Drawing on Thoughts … Thoughts on Drawing
They say, “A picture is worth a thousand words … “ Nowhere is that more true than in the case of the following chalk-talk with renown designer and illustrator Milton Glazer. Here, Glazer, Fulbright Scholar and founding partner of the celebrated Push Pin Studios, discusses the codependent relationship between drawing and thinking while sketching a portrait of William Shakespeare.
In his book, “Drawing is Thinking,” Glaser suggests that all art is a form of meditation and that drawing is “a primary way of encountering reality.” He addresses societal reticence around the arts and the individual’s resistance to drawing (“Oh, I can’t draw … my drawings look like they were done by a 3rd grader … “) as missing the point, asserting that the value in drawing is not about “making things look accurate,” but rather drawing is a way of “becoming more conscious of what one is looking at” and “expressively interpreting the world. “
Comments on Glaser’s theory hearken back to the cave drawings of primitive man,
“ … art started as a way of noticing things, focusing on them, fixing them in our minds, … that when our ancestors drew animals on the walls of caves, it was a kind of sympathetic magic … If they could draw them, they knew them, and they could control them. “
Fast forward to the digital age, where Michale Sankey discusses the effects of changing nature of “visual literacy” as it applies to education and curriculum design,
“In contemporary western culture, particularly the youth culture, visual mediums and genres are becoming increasingly popular at the expense of other mediums, in particular the written word (schirato & Yell 1996). Others suggest that the constant bombardment by visual images from so many quarters is already shaping [the youths] lives, influencing their attitudes and tuning their responses. As media simulations become more popular and persuasive they will increasingly encroach upon life experience to the extent that new senses of reality will be formed and media representations will in fact become our first order reality (Walker & Chaplin, 1997).”
New York Times Weekend columnist Brad Stone (1/10/2010, p. 5) observes that his three-year-old daughter’s world view and life will be shaped by myriad technological advances and gadgets, “ … digital books, Skype video chats, … toddler-friendly video games on the iPhone … she’ll see the world a lot differently from her parents.”
Stone goes on to discuss current research which suggests that “the ever-accelerating pace of technological change may be minting a series of mini-generation gaps, with each group of children uniquely influenced by the tech tools available in their formative stages of development.”
This phenomenon could only raise questions around Glaser‘s dynamics of drawing and foster an increased impact on what our own Cecily Sommers describes as our “associative fluency” – taking in information in multiple ways (seeing, hearing, moving) – a mechanism which serves as the foundation of creativity and innovation. The act of drawing or dancing or interacting with digital media (?) opens new pathways in the brain, shaking things up and creating opportunities for new connections to form. Until the age of eight or so, children are able to learn and absorb large quantities of information, forging extensive neural networks to handle the massive influx.
Conversely, over time, under-trafficked neural connections, thought processes and information that see little action, are unceremoniously closed down. Eventually the adult brain winds up using only the most well-trodden neural pathways as a short-cut default system (read: old people stuck in their ways). It continues to be our challenge then, to maintain ample neural capacity such that we are able to “encounter our reality” with resolution and vigor… lest we find ourselves in the cross-hairs of a virtual Wooly Mammoth with only a sharpened pencil to our name.
Nature's Orchestra
“If we don’t take the opportunity to form a baseline understanding of natural soundscapes, we’ll lose part of our own humanity. These sounds taught us to dance, and they’re part of our language. I think we owe them something.” – Bernie Krause
Western culture has long favored sight over hearing. Bombarded with thousands of visual images every day, we pay very little attention to the subtle sounds that enter our ears. Middle school sleepover games of “Would You Rather?” always resulted in a unanimous group decision that being blind would be, like, WAY harder than being deaf. American bioacoustician Bernie Krause thinks otherwise and has devoted the last 40 years of his life to recording the earth’s rapidly disappearing “biophony” — a term he coined to describe what the world sounds like in the absence of humans.
He believes that biophony is unique all over the world; nowhere in nature sounds anything like anywhere else. He also believes that in a biophony, animal groups each communicate at a different frequency so they don’t interfere with one another’s voices. When the pitches are mapped out, it ends up looking like a musical score, with each instrument in its proper place.
The problem with this lovely orchestra concept is that man-made noise (anthrophony) greatly intrudes on this natural symphony. The noises of machinery and cars interfere with a part of the sound spectrum already in use and suddenly some animal can’t make itself heard, which Krause has proven can have a significant impact on evolution.
Today, there are fewer and fewer places on Earth where man-made noises don’t prevail — over 40 percent of his original field-recording locations have been lost due to increasing habitat degradation and human noise. To combat that, Krause is making it his mission to compile the largest private archive of natural sound anywhere — fittingly named Wild Sanctuary. The collection of sounds represents over 3,500 hours of wild soundscapes and nearly 15,000 species. Even more intriguing, Wild Sanctuary’s Internet home base is Google Maps and Google Earth, an innovative bridge between the virtual and the natural world that allows you to click on any location you’re interested in and hear exactly what it sounds like.
It’s easy to see ecological problems. Now we need to learn to listen to them as well. Should we be focusing on developing quieter, as well as cleaner, technology and machinery? Would more noise ordinances benefit animals in nature? There isn’t really an answer — it’s just about using all of your senses when trying to make sense of the world around you.
Google Makes Us Smarter (Whew!)
After so much wailing about how computers are dumbing down a whole generation, comes evidence that it’s the older generation that may benefit most: turns out that computer activity helps keep dementia at bay.
Mental stimulation is the name of the game when it comes to keeping our wits about us, and the simple act of searching for information online (“Googling”) is great for keeping those synapses snapping. Even more than Sudoku or crossword puzzles, searching for new information online is a continuous learning experience.
Now You See Outside
There’s no question that the input we receive affects the world we see. I mean, how can you see it if you don’t … well, see it? The fact that I spent 6th grade through junior year of high school reading Stephen King’s entire library probably has something to do with the fact that I now seem to pick up terrible horror films as if I were trying to physically manifest BadMovies.org.
You’ve been warned.
Luckily for all of us, there are people out there enlightening those around them with more than the special edition of C.H.U.D.
One of them is George Ayittey, champion of Radio Free Africa – a non-profit organization with the goal of facilitating the flow of information on the continent. Specifically, the group is most interested in the sharing of ideas and supporting public watchdogs to expose criminal and political wrongdoing. Though an equally large undertaking is the creation of a viable network for spreading said information.
Knowledge is the ability to create change – voice is the ability to share it. Opening the lines of communication leads to the ultimate open source community. Only, instead of building iPhone apps, it’s building the future. The iPhone app store is a good example, though, in the sense that it shows how the empowered masses will always move things forward more quickly than the entrusted few.
I remember taking “The History of Mass Communication” in college (almost as stuffy as it sounds) and discussing the role of the colonial press in the birth of the nation. It’s hard to imagine this rebel press as a very big deal because we already have things like Consumerist.com and FactCheck.org. At this point, we truly seem to live in a country where the watchdog is thriving.
In fact, I can barely picture a world where I don’t have access to the outside through my computer, iPhone, coworker … etc. I am empowered and the fact that I’m even writing this post is proof that I have the potential to spark change, or at least Diggs, outside of my own, immediate sphere.
