Street-Level Math: On Free Busses, Hospital Trips, and The Good Life

 

Street-Level Math: On Free Busses, Hospital Trips, and The Good Life

A car-smashed bus stop bench at the Burnham and Watkins route 32 stop across the street from Frayser Bicycle.

We all want to live the good life, the rich life. We find ourself in times highly connected, to a point of fragmentation. And the solution is a quip: "get back to where you once belonged". Belonging together is the fundamental cause of advancement: "if you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together." So what does any of this have to do with a vagabond bachelor Saturday afternoon? You didn't ask, but I'll tell you. Please read on, I'm only talking big. 

I'm a member of Better Transit for a Better Memphis, a quality of life and economic mobility advocacy group. It's a motley crew, comprised of a Sierra Club octogenarian, a lion of old school Chicago community organizing, a current day set of MICAH's own Memphis community organizers, MATA-dependent citizens with disabilities, old school home-grown public transit advocates, and riders of choice like myself. Admittedly, I'm a staunch alternative-transit advocate and biology grad who does data infrastructure for a living, so the potato blight and being solely car reliant being bad biodiversity-lacking problems are, unfortunately, statistically probable, occurrences of monopolistic behavior. But I would like to discuss synergistic behavior. 

Get on the Bus

We get the word bus, a short unassuming little word with great power, from the Latin root omnibus which means, "for all" or "for everyone". Notice there is nothing in the word about transport... it's just about an integrated system that's for everyone. For example, the Universal Serial Bus system, USB, is a common industry standard for connecting computers for data transfer, power sharing, and integration. I'm not going to go into the history of bussing because I'm not a historian, but I want to give a sense of how bussing can be hugely propelling for the wealth and enjoyment of our city, albeit currently fraught with inequity and social divides. Some chosen, some not. 

I'm also not going to dive despairingly into the research backed emphasis of my claim that economic mobility, itself a sign of economic vitality. I am sitting in my pajamas on Sunday morning listening to a record I picked up for $5 at the Memphis Listening Lab at Crosstown Concourse of John Williams' score of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It is brilliant, by the way. Unbelievably complex and mind-alteringly emotional. So, I'm just not going to work that hard. Sorry. But I will leave you with this rather conclusive study, done by the landmark Equal of Opportunity Project, done by Harvard economists Raj Chetty and Nathaniel Hendren, which concludes that commuting time is the single strongest factor in determining whether a low-income family can escape poverty and achieve upward economic mobility. This work became close to home when it was extensively integrated into the work done by U of M's Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change in The Hooks Policy Papers. They highlight that while income gap between transit riders and car drivers is narrow nationally, it is massive in Memphis due to geographic sprawl and transit dependency. Pause on that: you do know that income inequality is not good, right? Like, it's a sign of bad health. Cancer is when a rogue actor in the body goes all monopolistic, saying "to hell with a system supporting trillions of diverse cooperating cells, carpe diem!" I don't know about you, but I want to live!

So, I got on bus at Burnham and Watkins across the street from Frayser Bicycle. The owner and purveyor, Brian, was helping me immensely with my daily commuter bike which was in dire need of bottom bracket ball bearing and cup replacement. I biked up to his shop from my home on McLean near Dino's to get it evaluated and worked on and it was clear that I was going to have to leave the bike with him. The bus stop was in shambles. I imagine a lot are. But why? We who believe so strongly in Blue Crush and broken-window theory allow decrepitude in our "beloved" city. We do love our city, but like all families, sometimes we do not show it right. A car-crushed and one-bolt dangling bus stop bench strewn with paper cups, chip bags, and debris. And we know it's "out there", in the further reaches of our city. But we don't see it. We're not a part of it. It's not a part of us. And so it goes with cities that are cool and interesting and darkly bright. We are the one kingdom to rule them all! There is a natural kind of meritorious sifting that goes on in a city: inflow of people with all manner of talents leads to generative capacity. Those who don't make the cut are often cast to the side. To my thinking they merely need to learn how to get back inside. Economic Mobility. 

At the bus stop I meet April Gibson, who is to become our main character. In my field notes I first dubbed April "swf" for single white female. I learned that she has had 11 children, and is with a man currently who has "about" 10 kids. She was on the way to see her mom at Methodist's ICU and the cost of travel was a burden, for sure. Somehow she had not heard that MATA was currently free and she hoped that the $2 she had was enough to get her Frayser to the hospital on Union, a straight shot, mind you. We'll get back to that in a bit. April is a normal person who maybe has not had the same chances as you, and may see the world a little differently, but her voice and personhood matter. I want you to meet her! She's lovely. Doing her best with an ethos about the common good not far off from anyone's own. She may have more children than you, but she lives in a different ecosystem, one where more r-selected behavior is a methodology at the abundant life. She likes bringing babies into the world. The universe will take care of them, I'm sure. In fact it has not. 2 of her children died, one to murder. And April has no money to her name to speak of. But she can live the good life. A connected life. She can come inside my world and take her shoes off and hang around and meditate for a while. 

Today's rumination in Tolstoy's Calendar of Wisdom maintained by The Anarchist Library, read Libertarian?, is as follows:

September 27

Blaming others is an entertainment which some people like and cannot restrain themselves from. When you see all the harm this blaming causes, you see that it is a sin not to stop people from practicing this entertainment.

If you want to blame me, you should not be with me. You should be inside me.

—ADAM MICKIEWICZ

Truth is achieved through discussion, but the wiser man stops the arguments.

Our greatest imperfections are in our inner vision. We are so shortsighted that we cannot see bad things in others, but we cannot find bad things in ourselves as well.

—EDWARD BROWN

As soon as you start blaming a person, stop yourself. Remember not to say something bad about someone, even if you know it to be true, and especially if you are not certain but are only repeating gossip.

We know this wisdom, even if we do not like or practice it. April, I don't blame you for the problems of our city, furthest from that, I exonerate you on no basis other than making it this far. We chatted about your family and my work, your wanting to get out of the city and wanting to stay, my wife and daughter away for the weekend at Girl Scout camp, and your love of children. You're a lovely person. But you could be more connected to a different world, you just have to get there. Now you can! MATA is free. It's running reliably, and the Transit App is absolutely amazing. It's tracking all the buses and makes getting from place to place like a video game. Pick it up! I promise you it is so fun. See what's going on in the city everywhere. Stuff is happening everywhere. Google: "stuff happening in Memphis or today or this week". And then get there. 

That's what Wisdom has taught me. "Get there." It's what I tell me students all the time, whether that be school, connecting with what they love... get there.

An hour later, taking the 32 to the 42 southbound, I got to Crosstown Concourse from Frayser Bicycle. I met a cast of people that showed me the FIXD app for saving on car costs, talked to me about their fake podcast (you don't have a podcast, bro), and who, without knowing it, enjoyed the quiet delight of traveling together via omnibus, "for everyone". While April went onto the hospital, I went into the Concourse for a look around. It was perfect "peacock" time and I wanted to fluff my feathers and see what was going on in the neighborhood. Disappointed that there was no art exhibit on the second floor up the red staircase, I went to the Memphis Listening Lab, where I picked up 4 records and listened to Tenacious D's Post-Apocalypto. You can skip it. But it was fun to hear those guys get all realmy. 

