Disrupting Radicalization

“But there is no such thing as a pure fact, innocent of interpretation. Behind every fact presented to the world–by a teacher, a writer, anyone–is a judgment. The judgment that has been made is that this fact is important, and that other facts are not important and so they are omitted from the presentation.”

— Howard Zinn

Unfortunately, a majority of Americans have become radicalized.

Radicalization: “the process by which an individual or group comes to adopt increasingly radical views in opposition to a political, social, or religious status quo.” [Wikipedia]

Radicals can be informative (the radical professor), catalysts for change (the peaceful protester), save us from mobs (the lone dissenter), and can even be entertaining (the armchair philosopher).

Radicalization ceases to be useful, works against humanity, and ruins lives when it leads to violence, violent extremism, and politically motivated assholism.

While a microdose of radicalization may be okay, any more than that is detrimental to your future.

You should be able to identify, question, and denormalize radicalizing ideas and practices. As such, here are some thoughts to consider:

Mathematics aside, all facts and truths are observer-dependent, multidimensional opinions (MDOs). Ergo, partial truths and incomplete facts are single dimension opinions (SDOs).

The road to radicalization is paved with single dimension opinions (SDOs).

Fact finding and truth seeking are hard; they require you to seek, consume, and understand competing points of view; until you have done so, the only thing you possess is an SDO.

Everyone has SDOs. Social media is an SDO machine.

Unfortunately, both commercial and public news organizations are increasingly politicized SDO machines.

You can spot a low value SDO source when they don’t welcome, don’t enable, or if they censor alternative points of view.

SDO partisans are easily triggered by alternative points of view.

SDO partisans use pronouns like “them” and “they” to demonize groups of people (e.g., “they hate you” or “they’re motivated by greed”).

SDO partisans use labels like “republicans” and “democrats” to demonize groups of people (e.g., “republicans are racists” or “democrats are socialists”).

SDO partisans use corporate names like Facebook, Google, and Twitter to demonize all employees of that corporation.

When you see or hear grouping words like “them”, “they”, “republicans”, “democrats”, or corporate names, ask for actual names (the humans); most SDO partisans can’t give more than three.

Science is never settled; therefore it’s impossible to construct an SDO using a ‘settled science’ argument.

Beware of SDOs that have been reinforced with credentials and/or anonymous sources (e.g., the Harvard graduate says…”).

Beware of SDOs that have been reinforced with cherry-picked statistics. See “How To Lie With Statistics” (1954).

News articles and social media posts become MDOs when they are accompanied by comments and responses. It’s essential to read both.

There’s really no such thing as an SDO, you’re just missing the other dimension.

Every time you convert an SDO into an MDO, you have made the world a better place.

Presenting information as an MDO (revealing all sides), makes the world a better place.

Investing in (forming and presenting) MDOs requires 2X or 3X more commitment than simply consuming and repeating SDOs.

After you have read this post and (most importantly) any responses to it (via Twitter), I hope you can use this MDO to disrupt radicalization.

Stone Walls

For twenty five years, I have walked by the same stone wall. I never gave it much thought until one day I spotted the rock shown above. Not only is this rock interesting...as a rock, it jarred me into thinking about slavery and the equity some of us have or don’t have in America.

Where I live on the east coast, between 1619 and 1869, so many stone walls were built that if it was one wall, it would circle the globe ten times. There are stone walls everywhere; some with stones so big that you’d think they were placed there by the same people that built the pyramids. But that’s not far from the truth. At least some of these walls were built by slaves.

The next time you see a five hundred pound rock in a stone wall, ask yourself how it got there? Big old, white farmers, their bull-strong sons, and donkeys didn’t move all those rocks. Now ask yourself who benefited? Fields were cleared, walls were built, crops were harvested, and four generations later the land was sold to Walmart.

The fact is, someone owned the humans that built the walls that turned into generational equity for one family and not another.

