Month: August 2022

We might have created Tylenol but it doesn’t mean we understand it. And the same can be said about climate change, economics, markets, mathematics…we still don’t even understand consciousness.

These are complex systems at work with players who make choices that influence and change outcomes. Sometimes we can make all the right moves and still have puzzling outcomes.

The point is that simple solutions rarely exist to fix a complex problem. Rational actors, as we all claim to be, think we have a grasp on what needs to be done. But because of the limitations of our reach, we underestimate what happens when we influence these systems. So, you try something and say, “Oh that is interesting.” And then try again to change it in a positive way.

We are bad at predicting what happens next even before the internet. What comes next? No one knows.

Talent is the gift we are born with. As much as I try, I can’t make my wing span grow any larger. Skills, on the other hand, are everything else we can attain through practice and work. Coding is a skill. No one is born a great coder. And so is baking, driving, and really most things we do as humans. Some people think we can bypass the hard work of mastering our craft by waiting for inspiration. A muse that can whisper the perfect cord progression on the song you are writing. Genius that inspires us to create a masterpiece.

Unfortunately, there is no Santa. And the muse isn’t real either. No invisible, mystical entity that is waiting to come by and give us the inspiration we need to do our work. What a relief! We don’t need to take a ticket and get in line to start. So then, where do all the good ideas for your screenplay going to come from then? Simple. They are not going to come. You write and write and write. Sometimes it’s good. A lot of times it is bad. But you keep getting ever so slightly better, taking the criticisms and feedback, applying it to the work, and continuing to explore the edges until something your produce resonates. The more swings you get the more chances you have at a homerun.

We like to believe that if we wait long enough the muse will come to save us as we wander the desert of creativity but you will be waiting for a long time. Since you are waiting, you might as well get to work anyway.

The market states over and over again that we need competent workers to fill these roles and jobs. To be competent, we need you to go to school.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I wouldn’t want to have a lawyer represent me in court that never passed the bar. And I wouldn’t want someone to perform open heart surgery that got their education from Google searches.

Yet, time and time again, credentials created a mental roadblock for people to start making a difference. You don’t need permission to start a protest. You don’t need to have a degree to start a blog or post a song you wrote. There is so much opportunity in what we can do rather than what we can’t. We just need to act accordingly.

Most of the difference makers in the world don’t have the experience they should. If we let it, credentials are the perfect excuse to not even start.

A 5-year-old accidentally gets dirt on a 3-year olds face. You don’t see it but you hear the crying. So you go check and then see the 5-year-old spit in the 3-year-olds face. You assume they are being a bully. When you ask the 5-year-old why they would do that she says, “I was trying to get the dirt off his face.”

What we assume often doesn’t match what is actually happening. All around us this happens.

A technique often used to brainwash people. At its worst, some people convince others to not peek behind the curtain. “Nothing to see folks. Move along.” So the question I hope you ask next should be: If you knew what they knew, would you act differently?

Once you know pro wrestling is fake, it begins to look different. The same can be said when you know how a magic trick works–it demystifies it.

If you think you have it all figured out, you have misled yourself to make the world appear more organized and orderly. Because the world is chaotic and people are messy. Exactly when we categorize something new with something familiar, we have just erased the opportunity for the possibility to learn something new. You are shorting yourself by not critically thinking. This is how we can truly better understand the world and ultimately change it.

If you found the answer, you just haven’t asked the next question.

Fortunately, the Boogie Man is not real. You could call his name three times in the bathroom with the lights off but he won’t come. But for many, they still wouldn’t do it because why risk it?

Often, we create phobias and supply a narrative to reinforce them. Compliance can only work in the presents of fear. Hence, why we show up to work on time. We fear the boss, losing our job and healthcare, and not being able to support ourselves and others. But that fear isn’t real as say a golf ball flying towards your head or turning into oncoming traffic. It isn’t imminent–only imaged.

We create all sorts of things that are not real only to supply a narrative to keep it going. When we can flip the lights on, then we can see.

I’ve written around 2,300 consecutive blog posts. I like to at least get 20,000 in my lifetime.

So, when there is a day I don’t feel like writing I take a look to see how far I have come. That reminder of this run is worth continuing to pursue. I set the goal posts and can move them again. But for me, this has been right on the spot where challenge meets my ability.

When we create a mission around what it is we want to accomplish–it drives us. You need something to carry you because most of the time it isn’t exciting or rewarding and you certainly not going to feel inspired every moment. The mission should you choose to accept it, is a choice you make every day.

When we generalize, it helps us classify and codify. Indeed, creating shortcuts helps us recognize the world. “Oh, yeah that reminds me of this one time…” And then we file this new situation into a category. The problem with these shortcuts is it doesn’t help us better understand the world. Which deters us from discovering the new since we are so focused on the old.

When you kick a soccer ball inside the house and it breaks your parent’s favorite vase–you have a decision to make.

You can say it was your fault or the soccer balls.

The thing about responsibility is when we decide to take it we also move to the driver’s seat of our lives, regardless of what happens.

There is always an excuse to point to. So what? When bad things happen, we can assume the victim role or learn from the experience. I do not say this to minimize the pain life can throw at us. And perhaps, for the things that can feel unbearable this advice does not apply. For the trivial, however, why let it change your mood?

Just to be alive is work.

American track runner, Steve Prefontaine, was known for an ultra-aggressive front running style where he would jump ahead of the competition and challenge everyone to try and keep up. This style wasn’t exactly the smartest approach to winning a race. One could hang back for two and a half miles and then steal a race in the last couple hundred yards. It probably cost Pre a medal in the 1972 Olympics where he faced the greatest distance runners in the world.

I am in awe of this style. While many refer to it as brash, I see it as art. To put it all on the line, running as far and fast as you can go regardless of the result encapsulate the ethos of how life should be lived.

Too often, we play with our heads and not our hearts.