Yesterday started out as an average busy afternoon, evenly spaced with quick yet heated discussions about Ender’s Game (movie and book), as well as, the “rumored” participation of the great Harrison Ford in the upcoming Star Wars Episode VII. Soon enough, said conversation abruptly sputtered out of control, down the proverbial rabbit hole that encompasses a geek's curiosity and need to discover hidden things on the interwebz (internet, for the nontechnical demographic out there).
I got what I thought was a “can you do something?” or worse yet a “did you do something?” request from Caroline, our wonderful SEO and many other talents guru (yes I am attempting to suck up). While oblivious to this request, Caroline so very politely reminded me to check my email. In my inbox yielded a message with the subject line “Can you figure this out?”.
So, what was this is all about?
Reno Startup Weekend is an event where “entrepreneurs come together and turn an idea into reality within 54 hours”. Later this month there will be a weekend full of events and competitions for entrepreneurs to bring their ideas, get mentored, launch startups and build products all at Reno Startup Weekend. The organization was posing a challenge to receive a discount for tickets to this year's event. A friend and colleague, Nicole- @nicolerosedion, from The Abbi Agency had been trying to get me to participate in this event for a couple of weeks now. I was familiar with the event and was well aware that I was running out of time to buy my ticket. Funny enough, Caroline found this challenge while Facebook-ing, I mean doing industry research. Though had I checked my text messages, I would of realized that Nicole already tried to clue me into the challenge earlier that day.
I followed the link and was greeted with this... “Things are not as they seem.” Well, that is all it took, I was hooked and sprang into action. Ah, the excitement and pressure as Caroline watched on clearly expecting a "Eureka!" 30 seconds after my quest began. Luckily this was not the case, so she left me to solve it on my own time and soon enough I had it!
I will tell you of the joy taking 15 minutes to doing something fun like this brought me. While I didn’t find this annoyingly challenging, it did force me to think outside the box and get creative to find the solution. This also reminded me that we should all take a few minutes a day to learn something new, using skills that we may not have to rely on everyday, or just do something challenging that's outside of your normal task flow. This will help to keep your creativity up and make the time you do spend being productive that much more valuable. With that rant, I hereby pass this challenge on to other any other developers and the curious who are up for the challenge. Take a few minutes out of your day to follow the white rabbit and be handsomely rewarded by not only the treasure at the end of the quest but by the enjoyment of taking a few minutes out of your routine to have some fun.
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