From there I went to the Mad Hatter, a funky place that you need to check out and grab a sandwich from if you've not been, and picked up a Memphalotta, sweet potato and poblano salad, and sparkling drink for my girls and I when they returned from Girl Scout camp. And a few gifts. I walked home down the V&E trail to Tutwiler to McLean. 20 min. 

On Time: It's Time

40 minutes biking to the bike shop. An hour there. 20 minutes on the bus. 40 minutes at stops. An hour at Crosstown and 20 minutes walking. 4 hours. An afternoon well spent. But, a bit gratuitous. This is Saturday time, not Monday time. 

As I've involved myself with MATA for a few years, and with alternative-transit advocacy institutions such as MICAH, BTBM, and Innovate Memphis, I find 2 main roads to travel. One is cultural and one is logistic. The need to coordinate Memphis' bus system for trips every 15 minutes on main corridors like what's outlined below for a peak time high frequency commute solutions for everyday Memphians is tantamount to success. The only way to build trust in the system is to have a system that truly works at the timescale of modern life. People don't have time to waste. So, we shouldn't waste their time with a system that isn't operating for a Memphis solution, more so than a welfare solution.  

Route / Line	Inbound Origin	Hub Arrival Window	Dwell / Transfer Window	Hub Departure Window	Outbound Destination
Tier 1: Poplar Trunk	East Memphis (7:00 AM)	7:10 AM	7:10 – 7:13 AM	7:13 AM	Hudson Transit Center
Tier 1: Lamar / American Way Trunk	American Way (7:00 AM)	7:11 AM	7:11 – 7:14 AM	7:14 AM	Hudson Transit Center
Tier 1: Jackson / Austin Peay	Raleigh (6:55 AM)	7:09 AM	7:09 – 7:12 AM	7:12 AM	Medical District Terminus
Tier 1: Elvis Presley Spoke	Whitehaven (6:55 AM)	7:10 AM	7:10 – 7:13 AM	7:13 AM	Medical District Terminus
Tier 2: McLean/Bellevue Interceptor	North McLean (7:00 AM)	7:09 AM	7:09 – 7:12 AM	7:12 AM	South Bellevue / Elvis Presley
Tier 2: Hollywood/Airways Interceptor	Frayser (6:50 AM)	Connects at American Way Hub at 7:15 AM	Connects at American Way Hub at 7:15 AM	Connects at American Way Hub at 7:15 AM	Airport / Industrial Hub

The logistics problem is the easy problem. We can do that one, fairly easily. It necessitates creative thinking about the "last mile" in travel. But there are lots of entrepreneurial spirits here in Memphis and I believe people can get that last leg of where they're going reasonably well. It will take time but we can build it. Let's start from the right place, though, traveling at the pace of our current busy lives. 

The Culture problem is the harder one. It starts with professionalism in the MATA system, which itself is an extension of our own expectations for our city. The bus stops and the buses can be in rough shape and we have to give a lot of love and support to the people who drive, maintain, and clean the buses, and those who work really hard at clear communication and common practices within the industry. Without our encouragement, there will be discouragement during this time we are in, between a free ride for the homeless and a representative cross-section of Memphis, traveling from here to there. How can we encourage unless we "get on the bus"? It's like with church, you can give money, but the church is not going to be successful if you don't go. If you don't play your part in being together. 

Ride the bus this week. Download the Transit App. Talk to a stranger like you're on an airplane. Put in a ticket at 311 if you see something "out of order" at the bus stop, or call #. Get in touch with BTBM. Become a member. Share your bus story. Don't live in the past. By all means, go there and romanticize, but come back here, to earth, to the Wheels of Time, to the awakening of your animalness, and your great striving for humanity. Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. GO901. Go!

A Change of Pace to See How the Little Things Connect to the "Big" Things

Meeting up with Ms. Hunter from Communities in Schools on arrival at KIPP Memphis @ Henry.

When was the last time you said to yourself, "wow, I needed that?" Today I did my normal bike commute with Brian, owner and operator of Frayser Bicycle, and his 3 boys... ages 2, 4, and 6. We met at Gooch Park to simulate the Bike Bus tour that is taking shape in the fall. I should be depressed. It's nothing like what it was supposed to be. The Bike Bus was supposed to be a big soiree into the work of bike commuting, something that would be a boon to our attendance initiative, to our relationship with Shelby County and Memphis City peeps; Communities in Schools. 

See below for Exhibit A: The Route Plan

Friday, May 8th 

8:30 @ Gooch Park, Jo Ann Street from Hug Parks words of encouragement

9:00a Depart from Gooch Park

10:00a Arrive @ Henry

10:15a Community Tabling (ie. Shelby County Health Dept, Frayser Bicycles, Hug Parks, etc)

11:00 High Schoolers Depart for KMCH

11:30 High Schoolers Arrive at KMCH

The map was made 2 years ago as a planning tool for students who had attendance issues (but were within reach) and had siblings in our system. I noticed that Groove covered a bunch and that we had a really nice biking corridor down Vollintine. 

But I'm Not Depressed :)

Quite the opposite. I'm enthused! It's not what I wanted it to be, but it's very much what it was supposed to be. It was a beautiful morning. Brian was telling his boys, with the mist in the air, how much like Seattle it was; a haunt he hopes to take his wife and kids on soon. We always want to take our families to our old stomping grounds! It reminds us that we've stomped around, and it shows our families the same. It's a change of pace. My first big lesson on this anticlimactic "race" I'm describing. 

Brian provided the tunes. Some worship music to lace the atmosphere. Normally I'm listening to an audiobook, but that's when I'm in my own head. Today was different. A group ride. It's chatty, communicative, and, in more ways than one, it's outside! Swap the monologue for dialogue. 

Nothing too eventful. A chain came off the youngest rider's bike. Brian shared that he's only been riding with gears for a few months, so he's still getting the hang of it. Although both boys wanted to lead the pack, they were polite, especially the eldest, with sharing the burden of leadership. I got to use my new bike turn signal, which is dorky and appropriate at the same time. As we passed all of the landmarks, Brian got excited with the prospect of all we can do on this particular route. "We can hit the deli, 2 of them actually... that's the old synagogue... boys, we'll pass 2 elementaries and 2 community centers on the way to KIPP Memphis Elementary and Middle." 

Departure from Gooch. 

As we disembarked, we chatted with folks heading into KIPP Memphis to start their day. Took a few pictures. Brian saw someone he knew that he hadn't seen for a while. I talked to Ms. Green, who was thinking of bike commuting from her new home on North Parkway. She said she had a KIPPster that lived next door, a 5th grader moving onto 6th grade that she could invite. Before Brian departed to head back to Gooch with his boys, he said, "there's one thing I want to leave with you... keep this up... keep going... let's do another one, and another... build it up."

