A thing that lasted

There was a reunion for my old company (Merkle) in August. I was quite sad to miss it—it just didn’t work out, family commitments, etc.—but I was quite, quite pleased to see the pictures and the faces and the people I worked with to build something great.

The signifier of all of this: the brand mark I helped create and proliferate still adorned hats and napkins and cups and so forth.

Credit: Anne-Marie Schaffer on LinkedIn

Part of getting older is realizing you will probably not leave much a trace in terms of remembered legacy. DNA? Sure. Memory? Nope.

This doesn’t bother me at all. Most of the people remembered centuries later are notorious in some regard. I don’t really want my life to be that interesting.

I am quite gratified that I was able to a create a symbol that was part of the memories of people that mattered to me, though. At some point, that symbol will be usurped. Merkle will probably not even last that much longer. But this symbol lasted awhile, which means it was part of something that mattered in the world just a little bit.

I’ll get back to writing about what I’m building now in the coming weeks. In the meantime, here’s hoping you’re working on a thing that will last.