Radio Free Africa is picking things up at a different stage because this freedom of information – this flow of ideas – does not exist in Africa, or at least not to the extent that it does here.
Radio Free Africa is currently focused on:
- collecting current events and news articles relating to free press and violations against it
- collecting information on similar grassroots programs
- academic and policy review
- legislative outreach
- technology outreach – penetrating hard-to-reach locales through the use of tools like mobile phones and services like SMS, in order to create a framework for engagement and free media
- identifying areas where free speech is under attack and developing plans to intervene
In short, the visionaries at Radio Free Africa are building the reservoir, developing the pipeline and determining where to plant wells.
Meanwhile, across the pond, Luis Soriano Bohorquez and his donkey have worked out a system that – while not quite as expansive – is no less inspiring. Instead of connecting a continent through free media, Luis gets on his “biblioburro” every weekend in order to deliver books to the surrounding towns and villages.
With a few thousand books haphazardly piled in his home and at friends’ houses, it’s a little hard fill requests. And to think I groaned at having to use a card catalog once!
But, in the same way Radio Free Africa is seeking to open the lines of communication to and build community, Luis is broadening the horizons of the children around him. The children are becoming stronger readers – developing the tools to communicate on a much broader level.
Said one child, “It’s important because, when your parents ask you to read them a letter that they don’t understand, you can read it to them.”
Not only are they developing technical skills, but they are learning how to dream bigger, and through these books, they are allowed to step outside of their own worlds.
There’s a good chance that I’ll never see half the places I’ve visited in books. But I’m certainly better for all the places I’ve dreamed. It’s a question of scope. It allows me to dream bigger in the world I do exist in.
If we believe that change literacy is written in the language of dreams, then both Luis Soriano Bohorquez and George Ayittey should be thanked in the dedication.
Without their faith and support, this [insert dream/change/invention/cure/work of art/etc.] would not have been possible.
"Hybrid thinking"? … Think again.
“Obama lauds innovative spirit … Future economic prosperity depends on building a new, stronger foundation and recapturing the spirit of innovation.”
Historically, tough economic times have catalyzed surges in innovative thinking - Hewlett Packard and Polaroid were formed after the Great Depression, MTV came close on the heels of the recession in the 1980’s, and Apple’s iPod (developed during a sharp decline in sales and margins of consumer electronics in 2001) joined the “pantheon of game-changing innovations born of hard times, alongside Depression-era breakthroughs such as nylon and the jet engine.” (HBR, July/Aug. 2009) If history repeats itself, the current economic downturn is the perfect storm of opportunity for innovation.
The rustling in the bushes is all there – at the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer suggests that, “Companies and industries that continue to pursue innovation during tough economic times will achieve a significant competitive advantage and position themselves for growth…” … And, “… companies investing countercyclically in R&D (biz-code for innovation) during downturns tend to outpace their competitors on the upswing.” (HBR)
What all this means is, between random jolts from the Federal Reserve and the pitch and yaw of consumer confidence, companies and industries around the world are rifling through drawers, combing executive profiles, and making the mad dash into the ethers in search of both survival and triumph in the huge pot of gold at the end of the Next Big Innovation. Suddenly, the fluffy and elusive x-factor of creativity/innovation/design has become the imperative “it-force” behind economic recovery and prosperity. From Washington to Wall Street, everyone is using the “I” word, rushing into the vortex with new takes on how to pin down and quantify innovation.
Dev Patnaik, founder and chief executive of Jump Associates, a Silicon Valley growth strategy firm (clients include Nike, Target, and Hewlett-Packard) discusses the underpinnings of innovation in this month’s Fast Company, ”Forget Design Thinking and Try Hybrid Thinking.” Fast forward to his point, Patnaik suggests that there is a unique role that designers and their skill-set/way of thinking can play in making everything — products, services, experiences, and industry-specific entities such as finance, education and government — better. He then pushes beyond that thought to propose that something bigger is going on in the minds of successful innovators:
“… something bigger is going on, more powerful than the adoption of a single school of thought. The secret isn’t design thinking, it’s “hybrid thinking “: the conscious blending of different fields of thought to discover and develop opportunities that were previously unseen by the status quo …”
We’re not talking about “multi-tasking” here … True hybrid thinkers (you know who you are) traffic in the cracks between traditional areas of expertise and are able to ”connect the dots between what’s culturally desirable, technically feasible, and viable from a business point of view.” The new face of innovation demands that we “see the world through multiple lenses and draw meaning from seemingly disparate points of data.”
According to Patnaik, “hybridity” matters now because the problems we need to solve are too complex to be handled by any one skill-set. Gone are the good old silo days where depth in a single field trumps breadth in multiple areas. Audiovox design executive Lou Lenzi asserts that those who want to innovate, must be “one part humanist, one part technologist, and one part capitalist.”
Well, “hybrid thinking” might be a catchy modern phrase, but it isn’t a new concept. In the spirit of “Everything old is new again,” hybrid thinking can march to the back of the line behind lava lamps, lime green and liberal arts. Two words for Dev: 1. da; 2. Vinci.
When's the Last Time You "Carded" Yourself?
At one point in our lives, we’ve all been forewarned that collecting credit cards is a bad habit to get into, but what about collecting ID cards? No, I’m not talking about fake IDs, but rather your real, government issued ID. It’s a proposal that doesn’t seem so uncanny when we live in a world where people live and work so transiently, yet its complications are many.
Take this example:
Earlier this month, Britain unveiled their new take on the national ID card to much public dissatisfaction. Their decision to respect the identity rights of Irish Nationalists living in Northern Ireland (as decreed by the Belfast Agreement) was done in a way that inflamed the rest of the UK population: there will be no union flag featured on the card design. Instead, a shamrock, daffodil, thistle, and rose will represent the four countries of the UK.
Although I don’t doubt that the intention of the British government was well-aimed in allaying the concerns of the Irish Nationalists (specifically those who remain armed), but they have forgotten that the Unionists of Northern Ireland are also armed and expect adequate representation from their government. As reported by the UK’s Daily Mail, DUP Northern Ireland Assembly member Iain Paisley Junior remarked, “I can’t imagine anyone would want a so-called national identity card if it expunges the symbol of our national unity, which is the union flag.”
Further complicating matters, those living in Northern Ireland who identify themselves as Irish will only be able to use the UK national ID card as a “personal ID.” If they wish to travel outside of the country, the must be issued an ID from the Irish Government. In essence, British, Irish, and those claiming dual citizenship are able to reside in Northern Ireland; you may carry both forms of identification, but you can only use certain ones in specific circumstances. If it sounds like an identity crisis, that’s because it is.
Most of us have dealt with this dilemma in some small form, like when you’ve finally lived in a new place long enough to start telling people you’re from “Colorado” instead of wherever your parent’s house is – confusing at first, but not inexplicable. However, for those who live in disputed places, it may be that the land they identify with is altered or no longer even exists. When I studied in Northern Ireland, for example, whether my hometown was called “Derry” or “Londonderry” was an ongoing battle. To get by, I soon learned to spit it out quickly enough so that no one could determine which one it was that I said.