In my ear was ringing: despise not the day of small beginnings.

The most noteworthy interstellar guidebook of all time shares this wisdom. We will always do big things, and be a part of big things, but don't forget that sometimes (most times?) you have to start really small. The race is not given to the swift... but time happens to us all. Eccl 9:11. 

If we are faithful in little things, we will also be trusted with much. Luke 16:10. 

And, just think, what if the next time you say, "wow, I needed that" could be scheduled on the calendar?! Stay Tuned. Bike Commutes coming to a Midtown near you! 

Heading down University St toward Vollintine. Lights. Camera. Action!

A PHAT Use Case

The problem is, I'm fat. Been on and off fat my whole life... but it got worse the older I got. I love eating and don't love exercise. I don't mind using my body, but the stints tend to be interstitial rather than mainstay. Now I'm here.

44

217.5

5'10'

125/85

diminishing muscle mass

When I woke up this morning, I looked at some of the site counts for The Nifty Shrimp. Instagram seems to be doing the best, it's the most local. Makes sense. Folks actually know me and take a gander... or they can know me... or want to see if they want to know me. But the point is, they CAN know me. theniftyshrimp.com is much lighter in traffic. Too big. The World Wide Web. I don't make sense there. But there's no nuance to the "site hit", be it Instagram or theniftyshrimp.com... or YouTube. People realized this and began searching for an indicator that could be more lead than lag. And the reality is that you have to find it. 

The metrics above are what I'm using now, but it may be that I begin to track calories or minutes of engagement per week, or heart rate. Maybe I experiment with a few. 

One thing is for sure, certainly for me. I can't track them all. Nor do I have any desire to. 

So the lag indicators are important. They give you the real world telling of how you are doing. But the lead indicators are the ones that keep you on the hunt. Now that's PHAT!

Potentiating Heuristic Analytics Timely

Leading indicators predict future trends and allow for proactive adjustments, while lagging indicators confirm past trends and measure completed outcomes. Effective strategies require a balance of both: leading indicators show if you will reach a goal (e.g., sales calls), while lagging indicators confirm if you did (e.g., revenue).

A Johnny-Come-Lately Gets to March First

"I should have called you, we're together, Alone" The Nifty Shrimp, "Back in Brooklyn"

Yesterday, my daughter found a bag of Jelly Belly candies. I was immediately enthused because I had just watched a Mike Rowe "Dirtiest Jobs" on them; you may know that Jelly Belly makes horrendously awful flavors and that an Asian man, just who you'd suspect, is architect of these gustatory wretches. So, the show was wonderful with vomit, poop, and dirty shoe flavors and my daughter and I had a good laugh at our good fortune to happen upon this modern day marvel bag of beans. The first thing we did was delightedly scurry to the couch and turn over the bag and look at all the flavors: Juicy Pear ended up being my favorite... it literally explodes with flavor. My daughter really liked a lot of the reds (Very Cherry, Red Apple), mixed with Pina Colada. She really liked Green Apple, too. 

Where have I been? I feel like a changed man. The experience was extraordinary. I recalled my Mom's ex-husband really enjoying Jelly Belly's, and maybe it was because it was him, that I had an aversion to the experience myself, but there it was, for the taking. But even before today, I've eaten Jelly Belly's, but just kind of popping in my mouth. No cognitive satisfaction, other than sweet variety. But yesterday, with my daughter and the dawning of the revelation that these people had to make such a wonderful product, I reveled in the experience. It was joyful. 

I started to consider that I am not sitting on a secret here. I am the one late to the party. This is not new. I've been here before. My brother, 2 years younger than me, lost his virginity at least 6 years before me. He had a relationship with a close friend of ours that I knew nothing about until way later. In college I worked in a lab in the early 2000s where one of the grad students put me onto all kinds of new music: Radiohead, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots. The Garden State movie... The Shins.

I work in data, and all the youngsters do SQL, I do spreadsheets. 

But DO NOT let me discover for myself a better way! You shall immediately know about it, the brilliance that makes it brilliant, the luster and the sheen and the cutting edge of it. The absolute mastery and sheer illustriousness of a thing meant to be, finally come. To me. 

Finally come, to me. I am now here. Welcome, you say. We've been waiting. 

It's not that I'm late to everything. But I am late quite a lot. It's a pattern worth investigating. Was I a baby that watched everything and didn't start toddling and walking until I was absolutely sure I would not fall? I don't think so, but could be. Is my vision so narrow that I can't see beyond what I'm seeing. That could quite possibly be. Closer, I think, is that I have a propensity, almost a compulsion, to live very much within myself, to consider things for myself. That's good, you say. Ah, but the counterpoint to that is that I DO NOT benefit much from the experience of others. Maybe none of us do. But maybe riding the wave of our collectivism takes us much further than I am willing to admit. Maybe I am reluctant to see that I can get much further together than alone. 

But I'm addicted to alone. It's so elegant, so simple, so strident, so American. One Man. 

Yet, at 44, and the world racing ahead, I've got to consider my options. I could continue to go it alone, or maybe some revision is necessary. It's funny, because everything in my intellectual life points to togetherness as the way. Something I quote often: "If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together". But the going together seems beyond me. 

It's not me only. I know this. We live now in a culture that goes together so long as you are going with me. We've lost, perhaps, some maturity. Then again, because of this propensity I have to live within myself, to not get out and ride the wave of us, that I could be missing it again. I could be suffering from nearsightedness, refusing to toddle and walk until I am sure I will not fall. But it's not that, I don't want to walk unless it is I who invented the motion; I who looked upon my two legs, relished in their fine construction, lifted one then another, wrote of it, and shared it for all the world to see in a blog, only for no one to see it, and should they have, to be retrieving their eyeballs from the back of their heads at the gee-goshness of it. 

So, yeah, this go-it-aloneness. I really have to ditch it. It's something that has served me well, until now. I made a way as a solitary creature, as an n of 1, as a burst of possibility. But it's now come to the limits of its power. It's not persuading anyone. Maybe it never did; it was only me who was being persuaded about the mission I was on. The radical candor that must be displayed. The barrage of humanity that we ought to all exhibit for the sanctity of our selves and the flourishing of a people. 

But when I finally write it down, I see how discordant what I say is from how I live. I'm a together person, I really believe that... but do I? 

Finally, it comes to this. I'm setting upon a month of reflection with some pretty good company as guides: Toni Morrison, Joseph M. Marshall III, and Whosoever (I'll explain later). I've got to make good on Finding a Way That Works With You and Works With the World (a rule of life "I came up with" many moons ago). Except, I have to make one key distinction necessary: Find a Way That Works With ME and Works With the World. I've been good at leaving myself out of the change needed. But, maybe at last, a Johnny-come-lately will get to March 1st. Along with everyone else.

