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| The mural: perfect image of Father and Son mushroom hunting |
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| Nonu riding his bike |
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| Fernando with his father before leaving Italy |
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| Anthony tending the garden. |
Monday, September 08, 2014
The Maestrini Garden
Sunday, July 20, 2014
Last Remnants
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| Location: Gee Point, Finney Peak, Deepest of Deep Skagit |
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| Shaking off |
Gee Point on Finney Peak requires 17 miles of driving on windy forest roads once off another windy road that bends over with one of the most picturesque views of the deep green of the Skagit River. The hike is short in comparison to the drive, but requires bushwhacking before one reaches old growth.
The high mountain forest on the way to Cow Heaven is attained by hiking up 4000 feet over 5 miles or so. Remote, out of the way, it seems forgotten.
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| Cow Heaven isn't far from the highway or the Skagit River but requires hiking up 4000 vertical feet over 5 miles or so. |
Saturday, May 10, 2014
The Days Between: For the Best Fishermom I Know
There were days in between.
There were days days between the day when I uttered my first word--"Bird"--and the day when she and I found the mouth of the Elwah and saw a great blue heron much larger than the smaller version of myself.
There were days between the day she got me dressed and ready for my first day of kindergarten and the day she tried to give me some final pointers before I left home for college.
There were days between all those days when I went from being a boy to becoming a man.
She gave all she had to give to me. How much I'll never really know.
There were days in between and those were the ones that mattered. All she did was help me grow, grow, grow.
There were days between the day when she pulled the hook out of the first fish I ever caught and the day when I caught my first lunker.
There were days in between the day when she put a band-aid on my first scrape and the day when she pulled a hook embedded in my neck by the wind and my poor casting skills.
There were days in between the day when she caught her first steelhead and the day when we first cast our lines together in the waters of Alaska.
There were days in between when she taught me all about fishing, which is essentially life, an eternal quest in nature for something greater than ourselves, for finding illumination in God's light, for a search for answers in deep, dark holes and the joy of coming out enlightened or just the joy in the search. She was there during the days in between all of those answers, which were just more questions. But her example was what guided me.
She was there during all the days in between. And that's what mattered.
There were days in between the day when she brought me into this world and the day I realized that she is the best fishermom I know.
There were days in between when all she did was help me grow, grow grow. I took my first steps thanks to her. My fishermom watched over me while I learned the music and the lyrics to the song. I've seen many worlds since then. I've seen many worlds since when I first left home. But I always love coming home to my fishermom.
Sunday, May 04, 2014
Growing up with the Dead
Since my wonderful first experience with Brahms
at age four, I've found music to be, among many other things,
a safety net, a lifeline that remains constant
when all other mental constructs
are in total Heraclitean flux.
Phil Lesh, bassist, Grateful Dead
This is who I am.
Every thing makes sense now. After reading Phil Lesh's biography Searching for the Sound I felt like I was hanging out with a version of my childhood buddies and myself, just from a time 30 years before my childhood.
Like Lesh, I was raised on classical music and then I became entranced with Jazz and then rock n' roll. Kind of the backwards route for most people.
I love how Lesh describes his first encounter with music and his earliest memory. Brahms. First Symphony. Age 4. I, too, remember when I first "discovered" music. KKHI, the Bay Area's great classical music station in the seventies and eighties, had this Sunday afternoon opera show. My parents had KKHI on 24/7 growing up and I remember this opera show's opening tune blended perfectly with the idyllic backyard patio I grew up knowing in Menlo Park.
Menlo Park, my hometown, is really the birthplace of the Dead, though usually it's Palo Alto that takes the credit because it has a strong claim, too.
Jerry and Phil, cornerstones of the Dead, met up in Menlo Park, at the Chateau, Ken Kesey's house, somewhere near my local drinking hole the Dutch Goose. The Dead's first gig, at Magoo's Pizza, 635 Santa Cruz Avenue, which is now a fancy French restaurant, is where the band discovered the wonderful power of improvisational music. Early folk gigs and meet-ups among the band and Jerry's other folkie friends took place at Kepler's, which is still in Menlo Park but moved across the street, and was a place where you could drink coffee and read books, quite a novelty at the time.
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| So glad that there was another band called the Warlocks, so the Dead could come up with a much better name. The centuries old Grateful Dead myth is the essence of the band, their community, and is a good rule to live by. |
After their beginnings in Menlo Park and Palo Alto, the Dead became the greatest touring improvisatory band in the history of music blending so many influences (folk, blues, country, jazz, rock, avant garde classical) into one collective and totally unique American experience. They really are an American Beauty.
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| Dead, circa 1965. |
The Dead were 5 non-prodigies. I only trust musicians who are ugly and the Dead were five of the ugliest (in physical appearance) that ever existed. Just think. Pigpen. Organically greasy. I love Lesh's side note on how he never saw Pigpen without his leather vest which was glued onto him. Jerry was the only member of the Dead who exhibited any extraordinary talent, but even his talent was of the kind that is purely from working hard, literally practicing every waking hour of the day his banjo, guitar and pedal steel. Nobody practiced as hard as Garcia in the 60s and 70s.
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| Pigpen, one of the ugliest dudes ever. Which is why I trust him as a musician. |
Music, for me, is all about contrast and compliment. Tension and release. These are the 2 big laws of music. And those are the rules that guide the Dead. Build tension, epic tension, and then find beauty in the release. Contrast--Jerry's guitar and Phil's bass were like a Bach counterpoint, contrasting but fitting together in a sort of puzzle, with Weir complimenting and filling the in between sounds.
The show that most impressed Lesh was seeing John Coltrane in a small San Francisco club. Oh how I wish I could take a time capsule to go see Trane, particularly in '59 with Miles, or the Classic Coltrane Quartet in the glory years '64-'65. I'd also of course love to take a time capsule to see the Dead in their most classic shows (2-14-68, 2-13-70, 5-2-70, 8-27-72, 9-21-72, 12-19-73). Oh my! That's all I'd do with a time capsule. That and maybe talk to Lincoln.
Lesh talks about how Coltrane's version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "My Favorite Things" was one of the blueprints for the Dead. Listening to Coltrane's version of "My Favorite Things" was a moment when music changed for me, too. It really is the quintessential essence of Jazz. Taking a standard and making it completely unique is what Jazz is and what the Dead did so well.
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| Jerry in the early days playing pedal steel guitar with David Nelson and the New Riders of the Purple Sage |
Reading the book was like being in a conversation with my childhood buddies. Lesh has been a musician I've worshiped my entire life. Not worship in an untouchable Jimi Hendrix or Mozart kind of way. Those guys were superhuman meteors and not really of this earth. But worship in the sense that "If I could play bass, this is how I'd play" kind of way. Lesh seems approachable. I try to play my bari sax with a lot of the same influences that Lesh had (from Stravinsky to Coltrane).
