This is pretty much off the top of my head. Over the years, my empathy has grown for anyone who does customer-facing work. Servers, tech-support, retail, sales -- you are my people. But tech support gets a pretty shitty deal, and I certainly had to look at how I treated offshore help when I needed it. So, this is for me to remember, as well.

1. Whether they are from India or Indiana, they are probably trying their best. That doesn’t mean it is going to meet your expectations.
2. In fact, chances are that person from some other land is working with all their might to feed their family. Don’t assume their life is anything like yours.
3. If they aren’t giving you what you want, it isn’t their fault, they are probably doing what they were trained to do. They are following the rules. Are you worth them losing their job over?
4. A first-level support person may not have the authority to fix your problem. Or they may have asked their boss and were told not to give you what you want. Or they were told to say no, unless escalated. Yeah, sucks but it happens. Don’t take it out on them.
5. In general, don’t be a dick to the person who knows more than you about your broken widget, speaks at least 2 languages, and can stay polite while listening to people rant and insult them all day.
6. When on hold, put on the speakerphone and do something else, if being on hold makes you mad. But give them your attention when it’s time to talk.
7. Don’t shit your pants because you had to explain twice. Do you want them to play telephone and risk not implementing the right fix? Let them hear it from the horse's mouth, every time. There’s a chance you didn’t explain it right, anyway.
8. “It took three people to fix my problem!!” Yay, they fixed your problem! If you were to start a business, you would probably do it the same way. If you tell me that you would put your most advanced person on front-line support, you are naive, or I call BS.
9. The US support delivery model does mostly suck. Go to Japan and they will let you out of a phone contract if you ask, they did for me. The person trying to help you on the phone is not responsible for that.
10. You have the power to make their day. Be the one person that day who joked with them, talked with them, made them smile. It will make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

I was added as a co-organizer of a meetup shortly after moving to San Francisco in 2012. I had a few conversations with the organizer, but we never really got it together. When she left the group, I became the default organizer and was inspired to get things moving.

Over the last ten months, I have dedicated about 1-2 hours a week, which besides attending the actual event, includes organizing and promoting the meetup. Organizing entails finding speakers, finding locations, and finding other speakers when things occasionally fall through.

Since I started putting on my little monthly show, the membership has grown almost four times. Attendance at events has similarly climbed, and it currently hovers at around 50 attendees. That big spike in March is when another meetup merged into mine.

Originally, I was having all the meetups at my office, but have since gotten help from various attendees who graciously offer to host. This has made life much easier for my office manager and as a result, me. Setting up chairs, paying for food, cleaning up the messes are all things that I did not think about, but become a drag after a few months.
 

Your Emcee for Tonight

The best part is getting to know the people that keep coming back. I feel like these folks are compatriots, if only that we are all looking for help.
 
I also get to see the networking I help to create. After each meetup, I see activity on LinkedIn between attendees and feel like maybe one of these connections might actually be beneficial to someone's career. Coming up on a year, I feel being of service and providing a regular industry event provides the community with consistancy: a dependable monthly option on a Wednesday night to meet others and maybe learn something.
 
It wasn't my motivation for this to benefit my career in any direct way, aside from networking. But, I have been on a few workshopping calls with VCs, and gotten invited into an event or two for free. I have talked to some founders and done some free consulting, which I have enjoyed. People have talked to me about issues at their current jobs, sought recommendations about changing jobs, and asked for other similar help. This is the best part of doing this.
 

Challenges

My main challenge is giving the people a great meetup. Finding speakers can be a challenge, and I often find myself sweating to find someone to fill the speaking spot. I find it is something I can't let languish and need to put in a few hours a week to reach out to people. Defining the overall theme of a meetup and making tweaks to the format are mostly stabs in the dark. I go to other meetups, looking for inspiration. The ones I have been to range from boring to empty to packed like sardines. My only current goal is to have mostly attendees speak, making it a community event, rather than bringing in speakers to talk at them for an hour.
 