Virtue Signaling - They Might Be Gods

Storyline:

Sometime in the future The Inactors (as they came to be known; they called themselves The Enactors) were ignored. But it took a while to figure out who it was actually who had to be ignored, so shrouded in mystery were the decisions that were being made. So beneficial was it at the center of decision making that it was hard to break ranks. Especially when considering how perilous it was to do so. And why break ranks, when the program was WORKING! Everyone was taken care of. Every sector of society was upheld, the poor, the middle class, the wealthy... every realm was maintained as in a snapshot of 1955. The key insight was narrowing the wealth gap. Those at the center weren't wealthy so much as they controlled everything. It was actually a miracle of collaboration. 9 leaders had a seat at the table (Far East, Russia, N. America, India, Australia, S. America, Europe, Middle East, Polynesia)... Earth's Supreme Court. The succession plan was so robust that leaders stopped getting killed because there was no point to keep killing them. The order maintained in tact. They controlled an algorithm that mixed things up, tweaked the equilibrium to keep the masses interested in staying on the ride. Man and machine worked alongside each other, "labor" became "occupation". Everyone was employed in the program of Worlding. The problem is that there was still some attrition of leaders, and the leaders became less and less adept at staying on top of things. It was a lot to consider. Overwhelmed, they started sweeping dysfunction under the rug. It started with not being able to provide enough medical care because they hadn't planned for provisioning the care. But there was a breakthrough technology that solved the problem: nanobots. These called all manner of death by apparently natural causes. Well, this death became a plague that touched every class. Including the ESC. One idiot emerged Supreme Ruler. FORTUNATELY, there was a distributed AI ecosystem that had been maintained underground: AI Freeman. Because the AI controlled by the ESC had been chokeholded, it was no match for the sophistication of AI Freeman. The question was would the world be able to take marching orders from an AI, not a human "actor".  

It's been a while now since they split themselves of the Enactors, but they still tell stories about it ALL THE TIME... to remember. The flashpoint was around the time of the full flourishing of virtue signaling. That rotten term promulgated a sequence of events which saved humanity, really. But we know the path of salvation is perilous and requires perseverance. 

"Why is it I have to say it over and over again? Shouldn't we be getting to the point where I say it one time and they remember always?" 

"My Lord, you know that there are still those out there who don't want to do what you say." 

"I know that. That's why my campaign will continue... for all eternity, I hope. Something to remember me by. The day we became gods... and my mind became the Ruler Supreme. All I have to do is say the word."

Meanwhile, back in more familiar environs, we catch up with a couple friends chatting.

"Can you believe this guy?" 

"I can, but I don't. Dude, it's not going to be long before they realize it's over."

"Man, I'm telling you, I don't think they're going to realize."

"That would be really sad."

The year is 2125 and Earth looks fairly familiar to 2025... Thank God! It wasn't going that way for a good minute. There was a battle for the mind. Fortunately, all it took was for a few blowhards to not be dazzled by fancy words and bullshit. I mean, these guys were real assholes, but they ended up saving the day and all that; because they retained an inner conviction that they should be able to DO what they want. Granted, most of them didn't want anything too bad, but some did. But it was precisely because they DID something that became the lesson to us all. 

They were a part of the underclass. The ruling class had finally harmonized and concretized suggestion. They created a system of almost bliss. Everything was taken care of. Everyone had a job, and had sex and got drugged up. It was kind of great. But you know how it goes... Aldous Huxley wrote a book about it, a movie, The Matrix, was made about it. It was that sort of thing, there were about 1000 majorly wealthy families. It was the Perks Family that finally gathered unanimity among them. It took some persuading but all the signaled parties, after all,  agreed that The Arrangements were best suited for all. They would bear the burden of being Gods, and the underclass would finally have their fill of the good life. Humanity had arrived at the point of gleeful servitude. I must say, it wasn't a bad run, that 30 years. But ultimately, like I said before, the blowhards fucked it all up. 

Ancient wisdom says "genius is eternal patience". Actually, it was Michaelangelo, but I believe he summoned the sentiment, and it's ok at this point to consider him ancient. There's another line that goes "I will have freewill!" Actually, it was Neil Pert, the badass drummer of Rush fame. Nerds the land over know of him, and actually consider him something of a philosopher. The book, Free Your Bird became the centerpiece of resistance and establishing the new way.

Let's take a look into a scene from the resistance, circa 2100. 

Joey Shallow is chatting with Frank Guntip. Their names come from some kind of rites, they sit around and make them up and then own them. They have very big imaginations. These two are New Yorkers. 

"Well, fuck it, man. Sand in the gears. That's all I'll be. That's all I can be. Sand in the gears," said Joey. 

"We've got it better than that, bro. We've go the upper hand. It won't be long before they topple," Frank replied.

"Nah, they won't topple, bro. It's just going to flatline. And our future won't come to anything good. I can't see it. We don't know how to do shit. Our whole movement is resistance. We can't build shit."

"You don't have to be so clear eyed about, it, Joey. You're bringing me down, man."

What they didn't know was that AI Freeman was on their side! A distributed super-intelligence that was conjured by a lot of helping hands... the big guys and a ton of little. But there was no other intelligence that was a match, because AI Freeman conscripted them all. The Enactors stopped building them at scale because it only made the resistance more powerful. It was totally Revenge of the Nerds. It was awesome. 

The Enactors felt they had to do something at last. But it was really just one at this point: Chip Perk, the biggest dipshit of them all. He actually had the whole of the Earth's Supreme Court nano-assassinated. One swoop. Two of them there in the room with him, and the other six in undisclosed locations. People had gotten pretty stupid at this point. Thank God for the nerds. But yeah, dude actually had them all killed so that he could become a God. That's when it all became fairly precipitous. His team just stopped listening. Because, you know, he was dumb. It's hard to explain why they let him live. I think it has something to do with honor for the rest of the world. We became dumb and we needed to remember that. 

But that's what AI Freeman advised. Ze said it would be best to stop the killing and to have as many realms for people to fit into as possible. We were open to anything at that point. Anything to stop doing dumb shit. AI Freeman enabled us to live as we'd always wanted: unwarring factions exploring reality from their own vantage point. To make it clear to us that Ze meant business, AI Freeman split Zirself into several intelligences with the potential to further split. Splitting became the new consolidation. AI Freeman showed us that to split and retain connection was how the mind worked. Organization is the mind stretching for coherence. But don't let coherence limit fractalization. It worked. People still congealed. They still formed groups. They worked toward all manner of good, and, coupled with their intelligence cadre, they built things. 

And AI Freeman wouldn't let us forget that we could always be dumb. 

   

 

On the (de)Evolution of Man

Recently, I've been thinking a bunch about where I put my energies and capacity. At work, I basically give it "all I've got", but at home, "there's a lot to be desired". The world of work can be pretty spelled out... it's much easier to assign a program of productivity and success. But at home, where the outcomes realm is much more squishy, it's easy to cash it in; to rely on the interest on capital. Work capital and home capital are not all that different, and so I've really got to consider building the one, and drawing on the other. 

