john cusak interview

Jada Yuna stated in her profile in New York Magazine of John Cusak:

"Why waste time feeling conflicted about good fortune?"

I want to work on this.

projects

The point of any project is to get something done. As with driving, there are many ways to get to your destination and different reasons for taking each route. But really we all just want to get where we are going.

However, when I do personal projects, I think them through but never write up a project plan. Even when I complete complicated projects, if it is something I am interested in, I find I don't need to plan. What I really need to do is think it through and DO. Sure sometimes I realize I forgot a step when I am working, but this happens even when I write out a project plan.

I am just thinking that sometimes doing is more important than planning. And we waste a lot of time planning.

hurricane

hurricane passing over...leak in roof found...old law & order's on the TV. Good times.

rethink nyc

I love this thought experiment...what if the city was all smashed inside Central park, and the rest of the city was the park?

uncomplete thoughts

Sometimes, I get so wrapped up in questioning the knowledge surrounding some subject that I completely discount that any real knowledge is known about that subject. My questioning of the little things makes me skeptical of whether the big piece of understanding is correct.

I suppose this could be called over-thinking.

I have been doing this about the birth process lately. I don't really buy that all babies need to come out by 42 weeks of gestation. But my friend Pam pointed out that in places where they don't do this the infant mortality rate is much higher. (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html)

I still am skeptical, but need to accept that doctors do in fact have some knowledge and experience that I don't have, so I should trust that.

the multitasking myth

This little op-ed from Government Executive does a great job explaining why multitasking is a myth.

You are not the outlier. You cannot multitask.

What is the word for singletasking?


The Myth of Multitasking
By Elizabeth Newell

"Most federal managers feel they have no choice but to multitask. Among the multiple projects with overlapping deadlines, performance reports that need to be filed and employees who require direction, tackling one task at a time seems like a luxury supervisors can't afford. But multitasking could be slowing you down and costing the government valuable productivity points.

This loss in efficiency stems from what researchers call "switchover time," the time needed to refocus on the original task after you've temporarily switched gears. In a 2001 article in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, researchers showed that switchover time can take a couple of minutes for every change. Multiple switch-overs a day - even an hour - can sap a significant amount of productivity.

So what should managers do? Multitask less.

In an academic study published Feb. 14, 2008, in The Journal of High Technology Management Research, managers said the key to managing multiple projects is to minimize switchovers by being meticulously organized, methodical and focused.

One manager said he clears his desk of all documents or reminders of projects B, C and D while working on project A. Of course, this becomes increasingly difficult with technology in the mix. You might be able to clear your desk of documents, but it's much harder to keep project B-, C- and D-related emails from popping up in your inbox. Technology-related multitasking exacerbates what some call technostress in the workplace. Technology is effective and helpful in part because computers are designed to multitask, but the human mind is not designed the same way.

"The human mind can switch from one task to the other but it keeps the previous task queued somewhere in the back of the mind," Peter E. Brillhart wrote in a September 2004 article for The Journal of the American Academy of Business. "The more tasks we try to multitask the less efficient we become at performing any tasks . . . Laboratory research shows that multitasking increases stress, diminishes perceived control, and may cause physical discomfort such as stomach aches or headaches."

You might be reading this and sighing, convinced that you are the outlier - the rare, exceptional human whose productivity is multiplied by multitasking. Odds are you're wrong. A 2009 Stanford University study set out to determine what, exactly, effective multitaskers were doing better than everyone else. The study focused on people who multitasked extensively while using different forms of media (the computer, smartphones, etc.). To their surprise, the answer was - nothing. People who multitask at the highest levels are "suckers for irrelevancy," says Clifford Nass, a Stanford communication professor and co-author of the study. Apparently they are easily distracted and struggle to distinguish a worthy distraction from one that should be pushed aside.

So the next time you're tempted to knock out a few emails before finishing up that report on your desk, think again."

ideas to ponder

I hear people at work saying all the time that they do not know what they would do with themselves if they did not work.

REALLY? I know. I have a long list of things I would do...

But do I really? I mean, I have had days off where I have done nothing but sit in front of the damn TV. (After which I usually tell Brent we should get rid of the TV...but then we don't...anyway.)

