Hi all,
A couple of weeks ago, I posted some comments about Tim Harford's Messy. I usually try to cover ideas from the book in those write-ups but, in the case of Messy, all I really did was act as the cheerleader for the book.
So, here are ten specific ideas I took either directly from the book or came up with myself upon reflection.
Thanks for reading. See you all again on Wednesday.
Tim
1. Scientists who constantly change topics tend to publish more papers. This is perhaps because the slight difference in environment spur their creative juices.
2. A pain in the foot will go away if someone slaps you in the face.
3. Smooth conversations in a group are sometimes a concern. People who worry about group harmony are less likely to optimize performance if they suspect it could disrupt the team dynamic.
4. Working with patients in their own world requires caregivers join them in that space and validate their feelings and experience.
5. Synchronizing too much will reduce the pace of the group to the pace of its slowest member.
6. Easy to measure scores oversimplify the complex and leave open the temptation that metric-relevant portions of a problem are focused on at the expense of the unmeasured.
7. A computer ten thousand times faster than a human will make ten thousand times as many mistakes.
8. The Basel rules established their own measure of risk despite the market doing so organically via the interest rate. Therefore, banks simply chose the riskiest assets among the class of 'safe' assets, thus heightening the volatility of the system due to the similarity of investment portfolios.
9. Many automated systems ask the human to monitor the machine. This reverses the roles of a setup that takes advantage of each party's strengths. The human is asked to apply constant attention, the computer tasked with response to the novel.
10. Diverse skill sets prove more resilient over time. A country that produces in greater variety ultimately produces in greater quality.
And a bonus:
Weekly or monthly planning beats daily planning. Daily planning makes it difficult to adjust to opportunities and takes too much admin time for each unit of work
Friday, January 27, 2017
Monday, January 23, 2017
prop admin- december 2016 reading review, part 2
Hi,
Picking up from where we left off- part two of my reading review for December 2016.
Thanks for reading. See you all again on Friday.
Tim
*Stoner by John Williams (12/12)
Coming my way via half-recommendation ('I'm going to read this'), I picked up Stoner with no expectations. The tale of an unremarkable farm boy who goes on to become a scholar, instructor, and professor at university, this story shares few characteristics with books I've considered 'page turners' in the past. And yet, I finished Stoner the same night I started it.
The novel primarily covers the title character's career in academics. Stoner, it is often described, loves what he teaches. He exemplifies the idea that anyone who loves possesses the capacity to understand the object of this love. As his career progresses, he takes on roles as friend, enemy, husband, and father, each experience intertwining with the next to reinforce the same lesson about love from different points of view.
I saw a commentary here in how those who love with restrictions are doomed to never fully understand the object of their love. Teachers who do not love their work in full fail to understand their craft in full. A parent who loves conditionally is able to understand a child only within the framework of those conditions. The ramifications of how love shapes Stoner's understanding of life play out in so many more ways throughout.
Stoner, in a way, was almost the exact opposite of The Waves, the book I completed just moments prior to opening this one. Stoner is told by focusing on one person rather than many. It relied on a calm third-person narrative style that clashed with the intensity of Woolf's method calling for multiple characters to interchange inner monologues. Williams's writing was simple, again a contrast to the complex lyrical quality of Woolf's. Even my reading experience contrasted- I finished Stoner in six hours while I enjoyed The Waves over the course of six weeks.
And yet, I took away similar lessons from each work. Like with The Waves, Stoner is a portrait of how people face and accept the challenges brought on by life's joys, demands, and disappointments. As John McGahern suggests in his introduction, Stoner's great achievement is his fully lived life, done so by meeting rather than shrinking from the limits he encounters.
One up: I read an awful lot but rare is the book that I pick up and finish the same day. That suggests to me that the elements of pacing and style here will keep the pages turning for any reader.
One down: I think some will find darkness here where perhaps I saw light. It is unclear if Stoner's life is heroic or tragic. More than once, the deafening silence of what remains unsaid reverberates far longer than the words shouted by the characters. The scene that I cannot get out of my head which exemplifies this idea is when Stoner first discusses the possibility of a life in academia with his parents.
Just saying: Stoner lives through two world wars. The circumstances allows an insight on war, delivered from Stoner's mentor, who describes the tragedy of ongoing war as not just measured in the direct loss of life on the battlefield but also in the loss of the less tangible elements in a community. It elevates darkness and brutality to a permanent place in society through its seeming necessity and stunts the effected generation's ability to carry out its responsibilities to build up the traditions of civilization.
*The Gutsy Girl by Caroline Paul (12/13)
A collection of stories about Paul's life, with preference given to the unexpected or unusual. Whether detailing her qualification for the national luge team or describing her turbulent ascent to the top of the Golden Gate Bridge, Paul's anecdotes are reflections about facing fear, ignoring stereotypes, and giving it your all in the face of self-doubt, trepidation, and those annoying naysayers who cannot help but say nay.
The spirit of trusting yourself to grant you safe passage out of your comfort zones is the theme that links this collection together. There is something here for anyone who needs a little help to dream, to be brave, or to achieve when all visible signals are discouraging. I should know, given how far outside the target audience I fall (girls aged eight to fourteen, if I were to hazard a pretty strong guess).
I ended up reading this book because I enjoyed Lost Cat, a book with a similar blend of storytelling and illustration. My positive experiences with Paul so far suggest I'll try Fighting Fire, a full-length memoir of her career as San Francisco's first female firefighter.
One up: Scattered throughout the collection are miscellaneous tips and strategies for navigating various adventures. My favorites include her advice to use a line of three landmarks to walk in the woods without circling and to carry Vaseline soaked cotton balls in film canisters as emergency fire starters.
One down: I guess it bears repeating- this book IS directed at preteen girls. The self-conscious reader (and aren't we all?) will perhaps find him or herself (though likely himself, right?) best-off enjoying this book within the sanctuary of four closed walls, a nice solid roof, and tightly stapled curtains.
Just saying: Paul distills her wisdom gained through experience for her younger target audience. In encouraging the hesitant forward, Paul points out that those who learn from failure never really fail at all. She suggests those who feel stuck in some way to write two obituaries- the first describing the life lived so far, the second a detailed account of the life truly desired. A bridge with the endpoint defined is far easier to cross (or, in her case, climb).
*Sounds Like Me by Sara Bareilles (12/16)
In fall of 2007, an unlikely hit song became (by my unofficial determination) the most frequently played song in my college basketball team's locker room. It was 'Love Song', by Sara Bareilles. I enjoyed it at the time despite it not being quite my cup of tea. In fact, it took another six years before I listened regularly to any of her other work, an incubation period of sorts that baffles me in retrospect.
The book brings out so many of the same qualities that her fans love about her music. It embraces moments of weakness brought on by doubt and suffering, examining it all without self-pity, to bring forward a work bursting with exuberance and strength. The book is divided into chapters focusing on one particular song. No two chapters are delivered in the same way. The versatility of her writing is reminiscent of her wide ranging musical skills.
One chapter is a series of letters to herself, another the detailed account of her initial failure in co-writing, a third a reflection on how her struggles with body image impacted her songwriting. Each chapter reinforced a number of broader themes- that patience allows time to soften the hardest edges of experience, that cultivating self-worth from external forces is like running on a treadmill forever speeding up, that empathy is best exhibited through inclusion.
I liked best the acknowledgment that believing in the possibility of others becomes increasingly more difficult with age. It took some reflection before I realized how this applies to how people see themselves much more so than it does to how they see others. The work of bringing out the strength and beauty in others is near impossible for those who cannot attempt the same for themselves.
One up: There is no holding back in this book. I think that explains her success as a songwriter as much as it does describe the strength of this book.
One down: Those seeking a line-by-line account of the songwriting process should look elsewhere. This book is more about the person holding the pen than it is about how the pen conjures, edits, and finalizes each verse.
Just saying: At one point, she shares alternate titles for the book. I'm not sure if she ended up choosing the best one or not. But I do know I laughed at "I'm Not Gonna Write You A Book". (1)
*Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde (12/17)
Lorde's collection includes writing and speeches from 1976 through 1984. The focus of these pieces is wide ranging, covering many of the themes she is most well known for today. What these pieces share is an underlying belief in the indispensable role difference plays as a source of change, growth, and understanding.
It is, from her point of view, how she sees the role of the feminist. She writes that a feminist heals divisions and makes connections. In a number of essays, she addresses ways to do this on the personal level. Those who learn to recognize their deepest feelings, for example, ultimately develop an intolerance of the foreign conditions that poison the emotional core- resignation, suffering, self-denial.
As a person develops this understanding of self, the capacity to reach across differences and exhibit compassion through cooperation emerges. Her well-known quote 'for the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house' grows out of this idea. Beating an oppressor at their own game is an isolating approach. To stand against the structure, united through common cause with outsiders, is a way forward that brings positive change and makes room for the human concerns of those looking in from the outside.
I think Lorde saw the inability to relate across difference and fuel growth out of understanding as the biggest challenge facing her time. I think progress has been made since then but I'm afraid there is a long way to go. The frustrating aspect of progress is that some required steps resonate very little in the arenas we desire to impact. But those who are kinder to neighbors than to themselves or yield to anger or indignation rather than comprehend another's anguish are limited in the extent they can bring out these desired outcomes.
One up: Lorde references an idea I believe I cited in a past post- that poetry is a way to fashion languages which do not yet exist. Her prose takes on the same quality throughout the collection.
One down: One night, I read a few pages of this book while riding the Red Line. About a third of the way into my trip, the man sitting a couple of seats down from me got my attention. When I looked up, he pulled out the same book from his backpack and waved it in my general direction.
"Pretty good, huh?" he asked, before returning the book to his bag.
But then why aren't you reading it? I wondered as I scanned the page, serching for the place I had just lost.
That stray thought is the closest I can come to saying something negative about Sister Outsider.
Just saying: I did not extensively investigate Lorde's background but it would not surprise me to learn that she studied economics. Her observations about the problems of profit-driven thinking are among the sharpest commentaries in this collection.
Footnotes / imagined complaints
1. But good rules have exceptions! Be BRAVE!
So, read this or not?
I only read music books if it details the music I listen to. This book makes me want to bend the rule a little bit because I think it applies in a general way. The stories shared here are not really about her career or even the specific songs she writes about. But I think the safest progression is to listen to her music first and, if properly inspired, read this book next.
So, for you Sara Bareilles newbies- I would start with the album Brave Enough: Live at the Variety Playhouse. I really like the piano-and-vocals solo format (with a brief guitar stretch in the middle) of this 2013 concert recording. As a bonus, her humor and warmth as a performer is evident throughout. It's her only album that I listen to in full. The studio albums bring some extra bells and whistles, mostly with their additional instruments, and although this works very well in general, I find that my preference remains for the simpler sounds of Brave Enough.
Picking up from where we left off- part two of my reading review for December 2016.
Thanks for reading. See you all again on Friday.
Tim
*Stoner by John Williams (12/12)
Coming my way via half-recommendation ('I'm going to read this'), I picked up Stoner with no expectations. The tale of an unremarkable farm boy who goes on to become a scholar, instructor, and professor at university, this story shares few characteristics with books I've considered 'page turners' in the past. And yet, I finished Stoner the same night I started it.
The novel primarily covers the title character's career in academics. Stoner, it is often described, loves what he teaches. He exemplifies the idea that anyone who loves possesses the capacity to understand the object of this love. As his career progresses, he takes on roles as friend, enemy, husband, and father, each experience intertwining with the next to reinforce the same lesson about love from different points of view.
I saw a commentary here in how those who love with restrictions are doomed to never fully understand the object of their love. Teachers who do not love their work in full fail to understand their craft in full. A parent who loves conditionally is able to understand a child only within the framework of those conditions. The ramifications of how love shapes Stoner's understanding of life play out in so many more ways throughout.
Stoner, in a way, was almost the exact opposite of The Waves, the book I completed just moments prior to opening this one. Stoner is told by focusing on one person rather than many. It relied on a calm third-person narrative style that clashed with the intensity of Woolf's method calling for multiple characters to interchange inner monologues. Williams's writing was simple, again a contrast to the complex lyrical quality of Woolf's. Even my reading experience contrasted- I finished Stoner in six hours while I enjoyed The Waves over the course of six weeks.
And yet, I took away similar lessons from each work. Like with The Waves, Stoner is a portrait of how people face and accept the challenges brought on by life's joys, demands, and disappointments. As John McGahern suggests in his introduction, Stoner's great achievement is his fully lived life, done so by meeting rather than shrinking from the limits he encounters.
One up: I read an awful lot but rare is the book that I pick up and finish the same day. That suggests to me that the elements of pacing and style here will keep the pages turning for any reader.
One down: I think some will find darkness here where perhaps I saw light. It is unclear if Stoner's life is heroic or tragic. More than once, the deafening silence of what remains unsaid reverberates far longer than the words shouted by the characters. The scene that I cannot get out of my head which exemplifies this idea is when Stoner first discusses the possibility of a life in academia with his parents.
Just saying: Stoner lives through two world wars. The circumstances allows an insight on war, delivered from Stoner's mentor, who describes the tragedy of ongoing war as not just measured in the direct loss of life on the battlefield but also in the loss of the less tangible elements in a community. It elevates darkness and brutality to a permanent place in society through its seeming necessity and stunts the effected generation's ability to carry out its responsibilities to build up the traditions of civilization.
