Style

Every once in a while a movie explains life better than you could yourself. When that happens, I find that I frequently reference the scene/characters/dialogue. This is one of those. The movie came out in 2000. It's not new. I haven't even watched it in about a year. Yet for some reason, it came to mind last Tuesday when I was at lunch with a co-worker. The movie is "The Legend of Bagger Vance".

It's a golf movie with the plot "hometown hero with issues in his personal life takes on two established and successful golfers in a pivotal tournament". Although the movie focuses on Rannulph Junuh, the hometown hero, my epiphany does not - it focuses on the two established and successful golfers.

Bobby Jones is clean-cut and straitlaced. He plays a consistent game, always hitting pretty good shots. While he doesn't hit many incredible shots, he also doesn't hit many horrible shots.

Walter Hagen is the opposite. He's rough, loud, arrogant, and showy. His golf game includes a lot of really terrible shots, with a lot of brilliant shots mixed in.

Two styles, diametrically opposed. Yet they both produce the same results in the end.

I chose to study a field related to computer technology because of the course objectives of my Intro to Programming class. Dr. Hansen got up and explained that there were thousands of ways to program the solution to a problem. No two people in the class would return with the same code. It did not matter how you solved the problem, as long as the problem was solved.

Although the problem solving aspect of the class was fascinating, my favorite part was coming to class and comparing my crude solution to the elegant solution of an experienced problem solver and coder. It all seemed so obvious and simple after the fact!

At this point in the blog post, my High School English teacher Mr. Donovan would say that I've already written to much. I did what William Golding did in The Lord of the Flies - spelled out the analogy so blatantly that all the beauty and joy of making the connection between the analogy and reality is lost.

Well, Mr. Donovan, I never really liked you anyway.

The stories above are analogous to life. There are lots of styles. If they take you to the same place, then it doesn't much matter which style you choose. Most people ignore the "if:" part of that statement.

My approach to life is a lot more like Bobby Jones than Walter Hagen. I don't take big risks. I don't do crazy things. I'm more of the slow and steady type. I invest in Index Funds. I drive a dependable Honda. I work for a good company in a good entry-level position.

Sometimes I want to be the guy who makes risky stock investments, drives a blue FJ Cruiser or a yellow X-Terra, and works on a startup company. I think I will do most of those things at some point in my life, but not until I have a comfortable nest egg. Risk-aversion. And that's okay.