Month: November 2023

During the 17th century, tulips were at one point one of the most expensive commodities in the world.

The reason was because we treated it like a scarce resource and humans have a hard time with the fear of missing out. As a result, the price skyrocketed. To the point where investors were betting futures on it.

We get excited about a lot of things. But most the time, it’s part of the moment. The next comes and the old doesn’t seem to have its appeal until it becomes nostalgic for a few who miss that time.

We don’t know how everything works. We just accept it that it does.

It took 100 years to figure why asprin can relieve pain. Yet, we still marketed it and took it.

So much of our world is left unexplained because we dropped in the center of the cannon. The story of humanity isn’t over but we have come such a long way. And so much is unrecorded or goes unnoticed. Leading to gaps in our knowledge.

The Dark Ages, which started after the fall of the Roman Empire until about 1500 C.E., conjures up images of famine and pestilence. But in actuality, during this period, we saw perhaps the greatest distribution of wealth with widespread prosperity than any time beforehand. The reason why plagues were a problem during the period was because of the sharp decline in sanitation. The reason? Monarchs crashed local economies by giving chartered corporations centralized power over the financial sector. When looking at the historical records of wars, genocide, and plagues, one simply has to follow the money.

The label we make doesn’t match the entire experience. We do this when talking about our experience with a graduate problem or a vacation. We can’t possibly summarize our experience, but we still try.

This is vastly different from waiting for the opportunity to come. We can be patient and wait for our shot. But we can also choose ourselves.

I have found waiting to be much more harmful in the pursuit of art.

There are a lot of loud voices now on the internet.

Perhaps, listen to the quieter voice. The one that has something to say without the platform.

A healthy dose of an alternative perspective, even if you don’t agree, will serve you well in avoiding the trap of echo chambers.

There is a collective shame in the culture when someone can’t hack it.

Often, we label them something as less than human.

On top of that, we have our own shame. Because deep down we all have a soft spot. A place where our insecurities lie.

Battling these two waves is part of the challenge of leading, initiating, and for creating art.

We have first understand that we belong in this space. And next, we put our best foot forward.

Once you create, then the choice next is to make it better.

It’s something I have been deeply fascinated about lately. The culture and its role it plays on shame. Particularly on women and minorities.

The culture reinforces rules to get people to fall in line. It never ceases to amaze me how we all bought in to the security money brings or how we obey traffic signals. I’m not calling for moving away from that. But it is quite amazing how we believe following rules is the moral thing to do. And when we don’t, the culture is quick to process, label, or outcast you.

Following the rules is important in working together. We all benefit when we slow down in a school zone. What interests me, however, is when we create extra rules to insulate ourselves from our pursuits. “I can’t possibly get to my art tonight because I have to do the dishes.” Sometimes these things we think we have to do are just an excuse from doing the things we say we want to do.

As kids, we played this all the time. In fact, we jumped at the chance to be the one who led the rest of the group. So, what happened?

The hard part about taking action is that it isn’t something we are used to doing anymore. That has been stamped out of us. Meaning that we have been trained to be compliant workers: follow the rules, follow the steps, follow the map.

Leading is about throwing away the map and deciding which direction to take. We don’t want to mess things up and when we do the people around us look at who’s in charge to blame. This is the crux of leadership. Understanding which voices to listen to and which to ignore.

As kids, there was no wrong answer about where you wanted to lead the group. Perhaps, we should return to some sort of semblance.

We have built are culture around scarcity. As a result, we create a market around this. Highlighting all the wants we don’t have. The great lie is we think if we can fill it with stuff then we will be happy and complete. But there is always something else to be had. That is what the market does. The alternative, is to step out of it and find something else to fill that void. Not with another trip or product. Something more. Something that we don’t take but instead give.

We don’t get to choose the perfect moment to accomplish the goals we seek.

We choose the work. Not the environment. Not the conditions.

Control what you can control. That’s it.