Month: January 2023

Posted on

S3 E42 — Greta, Juliette and the Partridge Family at Trestles

Virginia Heffernan evokes the “Gen-X Generation” in her column about how the current baby bust — couples not doing their duty to their ancestors — and probably exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic isolation, will produce another overlooked generation in the grand scheme of things.

“5”  Steve Nash, 45: “Knowing that someone will only remember two or three things you talk about, you pick the most important topics and find an artful and memorable way to put those ideas across.”  Aquarius

Hi and welcome to Saturday’s Episode 42 in Season 3 of  “My Paradoxically Normal Year” on this 8th day of May in the spring of 2021 — which is a three-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed during the “normal” pre-pandemic year and then in the pandemic year, and now months after.

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

Table of Contents

Previously from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year

S3 E41 — What’s Up with Telluride or Humboldt County or Bodega Bay?; S3 E40 — How Stealing Your Sign Led Me to a Nobel Prize; S3 E39 — Ready for Your Big Leap Forward?

Related from Season Two, The Pandemic Year

S2 E42 — It Was Short and Sweet, but Heart-Felt; S2 E41 — A Pandemic End to Real Estate and Consulting?; S2 E40 — The Profound Impact of the Pandemic on Nouns; S2 E39 — The Best Tau for the Pandemic Year, Don’t You Agree?

Related from Season One, The Normal Year

S1 E42 — Love on the Run; S1 E41 — The Dream Was Over, Long Live the Dream; S1 E40 — Nothing to See Here, Keep Moving On; S1 E39 — What’s Up with Facebook?

Context

First, the public service announcement — while it may be too late for flowers, don’t forget to call your mother tomorrow.  

Is there a theme for today?  

Virginia Heffernan evokes the “Gen-X Generation” in her column about how the current baby bust — couples not doing their duty to their ancestors — and probably exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic isolation, will produce another overlooked generation in the grand scheme of things.  

But, who can blame them?  

Unless you believe card carrying Baby Boomer Bill Gates has planted chips in COVID-19 arms and single-handedly smeared the fossil fuels industry you might empathize with the teenagers — older than the unborn (in the even grander, Karma kind of scheme) — and agree with their Gen-Z spokesperson, Greta from Finland in her streaming series, ”Greta Thunberg – A Year To Change The World.” 

In a rare moment after visiting with coal miners who actually applaud her message — yes, that’s right — you see a candid Greta when she shares how deflated she feels, like a powerless little girl, compared to Trump’s grade-school bullying before and after they co-headlined a conference of international leaders.

Yet she’s the one acting like the only adult in the room.

Her generation, she reminds us, will still be here when the Baby Boomers are extinct, having done nothing in this critical moment,  leaving them on the wrong side of planetary history, and judged harshly in the future for their inaction.

And finally, Juliette Paskowitz the “beatnik matriarch” of San Onofre surf camp clan dies in a care facility at age 89 in nearby San Clemente, California. From her obituary by Steve Marble in the LA Times:

Juliette Paskowitz and her husband embraced a Jack Kerouac lifestyle: boundless, free-spirited, going where the road took them — most often in the direction of the beach. It was the life any kid could only dream of, bounding across the country in an overstuffed camper — from San Clemente to Pensacola to the shoreline of Venezuela, always searching for the perfect wave. 

With Dorian Paskowitz at the wheel, nine kids jammed in the back and Juliette riding shotgun, the family finally parked the rig on the sand in San Onofre, opened a surf camp and spent their days riding the glassy curls, playing in the whitewash and chasing one another from lifeguard tower to lifeguard tower. 

“If ‘Nomadland’ was a 2, we were at a 10 as far as sheer adventure, uncertainty, homelessness and never knowing what the next day might bring,” said Israel “Izzy” Paskowitz, the fourth-oldest child in the clan. 

“It was wonderful.” Juliette Paskowitz, the matriarch who held “the first family of surfing” all together, often singing arias while listening to opera on a small transistor radio in the camper…. 

Dorian preached the rewards of surfing so relentlessly that it caught the attention of sportswear designer Tommy Hilfiger, who applied the family name to his line. 

A record label, perhaps thinking they’d found the sun-bleached version of “The Partridge Family,” invited the family to cut a record. A filmmaker made a 2008 documentary on the family titled “Surfwise.”

A theme?

Evidence

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Huh? Liberation.  Getting your habits to march along like ducklings following their mother, all in a row? Interesting.  But, it ain’t my birthday.

Today’s Holiday Birthday: 

There’s a liberation taking place. A year from now, you’ll look back and celebrate this moment when you cease to needlessly judge yourself. You’ll opt for new ways of pulling your habits into line. You’ll enjoy what you create because you dared to go in a new direction. Work leads to new interests; new interests pay you.

Knowing when to examine and when to let it go, is that right, Stevie?

“3”  Steve Smith, 30, Stevie Nicks, 72: “A few people will make an initial decision and many others will uncritically accept it. You, however, will push pause and do your own evaluation. You can’t personally examine everything, but this is within your realm.” Gemini

Haha, you two comedians break me up.  And you, Woz seriously your Holiday Tau feels like how you persisted along with that other Steve to build it before knowing they would come, eh?

“4”  Steve Carell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “Your wisdom shines through your choice of what to get involved with and when. Trust those initial prescient instincts, even when (especially when!) you can’t reason them out.” Leo

How is it that your Holiday Tau feels a cut above the TauBits offered by the other Steves today?  I’m thanking you for you more practical take.

