README

My name is Eric Rank. I started lo-fi.net in the early 2000's when everything was springing forth on the internet. There were wide open green fields, fresh for exploration and discovery. I carved out this space as a playground for myself to tinker with experiments and bring ideas to life. My activity has waxed and waned through the years, but my heart has never relinquished its passion for discovery and creation. I hope it never does.

Who is Eric Rank?

It's the simplest question. There are so many factors that make up identity that I declare the question to be a bit unfair. But I suppose, I'm the one who asked it in the first place so I can't complain too much.

Here are the most important aspects of my identity. I'm a God-fearing regular guy who loves his family and loves people. I believe that the world is beautifully interesting in its vast capacity. I am a curious builder who has the most fun solving problems, whether it involves hacking a fix for the dishwasher with the cap from a milk jug, putting infrared cameras in birdhouses, writing software (now with the acceleration of AI), taking pinhole photos with paint can cameras, or woodworking in the garage. I love learning. I love discovery. I believe that things worth doing are worth doing well. I appreciate the power of technology and I have a blast using it, but I think it is best kept within it's boundaries because people are more important. I know that's a bit abstract, but ya gotta start somewhere when justifying your existence.

The most important part: Values

I read an article in a magazine yesterday (the Costco magazine, if you're curious), in which everyday people answered the question about their top priority in life. In my assessment, the answers were all about the basics. Having integrity. Loving family. Staying healthy. It's almost boring. But you know what, that's ok. The basics matter.

I've put some serious thought and work into making sure that I have good reasons for doing the things that I do. I meditate on them often, especially when I can't clearly see the connection between what I do and what I say that I care about. So, if you want to know who I am, take the time to consider my values. They provide explicit structure in the answer to the question of who I am. They give meaning to my moments.

1. Love God. This one forms the foundation upon which everything else must be consistent. The words I use, the way I work, how I spend my time must show my love for the way of life God commands. This is a wellspring of joy for me. If you want to understand what motivates me, start here.
2. Love people. My family, friends, co-workers, and anyone I come in contact with is worthy of love. I care about treating people with kindness. Life is void if I cannot share my time and ideas with others.
3. Express Creativity. The most fun I have is when I can develop an idea. Writing, designing, speaking, programming, cooking, carpentry, photography, and whatever. I find a lot of fulfillment when I can bring something new to life.
4. Stay Healthy. When I don't feel well, it diminishes the capacity and quality of everything I do. Health is a choice and it is worth investment because it multiplies everything else when it's good.
5. Appreciate Beauty Everywhere. This is my reminder to slow down and enjoy the inherent beauty in God's vast creation. Some things are easier to appreciate than others, like a colorful sunset. But I believe that even discomfort is worth appreciating for its purpose.
6. Be a Good Steward. For the things granted to me to care for, I feel that it is important to invest in their well-being. Managing money, not being wasteful, performing maintenance, fixing what's broke, and picking up the mess helps to make the space I live in enjoyable.
7. Discover. Learning is an activity that breathes life into the endeavors I pursue. I'm curious by nature, and I get excited when I can learn something new that advances my knowledge about how things work, or how they could work.

A little history

I'm a Wisconsinite uprooted and replanted in Fort Collins, Colorado. When I made claim to my own human agency as a teenager, I became interested in ideas and thinking generally, and fixing bicycles specifically. I chose to go to the in-state university as far away from home as I could find (UW-River Falls), where I became intrigued by philosophy and decided to lean into it. Since I couldn't major in philosophy there, I transferred to UW-Madison where I could. And that's the degree I graduated with. I like to say that it gave me a degree in doing whatever want to. And that's what I've been doing ever since. Mostly.

The year after I graduated with a BA in Philosophy, I started up a bicycle repair business in partnership with a friend and co-worker. Living the dream. We were street vendors setting up on campus, hoping to capitalize on the high density of students with broken bikes needing a convenient fix. We had a very small storefront on Madison's east side on Atwood Ave too. We were Mobile Mechanics Bicycle Repair. Our business plan wasn't great, but we survived and primarily had a ton of fun doing it. We both found our respective wives and got married in our second summer in business. During that season I knew that it wasn't going to work for me long term, so I sold out to my partner. By the middle of the next season, he sold the business as well, which lives on as Revolution Cycles. I continued my path, navigating according to my curiosity.

I became interested in graphic design. Mind you, I didn't take any relevant courses in my college education. I just liked using the tools. Somehow, I landed a job doing real design work at Isthmus in Madison. Along the way, I realized that my calling was the web. It was the early 2000's and the technology was exciting. With a computer and ease of access to information on the internet I got busy building. My work was play. Again pivoting to a field in which I had zero training, I found work as a programmer, starting with Flash, then moving to Java. This world of technology is the platform on which I have narrowed the pendulous range of my career path. I got serious about it, graduating with a Masters in Computer Information Services at Colorado State University. From programmer to Project Manager, to Enterprise Architect, to Technical Program Manager, I've had the privilege of building cool things with code directly or by proxy for the past 25 years or so. I currently work at Amazon Ads, where I get to play a part in revolutionizing the programmatic ads industry (I happen to believe this statement is not hyperbolic).

What's with the "lo-fi" moniker?

It's an aesthetic. I love the human aspect of a work. Things done by hand. The background noise in recordings. Wabi-sabi, if you will. Slight imperfections can enhance the quality of a production. I have a deep appreciation for authenticity, and I believe that the concept of being lo-fi captures that.

I'm also a technologist. Lo-fi has a connotation of relating to things done with technology. I use it, build with it, and depend on it because it's powerful and interesting. Yet, technology is not an end in itself. I feel that too much treats it this way. Technology ought to be kept in its place. We're humans, and technology should serve us, not the other way around.

In this personal space I intend to bring the authenticity of being a human in a world built ever more on technology to the surface. Lo-fi is my way of playing in the sandbox of life with technology and sharing the ideas with the rest of you, my fellow people.

My pledge to remain authentic

Stating everything above, it is apropos to mention that all writing here is my own work, consisting of my own personal ideas and beliefs. The words are mine, and mine alone. It would be counter to the whole purpose of this little lo-fi corner of the internet if the writing here was not. If reading between the lines isn't clear enough, I'll state it explicitly. I am not using artificial intelligence to generate the written content here. In the imaginable future occasion that I write about how I'm playing with artificial intelligence, I will clearly distinguish any AI-generated content as being so. Also, none of the opinions expressed here reflect the position or opinions of anyone who employs me. It's way more fun this way.