Being a Better Wild Trout
by Dane Petersen
reprinted from the Adaptive Path Newsletter, January 14, 2010
I joined Adaptive Path last summer after spending two years in school studying interaction design. Like a farm-raised trout introduced to the wild, my transition from academic to professional life has been a rough one.
In those first furious weeks on the job I thought I knew everything. I swam with confidence, prolific in my thinking and writing. Despite the unfamiliarity of the stream and all the new natural features I was encountering, my little fish brain felt it could reconcile all of it with the clean reality of the concrete tank I was used to living in.
Then, along came the work, which shattered my theoretically beautiful but wholly simplistic worldview. Thanks to my education I knew a lot about being a trout, and I had even studied the essence of “trout-ness”. However, in my life in that concrete tank (a nice concrete tank, shaded by tall redwoods with glimpses of the sky, and stocked with other delightful trout) I had never been asked to deal with raging streams, dams, fish ladders, bears or fishermen. Discerning between a real fly and a fake fly, while fundamental to my survival in this wild new environment, was completely unfamiliar to me.
As we enter 2011, I finally feel as though I’m getting my (trout?) legs underneath me. I’m beginning to recognize recurring shapes and patterns in this new environment, and I’m exploring the limits of this landscape (streamscape?). I realize that this whole wild world cannot possibly be reduced to the tidy theories held in my trout brain.
At the same time, I continue to try and reconcile these two extremes in my mind, and I’ve found that others benefit when I attempt to untangle these mental knots out in the open. Rather than hoard my ideas for myself until I believe they are “right” or “true”, I hope to do a better job engaging in a discourse with others. I’ve been deeply inspired by P.J.’s recent thoughts on not merely sharing, but co-creating ideas, and I hope that in 2011 I can step out of my mental vacuum.
My experience living in that concrete tank and the things I learned there are immensely valuable to me and have been instrumental to shaping the wild trout I have become. Going forward into this year, I resolve to do a better job transparently reflecting on and sharing my experience out in these messy wilds. I will not purport to have answers, but rather to share my half-baked ideas and delusions with others, so we can talk about them, riff on them, and argue over them.
For 2011, I resolve to be a better wild trout.
