Aspiration: Pioneering spirit
(ˌpaɪəˈnɪərɪŋ ˈspɪrɪt ) noun. a willingness to endure hardship in order to explore new places or try out new things
Hello world! My name is Patrick Atwater. Thanks for visiting my web-like log of various writing, past and current projects, open questions I’m exploring, and meditations on the future. I am a husband, father, data sophist, avid cyclist, fervent reader, enjoyer of adventures, lover of board games, occasional mathcircler with an Erdos number of six and generally curious person.
Currently I manage the innovation program for So Cal’s Metropolitan Water District. The cover image shows granaries at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. My family took a rafting trip down the Colorado River in 2021 and hiked up to see those amazing structures, which the first peoples used to store crops grown seasonally from the silt soaked floodplain.
That image serves as a reminder of how small we really are in the face of the tectonic forces that shape the earth. The image also offers an invitation: What will we build that lasts for centuries to come? How will we live as stewards for future generations that are yet to be born? As I prepared to become a dad, I wrote a letter in the spirit of the seven generations principle.
On that trip, we were lucky to be guided by an amazing human named Tommy. Here is a short piece I wrote about what made him such an incredible river guide and great guy. I’ve found that the outdoors have a way of stripping away life’s pretenses and reminding you of what’s important. Say hi @patwater on the internets or drop me a LinkedIn msg or firstnamelastname at gmail dot com.
I blog at PioneeringSpirit.xyz and have a (silly!) AI assisted refactoring of Monkey Kings Journey West set in contemporary California, aka West of the West.