proper admin- fall 2016

Hi all,

Welcome to 'proper admin', my bi-monthly cleanup of everything I can't quite work into its own post.

Thanks for reading these past couple of months.

Tim

Blog Admin- Fall 2016

Not much new admin to cover this time around. I suppose with the bimonthly setup I can no longer name these posts by month. So, I am loosely organizing months into the six seasons we all learned in grade school:

September/October- Fall

November/December- Is it WINTER already??

January/February- Still think its a clever idea to own a car, eh?

March/April- How is it still WINTER???

May/June- Spring, sometimes. Buy Old Spice stock.

July/August- Perpetually sweaty. Buy Old Spice.

Speaking of bimonthly- let's clarify my use of it (since the world, for some reason, has two completely plausible meanings). I am using it to mean occurring twice monthly.

The word from the peanut gallery...

No questions this time around but a couple of comments did make me laugh out loud:

Comment: "I’m starting to think blogs are one of the worst inventions ever...whatever I learn from blogs (is) always non-sensical gibberish in the general scheme of things...except your blog, but maybe in a few months I’ll feel the same about it..."

Response: Keep reading, you'll get there!

Comment: "You read a blog, half paying attention, and at the end agreeing with the blogger. Then you read the next entry and realize Tim made a fool out of you..."

Response: My bad...the only person I intend to make look foolish around here is me.

People seemed to enjoy reading my ramblings about the ballot questions. Thanks for the kind words.

Commentary on Fall 2016 blog posts (True On Average)

*9/6- Finding Meaning In Work

I very much enjoyed writing this one. Maybe the only post I've really enjoyed writing so far.

People should work where they can make an impact. If they cannot, they should consider doing something else. Let's keep in mind that impact in this case is a word with a very individualized meaning.

*9/9- Proper Admin September

It was a good decision to relax the posting schedule. I think the guidelines served a purpose at a time where I was unsure about my direction (and not just in the context of this space).

Of late, I have a much clearer concept of inner-direction and this has made it easier to write posts without the external pressure of a schedule.

*9/14- Proper Admin September- Books

I'm sure that quote from George Saunders played into the debate series I ended up doing in late October.

*9/19- Hitting The Pods Button

This post was a homage of sorts to a pair of books I read about a year ago. Exercises In Style by Raymond Queneau tells the same story one hundred times, each chapter using a different technique than that utilized in the prior one (one is written like a play, one is first-person, one is in another language, etc). 99 Ways To Tell A Story by Matt Madden does a similar thing with comic strips.

The main idea from these books is reflected in this post- the way we choose to narrate our own experience is very much our own decision. Given that the books covered relatively mundane basic plots, it seemed a good fit for my own relatively dull 'experience' with podcasts.

I have no idea when this specific idea came to mind, though. No clue why I recalled it for this post and not for another one. Necessity is the mother of invention, they say. (I wonder what 'they' say about plagiarism.) (1)

*9/23- I Read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up So You Don’t Have To

I think more highly of this book each week. It applies to so much more than just the 'stuff' you shove under your bed or into your closet.

*9/28- Where Does Art Come From?

A quote from Makoto Ueda about 'Hell Screen' is an excellent summary for the many thousand words I've blubbered on about regarding the balance of life and art:

“For Akutagawa the dilemma was insoluble: if the artist chooses to place his art ahead of his life, in the end he must suffer the destruction of his life..."

Well, maybe that is a bit over the top, but the quote was intended to comment on Akutagawa's view and his alone.

I am still working on my post for the other story from this collection that I wanted to write about. It has taken its proud position alongside the several thousand other 'posts' I have suggested I will do over the course of the past eight months.

There is also a 'leftovers' post coming that may or may not feature T.I...

*10/3- Neo Moments

Neo Moments are embarrassing. This is probably why people do not make more of them when they happen.

I internalize my embarrassment in these situations. Whenever I have such a realization, I always wonder why I did not think of it before. Technically, this can be said about any thought. Acknowledging this helps a little. However, I suspect my embarrassment comes from a wiser part of my self that knows I did indeed think of it before and just had not bothered to do anything about it until now.

*10/7- How Many Books Should I Read This Year?

One of my classic 'who could give a shit about this' concepts that I ultimately went ahead with once I determined a broader application. The main idea that measuring anything properly requires two metrics is incredibly powerful.