A way of getting around this is to identify yourself in hyphenations. This is a choice that is most common to the United States and is frequently interpreted as a “cultural-national” identity, i.e.) “Mexican-American.” “Jewish-American.” “Hispanic-American.” If you travel elsewhere, you will find a whole new set of examples to describe identity such as “negro, mulatto, mestizo, indigenous” – primarily associated with race. The case of Northern Ireland is an anomaly in that where a person’s identity is generally viewed as compilation of both cultural, national, and racial elements, Northern Ireland’s dispute does not fit this stereotype. Everyone is Anglo-Saxon, their cultural histories run relatively parallel, but the dilemma of what they should call themselves still remains.
What’s in a name? Apparently everything. It is fascinating to dig into the connotations behind identity because they invite questions that we should all be asking about ourselves. It is important to address the different meanings and associations your identity holds for you as well as the varying perspectives it might to convey to others. It will help you to stamp-out short-sightedness in any venture that you choose to pursue. Here are a few appetizers to get your started:
What is your identity?
National, ethnic, cultural?
How important is it to you?
Is it fixed or fluid?
Is it government ordained or a personal choice?
How does your identity influence your decision-making?
How does your identity shape your relationship with others?
If you’re still stumped, don’t worry – it’s a complex issue. Take it from Dr. Seuss:
“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You!”
Intro to design
So, this is the first in a series of blogs on and around the topic of “design.” The first in a series of anything is always tough … it hangs out there, with no real context or reason for being. This first blog is going to be like that clunky riff of small talk at the beginning of a real conversation. We size each other up, make our introductions, set up some unspoken expectations, and plunge into whatever comes next.
The plan for this forum is to present a design find — something immensely informative, enlightening, inspiring, entertaining, or even enraging (which can be fun); do some thinking, pondering, ruminating, conjecturing, and reflecting on it; and then, open up a dialogue around the issues that need to be raised and the questions that need to be asked.
In this exploration, I’m hoping we’ll get close enough to touch the elephant, but also back-off to a broad enough perspective that we can behold the bigger animal. As for tone, look for something between academic and improv. Note: I am totally aware that chances are good that you will know a whole lot more about all of this than I do, which begs the open invite to step up and share your thoughts, wisdom, snark, whatever. Me blog es su blog.
Design defined — A nice tight definition of terms can be a good way to wade into a broader discussion — except that the concept of “design” is so elusive and complex that even the ubiquitous resource Wikipedia had trouble nailing it down. Design is a noun and it’s a verb, it’s a philosophy, it’s subjective, and it’s omnipresent. There’s applied design, graphic design, industrial design, fashion design, interior design, information design, process design, interactive design … good design, bad design, provocative design, and “designs on you.” Some random perspectives that speak to design defined include:
- “Design is the planning that [provides] the basis for the making of every object or system … as a verb, “to design” refers to the process of originating and developing a plan for a product, structure, system, or component with intention … as a noun, “a design” is used for either the final solution/plan or the result of implementing that plan in the form of the final product of a design process … more recently, processes have also been treated as products of design, giving new meaning to the term process design.” — Wikipedia (See what I mean?)
- “Design implies a conscious effort to create something that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing.” — more Wikipedia
- “Design is about doing something — a process more than a product. Design is about identifying problems, asking good questions, and finding better answers.” — betterbydesign.org.nz
- “Great design is deceptive … it looks so simple and obvious. Great design only works — only happens — when it goes right down to the heart and soul of the [entity] that produces it.” — Rod Oram, Journalist and Adjunct Professor at the New Zealand Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship
- “To design is to communicate clearly by whatever means you can control or master.” — Milton Glaser
- “… to inform and delight.” – more Milton Glaser
- “Design is thinking, materialized in objects and environments, inscribed in patterns of use, and addressed by analysis and planning.” — Ellen Lupton, Curator of Contemporary Design at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
- “About half my designs are controlled fantasy, 15 percent are total madness and the rest are bread-and-butter designs.” — Manolo Blahnik
Ok, so, maybe a pithy definition of design isn’t going to help us as much as catching design in action — design created in the minds of people – revered icons, dewy-eyed students, purists, practitioners, … folks from all walks of life, trafficking in different disciplines and realms of influence, and impacting aesthetic and material experience in all corners of the globe.
Look for some of that in the blogs ahead.
Give me your chocolate, your plants, and your Prius
If we erected a Statue of Sustainability today, her placard would undoubtedly read: give me your chocolate, your plant-based products, and your people-powered Priuses; at least, that’s what the latest innovations from Toyota, Coca-Cola, and the NASCAR racing industry would imply…
* Toyota released a behind-the-scenes preview of their 2010 Prius commercial that is choreographed and constructed entirely out of people. It looks like a scene straight out of a Dr. Suess book made for TV! Love it. Have a look at the video below where the production team describes the innovation and logistical challenges behind its debut.
* Despite Coca-Cola’s tarnished human rights image abroad, they are making important strides in sustainability at home with their partnership with the World Wildlife Fund. The Atlanta Coca-Cola headquarters has put out a fully-recyclable bottle prototype that is made entirely out of plant-based plastic. Traditional PET bottles are made from petroleum, a non-renewable resource, but the new plant bottle is made with up to 30 percent plant-based materials.
“The Coca-Cola Company is a company with the power to transform the marketplace, and the introduction of the PlantBottle(TM) is yet another great example of their leadership on environmental issues,” said Carter Roberts, President and CEO of World Wildlife Fund, U.S. “We are pleased to be working with Coke to tackle sustainability issues and drive innovations like this through their supply chain, the broader industry and the world.”
*Last, but obviously never least – race cars are always in the lead – is the introduction of a plant-powered Formula 1 race car from the Warwick Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre as a part of their WorldFirst project. The Vegetable Car boasts a carrot-based polymer steering wheel, wing mirrors made of potatoes, and a bio diesel engine that – I kid you not – runs on “waste chocolate.” And the sustainability measures do nothing to compromise speed, the Vegetable Car can still hit upwards of 125 miles on hour!
“Following the recent turmoil in Formula 1 arising from the high costs of running competitive motor racing teams, and doubts in sponsors’ minds over the commercial value of their involvement, the viability of motor racing is being critically questioned,” the WorldFirst website explains. ” We are seeking to prove to the motor industry that it is possible to build a competitive racing car using environmentally sustainable components.”
Move over Mother Liberty, the call for sustainability is getting louder and more creative every day.
Daydreaming is a Sign of Productivity, Not Procrastination
Never stop wandering.
The irony does not escape me that the day after I graduate from college, a new PNAS study is released stating that mind-wandering is actually beneficial to brain activity. I could have definitely used this excuse for the first 22 years of my academic career or when trying to convince my parents that “off the beaten path” does not necessarily mean “off the rails.” Alas, I’ve got at least 30 years of the work world ahead of me – so I guess for me and you both, research showing the daydreaming and mind-wandering are actually beneficial to your health comes better late than never.
Scientists Kalina Christoff of UBC and Jonathon Schooler of UCSB both created a project based on “experience sampling” to capture daydreaming through the use of an fMRI machine. Participants in the study were given an extremely tedious task to complete and when their minds began to wander, fluctuations in their brain activity were monitored. The results show that mind-wandering actually institutes a unique mental state that allows for other parts of your brain to work in more tight-knit cooperation, thus making you more productive. This level of productivity is most pronounced when you are not even aware that you are daydreaming. Not bad.