Going forward, I think it’s important to find ways to level up the equity each of us has in America. Generations later, this is not going to be easy to do. Then again, neither was lifting all those rocks for little or nothing in return…

Don’t Let Your Tongue Get Your Teeth Knocked Out

It’s obvious to most people that you wouldn't sit down at this table uninvited and rudely share your opinions, political views, medical advice, or preferences for Tesla over Harley.

I even politely asked for permission to take this picture and the guy on the right wanted to cancel me. After some calm introductions and smiles, we all implicitly agreed to be friends.

This doesn’t happen on the Internet though. Instead, most people commenting and tweeting approach others like they're hogtied in public square before a throng of angry rockthrowers. Let me insult you whilst my friends stone you to death. This might get you likes, followers, and support from a partisan tribe, but it never changes anything.

If you spend any amount of time on Twitter, you’ll notice that most of the political pundits and rubes that have amassed at least ten thousand disciples have done so by stoning people to death. They throw and their followers start looking for rocks. It’s circular, endless, and pointless. Really. I can’t think of a worse way to waste life.

Insulting statements that attract likes and followers are truly antithetical to building a foundation of genuine power that can affect change. There’s nothing less powerful than a flock of bleating sheep. Imagine spending two years becoming a political shepherd, posting fresh veg to your base, firing up the troops, and bathing in dopamine only to realize you're not an influencer, you're a mook. History will show that it’s all so pointless.

Go back to the picnic table (see photo). If you can’t find some common ground, don’t let your tongue get your teeth knocked out. Just shut up. Please. You’re undeniably part of the problem.

The one thing we all have in common is our humanity. True power resides in those that contribute to the forward and upward graph of evolution. Small kind things, family and friends, dedication to a noble mission, and the pursuit of sustainable innovations are stuff to spend time and energy on. Building a mook army on social media...well, you’re just pulling the graph down.

The same could be said for spending time on the consumption of this stuff. At least I tell myself that I’m better off reading a book or walking deviceless in the woods. With every moment spent on political bullshit there is something positive we should have done instead.

I realize this post is a contradiction of sorts. I’m throwing rocks at political twitter and producing negative energy. However, I see it as a noble mission. Moreover, I’m saving myself.

I’ll just conclude by saying: in person, on the Internet, with friends, or amongst strangers...keep your teeth.

Family Entertainment Guide

I created this guide to help our children navigate the constant pull of social media, Netflix, video games, and other forms of what I call “shallow entertainment”.

I deliver this guide like a business presentation (each section as a slide). I try to be quick, to the point, upbeat, and casual.

A tabloid-sized (11 by 17) copy of this presentation (pictured below) is taped to our refrigerator. [Omnigraffle file]

This is a guide, not rules! We often remind our kids about what’s in the guide, but we don’t strictly enforce any of the bullets below.

The goal here is to create awareness [of shallow entertainment] and to inspire self-motivation.

Shallow Entertainment Sources

• video games

• social media

• episodic TV, Netflix, YouTube

• politics, cable news, local news

• cheap novels

• sports and entertainment news

• shallow news (e.g.: Apple News)

• unnecessary shopping

Why This Guide Matters?

Solitude is necessary to deep thinking; deep thinking is necessary to navigating complex tasks; your ability to complete complex tasks makes your work products highly valuable. Today, social media, endless alerts, devices, and shallow entertainment deprive almost everyone of solitude. Be different!

Your attention [your time] is your most valuable asset. Don’t waste your attention (and your youth) on shallow entertainment.

Create don’t consume. So much happiness comes from creating. Spend more time creating than consuming [entertainment].

Invest TWICE as much time into real-life, face-to-face, in-person friendships, relationships, and networking as you spend on entertainment, and you will be twice as happy, healthy, and wealthy because of it.

Entertainment is a reward for doing something charitable, for learning something complex, for accomplishing goals, and [generally] for completing a meaningful day. If you don’t deserve the reward, go to bed and try harder tomorrow.

Shallow Entertainment Timing

Beyond spending a few minutes in the morning to review social updates and headlines, mornings should never be dedicated to entertainment.

Entertainment comes at the end of the day…after you have completed your homework, chores, exercise, learning, sports, arts, health, spiritual, and goal commitments.