The people I encounter who have a strong grasp of statistics (in the academic sense) AND are able to apply it to the real world tend to do this naturally. Those who do not reach decisive conclusions despite small sample sizes, improper experimental design, or failure to account for the known characteristics of the underlying population.

*10/12- Slightly Fueled

Sports fans tend to do their best ranting when they are annoyed about the commentary.

*10/17 ~ 10/28 - Make America Debate Again (six parts)

To no one's surpise, I have some additional thoughts from that post. I'll post them sometime in November as a 'leftovers' post.

*10/31- Proper Admin- September 2016 Reading Review

A name change! Sometimes, it is good to meet the expectation you set. Other times, it is simpler to just change the expectations.

Commentary on Fall 2016 blog posts (The Business Bro)

*9/1- The Manager Playbook

Ultimately, I did not get this role due to a lack of required 'technical skills'. Though missing out on a role is always disappointing, the reason given made perfect sense.

I never bothered to write a 'programming playbook'. I think that one fact says a lot about what I gravitate to and what I find important in terms of my own personal progression. Recognizing this truth about myself led to greater focus in my job search efforts over the past three months.

*9/8- A Dualing View To Hiring

The fire alarm went off at the Boston Public Library approximately two seconds after I finished up my thought about someone yelling FIRE in a meeting room. The ensuing scene was pure chaos. It resembled the end of Spaceballs or perhaps any Arrested Development episode- people going this way and that, running into each other, generally getting in everyone's way.

For some reason, just standing up and walking outside does not come naturally in this situation. I have no idea why this is the case. (Let's blame TV or that silly little boy who always went on and on about a wolf.)

I was reminded of the first time a fire alarm went off at my first job. Some colleagues remained at their desks, typing away. I was still young enough back then to worry about things like sticking out in the crowd. Was this a drill that I did not know about? The prospect of being the first one out of the building during a fire alarm was bad enough- being the only one out seemed like a fireable offense. I solved the problem by asking a co-worker if she thought we should leave.

It is sometimes alarming to look back on our own insecurities.

Another work fire alarm became memorable in a different way. This took place one morning at eight-fifteen, too early save for a groggy handful of us. One perpetually late colleague stunningly made it in early that day. This same person remarked 'this is why you never come in early' once everyone had secured their own safety.

Such a truthful insight. Unexpected delays like other people interrupting you, equipment breakdowns, or false alarms in general never seem to happen at six-fifteen in the evening.

That comment grew into a 'come in early' rule of thumb for me. Over the next two years, if I could not justify arriving by seven, I usually came in at nine-thirty. It was one of the most productive work decisions I have ever made.

*9/15- Leaving By Example

This was not a real post, I suppose, but the idea that I was doing too much comes through once more. When quality slips or profitable projects are left undone, a business must hire. This pointless pair of blogs should follow its own rules of thumb.

*9/22- Principled Leadership

The desire to lead in this way is probably an inverse function of how much you enjoy issuing dictum after dictum from your leadership position.

*9/29- Leadership 101

Of all the posts I wrote for this blog, I thought this one was the clearest example of writing bringing additional insight on a topic for the author. I say this because even though most of the ideas from this post came from my manager playbook, I never considered the individual ideas as components for a personal leadership framework.

I've found this post helpful in clarifying the core of what I consider basic leadership principles. With that understanding firmly in place, the clear next step is to link the other ideas and concepts from that playbook to their appropriate supporting place within those principles. When I resume writing posts for this blog, the focus will be on expanding that framework through linking isolated ideas and understandings I have accumulated over the years.

My final comment about podcasts...

The podcast ranking idea is done. For the future, I'll recommend episodes I especially enjoyed. If I have nothing, I'll write nothing. (2)

My recommendation for today is from a show I believe I first heard about two years ago. The episode is called 'The Living Room'. At that time, I found the episode so incredible that I decided to subscribe to the Love And Radio podcast.

Eventually, I stopped listening to the podcast. It was a tough decision because there were occasionally great episodes. Ultimately, my interest in the subject was not strong enough to keep my ear through the less than stellar episodes.

However, I still remember 'The Living Room' as one of the best podcast episodes I have ever heard. For what it is worth, someone (who presumably is paid to think about podcasts all year) at The Atlantic agreed, placing this episode third on a list titled the 'Top 50 Podcast Episodes of 2015'. (I'm not sure what to make of that ranking but at least its inclusion on the list indicates that it is, at the minimum, good enough.)