Jonah Lehrer is an important contributer to the daydreaming=productivity scene. On his blog, he notes that daydreaming actually helps us with problem-solving because were are allowed to hypothesize “what-ifs” and engage to “mental time travel” in search of solutions. Lehrer condemns the association of procrastination and daydreaming with laziness, arguing that abstract thought is often the way that many great inventions are made. (He cites the Minnesota born Post-It note as an example). “The hard part is maintaining enough awareness to catch your creative insight when it happens [and change it into something productive]“, he states.
The PNAS study also reflected that while for years, daydreaming was thought to be a “resting state” and a distraction to our day-to-day thoughts and tasks, it is actually one of the more predominant and productive modes of the human mind. This makes me feel a bit better about the time I just spent staring out the window while trying to write this blog. Sigh.
Even more intriguing – the brain doesn’t stop at daydreaming either. Take a look at Jill Bolte Taylor’s story if you really want to push your boundaries. She is a brain scientist who was able to experience her own stroke and live to tell about it. Her talk gets a little kooky when she attempts to describe what it’s like to no longer be able to define the boundaries of her own human body and her subsequent time spent disconnected from her left brain chatter, a state of mind which she refers to as “la-la-land,” but her insights are incredibly valuable. There is still so much we don’t know about the brain so it’s silly we’ve attached a stigma to daydreaming. It’s ability to unwittingly spark imagination and innovation on an abstract plain makes daydreaming one of our most crucial tools for creativity.
My Search Engine Special Requests
Wolfram Alpha is the talk of the town in the online world. There are whispers that it may be Google’s usurper or at least, it’s number one contender. Set to launch this month, the Wolfram Alpha search engine strives to compute any kind of question you throw at it in a matter of moments. Instead of offering suggested web pages for further browsing, as Google does, it simply gives you the answer. Like that. The presence of British mathetmetician Stephen Wolfram as the brains behind the design of this super-powered calculator is fitting. A peek at his website will show you that he is the epitome of overachievement. [Spoiler alert: He joined the ranks of Oxford University at the age of 17!]
Anyway, although I am curious to see if Google has finally met its match, I’m really not that impressed. There is still a lot of ground that needs to be covered in search engine progress and quite frankly, I’m waiting. Just for sport, here are two suggestions for new search engine development that once implemented, could easily rival Google by sheer necessity.
1. SongSlut – a search engine that enables you to find out the artist and title of that song that has been stuck in your head since fifth grade. The one that continues to haunt you in your sleep…you know what I’m talking about. If you hear it, you never catch the artist or the song title on the radio – something always happens – you go through a tunnel, your mother calls, or the DJ doesn’t indulge. You Google the few lyrics you know, but they’re so non-specific that the results always prove fruitless. You query your friends and relatives, but you’re all in the same boat. Nobody knows. By the time you’re twenty two, you’ve heard it 357 times and you’re convinced that if you don’t find out soon, you may slowly go insane. For me, it was this song…
All I knew for fifteen years of my life is “do do do da da” part. Ahhh – can you imagine my agony?! With SongSlut, everything would’ve been okay. There’s my testimonial.
2. KeyJangler – a search engine for locating your keys. Like Google Earth, but instead of locating your house, it would find your keys. Of course, this would require GPS in all of our keys, a slightly more expensive investment, but considering how much time it would save you – I think well worth it.
If you can think of more annoying knowledge gaps that need to be filled, by all means, let me know!
Mein Kampf: The New Business 101 Primer
As PUSH advocated at our 2005 conference feature “Lessons from Deviants” and more recently in our “Diamonds in the Rough” post, more often than not, there is a method to one’s madness and that method is worth studying. Indian business students have certainly caught onto this strategy, as demonstrated by the recent increase in demand for Adolf Hitler’s autobiography, Mein Kampf. In the last six months, sales of the book surpassed 10,000 copies in New Delhi alone.
The owner of a Mumbai-based bookstore explained the phenomenon as such: “They [Indian business students] see it as a kind of success story where one man can have a vision, work out a plan on how to implement it and then successfully complete it”. In other words, however twisted that vision was, his business plan to execute it was not. The passage of time may now have finally afforded us enough distance to critically study the methodology behind Hitler, Goebbels, and others that created such an impressive force to be reckoned with… And the fact that Indian business students are the ones with enough savvy to recognize his logistical merit is a nice little jab of irony for Adolf. It just proves you don’t have to Aryan to be smart.
A Preview of A Global Dinner Party
This Monday, I had the opportunity to attend a test dinner of the Push Institute’s much-anticipated Global Dinner Party (now in its pilot phase) at the home of Sam and Sylvia Kaplan. The guest list included four lawyers (from corporate to entertainment to constitutional/security-torture-rendition, our mayor, a singer, a serial entrepreneur, a college student in need of a free meal/younger blogger (me), and others. The three-course dinner featured matzoh ball soup and salad, a Middle Eastern main dish, and chocolate meringue for dessert, but the conversation undoubtedly proved to be the main affair – so much that, I confess, I rather slacked off on taking notes. Like a good meal after a long day (when you don’t stop to wipe your face until you’ve cleaned your plate), I became so engrossed in the conversation that I did not pause to take notes for fear of missing the debate.
In our review of the evening, Cecily explained that “The aim of A Global Dinner Party is to bring people together over food and ideas, to share and challenge thinking about where we’re headed. We’re creating a 3-course menu of questions on topics such as energy, immigration, life expectancy, worldviews, exploration of space and ocean, morality, and other such juicy stuff. If the conversation broadens and inspires people’s thinking, all while having fun, then the dinner is a success. Ultimately, these are the kinds of experiences that ultimately impact how decisions are made — which is how change is made — and that’s what we’re after! Share a dinner, create community, and change the world — what could be better?”
Discussion for the evening focused on (which) factors that create a stable and robust society. I’m not sure that we arrived at any answers, though there was agreement that a malleable framework (ability to identify and adapt to change) was indeed a key aspect. Some thought that framework depends on the soft stuff of trust and community, while others leaned toward the hard stuff of social institutions, i.e. government, constitution, laws, banks, schools, health care, philanthropy, etc. It’s a chicken-egg/nature-nurture dialogue, but consensus wasn’t the goal, rather this group preferred to describe how a stable and robust society feels, looks, behaves. Terms used included safety, diversity, education, resilience, identity, production of goods and services, access to opportunity, common good, and leadership. Tom Wiese, my partner in the one-on-one discussion even argued that lazy people were an important aspect of society because the ambitious are motivated by others lack of action. – Interesting take!
The conversation then moved to encompass the benefits of our increasingly open-source government. With the introduction of interactive internet tools, more people are able to weigh in and hold sway. Nate Garvis of Target Corporations argued, “We have been suffering from a failure of creativity. We tend to throw the government and military at every problem. We use old tools for the new age when what we really need is more social innovation. The internet tools we now have allowed us to expand greatly in the world of social innovation.”
I could continue, but it doesn’t merit much for me to give you a play-by-play. It is our hope that every global dinner party will have its own unique face, but all will offer the opportunity to engage.
“The dinners are by design,” Cecily says. “It’s a way of humanizing ourselves.”
“I think we are surrounded by messages that drive us apart,” Nate adds. “We need to focus more on what we have in common and what better place to bring us all together than over the dinner table?”