Shallow Entertainment Boundaries

Weekdays: 60–90 minutes TOTAL* a day is more than enough (all sources combined).

Weekends: 90–120 minutes TOTAL* a day is more than enough (all sources combined).

*Including: no more than one TV/Netflix episode a day, and 100% of your social media usage.

Better Than Shallow Entertainment

• Ted Talks and smart YouTube videos

• Exercise, sports training, walking, or running

• Important books (not shallow novels)

• Serious, thoughtful, smart internet posts

• Prayer and meditation

• Playing music or creating art

• Napping

• Spending time with friends

• Preparing healthy food

Before Entertainment Questions

• Are you getting more As than Bs, and no Cs?

• Is your homework completed?

• 30 minutes of cardio? 100–200 pushups?

• Have you prepared a healthy meal today?

• Is your room clean and organized?

• Do you need to attend to your laundry?

• Do your pets have food, water, etc.?

• Any cleaning, organizing, or chores to do?

• Have you responded to important requests to communicate (e.g.: emails)

• Have you reviewed your goals (and schedule) for the day, week, month, and more?

• Have you learned something smart and relevant to your career today (e.g.: read one long article)?

• Are your finances in order, and are all your bills paid?

Succeeding @ Youth Sports

In his best-selling book “Outliers”, Author Malcolm Gladwell states, “10,000 hours is the magic number of greatness.” In other words, if you practice 10,000 hours, you could be great…or maybe not. According to a recent study, “Practice Does Not Necessarily Make Perfect”. Instead, “greatness” can be attributed to a variety of factors. In sports, we only have to work backwards from what’s measured at the highest levels to see that ‘practice’ is just one component in an equation that also includes technical, tactical, physical, and psychological inputs, or TTPP for short.

If your athlete goes far enough in sports, you will notice that player assessment (forms and software), elite training programs, professional player development, recruiters, academies, scouts, coach training, and more are all leveraging holistic formulas that include TTPP.

So what should the parents of a young athlete focus on?

I am not an expert. Three of our kids graduated as varsity athletes; our youngest plays club soccer at a high level; I have coached soccer for many years; and as an entrepreneur, I have invested ~2,000 hours researching venture opportunities in youth sports.

I have given a lot of thought to succeeding at youth sports: what it looks like, how to obtain it, and why we should care.

In the early years, adults are obviously part of the equation. If you (the adult) and your athlete invest 3,000 hours into youth sports you can preserve three overlapping probabilities for success (see red arrow).

High probability (big circle): your athlete will become confident, outgoing, responsible, a team player, meet long-term friends, and make a lifetime commitment to health and fitness.

Reasonable probability (medium circle): your athlete will become a varsity athlete, a collegiate athlete, participate in club sports, and perhaps coach as a parent.

Extremely low probability (small circle): your athlete will be awarded a D1 scholarship, become a pro, and/or coach professionally.

It’s unpredictable, but if you and your athlete invest 3,000 hours filling the technical, tactical, physical, and psychological [TTPP] buckets, all outcomes — however remote — are possible.

Think of the first 3,000 hours as nearly a third of the way to the 10,000 hours needed to achieve mastery. The amount of hours invested per week ramps up with age. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all schedule to follow. Some kids reach mastery by age twenty, and some need five or six additional years. Accelerated investment [in a sport] doesn’t seem to be a surefire recipe. Who hasn’t seen a fast-starter (technical) that’s either lost (tactical), repeatedly injured (physical), and/or unhappy (psychological)? All of the TTPP buckets have to be filled.

In invasion sports (e.g.: soccer, hockey, basketball, lacrosse, football, etc.) where one side is always invading or defending territory, filling the TTPP buckets includes, but is not limited to:

T- Technical: The athlete is acquiring the 1v1, handling, and scoring confidence needed to assume responsibility for predominantly enabling (when attacking) or preventing (when defending) FORWARD movement of the ball or puck; versus relying upon a teammate to do it. (Eventually, someone has to move ‘it’ forward.)