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| Note the Red, White and Blue wristbands. That's my workout gear, too. |
The Dead led me to discover Johnny Cash long before he became re-popularized with the movie and the recordings he did in his twilight years with Rick Rubin. Also Chuck Berry--not many kids my age were listening to Chuck Berry, who just about smokes any of the music being made nowadays. Lesh also brings influences from the world of classical like Charles Ives or Brahms. Which brings up 3 wonderful anecdotes Lesh tells about Jerry:
1) Lesh was invited to be a guest conductor for the Berkeley Community Orchestra conducting Stravinsky's Rite of Spring as a benefit. It was in the later years when the band had grown apart and wasn't spending as much time together when they weren't on the road. Lesh didn't tell anybody in the band, thinking none of the guys would show up anyways. But who does he see in the front row when he goes to conduct but his best buddy Jerry. Surprise! It took Lesh aback when Jerry later brought some paintings of him conducting.
2) Lesh tells another story of how he rented a box at the San Francisco Opera for Wagner's Ring Cycle, some 24 hours of German opera. He invited the band. The only member to come for more than 2 nights was Jerry, who came all nights except for the last one, because he had promised to take his teenage daughter to see the Phil Collins concert. It's a pretty funny mental image to imagine Jerry at either a Wagner opera or a Phil Collins concert and it makes me howl out loud laughing to think about.
3) SCUBA diving--Apparently Jerry found peace from all the pressures of being a cultural icon by going SCUBA diving. Phil was always afraid of activities like that but Jerry insisted he come with him. And Phil describes just how happy it made Jerry to be under water. One more anecdote just to close it up: Jerry loved water and Phil describes coming to his house and watching Jerry just swim with his giant New Foundlands in his pool. Lesh describes the immense closet in Jerry's house that is empty except for 8 black t-shirts, the only attire Jerry ever wore.
If anything, Lesh's memoir of playing with the Dead, the greatest touring band of all time, is a story of friendships. Especially, his friendship with Jerry. Although there are some really great anecdotes about Bob Weir and Mickey Hart. That's what it's all about. Traveling with your buddies. Having adventures. Living a dream. Being kind to people in between and making people happy. I have tremendous gratitude for the great work Lesh and his buddies did for the thousands of people they made happy.
.PNG) |
| Always good to see a happy Jerry (and a wild Weir). |
Friday, April 25, 2014
Canonical Business Books: Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People
Like other books I've reviewed in my canonical business books series, Dale Carnegie's absolutely classic How to Win Friends and Influence People is not just a business book or a Success Literature book or a self-help book but a book that can help us make it through this crazy thing we call life. It serves as a lesson on how to be happy and teaches us probably the hardest skill to learn or master: how to deal with people.
I use the phrase "deal with" because a lot of times that's what making it through life is: dealing with people, managing them, making due with them, putting up with them, sharing a world with them. It's not easy.
When I was working on my PhD, my Colombian roommate and I had a saying: "Coño, no es fácil," which loosely translates to "Damn, it's not easy." The schoolwork associated with the PhD wasn't that easy, but what was really difficult was dealing with the people. Granted, academics are notoriously arrogant, self-serving, quick to criticize and condemn, and in general are some of the most difficult people one earth to deal with, but even in my life post-academia, there are still not just difficult people to deal with but more poignantly, there are difficult situations in which we have to deal with people.
A survey done at the time of Carnegie's writing (book was first published in 1936) revealed that the prime interest of adults is health. Their second greatest interest was in developing skills in human relationships.Carnegie wasn't just a great public speaker. His main job was to help people conquer their fears and develop courage.
Carnegie's book revolves around a concept that Stephen Covey later borrowed and expanded upon in his canonical book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (see my review here). The principle: Seek first to understand... then to be understood. This habit is about Empathic listening: rephrase content and reflect the feeling. This emphatic listening is also worth keeping in mind for public speaking. The basic principles of public speaking, which is essentially storytelling, are ethos-pathos-logos. Ethos is gaining credibility with the audience through integrity. Pathos is feeling the thrust of what is going on with the audience. Logos is the logic and analysis. Too often we start with logos. We need to first gain credibility by understanding our audience, then feel what they say, and then and only then seek to be understood. Don't bother speaking until you can rephrase your interlocutor's argument in your own words.
The quote that got me to read Carnegie's book is one from Benjamin Franklin who said: "A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still." Read that quote again. And think about it. In an age of so called Big Data, it's important to remember that data, facts and logic are not the key to the mind. In other words, you can't use facts to change a belief. The keys to the mind are metaphors, which connect the unfamiliar to the familiar. The symbolism in metaphors makes us connect at a deeper level. Understanding what is familiar and then presenting it in new ways is one of the most powerful ways to unlock the door to somebody's mind so that they can understand your point of view. Opinion pieces that try too hard to drive home a point will be derided for what they are: one-sided sledgehammers.
Let's start with Carnegie's suggested 6 ways to make people like you:
1) Become genuinely interested in other people.
2) Smile.
3) Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
4) Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
5) Talk in terms of other person's interests.
6) Make the other person feel important--and do it sincerely.
Here's another key topic:
How to keep a disagreement from escalating to an argument.
1) Welcome the disagreement. Remember: "When two partners always agree, one of them is not necessary." Disagreement is the opportunity to be corrected before a serious mistake.
2) Distrust your instinctive impression (to be defensive).
3) Control your temper. You can measure the size of a person by what makes him or her angry.
4) Listen first. Remember: Seek first to understand...then to be understood.
5) Look for areas of agreement.
6) Be honest. Admit errors.
7 Thank your opponents for their interest. Those who disagree with you also must have an interest in what you're arguing about.
8) Postpone action to give both sides time to think through the problem.
Win people to your way of thinking:
1) The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
2) Show respect for the other person's opinions. Never say, "You're wrong."
3) If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
4) Begin in a friendly way.
5) Get the other person saying "yes, yes" immediately.
6) Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
7) Let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers.
8) Try honestly to see things from the other person's point of view.
9) Be sympathetic with the other person's ideas and desires.
10) Appeal to the nobler motives.
11) Dramatize your ideas.
12) Throw down a challenge.
Be a Leader: A leader's job includes changing your people's attitudes and behavior. Here's how to do that:
1) Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
2) Call attention to people's mistakes indirectly.
3) Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.
4) Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
5) Let the other person save face.
6) Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be "hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise."
7) Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
8) Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
9) Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest.
Keys to Life!
I use the phrase "deal with" because a lot of times that's what making it through life is: dealing with people, managing them, making due with them, putting up with them, sharing a world with them. It's not easy.
