I’m not sure if you knew this, but I really love complex systems. Nothing gets much more complex than the human interactions and emotions we deal with every day.

Some days, when we work with our routers, switches and firewalls they’ll give us some unexpected feedback. What do you do with that feedback? Maybe you’ve written some automation tool or output processing program to figure out that specific output. Cool, nice, you want to not have that unexpected outcome to ever happen again. That’s the bubble computers fit in, don’t do this unless I told you to. Humans, not so much.

That’s one difference compared to when we are interacting with people. You never know what that response is going to look like to your input. Logic in – snark out? Snark in – logic out? Maybe both? How fast can you process that snark to escalate it to another level? Wow, where am I going with this.

Anyways – back to the part where I said I love complex systems. Human interaction is complex and I love observing it. I love being a part of it. I love people. I love shared experiences.

Shared experiences are part of living life. Why do you enjoy eating together? Maybe you don’t. Why do you enjoy watching movies together? Maybe you don’t. Why do you enjoy going to the lake or the beach? Maybe you don’t.

The point is – Cisco Live is a shared experience for the community of people that come there and socialize. Not everyone is there for that aspect and that’s OK. Go kill some sessions, bang out this incredible new automation workflow, awesome! However, that isn’t why I’m there and I know it’s not why several others are there. I’m there for the opportunity to enjoy a shared experience with those that have lived, loved, felt, bled, and cried the same things I have.

So back to this topic of “Why shared experiences”? Why Now Josh? Why wait until Cisco Live 2015 to start attending? The reason is – the community. I’ve been watching from afar for a really long time. When Cisco put real value ($$$) in the conference for reinforcing the social aspect is why I wanted to be there.

The social aspect, the shared experience, is why I’m there. The people are more important. Period. We all want these shared experiences in life and Cisco Live is one of the few, if only, places we can take a deep breath and make ridiculous jokes about subject matter only we’d get. You wouldn’t get it.

So where do we go from here? It’s an easy answer for me. I’ll be there, phone, lanyard, loin cloth, and backpack in tow. I’m there to talk to YOU and get to know YOU. We can share shop knowledge or not, I don’t care which, just join the conversation. Sit in the circle and say something snarky, ridiculous, super smart, or whatever.

I’m looking forward to meeting more people and watching the community expand. I’m hedging on, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.

.. and this was train of thought.. not sure if I ended up where I wanted to.