“5”  Steve Nash, 45: “Knowing that someone will only remember two or three things you talk about, you pick the most important topics and find an artful and memorable way to put those ideas across.”  Aquarius

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll 

    • @KnowLabs suite of 36 digital magazines jumps from 8003 to 8088 organically grown followers

Foresight

 Quality-of-Life   

Long-Form

    • “Future Shock” by Alvin Toffler, a classic I feel which still holds up. As the pace of change quickens we experience self-doubt, anxiety and fear.  We become tense and tire easily, until we are overwhelmed, face-to-face with a crisis situation. Without a clear grasp of relevant reality or beginning with clearly defined values and priorities, we feel a deepening sense of confusion and uncertainty. Our intellectual bewilderment leads to disorientation at the level of personal values. Decision stress results from acceleration, novelty and diversity conflicts. Acceleration pressures us to make quick decisions. Novelty increases the difficulty and length of time while diversity intensifies the anxiety with an increase in the number of options and the amount of information needed to process.  The result is a slower reaction time.
    • Daniel Kahneman’s, “Thinking Fast and Slow”describes two different ways the brain forms thoughts: “System 1” which is meant as a fictional shorthand — not as a brain system or structure: Fast, automatic, frequent, emotional, stereotypic, unconscious. “System 2”: Slow, effortful, infrequent, logical, calculating, conscious. I’m learning a lot about my energy levels first described from within an introversion frame now, from within differences between System 1 and the harder working, energy depletion System 2.  Self-control, for instance is hard and takes a lot of energy to accomplish.  When I write the concentration requires effort until I can find the “flow.” Implications for True Belief — it’s easy to stay in System 1 vs. critical thinking — System 2.  Set some marketing and working on the business goals — System 2 and then ignore them by following the lateral thinking and associative thinking  which Leo da V invites me to do — System 1.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

The Knowledge Path | Know Laboratories | Knowledge Banking | Knowledge ATMs | Western Skies and Island Currents | Best West Road Trips

Posted on

S2 E89 — Garage Bonking and Chasm Jumping

It’s a culture that encourages individual imagination and achievement, as well as, stellar out-of-the-box thinking. It caters to the special kind of mindset that is driven by a desire to create the future — the most original, best and brightest among gadflies, concept champions, mavericks, the unconventional and eccentric.

“5”  Steve Harvey, 62: “While many pay lip service to a principle, you’re all about the proof, the hard evidence that the idea will work. You want to live the improvement, and so you’ll roll up your sleeves and get to work.” Capricorn

Hi and welcome to Saturday’s Episode 89 in Season 2 of  “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 1st day of August in the summer of 2020.  

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

Table of Contents

Season One and Two are a two-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed during the “normal” pre-pandemic and then in this unfolding pandemic year.

Previously in Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E88 — Convincing Family, Friends, Fools and Angels; S2 E87 — Start Ups Aren’t For Everyone. Are They a Better or Worse Fit for You?; S2 E86 — How To Avoid a Disastrous Career Like Mine

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E89 — Because If You Don’t Someone Else Will. It’s Worth It!; S1 E88 — Who’s Marc Maron and What’s da Vinci got to do with him?; S1 E87 — Pipe Bombs Destroy Vacation Bliss; S1 E86 — Day 86 of My 1-Year Natural Experiment

Context

This is a continuation of “Volume Two Manuscript — WorkFit” a work-in-progress.

In a previous episode I summarized everything you need to know about four basic organizations to stack the odds in your favor when shopping around for your next job opportunity.  

Oh, what disaster to avoid (unlike me) in your next career move. 

Now we’re building on each of the 16 talent profiles and how they can take advantage of opportunities in stages of organizational growth from Start Up to Maturity and from Decline to Reinvention.

Five Major Stages of Growth for Organizations

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

The longer it takes to convert visionary influence into early pragmatist orders tests the start-up’s capacity for survival.  

It has to generate enough cash initially, and then stabilize its business by eliminating cash flow problems. 

And that my friend is the crux of the problem.

Oh, and the vast majority of “garage” Start Ups “bonk” against the garage door and never make it out of the first stage.  

But if they do, they may not make it out of the growth stage or prevent themselves from becoming a mere shell of their former mature selves or worse yet decline and go out of business.

Consequences of not Mastering Growth Crises

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

If your organization continues unchanged, the reversing success factors will trigger failure during the transitions from Start Up to Growth, to Maturity, into Decline and Reinvention.

Many of the Executive MBA students I advised hadn’t considered that the key success factors they operated under currently could derail their employer’s success in the near, medium or distant future.

It’s sorta like what brought you to the party has to be reversed to make it to the next stage.  So, first they had to realize which stage they were in and which was next.  And then, they had to identify the new and opposite set of key success factors — 180 degrees different.

Results of Mastering 180 Degree Opposite Set of Key Success Factors

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

In a start-up the founder sells a compelling vision of their future.  Just like our clients’ at Think!City did.  Or what happened to Proxima’s early employees who wore a lot of hats and loved it.  They also expected to be first in line when it came to heading up functions.  

That transition from organic free flowing ways of creating a company turned out to be the opposite of what helped them in the second stage.  And pissed off a lot of them when outsiders from bigger companies stepped all over them when they were hired.

Case of “Arrested Development”

It ain’t pretty.  But, it’s so predictable.  My Executive MBA students had to figure out how to close the “gaping chasm” and with their course work and the help of mentors I matched them with, how to navigate the “transformation” required for a bumpy landing into the next growth stage.  Not every employer makes it, at least not at first.

Now we’re going to walk through each stage’s crisis challenge — crossing the chasm between each growth stage — and identifying the 180 degree solution required.

Solving Each Stage’s Unique Challenge

Stage of Growth

Crisis Challenge

180 Degree Solution

Start Up

Leadership

Tighten Operations

Emerging Growth

Functional

Loosen Operations

Rapid Growth

Autonomy

Tighten Operations

Sustained Growth

Repetition

Loosen Operations

Maturity

Control

Tighten Operations

Decline

Red Tape

Loosen Operations

Reinvention

Culture Blindness

Tighten then Loosen Operations

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

Bridging the Gap Between Start Up and Emerging Growth  

During the final leg of the product development process the looming deadlines and commitments tense the work that increases velocity and accelerated activity.

Teams work at hyper-speed. So it takes a certain kind of person to put up with last minute shifts in direction and make or break pressures.

What kind?

The most original, best and brightest among gadflies, concept champions, mavericks, the unconventional and eccentric. It’s a culture that encourages individual imagination and achievement, as well as, stellar out-of-the-box thinking. It caters to the special kind of mindset that is driven by a desire to create the future. 

What about the leadership crisis? 

Bridging Leadership Gap Between Start Up to Emerging Growth

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

It’s a culture that encourages individual imagination and achievement, as well as, stellar out-of-the-box thinking. It caters to the special kind of mindset that is driven by a desire to create the future. 

What about the leadership crisis? 

Once the start-up survives and begins to grow, new knowledge about efficiencies and quality is required. 

More employees coming into the organization can’t be managed exclusively through informal communication, as before.