*The Gutsy Girl by Caroline Paul (12/13)
A collection of stories about Paul's life, with preference given to the unexpected or unusual. Whether detailing her qualification for the national luge team or describing her turbulent ascent to the top of the Golden Gate Bridge, Paul's anecdotes are reflections about facing fear, ignoring stereotypes, and giving it your all in the face of self-doubt, trepidation, and those annoying naysayers who cannot help but say nay.
The spirit of trusting yourself to grant you safe passage out of your comfort zones is the theme that links this collection together. There is something here for anyone who needs a little help to dream, to be brave, or to achieve when all visible signals are discouraging. I should know, given how far outside the target audience I fall (girls aged eight to fourteen, if I were to hazard a pretty strong guess).
I ended up reading this book because I enjoyed Lost Cat, a book with a similar blend of storytelling and illustration. My positive experiences with Paul so far suggest I'll try Fighting Fire, a full-length memoir of her career as San Francisco's first female firefighter.
One up: Scattered throughout the collection are miscellaneous tips and strategies for navigating various adventures. My favorites include her advice to use a line of three landmarks to walk in the woods without circling and to carry Vaseline soaked cotton balls in film canisters as emergency fire starters.
One down: I guess it bears repeating- this book IS directed at preteen girls. The self-conscious reader (and aren't we all?) will perhaps find him or herself (though likely himself, right?) best-off enjoying this book within the sanctuary of four closed walls, a nice solid roof, and tightly stapled curtains.
Just saying: Paul distills her wisdom gained through experience for her younger target audience. In encouraging the hesitant forward, Paul points out that those who learn from failure never really fail at all. She suggests those who feel stuck in some way to write two obituaries- the first describing the life lived so far, the second a detailed account of the life truly desired. A bridge with the endpoint defined is far easier to cross (or, in her case, climb).
*Sounds Like Me by Sara Bareilles (12/16)
In fall of 2007, an unlikely hit song became (by my unofficial determination) the most frequently played song in my college basketball team's locker room. It was 'Love Song', by Sara Bareilles. I enjoyed it at the time despite it not being quite my cup of tea. In fact, it took another six years before I listened regularly to any of her other work, an incubation period of sorts that baffles me in retrospect.
The book brings out so many of the same qualities that her fans love about her music. It embraces moments of weakness brought on by doubt and suffering, examining it all without self-pity, to bring forward a work bursting with exuberance and strength. The book is divided into chapters focusing on one particular song. No two chapters are delivered in the same way. The versatility of her writing is reminiscent of her wide ranging musical skills.
One chapter is a series of letters to herself, another the detailed account of her initial failure in co-writing, a third a reflection on how her struggles with body image impacted her songwriting. Each chapter reinforced a number of broader themes- that patience allows time to soften the hardest edges of experience, that cultivating self-worth from external forces is like running on a treadmill forever speeding up, that empathy is best exhibited through inclusion.
I liked best the acknowledgment that believing in the possibility of others becomes increasingly more difficult with age. It took some reflection before I realized how this applies to how people see themselves much more so than it does to how they see others. The work of bringing out the strength and beauty in others is near impossible for those who cannot attempt the same for themselves.
One up: There is no holding back in this book. I think that explains her success as a songwriter as much as it does describe the strength of this book.
One down: Those seeking a line-by-line account of the songwriting process should look elsewhere. This book is more about the person holding the pen than it is about how the pen conjures, edits, and finalizes each verse.
Just saying: At one point, she shares alternate titles for the book. I'm not sure if she ended up choosing the best one or not. But I do know I laughed at "I'm Not Gonna Write You A Book". (1)
*Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde (12/17)
Lorde's collection includes writing and speeches from 1976 through 1984. The focus of these pieces is wide ranging, covering many of the themes she is most well known for today. What these pieces share is an underlying belief in the indispensable role difference plays as a source of change, growth, and understanding.
It is, from her point of view, how she sees the role of the feminist. She writes that a feminist heals divisions and makes connections. In a number of essays, she addresses ways to do this on the personal level. Those who learn to recognize their deepest feelings, for example, ultimately develop an intolerance of the foreign conditions that poison the emotional core- resignation, suffering, self-denial.
As a person develops this understanding of self, the capacity to reach across differences and exhibit compassion through cooperation emerges. Her well-known quote 'for the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house' grows out of this idea. Beating an oppressor at their own game is an isolating approach. To stand against the structure, united through common cause with outsiders, is a way forward that brings positive change and makes room for the human concerns of those looking in from the outside.
I think Lorde saw the inability to relate across difference and fuel growth out of understanding as the biggest challenge facing her time. I think progress has been made since then but I'm afraid there is a long way to go. The frustrating aspect of progress is that some required steps resonate very little in the arenas we desire to impact. But those who are kinder to neighbors than to themselves or yield to anger or indignation rather than comprehend another's anguish are limited in the extent they can bring out these desired outcomes.
One up: Lorde references an idea I believe I cited in a past post- that poetry is a way to fashion languages which do not yet exist. Her prose takes on the same quality throughout the collection.
One down: One night, I read a few pages of this book while riding the Red Line. About a third of the way into my trip, the man sitting a couple of seats down from me got my attention. When I looked up, he pulled out the same book from his backpack and waved it in my general direction.
"Pretty good, huh?" he asked, before returning the book to his bag.
But then why aren't you reading it? I wondered as I scanned the page, serching for the place I had just lost.
That stray thought is the closest I can come to saying something negative about Sister Outsider.
Just saying: I did not extensively investigate Lorde's background but it would not surprise me to learn that she studied economics. Her observations about the problems of profit-driven thinking are among the sharpest commentaries in this collection.
Footnotes / imagined complaints
1. But good rules have exceptions! Be BRAVE!
So, read this or not?
I only read music books if it details the music I listen to. This book makes me want to bend the rule a little bit because I think it applies in a general way. The stories shared here are not really about her career or even the specific songs she writes about. But I think the safest progression is to listen to her music first and, if properly inspired, read this book next.
So, for you Sara Bareilles newbies- I would start with the album Brave Enough: Live at the Variety Playhouse. I really like the piano-and-vocals solo format (with a brief guitar stretch in the middle) of this 2013 concert recording. As a bonus, her humor and warmth as a performer is evident throughout. It's her only album that I listen to in full. The studio albums bring some extra bells and whistles, mostly with their additional instruments, and although this works very well in general, I find that my preference remains for the simpler sounds of Brave Enough.
Monday, January 16, 2017
2016 books of the year, part 1
Hi all,
The end of 2016 (good riddance, 2016, come back never, please) means one thing- January 1, 2017. Wait, no, no, that's not it. Let's start over!
The end of 2016 means its time to look back on the year and dish out some awards. Around these parts, that means reading. I read one hundred and twenty-nine books this year (up from one hundred in each of the past two years). Narrowing down all those very good books was a big task but, after seventeen minutes or so of loosely focused effort, I have managed to narrow it down to a shortlist of around fifteen.
We'll do it in two parts. Today's portion, the honorable mentions, will be in awards-show style. But instead of cooking up some arbitrary categories (best story, best cover, largest overdue fine, I mean who cares???), I'll pair lyrics from my favorite band of 2016, Slow Club, to the book that they best exemplify. (1)
I'll note that some of these lyrics are petulant. That is more a reflection of my feelings for the year 2016 than they are a comment on Slow Club. Don't worry, readers, I intend to absorb events with greater maturity this year! (2)
OK, everyone ready?
Without further ado, the honorable mentions for my 2016 books of year list, presented by (sort of) Slow Club!
*Hackers and Painters by Paul Graham
Each essay, for me, is a reminder that a lifetime spent waiting for the party to start is a lifetime spent in wait. Better to get out there and find your own fun. Do that and you won't even realize you missed what you were waiting for.
*Mind Gym by Sebastian Bailey and Octavius Black
As I prepared to write about it on this space, I once more checked the reviews. I confirmed that Mind Gym is indeed the name of a highly regarded book. It just was not the same Mind Gym that I read. Oh, well.
It was only a book, in the end. I'll get over it.
*How To Lie With Statistics by Darrell Huff
I think its natural to get sucked away from focusing on basic concepts in the real world. In data analytics, the field I worked in for over five years, there is constant pressure to declare false patterns within data.
I've enjoyed the clarity of my thought process in 2016. Part of that is due to getting away from those environments. But I know a big part of it came from reading this book again at the start of the year.
*Revulsion: Thomas Bernhard in San Salvador by Horacio Castellanos Moya
The great question of the work regards how much power there is in simply acknowledging the realities of a struggling society. My guess is, in the same way we find common ground by relating our own difficulties with others, a society can find mutual interests and strive to build a better future by collectively acknowledging what ails them.
*Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
A couple of weeks later, I signed my lease for another year.
This was the first time I really chose a place to live. Up until then, my apartment choice was always a result of optimizing other concerns such as commute, roommates, rent, and so on. I did not really understand that, though, until I signed my lease again.
A half year later, my working hypothesis is that, once you accept increasing responsibility for your choices, the frustrations of forces working externally on you slowly lose their weight. It seems a natural result- by taking control, you feel more in control, and that in turn makes it a little easier to let things roll off your back.
You know what? From that viewpoint, perhaps in the end these lyrics do not apply very well at all. But they do highlight a lesson I learned this year about how the things I accept without fully taking responsibility for the decision tend to eventually weigh me down in some way.
*Sounds Like Me by Sara Bareilles
The book highlights a similar quality. It follows a framework for songwriting memoir but does so in a way to bring out the best of the author. Sounds Like Me is very much Bareilles's own project, infused with the personality and instinct for performance that make her so popular among her fans.
*Bluets by Maggie Nelson
What I expected in her past work was evidence of a series of gradual progressions in Nelson's writing, each building up to the next, culminating in her performance for The Argonauts.
What I discovered was a writer who was there all along. And after reading Bluets in particular, the success of The Argonauts seemed inevitable. I guess it was written by the same writer, after all.
This is not to say, of course, that writers do not improve with time. Even for a future bestselling author, a book that is dismissed by most of the reading public is usually done so for good reason. But in the journey of cultivating one's potential, the matter of knowing oneself, of 'becoming you', is far more significant than is any honing of the technical skills involved in the craft.
*Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
But in reading it this year, I did start to sense subtle shifts in my response. And when I consider the future, it hardly seems feasible that I will still consider this book my favorite when I turn sixty.
*The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson
Yup, just joking I was, back there, in that Bluets intro! Must have been a little tipsy there myself.
My apologies for the initial oversight.
*Eternal Echoes by John O'Donohue
Eternal Echoes talks about the human desire to belong. It covers a wide range of emotions involved in the process, including the impact of suffering on one's sense of belonging. Suffering, he writes, is the place where no one can find you. In such a place, one loses the sense of belonging he had with others. The act of bringing the lost back into their places is an act of compassion achievable once the initial disappearance has been acknowledged.
*Plain Talk by Ken Iverson
And yet, Plain Talk became one of my favorite reads of the year. The timing, I realize, was ideal. In reading this book, I understood the exact type of role I should seek. I also got a much-needed confidence boost in seeing so many of my own managerial methods described in detail here.
*The Waves and Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
That said, I am not going to pretend I understood half of Mrs. Dalloway. Generally, I would regard such an outcome as a failure of the book- too hard, too lame, too old.
But in this case, I simply acknowledged my own role in the outcome. I resolved to try a little harder the next time. I returned after my initial failure, a wealthier reader, and felt a true payoff after focusing a little harder while reading The Waves.
DISCLAIMER: All marriage advice dispensed via direct quotation and/or song lyric does not express the viewpoint of this blog (though that idiotic Business Bro might see the validity in this one).
*The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
So, whenever I gaze over the pile of rubble that comprises the southwest corner of the apartment, I cannot help but think back to a lifetime of failed tidying efforts. All those dulled edges of storage bins, labeled folders, and 'maybe five minutes a day, starting tomorrow'.
But even after reading this book, I'm yet to dive in and fully commit myself to applying Kondo's razor-sharp blade. There remain a couple of other hacks I would like to try first...
*Impro by Keith Johnstone
Just for the record, my second attempt got about one hundred pages deep before I somehow lost my bookmark. Washington DC, thanks for nothing. This is the first 'loss of bookmark' problem I've experienced in six years of tracking my reading.
*Still Alice by Lisa Genova
Books drive learning in many different ways. Some prescribe the exact methods to achieve a desired outcome. Still Alice worked a little differently. From this book, I saw the reality of this condition from a previously unconsidered perspective. I accepted that what one could do on a given day sometimes made no difference at all. On such visits, recognizing the person locked within and resolving to try again at a different time is all that can be done.
*100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
My view has, let's say...matured...since those heady days.
I recognize now the importance of one's mental and emotional state during the reading process. Being seventeen, I was probably better off playing Madden 2006 on PlayStation 2 than I was reading one of South America's greatest novels.
And that's OK, because eventually I turned twenty-eight. The changes I underwent in the past decade prepared me to understand and appreciate everything I missed the first time.
*But What If We're Wrong? by Chuck Klosterman
Gravity, for example, is an idea that evolved greatly over several centuries. At one point, people believed things desired to return to their rightful resting place: the core of the earth. Now, we talk earnestly about 9.81 meters per second and sniff at those who still believe that all a rock wants to do is get as close to the center of the planet as possible.
In 2016, I unlearned a lot of things. I see this as a positive development. Most of what I unlearned was rubbish, specific to domains and situations, application of theory rather than a clearly stated understanding of the world. Hopefully what remains with me is the simple, generalized, and flexible knowledge that is invaluable in conquering new challenges.