When I was working on my PhD, my Colombian roommate and I had a saying: "Coño, no es fácil," which loosely translates to "Damn, it's not easy." The schoolwork associated with the PhD wasn't that easy, but what was really difficult was dealing with the people. Granted, academics are notoriously arrogant, self-serving, quick to criticize and condemn, and in general are some of the most difficult people one earth to deal with, but even in my life post-academia, there are still not just difficult people to deal with but more poignantly, there are difficult situations in which we have to deal with people.
A survey done at the time of Carnegie's writing (book was first published in 1936) revealed that the prime interest of adults is health. Their second greatest interest was in developing skills in human relationships.Carnegie wasn't just a great public speaker. His main job was to help people conquer their fears and develop courage.
Carnegie's book revolves around a concept that Stephen Covey later borrowed and expanded upon in his canonical book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (see my review here). The principle: Seek first to understand... then to be understood. This habit is about Empathic listening: rephrase content and reflect the feeling. This emphatic listening is also worth keeping in mind for public speaking. The basic principles of public speaking, which is essentially storytelling, are ethos-pathos-logos. Ethos is gaining credibility with the audience through integrity. Pathos is feeling the thrust of what is going on with the audience. Logos is the logic and analysis. Too often we start with logos. We need to first gain credibility by understanding our audience, then feel what they say, and then and only then seek to be understood. Don't bother speaking until you can rephrase your interlocutor's argument in your own words.
The quote that got me to read Carnegie's book is one from Benjamin Franklin who said: "A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still." Read that quote again. And think about it. In an age of so called Big Data, it's important to remember that data, facts and logic are not the key to the mind. In other words, you can't use facts to change a belief. The keys to the mind are metaphors, which connect the unfamiliar to the familiar. The symbolism in metaphors makes us connect at a deeper level. Understanding what is familiar and then presenting it in new ways is one of the most powerful ways to unlock the door to somebody's mind so that they can understand your point of view. Opinion pieces that try too hard to drive home a point will be derided for what they are: one-sided sledgehammers.
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| Classic! |
Let's start with Carnegie's suggested 6 ways to make people like you:
1) Become genuinely interested in other people.
2) Smile.
3) Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
4) Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
5) Talk in terms of other person's interests.
6) Make the other person feel important--and do it sincerely.
Here's another key topic:
How to keep a disagreement from escalating to an argument.
1) Welcome the disagreement. Remember: "When two partners always agree, one of them is not necessary." Disagreement is the opportunity to be corrected before a serious mistake.
2) Distrust your instinctive impression (to be defensive).
3) Control your temper. You can measure the size of a person by what makes him or her angry.
4) Listen first. Remember: Seek first to understand...then to be understood.
5) Look for areas of agreement.
6) Be honest. Admit errors.
7 Thank your opponents for their interest. Those who disagree with you also must have an interest in what you're arguing about.
8) Postpone action to give both sides time to think through the problem.
Win people to your way of thinking:
1) The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
2) Show respect for the other person's opinions. Never say, "You're wrong."
3) If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
4) Begin in a friendly way.
5) Get the other person saying "yes, yes" immediately.
6) Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
7) Let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers.
8) Try honestly to see things from the other person's point of view.
9) Be sympathetic with the other person's ideas and desires.
10) Appeal to the nobler motives.
11) Dramatize your ideas.
12) Throw down a challenge.
Be a Leader: A leader's job includes changing your people's attitudes and behavior. Here's how to do that:
1) Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
2) Call attention to people's mistakes indirectly.
3) Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.
4) Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
5) Let the other person save face.
6) Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be "hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise."
7) Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
8) Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
9) Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest.
Keys to Life!
Thursday, April 17, 2014
#TBT to 1996: Steelhead on the Sol Duc
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| 17-pound steelhead on the Sol Duc River |
We were with a guide we had met while fishing in Alaska and had fished for 2 days completely skunked. Though he was a great guide who knew the rivers well and tied creative flies for a range of conditions, steelhead fishing is like that. Cold, wet and a very low strike per cast ratio.
Late in the afternoon on the last day of our float down the Sol Duc River I casted near a big rock and a powerful undercurrent not far from a bridge that Highway 101 goes over. The same 101 that speeds through the Silicon Valley of the Bay Area where I am from. This other version of 101, going over the Sol Duc, not far from the Forks of Twilight fame and western red cedars as thick as suburban houses was a lot different. Logging trucks rumbled by.
I felt a large tug. Oh the jolt of adrenaline! The reel on my rod was spinning so fast I thought I saw smoke come off it. I held on for dear life. Our guide edged his MacKenzie River boat to shore. I stepped out of the boat and worked the fish which had jumped several times doing cartwheels but wasn't the most acrobatic fish I've ever caught. After a while he slowed down and we netted him by the side of the river. It was probably the biggest smile we'd seen from our guide and probably the first he'd shown in a long time. You can see him beaming in the picture.
A 17-pound buck. The moment cemented in history was a turning point. A few years later, my parents retired and moved out to Port Angeles, where they have lived for almost 15 years. I'm not too far away in Bellingham, which is less than 100 miles away by how the crow flies but is easily 4 hours by car. It takes so long because of the crazy topography and the necessity of getting a ferry to the Peninsula. It's a strange and beautiful part of the world. Rugged, green and wet. The fish was almost a moment that retired me from fishing. How can you beat a 17-pound steelhead on a fly rod?
Saturday, April 05, 2014
Canonical Business Books: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Steven R. Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is a canonical book and not just a must-read for business people or people wanting to be effective, but I'd say it's a must-read for just about anybody trying to make it through life. And I wish somebody made me read it when I was 19. Although, when I was 19, I probably would have ignored all of Covey's advice.
Before I delve into the 7 Habits, it's important to point out the background for this sort of book. Covey starts by tracing out the history of a genre that he calls Success Literature, which is a complicated way of saying that it's a self-help book, but I like the attempts at literary analysis. During the first 150 years of American history, Success Literature focuses on what Covey calls the Character Ethic. The foundation of success for those Americans was based on things like "integrity, humility, fidelity, temperance, courage, justice, patience, industry, simplicity, modesty, and the Golden Rule. Benjamin Franklin's autobiography is representative of that literature. It is, basically, the story of one man's effort to integrate certain principles and habits deep within his nature. The Character Ethic taught that there are basic principles of effective living, and that people can only experience true success and enduring happiness as they learn and integrate these principles into their basic character."
But then we Americans experienced a change in our definition of success. Sometime "shortly after World War I the basic view of success shifted from the Character Ethic to what we might call the Personality Ethic. Success became more a function of personality, of public image, of attitudes and behaviors, skills and techniques, that lubricate the processes of human interaction. This Personality Ethic essentially took two paths; one was human and public relations techniques, and the other was positive mental attitude (PMA). Some of this philosophy was expressed in inspiring and sometimes valid maxims, such as 'Your attitude determines your altitude,' 'Smiling wins more friends than frowning.' Other parts of the personality approach were clearly manipulative, even deceptive, encouraging people to use techniques to get other people to like them, or to fake interest in the hobbies of others to get out of them what they wanted..."