If you have half an hour to kill, I recommend listening to that one episode. Click here for a link to the episode...

The pointless top ten of the month...

Another short-lived feature. This one I discard reluctantly because I enjoy making pointless top ten lists. However, with this post now covering two months instead of one, the need for 'original content' is no longer there.

As a teaser for an upcoming post- my thought a month ago was to list the ten things I buy most often at Haymarket. I am considering a separate post on the topic- a Haymarket shopping guide, maybe, or something focusing on my nutrition concepts. Stay tuned...

My culinary tastes continue to expand

One new food item I began consuming recently is beets. Nothing fancy. I just boil them up a bit with a lid on the pot and cut the skin away after I can get a fork into the beet without too much resistance.

A word of warning to those considering a step into this world. For some, beets do change the color of certain bodily functions. Don't overreact and go to the ER (not that I did) or worry overnight (which I may have done). This might be a trivial point if you eat beets in moderation (no comment).

I started buying vegetable dumplings. Although my diet is not anywhere near what I (or anyone) would describe as 'vegetarian', I am noting a certain trend in that direction. Over the course of the past few years, I have eaten less and less meat at home. Switching from frozen pork dumplings to their vegetarian counterpart is another step along this particularly foggy but well-marked pathway.

On sale, these dumplings cost $2.25 per pound. That is just a shade above Haymarket rate for almost all raw vegetables. At those prices, perhaps everyone will soon abandon meat eating.

How much could a banana cost, ten dollars?

The container of table salt I have used for nearly six years finally ran out this month. Assuming that a half-decade's supply of anything would cost a notable sum, I went to the cheapest grocery store I could think of in search of a replacement.

In such times, only the Super 88 in Brighton fits the bill. The Super 88 is the most basic Asian grocery store around. The H Mart in Central Square is essentially the 'Hollywood' version of the Super 88.

Walking in, I noted immediately that bananas were on sale for forty-nine cents a pound. This was a great sign- right at Haymarket rate.

Eventually, my wanderings took me to the salt section. Notably, this was not the same area in which a shopper would find soy sauce- even though soy sauce is composed of almost one hundred percent salt.

How much could salt cost, indeed? Apparently, ninety-nine cents. I'm not sure what I was expecting but it surely was not that.

The Super 88 in general is a joy to browse in. There is always something that makes me laugh. On this trip, I noticed a product called 'Super Gluten' on sale for two at two dollars (the price for one was $1.99). In a time where increased awareness of coeliac disease has generated a robust demand for gluten-free products, I had to laugh out loud at the thought of a product choosing to 'zig' while the rest of the food industry 'zagged'.

Is it time for my (bi)-monthly U2 comment?

One rule of thumb I use for moving a book from my 'to-read' list onto an actual library request list is something I vaguely refer to as 'this subject seems to come up all the time'. (The most recent book that fits into this category was the one about 'Tidying'.)

Just Kids by Patti Smith is the next such book. Author of M Train, a book I read earlier this year, I've noted in the past couple of months that things keep coming up which involve her in some unanticipated way.

One is a concert clip from a U2 show in Paris. Over the years, the band has occasionally covered her songs. On their most recent tour, they used 'People Have The Power' as intro music before taking the stage. In this particular clip, they bring Patti Smith onstage at the conclusion of the show to perform that same song together. For some reason, I've started listening to this clip regularly over the past few weeks.

Two others unprompted mentions of Patti Smith came through separate conversations with friends. One friend recalled a summer spent in Maine listening to many of her records. Another talked about going to see her appear at a recent event in Boston.

Those three coincidences were good enough for me. Throw in the fact that Just Kids has idly sat on my 'to read' list since I finished up M Train and I figured the time was right. It is currently sitting on my bedside table, buried under several other recently borrowed library books, each with its own equally pointless personal meaning to me.

I think re-reading M Train soon will be worth it, as well. I enjoyed it back in the late winter when I read it for the first time. I suspect that the wisdom gained in the months since leave me prepared to understand it from a different perspective. (3)

Let's call it 'Big Papi Park' from now on...

I found out there was a place called Roethlisberger Park in Cambridge. Huh.

For once, a thing around here called a square is actually square-shaped...

Good rules require exceptions, they say.

RULE: Dunkin' Donuts produces bad donuts.