Or to put it another way, I'm interested in knowing that if I push my computer off the table, it will fall to the ground. I'm not quite as concerned about the exact rate of its acceleration. And I'll remain skeptical about whether my computer crashing proves some inherent desire for the 'caps lock' key to return to earth.
*Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
What the parallel stories share is the desire for self-discover in each plot's main character. In each arc, he recognizes a missing element in his life and makes strides to uncover what it is. And once each protagonist understands himself well enough, it becomes impossible to turn around and return to the environment that for so long limited his full potential.
*Show Your Work by Austin Kleon
The big idea I took from this hour-long read is the value of sharing process. I related to this idea right away, having focused on doing the same in my previous job. I saw in this book the possibilities inherent in tying life and work closely together. It also prompted me to consider approaches for sharing the previously unrevealed processes in my life- selecting books, storing knowledge, exercise, healing, and so on- that might prove helpful to others in some way.
So, why this quote? I think it summarizes a lot of what's happened here. The posts (the tongue-in-cheek 'proper admins' excepted) rarely delve into what I consider small talk. Generally, I try to pick up from that most interesting point in conversation when people start talking because everything has been said.
*Lost In Translation by Ella Frances Sanders
The Lost In Translation word bracket forced me to dig deep. Perhaps the most significant moment came after I finished round one. I realized that, despite having already written several hundred words about each entrant in the tournament, I would need to do so AGAIN since the same words would go head to head in the next round. Extending the idea just a little further, I saw that for the eventual finalists I would need to do this process AGAIN and, once more, AGAIN, given the logistics of how a knockout tournament works.
It seemed at this point that I would have nothing else to say at all. I was at a crossroads. There was very little definition to anything I was doing (the blog being a small but by no means trivial component of that) and the trivial yet clear reminder presented by writer's block (bracket block?) was not pleasant. I took a brief break from the project to consider options and, perhaps, wait for some signal that there was something worth waiting around for.
At some point, I recognized a missing component in how I was assessing the words. Most of what I considered relevant for the bracket setup, I realized, involved my analysis. It was well-thought out at times but that's all that it was. Anyone could do it and, in all likelihood, a lot of people could probably do it better.
The missing component was me. In focusing on analysis, I worked from behind a screen built and defined by all the skills I cultivated over decades of school and work. These highly useful skills allowed me to consider the bracket from a technical perspective but got in the way of my efforts to connect with them at a personal level.
In short, I was not connecting to the words because I was too busy thinking about them. The key step was finding a way to relate my own experiences to the words. I saw reflections of myself in the most relevant words and discarded those that left me unmoved. It all came together in the final when I opened myself to understanding the emotions involved in waiting.
Since the completion of that post, I think my writing here has picked up a tiny bit. I don't think its any coincidence that July became a turning point of sorts for me. I resumed the process of finding my best self by practicing the traits I found myself lacking. No different, really, than what I always did, but this time I was truly responding to beat of my own drummer.
******************
I'll be back shortly with my books of the year. I ended up with three. Careful readers of this space might be able to guess which ones they are, in fact, but I'll leave the fun and games of predictive analytics to you.
I think I'll be ready to go with those within the next two weeks. If I progress quickly, it will be Monday. Otherwise, look for those on Friday, the 27th.
But in any event, I'll be back on Monday with something.
Enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend.
All the best,
Tim
Footnotes / imagined complaints
1. Band of the year???
I'm not going to waste everyone's time by applying quotes from my favorite book, 'awards show' style, for this. Let's just have a look at the recent winners of this honor that I retroactively dished out about twenty minutes ago (with up to two honorable mentions in parentheses).
1987 - 2006: Eminem (Nelly, Nirvana)
2007 - 2009: U2 (Counting Crows, Passion Pit)
2010: The Killers
2011: Muse (Arcade Fire)
2012: 'Podcasts' (sorry)... (Oasis, Foster The People)
2013: Yeah Yeah Yeahs (T.I., P!nk)
2014: The Head and The Heart (Sara Bareilles, Yeah Yeah Yeahs)
2015: Lake Street Dive (Of Monsters and Men, U2)
2016: Slow Club (Courtney Barnett, Lake Street Dive)
When I am asked what my favorite band is, I usually answer Slow Club, Of Monsters and Men, or U2. Slow Club is the truthful response since that's what I listen to the most often at the moment, Of Monsters and Men is the honest response since I enjoy all their work and like the actual band, and U2 is the factual response since my enjoyment of their music combined with the overall length of time I've listened to their work is the highest.
Interestingly, I've yet to see any in a concert despite some opportunities. Some of the various reasons- illness (I went, but only half of Slow Club made it), lack of a car (twice, ironic given how Of Monsters and Men sing half the time about running around in the woods), and death in the family (U2).
If I were to handicap next year's winners, I would list U2 as a narrow favorite with Slow Club, Arcade Fire and Courtney Barnett as possible challengers. Celtic Social Club is a dark horse. And of course, there is always the chance that a currently unknown band makes a big impact on my headphones in 2017.
2. But I mean, band of the year?? Why would I listen to a petulant two-piece from England???
Please keep in mind that like with any writing, Slow Club lyrics are easy to read petulantly if it is taken out of context. Trust me, this band writes plenty of non-petulant lyrics.
Then again, they once released an album called Christmas, Thanks for Nothing. Song titles include 'It's Christmas And You're Boring Me', 'All Alone On Christmas', and the title track.
Maybe, occasionally...ah, well...
The end of 2016 (good riddance, 2016, come back never, please) means one thing- January 1, 2017. Wait, no, no, that's not it. Let's start over!
The end of 2016 means its time to look back on the year and dish out some awards. Around these parts, that means reading. I read one hundred and twenty-nine books this year (up from one hundred in each of the past two years). Narrowing down all those very good books was a big task but, after seventeen minutes or so of loosely focused effort, I have managed to narrow it down to a shortlist of around fifteen.
We'll do it in two parts. Today's portion, the honorable mentions, will be in awards-show style. But instead of cooking up some arbitrary categories (best story, best cover, largest overdue fine, I mean who cares???), I'll pair lyrics from my favorite band of 2016, Slow Club, to the book that they best exemplify. (1)
I'll note that some of these lyrics are petulant. That is more a reflection of my feelings for the year 2016 than they are a comment on Slow Club. Don't worry, readers, I intend to absorb events with greater maturity this year! (2)
OK, everyone ready?
Without further ado, the honorable mentions for my 2016 books of year list, presented by (sort of) Slow Club!
*Hackers and Painters by Paul Graham
I waited for the partyLet's kick things off with one of my favorite books to re-read. Graham's essay collection covers a dizzying range of topics- high school popularity, the Latin of computer programming languages, email spam filters, start up incubators, and on and on.
I never showed up
-Gold Mountain
Each essay, for me, is a reminder that a lifetime spent waiting for the party to start is a lifetime spent in wait. Better to get out there and find your own fun. Do that and you won't even realize you missed what you were waiting for.
*Mind Gym by Sebastian Bailey and Octavius Black
Hoping something good might growI checked this book out by accident. Initially, I was under the impression that this book received high ratings and strong reviews. About fifty pages in, I was ready to toss the book aside. I persevered, no doubt buoyed by commitment to tradition (in this case, complete trust in my book selection system) and struggled through to the end.
Out of this mistletoe
-Christmas TV
As I prepared to write about it on this space, I once more checked the reviews. I confirmed that Mind Gym is indeed the name of a highly regarded book. It just was not the same Mind Gym that I read. Oh, well.
It was only a book, in the end. I'll get over it.
*How To Lie With Statistics by Darrell Huff
Oh as stubborn as it is, as stubborn as I amOne positive development of 2016 was my return to the basics of my statistics education. These building blocks of inference- understanding the base rate, keeping an eye on the sample size, looking out for the signs of sampling bias, things like that- are not as exciting as a wildly complex prediction model that tells you exactly who is going to win what vote. But if it is impossible to predict, it doesn't matter how much one tweaks the model.
I can tell you that there is no pearl in this clam
-Dance 'till The Morning Light
I think its natural to get sucked away from focusing on basic concepts in the real world. In data analytics, the field I worked in for over five years, there is constant pressure to declare false patterns within data.
I've enjoyed the clarity of my thought process in 2016. Part of that is due to getting away from those environments. But I know a big part of it came from reading this book again at the start of the year.
*Revulsion: Thomas Bernhard in San Salvador by Horacio Castellanos Moya
Does the world make you crazy?Moya's rant is, in one way, a tirade against the unstoppable forces that constrict, reshape, and ultimately define us. For some, it truly drives them crazy. In articulating his own thoughts and feelings, Moya brings a voice to those quieted through either choice, force, or social convention.
It made me crazy too
-Wanderer Wandering
The great question of the work regards how much power there is in simply acknowledging the realities of a struggling society. My guess is, in the same way we find common ground by relating our own difficulties with others, a society can find mutual interests and strive to build a better future by collectively acknowledging what ails them.
*Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
I'll make it hard for youSometimes, you agree with every single syllable of advice, then do the exact opposite. I'm not going to go that far here with this book and its final essay, 'Goodbye To All That', but I did spend quite a bit of time in June thinking about moving out of my apartment and, after reading this essay, decided it was time to go. In short, there was nothing for me there.
To live the life you choose
-Not Mine To Love
A couple of weeks later, I signed my lease for another year.
This was the first time I really chose a place to live. Up until then, my apartment choice was always a result of optimizing other concerns such as commute, roommates, rent, and so on. I did not really understand that, though, until I signed my lease again.
A half year later, my working hypothesis is that, once you accept increasing responsibility for your choices, the frustrations of forces working externally on you slowly lose their weight. It seems a natural result- by taking control, you feel more in control, and that in turn makes it a little easier to let things roll off your back.
You know what? From that viewpoint, perhaps in the end these lyrics do not apply very well at all. But they do highlight a lesson I learned this year about how the things I accept without fully taking responsibility for the decision tend to eventually weigh me down in some way.
*Sounds Like Me by Sara Bareilles
And I said let's all meet up in the year 2000One of my favorite qualities in a musician is the willingness to cover a song by another and the ability to do it well. I define 'well' here as a performance that highlights the best of the work while simultaneously bringing one's own strengths to the performance. Slow Club, like this book's author, has expressed this quality in a number of cover performances over the years, including this one of Pulp's 1995 hit on the cover-only album I Swam Out To Greet You.
Won't it be strange when we're all fully grown
-Disco 2000
The book highlights a similar quality. It follows a framework for songwriting memoir but does so in a way to bring out the best of the author. Sounds Like Me is very much Bareilles's own project, infused with the personality and instinct for performance that make her so popular among her fans.
*Bluets by Maggie Nelson
You call this trueThe best book that did not make this list was The Argonauts. Released in 2015, The Argonauts was the first of Nelson's nine books that I read. I enjoyed it so much that I requested a number of her eight prior works within hours of finishing up The Argonauts.
Why did you become you?
-Beginners
What I expected in her past work was evidence of a series of gradual progressions in Nelson's writing, each building up to the next, culminating in her performance for The Argonauts.
What I discovered was a writer who was there all along. And after reading Bluets in particular, the success of The Argonauts seemed inevitable. I guess it was written by the same writer, after all.
This is not to say, of course, that writers do not improve with time. Even for a future bestselling author, a book that is dismissed by most of the reading public is usually done so for good reason. But in the journey of cultivating one's potential, the matter of knowing oneself, of 'becoming you', is far more significant than is any honing of the technical skills involved in the craft.
*Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
If I get to sixty will you let me slip away'When I Go' is a simple song about how feelings change over time. I've read Spinelli's Newbery Medal winner about once per year now for several years. I continue to identify it as my favorite book.
Into an armchair for the rest of my days
-When I Go
But in reading it this year, I did start to sense subtle shifts in my response. And when I consider the future, it hardly seems feasible that I will still consider this book my favorite when I turn sixty.
*The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson
I was half-jokingAs I was considering Maniac Magee, I realized that The Argonauts was perhaps a little better than it. And Mind Gym. And maybe even (gasp) Sounds Like Me. So, uh...
And you were half-drunk
And we were half-crazy thinking that maybe this could add up
-Half Drunk
Yup, just joking I was, back there, in that Bluets intro! Must have been a little tipsy there myself.
My apologies for the initial oversight.
*Eternal Echoes by John O'Donohue
No oneI must mention my shock in discovering, earlier this year, that O'Donohue was killed in a motorcycling accident in 2008. These lyrics, in a way, bring me back to this strange moment from my reading year.
Told me
You'd be disappearing
-The Pieces
Eternal Echoes talks about the human desire to belong. It covers a wide range of emotions involved in the process, including the impact of suffering on one's sense of belonging. Suffering, he writes, is the place where no one can find you. In such a place, one loses the sense of belonging he had with others. The act of bringing the lost back into their places is an act of compassion achievable once the initial disappearance has been acknowledged.
*Plain Talk by Ken Iverson
And the air is no good hereThe biggest reading year of my life coincided with the lowest total of 'business' books. One might posit that this is a welcome development. After all, the last thing a detoxing business bro requires is an additional dosage of profit-driven nonsense.
But you think you'll come back
-Tears Of Joy
And yet, Plain Talk became one of my favorite reads of the year. The timing, I realize, was ideal. In reading this book, I understood the exact type of role I should seek. I also got a much-needed confidence boost in seeing so many of my own managerial methods described in detail here.
*The Waves and Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Marry into moneyIf you are going to read just one author for the rest of your life, you could do a lot worse than Virginia Woolf. One's outlook on things changes a little bit after reading her work.
Marry twice
-Me and You
That said, I am not going to pretend I understood half of Mrs. Dalloway. Generally, I would regard such an outcome as a failure of the book- too hard, too lame, too old.