Emphasis for the Personality Ethic is on the "quick-fix influence techniques, power strategies," which is one reason I didn't want to read Covey's book. That superficial, manipulative quick-fix stuff is pretty antithetical to my nature, and I thought that his book would have preached that sort of stuff. Quick-fix, a me-centric approach to achieve what we think is good only for us, is why we're in some of the predicaments we are in now as a society and explain why we need help. It can safely be said that Covey's book is not quick-fix nor "Personality Ethic." It's principle-centered and hearkens to the Character Ethic and worthy of reflection.
I started to really appreciate 7 Habits when I got to Covey's definition of integrity: If Honesty is conforming your words to reality, Integrity is conforming reality to your words. One other important principle that is part of integrity is "being loyal to those who are not present." "When you defend those who are absent, you retain the trust of those present." This little detail is a very hard one to understand and live by. We all fail at it. It's amazing how you can lose trust from those present by speaking ill of those not around. It's important to remember that to be trusted is greater than to be loved. People will forgive mistakes of the mind, judgement, but not mistakes of the heart.
7 Habits is a book to re-visit. Everything Covey preaches boils down to some very basic biblical principles (although they exist in all other great religious texts and mythologies): The Golden Rule and the idea that You reap what you sow. These principles are part of the human condition. So basic and easy to understand, but so difficult to live by.
Another concept, easy to understand yet hard to live by, is Covey's definition of Emotional Maturity, which he sees as "the ability to express one's own feelings and convictions with consideration for the thoughts and feelings of others." It's easy to blurt out ideas, but ideas only have meaning when we understand what those present are really thinking and feeling.
Most of Covey's metaphors work but they're corny. For example, Covey talks about the emotional bank accounts we have with people and how we make deposits and withdrawals: "When we make deposits of unconditional love, when we live the primary laws of love, we encourage others to live the primary laws of life. In other words, when we truly love others without condition, without strings, we help them feel secure and safe and validated and affirmed in their essential worth, identity, and integrity."
Most of Covey's principles come down to the balance of what he refers to as P/PC. Production/Production Capability. In fact, all of our interactions with our fellow humans should have at their essence this principle: Just because we can get something out of somebody doesn't mean that we should. We don't want to burn bridges just for a short-term goal. He offers the parable of the Goose who lays golden eggs. You don't want to kill the goose who lays golden eggs just to get all the golden eggs out of her. It never works. At least in the long term.
When I see a business book with this sort of title, my reaction is: Just tell me the 7 habits and let's not go through the 300 pages of pontificating about those 7 habits. (See my previous post on another Canonical Business Book). As if the 7 habits alone would make a huge difference. Possibly they might, but certainly in the case of Covey's book it helps to have his explanations. They only become useful when read about in context. But I'll try to summarize.
Here are the 7 Habits:
1: Be proactive. Happiness is within and we don't have to let our surroundings dictate it. Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions.
2: Begin with the End in Mind. Start with a goal. This is a Leadership-oriented habit. Like all leadership habits, it's much easier said than done.
3: Put First Things First. Become principle-oriented rather than values-driven. Everybody has values, even a gang member in South Central, but it's difficult to live by your principles. Base your decisions on principles. The 7 habits are good principles with which to start. This is a Management-oriented habit.
4: Think win/win. This expression has now become part of our daily lexicon. In our everyday business, we have to agree to communicate until we find a solution upon which the stakeholders can live with.
5: Seek first to understand... then to be understood. This habit is about Empathic listening, which is also worth keeping in mind for public speaking. The basic principles of public speaking, which is essentially storytelling, are ethos-pathos-logos. In that order. Ethos is gaining credibility with the audience through integrity. Pathos is feeling the thrust of what is going on with the audience. Logos is the logic and analysis. Too often we start with logos. We need to first gain credibility by understanding our audience, then feel what they feel, and then and only then seek to be understood. Don't bother speaking until you can rephrase your interlocutor's argument in your own words.
6: Synergize. Closely related to Habit 4. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts is the starting point for any great organization. As a musician and a fan of sports, I see this habit as essential to any great team or band. Great bands aren't made of prima donna virtuosos; they're made of people who realize that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
7: Sharpen the saw. Put all the Habits together and practice, but also bearing in mind our basic food. Our basic food is based on 4 spheres: mental, physical, social and spiritual. We need to keep a balance of these 4 spheres and practice them at least every week but ideally every day.
This is how I sharpen the saw, but it's up to each of us to define it in our own way:
Mental: Read ~200 pages a week. Right now, I'm reading Doris Kearns Goodwin's The Bully Pulpit: Roosevelt, Taft and the Golden Age of Journalism.
Physical: I work out with a former NFL Pro Bowler 3 times a week doing football workouts. Would like to get back into swimming because my knees are destroyed from running.
Social: Need to do this better. It's about service. I used to bring my dog to have kids read to him at the Boys & Girls Club but don't have time now.
Spiritual: Spend at least once a week in Nature and listen to great music.Try to read the New Testament in Spanish every once in a while, too, but most great books tap into the spirit. The Bible has stories that provide an outline, but rarely if ever do stories in the Bible provide the interior thoughts, motivations, and other complexities of its characters. Great literature fills in these voids to help elucidate the human condition.
Sharpen the saw. Practice. Repeat.
In many ways, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is poorly titled. What Covey teaches us is how to be happy. Because we're Americans and we're sometimes slaves to overworking ourselves, we confuse being effective and successful with being happy. They're 2 separate things, though clearly related and certainly more so in this country, where we have a more material definition of happiness. It also depends on how we define success and happiness. I'm not sure it's entirely a causal relationship. Those who practice these 7 habits will be more effective but also happier. People who practice these 7 habits with their families and friends will definitely be happier, but they don't necessarily have to be particularly effective or successful in their jobs.
Either way, the book's worth a look and worthy of being deemed Canonical. And the 7 habits all require practicing every day.
Before I delve into the 7 Habits, it's important to point out the background for this sort of book. Covey starts by tracing out the history of a genre that he calls Success Literature, which is a complicated way of saying that it's a self-help book, but I like the attempts at literary analysis. During the first 150 years of American history, Success Literature focuses on what Covey calls the Character Ethic. The foundation of success for those Americans was based on things like "integrity, humility, fidelity, temperance, courage, justice, patience, industry, simplicity, modesty, and the Golden Rule. Benjamin Franklin's autobiography is representative of that literature. It is, basically, the story of one man's effort to integrate certain principles and habits deep within his nature. The Character Ethic taught that there are basic principles of effective living, and that people can only experience true success and enduring happiness as they learn and integrate these principles into their basic character."
