Wave Tumbling

Growing up on the west coast of Africa, I spent a lot of time at the beach, surfing, boogie-boarding and just playing in the surf. A favourite sport was to stand in the surf zone and wait for a wave to break on top of you, and tumble you around and around, not knowing which way was up. The beach was mostly sand, so there was little danger from coral or rocks. The feeling of giving in to an inexorable force of nature is at the heart of surfing’s addictiveness.

So I’m starting a new job, at a company called Interrealty, which was recently bought by First American MLS Solutions. Their application is a massive MLS system that is almost infinitely customizable to the needs of real estate organizations. It’s used by about half the realtors in North America. So it’s a huge system, and although it’s well-designed and documented, it’s still a huge amount of information to process. So it feels a bit like being tumbled all around and around. But sooner or later I’ll figure out which way is up, and find my way to the surface…