The other challange is promoting the events. Recent speakers who made the effort to tweet and post to relevant groups had noticeably more folks show up. I never think about it and am oddly awkward about posting to groups. I think I am a bit too worried about putting on a good show; I need to promote it like I did when I was in a band and was promoting a show: with unflappable pride. Allocating more time to the group is a bit tough, so I am not sure I can make a big push each month, but I can do better.

I have offers to help from people I have met in the group, and need to take them up on it. I don't feel like I have to do it all myself, but haven't really sat down to plan what I want to do with the meetup over the next year, so I don't really feel prepared or know what do ask. That's something I need to spend a few hours on.
 
All in all it isn't hard, isn't easy. It needs about 5 more hours a month than I am giving it. I often wish there was a meetup for meetup organizers. I would start it, but I can't run another one. Plus, maybe that's a bit to recursive.

I wonder if my journey ever brings me back. My actions would lead me to bet against it.

By abandoning evil, and cultivating good, which the Buddha states are achievable goals, well-being and happiness are a result.

I have always thought the Buddha eschews terms such as “evil,” but not here. It seems as if that’s a general misconception, from my years hovering around Buddhism, but it may be "morally relativistic me" making that assumption. The notes point out that humans have a strong potential for evil, which can be arrested before action is taken, which is our choice, and our power of choice can be strengthened by the cultivation of good.

Even more simply, though we have evil desires, if we are doing good things all the time, we are more able to not realize evil intentions.

At the very least, we will have less time to do evil.

Just got done with Marc Maron's WTF podcast with Mike Judge as guest. Judge is a hero of mine. His journey from Physics major to engineer (at Gallien Kreuger!) to bass player to the animator who saved MTV and defined the 90s is inspiring. A clear difference between him and I is patience. As both an animator and former engineer, you can sense it in his even, low-key demeanor. I like to think I pay attention to detail, but without patience, taking 6 weeks to create a 2 minute cartoon would be a fantasy.

1. Don't be content with where you are
2. Be unremitting in the struggle for enlightenment

Be diligent, Scott. Don't be lazy, don't procrastinate, don't rationalize. Don't delay. Do it like your brief life, and everyone in it, and everything that happens after, depends on it.

You don't have to be a wet blanket or a malcontent. But it's good to check your ideal version of reality to the one that's really occurring. Culture, perception, morale; you can't will it into what you want it to be. It's the actions we make, the small game that make them what they are.

Mindfulness directed to the body is a set of exercises, a methodology. Breathing, posture, attention to and meditation on death, etc. Directing mindfulness to the body is a prerequisite to gaining mindfulness of mental processes, and are helpful because it makes us really consider our impermanence, since the body is a perfect example of it.

This mindfulness brings freedom from bondage, clear comprehension, a happy life. We become "deathless." Is it safe to say that practicing Mindfulness directed to the body replaces death with change, and removes he bad mental states which cause us anguish?

It is rare to be born a human, to hear the Dharma, to learn from the Buddha, to understand his teachings, and to take the actions to achieve liberation. So the Buddha tells us to set a goal, to taste the results of ascetic practice, taste the results of hearing and understanding the Dharma, and taste liberation.

Two lines jump out at me. "Those who are stirred by things that are truly stirring are few." Stir. Are the things that are truly stirring just true reality? The notes and some searching online imply that there are things that move us towards liberation, happening all the time that usually get ignored. These are different than the illusory creations, self, non-self. I'm guessing we are talking about age, sickness and death. Things like that.

The second line I like refers to "those who gain the concentration which makes relinquishment its object." It reminds me that grasping and controlling are the opposite of my goal. Letting go is key.

This lesson is moving and simple. If you see things clearly as they are, you see know of things as impermanent. You see nothing as a source of happiness. You see no self.

I, naturally, forget all of these when the shit hits the fan. I see my will as the force which steers me to the things I want, and over and over, the things I buy make me happier before I have them than after. And after years of reading and practicing what I learn about the Noble Truths, I see myself as ever changing, but oh so real.