activate a grounded certainty that we are indeed, not alone. We belong. We are seen. We matter.
Elio delivers spectacular visuals. It develops relatable, lovable, and fun characters. But more than subtle, it sends you home with a great reminder. Don’t miss the obvious connection sitting right next to you (possibly even in the theater with you). You are not alone. We are here. Don’t look past the blessings in human form right next to you. Make an effort to see beyond your pain or loneliness and recognize, the answer might have been there all along. Know that others are here and others do care. And, just as you may be feeling lonely at times, recognize that there are others around you who may feel the same. Be kind. Be aware. And of course, be there, when they need you too.
I’ve been guilty of being oblivious at times. I think back to the many occurrences when I was so in my own head that I completely overlooked a precious soul sitting right next to me. Buried in my calendar, my phone, or my computer keyboard, I might as well have been a lightyear away from the present and sometime critical need next to me. This is a good reminder to pause and better connect to the human treasures all around us. We need each other. We need to belong. We do belong.
Remember, you are not alone! Be kind to each other and connect. And, of course, go see Elio if you haven’t already. It is marvelous and profoundly human. A message we need to hear. Well done, PIXAR!
I hope you all had a great weekend! And for any fellow dads out there, I hope you had a great Father’s Day! I spent time with all four of my kids watching movies, grilling outdoors, and of course, celebrating over some ice cream on these hot summer days. Now, to be fair, it doesn’t take much to need to celebrate in our household. Life is full of excuses that merit a need for a soft serve dose of that dairy goodness, but this weekend seemed particularly poised for that indulgence.
We love movies! As part of this weekend’s festivities, we had a full playlist of cinematic magic streaming on our living room screen. You all know me by now, so it probably doesn’t surprise you to know that I have my garage-based AI system curate our movie selection. It sends out text suggestions on what to watch. It keeps track of our viewing habits and has a good idea of what we like to see. But despite all that tech, my wife wasn’t quite satisfied. She suggested that it should consider recommending movies celebrating the anniversary of their general theatrical release. For example, “Incredibles 2” was released on June 15, 2018, so it would be a great one to watch on Sunday. I loved that idea! So, I went to work adding that context to our resident AI. I just needed data.
Good luck! I tried finding a good data source, but everything I found was driven more toward discovery, and most of it was flawed, including bad release date information. I finally landed on TMDB as a good listing of movies, with references to IMDb that could pull more official release dates from OMDb. Yeah, it was confusing, but sadly, there wasn’t a clean way to get this data. I needed a web service to aggregate all of this for me and my AI.
I’m going to stop now and just acknowledge that many of you are probably tired of hearing me talk so much about Vibe Coding. If that’s you, you can stop now. I won’t be offended. For the rest of you, yes, buckle up, here is another vibe coding story.
I launched VSCode with my GitHub Copilot-powered assistant that I call JoJo. I switched him to agent mode (super important, by the way), and began having a chat. I told him about my vision to create this web service, how I wanted to build this dataset and APIs for easy access. He created a movie_db folder and went to work on a script. The script ran right away and pulled down the data. I suggested a high-speed way to process the data, and he suggested caching the API calls to prevent overloading the providers. What a smart aleck! But he was right. That was a good idea because the free tier of API access was rate-limited.
Finally, I had a good dataset to use, and JoJo had compressed it into a serialized object for fast access. I then switched to having him create the Python web service and gave a general idea of the APIs I wanted. He suggested some routes to use and wired together a Python Flask app. I told him that I wanted to use FastAPI and that I wanted to build all the tests before we built the APIs. He reluctantly complied and had me run pytest to verify. All good. Then the fun began. he started churning on the code for the APIs.
At this point, I should acknowledge that I was very tempted to jump in and code some lines myself. You can definitely do that, and these tools will co-develop with you, but I wanted to see how far I could go just vibing my way along. It turns out, a long way! The APIs were looking good, and it was extremely fast. I decided I wanted a nice UI, so I told JoJo to build a web page and gave him a general idea of what I wanted to see. He spun up some templates, added some tests, and plumbed in a new route for the landing page.
“Show the movies that were released on this day in history and sort them by popularity.” Boom! In less than a minute, JoJo had a basic screen up and running. I asked him to tweak the colors and make it more modern with a date navigator. He did, but I didn’t like some of the placements, so I asked him to nudge things around a bit more and adjust the style. I must confess, this is where I spent probably too much of my time. It was too fun and easy to ask him to make minor tweaks to scratch my curiosity itch. But he never complained; he just kept coding and plodding along. I even had him add additional pages for “Search” and “About”, which had nothing to do with my original goal.
About eight hours later, we were done. Yes, that is probably about four times longer than I needed, but I was having so much fun! Fun? Yes, legitimate, awe-inspiring fun! I finished up the project by asking JoJo to build the Dockerfile and help me launch the app as a public website for others to use. He complied. In case you are wondering, I even spent the $11 to get a domain: https://moviesthisday.com. I still have a non-stop list of updates spinning in my head, not the least of which is a MCP server for AI.