But in this case, I simply acknowledged my own role in the outcome. I resolved to try a little harder the next time. I returned after my initial failure, a wealthier reader, and felt a true payoff after focusing a little harder while reading The Waves.
DISCLAIMER: All marriage advice dispensed via direct quotation and/or song lyric does not express the viewpoint of this blog (though that idiotic Business Bro might see the validity in this one).
Let the blade, let the bladeEffort is a funny thing. In a vacuum, as they say, more effort is preferred to less effort. And yet those who try too much risk burnout. Sometimes, it is better to slice easily with a good knife than it is to struggle endlessly with a dull blade.
Do the work
-Let The Blade Do The Work
So, whenever I gaze over the pile of rubble that comprises the southwest corner of the apartment, I cannot help but think back to a lifetime of failed tidying efforts. All those dulled edges of storage bins, labeled folders, and 'maybe five minutes a day, starting tomorrow'.
But even after reading this book, I'm yet to dive in and fully commit myself to applying Kondo's razor-sharp blade. There remain a couple of other hacks I would like to try first...
*Impro by Keith Johnstone
And in a year from now I wonder if I'll findTo the book I tried and failed to read twice in 2016, I state my intent to make it 'third time the charm' in 2017. I'm sure I'll do it- from what I saw, it was a pretty entertaining and insightful read.
That thoughts of you will pass me by
-Suffering You, Suffering Me
Just for the record, my second attempt got about one hundred pages deep before I somehow lost my bookmark. Washington DC, thanks for nothing. This is the first 'loss of bookmark' problem I've experienced in six years of tracking my reading.
*Still Alice by Lisa Genova
So let's say, I'll come another day.As my volunteer role grew over the course of 2016, I was pleasantly surprised by how comfortable I was with dementia patients. I think part of it was influenced by reading books such as this one, a novel in which Genova details the progression of her title character's early onset dementia.
And maybe, you'll understand.
I'll look into your eyes
You don't know who I am
-Two Cousins
Books drive learning in many different ways. Some prescribe the exact methods to achieve a desired outcome. Still Alice worked a little differently. From this book, I saw the reality of this condition from a previously unconsidered perspective. I accepted that what one could do on a given day sometimes made no difference at all. On such visits, recognizing the person locked within and resolving to try again at a different time is all that can be done.
*100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
You can tell me you're not like thisI first read this classic in 2005 as part of summer homework for Spanish class (we were allowed to read the English version). I did not read this book very carefully but I still gleefully delivered my verdict to anyone who dared ask ('this book sucked'). Luckily, my Spanish teacher was never among those inquiring...
Staring down the pages of the shit you've missed
Hoping you find a way to change
-In Waves
My view has, let's say...matured...since those heady days.
I recognize now the importance of one's mental and emotional state during the reading process. Being seventeen, I was probably better off playing Madden 2006 on PlayStation 2 than I was reading one of South America's greatest novels.
And that's OK, because eventually I turned twenty-eight. The changes I underwent in the past decade prepared me to understand and appreciate everything I missed the first time.
*But What If We're Wrong? by Chuck Klosterman
You read in books about how it all should workKlosterman's most recent release covers a simple premise- what we know today is merely a revision of what we knew yesterday. And so, he asks, what makes today different? Isn't tomorrow's knowledge going to simply discard today's understanding?
Written by men who've never seen the world
-Number One
Gravity, for example, is an idea that evolved greatly over several centuries. At one point, people believed things desired to return to their rightful resting place: the core of the earth. Now, we talk earnestly about 9.81 meters per second and sniff at those who still believe that all a rock wants to do is get as close to the center of the planet as possible.
In 2016, I unlearned a lot of things. I see this as a positive development. Most of what I unlearned was rubbish, specific to domains and situations, application of theory rather than a clearly stated understanding of the world. Hopefully what remains with me is the simple, generalized, and flexible knowledge that is invaluable in conquering new challenges.
Or to put it another way, I'm interested in knowing that if I push my computer off the table, it will fall to the ground. I'm not quite as concerned about the exact rate of its acceleration. And I'll remain skeptical about whether my computer crashing proves some inherent desire for the 'caps lock' key to return to earth.
*Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
I'm on a raft of brand new beginningsI think this is the book I casually reference the most often on this blog. As regular readers know by now, this story involves a 'parallel worlds' idea (that may or may not intersect at some point...no spoiler alerts here, kids).
Won't be a sports car in three feet of grass
-Hackney Marsh
What the parallel stories share is the desire for self-discover in each plot's main character. In each arc, he recognizes a missing element in his life and makes strides to uncover what it is. And once each protagonist understands himself well enough, it becomes impossible to turn around and return to the environment that for so long limited his full potential.
*Show Your Work by Austin Kleon
I'm running out of things to sayThere is no one book I identify as the main catalyst for the formation of this unformed mess of book reviews, ramblings, and general nonsense that some kindly refer to as True On Average. If I had to pick one- to the extent that I have to do anything in a fully self-directed space- I would choose Show Your Work.
Would you please start talking?
-Apples and Pears
The big idea I took from this hour-long read is the value of sharing process. I related to this idea right away, having focused on doing the same in my previous job. I saw in this book the possibilities inherent in tying life and work closely together. It also prompted me to consider approaches for sharing the previously unrevealed processes in my life- selecting books, storing knowledge, exercise, healing, and so on- that might prove helpful to others in some way.
So, why this quote? I think it summarizes a lot of what's happened here. The posts (the tongue-in-cheek 'proper admins' excepted) rarely delve into what I consider small talk. Generally, I try to pick up from that most interesting point in conversation when people start talking because everything has been said.
*Lost In Translation by Ella Frances Sanders
So I'll go home and practice the traits you said I lackedI believe I read this book last year, actually, so let's call this a 'lifetime achievement' award for the purposes of getting it onto this list. This short volume's inspirational role in the first actual effort I made at anything on this blog (and, quite frankly, my first actual effort at anything in over a year) should not go unrecognized.
Like listening to the thunder of your heart
-It Doesn't Have To Be Beautiful
The Lost In Translation word bracket forced me to dig deep. Perhaps the most significant moment came after I finished round one. I realized that, despite having already written several hundred words about each entrant in the tournament, I would need to do so AGAIN since the same words would go head to head in the next round. Extending the idea just a little further, I saw that for the eventual finalists I would need to do this process AGAIN and, once more, AGAIN, given the logistics of how a knockout tournament works.
It seemed at this point that I would have nothing else to say at all. I was at a crossroads. There was very little definition to anything I was doing (the blog being a small but by no means trivial component of that) and the trivial yet clear reminder presented by writer's block (bracket block?) was not pleasant. I took a brief break from the project to consider options and, perhaps, wait for some signal that there was something worth waiting around for.
At some point, I recognized a missing component in how I was assessing the words. Most of what I considered relevant for the bracket setup, I realized, involved my analysis. It was well-thought out at times but that's all that it was. Anyone could do it and, in all likelihood, a lot of people could probably do it better.
The missing component was me. In focusing on analysis, I worked from behind a screen built and defined by all the skills I cultivated over decades of school and work. These highly useful skills allowed me to consider the bracket from a technical perspective but got in the way of my efforts to connect with them at a personal level.
In short, I was not connecting to the words because I was too busy thinking about them. The key step was finding a way to relate my own experiences to the words. I saw reflections of myself in the most relevant words and discarded those that left me unmoved. It all came together in the final when I opened myself to understanding the emotions involved in waiting.
Since the completion of that post, I think my writing here has picked up a tiny bit. I don't think its any coincidence that July became a turning point of sorts for me. I resumed the process of finding my best self by practicing the traits I found myself lacking. No different, really, than what I always did, but this time I was truly responding to beat of my own drummer.
******************
I'll be back shortly with my books of the year. I ended up with three. Careful readers of this space might be able to guess which ones they are, in fact, but I'll leave the fun and games of predictive analytics to you.
I think I'll be ready to go with those within the next two weeks. If I progress quickly, it will be Monday. Otherwise, look for those on Friday, the 27th.
But in any event, I'll be back on Monday with something.
Enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend.
All the best,
Tim
Footnotes / imagined complaints
1. Band of the year???
I'm not going to waste everyone's time by applying quotes from my favorite book, 'awards show' style, for this. Let's just have a look at the recent winners of this honor that I retroactively dished out about twenty minutes ago (with up to two honorable mentions in parentheses).
1987 - 2006: Eminem (Nelly, Nirvana)
2007 - 2009: U2 (Counting Crows, Passion Pit)
2010: The Killers
2011: Muse (Arcade Fire)
2012: 'Podcasts' (sorry)... (Oasis, Foster The People)
2013: Yeah Yeah Yeahs (T.I., P!nk)
2014: The Head and The Heart (Sara Bareilles, Yeah Yeah Yeahs)
2015: Lake Street Dive (Of Monsters and Men, U2)
2016: Slow Club (Courtney Barnett, Lake Street Dive)
When I am asked what my favorite band is, I usually answer Slow Club, Of Monsters and Men, or U2. Slow Club is the truthful response since that's what I listen to the most often at the moment, Of Monsters and Men is the honest response since I enjoy all their work and like the actual band, and U2 is the factual response since my enjoyment of their music combined with the overall length of time I've listened to their work is the highest.
Interestingly, I've yet to see any in a concert despite some opportunities. Some of the various reasons- illness (I went, but only half of Slow Club made it), lack of a car (twice, ironic given how Of Monsters and Men sing half the time about running around in the woods), and death in the family (U2).
If I were to handicap next year's winners, I would list U2 as a narrow favorite with Slow Club, Arcade Fire and Courtney Barnett as possible challengers. Celtic Social Club is a dark horse. And of course, there is always the chance that a currently unknown band makes a big impact on my headphones in 2017.
2. But I mean, band of the year?? Why would I listen to a petulant two-piece from England???
Please keep in mind that like with any writing, Slow Club lyrics are easy to read petulantly if it is taken out of context. Trust me, this band writes plenty of non-petulant lyrics.
Then again, they once released an album called Christmas, Thanks for Nothing. Song titles include 'It's Christmas And You're Boring Me', 'All Alone On Christmas', and the title track.
Maybe, occasionally...ah, well...
Monday, January 9, 2017
prop admin- december 2016 reading review, part 1
Hi all,
The usual reading review from last month. Just a couple of notes on new things before I get started.
First, though I have no intention of actually following my 'resolution' to keep posts under two thousand words, I am going to apply the concept selectively to reduce or break up posts as I see fit. I suppose you can guess what is about to happen to this one? You'll thank me later.
The second thing is a bit forced but I like its prospects to drag out some additional thinking into these reviews. For each book, I'll try to identify one thing I liked, one thing I didn't, and one thing I'm not all that sure about. It will make more sense once I start doing it, I bet.
OK- here we go, part one of my scattered thoughts and observations from last month's reading. Enjoy.
See you all again next Monday.
Tim
*Essays and Aphorisms by Arthur Schopenhauer (12/1)
This collection draws from his final work, Parerga and Paralipomena (originally published in 1851). One of the most well-known philosophers of the 19th century (or at least among those who 'know' 19th century philosophers), Schopenhauer is known best for his thinking about the aimless nature of human desire and behavior. (1)
The most enjoyable reading looked into the question of where life goes after death. Schopenhauer states one possibility: the same place we were before birth (but where is that?). From here, he speculates that perhaps it is life itself that is the dream state. This view of life marks death as the point of awakening where the soul returns to its natural, waking state.
Analogies are scattered throughout. He compares wisdom to a small but well-organized library. Though far less impressive than stack of every book from a warehouse ten times the size, the library's ability to quickly find and apply the needed information makes the former significantly more useful than the latter.
He also comments on balance, comparing the lives of those lacking it to a runner moving too quickly down a steep decline. The spectator sees a determined runner moving with great purpose. But the runner knows he is unable to stop. He settles for simply remaining upright, achieved only by continuing to run until his body collapses. (2)
In his longer musings, I discovered the same delight and inspiration that readers have enjoyed for almost two centuries. His insight and independence are evident with each new line of thought. I also discovered examples of his more widely known views, such as his emphasis on morality, in his essay-length writing than I did in his comments and aphorisms.
Schopenhauer acknowledges the everyday suffering brought on by the routines of the industrial age. In a world marked by tedium, disappointment, and lack of fulfillment, everyone needs kindness, sympathy, and patience from their neighbors. Of course, what everyone needs, everyone owes, and with that leap of reasoning he rests his case for why people should treat each other with goodness.
One up: A lot of the wisdom here is condensed into aphorisms. I'm always up for a good aphorism or two, even if the nonsense of the Americanized Chinese food industry have left some a bit jaded on the idea (fortune cookie: 'you love Chinese food.').
Whether the topic is buying books (too bad one cannot also buy the time to read them) or the link of reasoning and prophecy (each is a way to uncover the future) the quick observations covering a wide range of topics here were alone worth the time spent reading.
One down: Perhaps most remarkable here are his comments about women. Nothing from this disappointing portion of the book is worth highlighting here. In reading this section, I perhaps was exposed to my first true case of a philosopher 'being a product of his time'.
And yet, I cannot help but wonder if Schopenhauer's conclusions were derived independently of the views commonly held in his time. This, after all, would be consistent with the independent thought he utilized in analyzing so much else of his age.
Just saying: It's philosophy, and though condensed into a collection, still fairly thick. Without the right mental state, I've found reading philosophy tedious.
It's not Harry Potter, in other words.
