Introduction

Hello, I'm Ariel Rodriguez and this is my website. I'm a dad, husband, engineer, martial artist, manager/leader, a very amateur astrophotographer, and more.

Like everyone else, I contain multitudes!

Links to other places you can find me on the internet are on the right-hand side. A little blurb about one of my core life philosophies is below, and further down is more information on topics you can consult with me about.

An Ethos

Training in the martial arts as well as corporate leadership has gifted me with a core set of principles or guidelines I wanted to share. I apply these to a lot of things in my daily life, and the symbol I created at the top of the page encompasses them in one image.

One of the inherent aspects of all this is the flexibility to combine, shape, or mold the four guiding ideas into solutions or approaches to scenarios you may encounter. Use the aspects of this that work for you and drop what doesn't.

The four guiding ideas are:

• Linearity - going right towards/through/with something.
• Circularity - going around something, encircling, coiling, turning, or twisting/spiraling.
• Centering - concentrating, solidifying, rooting, or the inverse: emptying, voiding. Also introversion, self-reflection, etc.
• Externality - expansion, observation, extroversion, assertiveness, interactivity.

In Chinese martial arts, these ideas guide a lot of fighting styles and their approaches to self-defense but I've come to realize they also apply to a lot of non-martial situations. Should you confront someone with an issue (linearity and externality), or maybe find a different perspective and re-frame the issue as one that you both share and work to solve together (circularity, center)?

It's not a key in and of itself for finding all the answers you're looking for. The ideas work together as a tool to shift into different mindsets and thus help you to approach situations in different ways. This philosophy has helped me and maybe it will help you, too!

Consulting

I have over 15 years experience in PCB hardware design, mixed-signal system design/integration, project management, people management, and more. I'm also a martial artist with over 20 years of experience practicing and over 9 years teaching kung fu. I have also produced over 190 podcast episodes, and been a guest on several as well.

If you'd like some consultation, advice, or just someone to listen to your ideas and help brainstorm on any of these topics I'm available to do so via Clarity.