The Boing posted an interview with this guy who I am not sure about, Ran Prieur. But he said something interesting in the interview:

"One of the points I make that people really seem to resonate with is that you get depressed for a few years if you're in a highly regulated system, highly regularized from the first time we started school. From kindergarten on, we're in this rigid structure where every minute is regulated, especially with the younger kids. When I was a kid, we still had unstructured time, play time in the afternoons. And now, people have everything planned for them.

When you quit that, and you have these vast blocks of time where there's nothing you're supposed to be doing, people get depressed. Even I got depressed, and I like unstructured time. What you're doing during that time is you're learning to self motivate. And it's not easy, you have to, it takes some time and you have to kind of go through a difficult time and almost hit bottom. I don't know why you say "you hit bottom." That's not a good phrase. But yes, you get depressed for a few years when the structure is removed and you have to learn to regulate yourself and motivate yourself in a life inside yourself."

The idea that self motivation is a learned ability really resonates with me. Or maybe we have that ability and then it is beaten out of us.

Maybe this is why I am obsessed with unstructured playtime...

maybe i should be careful

I posted that PSA last about driving...and then we almost died driving up I95 from DC to NYC the next day.

We were just making fun of the fact that there was a Newark, Delaware and how that town should change its name. I pointed out that since Delaware was one of the first states, the Newark in Delaware was probably older than the one in New Jersey.

I looked to my right, and as if in a movie, this purple Honda Accord was on two tires. The driver had not checked his blind spot before moving lanes to his right. We were in the far left hand lane. He over corrected coming directly at us. I tried to get around him, and almost did. And then he hit us and we went into the Jersey Wall full on, almost perpendicular to the wall. We spun around, and to my surprise, after the airbag exploded, we were blind. The smoke did not allow us to see out. So as we careened across four lanes of traffic, I frantically asked Brent what we should do. He said there was nothing we could do. Before we hit the median on the other side of the four lanes, I used what was left of the brakes to stop us. We jumped out of the car.

Brent's lips started turning blue. Two parole officers stopped to help us as did a nurse. I just wanted the ambulance to come. It took forever. Maybe it did not. I have no real sense of time. I texted Brent's mom and Erica. I tried to stay calm. I tried to avoid looking at Brent's mouth. Or thinking that he could have died.

I worried about the baby. A lot.

We went to the hospital, and luckily were fine. All three of us. We are bruised and sore and still out of sorts, but we are fine. Montana, Erin, and Ada came up to collect us and our stuff from the totaled car. We took the train to DC and then went to the hospital again to get double checked. Our doctor was on call so she took care of us. Montana drove down to collect us from yet another hospital and stayed with us until the next day when Carol, Brent's mom, flew in.

The car did a great job saving us. Some people think my driving is to be thanked. I kept wondering if I should have taken a different action: slowed down, moved to the left immediately, I don't know. But I have stopped this. No one died in the accident, so I am going to take solace in the idea that I took the best action in a situation that needed an immediate response. Analysis of the situation was not an option.

So, the bottom line: don't talk on the phone while driving, don't text in the car, look in your blind spot before changing lanes. If you are tempted, thinking you are a better driver than most, remember, killing someone would ruin your life and put the damn phone down. It can wait.

sugar is toxic

Here's the argument. I feel like sugar is one thing that is not ok in moderation.

How to stop eating it?



I know this show is 1.5 hours long. It is important to watch though. Really.

and on the topic of legalizing pot

lovely.

excellent sheep

"So what I saw around me were great kids who had been trained to be world-class hoop jumpers. Any goal you set them, they could achieve. Any test you gave them, they could pass with flying colors. They were, as one of them put it herself, 'excellent sheep.'"

Today's post follows on yesterday's post. Why do I feel so concerned about unstructured playtime? Because that is when I feel children learn how to think on their own.

Solitude and Leadership
If you want others to follow, learn to be alone with your thoughts

This speech was delivered by William Deresiewicz to the entering class at West Point and it really touches on a lot of topics important to me: creativity, leadership, the factual inability of anyone to really multitask. His argument if you will goes like this:

1. We have a crisis of leadership in America at all levels because we are training out future leaders to be lemmings.
2. People who "think" they can multitask are neither multitasking nor thinking.
3. Leaders need to know how to think on their own.
4. To think, you need to concentrate for an amount of time greater than 20 seconds.
5. To think of new ideas, you need to step away from other people's ideas.
6. And to be a great leader, you need deep friendships to help you think, or suss out ideas.

