Josh Allred's Blog

Without interruptions, what do you think you could accomplish?

Why then do we not spend the time building a system that is more resilient to the outside world?

Few ideas:

Unsubscribe to incoming emails.

Turn off notifications on your phone.

Work where you live. Create a shorter commute.

Perhaps go on a Netflix fast.

Log out of what you want to limit your time using. The friction of logging back in can be enough from consuming time.

Close the door to your office for an hour. Ask not to be disturbed during this time. Work as hard as you can for the 60 minutes you have allotted.

Prioritize the most difficult tasks first while you have more brain power.

There are more out there. The irony, however, doesn’t escape me: How many of these interruptions do we allow in our life to distract us from what we don’t want to focus on?

Which parts of our lives do we hold so sacred and true that we no longer question them?

The reason I ask is that these things we know also influence every decision we make in life. They guide us, like a compass, in the direction we go.

Yet, many of us in a post-industrial world is left unsatisfied with where we land.

Life is a contradiction. To be able to hold two opposing ideas at the same time can be a true sign of wisdom. Yet, once we know how things are, we begin to create the world as we see it.

When we know who we are–a CPA, a teacher or driver–then we begin a cycle of self-prophecy.

When we take a life of action–writing, skiing, leadership–then who knows what happens next?

You are not a noun. You are action-oriented.

When you create something it has to follow a genre. It has to look familiar to something that has been here before. Otherwise, we don’t get it.

On the other hand…

We didn’t understand Campbell’s Soup, Fountain, and Lavender Mist at first. It broke our brains. It didn’t remind us of anything that came before.

This is rare and indeed difficult to do. You either get really lucky or learn to develop excellent taste.

The great works of art still followed some rules though. Paint still finds a way to get on a canvas.

Understanding genre, which rules to follow, which to bend and which to break will serve you well in becoming a professional in your field.

What then?

Perhaps, it is impossible not to have an opinion. Our biases and snap judgments always seem to be with us like a shadow. We can try though. And when we decide to not have an opinion about everything that is being said, when we are curious, then the door is open to learning something new.

Because what we hear doesn’t get in the way of what we think we know.

It’s important to recognize when there is nothing left to be said.

In that moment we can begin to feel the tension in the air.

The first reaction is to say something to relieve it.

Don’t.

Instead, sit with the tension.

You can always listen.

Perhaps, the key to really good advice is to be in silence longer than we are comfortable sitting in.

We are all guilty of being slow to accept a reality that is unfolding before our eyes because it is often happening faster than we expect.

We do this because we are anchored to our world in how we see it.

How we see it is informed by the stories we tell ourselves.

For many, given the choice to follow the step-by-step instructions to make a really cool Lego sculptor or to go make something their own–most would be terrified of the prospect of making something that isn’t found in the manual.

“What if I fail?”

“What if people judge me? ”

In fact, our culture has worked overtime to praise the compliant cog worker that followed the specs. I mean, look it’s an X-Wing Fighter, that is much “better” than the thing you tried to create.

You will always find a Dummies Guide or a How To book on what to do next. But the real artist, the courageous impresario that we can’t live without, ignores the instructions, makes a ruckus just sees what happens next.

The world needs more people like you to throw away the instructions. Aren’t you at least curious to see what you could build?

Humans cannot stop playing games. Market share is a game. Accumulating more artifacts is a game. And so is soccer. When we finish a game, we can’t help but simply start a new one.

Yet, most of us look at Sysphus as a doomed person–why is the game of pushing a rock up the hill any different from ours? All games are sort of pointless if you think long about it. Yet, that’s what we do to fill the time.

Some games are infinite and others are finite. Some games have high stakes and maybe life or death. Others? We just think they are. And if we are not playing high stake games, we play for fun.

Maybe we should be having more fun with the games we choose to play.

Where you weren’t working your hardest or let your mind wander? Have you had a conversation that wasn’t work-related?

Of course, you have. Everyone has done this. Because we are not machines.

And yet, most people reading this blog probably don’t think of themselves as thieves either. The question is, where is the line? What is ethical and what is not?

The thing is, the McDonald’s drink machine doesn’t steal sips of Coca-Cola products. And the Walmart Automatic Check-out Machine doesn’t take an extra long smoke break. And the street light on your corner doesn’t ask for a vacation either.

Humans are not efficient creatures. We have weaknesses and on top of all this, we need dental. Our weaknesses are only going to be more exaggerated as time goes on. AI can simply follow the instructions better and it doesn’t need a pep talk to get in the mood to get to work.

What then do humans do better?

Initiate. Lead. Motivate. Deciding where to go. Caring. Decision making. Dealing with consequences. Having hard conversations. Making connection. Starting and finishing projects. This is the field that is wide open that a machine cannot fill. (Facebook tried and failed.)

You have more value than simply following the instructions. The ability to color outside the lines at any time is your best asset.