*Revulsion: Thomas Bernhard in San Salvador by Horacio Castellanos Moya (12/6)
This book, accurately described to me as a one-hundred page rant, is a 'conversation' between two characters. The basic plot summary is that the speaker, returning home to El Salvador for his mother's funeral, vents for two consecutive hours to his companion over whiskeys at a local bar.
The topics covered in this rant include anything about El Salvador's politics, culture, or people that the speaker finds disagreeable. Anyone who has listened patiently while another has chosen that moment to 'let it all out' will probably immediately recognize what is going on in this book.
I noted before reading that Moya received death threats for this book. It is perfectly clear now why some reacted in this way. As we saw in this country over the past few months, criticism of the symbols, traditions, or entertainments of a given culture will spark a spirited rebuttal from those genuinely offended or simply feeling as if they are under attack.
One up: This book perfectly captured the sensation of being pinned down by the force of nature that is the ranting companion.
One down: I wondered at times if the most insightful observations were diminished or disguised in the forceful flow of the rant. Emotion and logic rarely go hand in hand. Rants, driven by sheer force of emotion, tend to envelope the clarity of thought process under the tide of conviction and feeling.
Just saying: A lot of people reached out to Moya after this book's publication and asked that he repeat the same for their own situations, circumstances, or communities. That sounds like fun to me. Keep an eye out for my own mini-versions of these rants in the next proper admin post.
*Messy by Tim Harford (12/7)
A few years ago, I read The Undercover Economist, Harford's debut book in which he explained various problems from everyday life through application of economic principles. I quickly moved on to his next two books, The Logic of Life and Dear Undercover Economist, both similar in purpose and enjoyable reads. He remains my answer to the never-asked question (I wonder why no one ever asks this) of 'who is your favorite economist?'.
His two more recent books are Adapt and Messy. These books are justifiably compared to bestsellers from writers such as Malcolm Gladwell (in fact, praise from Gladwell himself is on the front cover of Messy) and perhaps a little lazily compared to Marie Kondo's The Life Chaning Magic of Tidying Up (from my point of view, the two books are not all that similar). (3)
Messy has a very basic premise- Harford suspects that people forgo perfectly good opportunities by opting to complete tidying tasks instead.
Here are some basic applications of the idea:
*Instead of labeling email or sorting it into 'folders', answer them or delete them.
*Instead of creating a ton of rules governing workplace layout and hiring a consultant to move the couches three feet to the left, write down a couple of rules of thumb and let the employees control their environment.
*Instead of storing all the stuff into closets, organizers, or drawers, just leave things where you use them.
The way Harford makes his points is (naturally) messy. He utilizes anecdotes and science, finds parallels and connections among seemingly unrelated concepts, and explains everything with his usual blend of common sense and simple phrasing.
So, though I've drifted from this style of book in the past couple of years, I actually do recommend this one. I'm a big fan of the author, obviously, and I think he does this type of book well when others who perhaps sell better do a much sloppier job.
One up: Earlier, I noted that I saw little similarity with this book and the tidying book from Marie Kondo. If there is one thing they share, it is that these books bring out the best in each author's style.
Kondo is very capable of saying do this, then do that, over and over again. Harford's popularity through his writing and podcasting is based on his ability to explain in simple terms why the trend you noticed is perfectly explained by a causal relationship.
One down: Harford's method is all too familiar for readers of popular nonfiction. Mixing anecdote with science reminds me of the marshmallow experiment. Do you readers know how many times I've read about the stupid marshmallow experiment?
These books tend to rely on what people enjoy about easy conversation- a preference to point out facts rather than determine truth, a joy in speculation, and jumps from one line of thinking to another rather than focusing on one core idea. That's all very nice at lunch but guarantees nothing about how well a book will explain an author's thinking.
Just saying: Any reader with even the slightest interest in economics will enjoy his articles or Undercover Economist books. I'm not quite ready to say that those who enjoy his other work will enjoy this book given its lack of focus on economics. However, I repeat that his strengths as a writer and thinker do come through in Messy.
*The Waves by Virginia Woolf (12/10)
As my reaction was with Mrs. Dalloway, this novel left me baffled, awed, and moved, sometimes over the span of just a few sentences. And of course, the way she tells a story remains new to me. Even though Woolf is recognized as an innovator in the field, there do not seem to be too many authors who've managed to follow her footsteps in the many decades since she burst onto the literary scene.
The basic plot of the book is, in a way, irrelevant. It is a story about six characters, told from their childhood through old age. The story unfolds through a series of inner thoughts, monologues, and soliloquies, the characters taking turns to tell the story of their deepest thoughts and feelings.
One up: I found the final 'chapter', delivered through the voice of Bernard, as the most enjoyable. It starts off simply enough- 'Now, to sum up'- and it soon becomes evident that this section indeed is the summary, not just of the book itself, but seemingly of Woolf's deepest convictions about how we are all impacted by the ebbs and flows of life's waves.
One down: Despite the name, I suspect this is not really a beach read. Get a good night's sleep before starting in on The Waves.
Just saying: As regular readers here are aware, I decided back in the fall to try three of Woolf's novels. Two novels down! I'm looking forward to reading To The Lighthouse sometime in the next month or so.
One conclusion so far is that I was very ill-equipped for Woolf's style of writing (which some describe as lyrical and others call 'prose poetry'). Books like this require a little more time and a little more focus than I am accustomed to. (4)
Footnotes / imagined complaints
1. True On Average: a modern-day salon catering to self-appointed geniuses...
I enjoyed much of this collection despite initial uncertainty about whether I would find this worth the time. I remained on the fence until I came across the following in an internet review:
2. We can't stop! We have to slow down first...
I'm not sure which movie comparison makes more sense here- Spaceball I going from ludicrous speed to zero via the emergency brake or Louis Mendoza scoring against Iceland in the gold medal game.
3. So whose side are you on, again?
I found it funny that, somehow, both critics and fans of Messy found ways to compare it to Kondo's bestseller.
4. The analogy of the week, presented by (your brewery here)...
An analogy comes to mind here. A self-trained beer drinker, I almost take my first sips of hard alcohol a little too quickly.
With focused effort, I'm able to slow down. I think books like The Waves require a related approach- I'll need to focus on taking it in a little slower than usual to maximize the value of it.
The usual reading review from last month. Just a couple of notes on new things before I get started.
First, though I have no intention of actually following my 'resolution' to keep posts under two thousand words, I am going to apply the concept selectively to reduce or break up posts as I see fit. I suppose you can guess what is about to happen to this one? You'll thank me later.
The second thing is a bit forced but I like its prospects to drag out some additional thinking into these reviews. For each book, I'll try to identify one thing I liked, one thing I didn't, and one thing I'm not all that sure about. It will make more sense once I start doing it, I bet.
OK- here we go, part one of my scattered thoughts and observations from last month's reading. Enjoy.
See you all again next Monday.
Tim
*Essays and Aphorisms by Arthur Schopenhauer (12/1)
This collection draws from his final work, Parerga and Paralipomena (originally published in 1851). One of the most well-known philosophers of the 19th century (or at least among those who 'know' 19th century philosophers), Schopenhauer is known best for his thinking about the aimless nature of human desire and behavior. (1)
The most enjoyable reading looked into the question of where life goes after death. Schopenhauer states one possibility: the same place we were before birth (but where is that?). From here, he speculates that perhaps it is life itself that is the dream state. This view of life marks death as the point of awakening where the soul returns to its natural, waking state.
Analogies are scattered throughout. He compares wisdom to a small but well-organized library. Though far less impressive than stack of every book from a warehouse ten times the size, the library's ability to quickly find and apply the needed information makes the former significantly more useful than the latter.
He also comments on balance, comparing the lives of those lacking it to a runner moving too quickly down a steep decline. The spectator sees a determined runner moving with great purpose. But the runner knows he is unable to stop. He settles for simply remaining upright, achieved only by continuing to run until his body collapses. (2)
In his longer musings, I discovered the same delight and inspiration that readers have enjoyed for almost two centuries. His insight and independence are evident with each new line of thought. I also discovered examples of his more widely known views, such as his emphasis on morality, in his essay-length writing than I did in his comments and aphorisms.
Schopenhauer acknowledges the everyday suffering brought on by the routines of the industrial age. In a world marked by tedium, disappointment, and lack of fulfillment, everyone needs kindness, sympathy, and patience from their neighbors. Of course, what everyone needs, everyone owes, and with that leap of reasoning he rests his case for why people should treat each other with goodness.
One up: A lot of the wisdom here is condensed into aphorisms. I'm always up for a good aphorism or two, even if the nonsense of the Americanized Chinese food industry have left some a bit jaded on the idea (fortune cookie: 'you love Chinese food.').
Whether the topic is buying books (too bad one cannot also buy the time to read them) or the link of reasoning and prophecy (each is a way to uncover the future) the quick observations covering a wide range of topics here were alone worth the time spent reading.
One down: Perhaps most remarkable here are his comments about women. Nothing from this disappointing portion of the book is worth highlighting here. In reading this section, I perhaps was exposed to my first true case of a philosopher 'being a product of his time'.
And yet, I cannot help but wonder if Schopenhauer's conclusions were derived independently of the views commonly held in his time. This, after all, would be consistent with the independent thought he utilized in analyzing so much else of his age.
Just saying: It's philosophy, and though condensed into a collection, still fairly thick. Without the right mental state, I've found reading philosophy tedious.
It's not Harry Potter, in other words.
*Revulsion: Thomas Bernhard in San Salvador by Horacio Castellanos Moya (12/6)
This book, accurately described to me as a one-hundred page rant, is a 'conversation' between two characters. The basic plot summary is that the speaker, returning home to El Salvador for his mother's funeral, vents for two consecutive hours to his companion over whiskeys at a local bar.
The topics covered in this rant include anything about El Salvador's politics, culture, or people that the speaker finds disagreeable. Anyone who has listened patiently while another has chosen that moment to 'let it all out' will probably immediately recognize what is going on in this book.
I noted before reading that Moya received death threats for this book. It is perfectly clear now why some reacted in this way. As we saw in this country over the past few months, criticism of the symbols, traditions, or entertainments of a given culture will spark a spirited rebuttal from those genuinely offended or simply feeling as if they are under attack.
One up: This book perfectly captured the sensation of being pinned down by the force of nature that is the ranting companion.
One down: I wondered at times if the most insightful observations were diminished or disguised in the forceful flow of the rant. Emotion and logic rarely go hand in hand. Rants, driven by sheer force of emotion, tend to envelope the clarity of thought process under the tide of conviction and feeling.
Just saying: A lot of people reached out to Moya after this book's publication and asked that he repeat the same for their own situations, circumstances, or communities. That sounds like fun to me. Keep an eye out for my own mini-versions of these rants in the next proper admin post.
*Messy by Tim Harford (12/7)
A few years ago, I read The Undercover Economist, Harford's debut book in which he explained various problems from everyday life through application of economic principles. I quickly moved on to his next two books, The Logic of Life and Dear Undercover Economist, both similar in purpose and enjoyable reads. He remains my answer to the never-asked question (I wonder why no one ever asks this) of 'who is your favorite economist?'.
His two more recent books are Adapt and Messy. These books are justifiably compared to bestsellers from writers such as Malcolm Gladwell (in fact, praise from Gladwell himself is on the front cover of Messy) and perhaps a little lazily compared to Marie Kondo's The Life Chaning Magic of Tidying Up (from my point of view, the two books are not all that similar). (3)
Messy has a very basic premise- Harford suspects that people forgo perfectly good opportunities by opting to complete tidying tasks instead.
Here are some basic applications of the idea:
*Instead of labeling email or sorting it into 'folders', answer them or delete them.
*Instead of creating a ton of rules governing workplace layout and hiring a consultant to move the couches three feet to the left, write down a couple of rules of thumb and let the employees control their environment.
*Instead of storing all the stuff into closets, organizers, or drawers, just leave things where you use them.
The way Harford makes his points is (naturally) messy. He utilizes anecdotes and science, finds parallels and connections among seemingly unrelated concepts, and explains everything with his usual blend of common sense and simple phrasing.
So, though I've drifted from this style of book in the past couple of years, I actually do recommend this one. I'm a big fan of the author, obviously, and I think he does this type of book well when others who perhaps sell better do a much sloppier job.
One up: Earlier, I noted that I saw little similarity with this book and the tidying book from Marie Kondo. If there is one thing they share, it is that these books bring out the best in each author's style.
Kondo is very capable of saying do this, then do that, over and over again. Harford's popularity through his writing and podcasting is based on his ability to explain in simple terms why the trend you noticed is perfectly explained by a causal relationship.
One down: Harford's method is all too familiar for readers of popular nonfiction. Mixing anecdote with science reminds me of the marshmallow experiment. Do you readers know how many times I've read about the stupid marshmallow experiment?
These books tend to rely on what people enjoy about easy conversation- a preference to point out facts rather than determine truth, a joy in speculation, and jumps from one line of thinking to another rather than focusing on one core idea. That's all very nice at lunch but guarantees nothing about how well a book will explain an author's thinking.
Just saying: Any reader with even the slightest interest in economics will enjoy his articles or Undercover Economist books. I'm not quite ready to say that those who enjoy his other work will enjoy this book given its lack of focus on economics. However, I repeat that his strengths as a writer and thinker do come through in Messy.
*The Waves by Virginia Woolf (12/10)
As my reaction was with Mrs. Dalloway, this novel left me baffled, awed, and moved, sometimes over the span of just a few sentences. And of course, the way she tells a story remains new to me. Even though Woolf is recognized as an innovator in the field, there do not seem to be too many authors who've managed to follow her footsteps in the many decades since she burst onto the literary scene.