But then we Americans experienced a change in our definition of success. Sometime "shortly after World War I the basic view of success shifted from the Character Ethic to what we might call the Personality Ethic. Success became more a function of personality, of public image, of attitudes and behaviors, skills and techniques, that lubricate the processes of human interaction. This Personality Ethic essentially took two paths; one was human and public relations techniques, and the other was positive mental attitude (PMA). Some of this philosophy was expressed in inspiring and sometimes valid maxims, such as 'Your attitude determines your altitude,' 'Smiling wins more friends than frowning.' Other parts of the personality approach were clearly manipulative, even deceptive, encouraging people to use techniques to get other people to like them, or to fake interest in the hobbies of others to get out of them what they wanted..."
Emphasis for the Personality Ethic is on the "quick-fix influence techniques, power strategies," which is one reason I didn't want to read Covey's book. That superficial, manipulative quick-fix stuff is pretty antithetical to my nature, and I thought that his book would have preached that sort of stuff. Quick-fix, a me-centric approach to achieve what we think is good only for us, is why we're in some of the predicaments we are in now as a society and explain why we need help. It can safely be said that Covey's book is not quick-fix nor "Personality Ethic." It's principle-centered and hearkens to the Character Ethic and worthy of reflection.
I started to really appreciate 7 Habits when I got to Covey's definition of integrity: If Honesty is conforming your words to reality, Integrity is conforming reality to your words. One other important principle that is part of integrity is "being loyal to those who are not present." "When you defend those who are absent, you retain the trust of those present." This little detail is a very hard one to understand and live by. We all fail at it. It's amazing how you can lose trust from those present by speaking ill of those not around. It's important to remember that to be trusted is greater than to be loved. People will forgive mistakes of the mind, judgement, but not mistakes of the heart.
7 Habits is a book to re-visit. Everything Covey preaches boils down to some very basic biblical principles (although they exist in all other great religious texts and mythologies): The Golden Rule and the idea that You reap what you sow. These principles are part of the human condition. So basic and easy to understand, but so difficult to live by.
Another concept, easy to understand yet hard to live by, is Covey's definition of Emotional Maturity, which he sees as "the ability to express one's own feelings and convictions with consideration for the thoughts and feelings of others." It's easy to blurt out ideas, but ideas only have meaning when we understand what those present are really thinking and feeling.
Most of Covey's metaphors work but they're corny. For example, Covey talks about the emotional bank accounts we have with people and how we make deposits and withdrawals: "When we make deposits of unconditional love, when we live the primary laws of love, we encourage others to live the primary laws of life. In other words, when we truly love others without condition, without strings, we help them feel secure and safe and validated and affirmed in their essential worth, identity, and integrity."
Most of Covey's principles come down to the balance of what he refers to as P/PC. Production/Production Capability. In fact, all of our interactions with our fellow humans should have at their essence this principle: Just because we can get something out of somebody doesn't mean that we should. We don't want to burn bridges just for a short-term goal. He offers the parable of the Goose who lays golden eggs. You don't want to kill the goose who lays golden eggs just to get all the golden eggs out of her. It never works. At least in the long term.
When I see a business book with this sort of title, my reaction is: Just tell me the 7 habits and let's not go through the 300 pages of pontificating about those 7 habits. (See my previous post on another Canonical Business Book). As if the 7 habits alone would make a huge difference. Possibly they might, but certainly in the case of Covey's book it helps to have his explanations. They only become useful when read about in context. But I'll try to summarize.
Here are the 7 Habits:
1: Be proactive. Happiness is within and we don't have to let our surroundings dictate it. Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions.
2: Begin with the End in Mind. Start with a goal. This is a Leadership-oriented habit. Like all leadership habits, it's much easier said than done.
3: Put First Things First. Become principle-oriented rather than values-driven. Everybody has values, even a gang member in South Central, but it's difficult to live by your principles. Base your decisions on principles. The 7 habits are good principles with which to start. This is a Management-oriented habit.
4: Think win/win. This expression has now become part of our daily lexicon. In our everyday business, we have to agree to communicate until we find a solution upon which the stakeholders can live with.
5: Seek first to understand... then to be understood. This habit is about Empathic listening, which is also worth keeping in mind for public speaking. The basic principles of public speaking, which is essentially storytelling, are ethos-pathos-logos. In that order. Ethos is gaining credibility with the audience through integrity. Pathos is feeling the thrust of what is going on with the audience. Logos is the logic and analysis. Too often we start with logos. We need to first gain credibility by understanding our audience, then feel what they feel, and then and only then seek to be understood. Don't bother speaking until you can rephrase your interlocutor's argument in your own words.
6: Synergize. Closely related to Habit 4. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts is the starting point for any great organization. As a musician and a fan of sports, I see this habit as essential to any great team or band. Great bands aren't made of prima donna virtuosos; they're made of people who realize that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
7: Sharpen the saw. Put all the Habits together and practice, but also bearing in mind our basic food. Our basic food is based on 4 spheres: mental, physical, social and spiritual. We need to keep a balance of these 4 spheres and practice them at least every week but ideally every day.
This is how I sharpen the saw, but it's up to each of us to define it in our own way:
Mental: Read ~200 pages a week. Right now, I'm reading Doris Kearns Goodwin's The Bully Pulpit: Roosevelt, Taft and the Golden Age of Journalism.
Physical: I work out with a former NFL Pro Bowler 3 times a week doing football workouts. Would like to get back into swimming because my knees are destroyed from running.
Social: Need to do this better. It's about service. I used to bring my dog to have kids read to him at the Boys & Girls Club but don't have time now.
Spiritual: Spend at least once a week in Nature and listen to great music.Try to read the New Testament in Spanish every once in a while, too, but most great books tap into the spirit. The Bible has stories that provide an outline, but rarely if ever do stories in the Bible provide the interior thoughts, motivations, and other complexities of its characters. Great literature fills in these voids to help elucidate the human condition.
Sharpen the saw. Practice. Repeat.
In many ways, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is poorly titled. What Covey teaches us is how to be happy. Because we're Americans and we're sometimes slaves to overworking ourselves, we confuse being effective and successful with being happy. They're 2 separate things, though clearly related and certainly more so in this country, where we have a more material definition of happiness. It also depends on how we define success and happiness. I'm not sure it's entirely a causal relationship. Those who practice these 7 habits will be more effective but also happier. People who practice these 7 habits with their families and friends will definitely be happier, but they don't necessarily have to be particularly effective or successful in their jobs.
Either way, the book's worth a look and worthy of being deemed Canonical. And the 7 habits all require practicing every day.
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Vijay Iyer and the American Experience
I first discovered Vijay Iyer when I heard an interview he gave on NPR. Well-spoken, interesting and with a captivating story, I then purchased and fell in love with his album Solo which, as its name suggests, features Iyer playing solo piano. The first piece is a cover of Michael Jackson's "Human Nature." It must be said that the first recording I ever bought as a kid was Thriller which I got at Pay-Less when I was about 6 years old. I saved up my quarter a week allowance I got for taking out the trash and think I wore out the cassette playing it on a small tape recorder millions of times. I still think it's one of the best albums of all time, but I don't think I ever really heard "Human Nature" until I heard Vijay Iyer perform it by himself on Solo. It made me go back to the original that I had spent my childhood listening to over and over again without really truly, truly appreciating. Iyer just crushes it.
