We took down the tree yesterday, marking our official end of 2021.
I had wanted to take it down on the first, but the kids lobbied an extra day, but we got sidetracked on Sunday and it was suddenly bedtime.
Same for Monday. So I was going to take it down myself that night, but the kids insisted on being part of the process.
So we took it down on Tuesday morning. I put on the Peanuts Christmas album in the background and we enjoyed our last party of the holiday season, taking down the ornaments, lights, and tree, punctuated by a breakfast halfway in between.
A mundane event; a punctuation for the passage of time. I’ll get maybe ten more of these with my daughter (if she doesn’t grow out of it before heading off to college).
2021 was again a strange year, but with the kids growing up fast, I suspect every year will be unique, whatever “normal” we settle into.
So here’s to the next strange year. Let’s hope we make the most of it.
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Kinda Pausing
Happy New Year! I’ve decided to take the OPM Letter off of the weekly schedule and will adopt an “occasional” publishing schedule. Let me indulge in a solipsistic discussion of the first half-year of this project.
I started this newsletter because I was curious about what it would be like to enter the “influencer” game. I’ve kept this blog for the past decade with minimal traffic and I was curious what it would take to garner an active readership. TLDR: it takes way more work than I’m willing to invest.
I started with a bang, preparing a massive backlog of letters, which is why I was able to maintain a weekly schedule for the past half-year despite getting addicted to an online card game for most of that time. Fortunately, I quit the addiction over the holidays so I’m not worried about wasting 2022 as well. However, this detour made me realize that getting good at the influencer game isn’t my thing.
I made this decision a couple of weeks ago, but life is funny – at the same moment, I posted my most well-received OPM letter on Linkedin. However, after pondering my next steps over the holidays I realized that going off a regular schedule is still the right move. I enjoy reading and writing, but I don’t care for the hard work of “publishing”; even the extra half hour of formatting these letters was grating.
I’ve long held that if you don’t want to do the shit work, then it’s a sign to move on. Especially since I’m also about to enter the busy season at my Division. We do our biennial budgeting process (estimating a boatload of Agency requested Capital Improvement Projects). So between taxes, preparations ahead of “hurricane CIP”, and the actual three-month whirlwind, I decided that it’s best to go sporadic.
I’m not yet ready to just kill the newsletter. I’ve created an infrastructure and it would be a shame to just burn it down on a whim. So I’ll return to your inbox on a sporadic basis until I decide upon a regular schedule or give it a proper closing.
We’ll see where the OPM Letter goes, but I quite appreciate the few of you who have subscribed to this letter and wish y’all new journeys for 2022.
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A Question
Have you had a project that requires a mid-course correction? How did it play out?
Hit reply and let’s chat!
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A Link
One of my last projects in private practice was a master plan for the track facilities for Coach Yvonne Wade. She was one of the most impressive clients I’ve worked with. This podcast interview with her and her husband is a good case study of what it takes to be great in a field.
… and a photo.
Egyptian Arch, Dublin County, Ireland, 1890, John Hargrave,
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Thanks for reading the OPM letter! I’d love to have a conversation if you have any feedback. I hope you found some prompts to stretch your craft and relationships as a curious Owner PM. See you next soon!
Stay humble, be kind, and keep experimenting! Justus Pang, RA
Here’s the holiday greeting I’ll be emailing out to colleagues later today. The background comes from a partially ground concrete slab where the work was stopped under the future carpet finish.
That said, I’m fond of this alternative draft, which inadvertently happened as I was trying to pick out my font. However, as a staid representative of the State, I decided to play it safe in a mass email related to work.
Either way, I hope you are enjoying the end of this year, and all the best for the new one!
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Goodbye to My Building
I did my last job walk this year. I didn’t tell him, but it was also my unofficial handoff to my former intern who now works for the agency.
The building has occupied three and a half years of my career when I joined the project at the start of design development till now. By the time we conduct the 11-month warranty walk in April, it will have run the length of a college degree, a tenth of my career.
After walking together for an hour, my former intern left for another meeting so I spent the last hour walking the site by myself. The semester was over. The only occupants were a few folks holding a potluck in a classroom. The building was otherwise empty.