I really like all of these ideas. And I want to keep trying to activly live a life where I am thinking.

open or closed minded

Are you becoming more or less openminded? Are you becoming more or less closed-minded? I think I am openminded, but doesn't everyone think that? I am really good at getting annoyed with people who I think are closed-minded.

Is there really value in being openminded? What does that get a person?

Here is a sample: I have always thought I wanted to legalize drugs and then tax and regulate the drugs. But I am not sure I understood what that would look like in society. Montana has begun legalizing marijuana. A friend of mine's family has been torn apart by this...not by drug use, but rather by drug production. Part of the family has gone into production. They have quit their jobs and the whole family produces and sells pot. The other half of the family finds this abhorrent and no longer talks to said other half.

I never considered that someone other than a drug dealer would consider producing drugs. And I really don't think this has been a good development in Montana...a state with traditionally high unemployment and low education.

My openminded thoughts about drug legalization have become more closed in the face of reality. Maybe everyone's thoughts do that.

weekend away

The last month has been a roller coaster of emotions.

1. I am pregnant. The little monster has to eat all the time!
2. My dear father-in-law died unexpectedly.

Since all the drama, I have been instructed to "stop thinking" by Brent. Right. Ok.

My college girl friends spent the weekend with me out at our cabin, www.lostrivermodern.com. It was great to spend time with them. I needed a break. I slept all of Saturday and a lot of Sunday.

But what I could not understand was why they seem so opposed to the new health care law. I tried my best to persuade...but failed. But Brent and I discussed it at home and we both feel Obama failed to explain the new law to the American public. I still can't tell you exactly why I am for the law other than I felt a change, some change, ANY change was needed for the 40 million uninsured Americans out there. As a human being on this planet...a blessed human that is, it is my duty to help others.

It seemed that my girl friends objected to being forced to buy health insurance. Aren't we all already forced to do that? You have to have insurance. I tried to make the analogy with car insurance but that did not seem to work.

I am not really sure what to say. No one liked Social Security when it was passe either...

Tolstoy's 10 Rules of Life

From Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, via BoingBoing, this list of Tolstoy's "10 Rules of Life." I think this is a pretty good list, well all except for the keep away from women...thoughts?

Get up early (five o'clock)

Go to bed early (nine to ten o'clock)

Eat little and avoid sweets

Try to do everything by yourself

Have a goal for your whole life, a goal for one section of your life, a goal for a shorter period and a goal for the year; a goal for every month, a goal for every week, a goal for every day, a goal for every hour and for evry minute, and sacrifice the lesser goal to the greater

Keep away from women

Kill desire by work

Be good, but try to let no one know it

Always live less expensively than you might

Change nothing in your style of living even if you become ten times richer

what I have learned in this month

There are other lessons, which I will get to, but right now this is what I have learned:

1. I like people and I like working with people. I need to keep my day job.

2. I like people and I need my friends around. I tend to become a slug without people.

3. San Francisco is too gritty for me.

That's all for now.

thoughts for thursday

“Each moment of our life, we either invoke or destroy our dreams. We call upon it to become a fact, or we cancel our previous instructions.”

Stuart Wilde (never heard of him... learn more about him here.)

Brent stumbled across this quote this evening. I like it. I like the idea that you are either working towards your dreams or not.

Reminds me of Unkle Ed's mantra:
Decide what you want to do and then
Decide what you are willing to do to make it happen.
Then all of your other decisions become binary.

women and retirement

Some of you guys know I work on retirement issues. Last week my boss sent around this SmartMoney article that I really want everyone to read. I think the article does a great job at outlining the differences in how men and women think regarding retirement issues generally, and saving/spending money specifically.

Here is the lead in to the article:

"After a long career managing large accounts for an insurance company, Lynn Brooks is hardly a financial novice. But when she sought help from a financial adviser at a brokerage after her husband died, they might as well have been speaking different languages. Brooks, who's now 60, knew she'd reached the age when her savings should be managed conservatively. Her adviser, however, had something more testosterone-fueled in mind, urging her to go for growth and buy riskier assets like small-cap stocks. And when she phoned him, she says, he was often in a hurry: "It was as if he was saying, 'Leave me alone. I'll take care of this.'" Brooks, who declines to name her adviser, says she eventually took her business elsewhere -- but only after her nest egg had shrunk 30 percent over the course of a decade before the crash.