I then took some time with other Iyer albums that he recorded with his trio like Historicity and Accelerando and Tirtha, recorded with South Asian virtuosos Prasanna and Nitin Mitta. Besides Solo, Accelerando is probably my second favorite Iyer album, but these other albums are also sublime.
Iyer's version of Jazz is extremely percussive. We see music as movement in the way he lays down rhythms. And it's very exciting.
What I like about Iyer, about Jazz in general, is how it's such an American story. The son of parents from India, Vijay was expected to go into maths and sciences. Which he did. And he went really deep. He got his undergrad in Math from Yale, his Masters in Physics from UC Berkeley, where he also got a PhD in Technology and the Arts. Somewhere along the line he departed from Maths and Sciences, though it's not really a departure because his music is so mathematical. Like a series of patterns, each of the rhythms he creates is intricate and precise, syncopation taken to the nth degree. Iyer dissects music with a scientific precision that is still very heartfelt at the same time. His music pulses with life.
As a son of parents from India, Vijay didn't see himself as a Jazz pianist for a very long time. It certainly wasn't expected that a child of Indian parents play Jazz piano. He did start the violin very young at age 3. But for the most part, he became a self-taught pianist. You can hear influences from the Karnatic music from South India in some of his music's mathematical, hypnotic nature. But Vijay's music is decidedly American. Vijay is deeply rooted in the great legacy of American Jazz. He recalls seeing Dizzy Gillespie on Sesame Street as a kid and being influenced by Johnny Costas' piano work on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. He follows in the line of Thelonious Monk with a wonderful Harlem stride piano on his own version of Duke Ellington's "Black and Tan Fantasy." This sort of stuff isn't taught or learned. It's felt. And you can tell Vijay spent a long time just feeling the stride piano and making it his own. Like Monk, who taught himself Harlem stride and put his own unique angular spin on it, Iyer offers a unique angle on stride. Harlem stride is a deceptively rich style that gives performers a lot of leeway to add their own touches. And this version of "Black and Tan Fantasy" is extraordinary and haunting. What a fantastic American composer Ellington was and we gain a new perspective of his work through Iyer's interpretation.
Vijay has truly lived the American experience, the same one I grew up with, having grown up with Star Wars, Michael Jackson, Thelonious Monk, Sesame Street and Mister Rogers. He took that experience, along with his background, and made it his own, which is what the American art experience is all about.
You have to respect Iyer's ability to keep breaking into new territory as he did with Tirtha, playing with tablas and a guitarist, and the trio plays some mesmerizing Eastern tunes in celebration of the 60th anniversary of Indian independence. Iyer's latest effort is Mutations, recorded with strings and electronic instrumentation. And it is even a further departure, sounding like the more rhythmic recordings of Philip Glass, particularly the Kronos Quartet's recording of his work. Mutations isn't for a beginner, but it's daring and captivating.
There's a pervading view in our times that Jazz music is elitist or too intellectual (especially in a country that has turned very anti-intellectual)--I can't claim that I understand this view as I do not share it, but I think Vijay Iyer's music could break this mould if people gave it a chance. Vijay Iyer's music has the potential to be like the music of Duke Ellington's band in the 1940s, the last time in this country when the most popular music was also the best music being produced. I don't think Vijay Iyer will ever sell as many albums as say a Kanye West or a Katy Perry or a Jay-Z, which is fine. His latest work Mutations is certainly no aspiration for the sales numbers those artists have, but if people gave the time to listen to Iyer's version of "Human Nature" or Ellington's "Black and Tan Fantasy," people might give an extra minute or two to listen to Jazz and appreciate it as America's greatest indigenous art form.
I then took some time with other Iyer albums that he recorded with his trio like Historicity and Accelerando and Tirtha, recorded with South Asian virtuosos Prasanna and Nitin Mitta. Besides Solo, Accelerando is probably my second favorite Iyer album, but these other albums are also sublime.
Iyer's version of Jazz is extremely percussive. We see music as movement in the way he lays down rhythms. And it's very exciting.
What I like about Iyer, about Jazz in general, is how it's such an American story. The son of parents from India, Vijay was expected to go into maths and sciences. Which he did. And he went really deep. He got his undergrad in Math from Yale, his Masters in Physics from UC Berkeley, where he also got a PhD in Technology and the Arts. Somewhere along the line he departed from Maths and Sciences, though it's not really a departure because his music is so mathematical. Like a series of patterns, each of the rhythms he creates is intricate and precise, syncopation taken to the nth degree. Iyer dissects music with a scientific precision that is still very heartfelt at the same time. His music pulses with life.
As a son of parents from India, Vijay didn't see himself as a Jazz pianist for a very long time. It certainly wasn't expected that a child of Indian parents play Jazz piano. He did start the violin very young at age 3. But for the most part, he became a self-taught pianist. You can hear influences from the Karnatic music from South India in some of his music's mathematical, hypnotic nature. But Vijay's music is decidedly American. Vijay is deeply rooted in the great legacy of American Jazz. He recalls seeing Dizzy Gillespie on Sesame Street as a kid and being influenced by Johnny Costas' piano work on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. He follows in the line of Thelonious Monk with a wonderful Harlem stride piano on his own version of Duke Ellington's "Black and Tan Fantasy." This sort of stuff isn't taught or learned. It's felt. And you can tell Vijay spent a long time just feeling the stride piano and making it his own. Like Monk, who taught himself Harlem stride and put his own unique angular spin on it, Iyer offers a unique angle on stride. Harlem stride is a deceptively rich style that gives performers a lot of leeway to add their own touches. And this version of "Black and Tan Fantasy" is extraordinary and haunting. What a fantastic American composer Ellington was and we gain a new perspective of his work through Iyer's interpretation.
Vijay has truly lived the American experience, the same one I grew up with, having grown up with Star Wars, Michael Jackson, Thelonious Monk, Sesame Street and Mister Rogers. He took that experience, along with his background, and made it his own, which is what the American art experience is all about.
You have to respect Iyer's ability to keep breaking into new territory as he did with Tirtha, playing with tablas and a guitarist, and the trio plays some mesmerizing Eastern tunes in celebration of the 60th anniversary of Indian independence. Iyer's latest effort is Mutations, recorded with strings and electronic instrumentation. And it is even a further departure, sounding like the more rhythmic recordings of Philip Glass, particularly the Kronos Quartet's recording of his work. Mutations isn't for a beginner, but it's daring and captivating.