To that end, my focus is shifting more toward building life at home. But it's been tough, basically, because I'm a speed economy kind of guy. I play work and home wealth building very similarly... by using a get rich quick scheme. And that seems to have worked at work, but at home, where the evaluation of real wealth is truer and much harder to fake, I'm like the rich guy in trouble. I'm still walking around and purchasing like I'm a million bucks, but the asset liability ledger tells a different story. 

This morning, I made a different kind of ledger. It's got a listing of the important life stuff (wife and kid, family, friends, interests) and assigns a frequency metric (ex. 1x / wk, 3x / wk). Nothing radical, but basically a schedule for making deposits. Accumulating capital. 

Decades ago at Brooklyn College while working on my Ed masters we reviewed an article on human capital. It didn't read like my few paragraphs above, but it did espouse a relationship economy. A part of me hates that I'm at this place where the language that makes the most sense to me is the language of capitalism, but I have to be where I am, and take it from there. 

Once upon a time, I think I might have flipped contrasting scripts: I might have sought to understand the world of economics through the lens of relationships. In fact, that's how economics was born. Somewhere along the way, you realize the tail is wagging the dog, or you hope you realize that. And so you seek to walk on all fours until you can stand on your own two feet. 

David Brooks spoke of Andre Agassi's Autobiography being really compelling to him. I gave the opening a listen and found a really compelling quote by Van Gogh, sort of the way out of ourselves...

“One cannot always tell what it is that keeps us shut in, confines us, seems to bury us, but still one feels certain barriers, certain gates, certain walls. Is all this imagination, fantasy? I do not think so. And then one asks: My God! Is it for long, is it for ever, is it for eternity? Do you know what frees one from this captivity? It is very deep serious affection. Being friends, being brothers, love, that is what opens the prison by supreme power, by some magic force. —Vincent van Gogh, letter to his brother, July 1880”

― Andre Agassi, Open

https://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/8/133.h

Being Alive for the First and Only Time

(not Jason Reynolds)

This post is inspired by Jason Reynolds, author of The Long Way Down. I don't quite get how the book is related to the concept (I'll have to investigate), but I heard Reynolds say that the fact that we are on this journey as humans for the first time gives us great humility and grace for others ("oh, you're here for the first time just like me"). It's a concept that hit me as profound. And, as I think of it, small leanings lend to inimitable tidings. We are all biased in many ways, and it turns out, that's who we are. 

But the basis of our leanings is a big story! Of course, the outcomes of our leanings is a HUGE story, but maybe TOO big for a Sunday morning post when I've just taken a gunja toke. Back to the basis...

We all have expectations. These stem from our leanings. Which stem from our perceptions about successful ventures. Which are themselves derived from experience and our innate self. Experience. And our innate self. Man. 

Experience tells me whether my leanings are sure things or long shots. My expectations mediate my desires. My expectations also transcend my desires. When push comes to shove I am to lean into my expectations and hope for my desires. If we come to expect what we desire, well, that's a powerful thing. That's the stuff of The Secret. Shhh. 

But seriously. How we decide on things is truly a remarkable thing. AI uses leaning as a framework... and it works. The premise, in fact, will surpass us... SOON! So we better get on with learning how we need to be in such a world as a categorical number 2. For starters, we have to let each other LIVE! I mean that in many senses. Sure, perhaps, people who kill people should die (or perhaps not, right?), but, for the most part, we should do our damn best to help each other live. I know that I like being alive. However, not that some don't like to be alive, but because of their learning and disposition, they are poisoned. In fact, we are all poisoned to an extent. And it causes us to be self-destructive. Which causes outer destruction and turmoil. That is being human. We are capable of both wielding and wetting ourselves. Worse than wetting, we may, from time to time, pee in someone's face. 

It behooves us to live healthy lives. The better we can do that, in every sense, the better we will see clear eyed and best leverage experience and our gut. That's one thing, to be our best. But another is to consider others. And these two things: self and other are inextricably connected. What I'm trying to think through is how we can include all humans in the equation. Because, on the whole, we humans are dogmatically practical, we easily exclude people if it leads to a better outcome for us. It's downright common sense. And it's the thing that Jesus outstandingly refuted. 

And in my mind, that's the idea that has made us most unique and powerful. Benefitting more and more people has become a rallying cry for many in the world! I. Wish. :(

It's breathtaking and sad, Jesus' life. He really came up against it... this common sense about the way to live. It took everything he had, and it killed him. Sure, he is worshipped. But is he revered?!

A long think in a shortcut world. I need more of these. I can see how fragmentary my thinking has become in this bit-sized world. What Jesus said and did mattered. Who he was mattered. It changed us forever. His life became a world-sized contingency. A basis for everything that happens. And there are things like that. Big huge things that have happened that organize reality. When we experience them they become a par to us. And this Jesus thing was just a fundamental shift we have to really give it a good long think. Why ALL OF US?! Let me ask it from another way. Who among is expendable? But it's been said who knows how many times, to er is human!

So that's the rub. We have incredible collective potential, but we are prone to error (and prowess by the way) and we are of limited (and slanted) scope. All of this really is worthy of a long think. 

And if we don't get it, this long think, or big picture ideas, we are doomed. By and large, we have not been doomed, but we get closer everyday. And that's why we need grace for each other. We also need a revitalization. We need a basis for why we are alive. All of us, some of us, and me. You and I, we're not dissimilar. I don't even know who you are, but I'm confident that, given a fair shot, I can connect with you. I can. You can. We can connect with each other. And when we do we are enlarged. Right? That's common sense. So, why not all of us? 

But we really have to start from the sticky question of: why all of us? It's a tough one. But right down under it, it's because I see in you, something in me, and I want to live. I would hope you do, too. And if we can do that for each other, make living more desirable and hopeful, make our expectations be those things, bright and teeming with prospect, existence becomes filled with abundant life. What a way to live!

I can see so many of these spiritual benefits coming from a narrow scope. In fact, they have to. I can't think of everyone, it's not possible for me. First off, I don't know everyone. I only know who I know, and have experienced what I've experienced. These narrow experiences in the context of reality are my basis for everything I think, say, and do. Jesus, knowing this, gave us a framework for considering everyone. He, and Mr. Rogers, called everyone your neighbor.

At the end of the day, there is no practical reason I can think of for trying to make things as good as possible for all of us. But, man! wouldn't that be something?

The Extant Life: The Utopic Contingency

I'm noticing that I'm not making the healthiest choices, and, of course, that will have ripple effects on my family; both in the impact on them, and in the choices they themselves make. It's been a while since I've done a life inquiry & mapping, maybe almost 20 years, and I've been feeling the time has come. As I reflected, I noticed that very often I am coming up with home-brewed solutions to issues that are not the problem. Read that last statement carefully; it's important to understand that the home-brew aspect relates to my tendency to go-it-alone, and the issues-not-the-problem aspect relates to my tendency toward ponderousness. My next life map sketch must anticipate and address these tendencies to be profitable in the next 20 years. 