We Are Not Alone…No, Seriously
The complete IMF World Economic Outlook was released this week with much anticipation and inevitably, disappointment as the conclusion was made that a recovery by next year is highly unlikely. With headers such as “Sovereigns Under Stress” and “How Did Things Get So Bad So Fast?”, we might as well add, “Oh Holy #$%@ What Are We Going To Do Now?!” Fortunately, astronomers at the the European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (of England) gave us the answer on Tuesday: we can move. Where to? Your choice: Planet Gleise 518 e or Gleise 518 d. Neither has quite the ring to it as “Earth”, but they may very well be the next hospitable planet in our vicinity.
“This discovery is absolutely extraordinary, ” Geoff Marcy of the University of California, Berkley explained to the Associated Press. While Gliese 581 e appears to be too hot for life, it demonstrates that nature has made small planets similar to our own. (Gliese 581 e is only 1.9 times the size of earth, the first planet discovered closer in size to Earth than to Jupiter.) Many more planets are likely to exist in the “hospitable zone”, a distance from the sun that allows for water to be present on the planet. Gliese 581 d, discovered in 2007, also lies within this range. Research so far suggests that Gliese 581 d is a rocky planet, but the potential for a deep ocean, still undiscovered, is present.
Astronomers released their findings at this week’s European Week of Astronomy and Space Science. Gliese 581 e was first located using the European Southern Observatory’s telescope in La Silla, Chile. This telescope comes equipped with a special instrument that splits light in order to find wobbles in different wavelengths. These “wobbles” can then unveil the existence of other planets in other galaxies. Absolutely fascinating stuff.
I'd like an iced myelin cafe latte to go please, hold the sugar
What? You haven’t tried the iced myelin cafe latte sans sugar yet? And you call yourself hip? Well…you are, because it actually hasn’t been invented yet. Yep. I just made that drink up, but trust me, it’s in the near future. A bevy of recent scientific studies suggest that if my fictional latte ever was invented, it would be the best brain-based barista concoction on the market. Here’s why:
- Technology Review recently reported that scientists have discovered that myelin is the key component of how brain mash becomes intelligence cash. Myelin is the layer of fat that coats the neural wires that are responsible for transmitting electrical messages from cell-to-cell in your brain. It works like insulation in that it prevents leaks from occurring in your message transmission. Not only does a thicker myelin layer mean better message movement, it also significantly boosts the speed of your cell-to-cell dialogue – improvements that serve to encourage a higher IQ level.
The myelin factor wasn’t an easy find either. Previously, scientists have been focusing on the grey matter of brains, but recent developments in magnetic resonance imaging have given rise to the study of the so-called “white matter.” If you’re lost, take a peek at this basic brain breakdown from New Scientist’s Instant Expert. Basically, grey matter is the clusters of neutral cells that make up the brain and white matter is the system of myelin-laced tracts that connect these clusters. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is the name of the new mapping mechanism that has helped track white matter by measuring the diffusion of water molecules through tissue. (And you thought this post was about a new espresso drink, right?! Stay with me.)
So putting this all together, a current study of 92 fraternal and identical twins using the DTI scans has shown that the more white matter you have, the greater your potential is for a higher IQ. Point being, whether it’s white or whether it’s grey – it matters.
And what about the ice and sugar you ask? Researchers are working on that too. Doctors have long observed that cooling patients (specifically, their brains) after a heart attack or stroke make them less susceptible to brain damage. Bridgett Harris, a PHd at the University of Edinburgh, is currently working on a helmet that does just that. Neurologist Scott Small of Colombia University has also published a new report concluding that avoiding sugar can decrease potential memory lapses as you get older. So I guess what I’m saying is that the ice and sugar are really just a way to cover all your bases. If you get the ice and happen to have a stroke shortly after, your brain will already be on its way to a safe, chilled state and if you cut out the sugar, you may actually remember when you put your latte on the roof of your car before pulling into the nearest lane. 
Essence Exposed: When the economy breaks, what happens to the soul?
If you can get past the stuffy British accents, this discussion panel on whether the free-market model has created a moral vacuum (put together by the Guardian) is definitely worth the listen. (It’s only about five minutes long.) It includes insights from Dr. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury; Richard Sennett, a sociologist; and Susie Orbach, a writer.
Dr. Williams starts off by pointing out that the current economic crisis is just as much about pride as it is about greed. People share “the absolute terror of not being in control, the need to always be setting the agenda” and when people don’t have that, they tend to freak out. To put this in a business perspective, Cecily states, “There’s a human tendency to want to have everything figured out before taking action. For example, you often see people whose work life isn’t satisfying, yet wait to know exactly what they want to do before making a change. But you can’t really figure things out in your head; experience is the only way to really know what works and what doesn’t. That’s not to say that thorough research and preparation aren’t needed, but it is a reminder to not suffer the ‘paralysis of analysis’. The best one can do is to set a direction and just start moving.”
As it is, there are plenty of parallels between what the individual is feeling and what a business experiences in a time of recession. Richard Sennett points out that “modern capitalism reconfigured things like careers so that it’s no longer a meaningful concept for people to perform short-term jobs.” Short-term investment became much more popular than long-term gains and views, and when put in this kind of short-term regime, both people and businesses suffer.
Why does this happen? Orbach argues it has a lot to do with identity. “We now have this thrust…for a self that is so fractured that it can only be experienced through the latest accomplishment…” she explains. Their is an immediacy to our well-being, we tend to view our lives in terms of a checklist and when we’re in between checked boxes, we have a total loss of who we are. Orbach touches on the fact that we lack a sense of continuity and fluidity in what it is that comprises us. “It”, that feeling of self-satisfaction, simply comes and goes in such short-term wavelengths that it’s difficult to process. Our lives have become so external that we forget how to nurture our own identities.
“That is why branding is so important,” Cecily says. “A well-defined, deeply rooted sense of purpose should drive business strategy. As we know, conditions and trends can swing wildly, yet purpose is constant. Purpose is what makes a brand resilient and adaptive. In traumatic times, such as we’re in, it’s important that decisions be guided by the basics, ‘Is this who we are? Is this what we do? Does this fit?”
A brand, done well, is a distillation of purpose and personality. Branding is a process of translating that subjective, squishy stuff into objective terms. It’s an interesting process; the aim is to find language, metaphors, archetypes, style that moves seamlessly from subject (company) – object (brand) – subject (consumer) – object (purchase). A brand that resonates across all channels is a brand that has successfully articulated its purpose and meaning. This is why it is also the seat of strategy, the cause of resilience, and the driver of loyalty. – Pretty important stuff.
We do this as individuals too. Take Facebook, for example. We have objectified our identities in the form of the page and by adding you as a friend, joining groups, and exchanging information, we’re saying to one another – “Hey, I like who you are! I like what you’re about!” It’s all about bonding and belonging which, when extended through a community of like-minded people gives a sense ‘tribe.’ Essentially, that is the same relationship a business should have with its clients, even though it usually doesn’t play out in such obvious terms.
“Remember, no one else can ‘do’ you,” Cecily says. “It’s you, your brand, your identity. Don’t fall into the trap of comparing yourself to others. Just stay true to you, then use that sense of conviction to guide you through the rest.”