There's a pervading view in our times that Jazz music is elitist or too intellectual (especially in a country that has turned very anti-intellectual)--I can't claim that I understand this view as I do not share it, but I think Vijay Iyer's music could break this mould if people gave it a chance. Vijay Iyer's music has the potential to be like the music of Duke Ellington's band in the 1940s, the last time in this country when the most popular music was also the best music being produced. I don't think Vijay Iyer will ever sell as many albums as say a Kanye West or a Katy Perry or a Jay-Z, which is fine. His latest work Mutations is certainly no aspiration for the sales numbers those artists have, but if people gave the time to listen to Iyer's version of "Human Nature" or Ellington's "Black and Tan Fantasy," people might give an extra minute or two to listen to Jazz and appreciate it as America's greatest indigenous art form.
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Behind the scenes of the Internet...
A couple of weeks ago, I went on a quest with some of the engineers with whom I work.
I'm not an engineer but I love a quest and that's why this little adventure was fun. We went to look for a VHUB, which is a virtual hub site. Here's a technical description of a hub site: Hub sites are way stations on the routing patterns that our bits and bytes take to get over the Intertubes to go from the point of origin to our devices. Typically, a hub site is a physical hut and could be as big as a nondescript building that we pass each day without noticing. But a VHUB is virtual. A piece as small as a shoe box could serve the fiber optics for 20,000 wireline internet customers.(See my post on Data Movers and the Pipes that get our information to us for more details on hubs, pipes and how our Facebook posts, Tweets and Instagram photos get to us.).
But we weren't as interested in the VHUB as we were in the power supply and the transponder and how that power supply talks to the VHUB. It's strange that these contraptions talk to each other, but they share a lot of important information.
A good specimen of the power supply, so we thought, was going to be near Pioneer Square in downtown Seattle. The power supply was supposedly at such and such address. There we went and in a typical downtown building, part residential and part office space, a number of small businesses were tapping away on the keys in the midst of a normal business day, using the bits and bytes that we are powering.
I peered through the fuzzy glass of a closed office door. A pile of cash was laying on the table. I point out this detail of the cash because, in this day and age, when it feels like all of our transactions are taking place in this semi-fictional space, where large quantities of money are literally swept from one account to another over the electronic Intertubes, it seems strange to see cash. It seems strange to imagine these brick and mortar places where cash changes hands. Where cash could occupy an entire table.
I can't remember the last time I paid for something in cash. Here we were doing some maintenance on the Intertubes so that people can sweep large amounts of money to each other electronically, virtually, and there was a pile of cash on the table.
I paused to reflect on this detail of the cash while we waited for Ricardo, who works for the real estate company as a gopher, and he had the keys to the office where the power supply was. 20 minutes later he came from another address downtown and opened an office door for us.
"No, this isn't what we're looking for. It's a box about yay big." We gestured the size and shape of a power supply. "Aha," Ricardo retorted and took us to the basement. To a broom closet, really, in the remote corner of the building. Deep underground. In the bowels of the city. Surrounded by brooms, mops and ancient office equipment, we found the object of our quest. With some fiber optic and coaxial cabling strewn around in random fashion, we found our power supply in a strange home. And it was blinking.
Imagine 4 engineers standing around a box with a blinking red light as if it were a bomb. And they were trying to defuse it. With deep concentration, theories were abounding. There were lively discussions of Ohm's Law. Wattage. Voltage. Is it a 3 amp or 7 amp power supply? Will this power supply talk to the VHUB? What's up with that blinking red light?
None of the engineers knew what the blinking meant. But I did. My dad had asked me about the blinking red lights on the power supplies, and several months ago I had asked around to figure out the answer. Failed inverter test. Temp sensor not working. A pile of old insulation was laying on the power supply enclosure. At least the thing was well insulated. But here we were and Ricardo said that red light had been blinking for several years. Since they installed it, he said.
And it seems strange. The critical information for some 20,000 households was just sort of hanging in some limbo because of a blinking red light that nobody knew what meant.
I really wanted to see that VHUB. I'd seen what they look like in a brochure but I wanted to see what it looked like in its milieu. Deep under the ground, it would require another field trip. We could either open the manhole cover and descend into the bowels of old time Seattle. Or we could take the tour that goes through underground Seattle to find the VHUB. Did you know that there is another Seattle right underneath the Seattle we currently know? Maybe they'll build another Seattle on top of this Seattle someday.
I'm not an engineer but I love a quest and that's why this little adventure was fun. We went to look for a VHUB, which is a virtual hub site. Here's a technical description of a hub site: Hub sites are way stations on the routing patterns that our bits and bytes take to get over the Intertubes to go from the point of origin to our devices. Typically, a hub site is a physical hut and could be as big as a nondescript building that we pass each day without noticing. But a VHUB is virtual. A piece as small as a shoe box could serve the fiber optics for 20,000 wireline internet customers.(See my post on Data Movers and the Pipes that get our information to us for more details on hubs, pipes and how our Facebook posts, Tweets and Instagram photos get to us.).
But we weren't as interested in the VHUB as we were in the power supply and the transponder and how that power supply talks to the VHUB. It's strange that these contraptions talk to each other, but they share a lot of important information.
A good specimen of the power supply, so we thought, was going to be near Pioneer Square in downtown Seattle. The power supply was supposedly at such and such address. There we went and in a typical downtown building, part residential and part office space, a number of small businesses were tapping away on the keys in the midst of a normal business day, using the bits and bytes that we are powering.
I peered through the fuzzy glass of a closed office door. A pile of cash was laying on the table. I point out this detail of the cash because, in this day and age, when it feels like all of our transactions are taking place in this semi-fictional space, where large quantities of money are literally swept from one account to another over the electronic Intertubes, it seems strange to see cash. It seems strange to imagine these brick and mortar places where cash changes hands. Where cash could occupy an entire table.
I can't remember the last time I paid for something in cash. Here we were doing some maintenance on the Intertubes so that people can sweep large amounts of money to each other electronically, virtually, and there was a pile of cash on the table.
I paused to reflect on this detail of the cash while we waited for Ricardo, who works for the real estate company as a gopher, and he had the keys to the office where the power supply was. 20 minutes later he came from another address downtown and opened an office door for us.
"No, this isn't what we're looking for. It's a box about yay big." We gestured the size and shape of a power supply. "Aha," Ricardo retorted and took us to the basement. To a broom closet, really, in the remote corner of the building. Deep underground. In the bowels of the city. Surrounded by brooms, mops and ancient office equipment, we found the object of our quest. With some fiber optic and coaxial cabling strewn around in random fashion, we found our power supply in a strange home. And it was blinking.
Imagine 4 engineers standing around a box with a blinking red light as if it were a bomb. And they were trying to defuse it. With deep concentration, theories were abounding. There were lively discussions of Ohm's Law. Wattage. Voltage. Is it a 3 amp or 7 amp power supply? Will this power supply talk to the VHUB? What's up with that blinking red light?