T- Tactical: The athlete is acquiring the right-place-right-time situational knowledge needed to reliably participate in, or prevent, an invasion.

P — Physical: The athlete is acquiring [experiencing] an understanding of how nutrition, rest, and age-appropriate training for strength, stamina, agility, balance, coordination, and speed are all interconnected and essential to competing and winning.

P — Psychological: The athlete is learning how to embrace failure, how to process criticism, how to live in the present, how to visualize success, that succeeding in sports requires a ‘marathoner’ not a ‘sprinter’, and that the [bucket filling] journey…is the reward. Link

Google “technical tactical physical psychological” to learn more.

Note: Experts strongly suggest that kids “should not take part in organized sports activities for more hours per week than their age. For example: a twelve-year-old athlete should not participate in more than twelve hours per week of organized sport.”

The psychological bucket — the smiles bucket — is the hardest to fill. Motivating a child to happily invest 3,000 hours is the most formidable job in youth sports. Most kids quit before they become teenagers. Eventually, everyone has to self-motivate, but until early adulthood, parents and coaches play a big role in filling and [unfortunately] draining the smiles bucket.

The graphic above depicts a scenario that is all too common: technical, tactical, and physical buckets are filling, while the psychological bucket is empty…and your athlete wants to quit. How come? There’s a parent that thinks he’s building a pro, or a coach that thinks she’s launching a career, and one or both of them are fun crushing zombies.

Fun has to be the organizing idea…full stop/period. It’s amazing how many parents fail to put a foundation of fun under their athlete’s entire youth sports experience. It’s certainly not easy to position, plan, and execute every action and activity as fun. Nevertheless, everything and anything, including your advice, coaching, prodding, and feedback that’s not underpinned with an intention to fill the smiles bucket…drains it. I’ve done this. We all do it. This is easy to fix.

Begin by teaching your athlete what future fun looks like…and how to earn it.

Humans are transactional. I do X, and then I get Y. (I go to the dentist; I get a toy.) As kids and parents transact, a fun-trust account either fills or depletes. Parents create a fun-trust surplus when they consistently and reliably deliver the fun/joy/happiness they promised or implied. With a fun-trust surplus, it’s easier to pitch complex transactions that include [distant] future gratification.

In other words, parents dedicated to delivering fun in the early years and judiciously thereafter will succeed at pitching hard work, practice, patience, perseverance, and even setbacks as pathways to future fun. Conversely, no-fun parents with fun-trust deficits can’t make the same pitch. Everything about sports can be positioned and organized as either fun or as a pathway to fun.

Note: Competency builds confidence. The only way to build competency is to keep playing. The only way to keep them playing is to keep it fun. Until it’s a job, kids PLAY sports. Suggested Ted Talk

Along the way to 3,000 hours, you will see amazing young athletes that have incredible technical skills and/or advanced physical capabilities; they will seem so talented and so advanced that you may be tempted to drop out of the race. Don’t. Bigger, faster, stronger, or two years of extra experience are not reliable markers for future success. In fact, if anyone in the world could reliably predict which athletes at twelve will be successful at twenty-two, they would be wildly wealthy. Early selection is a myth; late bloomers are common; and all of the TTPP buckets have to be filled.

If you are a competitive person that’s wondering at this point, how to win, how to beat the system, and how to arrive at the end of the journey on top. Here are two observations:

First, ‘winners’ seem to simply win the war of attrition. As noted above, most kids quit, including most of the ‘future hall-of-famers’ that have been identified early on by so-called ‘experts’. Every athlete that plays a sport for fifteen to twenty years wins.

Second, overachievers have one thing in common: they’re smart and deliberate goal setters.

So, here’s my formula: During the first 3,000 hours, preserve all of your athlete’s options by filling all four of the TTPP buckets; always make it fun; ignore all the hype pertaining to young superstars…even when they’re yours; and guide the entire process via goals that are great, granular, gritty, and guided.

Goals — Activities and actions are undertaken with SMART goals in mind. Goals are essential. Work with your athlete to set weekly, monthly, season, and longer-term goals. Every two weeks, take ten minutes to review progress.