The basic plot of the book is, in a way, irrelevant. It is a story about six characters, told from their childhood through old age. The story unfolds through a series of inner thoughts, monologues, and soliloquies, the characters taking turns to tell the story of their deepest thoughts and feelings.
One up: I found the final 'chapter', delivered through the voice of Bernard, as the most enjoyable. It starts off simply enough- 'Now, to sum up'- and it soon becomes evident that this section indeed is the summary, not just of the book itself, but seemingly of Woolf's deepest convictions about how we are all impacted by the ebbs and flows of life's waves.
One down: Despite the name, I suspect this is not really a beach read. Get a good night's sleep before starting in on The Waves.
Just saying: As regular readers here are aware, I decided back in the fall to try three of Woolf's novels. Two novels down! I'm looking forward to reading To The Lighthouse sometime in the next month or so.
One conclusion so far is that I was very ill-equipped for Woolf's style of writing (which some describe as lyrical and others call 'prose poetry'). Books like this require a little more time and a little more focus than I am accustomed to. (4)
Footnotes / imagined complaints
1. True On Average: a modern-day salon catering to self-appointed geniuses...
I enjoyed much of this collection despite initial uncertainty about whether I would find this worth the time. I remained on the fence until I came across the following in an internet review:
'(This) collection is Schopenhauer at his hyper-arrogant best, as self-appointed genius and highbrow aesthete, shooting verbal barbs and passing harsh judgment on everyone and everything in sight...'Say no more! You had me at 'self-appointed genius'...
2. We can't stop! We have to slow down first...
I'm not sure which movie comparison makes more sense here- Spaceball I going from ludicrous speed to zero via the emergency brake or Louis Mendoza scoring against Iceland in the gold medal game.
3. So whose side are you on, again?
I found it funny that, somehow, both critics and fans of Messy found ways to compare it to Kondo's bestseller.
4. The analogy of the week, presented by (your brewery here)...
An analogy comes to mind here. A self-trained beer drinker, I almost take my first sips of hard alcohol a little too quickly.
With focused effort, I'm able to slow down. I think books like The Waves require a related approach- I'll need to focus on taking it in a little slower than usual to maximize the value of it.
Friday, January 6, 2017
leftovers: make america debate again
Hi folks,
Back in October, I focused the last two weeks of the blog on the then-upcoming election. Despite what some read into it, the posts were not predictions about what I thought might happen. Rather, all I tried to look at was the reality of voting and how different people looked at the institution with different perspectives.
It was a big post, obviously, but I still kept a few things out. Here are those leftover thoughts, stated more directly than the manner I shared ideas during the debate series.
The next post will be on Monday. It's a quicker turnaround than usual but makes the most sense when looking at the rest of the January calendar.
Thanks for reading.
Tim
Thought #1- what is the point of voting?
I think, at some point, everyone has thought through the mechanics of voting and concluded that, almost in every election, no one person's vote actually counts. It is a good point based on soundly exercised logic. Elections involving thousands or millions of votes mean the chance of a single vote making the difference in the end is unlikely to the point of being, realistically speaking, impossible.
I try to vote despite recognizing the validity of this argument. The 'public' reason is my commitment to worrying about process over results. If I do the hard work to cast the vote that best represents my thoughts, feelings, and conclusions about a given question, the consistency will carry over into other areas of life where perhaps the same rigor in thinking will bear more direct or immediate fruit.
Voting forces examination of topics that I otherwise do not think about. By preparing to vote, I start to clarify my own understanding of those topics. That's really all it does for me.
Without preparing to vote, might my thoughts on topics like 'the government' remain abstract? I suspect so. The process of voting forces me to consider what the government is capable of doing, where they are limited, and how I should allocate my energy to best serve my interest in making Massachusetts the best state in the country.
Thought #2- principled voting?
The concept of principles came up (ok, fine, I brought it up) in this series of posts. One thing I've thought a lot about since is the idea of principled voting from a national rather than strictly personal point of view.
To me, principled voting with the nation in mind requires asking how a given vote incorporates what I know about the country's principles. I'll take those of the Declaration of Independence- life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness- and the freedoms guaranteed to us in the Constitution.
The same documents point out that governments exist to protect these rights. So, one way I thought about voting was to ask myself what kind of policy would best position government to do the best job it can to protect those rights.
My conclusion was to look at ways to lift people out of poverty. Any individual's conclusion to such a matter is debatable, of course. But that poverty restricts choice is not debatable. A person who 'chooses' buying a hot meal over paying the electric bill is not exercising freedom of choice in the way intended by our Founding Fathers.
So for me, one way to vote in a principled manner, nationally speaking, is to consider the extent to which my vote lifts or lowers those currently struggling to make ends meet.
Thought #3- taboo topics
Politics is considered a 'taboo' topic in some places, notably at work, for its tendency to encourage people to divide themselves over their positions despite the common interests that they may share. A workplace divided is less likely to be profitable, I suppose.
Hide things for too long, though, and soon we lose track of where we hid it. Topics such as politics carry the potential to divide the individual self in a way similar to how it divides groups. A person who might never harm a fly is able to compartmentalize parts of their personality to support politics that dispossess the poor or maim the innocent.
I think part of the post involved looking at how the different parts of our personality interact with political questions. I did it in the best way I could at the time. I suspect one consequence of bringing these scattered parts of our personalities together is the examination of the particular contradictions that stem from tiptoeing around taboo topics for too long. Perhaps that first step toward understanding how we truly feel involves acknowledging a willingness to live with our own contradictions. From there, the shaky first steps to reconciliation can be taken.
Tangent #3A- Why do people roll their eyes at puns in general yet find the cheapest sexual innuendos apparently funnier than anything they have ever heard?
Let's blame TV.
Thought #4- Remember when you were little and went out for breakfast? And you wanted to order ice cream for breakfast? And your brother wanted to order ice cream for breakfast? And your father wasn't really saying anything but you knew he liked ice cream and never really ate breakfast anyway? But your mother wanted you to order 'breakfast food'? And you ended up eating an English muffin? Remember?
In unrelated news, the electoral college is kind of like...
A good rule of thumb about systems is that if a feature of a system does not impact the system's ability to survive in the future, that feature is likely to survive into the next iteration of the system.
It is a bit of a mouthful so I'll simplify- what doesn't kill a system will probably stick around. This means that getting rid of these 'non-existential' threats requires targeted intervention.
The electoral college, at first glance, seems an unlikely requirement for the future of this country. Eliminating the system in favor of using solely the popular vote has surface merit, even if just in terms of simplicity. (We count before we add!) It will not go away on its own since the country will remain a democracy as long as people vote in some fashion.
The Constitution is hard to change but it has happened before. So, will it go anytime soon? My thought is that this is unlikely.
The number one reason I can think of is the two-party system. I see a symbiotic relationship of sorts between the required 270 electoral votes and the two-party system. To earn 270 electoral votes requires significant support nationwide, the kind a system with more parties would be unlikely to encourage. Any party that reached majority in this hypothetical environment would tempt their opponents to band together before the majority party could consolidate its power in a national election.
As long as the electoral college threshold is so high, smaller and less powerful emerging parties will always battle the incentive to band together or join larger parties to best leverage their resources toward a presidential victory. This means a challenger party rising up into the current setup is very unlikely as well.
With the two-party system entrenched, I think a change in the electoral college system is a non-starter. After all, who would spearhead such a change? Those in national government, almost all a member of one party or the other? Eliminating the electoral college would greatly destabilize a critical system that contributes to keeping the two-party system in place.
But for now, these two forces hold each other in check. The likelihood that the disruption required to spur change is low. Without one system, I think the other is at least free to go. But with one, the other is almost sure to stay.
Such realities do not guarantee the system will not eventually change, of course. A small but perhaps major step could involve eliminating the 270 requirement. The effects of such a move might take a generation to fully come through at the grassroots level. But it would at least make a third or fourth party emergence more feasible in the future.
Back in October, I focused the last two weeks of the blog on the then-upcoming election. Despite what some read into it, the posts were not predictions about what I thought might happen. Rather, all I tried to look at was the reality of voting and how different people looked at the institution with different perspectives.
It was a big post, obviously, but I still kept a few things out. Here are those leftover thoughts, stated more directly than the manner I shared ideas during the debate series.
The next post will be on Monday. It's a quicker turnaround than usual but makes the most sense when looking at the rest of the January calendar.
Thanks for reading.
Tim
Thought #1- what is the point of voting?
I think, at some point, everyone has thought through the mechanics of voting and concluded that, almost in every election, no one person's vote actually counts. It is a good point based on soundly exercised logic. Elections involving thousands or millions of votes mean the chance of a single vote making the difference in the end is unlikely to the point of being, realistically speaking, impossible.
I try to vote despite recognizing the validity of this argument. The 'public' reason is my commitment to worrying about process over results. If I do the hard work to cast the vote that best represents my thoughts, feelings, and conclusions about a given question, the consistency will carry over into other areas of life where perhaps the same rigor in thinking will bear more direct or immediate fruit.
Voting forces examination of topics that I otherwise do not think about. By preparing to vote, I start to clarify my own understanding of those topics. That's really all it does for me.
Without preparing to vote, might my thoughts on topics like 'the government' remain abstract? I suspect so. The process of voting forces me to consider what the government is capable of doing, where they are limited, and how I should allocate my energy to best serve my interest in making Massachusetts the best state in the country.
Thought #2- principled voting?
The concept of principles came up (ok, fine, I brought it up) in this series of posts. One thing I've thought a lot about since is the idea of principled voting from a national rather than strictly personal point of view.
To me, principled voting with the nation in mind requires asking how a given vote incorporates what I know about the country's principles. I'll take those of the Declaration of Independence- life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness- and the freedoms guaranteed to us in the Constitution.
The same documents point out that governments exist to protect these rights. So, one way I thought about voting was to ask myself what kind of policy would best position government to do the best job it can to protect those rights.
My conclusion was to look at ways to lift people out of poverty. Any individual's conclusion to such a matter is debatable, of course. But that poverty restricts choice is not debatable. A person who 'chooses' buying a hot meal over paying the electric bill is not exercising freedom of choice in the way intended by our Founding Fathers.
So for me, one way to vote in a principled manner, nationally speaking, is to consider the extent to which my vote lifts or lowers those currently struggling to make ends meet.
Thought #3- taboo topics
Politics is considered a 'taboo' topic in some places, notably at work, for its tendency to encourage people to divide themselves over their positions despite the common interests that they may share. A workplace divided is less likely to be profitable, I suppose.
Hide things for too long, though, and soon we lose track of where we hid it. Topics such as politics carry the potential to divide the individual self in a way similar to how it divides groups. A person who might never harm a fly is able to compartmentalize parts of their personality to support politics that dispossess the poor or maim the innocent.
I think part of the post involved looking at how the different parts of our personality interact with political questions. I did it in the best way I could at the time. I suspect one consequence of bringing these scattered parts of our personalities together is the examination of the particular contradictions that stem from tiptoeing around taboo topics for too long. Perhaps that first step toward understanding how we truly feel involves acknowledging a willingness to live with our own contradictions. From there, the shaky first steps to reconciliation can be taken.
Tangent #3A- Why do people roll their eyes at puns in general yet find the cheapest sexual innuendos apparently funnier than anything they have ever heard?
Let's blame TV.
Thought #4- Remember when you were little and went out for breakfast? And you wanted to order ice cream for breakfast? And your brother wanted to order ice cream for breakfast? And your father wasn't really saying anything but you knew he liked ice cream and never really ate breakfast anyway? But your mother wanted you to order 'breakfast food'? And you ended up eating an English muffin? Remember?
In unrelated news, the electoral college is kind of like...
A good rule of thumb about systems is that if a feature of a system does not impact the system's ability to survive in the future, that feature is likely to survive into the next iteration of the system.
It is a bit of a mouthful so I'll simplify- what doesn't kill a system will probably stick around. This means that getting rid of these 'non-existential' threats requires targeted intervention.
The electoral college, at first glance, seems an unlikely requirement for the future of this country. Eliminating the system in favor of using solely the popular vote has surface merit, even if just in terms of simplicity. (We count before we add!) It will not go away on its own since the country will remain a democracy as long as people vote in some fashion.
The Constitution is hard to change but it has happened before. So, will it go anytime soon? My thought is that this is unlikely.
The number one reason I can think of is the two-party system. I see a symbiotic relationship of sorts between the required 270 electoral votes and the two-party system. To earn 270 electoral votes requires significant support nationwide, the kind a system with more parties would be unlikely to encourage. Any party that reached majority in this hypothetical environment would tempt their opponents to band together before the majority party could consolidate its power in a national election.
As long as the electoral college threshold is so high, smaller and less powerful emerging parties will always battle the incentive to band together or join larger parties to best leverage their resources toward a presidential victory. This means a challenger party rising up into the current setup is very unlikely as well.
With the two-party system entrenched, I think a change in the electoral college system is a non-starter. After all, who would spearhead such a change? Those in national government, almost all a member of one party or the other? Eliminating the electoral college would greatly destabilize a critical system that contributes to keeping the two-party system in place.
But for now, these two forces hold each other in check. The likelihood that the disruption required to spur change is low. Without one system, I think the other is at least free to go. But with one, the other is almost sure to stay.
Such realities do not guarantee the system will not eventually change, of course. A small but perhaps major step could involve eliminating the 270 requirement. The effects of such a move might take a generation to fully come through at the grassroots level. But it would at least make a third or fourth party emergence more feasible in the future.
