Hammock thoughts

I guess when it comes to shopping we all have a weak spot. Personally, I have a few, but the one type of stores I keep away from are outdoors equipment stores, especially the bag section. I love smart backpacks and packing solutions. Something super comfortable, adaptable, with many smart pockets and access points that can be tailor made for any purpose.

Recently I started finding many similarities between the way I choose which bag to use and how I pack for each trip, and the way (I hope I would) approach architecture. As you can imagine, I have quite a few bags, I have small backpacks, hiking packs of different sizes, a trolly, a duffle bag, and probably a few I can't remember. That way, If I'm going to my parents place for a weekend I can take a small bag with just the necessities. When going abroad I prefer taking the trolly, I don't need to much organization inside and simply put everything I need and when I arrive at the hotel I unpack. On the other hand, when hiking, especially longer hikes, it's very comfortable to have a smart backpack with many different pockets, easy access and smart organization. Your going to be on the road and your pack is your whole life so it only makes sense.

But as we all know "choose the right tool for the job" is easier said than done. Even with bags - I have a specific bag for each situation, but I constantly try to find the "perfect" bag for my day-to-day life. The one bag to rule them all! A versatile bag that will be nice for work with a dedicated place for my laptop, wallet, keys, etc. But it needs to be practical for walking or cycling around the city, and if I buy some groceries it should have room to carry them. I might even get carried away and hope to simply throw another t-shirt and use it for a weekend.

I believe this is the exact same problem we have when we plan a new project. We all have that "perfect" backpack that will solve ALL of our solutions. What we end up doing is going out to a bar, all we need is a wallet and our key. We could take a small pouch or bag, but hey, we have a perfect backpack. Our backpack has a special dedicated place for our stuff and we all KNOW that we will end up growing and we will need a place for a laptop, a few pens and we might buy some stuff on the way home.

And then we show up to a bar with a huge multi-day hike pack. The pack is completely empty other than the wallet and keys, but hey, isn't it nice to know exactly where they are ;)