Great — Activities and actions are intended to be [great] fun, or a pathway to future fun. Especially in the early years, if it’s not fun, you’re draining the smiles bucket.

Granular — Deconstruct big picture goals such as ‘get better’ or ‘score more’ into granular goals (and routines) that add up to something bigger. Granular example: three times a week, kick with my left foot, from the right side of a small target that is twenty feet away, and strike the target ten times out of one-hundred attempts; adjust upward as the goal is met.

Grit — Choose activities and actions where initial failure is probable, a bit of agony is inevitable, and hard work is required; doing so builds grit. A good example of the intersection of grit and fun is when kids compete against older siblings.

Guided — Use highly qualified coaches and instructors to make granular adjustments, and to obtain continuous advice and feedback. (Parents are rarely qualified to do this.)

The Secret of Stuff

As children, my dad taught us how to sort pennies...dirty pennies.  We used a big sorting board that was covered with shallow boxes labeled by year.  We turned over thousands of pennies looking for 1955 double strucks.  We never found one.  We rolled pennies until our fingers turned green.  In addition to priming our immune systems, this was great training for someone destined to become the king of stuff.  

We started by organizing coins, then graduated to basements, barns, and garages; then onto the family business which was auto recycling.  

By fourteen, we had learned how to convert any mountain of stuff into a bucket of cash.  To become the kings of stuff, we used modern equipment, proprietary software, massive warehouses, fleets of trucks, and creative advertising.  The basic formula was simple: move everything to the center, sort it into smaller piles, toss the junk, containerize, label, and rack the remainder, age the rare stuff like wine, and price the common stuff to turn over quickly.

The business of stuff included scrap, auto parts, electronics, and consumer goods; it led to an acquisition by Ford Motor Company, spin-off businesses, wealth, security, and the freedom to acquire a stream of - you guessed it - endless stuff.  

I have handled more stuff than most people on earth.  I even started a business called ‘Stuff Pro’ to help people that were drowning in their stuff.  As the king of stuff, I’m writing this post to share the secret of stuff.  Ready?  Nothing distracts one from achieving true happiness more than the pursuit of stuff.  Ask anyone that can’t leave a bad job, that can’t afford the car they are driving, the house they are living in, or the credit cards they are paying off, or anyone else that’s drowning in clutter or deprived of time: “Does the pursuit of stuff lead to happiness...or not?”

Marketers don’t want you to know this, and the consumption economy would crumble if everyone did, but there’s a HUGE, hidden burden that comes with every single bit of stuff.  Beyond the purchase price, there’s the time-cost of stuff, including the time to acquire it, move it, store it, clean it, repair it, upgrade it, move it again, dust it, box it, bag it, rack it, sell it, ship it, move it again, account for it, dispose of it or recycle it.  Moreover, consumers rarely think about the cost of insuring, heating, cooling, renting, powering, and paying taxes for the space where they store their extra stuff.  And, even fewer worry about the cradle-to-grave, environmental impact of simply having stuff.

Back to true happiness.  At the end of life, nobody ever wants more stuff, they want more time!  Time is your most precious commodity.  People that undervalue their time spend it on futzing with stuff.  Smart people account for the future value of their time.  If you want to earn $100 an hour in the future, then why do you spend so much time cleaning and moving your stuff?  it’s a low-wage job.

Furthermore, your stuff is worth way less than you think.  Have you checked eBay or Craigslist lately?  There’s so much stuff on the web now.  Rare things have become common, and regular things are free.  Your time is worth more than your stuff.   Your heated, taxable space is worth more than your stuff.  Are you holding onto worthless stuff?   

If you want the freedom to create anything, or the ability to travel, or to be the master of your time, then consider the hidden cost of everything you acquire.  Think about this: if you could afford to rent everything, you’d have the time to do anything.  Truth.  Stuff is a burden; the burden begins the moment you start looking for it, and it doesn’t end until it’s been properly recycled; and when you give it to others...the burden travels.

