MEANINGFULLESSNESS
The Life and Philosophy of
Stoan
My mind is aflame with things to tell you…
Once upon a time – and this is a long, long time ago now – I came into existence on a stormy Saturday afternoon in November, thunder and lightning announced my arrival and welcomed me to this giant blue, green & white marble. If you believe in omens, this is a good one to adopt for what comes. If not an omen, simple barometric pressure.
And here I am, 499670 hours later, contemplating and observing life since I took my first breath. There is a lot to tell and lot to share and it could be meaningful or meaningless. We matter to somebody and not to everybody, but what we are and do and say and dream and chase could always bring a small shift or sway to a stranger, unexpectedly. Welcome to meaningfullessness.
“Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu”
A person is a person, because of people
Explore my world
This pixeled space is all mine and so I decorate and narrate it just the way I want, to reflect me. It’s part journal, part memoir, part opinion and some paracosm. Never losing the ability to play, wonder, wander and dream is what allows us to keep being creative in configuring our lives.
There are facts, about work, hobbies, experiences, van journeys, food and more, and then there are thoughts… plentiful hot air balloon baskets of thoughts and concepts which have floated inside my mind and have long needed a home. This is why I am here. And this is why you might also find yourself here.
Sidenote: my essays are cancer heavy at the moment since that’s my current journey, having just finished six rounds of chemo and some radiation and other things to come. I will add some of my other work as we go.
Essays
Hold or Fold
Fight or give up. I was always amazed when I heard someone decided against treatment for cancer, decided to just do nothing. Why would...
Bracing for the tsunami
I was barely awake when the doctor phoned. I had fed the cat her breakfast and stumbled back to bed following another night of sleep...
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Genesis
I was born on a distant Saturday afternoon, during a thunderstorm, the son of a misplaced accountant & visionary philanthropist father, and a disquieted artist mother.
Grew up in always evolving and carefully constructed paracosms, slotted into a real world where navigating a misconceived essential nature provided the building blocks for an attempted fulfilled life. -
Seeking
With a profound interest in everything in the world around, I am a storyteller at heart, always sharing discoveries, ideas and the things I make and do with more words than necessary. Emboss the world with what I had discovered.
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Learning
I studied philosophy and went into the IT and then web, as one does with a degree in philosophy. I evolved into a digital business strategist with my brainchild Integral BrandDNA in my arsenal. I also get to live out my creative desires with graphic design, photography, videography, ad design and image compositing.
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Making
A maker of things from an early age; I try my hand at everything and anything. From carpentry, metal work, sewing, concrete casting. I like to cut and shape and assemble, always with unique design in mind, create furniture and accessories as sculptural pieces.
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Enjoying
I love plants all around and fill whatever space I have with as much green and bright flowers as I can. It’s rewarding when growing them from seed, stems and cuttings they thrive and flourish. Their only natural predator being a certain cat who clumsily knocks them over and off wherever they are perched.
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Exploring
I go on a van adventures with my Caddy, Van Diesel, camp and hike, hunting for vistas and views and places to settle under the stars.
I am not much of a baker but I love cooking and baking bread I can do many in many variations, especially on an open fire. Where I go, rain always happens so travelling with a good book is important.
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Jousting
Now, I’m transiently caught in the battle of my life, fighting off the most nefarious of attacks a body can face. Vigilant and valiantly wrestling to prevent a cancer of the body to invade as a cancer of the mind, so far so good, although chemo is a really tough thing to endure.
Work
Where to start…
In my work I have one mission, to make my clients the best version of themselves.
Rule one in my company is that nothing is sacred. If you don’t like something or disagree, then you are required to speak up, vocalise your resistance. I don’t have to be right, what we do and produce has to be. So, we strive to make it better.
Rule two is that if you don’t like it, and have raised your opposing views, you have to offer an improved alternative. Team input brings a better final result. Throw out the ego and let the importance of the nonpareil conclusion rise.
Behind this philosophy is a journey of slogging days, thousands of hours at a desk, working in an ever changing technological landscape where discoveries and distinctions abound. Asking the questions how do we do it, what is the solution, how do we solve it?
It always had to be strategic. When I started the company 25 years ago it was purely focused on web development, but never just to make websites. That would not do, I didn’t want to simply put things into pixel form, siloed from the business case, futile and serving nothing. No, it had to involve the business, it’s models and ambitions and real world needs. And from early on the question that repeated itself was how do we introduce something into the mix that solves the problem, what new approach can we take that unlocks the business aspiration?
So it didn’t revolve around only websites for very long. They were the mainstay of business for many years but they were the start of a broader and more involved client journey, some lasting over 18 years. I introduced change with ideas – the cliched thinking about the box becomes irrelevant if you ignore that there is a box to begin with.
As technology evolved and changed, platforms, services, social media, apps and content services sprouted in every field and industry. A truly marvelous time to be alive. We saw the internet and its application evolve before our eyes. Not to be condescending, but latecomers will never know the depth of the technology behind it all, they do not have the benefit of standing with their sleeves rolled up, knee-deep in tech making do with what were comparatively sparse tools by current standards.
I stayed on the ride, sometimes clinging for dear life and kept learning, growing and adopting new technologies as they emerged, sharpening the blades to stay in the game. One has to, not just to remain relevant in ever changing and challenging landscapes but also to remain in a state of growth, fertilise the mind and box of skill.