Future of cars uncertain, Honda reveals its side-project: a mind reading robot
Scientists at the Honda Research Institute have been doing a lot of thinking lately, and they’re never just your run-of-the mill thoughts. As of yesterday, Honda thoughts now have the power to move robots. Japanese scientists introduced Asismo this Tuesday. Asismo is a bipedal, humanoid robot that has a 90% success rate of reading its operator’s mind, then carrying out one of four commands.
With mind-control technology, the idea is that eventually we can take the teapot off the stove when we’re in the other room or warm up the car without even having to go outside. Honda scientists explained the “brain-machine interface” as having sensors that pick up electrical signals in the scalp and the ability to translate them into the appropriate actions. There is obviously a bit of a processing time-delay – probably the same amount of time it would take for you to get up off the couch and complete the task yourself – but hey, who am I to knock on something so scientifically progressive, high-tech, and trendy? I know if I were still seven years old, I would be begging my parents for an Asismo for Christmas. The amount of time I spent dreading washing dishes would’ve given me plenty of time to think through the whole affair and delegate the responsibility to my pet robot.
Honda stressed that Asismo is still a baby, not yet ready for introduction to the market. The unpredictability and diversity of a person’s day-to-day thinking makes it difficult for Asismo to function universally. A brain must be analyzed for up to three hours prior before taking a trial run with the robot. If Honda is really smart, however, when Asismo is finally ready for market, they should change its name to Wall-E. The fans would go wild! (Myself included.)
The Reich-AIG Smackdown
Jon Stewart single-handedly revived Celebrity Death Match last week with his-much-talked-about, searing (and, oh so satisfying) rebuke of Jim Cramer’s lack of accountability — and that of his colleagues at CNBC — as a financial “entertainer.”
This week Robert Reich jumps in the ring, unloading a fresh can of whoop-ass on AIG and their astonishingly brazen-yet-craven defense of the $100M executive-bonus (or is it ‘bogus’?) payout.
Reich counters AIG’s claim of legally-binding, preexisting agreements with refreshing common sense (full post here):
AIG’s arguments are absurd on their face. Had AIG gone into chapter 11 bankruptcy or been liquidated, as it would have without government aid, no bonuses would ever be paid (they would have had a lower priority under bankruptcy law that AIG’s debts to other creditors); indeed, AIG’s executives would have long ago been on the street. And any mention of the word “talent” in the same sentence as “AIG” or “credit default swaps” would be laughable if laughing weren’t already so expensive.
…This sordid story of government helplessness in the face of massive taxpayer commitments illustrates better than anything to date why the government should take over any institution that’s “too big to fail” and which has cost taxpayers dearly. Such institutions are no longer within the capitalist system because they are no longer accountable to the market. To whom should they be accountable? As long as taxpayers effectively own a large portion of them, they should be accountable to the government. But if our very own Secretary of the Treasury doesn’t even learn of the bonuses until months after AIG has decided to pay them, and cannot make stick his decision that they should not be paid, AIG is not even accountable to the government. That means AIG’s executives — using $170 billion of our money, so far — are accountable to no one. (emphasis mine)
It’s common knowledge that the handful of executives who take a $1/year salary (CEOs at Apple, Yahoo!, Google, Citigroup, Ford, among them) is little more than a PR move. The extraordinary wealth of these men (mega-millionaires to billionaires all) continues to grow through recalibrated bonus and stock option packages, all while appearing to martyr themselves for the health of the company. Stunningly, the folks at AIG appear to have no pride (or its inverse, shame), and maintain an impenetrable sense of entitlement to extravagant parties and pay scales. It’s crazy, it’s unconscionable — and worse — it’s deadly.
I stand by my earlier assertion that causes of the collapse of our financial system really aren’t complicated. Sure the financial instruments themselves may be, but the principles of the game are exceedingly straight-forward.
Roubini: Economy Undergoing Death by 1000 Cuts
Back when hedge fund managers were still riding high, Nouriel Roubini’s forecasts of financial collapse earned him the moniker “Dr. Doom.” Turns out that Dr. Doom was eerily accurate in his projections, turning previous snicker-ers to sycophants hanging on his every word. A profile written on him in the NYT Magazine, August 2008, begins with warnings he’d issued two years earlier:
On Sept. 7, 2006, Nouriel Roubini, an economics professor at New York University, stood before an audience of economists at the International Monetary Fund and announced that a crisis was brewing. In the coming months and years, he warned, the United States was likely to face a once-in-a-lifetime housing bust, an oil shock, sharply declining consumer confidence and, ultimately, a deep recession. He laid out a bleak sequence of events: homeowners defaulting on mortgages, trillions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities unraveling worldwide and the global financial system shuddering to a halt. These developments, he went on, could cripple or destroy hedge funds, investment banks and other major financial institutions like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
(read the full article)
Naturally, Roubini now enjoys a new kind of celebrity along with a heavy schedule of speeches, writing, and interviews. Yesterday, he was a guest on MSNBC and warned that the recession will extend into 2010, and that if stronger measures aren’t taken (by the government), that an “L”-shaped stagflation (as happened in Japan) is in front of us, rather than the “U”-shaped recovery we’ve been hoping for. Flattening any illusion that good times will return, Roubini says that the worst is still yet to come.
[vodpod id=Groupvideo.2196827&w=425&h=350&fv=]
When presumed financial wizards and experts say that they didn’t see the financial meltdown coming — that no one could — it feels like a deer-lick-size piece of salt being ground into a wound. There’s a whole lot of blame to go around, most of which can be hung on the delusion/ideology/myth that significant leverage will predictably yield significant wealth. I don’t know about you, but a visceral “Are you **!!?* high?” sense of distress screams inside me at such an assumption.
Many describe the “financial instruments” (of mass destruction) engineered in the last decade as too complex to understand, as they were designed, in fact, for opacity. I’m sure that’s true, but like gravity, there are simple principles that govern wealth creation and its management. Creating capital without any tie to a real asset is just crazy — and that’s not hard to understand.
I often say that, like Rodney Dangerfield, futurists don’t get no respect. The human brain just doesn’t accept what’s not in front of it, and rejects even well-reasoned arguments such as Roubini’s when they’re at odds with present conditions. Fear is hard to grasp when one is insulated by the comfort of big cars, houses, and bank accounts. It’s one of the reasons why humans tend to wait for crises to make changes, and why denial can run so deep.
My advice: 1) subscribe to Roubini’s RGE Monitor newsletter, and 2) start paying futurists the respect they’re due.
Information, Perspective, Action!
As a Global Studies major, I am trained to address complex world issues that are, more often than not, both daunting and depressing. I often leave my lecture hall so deflated by the massive change that still needs to be fostered in the world that I hardly notice the lightening of my load when I discard my backpack from my shoulders. Fortunately, this is a temporary paralysis. In an hour or so, I return to life because I know there are so many people already doing meaningful, much-needed work – we just rarely read about them in some form other than the past tense.
We lack a certain level of perspective when sitting in the present and when sitting in the lecture hall, students lack a certain ability to act. The vague nature of a “Global Studies” degree fills you with valuable, incredibly engaging information, but it rarely provides a clear and appropriate avenue for action. Some people find this exciting, but most would agree it’s frustrating. When you go to school for pharmacy, you know you’ll be a pharmacist. When you graduate with a degree in journalism, your job will likely entail some kind of word-crunching, but with us world-crunchers, we just don’t have that kind of clarity.
