Where other people play
“Understanding that knowledge is an alloy of experience and theory that can be further strengthened by elements of curiosity, imagination, and sharing gives us the absolute to develop it as a true source of power in our lives.” — Share Parrish
I’m on the homeward side of a road trip that’s taken me from Santa Barbara to my brother’s house in Denver. I’ve done similar long road trips before, including a two-week loop through the mountains up to Seattle, and on my moves to and from New York.
Each time I go somewhere I’ve never been I’m struck by the vastness of each place. They’re bigger and much more rich and detailed that what I imagine when I’m making some sparse plans on where I’ll stop.
It sounds obvious because in retrospect, our experience of everywhere we’ve been tells us that. But when you start by looking at a map of Utah, it’s just a big rectangle with a little square cut out of it. Start driving across it then take a quick trip off the freeway and you see canyon and formations that make you contemplate the entirety of human existence.
New places are also so much more dynamic and full of people than they seem on maps. I could people-watch all day. In Denver it was thousands of people donning puffy jackets for morning outings, and at ski resorts, hundreds criss-crossing each other at a given moment. Each of them with somewhere they’re coming from and can’t wait to go. Something they’re worried about and something they’re dreaming about.
The way a dot on a map turns into infinite complexity is so beautiful and striking to the consciousness.
When I finished business school in 2012 I had a pretty good idea of what was on the map. I think the best thing an MBA does is show you how things are connected — that marketing connects to operations and finance in the same way I-70 weaves and juts through states with huge populations and dozens of city-dots.
The more my experience in the working world layers on top of what I learned in grad school, and the more I come across things I realize I knew nothing about, the more exciting I find it. The intimacy gained from getting to know one new place — a city, a brand, a brief — reminds one of the intimacy to be gained elsewhere.
As a planner, it’s extra useful. While experience can expand our minds, it can also push us to think efficiently to increase “throughput.” Most people in these cities and towns are nothing like those of us who work in marketing, at least not in the way we assume. Stepping out of a routine reminds us that it’s often smarter to start with questions than shortcuts.
So take your dang PTO and go somewhere that’ll remind you how much more is out there.