And, coming in after the fact, most new employees aren’t motivated by that same intense dedication to the product and its vision.

New capital needed to fund expansion. And new accounting procedures for financial control. So, the founders find themselves burdened with the unwanted management responsibilities. They long for the good old days and still act as they did in the past.

They don’t realize that’s the kiss of death.

Not until the crisis arises out of the conflicts.

So when the key talent begins to ask, “Who will lead the company out of this confusion and solve the management problems we are facing?” 

It becomes painfully clear that the answer is not the founder.

Two Talent Profiles Attracted to Emerging Growth

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

In many cases. A strong manager is needed who has the necessary knowledge and skill to introduce new business techniques to help them bridge the widening gulf between start-up and early growth stage.

Often it’s up to 107 Resilient Product Teams to develop “the formula” by reducing the amount of random experimentation while accelerating new business by learning from early customers.  They streamline the rapid product development process and convert emerging knowledge into repeatable processes.

Emerging-Entrepreneurs in a 108 Core Business Group expand the number of products and variations available often preceding the need to break the organization into functional specialties.  They manage through the variable demand, but focus on building the capacity for higher growth with efficient ramp-ups for initial products

Founders hate to step aside during this turning point, even though they don’t have the temperament to be managers.

If they don’t, they prolong the inevitable. But, as we see in the next stage the directive management style plants the seeds for a new crisis at the end of the early growth stage.

Evidence

“3”  Steve Zahn, 51: “It’s not expensive to amp up your powers of attraction, nor does it require special talent or particular features. The more present you are to the moment, the more attractive you are.” Scorpio

How can I disagree?  Who would want to.  I’m flattered that this is a legitimate Holiday Tau for me, but I’m not feeling its relevance today — so far.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Today’s Holiday Birthday:  

“Your imaginative powers are strong and your sense of purpose even stronger. Mentors help you pull together a plan. The new season will be marked with a sense of belonging and group pride. You’ll rebuild with your team. There’s a stroke of financial luck in November and shiny new tools will make more possible.”

Wait, how wouldn’t this be a perfect birthday present for either 107 Resilient Product Teams or 108 Core Business Group talent profiles?

“3”  Steve Howey, 42: “Selflessness leads to satisfaction. It’s the moves you make to see other people smile or to alleviate their worry or their suffering that will ultimately bring you the most joy.” Cancer

I have to agree in general, and even though it’s Saturday, I’m not experiencing this one yet.

“4”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61; Stephen King,72: “Though work may go faster when done by others and fun may be more affordable when someone else is paying, this doesn’t change your plan. You’re determined to do it yourself.” Virgo

I have to experience what I teach and learn from my mistakes before I can turn the work over to somebody else.

“4”  Steve Aoki, 41: “You’ve been at the task for a while now and are ready for the new challenges that can be thrown in your mix. What some would consider to be increasing stress from every direction, you consider fun.” Sagittarius

Just as long as I’m not a German Short-Haired Pointer and the new challenges aren’t squirrels scampering from limb to tree limb laughing at me.

“5”  Steve Harvey, 62: “While many pay lip service to a principle, you’re all about the proof, the hard evidence that the idea will work. You want to live the improvement, and so you’ll roll up your sleeves and get to work.” Capricorn

Not only for my self as I have been field testing this work, but for matching mentors to students to help them apply what the professors taught in their Executive MBA course work over a decade.

“4”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “Check your sources. There’s plenty of bad information out there today, which would be a regrettable share. You can avoid mistakes. Pause, question, and then make your move.” Pisces

Wow.  Doesn’t sum up this whole Season Two so far — our collective Pandemic Year?

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll 

    • @knowlabs followers of one or more of my 35 digital magazines organically grew from 4427 to 4516.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Long-Form

    • Saw the movie, didn’t realize that one of my favorite authors, Michael Connelly — his detective Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch book series and Amazon Prime series — also wrote, “The Lincoln Lawyer” which I just finished. Gotta tell you I can’t not see his lead character (Mickey Haller, Bosch’s half brother) as anyone else but Matthew McConaughey. 

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

The Knowledge Path | Know Laboratories | Knowledge Banking | Knowledge ATMs | Western Skies and Island Currents | Best West Road Trip

Posted on

Table of Contents for Knowledge ATMs

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

The Knowledge Path | Know Laboratories | Knowledge Banking | Knowledge ATMs | Western Skies and Island Currents | Best West Road Trips

Knowledge ATMs

A peak behind the scenes of self-publishing, crowdfunding, and working for yourself.

Table of Contents

Working for Yourself

Mooning the Merry-Go-Round

Freelancers 

Master Your Persuasion Process Bit by Bit 

Preneurs 

Voice 

Appeal 

Consultants 

Fans 

Authority  

The Challenge 

Behind the Scenes 

60-Minute Habit 

Brainstorm Your Business Name 

Day 3.5 Pink, Pitches and Pixar 

Packages for Producing Profits 

Secrets 

Day Five: Repeating 1st Grade 

Who Should Take the First Step the Chicken or Egg? 

Is It Worth All Those 3 am Wake Up Panics? 

Day Eight with Two Yogis at a Fork in the Road 

How To Choose the Best Crowdfunding Platform for You 

Skip These 6 Self-Publishing Truths at Your Own Peril 

Bill from Colorado Springs, You’re on the Air!

Lessons Learned the Hard Way

What’s Going On? Why? 

Where Are You Going? 

What happened on your journey so far? 

There’s Nothing in your Spam Queue at the Moment 

What Would Leo da V Do?  

Day One of My 1-Year Experiment

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

Table of Contents

 

Posted on

S4 E33 — When Was The Last Time Honesty and Character Counted?

As the worm turns, right?  Let me just summarize what’s taken place so far in the Season Four — a baker’s dozen of episodes shifting away from Putin’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and to the ongoing greasing of the wheels for a triumphant comeback for Trump in the 2024 presidential election.

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

“5”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “There’s a change in you. However subtle the change may be, it will land you in a completely different place than you would be if you had remained the same.” Pisces

Hi and welcome to Thursday’s 33rd Episode in Season 4 of  “Our Disruptively Resilient Year” on this 28th day of April in the spring of 2022.

We concluded the three-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed — during the “normal” pre-pandemic year compared to the pandemic year, and more recently to the paradoxically normal year. 