Since I am most often met with looks of confusion after I pronounce my major, I usually follow up with: “It’s a save-the-world kind of degree.” People seem relieved, but inevitably, they ask: “So how are you going to do that?”
Cecily and I talked it over this week and I present to you, without further ado, the three most important steps to creating social change.
- Information (specifically through Technology)
- Perspective
- Action
In terms of information, this “Did You Know” video montage by Colorado high school administrator, Karl Fisch, does an excellent job of conveying its importance. By taking the facts and research behind well-known thinkers such as David Warlick, Thomas Friedman, Ian Jukes, and Ray Kurzweil and giving it a visual component, Fisch demonstrates the vast complexities of the systems in which we live in and the manic acceleration of information via technology that we have been experiencing for last twenty or so years. And in the end he asks, “So what does it all mean?”
I think it means that this is an exciting time to be alive. Technology could be the most powerful platform for social change yet – and PUSH is chock full of examples to back it up. 2005 PUSH speaker Ethan Zuckerman (check out his personal blog) is a current fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society and among many accomplishments, he is the founder of Global Voices Online. Global Voices Online is an aggregate website for conversations and blogs taking place across the world. It uses technology as a mechanism to deliver vast amounts of information and more specifically, a variety of different perspectives. It is also delivers a more concrete sense of hope. After a particularly mean Global Studies lecture, I can just log on and remind myself that people are moving and shaking 24/7, with or without me.
Another example is demonstrated by Cameron Sinclair, the co-founder for Architecture for Humanity. In 2004, Sinclair was named one of the Aspen Seven who are changing the world for the better by Fortune magazine due to Architecture for Humanity’s quest to “design like you give a damn” and bring architectural solutions to humanitarian crises and communities in need. To achieve this, Sinclair has developed the Open Architecture Network – “a collaborative online resource and project management tool for those dedicated to improving the environment.” Anyone – and Sinclair means anyone – not just architects and business professionals – who is committed to helping the cause can submit architectural plans for proposed projects. The old adage has always been: “two heads are better than one,” but the Open Architecture Network is taking that to the next level: two hundred heads might be the more appropriate phrase these days.
Social change starts with one person who has an idea, like MLKJ and his dream and they’re willing to dedicate their life to it. It’s not an easy endeavor, but our current access to information through technology, our ability to network, and our exposure to different perspectives is expanding the potential for success at an exponential rate. It is an exciting time to be alive. History shows us that one person inspired social change against all odds and given our technological advantages, we certainly have no excuse not to follow in their footsteps. Take a look…
* I need to express my insane admiration for Betty Williams. She is my Northern Ireland heroine and an incredibly gutsy, strong woman. She acts as a mother for Peace and Justice issues across the world and continues to work tirelessly for many different causes. SO much love, Betty!
Social Media for Two
Yesterday Ze Frank broadcast this tweet: “http://thru-you.com/ :: awesome”
I have faith in Ze’s judgment (on matters such as these, anyway), so went to check out the site. Apparently, many other people have faith in Ze’s judgment too: the the site had crashed.
You see, I’m just one of nearly 22,000 people who follow Ze on Twitter, and one of more than 3,000 of his friends on Facebook. His website generates even more traffic — somewhere between 5-10 million people have come to be entertained by his terrifically smart and funny work. Happily, he’s as prolific as he is popular, so there’s lots of Ze love to go around. That doesn’t keep me from worrying that, to Ze, I’m just one of millions, so am always relieved to read on his home page (www.zefrank.com) that “Many have come. But I like you the best.”
“That bastard! I fell prey to his charms again,” I’m embarrased to admit. But that’s part of Ze’s secret: it really is about you. And every one of his internet bits and twits has value, a little gift of must-know or must-laugh communication. It’s a secret so powerful that the birth of Web 2.0 may have sprung directly from Ze’s on-loins way back in 2001 (an eternity in web years).
Anyone who’s already a fan knows how it all began: In 2001 Ze made a sweet video, “How to Dance Properly,” and sent it out as a birthday invitation to 17 friends who laughed (and replayed it many times, no doubt), then sent it on to other friends to enjoy. Those friends did the same until, within just a few days of Ze’s initial click of the ’send’ button, millions (!) of people had come to his site and crashed the server.
That kind of viral spread is some kind of crazy. That kind of success deserves to go under the microscope of what I call “What’s at Work When it’s Working” so the rest of slow schmoes can pick up a few ‘best practices’ to apply to our own ‘deliverables.’
Ze Frank is a webertainer. He’s not hawking anything, but his ability to generate not just audience, but loyal fans (some of whom must be pretty frightening) makes him a phenomenon. His talent as a truly Smart Guy is undeniable, but just as important is his talent for inventing new methods of creating and sharing media, and involving his audience in the process. His ability to put the Social in Media has made Ze a (big) man of the times.
Maybe Ze really does like me the best. He obviously made this video is for me and — check it out — Ze is one of my followers on Twitter. If I get really lucky, maybe his attention will burn up my server capacity too. – Love ya, Ze 
A Look at John Lennon
This is the audio from a 1969 interview held with John Lennon. 14-year-old Jerry Levitan snuck into the Beatle’s hotel room to ask Lennon questions about peace. The cinematography exceptional and the message is simple. We, as individuals and a collective, are responsible the ones for change.
Note to Newspapers: Don't Short-Change Yourself
In my last entry, I practically argued for the end of paid journalism and as Push Institute founder, Cecily Sommers pointed out: I basically shot myself in the foot. “Say you’re a journalist who really believes in her work, who also has a family, and struggles to make ends meet. Then that’s a different set of considerations,” she says. “We need to understand that ‘life is commerce,’ that we constantly e-value-ate the worth of things, activities, people, time whether it’s in numerical terms, or simply opinion-based.”
Cecily launches her argument: “Here’s the deal: change is not inherently good or bad. Change is more like a symptom (but not in the pejorative sense) that has root causes that are constant and predictable: resources, technology, demographics, and social organization.” She continues, “What’s important is to understand how these forces interact (it’s what she calls “Change Literacy”), and then to make good decisions.” She goes on to say that in order to do that, you must first set set aside personal philosophies and belief systems, then study a situation in all its glorious complexity.
“Values matter,” says Cecily, “and are factored into the decisions you ultimately make in the end.” She makes a distinction between values and beliefs (or ideology): “While values tell you what you care about, beliefs are a determination of truth. That’s slippery stuff; beliefs act as an unconscious filter of what and how information is absorbed. As such they can distort or limit real understanding of the situation at hand.”
As an example, Cecily said she grew up in a family that believes business is bad and/or money is evil. “Obviously, it didn’t keep a passion for business from growing in me,” she says, “though it didn’t help either. What I discovered on my own was that business is a wonderfully creative platform. It’s also a pretty powerful social instrument, an actor in the world, a tool for change. Like change itself, business is neither good nor bad, it’s what you do with it.”
