Month: August 2021

On October 2, 1985, Rock Hudson died from AIDS-related illness. Hudson was one of the most popular actors of his generation. His death stunned the masses.

That same very day, Congress allocated $190 million for AIDS research.

We don’t change our behavior through statistics. We change it when someone we know has been effected.

Climate change is easy to ignore when you don’t live on the coast. It’s even easy to dismiss that the smoke that fills our valleys are a California problem. But if you have a child with asthma, now it becomes a mission.

Masks wearing is to protect those around you. And if you have had a family member die from COVID-19, it is much easier to tell yourself a story that you don’t want someone else to go through what you did.

Statistics amplify a story we are already telling ourselves. We are not compelled to alter our behavior unless the story changes.

It might though.

Because the last thing we want is someone who is being generous get to the point where they have to say no.

Capatalism has streamlined everything. The world has never been more effecient. It takes a two-minutes on Google to find someone faster and cheaper.

But if you want to solve your specific problem in a certain way, don’t be surprised that the answer is no.

No frees us from the constant incoming. Impossible to be everything to everyone. We must be somebody to someone.

If I buy a NBA jersey online from China that is identical to the Official NBA jersey, is there a difference?

Since authentic, the way most people define it, would be a game worn LeBron James jersey–everything else feels like a knock off. So, we search for the next closest thing.

But there’s still an expectation. When I sit down at Olive Garden and order egg plant parmesan, I expect egg plant parmesan to come to the table. Even if the chef in that moment felt like making enchiladas instead. That is what professionals do. They show up to do their work regardless of how they feel.

Authenticity is overrated. What we want is consistency about a story we tell ourself about what is authentic. What rhymes with the experience I am searching for?

Thank goodness a heart surgeon just doesn’t decide on the fly to try a new technique on a patient when their chest is wide open. I am grateful that when I have a clogged drain, the plumber doesn’t suspend 100 years of best practice just because they didn’t feel like unclogging the same way they did yesterday.

Just show up. We want the professional you.

The Law of the Few states that 80% of the work will be done by 20% of the population. If ideas are going to spread, it will be up to the Connectors, the Mavens and the Salesman of the world to unleash the idea virus.

Everett Roger’s Diffusion of Innovation confirms that in order to hit a tipping point, you are going to need the help from these early adopters to get the idea to spread.

If you look at the anti-vaccine movement, you can trace it back to just a few.

According to The Center for Countering Digital Hate, 59.2 million followers are associated with only 425 anti-vaccine accounts. That’s it. Out of those 425, 20 accounts make up over two-thirds of the total followers.

To fight the epidemic of misinformation, it isn’t as complicated as we make it out to be. The dark patterns of the internet have allowed for us to get this point and it is costing lives. Like it or not, we can’t just say everything we want. I can’t walk into a church and yell, “Fire!” because causing a panic and an emergency when there isn’t one doesn’t make our culture better.

We live with boundaries and when we agree to live with them society works better. It’s smart when everyone agrees to stop on a red light or not to speed through a school zone. Because we don’t want live in a world where people are killing kids.

Make no mistake, the voices of many are represented by a few. One of the keys to take back our culture is to recognize which voices we give a microphone to. If Wikipedia can figure it out, the rest of us can too.

….

I highly recommend sitting down and reading CCDH analysis of the anti-vaccine movement and the spread of misinformation. Blown away with their work.

We think we do. Because we pickup little clues. But the gaps (and they are big ones) we have to fill in with our imagination and assumptions.

The truth is we don’t really know what someone else is going through even though we think we do.

That’s not a natural motion. Then how come we end up facing the same problems over and over again? Perhaps the reason is because we actually haven’t figured out the solution yet.

A person who struggles to listen will continue to interrupt others.

Striking out of interviews without the right credentials is skipping steps.

The examples are endless. Find the source of your problems and solve them.

And our moods are generally good. Even if the results are not in our favor, we have taken away the anxiety of not knowing what happens next.

That tension of the unknown causes so much inner turmoil. The tension can cause us to panic and make decisions we normally would not make.

The thing is, no matter how much we plan, plans change. Things happen. Constantly. Unexpectedly.

Instead of relying on the plan, we can put our faith in ourselves to solve complicated problems when we invest in a more resilient system.

Stand still conversations are a tug-o-war over identity.

Think of the story each of us tell ourselves about our gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, tribe, religion, politics, citicenship, education, wealth, title, status…

Which identities raise us and what happens when they are threatened?

The problem we face is we can’t stop arguing over our identities. Wasting time when we can instead be working to solve the problem.

Not just any line. I’m talking about the limits.

We know where they are. The imaginary boundaries we set for ourselves. The limits we think we can’t push past.

Yet, sometimes we muster enough courage to cross the line. And then we find, everything is fine.

Now the box is bigger.

Why not just lead and draw a bigger box to begin with? What’s not possible at this point?

It is estimated that we make 35,000 decisions per day.

Which means most of our decisions we make are of little thought or consequence.

At lunch today, if we eat the soup or salad, it won’t matter. At least, we won’t remember it a month from now.

We go. We move forward. With time. But there are a few decisions that we make that drives us toward our day to day decisions.

The question is: Are we conscientious of how we ended here? Are we cognitive of the system we have built that are presenting the choices in front of us?