Season Four continues now within domestic and global chaos.

Previously in Season Four, The Disruptively Resilient Year

S4 E32 — A Rudy By Any Other Name Still Smells …; S4 E31 — Butt Dialing Your Way to a $Billion, What Could Go Wrong?; S4 E30 — Green Bay’s Conspiracy-Theories-R-Us from The OC 

Related from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year

S3 E33 — Do Meaningful Coincidences Really Exist?; S3 E32 — But, Why Should You Care?; S3 E31— Treat It Like a Pawn Ticket to Sketchier Things; S3 E30 — Steal These TauBits, Please. It’s Only Fair!

Related from Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E33 — What Happens When Your Business Collapses?; S2 E32 — Trapped and Bored? Or Unleashing a Reinvention Wave?; S2 E31 — Getting Charged from Box Automattic-aly; S2 E30 — It’s Crazy. Why does Amazon Prime Work, but Netflix Doesn’t? 

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E33 — Day 33 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E32 — Day 32 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E31 — Day 31 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E30 — Day 30 of My 1-Year Experiment;

Context

As the worm turns, right?  Let me just summarize what’s taken place so far in Season Four’s bakers dozen of episodes shifting away from Putin’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and to the ongoing greasing of the wheels for a triumphant comeback for Trump in the 2024 presidential election.

Not so fast.  Even before the rest of his cabinet members negotiated book deals for after they left his service, one began writing articles about what it was like trying to follow traditional conservative principles, but witnessed Trump’s bizarre behavior all too frequently. 

Anonymous better known as Miles Taylor documented his character.

S4 E19 — The Reason Character and Honesty Don’t Count Anymore

And profiled his work ethic, which seems like two words that don’t apply to what President’s actually do in the Oval Office behind the Resolute Desk.  Looking in from the outside many of us wondered why his cabinet never activated Article 25 to remove him from office for proving to be incompetent and downright dangerous.

S4 E20 — Resiliently Living Through Domestic and Global Chaos

If that wasn’t enough there’s always the January 6th Insurrection. And, even as members of both sides of the aisle feared for their lives, condemned Trump’s role in fanning the flames of attack, in just a few days they began to backpedal.  Why?

And, who’s to blame?  How will we find out? And, what can be done to prevent the next one?

S4 E21 — Not Since the War of 1812

Won’t it take bipartisan efforts?  Well, I guess not as the January 6th Commission is formed to unravel who, what, when, how, why and event suspicions about members of Congress and their role.

S4 E22 — Now, Who Could Argue With That? 

Just as there might have been a Deutsche Bank money laundering and fishy loans, shouldn’t we take a step back to follow the money?  And doing so begins with the Mercers and how Conway and Bannon join forces later in the Trump 2016 Campaign and his administration

S4 E23 — When In Doubt, Follow the Money

Why is Bannon’s role significant?  That’s what Miley suddenly realizes as he recognizes the domestic terrorist plots.

S4 E24 — Another Spooky Role to Play on the Outside

We now know Bannon advised Trump to focus on January 6th, but why and how?

S4 E25 — Accountability?

Did one of the concentric circles the January 6th Commission define his role in a vast conspiracy?  Who else co-conspired?  

There’s Boris Epshteyn

S4 E26 — What Happens If No One Asks a Question?

And John Eastman waving the Pence Card

S4 E27 — Who Cares If It’s The Right Thing To Do Anymore?

What about Peter Navarro teaming up with Bannon executing the “Green Bay Sweep”

S4 E28 — Why Do Those Who Know the Least Talk the Longest?

One loyal Trump soldier on the front lines is Mo Brooks.

S4 E29 — How Much Mo Did He Pay for the Brooklyn Bridge?

Let’s revisit Peter Navarro here.

S4 E30 — Green Bay’s Conspiracy-Theories-R-Us from The OC

And, the last two episodes devoted to Rudy Giuliani’s continuing role tied to Ukraine, and the fake evidence of a stolen election.

S4 E31 — Butt Dialing Your Way to a $Billion, What Could Go Wrong?

S4 E32 — A Rudy By Any Other Name Still Smells …

Evidence

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Today’s Holiday Birthday: 

First your imagination will take you places and then the rest of you will catch up. You’ll bring inspiration to your group as you constantly seek creative fuel and fill your senses with beautiful, masterful work. Summer brings precious moments and your favorite people. A study will lead to a better financial situation.

Why chose this Holiday Birthday?  Because my Holiday Tau didn’t measure up?  Yes, and…  And, I know tomorrow Emma the Baroness and I hit the road again in my Honda CRV with only 5000 pandemic miles on it to take us to three main places, all in Arizona — first Prescott, then Jerome and finally Sedona.  If you’re one of my 12817 organically grown followers you know Prescott and Sedona have fueled my imagination.

“3”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61; Stephen King, 72: “You like keenly observant people who ask the questions that prove their attention and interest. These people make you think. They cause you to see yourself differently.” Virgo

You bet I do, and I hope to run into some more, but with all that has to be accomplished before we leave I’m feeling a little frayed and frustrated and therefore not as much into packing as I should.  Why is that?  That feeling almost always shows up like a yawn the day before we take off.

“4”  Steve Aoki, 41; Steven Spielberg, 74: “The way to see the big picture is to go to the top of the mountain. You can do this in your mind, or you can do it physically by heading to the highest point in your immediate geography. Either way will give you clarity.” Sagittarius

Is it cheating to postpone this one day until we arrive in higher elevated, Prescott and 3 days later in Sedona?

“5”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “There’s a change in you. However subtle the change may be, it will land you in a completely different place than you would be if you had remained the same.” Pisces

Well, let’s really, really hope so.  Will it be because of our vacation? Or because of something completely different?