I reminisced about the quiet Sundays I spent on-site over the past couple of years. I had come to treasure my time alone in the building. It was an opportunity to commune with the structure, a meditative walk of heightened sensitivities scanning for construction issues.
When the pandemic settles down, I’ll pop onto campus mid-semester to check out this building as was it was designed, full of students. Until then, it was a privilege to pass it into the care of my colleague.
It’s now his building.
Coincidentally, I’ve been picking through this year’s job walk photos for my annual holiday card. It was magical to traverse back through time and a nice reminder of how much work happens over the course of a year.
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A Question
Do you have mixed emotions when handing off your building to the users?
Hit reply and let’s chat!
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A Photo
Three Carriers, NSC EAB, February 2021
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Thanks for reading the OPM letter! I’d love to have a conversation if you have any feedback. I hope you found some prompts to stretch your craft and relationships as a curious Owner PM. See you next week!
Stay humble, be kind, and keep experimenting! Justus Pang, RA
Last year I created a method to divide my unread books by categories (fiction, non-fiction, spirituality, self-help, art).
Recently I’ve taken a different approach (most likely because we got an ebook reader, which made the entire world’s library easily accessible).
I’ve started sorting my to-read list by era:
Ancient – Older than 500 years old
Almost Modern – 1492 to 1776
Modern – 1776-1945
Contemporary – 1945 onward.
When I wrote the first draft, the reading list was:
Bhagavad Gita (1000 BCE)
Journey to the West (1592)
Walden (1854)
Oranges (1975), The Tao is Silent (1977), and a couple photography monographs
I had a sneaking suspicion that something might change, but I thought this loose structure was another good way to create a cross-section through my library.
Unfortunately, something did change. Since August, I’ve become obsessed (addicted) to an online implementation of the card game Magic the Gathering. Naturally, this has drastically reduced my reading time. I may need to quit that habit so I can go back to my old ways. Maybe an entertainment diet is in order for the new year.
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(notes on) Half Time
This book is quite similar to Simon Sinek’s Start with Why. Both books address a singular “life problem”, but neither gives practical down-to-earth advice on how to tackle this core problem.
Even so, I found this book an enjoyable listen.
Most likely because I am the exact target audience, a middle-aged professional who has reached a certain level of success. With two young kids, it’s hard to believe I’ve hit “half time”, but mathematically I’m dead center between graduating college and retirement. Now that I’m halfway down the path described in the book Aging Well, it’s time for a little guidance on the matter.
I think Bob Buford’s inclinations are correct. I don’t have much more to prove as an Architect. There are certainly some stretch goals that might be nice to grab. But they aren’t worth a significant input of effort that steals time away from my kids.
I’ve seen how much extra work and stress pile with each step up the hierarchy. A promotion would be flattering, but it would be hard to justify the extra time at the office. Then again, I didn’t get to this point by coasting and I certainly don’t plan to spend the next two decades just chillin’ in my cubicle. So there is a paradox that I need to resolve in my career plan.
While this book is short on practical advice, it has named the problem and defined it clearly. For that, it’s worth a read.
I should note that this book is written from an evangelical Christian perspective and Buford liberally quotes the Bible. Even though I’m no longer Christian, I spent plenty of time studying the good book so the scriptural references felt comfortably familiar. Indeed it highlighted a blind spot in my omnivorous reading appetite with my focus on eastern philosophy. The instant familiarity that comes with Christian fare can be useful in quickly grokking an author’s perspective. Maybe I should check out more of these books in my self-help meanderings.
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A Question
How are you adjusting for the second half of your career?
Hit reply and let’s chat!
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A Link
Losers, Pretenders, & Scoundrels is a new podcast by Andrew Heaton and Andrew Young. The episode about Victor Lustig who sold the Eiffel Tower (twice!) is a fun listen. The tenuously relevant portion (to this OPM Letter) comes at the end when they discuss Lustig’s “Ten Commandments for Conmen”, which is good general advice for developing rapport with strangers.