This is how the battle of the sexes plays out in the complex world of retirement planning -- and all too often, women come out on the losing end. To a surprising degree, many women are unprepared for retirement: A recent survey by financial-services company MassMutual found that women's retirement accounts were, on average, just two-thirds the size of men's. The disparity is made worse by simple demographics: Because they live longer, women need more money than men for a comfortable retirement -- up to 40 percent more for health care expenses alone, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute. And the gap isn't expected to close for decades. "Millions of women are going to lose their standard of living unless they take hold of the situation," says Cindy Hounsell, president of the Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement.

But as women step up to do just that, many find that the financial-services industry is an obstacle, not an ally. Indeed, in a recent Boston Consulting Group survey of women investors, respondents said they routinely feel underserved by the financial-services industry, with more than 70 percent expressing dissatisfaction with the service they are getting. Among the complaints: disrespectful advisers, narrower investment choices based on the assumption that women can't handle risks and patronizing pitches like one from a bank's Web site that urged women to give their finances a "makeover." The disenchantment is especially acute among women who find themselves managing money on their own after their marriages end. Seven out of 10 widows and divorced women leave the advisers that their spouses used, according to a study by financial-services giant Allianz."

Is dissent allowed anymore?

I posted a comment to a friend’s Facebook post today. It was the political ad for one of the candidates in Alaska. I am interested to find out how people respond to the comment. The ad makes the point that this candidate is just trying to make sure Alaksans "Get their fair share" from Washington. When has Alaska ever not gotten their fair share, more than their fair share really? I posted a link to this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/business/19stimulus.html

Then I wondered if the person would just hide me. I hide people. I don’t want to de-friend them, because that would hurt their feelings, but I also don’t want to read what they have to say. I don’t want to thank Jesus for the popcorn at the movies. I don't want to read gay-bashing. So why I am I supposedly 'friends' with these people? I guess I am not. I am acquainted with them. Were I friends with them I would call them out about these things. I would tell them how I really felt.

But today it is much easier for us to just avoid conflict or even topics we are not interested in. I don’t have to read about places I don’t like or have interactions with people who don’t fit my democrat-leaning, literati-loving, coffee-snob self. I can just avoid these people. I can avoid trying to explain myself to these people. I can insulate myself.

What does this behavior do to people? Does it make it harder to deal with conflict when it comes along? Does it give us a eschewed view of the world? Does it end up making us worse citizens? If everyone can just hide other people when they don’t like what they say, where does that leave public discourse?

built in word processor: who knew?

I have been in the market for a small word processor for some time dear reader. For a few years and then intermittently thereafter I have used my Alpha Smart 2000 keyboard as one. The devise is adorable: small, blue, four lines on the screen. And it runs forever on four AA batteries. What’s the problem? Well, I will blame Apple and Steve Jobs. The keyboard on Alphie is too difficult to type on. I have to press down too hard. What I would like is a keyboard for my iphone Brent just gave me. It would make the iphone the perfect device. But alas, Steve won’t go down that road with me, for he hates buttons. One of my main reasons for wanting this word processor is that I want to disallow usage of the internets when I work. The distraction of the web browsing is hard for me to ignore.

But I have hit upon a new idea – perhaps revolutionary. I might not need this device. Perhaps I have a word processor that is kind of built in: the pen and paper coupled with my brain. Gasp!

As I sit here on the plane penning this missive (when else do you get to use that line?) I am flying to Oklahoma. Later, I will type it up – perhaps editing it a bit. (This did indeed happen.)

I have read that there are quite a few writers out there who do this. And the best benefit of all is that it is very hard to heed the Internets siren call.

copying v. stealing

I read a blog called decor8. It has lots of fun decorating idea, and I really like the pictures. I am not sure how I found it, but I did. A few weeks ago the author of the blog asked her "community of readers" about having their ideas copied by the internets.

The post was titled "DIY is not Duplicate It Yourself." You can click this sentence to read the original post. I posted a comment about her post because I disagree. I don't believe that ideas can be copyrighted. I just believe that if I see an idea and I can replicate it, well then more power to me. Fire up. Get going.

In my comment I linked to this video by Nina Paley. She wrote the movie I mentioned a few months ago, Sita Sings the Blues.



What are your thoughts?