EXCEPTION: The Reese's Peanut Butter Square

Did I leave the apartment at all?

Leaving the apartment is a nice concept but I find it helps to have a destination. Over the past few months, I've tried a number of different ways to find things to do in the area. As it tends to go in these cases, I've experienced varying levels of success.

The most successful general strategy has been signing up for weekly newsletters. These describe different events going on around town for the upcoming week. Though I tried many and found almost all of them to have some value, the only one I continue to use is from 'The Boston Calendar' (link). This newsletter is fairly comprehensive and its arrival on Wednesday or Thursday is well-timed to when I start filling in the space in my unplanned weekends.

Another decent strategy is to check websites routinely for updates or new events. The Boston Jazz Calendar is the best example of this (link). The best part of this website's design is how the events are always arranged in order of start time. I suppose this is a luxury that can be afforded a niche calendar.

The Boston Globe compiles upcoming author appearances each week. I could subscribe to this as a newsletter, I suspect, but I am also not sure if I'll get full access given the paywall structure. For now, I check each Thursday for the events taking place over the coming week (link for the week of October 30 through November 5). This rhythm ensures I'll stay under the five article monthly limit.

The last website is the Boston Event Calendar and I check this on the 25th of each month (link to the August 2016 page). This one features mostly mainstream events and appears to focus on the tourist crowd (one way to clarify this- many of the events are accompanied by hotel recommendations). Still, sometimes I get a valuable note or two from my monthly check-in at this site.

That was not the question...

One event I checked out in October was the Boston Book Festival (featured on two of the four above lists, for those tracking this sort of thing). This annual event is exactly what is sounds like (though it does appear that the organization which runs this event is based in Cambridge).

I took in two events at this year's edition. The first, called 'Publisher Idol' (or perhaps 'Writer's Idol'- I forget) was an American Idol style competition where publishers judged the first two hundred and fifty words of manuscripts submitted by audience members. At any point, the judges were allowed to stop the reading to make comments about the submission or simply discuss the publishing industry in general.

The event was very entertaining. I learned quite a few useful facts about the industry. I was emboldened to learn that publishers seek books that ten thousand people will spend twenty-six dollars to buy. That does not seem like much at all. Anyone can write a book that does that, right?

The judging process revealed additional fascinating details. Based on the figures provided by the publishers, I learned that a full-time publisher would look through eight to ten thousand manuscripts per year. That works out to about thirty to forty a day or about five per hour. The speed at which decisions must be made in such an environment is staggering to think about.

I thought it was a good sign that the exact strategy I used to write the podcast post was a specific suggestion from the most vocal of the three judges- start writing, then work with what you have to see if structure, starting point, and all that such could benefit from a change.

I plan to write in more detail about an additional aspect of this experience during my next go-around on The Business Bro.

The second event featured Colson Whitehead, author of the recently published The Underground Railroad. Whitehead read from this book, discussed it briefly with the host, and fielded questions from brave (or possibly concussed, in one sad case) audience members.

The comment I liked most from Whitehead was in response to a question of whether a person outside a particular group could write from the perspective of someone in that group. Whitehead pointed out that, as a man, he had no problem writing a novel whose protagonist was a woman. Though I am currently hard at work trying to improve my ability to actually answer the questions I am asked, I did find this 'non-answer' of sorts both appropriate in the context of the event and insightful for its polite simplicity.

As always happens at these readings, I thought hard about asking a question and ended up asking no questions. I realized on my way out that the problem with my unasked questions is that they invariably tend to make me, the questioner, look insightful or clever. They never seem to account for what I want to learn from the author or grant an opening into which the author might choose to expand with insight or cleverness of their own.

Good questions, I concluded, should bring forth good answers. The best question is trivial if it leaves no possibility for a good answer. Perhaps I would feel more inclined to ask a question at my next such event if I am able to craft a question that invites a good answer.

Anything else?

A lot else, actually. An awful lot.

I watched a movie for the first time in over a year and went to see a Lake Street Dive concert (also for the first time in over a year). I hit a one-year anniversary (of sorts) on Hubway and took a personality test that turned out to be much more insightful than I ever could have anticipated. On one rainy Thursday evening, I enjoyed a profound conversation about how to emphasize the ongoing act of living in an environment where the first impression overwhelmingly steers one's thoughts to dying.