Whether pursuing or purging stuff, ask yourself: will this enrich my life?  If not, use the time instead to create something, read a book, write a book, play an instrument, exercise, or travel.  Remember, people are remembered for what they create, not for what they consume.

Related:

The Story of Stuff https://youtu.be/9GorqroigqM

21 Surprising Statistics That Reveal How Much Stuff We Actually Own    https://www.becomingminimalist.com/clutter-stats/

Simple Money Borrowing and Lending Rules to Live By

In 1964 a local businessman lent my father enough money to launch his business; you could say his money, combined with my father’s ambition, underwrote the next fifty years of our family’s above-average financial well-being. My father was able to grow a substantial business, and the lender, a man that expected very little in return, slightly profited; however, he left a lasting impact that spanned three generations.

More often than not, businesses are built upon loans. Without loans, the world of commerce would come to a grinding halt. If you plan to borrow or lend money, here are a few simple rules to live by:      

Borrowing: Nobody forgets a bad debtor! A debtor is someone that owes a sum of money. The only way to become a debtor is to take on a commitment to pay a person, friend, bank, company, or other lender in the future. If you owe money to anyone, for any reason, you are a debtor.  Who you owe, the amount you owe, why you are indebted, and your current circumstances DO NOT MATTER. Unless you are released from your debts, you are a debtor. If you don’t live up to your payment commitments, you are a bad debtor. You can be friendly, smart, generous, and soulful, but if you are a bad debtor, it’s a negative tag that’s impossible to escape. The database is permanent, and although people forgive, they never forget unpaid debts. If you want to avoid being a bad debtor, don’t go into debt. And if you choose to go into debt, make damn sure that you thoroughly understand, and can live by...the terms of your debts.  

If you are struggling with your debts, always, always communicate with your lenders; reiterate your commitments; negotiate extended terms; and never act as though your misfortunes are someone else’s problem or responsibility. Pay your debts and be remembered as a good debtor. I want to reiterate that being a bad debtor does not equate to being a bad person. Understandably, some people have to ask for their debts to be forgiven. The point is, the “bad debtor” tag is nearly impossible to shake, and better to be avoided altogether.

Lending: Smart lenders anticipate bad debtors. Unfortunately, there are too many good people that are bad debtors. If you are thinking about loaning someone money, or getting paid in the future for anything, including your labor, make sure you can afford to convert your ‘loan’ into a donation. People get sick. People fall on hard times. Stuff happens. As a creditor, be prepared to suspend or extend payments and forgive debts.  

When lending, ask for repayment terms, including interest, that are equivalent to the terms you would be willing to accept as a borrower. When the potential for nonpayment is obvious, charge higher rates. Be transparent about everything and never take advantage of people. Put everything in writing. Here’s a tip: use your phone to record a video whereby the debtor reiterates his or her commitments; nothing outlasts a reminder that includes the recorded words of a borrower.

It’s really, really challenging to be both a friend and a creditor. If a friend needs money, once again...make a donation. If a friend owes you money, is unwilling to live by your agreement, and is threatening to end your friendship, then they are friends you don’t need. Collect what’s owed and find new friends.   

Lending and borrowing can change lives and help dreams come true. No matter the amount or the persons involved, take it seriously and live up to your commitments.  

I write these notes to share with my children...

Life Lessons From a Landscaper

On January 1st, 2015, after a courageous battle with cancer, Bruce R. Warila passed away.

My father was a successful businessman who built an auto recycling empire. Despite the fact that he spent his days amongst a sea of wrecked cars, bent metal, and burly men, my dad went home each day to his beloved trees, his blossoming flowers, and landscape designs. He was a junkyard dog with a soft spot for pansies, pine mulch, and asparagus.

It was there among the thousands of trees he planted, pruned, and watered that he shared the wisdom he had acquired through his keen observation of nature. He wasn’t exactly a philosopher, but if you read between the vines, his life lessons often delivered as landscaping advice were real and important. Here are just a few:

• Think long term. It takes fifty years to grow a majestic tree. Some people don’t see the point in investing in trees. You will be amazed how fast time goes by. Someday, the trees you planted will be more valuable than your house.