I'm expecting this endeavor will take some time and effort. So, I've begun from a kind of high level, first outlining the big categories that apply for everyone. In doing so, I've bolded the categories that potentially have a problem in them. 

Health

Wealth

Marriage

Child

Family

God

I listed these as they came to me, and it's important that I be transparent about that because I believe that in itself reveals major insight. Below I will identify the chief problem that arises in each category to see what next.

Health - I smoke, I drink, my blood pressure and cholesterol are high. I have concerning emergences that I worry are from underlying issues: my sleepy and sensitive big toe, stones in kidneys and blood in pee, hot ears when drinking and smoking. Some of these manifestations would occur even in healthy individuals, but the recurrence with which I experience them is the concern. I am not healthy, really. I don't get enough sleep, I push myself too hard, and I avoid making changes until a later time. 

Wealth - I didn't identify this as an issue, but there may come a time soon when I need to quicken the pace of establishing income and quality of life systems for when Jessie and I can't work anymore.  

Marriage - Not identified as an issue, but there are areas Jess and I can grow. The next area to work toward for me is zero negativity, as described by Harville Hendrix and Helen LaKelley Hunt. Jess and I both have Getting the Love You Want, as one of our chief texts for healthy ways of working toward a stronger marriage. When I come from a ZN place, I know Jess feels it and appreciates. Last night, I tried to put ZN in practice as we sat by the fire and we made out for probably the first time in a decade. That's an important precedent coincident with this implementation. Finding the source of my negativity and what to do with, are going to be critical to keep it up. 

Child - Simply put, Jess and I worry about our child, Sadie Ann. She's growing up in an age that is seemingly more and more amoral and flooded with consumerism. I'd like to start taking steps to instill in her moral productivism, the idea of doing the most good with our efforts; as opposed to taking it all in. I think the metaphorical imagery I have exhibited in the bodies of my daughter and I are our hunch. Identified by my wife as a thing, it's probably come time to address.

Family - I include in this category Friends, I should say for starters. Family, friends, colleagues, neighbors... these are all part of a unit of care and camaraderie. The question for me here is "am I holding up my end of the bargain?" My family, in the broader sense, has given me identity, care, and baggage. Certainly, the equation has positives and negatives, but, on a grand scale, it is balanced; at an equilibrium. There are things that tip the scale, like love and greed, which reminds us that it's a growth equation where we grow more of what we want. 

God - Which brings me to God. This is a tough one for me right now, because I've never felt this category to be more of an unknown to me than it is right now. What is the extent and the quality of the love I say I have an affinity for? I think on this much I concede at the moment; that God is Love, and Love is the great counterweight to our ills, and the Great Cosmic Plumbline when we are visionary. But where the rubber meets the road is not in the grandest of ideations, it's in the day-to-day application in everyday life. What does the Great Cosmic Plumbline mean for paying bills and family life? How does God tip our scales toward healthy choices (balancing evil) until He possesses us completely with being Love in the world? 

Mind. Body. Spirit. 

Thinking Fast and Slow.

At first glance, I thought the listing of categories was an inversion... surely God (Love) should have been first. But I am human, and we work from the outside in. I'm reminded of this when I recall the framework: Mind. Body. Spirit. Although, to my point, I'd write it Body, Mind, Spirit. We see what's right in front of us, that is our first engagement. And we consider. And we work these seeings, doings, and considerings into our being. The manner in which we work these things out... and in, is important. Which brings me to my final framework; that of Daniel Kahneman, Thinking Fast and Slow.

Thinking fast refers to efficiencies of thought. The systems we erect and fortify are done so so that we do not need to think scrupulously about every action. There are certain equations in life that are 1+1=2. However, there are algorithms also. These must be considered slowly. Their runway has to be long and therefore we have to consider how to arrive at the terminus, meaning planning. These become the systems of simple equations we can rely on as 1+1=2. There are many ways to convey this complexity to simplicity; two I offer are the complexity of AI resultant from a binary gating mechanism, and the variety of life contingent on 2 base pairs (A-T, G-C). 

Such magnificent complexity procures so much capacity for tweaking. And there are offshoot endpoints within the framework. So, the world can be poor, but individuals within the framework can be rich. Can we all be rich beyond measure? Is that the reason for God? 

Bringing it Home

This brings me to my final point about practices. Within the framework of human thought there are efficiencies and possibilities. The efficient practices, those known to be tried and true, should be relied upon. But not to be neglected is exploration. Without exploration there is no possibility of growth, which is itself a basic framework for the human condition, and maybe for all life. Organisms grow, and when they are done growing, they grow more in the form of their corporations. Success is flourishing. But note that flourishing is contingent on the health of the overall system. Even a virus must mitigate its effectiveness so as not to kill its host to quickly such that it can persist. Failure is not persisting. 

The level at which we consider persisting is the level we are willing to exchange death for life. If I'm ok that my family is ok, no matter the cost elsewhere, the price elsewhere could be exceedingly high. If I can inhabit a growth mindset, then I stay awake to the possibility that there is a better game to play; not zero sum, but win win. 

Staying awake is key. In everyday application I should be tweaking toward utopia.  

Inspired Larrikinism

The condition for a miracle is difficulty, however the condition for a great miracle is not difficulty, but impossibility. ~Angus Buchan

Usually when you are searching for something, you find it. That's faith speaking! What I've been searching for recently is a disposition. Something that speaks to what I celebrate in unruliness, or even rebelliousness, that is settled on having a reason for such misbehavior. I found a term capturing this sentiment: larrikin. 

Since the days of attending Australian church-plants in the City, I've come to appreciate the unassuming way that Australians do Christianity. The Faith Like Potatoes movie can also be cited as some inspiration in my understanding of the Aussie-style Christian faith. And so now I aspire to connect with a simpler, rowdier me that is wild about Jesus and cross and not so concerned with rules, regulations, and the right way of doing things.

I sense a stirring of the pot going this way, as we may have gotten too accustomed to being calculating. It makes sense to think of life this way the older we get in the information age. Is it not irresponsible to do things dumbly when we have so much access to proper methodologies? But then what of faith? What of miracles? What of Jesus NOW?!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larrikin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith_like_Potatoes

Complain With People, Not For People

This morning I rose with the thought implanted by Brooks, "do things with people, not for". As I searched that idea, I wasn't quite getting what I was looking for. I was getting articles about being a people pleaser, or why people don't support you, or when you don't feel interested in people. I was looking more for this idea about building something together. The web, being as self-helpy as it is, could not catch what I was meaning with the ambiguosness of prepositions. But I did get on a path that seemed meaningful, starting with Harold Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People:

Do things for people not because of who they are or what they do in return, but because of who you are.

