Dear JJ,

Can I call you JJ? Are we on first-name basis? I’ll just assume yes. Earlier this year, I wrote you an open letter with a call to include porgs in the Rise of Skywalker.

The porgs were only on screen for a few seconds, but they were there. You did it. Thank you.

Now was the movie actually terrible as I predicted it would be? I don’t think so. Granted, I set my expectations really low. I was anticipating a dull plot with unsurprising twists that generally add no value to the Skywalker story. But my expectations, despite being low, were exceeded. The gratuitous fan service, throwbacks, and amazing visuals generally covered over any plot holes. It wasn’t great like the original or Empire Strikes Back or Rogue One. But I don’t think it’s possible for Disney to create a great Star Wars film. Actually, I’m not sure that anyone could create a great Star Wars film and maintain the same mass appeal as they have now.

Rise of Skywalker basically took everyone’s favorite parts of the originals, combined with new elements from modern action blockbusters, and mashed them together into a movie. I’m sure that Disney-Lucasfilm has a checklist of different things that they need to include in each film, and the plot creativity and coherence suffer in order to adhere to it.

Star Wars and Empire and Rogue One are great films because they were new and introduced novel concepts and ways of storytelling to audiences. They have a reason for existing. Big budget blockbusters these days exist only to make money so they become bland with no risk, but with amazing visuals and unsurprising storytelling that keeps audiences comfortable.

Despite all these limitations, I was impressed that you were able to add some thematic creativity through your visual storytelling. The film had a feel similar to Knights of the Old Republic, one of the better Star Wars Games. The Kylo Ren and Rey force “share” scenes, expanded upon from Force Awakens, were an excellent addition to the Star Wars universe. Those force powers weren’t in the originals, but growth beyond the originals in any way is what can add positive novelty to the film. Kylo Ren’s flashback sequence excellently mirrored the analogous scene in Force Awakened and Kylo Ren and Rey’s fight on the water excellent mirrored the Obi-Wan and Anakin fight on the lava.

So that’s where Rise of Skywalker landed. The film followed the modern action superhero formula, but it did it well and managed to add something new even if not much. Unlike the Last Jedi (and any of the prequels), the plot was mostly coherent and the characters behaved plausibly. Sure, no one needed to see this film, but it’s a fun way to spend a couple hours a few times. Well done.

Wednesday marked two years from the publication date of one of my favorite articles of all time: Productivity is Dangerous. I read it every December and I recommend you read it too. Now you might be wondering why a borderline-workaholic, always-on program-project-technical-manager-engineer loves an article praising doing nothing and describing LinkedIn as a death cult. I think, at the very least, the article is an excellent call to slow down and evaluate what is important and what is not.

Last week I saw a TV show set on the Mekong river in Cambodia with plenty of b-roll of families living along the river banks. They appeared to do occasional odd jobs, get food and water from the river, and spend remaining time with each other doing leisurely activities. I understand that this may be a massive simplification.

The past two days I have been working remotely from Florida, furiously typing into my laptop, while two dogs spent the entire day sleeping on the floor, occasionally getting up to bark outside the window. Before the industrial revolution, before society at large, I suspect this is generally how most humans behaves. Lounging around, searching food food, helping each other out. Probably I’m wrong here, but it’s an interesting thought.

I hope everyone has a lazy holiday.

Before I took my two months off at the beginning of the year, I had heard about this place in Float Boston in Magoun Square that has sensory deprivation tanks. You essentially float on very salty water in a sound-proof, pitch black chamber. I was intrigued, though I never got around to it before I took off for the west coast. Upon my arrival, I similarly failed to make time to try it.

Fast forward more than six months and I found myself thinking about Floating again. Rather than trying to find time during the middle of a day on the weekend, I signed up for a 60 minute Float on Tuesday night at 9pm.

Upon arriving, I entered into a small room with a shower and a bench to hold my things. After rinsing off, I inserted silicone earplugs (though not well enough, because I still have salt in my ears today). I entered the tank and was surprised to find it was only about a foot deep. It was about 7 feet long and 4 feet wide with the ceiling taller me. There was an ambient blue light coming from the bottom of the tank and small star-like lights on the ceiling.

The biggest shock was the sensation of Floating. The saltiness of the water buoyed me up much more than I was expecting. I could lie completely relaxed and still have my entire face and most of my ears well above the waterline. The water was also rather cool—93ºF, I’m told, the temperature of skin.

I floated for a few minutes, trying to figure out how to relax. I’d read that sometimes people see colors or even hallucinate. I was hoping for an experience like that, though I had some minor concerns that I would get panicky in the dark, quiet space. I turned my palms from face down to face up, and that helped a bit.

I still couldn’t hear my heartbeat and felt rather awake so I pushed a button to turn off all the lights. That changed everything. It was pitch black. Whether my eyelids were open or closed, it all looked the same. Suddenly, I could hear my heartbeat loud and clear, along with any other sound in the chamber. Losing sight made all my other senses hyper aware.

I started to drift off a bit. I can’t say I entered a trance, but I was emptying my brain. Thoughts would come in, I’d note them, and gently let them pass through. Many memories from college surfaced. I thought of my cat, and how much she would hate this.

Sixty minutes seems like a long time to do nothing. I wasn’t sure how long it would feel to me. After some time, I started to hear faint music, my queue that the hour had passed. Having drifted further from reality than I thought, I sat up awkwardly and accidentally splashed some water in my face. It’s difficult to describe just how salty the water was. It almost felt thick and slimy. My eye began to burn, which was unsurprising given all the warning signs about keeping your face completely dry.

I pushed open the chamber door and got a towel to wipe down my face. I rinsed off in the shower and got home around 10:30, whereupon I found myself exquisitely relaxed and ready for bed.

The experience was different than I expected. It was a completely unique feeling to Float, unlike anything I’d experienced before. I was a bit disappointed that I did not have any revelations or supreme changes in my state of consciousness. Likely I set the bar too high. It was enjoyable, perhaps as enjoyable as a nice bubble bath, though notably different. It’s something I’d definitely recommend anyone who is interested to try.

Strangely, the my next day was the opposite of relaxing. In fact, I’d say it was my most stressful day since returning to work in May. I had various stressors coming in from all directions on a variety of different projects and from different people. Generally, I handle stressors well in that I don’t actually experience anxious stress. It’s a feeling that I have generally banished from my life.

But today I felt stressed. And I didn’t deal with it well. Rather than simply absorbing it and moving on, I cast it back out, creating stressors for others. Which is really the last thing I want to do. I made some hasty decisions and communicated them poorly. So now I have some cleanup to do. But that is OK. These things happen. They can be fixed. It’s good to acknowledge them, so I can take the steps to make them right.

And I’m less than a week from being on the beach in Florida.