None of the engineers knew what the blinking meant. But I did. My dad had asked me about the blinking red lights on the power supplies, and several months ago I had asked around to figure out the answer. Failed inverter test. Temp sensor not working. A pile of old insulation was laying on the power supply enclosure. At least the thing was well insulated. But here we were and Ricardo said that red light had been blinking for several years. Since they installed it, he said.
And it seems strange. The critical information for some 20,000 households was just sort of hanging in some limbo because of a blinking red light that nobody knew what meant.
I really wanted to see that VHUB. I'd seen what they look like in a brochure but I wanted to see what it looked like in its milieu. Deep under the ground, it would require another field trip. We could either open the manhole cover and descend into the bowels of old time Seattle. Or we could take the tour that goes through underground Seattle to find the VHUB. Did you know that there is another Seattle right underneath the Seattle we currently know? Maybe they'll build another Seattle on top of this Seattle someday.
 |
| Behind the Scenes of the Internet: Infrastructure engineers looking at a power supply powering a device providing fiber optics to 20,000 customers. At least it's well insulated. |
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Do we really need an app for that? I still do that manually...
Whenever somebody mentions to me that they have a new app to do some task for them, I can only think of a conversation from the cult classic The Big Lebowski between Brad (played by the late and very, very great Phillip Seymour Hoffman) and the Dude himself.
Brad: Interactive erotic software. The wave of the future, Dude. One hundred percent electronic!
The Dude: Yeah well, I still jack off manually.
Brad: Interactive erotic software. The wave of the future, Dude. One hundred percent electronic!
The Dude: Yeah well, I still jack off manually.
And I suppose I'm like the Dude. I still do things manually. Most things, really.
The most used app in my family is probably the Peterson Bird Guide app for birders (great app by the way), so I'm not totally anti-app. And there are some things I don't do manually, though I'm perfectly OK with looking up birds in a hardcover book.
I've spent a long time questioning our app culture, but a line I saw recently really solidified some of my harsh feelings towards our app-centric culture. It was really paradigmatic of how we have sort of degraded as a society: "I have an app to tell me when it's raining. How cool is that?" Well, actually, it's not very cool. Because if you need an app to tell you if the sun's shining, you're probably missing some real important things in life (you know, like going outside). Bob Dylan called it pretty well in 1965: "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."
When I lived through the first dot com boom of the late 90s, early 2000s, the most lasting line I ever heard was from a fat cat wealthy tycoon (actually he wasn't really a tycoon or a fat cat, but he was definitely living the good life and it was a life to aspire to). His wise line, something I'm still trying to aim toward was about cell phones. At that time, when cell phones (you know, the old flip phones) were still a novelty, people would conspicuously talk on them in public places (we still do, but it's becoming more ingrained into our culture). The cell phone was like a status symbol to look important because you had another conversation that was more important than being present with those who were with you. This almost tycoon (but too wise to be a tycoon) told me: "Kendall, the goal in life is not to be one of those guys standing around with a cell phone in public places. The real goal in life is not to have one of those things." He was right. Hopefully, I'll become so important and lose some of my insecurities enough so that I can ditch my phone and become 100% present in what I am doing. I'll know that I have made it in life when I can ditch my phone.
I grew up with Star Wars and so I like technology. I like the idea of us as a species going to space and exploring other planets and using technology to live longer and better lives, but I feel like we've lost the story a bit. A line that made a big impression on me in college was from an interview with George Lucas. He said, "Technology is only a tool." In Lucas's case, technology is a tool he uses to tell a story. It's interesting that his worst movies were made when he forgot that important life credo, when his movies became about the technology itself and not about the story.
My cautionary tale for app makers and app users is that we should spend more time thinking about the story, our story. What are we really using that app for? Do we really need an app for that? I use the map apps that everybody else uses and they're fine for getting the general direction of where I am going, but I'll do a little jig in my car the next time (the first time really) that one of those navigational apps actually gives me the right directions to where I'm really going.
I'd like to live a good life. I don't need an app for that. 50 years from now we're not going to regret not having invented an app for X. We'll regret not having cured cancer, stopped the spread of malaria, or having figured out how not to completely destroy the place where we live.
The most used app in my family is probably the Peterson Bird Guide app for birders (great app by the way), so I'm not totally anti-app. And there are some things I don't do manually, though I'm perfectly OK with looking up birds in a hardcover book.
I've spent a long time questioning our app culture, but a line I saw recently really solidified some of my harsh feelings towards our app-centric culture. It was really paradigmatic of how we have sort of degraded as a society: "I have an app to tell me when it's raining. How cool is that?" Well, actually, it's not very cool. Because if you need an app to tell you if the sun's shining, you're probably missing some real important things in life (you know, like going outside). Bob Dylan called it pretty well in 1965: "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."
When I lived through the first dot com boom of the late 90s, early 2000s, the most lasting line I ever heard was from a fat cat wealthy tycoon (actually he wasn't really a tycoon or a fat cat, but he was definitely living the good life and it was a life to aspire to). His wise line, something I'm still trying to aim toward was about cell phones. At that time, when cell phones (you know, the old flip phones) were still a novelty, people would conspicuously talk on them in public places (we still do, but it's becoming more ingrained into our culture). The cell phone was like a status symbol to look important because you had another conversation that was more important than being present with those who were with you. This almost tycoon (but too wise to be a tycoon) told me: "Kendall, the goal in life is not to be one of those guys standing around with a cell phone in public places. The real goal in life is not to have one of those things." He was right. Hopefully, I'll become so important and lose some of my insecurities enough so that I can ditch my phone and become 100% present in what I am doing. I'll know that I have made it in life when I can ditch my phone.
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| In English: "Put your cell phone here/The first to use it pays the bill." (Spanish grammar nerds, note the spelling mistake.) |
I grew up with Star Wars and so I like technology. I like the idea of us as a species going to space and exploring other planets and using technology to live longer and better lives, but I feel like we've lost the story a bit. A line that made a big impression on me in college was from an interview with George Lucas. He said, "Technology is only a tool." In Lucas's case, technology is a tool he uses to tell a story. It's interesting that his worst movies were made when he forgot that important life credo, when his movies became about the technology itself and not about the story.
My cautionary tale for app makers and app users is that we should spend more time thinking about the story, our story. What are we really using that app for? Do we really need an app for that? I use the map apps that everybody else uses and they're fine for getting the general direction of where I am going, but I'll do a little jig in my car the next time (the first time really) that one of those navigational apps actually gives me the right directions to where I'm really going.
I'd like to live a good life. I don't need an app for that. 50 years from now we're not going to regret not having invented an app for X. We'll regret not having cured cancer, stopped the spread of malaria, or having figured out how not to completely destroy the place where we live.
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