• Have a plan. Plants and trees takes years to grow. You have to account for size and proximity now and many years into the future.

• Plan carefully. It takes fifty years to grow a majestic tree. If you cut it down, you ain’t getting it back.

• Mark change. When you walk around your yard, watch how things continue to change from season-to-season, and year-to-year. Nature has the capacity to split rocks, carve canyons, and blanket the sun. You can see it happening if you open just your eyes and take inventory of your surroundings.

• Respect the things you can’t control. Nature will have more impact on your land than you could ever have.

• Start small. Don’t go out and buy the biggest tree you can afford. Get a younger tree that hasn’t been pumped up with fertilizer and care for it yourself; you will end up with a better plant.

• Pull weeds. Weeds will choke anything. If you don’t attend to weeds quickly and frequently they will overrun your garden.  

• Make sacrifices. Sometimes you have to cut down an older, misshapen tree to let a younger tree flourish. 

• Prune the deadwood. By cutting away the branches that no longer affect the health of the plant, you are giving what’s left a better chance to survive.

• Old plants need attention too. Everyone knows that you should water recent plantings. However, those trees that have been providing shade for the last ten years…they need hydration too.  Nothing keeps a tree happy like ongoing attention.

• Initial conditions matter. When planting trees and shrubs, dig extra large holes. When trees are rooting, don’t make them do extra work; they need all of their energy to adjust to new surroundings. 

• Diversify. Don’t plant too much of the same thing. Insects, blight, and extreme weather can kill off entire species. Make sure you plant a diversified portfolio of plants and trees.

• Inclusive trumps exclusive. The best landscapes are the ones that you can share with the community.  

• Don’t overdo it. If a little fertilizer is good, a lot must be great. Wrong. Too much food and drink will kill anything.   

• Buy local. Look for plants and trees that were grown locally by people you trust. It’s going to be easier to establish plants that are used to the local environment.

• It’s OK to make mistakes, that’s what chainsaws and shovels are for. Try new things and plant stuff every year. You can always rip it out or move it later. 

• It’s not work, it’s exercise. My yard is the best gym in town.

• Real men plant flowers. Planting is a great escape, and it gives you a wonderful sense of accomplishment.

This list could go on and on. I am sure that I learned more about life from our tree talks, than anything else.   I am going to miss our yard safaris, but I am looking forward to seeing what he has planted in heaven.   

~Bruce 

Have You Ridden a Windhorse?

Thanks to my first true friend Grasmaand, for the last twenty years, as I have moved from industry to industry, I have carried the image of a Tibetan windhorse with me from one venture to another.

Hard work, relationships and creative output have never gotten me where I wanted to go, it’s always been a windhorse that carried me someplace else.   

Strangely enough, the destination was never a place where I intended a go, it’s just a place I ended up.  

A windhorse is not a strategy. It’s not a relationship. It’s not a routine. It’s not a drug. It’s any of the above. It’s what you ride that takes you to a place where you didn’t know you wanted to be.

It’s vague I know. You won’t get it until you’ve ridden one, and unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at things, you simply can’t mount a windhorse and go someplace you didn’t know you wanted to be. Sorry, it doesn’t seem to work that way.

A windhorse can only be ridden once. Everyone rides at least one. The only way you will ever find yours is through reflection.

Then it’s all useless and senseless you say. Not really. You can’t ride very far unless you’re prepared, and that’s the point.

I’m certain you will recall the image of the windhorse every time you dismount one. Moreover, everyone you pass this intangible conundrum onto will be tagged with the same indefinite combination of uncertainty and imminent contentment. Oh well.

If you think I am kidding, try forgetting the windhorse. You can’t and you won’t.

Windhorses on Wikipedia

This post started as an April Fool's post, as I don't do the guru thing on MTT, plus it's a bit of a crack on guru speak. However the post is also real and valid brain food. View original post.

