Spent some time talking to my friend and colleague Ian this evening. We were talking mostly about work largely around the Talis Platform and some projects I’ve been involved in lately. We talked about problems and solutions, and how things have been recently for me personally with everything thats happened lately. Anyway during our conversation he said something that reminded me heavily of something Chomsky once said:

There are no magic answers, no miraculous methods to
overcome the problems we face,  just the familiar ones: 
honest search for understanding, education, organization,
action that raises the cost of state violence for its perpetrators 
or that lays the basis for institutional change—and the kind 
of commitment that will persist despite the temptations of 
disillusionment, despite many failures and only limited successes,
inspired by the hope of a brighter future.

                                           - Noam Chomsky

Back at the tail end of 2006, I wrote this about Ian, and it still holds true today :

Our programme lead on skywalk, Ian Davis, is probably one of the finest programme mangers I have ever worked with. Probably because he doesnt think of himself as a programme manager. He’s extremely goal driven and yet a humanist who puts the well being of his team before anything else. As a team leader he’s a pragmatist, but it’s his charm and his passion that has helped bring together bunch of talented geeks and focused them into a team in every sense of the word.

I’m grateful for the support that Ian and many of my other colleagues have given me. It occurred to me though this evening that I can be inspired by the hope of a brighter future, and I can draw that inspiration from the people I work with – like Ian, Rob, Chris, Paul, Richard, Amanda, Justin, Sarah, Dan, Sam, Malcolm, Ceri and everyone else I work with. We are all on a journey together, in more ways than one.

Thank you … all.