Peter's Hell Freezes Over

07/18/2003

Greetings everyone,

Four years ago today (the 17th,) I was windsurfing in Oregon when I got the very exciting news that I had been layed-off from SGI. While I had pulled many strings to get layed-off (and get five months of severance pay,) the fact that I would be ending my employment after ten years at SGI was a strong indication that there would be a major shift in my life. And that certainly proved to be true. For over two years, I uprooted myself from San Francisco and traveled through Latin America, Europe, Africa, and a bit of the Middle East. Several of you I met on this trip. For the final leg, I intended to motorcycle across Asia, but when getting the motorbike registered in Turkey became an impossibility, I decided to go by bicycle instead. I decided that I would go home for a couple of weeks, pick up my bike, and then head back to Turkey for another six months of adventure. My return flight was Sept. 11, 2001. Once again, it became clear that my life was to take a new direction.

Unfortunately for me and everyone around me, that direction was not quite so clear. I investigated doing photojournalism, I looked into volunteering for the UN in Pakistan, but instead I stayed here in San Francisco, still searching, still hoping to get back to the Middle East to travel. I decided that I wanted to take a new direction in my career, with more of a focus on leadership and more of an alignment with sustainable business, and I was very anxious to get out of the US. I applied to a couple of business schools in Europe, but as I applied rather late, I didn't get into either. More confusion ensued. I eventually decided to reapply to school, but with more of a focus on sustainable enterprise, which I hoped would allow me to move more into the area of policy and business. As most of you know, the application process dragged out, and even as I spent long hours completing applications, I still was unsure of exactly what I wanted.

Eventually, I got accepted to two business schools: UNC (Chapel Hill, NC) and Berkeley. UNC even gave me a full fellowship plus stipend. UNC has a strong sustainable enterprise program, and Berkeley has a great network in this area and in the area of international business. It then became decision time. And again as many or all of you know, I managed to drag that decision time out, well, a lot. My original plan was to move to NC with my then-girlfriend Kristina, but ultimately that seemed just too overwhelming, and in the ensuing aftermath, we broke up. I then had to face the possibility of going alone, but again that didn't seem right. So over the course of the next several months, I ping-ponged back and forth between the possibility of being a full-time MBA student at UNC, or staying in the Bay Area as a part-time student at UC Berkeley and working full-time. Eventually, I decided that it would probably be a good idea to check into the job market before committing to paying gobs of money for school. Last Friday, two job offers arrived on the same day. This Monday, I accepted one.

So after four years of being out of the country, just about to leave the country, back but not really back, and back but not really sure what I was doing, I am now back.

On August 14, I will start as a part-time MBA student at Berkeley, and on August 4, I will begin working full-time at.... Microsoft (Mountain View office).

No Marc, this is not a joke. Now before any of you start barraging me with questions of my sanity, let me remind you that I do know what I'm getting myself into. Having working with Microsoft during the last years of SGI, I know what total bastards they can be. But truth be told, they made me an offer I couldn't refuse, and I will be leading the graphics architecture on the next XBox. I will also get to work some from home, which will make school a bit more bearable. Interestingly, I will be working just a couple of blocks from SGI.

So there you have it: What I've been up to and what my plans are. I want to thank all of you who have endured months (years?) of my continually dodging the question of "What are you doing?" and those of you who have suffered through countless requests for advice on what to do with my life. I would also like to apologize for being generally flaky of late, especially in the past few months, and for any damage I may have caused due to my general non-committalness the past few years. If you've written me recently and haven't heard back, I will be trying to catch up over the next few days.

I plan on doing a short (but adventure-filled, of course) trip over the next couple of weeks before I have to start back at work, so I may not be readily available until after the 4th.

A new cell phone number and perhaps notice of a party will come soon.

I am also looking for a new roommate, so if you know anyone, please let me know.

peter _ _ ______________________________________________________ _ _

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