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll

    • @KnowLabs suite of 36 digital magazines, according to my analytics, grew from 12733 this week to 12817 organically grown followers.
    • Orange County Beach Towns 216 viewers stopped by the week before.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Long-Form

    • “Here, Right Matters: An American Story” by Alexander Vindman. “We’d long been confused by the president’s policy of accommodation and appeasement of Russia, the United States’ most pressing major adversary. Russia’s president Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, seizing the Crimean Peninsula, attacking its industrial heartland, the Donbass, from the capital, Kyiv. By 2019, little had changed, Russian military and security forces and their proxy separatists continued to occupy the Donbass. The biggest change was to Ukraine’s importance as a bulwark against Russian aggression weeks earlier, the White House had abruptly put a hold on nearly four hundred million dollars.” 
    • David Enrich begins his book with a suicide in “Deutsche Bank Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction” and then meticulously details the bank’s Russian money laundering operations. Deutsche’s Russian business surged after revenues had fallen 50% due to the 2008 financial crisis. Putin’s Russia, poured in to Deutsche from deals it did with VTB Bank, linked to the Kremlin’s intelligence apparatus. Deutsche positioned itself as a crucial cog in “The Laundromat” by doing what couldn’t be done — processing cross-border transactions for banks that were too small  and didn’t have offices outside their home countries.
    • “Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy” by Jamie Raskin recalls one tragedy no parent should endure — the suicide of his son — and then a second tragedy at almost the same time — the insurrection on January 6th 2021, that terrified he and his congressional peers who were tasked by the Constitution to routinely oversee the orderly transfer of power from one former president to the duly elected new President. 
    • “A Warning” by Anonymous (Miles Taylor) written prior to the January 6th Insurrection as an insider’s account documenting how frequently the former President’s behavior and rage without any “guard rails” showed just how far he would go to win the next election at any cost while spinning lies and misinformation on top of each other.  
    • “Peril” by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa provides anecdotes, stories and inside reporting documenting the controversial last days of Donald Trump’s presidency, as well as the presidential transition and early presidency of Joe Biden. 
    • “Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Nationalist Uprising,” by Joshua Green tracks the money behind the scenes leading up to the 2016 presidential election and the growing influence of Steve Bannon’s network of extreme nationalists.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

The Knowledge Path | Know Laboratories | Knowledge Banking | Knowledge ATMs | Western Skies and Island Currents | Best West Road Trip

Posted on

S3 E41 — What’s Up with Telluride or Humboldt County or Bodega Bay?

I’ve lost my way.  It’s nothing to become alarmed about.  It happens everyday around this time.  Unlike an early onset of dementia I usually can find my bearings around 5:45 am with my Apple News ritual.

“5”  Steve Kerr, 54: “Projects have a beginning, middle and an end, though that is not the best order of approach. Begin with the end in mind. If you don’t have an end in mind yet, assist someone who does and you’ll learn a lot.” Libra

Hi and welcome to Friday’s Episode 41 in Season 3 of  “My Paradoxically Normal Year” on this 7th day of May in the spring of 2021 — which is a three-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed during the “normal” pre-pandemic year and then in the pandemic year, and now months after.

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

Table of Contents

Previously from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year

S3 E40 — How Stealing Your Sign Led Me to a Nobel Prize; S3 E39 — Ready for Your Big Leap Forward?; S3 E38 — Sliding on a Super Slippery Slope to 2nd or 3rd Cousins

Related from Season Two, The Pandemic Year

S2 E41 — A Pandemic End to Real Estate and Consulting?; S2 E40 — The Profound Impact of the Pandemic on Nouns; S2 E39 — The Best Tau for the Pandemic Year, Don’t You Agree?; S2 E38 — What Should You Do If You Stumble Across Loaded Information?

Related from Season One, The Normal Year

S1 E41 — The Dream Was Over, Long Live the Dream; S1 E40 — Nothing to See Here, Keep Moving On; S1 E39 — What’s Up with Facebook?; S1 E38 — Day 38 of My 1-Year Experiment

Context

I’ve been feeling the pull of returning later in the day to Apple News for a destination-specific summary of headlines that sometimes go back a couple of years. 

Especially for those that have very little news like Telluride or Humboldt County or Bodega Bay. 

For instance “Stay at Keystone Resort in Colorado for only $109 per night” in “Travel and Leisure” 3 yrs ago. Every time I open “Keystone Resort” this is the lead story at the top of other scrollable photos and headlines and almost always prompts me to return later. 

But, it’s a ritual, which I wrote about as a section in my natural experiment report’s “Conclusion.”

When I finish those eight iPhone screenfuls I’m still effortlessly following my bliss remaining in Daniel Kahneman’s, System 1 as described “Thinking Fast and Slow”.  Click on a place like Keystone, quickly scan photos, headlines and dates until I recognize the last one I captured and move on in under 5 seconds, tops.

There’s more.

From the same source, Travel and Leisure, “Save 40% on Stays at the Santa Ynez Inn in Santa Barbara” — 3 years ago.  

But my favorite from NBC News is, “Bear freed from SUV in Tahoe, California, as family looks on” — 1 year ago.  The video screen shot shows the bear like he’s a member of the family looking in through the rear window as if he forgot to grab his backpack.

And, there’s the second story, but from 2 years ago written by the SFGate that churns my stomach before breakfast,  “4th of July revelers pile Tahoe beaches with thousands of pounds of trash.” 

My report write up currently in the Conclusions chapter is where I feel adrift.  So last night I began to re-read it and edit it from the beginning forward until 8:35 pm.  I left off in the section, “Two Fortune Cookies and Dove Dark Chocolate.”

My renewed interest actually started with two fortune cookies from our local Panda Express at the end of mall across the street from the high school, shared with Emma the Baroness, the Scorpio love of my life, and after dinner by the chance discovery that our favorite dark chocolate wrappers hid B-side quotes of encouragement.

I wanted inspiration and motivation and found a little hiding under the red wrappers:

“Life happens between an inhale and an exhale!” Brianna Z., Nevada

“Be the sculptor of your dreams.” – Joanne C., California

“Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations.” – Jetta L. Massachusetts

“Don’t stop until you’re proud.” Lauren N., Colorado

But, my next ritual on mornings like this, Friday, in addition to selecting the Holiday Tau for the day which confirms my biases, is reading the comics, or as my day called them, the funny pages.

From today’s “Pearls Before Swine” by Stephan Pastis — who should request a time out from the sidelines for a ruling about his first name — is he or isn’t he a Steve? 

In the first panel with yellow background Rat and Pig stand barely shoulder height behind a brown table with two plates on it. 

Pig says, “Hey look we got fortune cookies.”  

Rat says, “Mine says next year brings you great success.” 

Pig says, “How nice.” 

