Josh Allred's Blog

Most problem, believe it or not, are not caused by external forces. They are cause by ourselves. Economic disparity in a capitalist society doesn’t just happen. It is a design feature. Of course, if you travel back several thousands of years, we were still fighting over resources. We still fight over these resources. We are just too blinded to see. While problems of solving things like access to clean water or eliminating waste, have been solved, we then deal with the next of problems. Which ultimately, we get more opportunities for man to search for meaning.

There are physical problems that continued to be solved. Intellectual realm could topple in just a few years. But no convience will ever end the work of finding and defining the things that matter most.

Perhaps we need to be reminded. Growing old is a privilege while at the same time a burden. And being able to wrestle with an exestiential crisis, is also a privilege. It likely signals an educations and discretionary time to tackle such things and bit more than most. It also says a lot of where you are at.

With the advancement of tools and technology, labor conitnues to get easier. That doesn’t mean all of the hard labor jobs are gone. And it doesn’t mean they won’t ever be eliminated. But with physical labor conintuing to get easier, the rise of intellectual work continues to rise. So, you are no longer called to move a pile of rocks from one end of the field to the other. You are now constantly being tracked by Zoom, how quickly you respond to Slack messages, and being asked to be available off hours.

Monks figured this out long ago. When the bell rang it was time to work. When the bell struck it was time to stop. Not finishing one more thing. Not sticking around until the job was done. Because they understood something that here in the west we cannot still wrap our head around, the work is never done.

Chop wood carry water–until the shift is done. And then go on to the next thing. Leisure, recreation, quality time with family. Our achilles heel isn’t that this generation doesn’t work hard.

1) They want to be working toward something. Economic movement continues to be a stand still. And just based on the zip code you are born into, it can now be accurately predicted where you will end up. So why try?

2) We have the most difficult time seperating work from play. And the hustle and sacrifice culture, doesn’t work when there are only a lucky few that move up the economic ladder. It’s an interesting period we are in. And with more new tools, what happens to the intellectual labor provided by a worker that is no longer needed? What is left? What happens next? What defines humans when your services are no longer required?

Victories are rarely won by one individual hitting a last-second shot.

Victories are won together. A connected group is a dangerous group.

Hats off to Park City Ski Patrol for their recent victory.

It’s challenging to beat Goliath. But with every victory, you can best him. And, over time, every giant or empire has fallen.

Time is on no one’s side.

It was popularized by Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers in the 80’s. An NBA basketball game is played in 48-minutes. But it is the last 5 minutes that are most crucial. The first 43 is to stay in it and last 5 are to take it away.

Sometimes, we forget, through all the noise, the moment it is time to execute.

It’s the moment when we wake up in the morning and feel that we have to produce a certain amount of output, a certain amount of work, to feel justified in our existence.

The problem with debt is that it spirals quickly. In a culture that has centered money in exchange for work, this can have negative psychological consequences over time.

For instance, you now tie your worth around something you do to pay for groceries. And if you don’t, society will frown and ask what is wrong with you.

When looking around for things to do to be productive, it isn’t easy to simply turn this off. In the long run, we fall into burnout—not the feeling of being overworked and overtired, but the dreadful feeling of, no matter how hard I try, I don’t move anywhere.

HT Ezra Klein

Oh my!

The greatest threats in the Wasatch isn’t bears. It isn’t an avalanche. It continues to be things like breathing in poor air.

We become so used to something that is so determint to our health, that it is adventageuos for those who pollute it to keep our focus on something else that we can “control.”

Ideological politics divides us. We have so much more in common then we realize. Regardless on which side of the aisle you fall in.

Because it is, those with money and power, and those without.

Making a choice that benefits someone else, perhaps someone not even born, that is against our nature.

The default setting isn’t to think about ourselves. Of course, it wasn’t always this way. We can find examples in the Bible or in the marines. The emphasis then is to lose oneself for something greater than ourelves. And this is how we create zealots as well.

It seems to me there needs to be a balance we need to strike. The ability to lose oneself when we hit the limits of “me.” At the same time, be able to switch to something where the self cannot exist.

Because when we are alone, we are lonely. And when we are together, we are stong.

This rule of thumb was coined by technology journalist Ian Betteridge: “Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no.”

It’s the assertion that if the writer were confident in the answer, they would write a statement instead.

Confidence, however, isn’t decided until after a piece is written. While starting a venture with confidence would be nice, it isn’t a prerequisite for most things.

In our culture, the answer is often to look within —to soul-search.

This is also a product of individualism, not that there is anything inherently wrong with it.

There are alternatives. The most obvious is to build one’s own identity. There is also a path to kill it.

When we identify with something bigger than ourselves, the self is no longer important.

This is also rather extreme. But perhaps the middle path is a switch of some sort, a duality.

Sometimes, writing every day can be daunting.

Then again, when I think about the millions of words written, what’s a few more?

Adding something to a large body of work is much easier than starting a whole new venture.