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