These all are the sorts of things I usually write about in this proper admin space. This time around was no exception. But I found as I expanded on those experiences that each fit better into the flow of separate posts. Not requiring the support of the framework within 'proper admin', I decided to take these out and wait to post them on a different day.

Over time, I am finding less of a need for the 'proper admin' structure than I did when I started blogging back in February. The anticipation of this change is expressed in my introductions- proper admin is a space for what I could not work into a post. The way this change has manifested surprised me, though.

I had always thought I would simply become better at immediately writing about what came up over the course of the month. What has ended up happening is that I am now more willing to wait on an idea, recognizing that some experiences simply require more time before I understand what I have to say about it.

It takes me back to Colson Whitehead and the last of his comments that stuck with me. According to the author, the idea for a story based on the premise that the Underground Railroad was literally a train that ran underground was something that grew out of a misunderstanding he had studying history as a young child. He eventually learned the meaning of the metaphor but never forgot the image produced that one day by his imagination.

As his writing career progressed, Whitehead thought about drawing on this concept for his next project. Each time, he concluded that he must wait, that he was not yet ready to draw this particular story out of himself. When he finally put pen to paper for The Underground Railroad, he did so because he understood that he was finally ready to begin.

With Whitehead's comments in mind, I confirm that these posts are not the exhaustive catalog they were over much of this year. I found the structure both helpful and enjoyable. But regardless of structure, the task of writing remains to write well. The aim in removing those topics listed above is to find a more appropriate time to try and accomplish this.

Thanks for reading over the past couple of months. Back again on Wednesday with a (much) shorter post.

Tim

Footnotes / imagined complaints

1. For some reason, I still like M&Ms...

Writing this post brought back a memory from my first week at college. The freshman orientation program involved a multi-day trip with nine to eleven fellow new students. About halfway through day one of this trip, we were handed a bag of M&Ms and encouraged to take as many as we liked. Well, I liked M&Ms and I had not eaten all day. So I took eighteen.

We were then told that we were going to count our M&Ms and tell one thing about ourselves to the group. Now, being a somewhat shy fellow (up to that point, I had spoken between three and twenty non-required words on the trip) I did not find this a particularly exciting development. I was also not sure exactly what I could say. Somehow, I decided the best plan was to tell one short story about each year of my life.

I talked about doing gymnastics on a broken arm (age five) and the day I proved once and for all that lefties do not play shortstop (age eight). I shared my obsession with my alleged memorization of Tokyo's subway system (age three) and detailed the day my basketball team scored eight points during the first half of a game- a night that a prospective college coach decided was a good time to see me play (age seventeen). I even talked about getting banned from the sixth grade/senior citizen book group about Louis Sachar's Holes, an accomplishment I believe remains unmatched at the Norwood Junior High School (age twelve).

One thing I know for sure- neither I nor anyone else learned a single thing from my desperate tirade. But I do remember people enjoying it, for whatever reason.

2. So what kinds of podcasts do I like, anyway?

After ten years, I have a good understanding of what works for me. Podcasts presented like a simple recording of a conversation are right in my wheelhouse. Shows where one person essentially narrates their own thought process also work.

I think podcasts that feel overproduced- meaning too much music played in the background or too many extended transitions- are generally not my kind of show. Shows that focus too much on storytelling or technical accuracy will quickly lose my interest. These general preferences grew out of much turnover in my podcast lineup over the past ten years.

Sometimes, I end up learning things unrelated to content from the shows I listen to. One example from a podcast I recently tossed aside is Happier with Gretchen Rubin. She wrote a pragmatic book that I've read a couple of times called The Happiness Project and this podcast is essentially the radio version of that. There was nothing wrong with the podcast but, having read the book, I think most of the wisdom available is already with me.

What I found interesting was the premise behind her 'a little happier' shows. Unlike her weekly thirty to forty-five minute episodes, these were one to three minute shows where she covered only one idea. Usually, the idea was illuminated with a quick, symbolic example. Listening to these little podcasts helped spur the decision to limit the posts for The Business Bro blog to six hundred words or less and provided a rough framework for how I would write about one and only one idea at a time.

Well, usually.

3. Plus, what was the book about, anyway?

I don't even know how to state what I think the book was about. Perhaps how to get on with the business of living when our past and present fail to show the way forward? Maybe a guide for building a nest with the twigs and branches that are inevitably lost by all trees?