But, Rat can’t help himself and complains, “Yeah, but they’re all too general and bland like that.  I’d prefer some specificity.”

Read yours.”You will get run over by a 1989 Accord. 

To which Pig says, “Specificity is overrated.”

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

And, so are birthdays.  If Kahneman verifies that bliss equates to “System 1” I’d specifically consider changing my birthday to today’s.  But, too much effort and paperwork would be involved — clearly “System 2” stuff which goes against the sentiment, right?  

Today’s Holiday Birthday: 

In a way, following your bliss is the most responsible thing you can do. For one thing, it pays. Lucky financial moves will be the result of a stellar perspective, which comes from delving deeply into your delights. You’ll work with your emotions to create circumstances that ultimately benefit many, a skill that rubs off on others.

Our Patron Saint’s Carbon Beach house made the real estate news yesterday in Malibu, California.  Of course, the celebrity pedigree headline wasn’t really needed in this super heated, pre-bubble-licious market.  But his Holiday Tau reminds me of my approach for sizing up one of my coaching clients to zero in on how I could best help.

“5”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “When you’re talking to someone you’re trying to understand where they are coming from. You can picture their life outside the interaction with greater accuracy because of the excellent questions you ask.” Aries

Wait, what?  Was I reading your mind?  Or at least pre-reading your Holiday Tau last night after 8 pm?  Or am I reverse engineering your TauBit of Wisdom?  Who cares, I make the rules and I’m stealing it.

“5”  Steve Kerr, 54: “Projects have a beginning, middle and an end, though that is not the best order of approach. Begin with the end in mind. If you don’t have an end in mind yet, assist someone who does and you’ll learn a lot.” Libra

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll 

    • @KnowLabs suite of digital magazines jumps from 8003 to 8088 organically grown followers

Foresight

 Quality-of-Life  

Long-Form

    • “Future Shock” by Alvin Toffler, a classic I feel which still holds up. As the pace of change quickens we experience self-doubt, anxiety and fear.  We become tense and tire easily, until we are overwhelmed, face-to-face with a crisis situation. Without a clear grasp of relevant reality or beginning with clearly defined values and priorities, we feel a deepening sense of confusion and uncertainty. Our intellectual bewilderment leads to disorientation at the level of personal values. Decision stress results from acceleration, novelty and diversity conflicts. Acceleration pressures us to make quick decisions. Novelty increases the difficulty and length of time while diversity intensifies the anxiety with an increase in the number of options and the amount of information needed to process.  The result is a slower reaction time.
    • Daniel Kahneman’s, “Thinking Fast and Slow”describes two different ways the brain forms thoughts: “System 1” which is meant as a fictional shorthand — not as a brain system or structure: Fast, automatic, frequent, emotional, stereotypic, unconscious. “System 2”: Slow, effortful, infrequent, logical, calculating, conscious. I’m learning a lot about my energy levels first described from within an introversion frame now, from within differences between System 1 and the harder working, energy depletion System 2.  Self-control, for instance is hard and takes a lot of energy to accomplish.  When I write the concentration requires effort until I can find the “flow.” Implications for True Belief — it’s easy to stay in System 1 vs. critical thinking — System 2.  Set some marketing and working on the business goals — System 2 and then ignore them by following the lateral thinking and associative thinking  which Leo da V invites me to do — System 1.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

The Knowledge Path | Know Laboratories | Knowledge Banking | Knowledge ATMs | Western Skies and Island Currents | Best West Road Trips

Posted on

S2 E88 — Convincing Family, Friends, Fools and Angels

We flew into Manhattan, digitally videoed almost all of their software engineers, surfaced their “core foundational story” and crafted a marketing and advertising campaign for the CEO, and the internal story to keep and retain the brains in the fold.

“5”  Steve Howey, 42: “The brilliant solution will be simple, but it’s not always so easy to think like that. What would an outsider see? A child? Ask the naive questions that your sophisticated mind often skips.” Cancer

Hi and welcome to Friday’s Episode 88 in Season 2 of  “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 31st day of July in the summer of 2020.  

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

Table of Contents

Season One and Two are a two-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed during the “normal” pre-pandemic and then in this unfolding pandemic year.

Previously in Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E87 — Start Ups Aren’t For Everyone. Are They a Better or Worse Fit for You?; S2 E86 — How To Avoid a Disastrous Career Like Mine; S2 E85 — How to Up the Odds in Your Favor

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E88 — Who’s Marc Maron and What’s da Vinci got to do with him?; S1 E87 — Pipe Bombs Destroy Vacation Bliss; S1 E86 — Day 86 of My 1-Year Natural Experiment; S1 E85 — What happens when the fear subsides?

Context

This is a continuation of “Volume Two Manuscript — WorkFit” a work-in-progress.

In a previous episode I summarized everything you need to know about four basic organizations to stack the odds in your favor when shopping around for your next job opportunity.  

Oh, what disaster to avoid (unlike me) in your next career move. 

Now we’re building on each of the 16 talent profiles and how they can take advantage of opportunities in stages of organizational growth from Start Up to Maturity and from Decline to Reinvention.

Five Major Stages of Growth for Organizations

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

Start Ups

Their founders are often described as a maniac on a mission. In the very beginning they grow organically through loose collaborations. Innovation leads to an IPO or acquisition by a larger company like Google or Amazon or other more mature players in the space. 

What they develop, independently, usually dramatically speeds up a standard process, or eliminates major steps, or in some radical way revolutionizes business-as-usual.

30. Venture Guidance —

As a Systematic-Professional advisor I prepped potential startup entrepreneurs seeking investments from a group of entrepreneurs and former executives who agreed to pledge $50,000 each as seed or A-series funding.  Presenting with a deck of 10 slides, after being coached individually, they stood and delivered to a group of us role playing the sharks and throwing them curve balls challenging their assumptions.

Wannabe Entrepreneurs Seeking Angels 

I’d meet each person with a great idea, hear them out, conduct a preliminary in take against the criteria for receiving our free services provided by a budget from The Small Business Association.  

Instead of qualifying for a business loan at a vetted SBA bank affiliate that they’d have to pay back, we were there to vet their idea against evolving criteria provided to us by Tech Coast Angels — a group of entrepreneurs and former executives who agree to pledge $50,000 each as seed or A-series funding.  

