Lifting requires much more mechanical advantage.
On the other hand, shifting may require a nudge in another direction.
The results with a simple nudge compounded with time can have dramatic results.
Perhaps heavy lifting can be reserved when time is not on your side and when you have a lot of energy to put into it.
Rules insulate us from getting into trouble, keep our jobs safe, provide order, send a cue how things are done around here…
When we step out of the system that those govern, what then are those rules?
I think this is very useful way of looking at constraints. If you don’t like the ones imposed, simply create better ones.
Draw a bigger (or smaller) box to work with.
Waiting for the news on a job.
Waiting for an results on a biopsy.
Waiting for answer from the prosecutor.
Waiting for a pandemic to hit.
Waiting for a yes.
Tom Petty said, “The waiting is the hardest part.”
There is a lot of waiting around. Sometimes for paralyzing news. And during this period you may not have much you can do while you wait. And that is tortuous. So the choice then, is control what you can control.
Living is always a choice.
They say, if you can’t be trusted with the small things, it is difficult to be trusted about the big ones.
And since our world floods us with so many little things, we tend to be nonchalant about them.
“I’ll get to it later.”
I think it should be the other way around. Become trusted with the big things and forgettable about the little.
Learn what needs to be taken serious and laugh at the rest.
Is the resentment that builds. Over time, this is the quicket way to end any relationship.
And there is no clear antidote to this.
You can obviously try couples counseling, reading books, talking about it, think of a systematic approach to minimizing conflict…there are plenty of paths to take.
However, I do think at some point you have to find a way to forgive. You lost that time/opportunity with it. And you need to come to peace with this.
The best thing to do is to go forward. Resentment doesn’t just eat the past, it also consumes the present. Creating a negative spiral.
What is a cue? It is a signal to the rest of the world in how to behaive. Going to the opera doesn’t have a dress code and yet, almost everyone there is dressed in a tux or gown.
Going to work has social cues. In the home, there are cues everywhere. You’ll find toys in a home full of children not expensive vases.
The problem with cues is we treat them like laws. If things look like this, I should act like that. We are always looking for a way to behaive because of our deep desire to fit in.
What about when AI wipes out a job market? What are those cues?
What about when social media becomes unreadable (which lets be honest already is) because of all the fake news that is spreads? What is the signal then?
The point is, the world continues to change at a pace no one can be competent at. And the world the last 200 years was built of competence. Anyone who goes to university can attest, it is less about learning as it is to demonstrate you can be competent at the tasks you will be given.
The culture cue of demonstrating competence is dead. If all you can show to get a job is a resume, how does one stand out? You can’t. You have to show your work. What projects you have completed, what your portfolio looks like, what can you point to and say, “This is me.” A social media account isn’t enough. Short cutting to making it seem like you have a brand isn’t doing much either.
The cue is a signal. And the signal is noisy. It isn’t easy to pick up because it isn’t making it clear what to do next. When it isn’t clear, the answer is simple:
Pick yourself. Get going.
Over a hundred years, Fredrick Taylor went around a factory with a stop watch taking notes to make it more effecient.
Today, Zoom calls are being monitored to see if someone is working when they say they will be. Like all seeing eye of Sauron from Lord of the Rings–always wathching.
Watching every move of someone who has no incetive to go faster or cheaper isn’t a way to move faster and cheaper.
The alternative is trust. The alternative is agency. Give people the keys to decision making and all of sudden they will make decisions. Perhaps, not all at once. Perhaps, not the decisions you would make. But with time, most of us want something significant. Something to point to and say, “I made this.”
The industrial mindset is dated. And frankly, is unsustainable going forward. Workers are wising up and this ecosystem is falling apart in the apparent need for growth.
Growth isn’t the answer and neither are babysitters. Which means there is room for something else.
If your job is to look at the work of other, what are you even contributing?
When you close your eyes, we tend to think the world stops.
The mountains continue to be there. The wildflowers will move with the breeze. The ocean still breaks waves.
Humans are the ones who can’t comprehend this idea that life goes on. Even when we are not paying attention. The world functions much better without humans. It’s humans that need to learn to function better with the world.
This is THE story. The path you are on. Not the one you wish you could take.
We get so lost in trying to write it instead of trying to live it.
Occam’s Razor recommends you seek the simplest explanation with the fewest assumptions.
Here are some statics:
Seven out of ten people believe in angels, heaven and the prayer.
Five out of ten believe in the devil and astrology.
Three out of ten believe in reincarnation.
4 million people believe they have been abducted by aliens.
Social media makes it difficult to find space for quiet voices and straightforward explanations. It’s never been easier to fall for conspiracy theories than it is today, and that is why they are so rampant. We want to believe there is something greater happening, but often, the conspiracy is people doing people things.
Josh Allred's Blog 