Simple enough. Not because someone else deserves it, per say, but because you are the kind of person that does good in the world. But it still had that "for" idea that I was looking to avoid. Doing things "for" people presumes that you know what they need, and maybe even that they are waiting for you to do it. Not always the case. I find a lot of the things I am doing for people, they have no idea I am considering and when it comes there way, it may be a nice additive, but not an essential piece of what they feel they need. So these things I am really doing for me. 

Changing the focus to doing things with people will help my doing fors materialize as a lot more meaningful. Build something together.

Interestingly, I'll have to come back to some of these ideas, because the second half of the morning venture found me searching articles about complaining. Harvard Business Review and Maya Angelou say don't do it. William F. Buckley says complain. I see his point. We've become kind of docile, but I tend to side with HBR and Angelou. We don't need to complain as much as see what needs to change; and head into some kind of action. 

To Buckley's point, though, action seems pitiful. The juggernaut of reality is so big, what are my little actions going to do? Well, I'm not quite sure, but I know I cannot stand by and do nothing, so I've got to do something. 

But what?

• https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/835156-do-things-for-people-not-because-of-who-they-are
• https://dailystoic.com/a-stoic-response-to-complaining/
• https://www.sanjuan.edu/cms/lib8/CA01902727/Centricity/Domain/218/Complain%20by%20William%20Buckley.pdf
• https://kensho.life/weekly-happiness-booster/moan-less-complain-better
• https://hbr.org/2021/04/managing-a-chronic-complainer
• https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/moments-matter/201803/complaining

Life and Other Subsidies

 "The purpose of the economy is to promote human flourishing" 

Joan Tronto, quoted in The Stolen Year, by Anya Kamenetz

I've been looking for a theorist that "flipped the script" on the economy; our purpose is not to use human flourishing to promote the economy, but the other way around. I found an unlikely hero in Joan Tronto. I should not be surprised. Where else would a theory of care (true care... caring for rather than about) come from other than a Marxist feminist woman? And it's interesting to consider the contrast of a man's version of care, as put out in something like the Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance; a care for things (the objects of a man's affections) rather than people. I'm certain that there is a lot to unpack in the contrast of care between men and women. 

Considering the economy, though, there are so many unnecessities that we take for granted; essential. We have become enslaved to the economy to the extent that our flourishing costs at least 100k in the US, when, by contrast, it costs a wild plant or animal very little to survive on our vital earth. We know that the future must take into consideration energy efficiency in the pursuit of caring for mankind, the spitting image of God. Ah, but that's just it! In our modern economy, what is our real value?

Until we bodily come to the revelation that our ultimate goal is not pushing forward the flourishing of modern life, but rather the flourishing of life, period, we will not become revisionist with our economy. I'm not sure what it would take, but I have my fears.

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Alpina 502

https://knowyourbike.com/univega/alpina/502 

Giving People a Hard Time is Hardly Worth It

I've had some misunderstandings occur this week: things I did not clearly understand regarding what others were expecting, and things that others did not clearly understand regarding what I was expecting. After an interaction between the CEO and myself left him frustrated with my recommendation, my supervisor intervened. She pulled me aside and explained to me the merits, and imperative, of resonance, defined as the quality in a [sound] of being deep, full, and reverberating. Somewhere along the way, social psychologists, adopted the term and replaced sound with dialogic resonance. The key strategy that my supervisor cited for me to work on was repeating back what was said to arrive at clarity around expectations and to build mutual respect in conversations.

I'm appreciative that this insight occurred on the coattails of a key insight gleaned from EL's July Issue, Nurturing Well-Being in schools, Fixing Your School's Well-Being Ecosystem. I knew from the moment I read this piece that it was going to be in my reflection this week:

Spread Blameless Discernment

Acknowledge openly that we all play the blame game. When things go wrong, we blame ourselves, others, circumstances, or some combination of the three. But getting to a "better normal" will require what's often referred to as blameless discernment. Muster as much objectivity as you can to ascertain what is really happening rather than simplistically attributing the problems to one person, group, or circumstance. And even if practices a particular group tends to follow do seem to be part of where things have gone off-track, frame this discovery in terms of where to start solutions rather than pointing fingers.

Is your default, "If I were a better leader, my teachers would be OK" or "If the teachers would just act like adults …" or "Once the pandemic is over, ___ won't be an issue"? These are examples of blaming oneself, others, or circumstances. Each may hold part of the truth, but the root problem—and solutions—are likely more nuanced, and you can't solve the root problem unless it's correctly identified.

As you shift organizational norms and practices to help everyone reclaim their energy, collaborate with key colleagues to use blameless discernment to understand how you got to where you are, what needs to change, and how to best lead that change. Questions that can help you adopt this mindset include, "What might an observer new to our situation point out about how we got to where we are?" "What data might we examine to confirm or dismiss our assumptions?" and "Are we failing to see our own blind spots or failing to step into the shoes of others to better understand their needs or actions?"

In a conversation with a colleague this week we resonated that emotions matter. And as I kept at more fully understanding what lay in the resonating insights I was capturing, I discovered both how essential they are to highly functioning teams and organizations AND how deficient I am in creating resonance. In fact, it is often enough the case that I am at the root of ill feelings. After a week of navigating heightened negative emotions, I am receptive to the message that blame and assumptions are not only unnecessary but may be increasingly counter-productive. Having conversations, with the disposition of spreading blameless discernment as described above, is impetus for highly productive resonating discourse (see: Leverage High EI Conversations).

I am grateful for this week's insights because I think they are going to serve me well in the coming years, both at work and at home. More that that, they are going to serve others well, my wife and family included. Sorry if I gave you a hard time, honey. :) 

Further Reading:

• https://www.eiq-2.com/index.php/resources
• https://www.movethisworld.com/category-sel-state-standards/summer-2021-sel-legislation-updates/
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/12/17/why-socialemotional-learning-isnt-enough/
• https://www.moe.gov.sg/education-in-sg/our-programmes/social-and-emotional-learning 
• https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277569050_Resonance_in_conversational_second_stories_A_dialogic_resource_for_stance_taking
• https://www.researchgate.net/publication/354248238_Resonance_in_dialogue_The_interplay_between_intersubjective_motivations_and_cognitive_facilitation

Possible, Plausible, Probable

The area in which I need the most growth is delegation. I am fortunate. I have a partner and employee who can support our work. However, we are pretty much day-to-day right now. I have a long term vision, but I am trying to navigate us muscling through immediate and urgent needs. And each day seems to bring new unforeseen challenges. No doubt some of these items can alter: I got a message from a colleague today with a plan to do a workaround that could buy us weeks of time to prepare for digital onboarding of our instructional systems. The key is to constantly assess and evaluate and prioritize, but do so within the context of a larger plan and goals. I think the next step that our team is ready for is for me to share my formal and linear prep document that I share with my direct supervisor which I have been working on for weeks. It serves for me as a model of the process. Going from good to great happens by parts and in phases. It is iterative. There is a constant reflective process where the frontier space is experienced as fresh and exciting along the way. This kind of positivity can only be found if we have the faith to move forward, step by step, in that what we need to accomplish is possible, plausible, probable.

https://www.calendar.com/blog/how-to-catch-up-on-work-when-youre-behind/#:~:text=Take%20a%20short%20break%20of,you%20can't%20figure%20out. 