In my own career I had failed so many times at start-ups that I could pick apart most of their plans and presentations almost instantaneously.  But, that didn’t mean I wasn’t a sucker for ideas I felt would be sure hits.  Even after I left the SBA program I continued to meet and mentor some of “my” entrepreneurs.

Individual Tech Coast Angels investors rarely got their money back on my clients.  

Our game plan was to divide the amount you needed by $50,000 increments and then you knew how many of those investors you needed to convince. Two for $100,000 or 20 for $1 million.

If our wannabes “graduated” from our “harassment” they submitted an application for an invitation to the next Tech Coast Angel meeting of all investors.  If they passed their initial screening, then they were invited to present to the large group. And, if lucky, to other Angel investors in the region until they collected enough $50,000 commitments.

Before Shark Tank

One of the mentors I invited to participate in The Executive to Executive MBA mentoring program provided a service just like Shark Tank, but way before. His proposition was for a founder to present to his group , get evaluated on strengths and weaknesses, work on the weaknesses with advisors within the network and pitch again.

Part of his value proposition, besides providing billable hours for advisors in their network, was introductions to investors who favored their model of vetting startup ideas.  

The Angels usually recouped their investments when the venture capitalists invested with hundreds of millions or they made their money when a startup was acquired by a larger company or registered for an initial public offering (IPO) on one of the stock exchanges.

But to be honest, the statistics rang true.  Most start ups fail within the first 5 years, but that’s after tapping into friends, family and fools and maxing out all of their credit cards and taking out second mortgages.  If one of my clients didn’t secure Angel Funding, then the game was over.  They never jumped the chasm to land on emerging growth. 

27. Knowledge Management — Brand Company

At Think!City and again as Systematic-Professional consultants, we crashed our models together — learning and development, knowledge creation, media production, internet communities, strategy, advertising and marketing. 

We worked together in a highly creative environment within a corrugated metal building designed by a local architecture firm in Laguna Beach, on a curve in Laguna Canyon Road.

Start Up Talent Culture

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

From our studio we continued internal and external branding with clients ranging from startups to Fortune 100.  I fell headlong into sharing new knowledge that springs out of new innovations.

We pioneered a way of capturing the essence of a brand on digital video, searched through audio tracks for the touch points and reused portions of the interviews for orienting new coders hired at accelerated rates. 

Start Up #1

One of our clients, Interworld, was so new their CEO, a 101 Breakpoint Inventor,  just didn’t know how to talk about what they did.  So, we flew into Manhattan, digitally videoed almost all of their software engineers, surface their “core foundational story” and crafted a marketing and advertising campaign for the CEO, and the internal story inside to keep and retain the brains in the fold.

The CEO was able to coherently sell Interworld’s story to potential investors and customer within an advertising campaign framed by their brand.

Before engaging the 103 Commercial Innovators and 105 Marketing Athletes in our process Interworld’s turnover rate hit 90%. But, because they had told us what their core foundational story was, they fervently believed in that mission they defined and the vision we fedback to them.  And, they voluntarily stopped taking the two or three daily recruiter calls from Wall Street and Silicon Valley.

Interworld loved our work. 

Start Up #2

A technology opportunity emerged quickly which focused primarily on retail investors throwing money at an e-commerce platform that addressed Amazon’s bookselling initial business.  They saw the writing on the wall. The business model customized each “brick and mortar” business and took them online with the same look and feel of the store. 

As each new company signed on, the company with the platform, Online Retail Partners, learned new stuff, and developed newer bells and whistles they then shared with their “investment partners”.

The retailers knew their business, but didn’t understand technology.  So they invested in a company that did.  And as Online Retail Partners grew out, the new and legacy retail investors would share in the rewards. 

Warren of Incubating Start Ups

So, up on the 11th floor of a dingy gray building with only one operating elevator and noise chugging steam heaters sat a warren of start-up companies squirreled off into sections of large and small rooms — basically large enough to fit in tables with chairs facing each other and a lot of digital screens and yards and yards of cables.  

Online Retail Partners was one of them. We arrived to surface their business model like we did at Interworld.  The CEO laid out several problems for our help.  He said they worked on Internet-time — ever accelerating time-to-market like we faced at Proxima creating 2-way “meeting room tools”; they couldn’t afford any stinking time away from their pace to go to no stinking training; they “popped” retail businesses online in 75 to 90 days in a slow quarter; they needed to hire and assimilate 100 new employees and …

When we met them they had a core team of 5 or 6 geniuses — 103 Commercial Innovators and 105 Marketing Athletes — who learned how to finish each other’s sentences.  Everything worked like butter.  Nothing bad happened, until they began to break up the foundational team as they took on new partners and spread them out among them.  

Chaos But In a Good Way

New hires told us they would see people walking around between the shared couches and conversation areas in the incubator, back to one or two other tabled rooms, but had no idea which one of them was the team lead on a project they were hired into.

To us it just seemed like a ferris wheel spinning faster and faster until somebody launches out into space.

Crazy creative Dave and I interviewed those first geniuses and recording those on digital video with B-roll footage to capture the early warehouse environment with exposed pipes — kinda like where we worked in the corrugated metal building in the bend of Laguna Canyon Road.  

No Time For This

First of all they couldn’t agree on how many product development steps it took from new idea to finished product — in their case a password and access to their customers online environment.  We interviewed them separately, then held a group session where in an old school way had them draw their product development process on butcher paper taped to a wall

A new hire came up to me and said that was the single best thing that happened to him in the first 30 days — watching them convince each other what their process should be — as he was sitting off in the conversation pit looking on.  

He told me as we were breaking down the lights, that when we identified who we interviewed, asked for their phone and email he found out who his boss was and finally knew what he should be working on in “Phase 1”.

Team Follows the Leader to the Next Company

The CEO, who came from Staples of all places, body-snatched the original team almost intact from one of Amazon’s competitors and gave them complete freedom in founding the company.  And the technology team’s leader —  a 101 Breakpoint Inventor —   absolutely walked on water all the others said, so his personality, reputation and competence provided enough “stickiness” in the beginning.  But the second and third wave of new hires didn’t know him or about him.

So, as they grew, turnover accelerated.

Stickiness and Accelerated Time-to-Mastery

Our challenge was to accelerate each new team member’s time-to-mastery, without drawing too much away from everyone’s concentration on shortening product cycles, and without sending them to orientation off-sites for a week like we did in the old days.

