Italy and an Accidental Read
A reflection on my trip to Italy with a lucky read along the way
Smooth Transition
Its been way to long since I’ve published a blog and gotten deep in my thoughts outside of work. Over the past few months I’ve written a few preliminary pages on things like the little things of IR, the importance of practicing, and my long overdue continuation on time metrics. So naturally I’ve come to the decision to do a book review on a 20 year old murder mystery book as my next topic. After all what’s the point of trying to make a blog if you’re not writing about the things you’re passionate on.
Okay okay bear with me now for a bit of context before I get into why The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason is amazing. I picked this book up off of a whim after without a doubt my hardest few months ever at work. I was more burnt out than that one fry you’re neglecting at the bottom of the air fryer, counting down the seconds till I got on my plane to Italy. The night before my trip I quickly reached into the neighborhood book share and grabbed one at random. Didn’t look overtly dull and having a book for a beach is mandatory so I packed it in the carryon without any idea of how impactful the story would be.
Italy was a perfect setting and The Rule of Four the perfect book for gathering a much needed perspective on how I’d been treating my work. Italy is a truly special place and no words I put here will do it justice. I toured the northwest region from Milan -> Alba -> Camogli, little bit of city, little bit of wine country, and little bit of the coast. Everywhere I traveled I was left with the same feeling that everything in the country grabs your attention and pulls it to what’s in front of you. Whether its the most gorgeous foothills you’ve seen, the lack of people out of shape, or the food and wine which make you double take with their freshness; everything in Italy grabs your eyes and keeps them in front of you.
Intentional or not, the pace of life there allows you to slow down and enjoy what’s in front of you. You can spend an hour just sitting, admiring the beauty of the Camogli coastline or the calm summer nights of the Alba city center and not feel rushed. Everyone takes time to savor what’s around them and lets life come at a steady pace.
Total Side Note: Intentionality is a fascinating thought when looking at aspects of Italy. Its hard not to feel a sense of it when traveling around the country. There are certain parts such as the public planning which certainly feel intentional. I think of the main square of Alba. There’s not a plant or decoration out of place for every angle you look. Even the small things like the amount of flowers they use to accentuate colors aren’t overblown. Its enough so where its hard to imagine it Isn’t intentional. Maybe its just a big enough difference from the standard American thrown togetherness that some places have, who knows? Regardless it goes to keep your eyes focused on what’s in front of you once you’re there.
In the midst of all the beauty that Italy had to offer, I got around to starting The Rule of Four halfway though my trip. Warning here for spoilers if you haven’t read it (which you should). Its a coming of age story about the tradeoffs we make for projects and passions disguised within the plot of a murder mystery. The mystery part of the book give a nice tension and subtlety to its themes as Tom’s wrestles the Hypnerotomachia, a Italian resonance text (fitting scenery right :D) which contains a hidden secret.
I was caught by the give and take Tom struggles with as he balances the passion for the Hypnerotomachia with the rest of his life. The Hypnerotomachia has many secrets that it doesn’t want to divulge and to get them out it will take everything from you. Its a theme re-iterated not just through the protagonist but by many characters throughout the book. As I was reading it I couldn’t help but see myself with my work like Tom saw the Hypnerotomachia. It was everywhere all the time, always with another challenge around the corner. Like the book my work feels as if it can always take more from me if I’d let it.
I saw so much of myself in Tom. The Hypnerotomachia became a part of every aspect of his life. From not being able to focus on his dates with Katie to it leaking into friendships with Gil, Charlie and Paul, it became a part of Tom. I wonder if it was the same sense of obligation that I feel to my work. Like there’s something left unfinished and you know it needs to get done at some point. We’re both racked with the burden of knowing it can be done.
Its only when Tom is metaphorically grabbed by the hair and dragged away from it by Katie does he finally look back and understand how deeply the book leaked into his life. But here’s where The Rule of Four caught me off guard. Before my last travel day I had put the book down with a quarter to go, having learned some good lessons about relationships with work. I thought I would get a happy ending with balance and with closure for Tom but Ian and Dustin didn’t take that route.
Tom makes a choice to take a tech job in Texas and put the Hypnerotomachia behind him. He stays with Katie and he and the rest of the friends go their separate ways. Tom ends up being a rockstar at his job and by all accounts is successful in the work he chose. In the background the other parts of his life become unsatisfying. The love he has with Katie slips and he’s left with a feeling of dissatisfaction that he can’t explain. Only at the end when the Hypnerotomachia comes back into his life does Tom finally find some of himself again.
It leaves a really nice message about acknowledging how these passions and projects shape our lives. The happier college version of Tom, though too much at times, was shaped by his relationship with the Hypernotomachia. By the end of the book, Tom realizes that to find happiness moving forward you need to look back at what made you happy in the past and what’s making you happy now. Just jumping to the next thing, whether it be Katie, the book, or the Texas job, doesn’t lead anywhere. Only through thinking of his past and coming to terms with what inspires him do we get closure that Tom finds direction again. A lesson being that the passions or projects that we tackle make us who we are.
As I’m back in America now, already waist deep again in work, I need to make my own decisions and think about life that way too. Slowing down to ask myself, What made me happy in the past? Whats making me happy now? The Rule of Four was a lovely story for understanding why those questions are so important.
Funny how some of the tiny spontaneous actions in life can sometimes make such a big difference. I don’t think I would have been able to think through my work and the last few years as much as I did without The Rule of Four and Italy drawing my eyes to it. I feel a bit of responsibility now to leave something back in that book share that’ll change someone’s life for the better. So I’ll probably leave Dungeon Crawler Carl since that’s a pretty hard one to miss with :).
As a final thought, if you get the chance to go to Italy and give yourself time to think I can’t recommend it enough. The country just inspires you to take in life and think about what actually matters. Find an excuse to go.
I’ll get back to talking about cyber again sometime soon :)