Thanks for reading the OPM letter! I’d love to have a conversation if you have any feedback. I hope you found some prompts to stretch your craft and relationships as a curious Owner PM. See you next week!
Stay humble, be kind, and keep experimenting! Justus Pang, RA
It was completely self-inflicted. I’ve always wanted to develop the laziest possible process for making sourdough so I kept trying to use old dough to start the next loaf several times. (I also tried this last year with the same dismal results).
After a month of gummy loaves, I returned to the basic process. Use a clean starter and refresh it a couple of times. Once the starter is popping, then mix the dough. I also went back to my usual 2% salt after trying a low salt mix.
Unsurprisingly but reassuringly, the results also returned to their old success.
My boy unwittingly trolled me when the first good loaf came out. He looked at the big poofy thing in the oven and asked why I started making mommy’s (yeasted) bread. He was so surprised at this new development that he repeated the question several times, even though I kept explaining that this is what my sourdough should be.
By the way, the bread was also as tasty as it looked. Going low salt is might be good for blood pressure but a few grams makes a huge difference.
With multiple refreshes per loaf, I now have a bit of starter floating around. However, it’s not a big deal. Weekend pancakes can eat up a lot of starter for breakfast and we’ve also started making pizza for lunch.
The pancakes have been covered several times before, but the pizza is equally as simple. Take 150g of starter (1:1 hydration) and add 75g of flour. That changes the dough to a 2:1 ratio (67% hydration), a pretty standard mix for bread. Let the dough proof for as much time as you have available. Spread the dough out on an oiled cast-iron skillet. Throw on the toppings (cheese, oil, and miscellaneous veggies) and bake at 350 for about half an hour. Once the pizza is stiff, take it off the skillet and let it bake another 20 minutes on the rack.
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Interview Notes
In job search literature there is a trope that the interviewer is just as scared as the interviewee.
It’s true.
Two years ago I was a voting member for a colleague’s project. This year I interviewed firms for my own project. Both experiences were surprisingly difficult.
The morning started with jitters even though I wasn’t going to be on the hot seat. The interviews went well enough that afternoon, but it was a difficult decision and I didn’t fully wind down until long after dinner – after an impromptu therapy session with a colleague who took my call that night.
Maybe it was the video chat format. Plus, working from home grants zero decompression time on the way home. Maybe I identity too much with these folks. I know how badly I would have wanted this project. Maybe it’s just because this is all still new to me. Then again, some old hands told me it doesn’t get easier.
We saw presentations by four great architects, any of whom would have been a great pick for this project. As such, this interview should have been a cakewalk. A wrong decision was impossible.
Who thought a gimmie would be so tough?
For any architects who may be curious about how their presentations are received by the client. It’s pretty simple. The speaker matters much more than their words. The hard part is developing that relationship enough so the client already knew you before the interview.
Before posting this letter, we conducted a second round of interviews for our Construction Managers at Risk. It was not as emotionally draining as I expected, even though the contract at stake is much higher. I’m not sure why. Because there wasn’t a professional affinity with the Contractors? Or maybe I’m just getting less sensitive with practice.
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A Question
How do you manage your interviews?
Hit reply and let’s chat!
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A Link
This video about Armor weaves together technology, decoration, politics, craft, and history. It is very much an analog for the world we navigate as Architects and OPMs.
Thanks for reading the OPM letter! I’d love to have a conversation if you have any feedback. I hope you found some prompts to stretch your craft and relationships as a curious Owner PM. See you next week!
Stay humble, be kind, and keep experimenting! Justus Pang, RA
I’ve used Dixit cards to play with my girl many times. We would admire the art and pick out the cutest cards.
However, we’ve never played Dixit as a game.
A few months ago, I searched boardgamegeek.com and found a cooperative variant which deals twelve cards in two rows (six on each side). Each player places a token pairing each of their six cards with the other player’s six cards. We then score a point for every pair that matches what the partner selected.
This is a good game.
It’s a really interesting exercise to pair up the cards and compare your mind with your partner. I suspect this is something that we can play long after the cute wars have ended.
Highly recommended, we went through the entire deck (five packs worth). And we actually scored 6 out of 6 on our last chance!