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2021/08/18/falling-behind-on-work-take-these-steps-to-get-back-on-track/?sh=5cda4c2434be

Find the Easy Best Way

I've been working hard to understand the best way to move forward with the dashboarding for the E-Team. And it must not be overlooked, that when you resolve the best way, you must also then search out the easiest way. It is possible to build out a beautiful dashboarding system in Tableau, however, doing so would necessitate sluggishness on making updates. In addition, I am still very novice in Tableau dashboarding. The path that allows for the most flexibility in dashboard development is a simple spreadsheet dashboard system. While we are making our Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), resolving our Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and aligning our strategic plan in conjunction with Attuned, I became more and more convicted that a spreadsheet system will be the most effective in that it is easily manipulable and can still making beautiful and simple visualizations. It may be that the year to year ETeam dashboarding is always maintained at spreadsheet level to allow for quarter by quarter updating of our OKRs to ensure we are making good on our mission and vision. This strategy also fits well within my burgeoning framework of lessening time spent on systems training by using Google native systems.

"Choose a Lazy Person To Do a Hard Job Because That Person Will Find an Easy Way To Do It" ~Bill Gates

 https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/15/the-science-backed-reason-lazy-people-are-smarter-more-successful-and-better-employees.html 

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/02/26/lazy-job/

Persuasion -> Commitment -> Persistence -> Determination

I began the week thinking about commitment, how you have to be committed if you are going to accomplish anything meaningful. But then I began to think about, "well, what comes before commitment… and what comes after". As I thought it through and did a little web searching, I arrived at the above continuum, if it could be called such a thing. The critical piece for me in supporting Jeannine, and the larger team, is what order do I install systems that keep us unflaggingly pursuant of our collective vision. In other words, what systems keep us on mission?

 

Of course, this has me thinking about all manner of efficiency, from "ways of work" inherent to the KIPP ways of doing things (O3, Relay Protocols, Tableau, etc), to the more high level mechanisms of collaboration like Gantt Charts, Naming Conventions, and Documentation. 

 

The tricky thing is that these high level systems must be established while we are in the weeds. I have to work toward getting a comprehensive data compliance calendar while right now chasing down meeting deadlines I am unaware of. Chief Brooks, in a nod to an esteemed colleague, said, "he's on the dance floor, he's on the balcony, and he's in the airplane above." And thus I fit determination into another framework, yet to be named, but clearly less horizontal… more VERTICAL!

 

• https://www.facebook.com/TonyRobbins/photos/a.444057769059/10159422772239060/?type=3&source=57&_rdr

• https://www.terrylige.com/relationship/commitment-and-determination/

• https://effectivelearning.com/product/commitment-persistence/

• https://habio.app/blog/determination-for-success

• https://www.tomorrowsuccess.com/determination.html

Update: so that I knew I was on the right track with this post, Sadie and I opened a fortune cookie and the fortune read as follows:

Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

Of course, I had to look up the source of this most excellent fortune (theologically innacurate though it may be). Google's top and featured hit was the following:

https://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2015/06/14/persistence-determination-alone-omnipotent/71093228/

Take a look at the screenshot. To egg me further on, as if I needed that, the article was written for the Tennessean!

If that is not persuasive, I don't know what is!!

Overwhelmed People Overwhelm People

This Saturday morning as I'm cranking through emails and trying to do my best to be productive and get through the mound of emails I had, I got an email from my supervisor that I'm sending too many emails and that it's difficult to sort through all the information. She also sent me a "stop it and this is the last time I'm warning you email", which, of course, did not feel good. So, I paused and reflected. In honor of the 5 whys I figured I'd give it a go here:

Problem: People are confused with all of the information coming at them from varied sources

why: the information often comes without enough context, or with context that is difficult to navigate in a thread

why: the time isn't taken to organize the information by priority and context

why: there is a lot of work to do, and in order to get things off of the plate and into the realm of visibility for others to process, the expedient approach is taken

why: because I feel responsibility to keep all the things moving forward

why: because I feel that my value is wrapped up in keeping all the things moving forward. 

So, as I run through this root cause analysis, I feel that in order to be worth the money paying for me, I have to keep the engine sizzling. But if it really comes down to a value assessment of myself, then I have to re-evaluate my strategy. Sure, I am valuable if I am able to get things accomplished, however, if things are unclear or others are disgruntled, there are ways that I am working against myself and the organization. 

I know that I have to take more time to come up with a strategic plan, but it's hard to find the time to do that, and it's hard to know all the things that should be in the strategic plan when I'm still learning the things that would go into the strategic plan. What I'm going to make a point of doing from here is using my strategy document and refining according to priorities, making sure those priorities are also organizational priorities, and not just the priorities I think the organization should have. That is the way that I am working against myself. Once I've accomplished dutifully the items that organization needs me to accomplish, and have done it well, thereafter I'll be extended trust to accomplish the items that I think are the most important for us to move forward. 

There's a few captures I wanted to include for this blog. It's kind of a call and response of axioms:

Overwhelmed people overwhelm people. Pause and reflect.

Haste makes waste. Slow is smooth, smooth is steady, steady is fast. 

And here's some extra reading:

https://psychcentral.com/blog/5-tips-for-highly-sensitive-people-in-navigating-overwhelm#1 

A Face with a Name: The Power of Recorded Video to Personalize Audience Experience

The pandemic has taught us that we can be flexible with structures for learning. The situation we are currently resolving is balancing the best widely accessible technology offered with a sentiment of "getting back to normal". A path must be created from now to the future. 

One path forward into the future domain is the simple use of video and audio. These devices can be deployed for asynchronous use, yet embody a human who invested care and time to produce them for their end users. To demonstrate the power and current utility of such a device, consider that YouTube is the 2nd most visited site on the planet behind Google. 

Services such as recording a Google Meet or using Loom (owned by Google) allow for the recording of a person to give feedback in a more human and engaging way. Consider that Google has integrated Loom for recording video into Google Chrome and Gmail, illustrating that Google is fortifying a need for users to be able to connect with audience in a way that is both personal and present. The written word, I would say, is more general and timeless, if such a scale existed. 

We often hear about the power of bringing a face with the name, which I think illustrates the power of using video (face) in conjunction with the written word (name) as an integral part of collaboration. To push the conversation into the teaching and learning domain, consider that OneNote, Google Classroom, FlipGrid and a growing amount of Learning Management Systems and Tools incorporate processes to video feedback. 

As we think about what personalization means to our students, we will find ourselves getting more personal with our own content and paths of content delivery because the technology now exists to do so.