Sunday, January 1, 2017
new year's resolutions, part 2
Hi folks,
Happy New Year! Following up on last week's post, here is the active list of self-improvement projects.
No, these are not New Year's resolutions.
Yes, I recognize a list of 'things to do better from today forward', posted on New Year's Day, fits the exact definition of a New Year's resolution.
*Lose thirty pounds in thirty years (June 2011)
One year after my college graduation, I noted the following:
1. I weighed 195 pounds, the same as I did to start my senior year college basketball season.
2. My strength, speed, and overall conditioning were noticeably reduced compared to the last time I weighed 195 pounds.
3. If #1 and #2 were both true (they were), then it meant muscle was becoming fat (it was).
I reconsidered my exercise plan. Resuming my college workouts was unrealistic. Those workouts were strenuous, time consuming, and tough on my joints (and in the case of burpees, possibly IQ-lowering). I needed a new approach that fit better into my post-college life.
I settled on running. The most obvious obstacle to enjoying running was injury. Some injuries are unavoidable- you slip and fall, maybe, or turn an ankle. In those cases, the only approach is to treat the injury and maybe do some rehab. Planning better won't reduce the injury risk all that much for next time.
I was concerned about overuse injuries. These are very avoidable (though it is easier said than done). I'm a veteran of such problems due to my tendency to dive deep into my hobbies and my somewhat high tolerance for pain.
The relationship between weight and overuse injury risk was obvious to me. A five mile run at 195 pounds is more strenuous on my body than the same run at 185 pounds. Over the course of my twenties, such a discrepancy might not matter all that much. But over several decades, I figured carrying the extra weight around on my citywide trots would wear down my body. (1)
So, acknowledging my budding desire to run, perhaps forever, I focused on getting my weight down. Thirty pounds was a somewhat arbitrary designation, I admit. I went with it because I researched and discovered that many top endurance athletes with my frame weighed between 160 and 170 pounds.
I set the time frame using a combination of observing others, reading about nutrition, and thinking about my lifestyle. I filled in the gaps of my knowledge with educated guesses and went from there.
The thought process went something like this. I observed that most elderly men (into and beyond their 80s) who lived appealing lifestyles also happened to be very lean (guesswork). Thus, I would need to lose weight to attain that physique before I reached that age (fact based on guesswork). I estimated that with my height the number was right around 160 pounds (guesswork based on fact). I figured the easiest time to lose the weight was now (guesswork) because I had no family to support (fact), an easy job (fact), and enough free time (fact).
I understood that sudden changes in weight encouraged further fluctuation (fact) and that diets heavy in produce tended to control such fluctuations (guesswork). I recognized that I tend to over-measure in the short-term (fact) and set a long trajectory for this project to minimize that tendency (guesswork). I admitted that I disliked shopping for new clothing and should therefore lose weight as slowly as possible to delay any major wardrobe overhauls (preposterous, but factual).
As the case is with long term projects, new information and lifestyle realities came into play that I did not anticipate initially. Some of these things helped (such as ESPN's '30 for 30' series that gave me a clever little name for the idea) and some hurt (such as the discovery of a local Chinese takeout that I frequently ordered while watching ESPN's '30 for 30' series). Keeping an eye on the big goal- 165 by 2040- made incorporating such realities much simpler.
Progress so far is pretty good. I'm ahead of schedule. I'm considering adjusting the goal a little bit to aim for 160 by 2050, in fact.
*Learn the piano (January 2015)
I've always had a little bit of music in me. Apparently, I started early- family legend reveals that my first Christmas gift was a drum (beat that). I remember driving my toy cars up and down the family's piano, no doubt familiarizing myself with the instrument's intricacies in the process. The first mainstream song lyrics I memorized were for 'American Pie', a silly accomplishment given its length (eight minutes) and my level of access to the song (none, save for catching it on the radio).
In third grade, all this cultivated music ability came together as I (unofficially) performed the best rendition of 'Hot Cross Buns' ever played on a recorder. Recognizing my prodigious talent, my elementary school music teacher encouraged me to continue playing an instrument when the option came up to try something different at the end of that year.
Demonstrating a third-grader's sound understanding of self, I chose the baritone horn. The baritone horn is basically the tuba's sad little brother. At some point in the future, I upgraded (or downgraded, not actually sure) to a euphonium, its pronunciation of 'you-phony-um' an appropriate reflection of my fake interest in playing the instrument.
By eighth grade, it was clear that 'Hot Cross Buns' was the pinnacle of my musical accomplishments. I was a near-certainty to get kicked out of the school band. This was nothing personal, just a reflection of reality. After all, I (a) never practiced and (b) regularly scheduled other activities that clashed directly with the band's two commitments per school year. I retained my place due to the fact that I was the only one playing the instrument (though I suppose it did not hurt that, if I may say, I was a half decent player as well).
Looking back, outside of the weekly improvisation sessions with my music teacher (who I suspect gave up on any lesson plans once the frequency of my practice became clear), the whole experience was a waste of time. I learned critical life skills such as the value of faking it and understood the suffocating sense of obligation in being the only one who knows how to do something vital in a group. Learning these skills came at the cost of ignoring the potential of playing an instrument more suited to my musical interests (as well as just 'cost' for lessons, instruments, and so on).
Of course, understanding my musical interest was a whole separate matter. I really did not know what I liked until my mid-twenties. Once I clarified my interest, the combination of the piano's versatility and a suspicion that my highly developed computer keyboard skills might translate to the instrument's movements convinced me to try and learn it.
The realities of space meant I would start like many others- on the keyboard. Luckily, my mother owned a little-used keyboard so I was able to acquire one at no cost right around Christmas of 2014.
Things got off to a good start. I spent some time each day poking around, learning the sounds, and trying to memorize 'Ghosts', a piano driven song from The Head and The Heart. I remember the keyboard being especially helpful during a couple of that season's many blizzards.
Unfortunately, just a couple of months after I started, my mother's cancer took a significant downward turn. I soon did not have the time to practice. It's been in the corner of my apartment ever since.
The itch is returning. I'm finding myself considering how different songs might sound if covered on the piano. Once more, I'm paying a little closer attention to music which incorporates the instrument. And (breaking news) winter is approaching. The coldest months are always a good time to try something new or run back a once abandoned idea again.
*Eat a lot of vegetables for my first meal (April 2016)
*Go outside in the morning (May 2016)
I got going a bit on this one so I opted to cut it for another day. I'll explore it in detail later this month.
To summarize quickly, these two ideas form a foundation for how I take care of myself. In the spring, I recognized that I intertwined these self-care concepts with the routines and requirements of my job. When I was laid off, I did not immediately make the adjustments needed to continue these two maintenance tasks.
*Limit blog posts to 2000 words (August 2016)
Gotcha!
*Stop using racial terms (Fall 2016)
This one grew out of theRedskins 'resolution' from last week's post. But I think the magnitude of this one is far more significant. If the original idea was the equivalent of strolling along a smooth incline on a short hill, this one is like hacking a way up the side of a sizable mountain.
I started to think more about this as I started applying for jobs. Many web-based applicant portals ask classic 'HR' questions as part of the process. These questions include everything from an applicant's legal status in the country to how one originally learned about the posting in question. Tucked away into these sections were questions about gender and race.
I initially considered the future of the gender question. The usual options were male, female, or 'opt out'. After very little contemplation, I got the sense that time would see the proportion of those choosing 'opt out' increasing in comparison to those choosing one of the first two options.
As the summer went on, I found myself stopping more frequently at the race question. Again, I thought ahead a little bit. I wondered how the answer distribution would change over time. I reached a similar conclusion- over time, more and more people would choose 'two or more races' or 'opt out' when asked about their race.
I saw no other way, really. I'm blessed with the trivial ability to 'round up' to one of two races. There are a lot of us out there. Our descendants will struggle to find one easy box to check on these forms. Many already fail to find a simple box to check for this question, I suspect.
I see a future where this question is not on these job applications. What would be the point of asking the question if everyone says 'two or more'? (2)
I think at some point I'll be Asian like I am a Capricorn or white like I am I left-handed. In the future, racial identity will be, at worst, a vestige paying testament to a unified society's journey away from a past ruined by needless division.
Now, this future might be thousands of years away. It's no use predicting the exact day. I don't even know what tomorrow's weather will be. I am pretty sure we'll get there eventually, though.
So, anyway, these thoughts were rattling around my head a few months ago. In the fall, I decided not to use racial terms as descriptors anymore. Why fight the flow, right? The plane in the air arrives earlier than the one on the tarmac.
Early progress, though, was not good. There were plenty of times where I forgot myself. Casual conversations rarely make good starting points for New Year's resolutions (not that these are resolutions). Each slip of mine was a reminder of how easily I get sucked back into the established patterns, rhythms, and vocabulary of communication with those in my life.
There is an element of 'placing the cart before the horse' in this resolution. Though I dismiss the value of describing the sauce on my lunch as 'Asian', suffering brought on by racism is reality for many. Not contributing to the problem is one approach and perhaps the best I can do at the moment. But refusing to acknowledge the terminology might put me in jeopardy of losing touch with the real problems brought on by arbitrary concepts.
Today finds me stuck in middle ground. Like with last week'sRedskins 'resolution', I try to catch myself before I use the words I've vowed not to. I give it my best attempt to live my gimmick. But if I slip, well, that's how it goes. A label for a problem is, ultimately, just a label. It's worth the effort to think about it and it's worth the effort to try and do better. It's not worth the effort to worry about misses. The effort must be saved for considering the problem that the label points out.
The desired outcome is clear and the required process is obvious. What I currently lack are the details of how to link the two together. Hopefully, the connection reveals itself to me in the course of time. Until then, I guess I'm just practicing my lines, preparing for the unknown role I'll take on the stage.
*Wear shoes that fit (Fall 2016)
Sometimes, these 'resolutions' are no more than just acknowledging the ways I've been an automaton. Once a size twelve, always a size twelve, right?
Right.
*No more snacking (November 2016)
Other times, these 'resolutions' are no more than just acknowledging that some currents run so strongly through us that fighting upstream is a futile effort. In these cases, the battleground must be moved away from where defeat is inevitable. When the objective is to avoid being sucked into the river, the battle is fought on its banks.
My weight increased about seven pounds in November. The instinctive reaction is to look at 'the holiday season' and accept convention that everyone's weight bumps up a bit around this time of year. Plus, those trademarked 'semi-mashed' potatoes of mine go straight to the thighs, you know? (3)
I'm fairly sure that in my case some of the weight gain was due to the result of an experiment. In the month of November, I tried to snack. Potato chips, ice cream, cereal, all that and more (peanut M&M's). I even tried Graze, a snack delivery service, when they offered a free trial box. I enjoyed these snacks thoroughly.
The problem was the rate at which I enjoyed them. It was like I convinced myself that everything would go bad in six hours or less. At no point in November did a snack entering my apartment make it to see the light of the next day.
The failure of November means I no longer buy snacks. Instead, I buy beer, something I'm in much better control of. I usually drink one, two, or three beers each night before bed.
I'm not sure about direct applicability here. Advocating for increased drinking is not a great general approach (or specific approach, for that matter). Beer works well for me as a snack substitute because I can cut it off. It could be that for others, the lesson is the reverse- stop buying beers, start buying snacks. Do what works for you.
I am expecting the broader idea to prove crucial for me. Battles lost are often waged again on the same terrain. This is not automatically a bad strategy, especially if prior defeats came about due to bad luck or outside circumstances.
Sometimes, the way forward is to stand up, dust off, and charge again. But this only works if the terrain was irrelevant to the initial defeat.
If the conditions caused the failure, the inclination to try again is harmful to progress. The conviction to fight again prevents us from seeking ways to avoid repeating a doomed battle.
In this way, perhaps a sleep problem is approached from going to bed earlier rather than forcing oneself awake. It could be that a weight problem is better considered through the lens of healthier diet rather than increased exercise. I've read about being worth reading before worrying about readers and that, too, fits into the general idea.
This idea is a roundabout way of twisting the cliche 'choose your battles wisely'. I guess my angle on it is to 'choose your battlegrounds wisely'. Who knows where such a tweak in thinking will lead? New battlegrounds, for starters.
Currently, all I do differently is go to the beer section. I march right past the Cocoa Puffs in the process. That's not much. But I know its only downstream once I wade into that river.
Thanks for reading. See you on Friday.
Tim
Footnotes / imagined complaints
1. Tim Concannon, future (insane) basketball coach...
If you don't believe me, go to the track and run a lap. Then, run the same lap carrying two five pound dumbbells. Good luck beating your original time!
If I became a coach of some sport in the future, I would do a similar exercise to highlight the need for keeping as lean as possible.
2. I think footnotes were invented for the following nonsense...
Maybe these applications will find a way to ask 'what race do you want to be in five years?' or 'what is the biggest weakness of your race?' or the gold standard, 'what will the biggest weakness of your race be in five years?'
3. A recipe for disaster!
Tim's semi-mashed potatoes
Ingredients
*Some potatoes
*A knife
*A backup knife
*A fork
*A cutting board? Up to you, chef.
*A pan
*A mashing tool
*Butter
*Milk
Steps
1. Cut the potatoes using the knife. The idea is to create slices that will be covered by water when you place them in the pan later.
NOTE: If you drop the knife, leave it. LEAVE IT! Use your backup knife.
2. Bring the pan full of water to a simmer. Add the potatoes.
NOTE: Go lookup a real recipe for details on simmering...
