The Penn Jillette Challenge!

Penn Jillette is one of my favorite famous people. Funny. Interesting. Smart. Great entertainer. Libertarian.  He's an atheist though and some times it gets a little much for me. I know I'm crazy for believing in zombie Jesus, but I do. So every once in awhile I take a break from Penn. I always go back though. He was recently on the Nerdist Podcast and while I'm not actively looking for content from Penn there was no way I would skip hearing him talk to Chris Hardwick.

As usual Penn spoke at great length and was completely captivating. I found his take on how to judge entertainers particularly interesting. His idea is that the best entertainers have both complete passion and complete talent. From there it goes down in varying degrees of both until you get to the worst entertainers with no talent and no passion. There was also a great story about going to see a Dean Martin show in the 80s. I highly recommend the podcast. It both entertained and challenged me.

The challenge was what Penn said about people that don't want to discuss religion out of respect for others. To quote as best as I could get by listening to the podcast several times.

“It's really true in religious discussions. I believe the people that say we won't talk about religion. We wont' talk about this. I have my feelings you have yours. We'll be respectful. What they are really saying is don't bust me I won't bust you. If you really care about the truth ... What we call tolerance is actually just the fear of being proven wrong.”

The last thing I would want is for that to be true about me. I have always chased after the truth. My faith in Christ came at the end of a very long road. I did not believe at the first alter call I heard, or because it would get me a girl. I actually married a Christian when I was still very much an atheist practicing Buddhism. I would not change my beliefs for her or any reason other than discovering a truth that was not included in my world view. Even at my moment of deepest need for Christ when I called out to him unable to function sitting on the floor during my first nervous breakdown I did not become a Christian. It was several months later after I resolved some intellectual issues I had with Christianity.

Now that I have settled the big questions do I avoid conversations so my answers aren't challenged? I don't think so, but I certainly don't broadcast that I am a Christian to the world. Sure I write about it in this blog, but I keep a pretty low profile in my daily life. If you watched me go about my day would you even know that I am a Christian? I may not be hiding my light under a bowl, but its certainly not on a stand for everyone to see (Matthew 5:15). I've talked about this before here.

So I am issuing - mostly to myself - what I call the Penn Jillette Challenge. To live your life out loud and always pursue the truth. We may disagree what that truth is but does that really matter? There is nothing wrong with disagreeing. The human experience is complicated and I can see where two intelligent people could come to different conclusions. One of us is wrong, and it could be me. We will never figure that out if we don't discuss it though.

Architects Are Never Done

Architects have a reputation for working a tremendous amount of hours and still never finishing on time. Having been in the field for over a decade I can tell you the stereotype is pretty much true. There are innumerable conditions to draw when doing plans for a building. Also, you would be amazed at how much one change can ripple through a set of drawings. Combine the nature of the work with the fact that most Architects I know have at least a touch of OCD and it's easy to see why we end up working crazy hours right up to the deadline.

After so long in the field I've started to learn the difference between what is absolutely necessary and what would be nice to include in a set of drawings. I kept that in mind while working on my most recent project and for the fist time ever I was actually on track to finish a project on the scheduled due date. Unprecedented for most Architects and completely unheard of for me. Not once, that I can remember, have I been completely satisfied when we had to deliver the 100% Construction Documents.

Naturally the one time I am running on schedule the Owner throws a change at us just a few days before the deadline. This bought us a extra week. The change did not affect my work even a little. So did I print on the original due date? Of course not. There are always more details to draw, things to work out and notes to add.

And that is why Architects are never done.