Category: Personal Reflections

Lessons learned about life; pearls of wisdom I’ve gleaned through pain, failure and honest reflection

“Leaving a Legacy”, A Book Review By A Friend

Carl Setzer4 Comments
silhouette of man

I’ve thought a fair amount about the ethics surrounding wealth and the acquisition of wealth. My friend Roy’s look at this book on this subject gives me a lot to think about.

“Leaving a Legacy: An important new book by Johann Kurtz”.

When I think about the wealthy (and other community leaders) I admire, there’s a grace and decorum attached. I don’t admire, much less respect, the bellicose bullying that many with privilege resort to.

I’ve known Roy for years and always find his insights worthwhile. So, not only do I recommend this specific Substack post, but I’d also recommend subscribing.

A Thanksgiving Mediation or XKCD Making Me Cry

Carl Setzer2 Comments

I’ve been following XKCD for, well, decades. Over the years, I’ve seen many friends not get the privilege of growing old. For me, this is a powerful gift and one that I don’t ever intend to take for granted. Perhaps the most powerful Thanksgiving sentiment I’ve ever felt.

For those of you in the US, may you have a blessed and rejuvenating Thanksgiving. And for the rest of you, may the reminder of this week set you up for continued growth and progress.

Update: WordPress reminded me that this is a series and I’ve written about past iterations. Check this one out: I Love XKCD!

Is it just me or does Iggy Pop look like a White Walker?

Carl Setzer
box with brain inscription on head of anonymous woman

As I’m listening to a 70s Road Trip playlist on Spotify, up popped Iggy Pop’s “The Passenger”. Me being me, I Google him to see what he’s up to nowadays. This is the first picture that came up for me:

Iggy Pop

Now, for some deeper insight into how I see the world, I couldn’t help but see how much he looks like this White Walker from Game of Thrones:

Yeah, yeah, I’m kinda weird, I know.

In case you don’t know this song:

And here’s the playlist if you’re so inclined:

Anyway, enjoy your Friday!

Don’t Mess With My Gear!

Carl Setzer

One thing a lot of folks know: I also run and manage sound systems. I started doing this in high school and have been doing sound tech work ever since. Currently, I am the main focus for sound at the event center I work for.

Yesterday I was called by them while at my other job because our Bluetooth transceiver wasn’t working. Long story short, they opted to not bring me in right away, but I needed to tackle this immediately when I got there (which I had planned for early afternoon).

Once I got there, it took me a couple minutes to figure out that someone had pulled the cables out. Argh! Now, in the grand scheme, minor problem. But I struggle with understanding any “why” for this besides simply being a jerk.

Frustrating for my poor morning users who, though they don’t depend on it, do like to use Bluetooth to play music. I do have regular users who do depend on that, though. Playing music from a modern phone via an aux port isn’t so easy anymore.

So, please, don’t mess with my gear! Ugh!

Today’s haiku: November 5, 2025

Carl Setzer2 Comments

mists through the cedars

the echoes of ancestors

remain vigilant

Today’s Haiku: November 4, 2025

Carl Setzer1 Comment

mighty moose minions

mitigate mouse munitions

mad malevolence

I opted for something alliterative today. And something absurdist. Just wanted to have some fun. I hope it amused you like it did me.

Happy Halloween, Everyone!

Carl Setzer4 Comments
jack skelington vinyl figure

Years ago, I got exhausted by all the Halloween tropes, especially Monster Mash. I figured, “I’m sure I could create something better”. I think I have.

This is a multi-year initiative. I’ve added to it as I’ve found good tunes, and taken off ones that no longer fit my vibe.

So, I hope you enjoy!

Power BI

Carl Setzer4 Comments

I’ve been adjusting my studies to focus on data. Right now, I’ve working on mastering Power BI, a Microsoft data analytics tool. Yesterday, as I’m finally starting to dive deep, I had a moment of sadness. I remember a role where this tool didn’t exist. I was cleaning up data from a multitude of sources, just me, Excel, and a wee bit of Visual Basic. And I had to tweak the process every month. The powerful tools in Power BI, and Power Query, would’ve been so helpful. I’m looking forward to what I can do with these modern tools.

AI Impacts On Admin Work

Carl Setzer1 Comment
woman in professional wear seated in front of monitor

I’ve heard a LOT about the expected impacts of AI on developers. When I was laid off right at the beginning of the pandemic, I opted to make a career pivot into Web Development, so I’ve paid attention to this trend closely. Add in all the lay-offs within the whole developer community, and this career, so recently highly lucrative, has become rather bleak. So much so that I’ve been looking backwards at returning to admin work (which is one of my two jobs right now). Now I see that admin work will be getting hit pretty hard by AI, too.

Earlier this week, I was on a Google Meet. With that, we used the built-in tool to create meeting notes. And, my God, it worked nicely! I was quite impressed. Now, as a long-time admin, taking and distributing meeting notes has been a significant part of my work. I’m confident that this will be done by AI going forward. And I expect that transition to be pretty quick.

Another key part of being an admin is scheduling travel. I expected AI to be able to coordinate travel pretty well. So, I did an experiment where I gave ChatGPT a very rough itinerary for a multi-stop business trip, asked it to recommend flights and hotels. It did a nice job with a few extra prompts. I had a pretty solid itinerary within 2 minutes. Impressive.

After just these two considerations, I am confident that AI will revolutionize Admin work significantly. With the job outlook for this work bleak (BLS projects a loss of 12,400 admin jobs between 2024 and 2034), and AI eroding the work, I expect it to become harder to find roles. (Yet it’s the main type of work I’m recruiters reach out to me for…go figure). It makes my decision to pivot to web development during the pandemic, and now shifting to data analysis seem that much more prudent.

Anyway, onwards!

Some motivation for those seeking to learn something new

Carl Setzer1 Comment

I face this challenge every time I’m learning something new, this sense of awkwardness. It’s hard for me to accept this interim period where I lack expertise. It’s rather insane to expect to start studying something new and instantaneously become an expert. It’s rather cruel, no?

I think its roots lie in insecurity. It seems to me the confident won’t be impacted at all. Therefore, I’m working at keeping this at bay and, eventually, purging this tendency from my habits.

How about you? Are you one of those folks who stare blankly at anyone who fights imposter syndrome or its variants? I’ve long wondered what that feels like. Let me know, if you know, you know?