When I launched my first startup, we spent over a year getting our business and first website launched. There was a lot of development time for that. I can’t imagine how different that story would have been if we had Vibe Coding to accelerate our efforts back then. This is a game changer! I want all of you to get a chance to vibe too. If you tried it in the past and weren’t impressed, please try again. The advances they are making are happening on a weekly basis now. I’ve seen it myself. They just keep getting better.
Technology amplifies human ability. Vibe Coding feels like digital adrenaline. I’m a little addicted. But it feels great! It has definitely helped bring the fun back into coding again for me. I wonder if the same could happen for you?
Now, for those of you who managed to actually stay with me through today’s way-too-long blog post, thank you! I’m excited for you. We are living through an amazing time in technology. Let’s get busy putting this great tech to use for the betterment of ourselves, our companies, and our world. Lean in! Try your hand at this ice cream of coding. The scoops are amazing!
Oh, and in case you are wondering what movie to watch tonight…
12 meetings, 5 calls and 3 walk-ups. And that was just Thursday! It’s not terribly unusual but it is a lot. I know what you are thinking. I’m not alone experiencing that, and that’s true. But I do apologize to anyone who had to meet with me towards the end of the day. I’m sure it wasn’t great. I was definitely running low on fumes.
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love meeting with people, especially in person and most delightfully, over a cup of coffee or tea. It’s one of my favorite things! However, I sometimes find myself preoccupied or unfocused. In some cases, I’m not even sure why we’re meeting. I just show up because my calendar says so.
This got me thinking: how do I show up in meetings, and does it matter? Sometimes it’s a critical project meeting, team update, or strategic planning session. For those, I try to quickly orient and determine the desired outcome so I can contribute towards the goal. If it’s not clear, I’ll ask. But other times, those meetings are just for advice, career coaching, mentoring, or inspiration. I love those. They’re often the most rewarding, as the outcomes are more about helping my fellow human travelers, as well as our company, succeed.
So, how do I really show up? Am I present? Compassionate? Indifferent or insensitive? Do I speak more than I listen? And if I do listen, do I listen with understanding? Am I respectful, kind, and supportive? Do I show up real, with integrity and sincerity?
I know I haven’t always succeeded, and that’s not good enough. I want to do better. I want to be more mindful and intentional in my meetings. I want to make the most of our time together.
Every second of every day is precious. Every heartbeat, every breath, and every person. The gravity of these meetings finally hit me. People matter. Time is irreplaceable. Every conversation is an indelible narrative that we score upon the journal of eternity. Those words, those interactions, and those moments should matter. They do matter. They shape our company, our world, our connections, and our future.
Not every meeting is needed, so let’s be judicious about the time we book. But when we do, let’s level up. It’s time to invest in each other even more. It’s time to make the most of our minutes, our days… our time.
Starting this week, let’s make a conscious effort to be more mindful and intentional in our meetings. Let’s focus on the present moment, and let’s prioritize listening and understanding. Let’s show up with compassion, respect, and kindness. Let’s make the most of our time together. I’m ready to try. Are you?
June bugs! Growing up in the South, about this time of year, windows, porch lights, and even sidewalks would be covered with little nickel sized brown beetles called June bugs. I can still hear their little exoskeleton wings buzzing as they make their clumsy and erratic flight between porches, streetlights, and other illuminated areas. They are terrible flyers. They will zoom right into walls, screens or windows causing them to bounce and crash to the ground. They often land on their backs, with their wiggly little legs pointing straight up, frantically trying to right their rigid little bodies. I remember laughing at them as they would scurry around.
June bugs are fascinating little creatures. These bumbling and profuse little southerners are only around for a few short weeks. That’s right, they come out just once a year and stay for a handful of days. They spend most of their lives underground. They emerge from the ground in late spring and early summer, typically in June, which is where they get their name. They have a short lifespan, but they make the most of their time. They explore. They fly. They zoom across the moonlit and star speckled summer nights. Once they emerge in their adult form, they live for only two weeks. They lay their eggs which hatch into larvae. The larvae burrow into the soil and emerge as adult June bugs the following year.
Imagine a lifetime lived in just two weeks. No wonder they never become great flyers! But even in their short lifespan, they make a difference. June bugs play a role in maintaining ecological balance by helping to regulate plant populations. Their larvae feed on plant roots and decaying organic matter, helping to break down and recycle nutrients in the soil. This process enriches the soil and makes it more fertile for other plants to grow. June bugs may not be the most glamorous insects, but they play a vital role in maintaining the health and diversity of ecosystems.
Two weeks. That’s incredibly short. Imagine you lived your entire life in 14 days. What would you do? How would you make the biggest impact? I think I would try to fly too. It would be clumsy and imperfect, but I would take to the skies. I would explore. I would do what I could to have the greatest impact. Enjoy every second. Buzz around every glowing wonder and then send my dreams, bundled with hope, care and love, to future generations to enjoy the world the way I did too.
Unlike June bugs, we live significantly more days. But even then, life is short. Things are always changing. We have a few short days to make our indelible mark. Don’t forget to enjoy the wonders of creation! Explore and run with abandon into the mysteries that renew and intrigue us. And while you are there, don’t forget to bundle up some of that magic and send it on into the future for others to enjoy as well.