Learning From Stone

Last summer, on a rocky beach, I watched a scruffy performance artist rapidly and repeatedly balance dozens of random rocks on edge. He wasn’t using super glue, cement, sand, or dents in the ground. The Rock Whisperer lifted awkward chunks of granite, irregular seastones, and lopsided boulders; rolled them around in his calloused hands; and then zenfully placed them point or edge down on the seawall. The rocks did not spin, wobble, or fall. Instead, they remained suspended upright like inverted stalagmites (see picture).

If anyone wanted to try this puzzle, he or she only needed a rock and a section of seawall. So naturally, random bystanders took up the challenge. With the steady cadence of a drill instructor, the Rock Whisperer repeatedly encouraged would-be stone-standers by slowly calling out:

“The stone will teach you what you need to know.”

“The stone will teach you what you need to know.”

“The stone will teach you what you need to know.”

He said nothing else.

Other than art, the Rock Whisperer was unknowingly teaching us something else:

If someone shows you, you will obtain confidence that the problem or puzzle can be solved.

If someone shows you, and teaches you, you will solve the problem.

If nobody shows you, and nobody teaches you, the stone can teach you what you need to know.  

In the absence of observation and instruction, athletes, writers, sculptors, artists, explorers, inventors, and the stone whisperer...can learn from nothing but the ball, the pen, the canvas, an instrument, a tool, the stars, the wind, a block of wood, or a simple rock.  

It has been said that some excel at observing, while others excel at processing instructions.

Seems to me now, that there are those that can learn from stone.

The Best Kind of Work

Every time I go out to move a pile of firewood, I think this is hard labor, but it's not hard work. 

The best hard labor is the occasional manual labor you do that tires you out, makes you sore, and it compliments the routine exercises you do in the gym. It's really just another form of exercise.

The worst hard labor is the repetitive manual labor that some of us have to do every day of our lives. This is the type of labor the wears out joints, mangles spines, and beats young boys into weathered men. 

Hard work is something different. It's work that's hard to do, only a few are willing or capable of doing it, and it's highly valued by others.

It's probably fair to say, If everyone could do it, it would be called...easy work.

My wife homeschools our eleven-year old twin boys. That's hard work. Going to the office and doing something familiar…that's easy work. I couldn't do my wife's job.

My father always said: "If you never want to work again, find a job you love."

This brings me to the 'best kind of work'. It has to be hard work that you love to do. This kind of work creates the most value and doesn't seem like work at all. If you have to work for a living, then having fun while making money is about as good as work gets.

Caffeine Paves Over Bad Habits

Over the years, I have quit caffeine for years at a time.  I slip back into the habit when I forget how unnecessary it is to functioning at a high-level.

A big desert after lunch…coffee.

Too much booze the night before…coffee.

Not enough sleep…coffee.

Lots of time behind the desk and not enough time at the gym…coffee.

Staying out extra late…espresso martini.

Not making time to meditate…coffee.

Not enough fruit…coffee (beans).

Caffeine paves over bad habits, and conversely, the absence of it makes living...calmer.

Power Comes Out of the Ends of the Battery

It’s safe to play the middle, but power comes out of the ends of the battery.

I use this analogy when I am talking about what to create or how to say it.

Some creators have an inclination to attempt to appeal to the widest possible audience by splitting the middle. In my experience, the middle is never as large or as powerful as either end.

If you are building an audience, consider appealing to the ends. Power comes out of the ends of the battery, not the middle.

The Space Between

The time-space between the stuff we do is as important as the stuff we do.

The sum total of the time-space between our goals and activities is equal to or greater than the time-space we consume pursuing goals and activities.

How we use this time-space is often the difference between finding the time and energy to add value to the world or not.

When we put our minds to the task of making the most of the time-space between, it’s not surprising to learn what we can accomplish during a long commute for example.

What’s really surprising though, is to learn what we can accomplish as a bag of popcorn expands in the microwave.

Small time-spaces [between things] are the biggest part of our days.

We can use these time-spaces for anything, including rest.

And over a lifetime, wasted time-spaces can add up to years.

The happiest, the healthiest, and the wisest people I know are all strategic users of the time-spaces [between].