As she was talking, I recognized that the attitudes and beliefs Cecily described in her family is a mindset I may have adopted as well. I view mine as a self-defense mechanism. Being raised without much cash flow, I pretended that I was snubbing the allure of business, when in reality, it had been snubbing me from the start. Not only is this childish, Cecily argues that “it is an assumption that limits learning. Worse, it can limit your experience. You need to say to yourself: well, this is the world, given who I am, how can I be the most effective, successful person in this world?” If ‘life is commerce,’ as she says,then ultimately, you need to know both your value and your values, then be responsible to each. If you choose otherwise, you’re thrusting yourself into a cyclical argument with reality. (Basically, in more erudite words, she called me a “dreamer” too. *sigh*)
“Value is dynamic; it is forever shifting,” Cecily says. “The pain of change is a shift in values, whether your own or society’s. For instance, every generation believes, as they grow older, that things are getting worse (she said there’s a word for it: “chrono-centricism”). It’s just that things are different and older people are no longer a part of society’s creative thrust; usually they don’t want to be at the center of things anymore, but neither do they want to feel left out. The way the world used to work makes sense to them, while all the newer stuff doesn’t. Every generation, as it ages, starts to feel anxious about the world, and interprets it as ‘wrong’ or ‘bad’.”
I am experiencing that “pain of shifting one’s values” right now as I write this. Can Walter Isaacson really be my friend? If I want to live in this world, I guess so. Cecily offers hope, however.” It is equally important to have boundaries,” she advises. “You have to understand business for what it is, but it doesn’t mean you abandon your values. You can go to the soup kitchen and help out or give back in other ways to the community, outside of work. It is ineffective when you let these values permeate your business model, however, because then you are not assigning the appropriate worth to your endeavors. If you keep pushing against the fact that the world functions through commerce, you are only impoverishing yourself.”
Don't Nickel My News
Walter Isaacson, former Chairman and CEO of CNN and Managing Editor of TIME, is vying for the “re-commoditizing” of the newspaper, but so far, most of his claims are falling on deaf ears. Isaacson makes his argument in last week’s TIME Magazine with his piece, “How to Save Your Newspaper” and is following up with many animated discussions, including my favorite – his appearance on Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show. He is convinced that there is room to move in the decline of the newspaper industry – that if citizens can be hooked hard by the iTunes phenomenon, surely a similar business model can be designed for the news industry. The New York Times scratched their dalliance in this idea in 2007 and the only major newspaper in the U.S. currently operating under an online subscription model remains the Wall Street Journal.
Isaacson warns that “free news” will come at the consequence of quality content. “Charging for content forces discipline on journalist: they must produce things that people actually value,” Isaacson states. He also criticizes the popular method of fostering profit through advertisement dollars. He says, “Publication’s primary duty should be to its readers, not to its advertisers. You will weaken your bond with your readers if you do not directly depend on them.” As a writer, I happen to disagree with both of these statements. As far as free news compromising quality content, this is easily refutable. Do Habitat for Humanity houses fall apart in a year? I don’t think so. In fact, they are probably twice as valuable because they were made not for profit, but for the betterment of the community. They have an inherent worth that is much more powerful than you think. The daily beat reporter has never been a lucrative occupation, but it’s a spot that’s still consistently filled. Why? It’s for the same reason that musicians continue to play at their corner coffee shop even though their chances of making it big are miniscule. It’s out of a love for what they do. If Isaacson is implying that a lack of adequate compensation is going to make a lazy journalist, I argue that they probably shouldn’t be a journalist in the first place – they’re not in it for the right reasons.
This holds true for his advertisement argument as well. If a newspaper makes its profit solely through advertising, Isaacson’s implication is that the paper will be less conscious of its readers. Doubtful. You still need your readers to visit your website, pick up your paper, in order for those advertising dollars to work. You might not directly depend on them, but like most things in life, it is a system, and your readers indirectly influence your survival. You lose your credibility; you lose your advertising investments.
Here’s where my idealism starts to creep in. Why does everything need a price? The growing field of economic anthropology addresses this incredible tension between market and society where a numerical value is the only way we know how to determine the worth of something, yet there are so many aspects of human nature that lie outside of this measuring rod. We put a price on emotions when we award thousands of dollars in “pain and suffering” lawsuit settlements. We put a price on our houses which really, for many people, are a huge part of their individual identity. (This may not be true to the modern-day transient American, but for many people they live where their family has been for generations and feel indelibly connected to the land). American technology writer, Dan Gilmor, tells us that “journalism is shifting from a lecture mode to something that resembles more of a conversation.” So the question is, when did we start charging for conversations?
“A penny for your thoughts” is a colloqualism that’s been around forever and I hate it. It is a metaphor that reduces us to vending machines of information and I don’t think this is true. Personally, I am a heart on my sleeve kind of girl and I will talk to anyone and any animal until my lips turn blue. Some people call this a “dreamer,” implying a sort of otherwordly quality, but on the contrary, I think the ability to share makes you more real.
In conclusion, I am embracing the demise of the newspaper as a form of “creative destruction,” something beautiful will appear in its place. I secretly hope that Isaacson’s ideas get mired in the mist and we start to treat our exchange of information and ideas as something sacred, something above the realm of the market. The internet has done a great job of starting us along that path, so all we need to do is keep on PUSHing.
In-Flight Revolution, Please
Okay, so I’m still stuck on this video game track. It’s fascinating to me. As I mentioned in a previous blog, I usually make an annual Northern Ireland pilgrimmage. I always fly Aer Lingus because I can’t wait until I get to Ireland to hear those accents that I love, but now I have a new reason. Their latest airplanes have individual TV consoles where you can choose from over 10 movies, 100 + music videos, TV shows, radio stations, and of course, as many video games as your inner child can possibly dream of. Needless to say, I did not sleep my entire 7.5 hour flight to Dublin.
I think that Aer Lingus, and airlines in general, though, can do better. We should take Suzanne Seggerman’s Games for Change and put those on the in-flight TV consoles. If you’re traveling internationally, my guess is you’re probably already a somewhat worldly person anyway (or you’re accident-prone and on the wrong flight) and you want to know what you can do to make a difference wherever you are traveling to.
Cecily stopped my idealism short for a second (and rightfully so.) “You forget that not everyone is twenty-two, single, and as curious and adventurous as you,” she says. “In-flight social change video games might be an interesting medium to expose people to the culture and realities of the places they are traveling to, but it’s going to take something more than to make them act. I genuinely believe that people do care deeply and they want to change the world positively, but fear and lack of familiarity make it difficult for them to act.” Check mate.
So what if we use the in-flight TV consoles to allow social organizations to advertise humanitarian experiences or short-term social projects? My brother works for Habitat for Humanity in Costa Rica and I would love for him to be on my in-flight movie. “Vacationing in Costa Rica? Want to help build a house for a day? Try it out first!” Then passengers would be invited to complete an in-flight simulation of what their day would be like making a difference, complete with contact information for upon landing.
Even just having small social tourism advertisements would do wonders. An example of this would be Amureci, a Costa Rican women’s collective that makes paper products out of recyclable materials to empower themselves and sustain their environment. By purchasing their materials, tourists can contribute to the empowerment of Costa Rican women in rural communities. Give them a little face time on an in-flight TV console and their efforts could expand exponentially.
I agree with Cecily. The task of making a difference can seem daunting. However, if you have a 4 hour flight or more with nothing, but leg cramps and a crying baby to your left, trust me, you’ve got time. In-flight revolution, please.