3. When the potatoes are ready, a fork will go through the pieces and emerge clean. Remove these potatoes and BEGIN MASHING.
4. Add as much butter and milk as you want. It's your party.
5. Remind your guests that these are 'semi-mashed' to appropriately set expectations. Offer to add 'a little pinch' of butter or milk, but only if they think this will help.
6. Serve with lots and lots of alcohol.
Happy New Year! Following up on last week's post, here is the active list of self-improvement projects.
No, these are not New Year's resolutions.
Yes, I recognize a list of 'things to do better from today forward', posted on New Year's Day, fits the exact definition of a New Year's resolution.
*Lose thirty pounds in thirty years (June 2011)
One year after my college graduation, I noted the following:
1. I weighed 195 pounds, the same as I did to start my senior year college basketball season.
2. My strength, speed, and overall conditioning were noticeably reduced compared to the last time I weighed 195 pounds.
3. If #1 and #2 were both true (they were), then it meant muscle was becoming fat (it was).
I reconsidered my exercise plan. Resuming my college workouts was unrealistic. Those workouts were strenuous, time consuming, and tough on my joints (and in the case of burpees, possibly IQ-lowering). I needed a new approach that fit better into my post-college life.
I settled on running. The most obvious obstacle to enjoying running was injury. Some injuries are unavoidable- you slip and fall, maybe, or turn an ankle. In those cases, the only approach is to treat the injury and maybe do some rehab. Planning better won't reduce the injury risk all that much for next time.
I was concerned about overuse injuries. These are very avoidable (though it is easier said than done). I'm a veteran of such problems due to my tendency to dive deep into my hobbies and my somewhat high tolerance for pain.
The relationship between weight and overuse injury risk was obvious to me. A five mile run at 195 pounds is more strenuous on my body than the same run at 185 pounds. Over the course of my twenties, such a discrepancy might not matter all that much. But over several decades, I figured carrying the extra weight around on my citywide trots would wear down my body. (1)
So, acknowledging my budding desire to run, perhaps forever, I focused on getting my weight down. Thirty pounds was a somewhat arbitrary designation, I admit. I went with it because I researched and discovered that many top endurance athletes with my frame weighed between 160 and 170 pounds.
I set the time frame using a combination of observing others, reading about nutrition, and thinking about my lifestyle. I filled in the gaps of my knowledge with educated guesses and went from there.
The thought process went something like this. I observed that most elderly men (into and beyond their 80s) who lived appealing lifestyles also happened to be very lean (guesswork). Thus, I would need to lose weight to attain that physique before I reached that age (fact based on guesswork). I estimated that with my height the number was right around 160 pounds (guesswork based on fact). I figured the easiest time to lose the weight was now (guesswork) because I had no family to support (fact), an easy job (fact), and enough free time (fact).
I understood that sudden changes in weight encouraged further fluctuation (fact) and that diets heavy in produce tended to control such fluctuations (guesswork). I recognized that I tend to over-measure in the short-term (fact) and set a long trajectory for this project to minimize that tendency (guesswork). I admitted that I disliked shopping for new clothing and should therefore lose weight as slowly as possible to delay any major wardrobe overhauls (preposterous, but factual).
As the case is with long term projects, new information and lifestyle realities came into play that I did not anticipate initially. Some of these things helped (such as ESPN's '30 for 30' series that gave me a clever little name for the idea) and some hurt (such as the discovery of a local Chinese takeout that I frequently ordered while watching ESPN's '30 for 30' series). Keeping an eye on the big goal- 165 by 2040- made incorporating such realities much simpler.
Progress so far is pretty good. I'm ahead of schedule. I'm considering adjusting the goal a little bit to aim for 160 by 2050, in fact.
*Learn the piano (January 2015)
I've always had a little bit of music in me. Apparently, I started early- family legend reveals that my first Christmas gift was a drum (beat that). I remember driving my toy cars up and down the family's piano, no doubt familiarizing myself with the instrument's intricacies in the process. The first mainstream song lyrics I memorized were for 'American Pie', a silly accomplishment given its length (eight minutes) and my level of access to the song (none, save for catching it on the radio).
In third grade, all this cultivated music ability came together as I (unofficially) performed the best rendition of 'Hot Cross Buns' ever played on a recorder. Recognizing my prodigious talent, my elementary school music teacher encouraged me to continue playing an instrument when the option came up to try something different at the end of that year.
Demonstrating a third-grader's sound understanding of self, I chose the baritone horn. The baritone horn is basically the tuba's sad little brother. At some point in the future, I upgraded (or downgraded, not actually sure) to a euphonium, its pronunciation of 'you-phony-um' an appropriate reflection of my fake interest in playing the instrument.
By eighth grade, it was clear that 'Hot Cross Buns' was the pinnacle of my musical accomplishments. I was a near-certainty to get kicked out of the school band. This was nothing personal, just a reflection of reality. After all, I (a) never practiced and (b) regularly scheduled other activities that clashed directly with the band's two commitments per school year. I retained my place due to the fact that I was the only one playing the instrument (though I suppose it did not hurt that, if I may say, I was a half decent player as well).
Looking back, outside of the weekly improvisation sessions with my music teacher (who I suspect gave up on any lesson plans once the frequency of my practice became clear), the whole experience was a waste of time. I learned critical life skills such as the value of faking it and understood the suffocating sense of obligation in being the only one who knows how to do something vital in a group. Learning these skills came at the cost of ignoring the potential of playing an instrument more suited to my musical interests (as well as just 'cost' for lessons, instruments, and so on).
Of course, understanding my musical interest was a whole separate matter. I really did not know what I liked until my mid-twenties. Once I clarified my interest, the combination of the piano's versatility and a suspicion that my highly developed computer keyboard skills might translate to the instrument's movements convinced me to try and learn it.
The realities of space meant I would start like many others- on the keyboard. Luckily, my mother owned a little-used keyboard so I was able to acquire one at no cost right around Christmas of 2014.
Things got off to a good start. I spent some time each day poking around, learning the sounds, and trying to memorize 'Ghosts', a piano driven song from The Head and The Heart. I remember the keyboard being especially helpful during a couple of that season's many blizzards.
Unfortunately, just a couple of months after I started, my mother's cancer took a significant downward turn. I soon did not have the time to practice. It's been in the corner of my apartment ever since.
The itch is returning. I'm finding myself considering how different songs might sound if covered on the piano. Once more, I'm paying a little closer attention to music which incorporates the instrument. And (breaking news) winter is approaching. The coldest months are always a good time to try something new or run back a once abandoned idea again.
*Eat a lot of vegetables for my first meal (April 2016)
*Go outside in the morning (May 2016)
I got going a bit on this one so I opted to cut it for another day. I'll explore it in detail later this month.
To summarize quickly, these two ideas form a foundation for how I take care of myself. In the spring, I recognized that I intertwined these self-care concepts with the routines and requirements of my job. When I was laid off, I did not immediately make the adjustments needed to continue these two maintenance tasks.
*Limit blog posts to 2000 words (August 2016)
Gotcha!
*Stop using racial terms (Fall 2016)
This one grew out of the
I started to think more about this as I started applying for jobs. Many web-based applicant portals ask classic 'HR' questions as part of the process. These questions include everything from an applicant's legal status in the country to how one originally learned about the posting in question. Tucked away into these sections were questions about gender and race.
I initially considered the future of the gender question. The usual options were male, female, or 'opt out'. After very little contemplation, I got the sense that time would see the proportion of those choosing 'opt out' increasing in comparison to those choosing one of the first two options.
As the summer went on, I found myself stopping more frequently at the race question. Again, I thought ahead a little bit. I wondered how the answer distribution would change over time. I reached a similar conclusion- over time, more and more people would choose 'two or more races' or 'opt out' when asked about their race.
I saw no other way, really. I'm blessed with the trivial ability to 'round up' to one of two races. There are a lot of us out there. Our descendants will struggle to find one easy box to check on these forms. Many already fail to find a simple box to check for this question, I suspect.
I see a future where this question is not on these job applications. What would be the point of asking the question if everyone says 'two or more'? (2)
I think at some point I'll be Asian like I am a Capricorn or white like I am I left-handed. In the future, racial identity will be, at worst, a vestige paying testament to a unified society's journey away from a past ruined by needless division.
Now, this future might be thousands of years away. It's no use predicting the exact day. I don't even know what tomorrow's weather will be. I am pretty sure we'll get there eventually, though.
So, anyway, these thoughts were rattling around my head a few months ago. In the fall, I decided not to use racial terms as descriptors anymore. Why fight the flow, right? The plane in the air arrives earlier than the one on the tarmac.
Early progress, though, was not good. There were plenty of times where I forgot myself. Casual conversations rarely make good starting points for New Year's resolutions (not that these are resolutions). Each slip of mine was a reminder of how easily I get sucked back into the established patterns, rhythms, and vocabulary of communication with those in my life.
There is an element of 'placing the cart before the horse' in this resolution. Though I dismiss the value of describing the sauce on my lunch as 'Asian', suffering brought on by racism is reality for many. Not contributing to the problem is one approach and perhaps the best I can do at the moment. But refusing to acknowledge the terminology might put me in jeopardy of losing touch with the real problems brought on by arbitrary concepts.
Today finds me stuck in middle ground. Like with last week's
The desired outcome is clear and the required process is obvious. What I currently lack are the details of how to link the two together. Hopefully, the connection reveals itself to me in the course of time. Until then, I guess I'm just practicing my lines, preparing for the unknown role I'll take on the stage.
*Wear shoes that fit (Fall 2016)
Sometimes, these 'resolutions' are no more than just acknowledging the ways I've been an automaton. Once a size twelve, always a size twelve, right?
Right.
*No more snacking (November 2016)
Other times, these 'resolutions' are no more than just acknowledging that some currents run so strongly through us that fighting upstream is a futile effort. In these cases, the battleground must be moved away from where defeat is inevitable. When the objective is to avoid being sucked into the river, the battle is fought on its banks.
My weight increased about seven pounds in November. The instinctive reaction is to look at 'the holiday season' and accept convention that everyone's weight bumps up a bit around this time of year. Plus, those trademarked 'semi-mashed' potatoes of mine go straight to the thighs, you know? (3)
I'm fairly sure that in my case some of the weight gain was due to the result of an experiment. In the month of November, I tried to snack. Potato chips, ice cream, cereal, all that and more (peanut M&M's). I even tried Graze, a snack delivery service, when they offered a free trial box. I enjoyed these snacks thoroughly.
The problem was the rate at which I enjoyed them. It was like I convinced myself that everything would go bad in six hours or less. At no point in November did a snack entering my apartment make it to see the light of the next day.
The failure of November means I no longer buy snacks. Instead, I buy beer, something I'm in much better control of. I usually drink one, two, or three beers each night before bed.
I'm not sure about direct applicability here. Advocating for increased drinking is not a great general approach (or specific approach, for that matter). Beer works well for me as a snack substitute because I can cut it off. It could be that for others, the lesson is the reverse- stop buying beers, start buying snacks. Do what works for you.
I am expecting the broader idea to prove crucial for me. Battles lost are often waged again on the same terrain. This is not automatically a bad strategy, especially if prior defeats came about due to bad luck or outside circumstances.
Sometimes, the way forward is to stand up, dust off, and charge again. But this only works if the terrain was irrelevant to the initial defeat.
If the conditions caused the failure, the inclination to try again is harmful to progress. The conviction to fight again prevents us from seeking ways to avoid repeating a doomed battle.
In this way, perhaps a sleep problem is approached from going to bed earlier rather than forcing oneself awake. It could be that a weight problem is better considered through the lens of healthier diet rather than increased exercise. I've read about being worth reading before worrying about readers and that, too, fits into the general idea.
This idea is a roundabout way of twisting the cliche 'choose your battles wisely'. I guess my angle on it is to 'choose your battlegrounds wisely'. Who knows where such a tweak in thinking will lead? New battlegrounds, for starters.
Currently, all I do differently is go to the beer section. I march right past the Cocoa Puffs in the process. That's not much. But I know its only downstream once I wade into that river.
Thanks for reading. See you on Friday.
Tim
Footnotes / imagined complaints
1. Tim Concannon, future (insane) basketball coach...
If you don't believe me, go to the track and run a lap. Then, run the same lap carrying two five pound dumbbells. Good luck beating your original time!
If I became a coach of some sport in the future, I would do a similar exercise to highlight the need for keeping as lean as possible.
2. I think footnotes were invented for the following nonsense...
Maybe these applications will find a way to ask 'what race do you want to be in five years?' or 'what is the biggest weakness of your race?' or the gold standard, 'what will the biggest weakness of your race be in five years?'
3. A recipe for disaster!
Tim's semi-mashed potatoes
Ingredients
*Some potatoes
*A knife
*A backup knife
*A fork
*A cutting board? Up to you, chef.
*A pan
*A mashing tool
*Butter
*Milk
Steps
1. Cut the potatoes using the knife. The idea is to create slices that will be covered by water when you place them in the pan later.
NOTE: If you drop the knife, leave it. LEAVE IT! Use your backup knife.
2. Bring the pan full of water to a simmer. Add the potatoes.
NOTE: Go lookup a real recipe for details on simmering...
3. When the potatoes are ready, a fork will go through the pieces and emerge clean. Remove these potatoes and BEGIN MASHING.
4. Add as much butter and milk as you want. It's your party.
5. Remind your guests that these are 'semi-mashed' to appropriately set expectations. Offer to add 'a little pinch' of butter or milk, but only if they think this will help.
6. Serve with lots and lots of alcohol.
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