Doors!

This post is dedicated to an ex-colleague of mine - Neil Latarche - who passed away recently.

The photo above is at a Madrid hotel I stayed at  - these doors are elevator doors. The interesting thing about this hotel is that each floor was designed by a different famous designer and had a unique decor, character and personality. Each floor has its own attributes and parameters. You had a choice for which floor you wanted your room to be on. You had to navigate through these choices for your hotel room selection. Then get on one of these elevators. Doors to choices!

At every step in our lives, we're faced with options. Doors! Sometimes, doors shut, and sometimes, doors open. Sometimes, when we're in comfortable surroundings, we know what's behind the door. At other times, when in strange surroundings, we have no clue what's on the other side, but we walk through those doors anyway, hoping that there's light and warmth on the other side. Sometimes, there are friends and laughter on the other side. At other times, there are only strangers!

Every once in a while, the door leads to a room that has no floor, and there's only nothingness when you walk through. We'll all walk through that kind of door once - it will be the last door we open.

Neil was a really sharp guy - we overlapped at Verity (which no longer exists) - he spearheaded the implementation of Verity's parametric search - structured navigation with attributes and choices.

Verity's logo was that of a door - a portal! 

Neil - you will be remembered!