Secret Santa

Secret Santa is a (western) Christmas tradition, where, within a group, people get each other presents. There are many variations of the custom but, in general, the recipient of the gift doesn't know whom the gift came from. Apart from that, the people in a Secret Santa group can set the exact rules. For instance, they may set a price range for the gifts or define a general gift theme to be followed, etc.

'Gift' by Joey Rozier
under a CC license

In some places, the Secret Santa custom is a big deal, with decent planning and implementation. I was a bit surprised to find  how-to guides online. I was even more surprised to see online Secret Santa planners, name-drawing tools, etc. Having seen those, it should come as no surprise that there are also apps on the topic (e.g., Secret Santa).

For people that work 8+ hours in the typical office environment, where human interaction is either office smalltalk or purpose-oriented collaboration and where a good 60-70% or more of the work time is carried out in front of a computer monitor, secret Santa is an interesting (and possibly a bit awkward) break.

Exchanging gifts, even low-cost ones, if done the right way, is fun. Looking at a deeper level, though, there is more to that. It forces one, for a little while, to shift their focus and think on the others. It is an opportunity for human contact that may even lead to durable relationships.

(Yes, true. People can take part in Secret Santa and be mean or indifferent but let's put that aside in this case).

Sure, Secret Santa is not amongst the bold or basic things the world needs. It is a small Christmas thing, which, for a short time, can make our lives a tiny bit smilier.

Distances

'The breakwater' by
Joris Louwes under a CC license

It's been ages since I 've last posted a few lines here.

It 's not that writing something down has become more difficult than it normally is. It's the lack of motivation for putting that extra effort in wrapping it up - the much needed step before hitting the 'publish' button.

Don't get me wrong, the paragraph above is not meant to be a kind of humble brag. Rather, it is just a plain reference to the common, school-grade essay-writing methodology.

But - hmmm -  I'm already diverging from the topic I had in mind, which - by the way - has nothing to do with either technology or innovation.

The other day I was talking with an old friend. A person who now lives several thousand miles away, with whom I haven't had a descent, full-scale conversation for months or even more. Silly, I know; especially in the age of internet/voip/social-something everywhere that we live in. Not that I didn't have valid excuses ready (I always do). Silly, perhaps also sad, but true.

At any rate, it was nice catching up, spending quite some time describing trivial details of everyday life, as if they did, really, matter.

And that was exactly what got me thinking.

It's not necessarily what one has to say. And it's not necessarily if it is technically easy or not to communicate a message at a certain time. It's the outcome of the feeling we are after that which defines the distance to a person and justifies the effort to communicate.

(OK, the lines above are 'a touch' more dramatic than they should. And, to be fair, plenty of the things we say during the day are part of our working life or inseparable aspects of our operation as 'normally functional individuals'. To such thing, the paragraph above does not apply. But if you place this part out of the communication equation, the rest seems to be fully up to us.)