Crazy Dave and I knew from our experiences with “Strategic Safari Tools” and technology innovation challenges circulating the new knowledge innovation teams “throw off” as emerging best practices was critical to their survival as they tried to scale and grow.

We focused on those emerging best practices.  We drew out the product development phases, using our digital video we briefly explained what happened in of them from my interview with each expert, using just the first frame of their picture we captioned them with their email and phone number.

It became embarrassingly easy to find each other quickly and efficiently. And solved the eternal problem with best practices for as long as I can remember.

In the old world, when you finished a project the leader was to see to it a best practice was written up — what the situation and context demanded, something about surprises, what worked well and what didn’t, and maybe a question about “if you had it to do again, what would you have done differently?”

Product geniuses didn’t have the time to write something up.  They raced around attending to first-time problems and gnarly solutions.

Knowledge Leakage

We used to call it knowledge leakage.  It just evaporated. But the issue was composing something in writing. 

If you wanted me to write up a best practice about what we’ve covered here it would be a chore.  

It’s so much easier for you to interview me,  to pull it out of an expert and capture it.  As you interview them, they’re given the opportunity to unspool.

They’re replaying it for the first time from beginning to end and re-discovering what they learned, but hadn’t thought of before.  It could be the real lesson.

We Slowed Them Down Until …

I found a software tool that scanned down through the audio tracks of video and logged in time codes and content automatically.  They provided an editor tool and a search function so we could very quickly zero in on all the instances that “Phase Five” appears in that hour of tape.

We didn’t all have to be in the studio at the same time.

That was the real pinch point in our behind the scenes magic.  With ORP or Interworld, or 18Global, or even Zany Brainy we couldn’t slow them down and the way we did business originally did just that

Our Systematic-Professional practice offered digital asset management — that just-in-time, just enough capability delivered to any creative team member’s desktop.

We Practiced What We Preached

Our Verage searchable knowledge base allowed us to view the entire 1-hour digital video, a smaller section of the video or little snippets within a clip.   If someone rolled onto our production team without having traveled to Ireland, Australia or Dallas they could view everything to get up to speed with the client.

Summary

Why are these talent profiles magnetized to Start Ups?  Usually the “Maniac on a Mission” aka 101 Breakpoint Inventor thrives on the highest degrees of Independence, Speed and Disruptive Innovation. 

As founders they bet it all on the line — “Go Big of Go Home!”  Usually they’ve cultivated a loose team of co-conspirators who may not entirely grasp the expansiveness of vision, 

16 Talent Profiles by Organization Type

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

but as one 103 Commercial Innovator told us, “Whenever Ian calls, we know to drop everything and join him.”  They know the new venture, base on past adventures, promises to be one-of-a-kind that they will regret if they don’t hop on board the train leaving the station — destination unknown.  Wherever founders take them the market, industry or themselves will never be the same.

Start Up Culture Attracting Three Talent Profiles

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

The early team can’t all share founders need for disruption and speed at the same highest degree.  To bring the vision to life and launch it into the marketplace some team players need medium degrees independence, disruptive innovation and speed to function aka 103 Commercial Innovators without unnecessarily challenging what the founders see that they can’t yet. Part of what they’re able to bring to the table is a translation function.  Figuring out how to define and deliver a proof of concept, a rapid prototype — something that is more tangible even for the rest of the team.  They’re always on the lookout for commercializing early applications of the vision, figuring out strategies for licensing their intellectual property and setting up joint R&D projects to fill in missing pieces and technologies. 

The first two usually hang out in Paradoxy-Moron organizations and can stay and grow as that organization matures through growth stages and reaches maturity. But finding a home in another start up, as serial entrepreneurs often do, they’re joined by folks, 105 Marketing Athletes who value speed (high) and affiliation (medium), but interject a focus on new knowledge creation.  They plug the holes in knowledge leakage that cutting edge processes produce by capturing it and sharing it and protecting it as proprietary processes almost as much as intellectual property.

Evidence

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Today’s Holiday Birthday: 

 Life always gets more interesting when you follow that whisper of curiosity. Your interests and skills evolve. You’ll take risks and gather up the freedoms available to you on the other side. You’ll be applauded in a familiar group and accepted into an elite one. You’ll win with someone you feel driven to impress.

The whisper of curiosity — I love that turn of phrase.  This ain’t my legitimate Holiday Birthday, but it certainly applies to how I’ve led my career and original research which I’m trying to stuff into this here “Volume Two Manuscript — WorkFit” my work-in-progress.

“3”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “The point will be just to show up and see what you discover. If you can lower your expectation or, better yet, go in totally without one, you’ll be primed for a stellar day.” Aries 

Go in?  With this pandemic I hardly go out.  I pine for a stellar day, but I’m not seeing the signs of one yet, but it’s still early.

“5”  Steve Howey, 42: “The brilliant solution will be simple, but it’s not always so easy to think like that. What would an outsider see? A child? Ask the naive questions that your sophisticated mind often skips.” Cancer

So often I had to ask myself that question and asked my clients similar sets of questions to move over, under, or around seemingly insurmountable barriers.

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll 

    • @knowlabs followers of one or more of my 35 digital magazines organically grew from 4427 to 4516.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Long-Form

    • Saw the movie, didn’t realize that one of my favorite authors, Michael Connelly — his detective Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch book series and Amazon Prime series — also wrote, “The Lincoln Lawyer” which I just finished. Gotta tell you I can’t not see his lead character (Mickey Haller, Bosch’s half brother) as anyone else but Matthew McConaughey. 

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

The Knowledge Path | Know Laboratories | Knowledge Banking | Knowledge ATMs | Western Skies and Island Currents | Best West Road Trip

Posted on

S2 E87 — Start Ups Aren’t For Everyone. Are They a Better or Worse Fit for You?

Their founders are often described as a maniac on a mission. In the very beginning they grow organically through loose collaborations. Innovation leads to an IPO or acquisition by a larger company like Google or Amazon or other more mature players in the space.

“5”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “You can take the heat today, especially if you’re the one providing it for yourself in the form of self-discipline or lofty ambitions. You may not achieve all you desire, but you’re better for the effort.” Pisces

Hi and welcome to Thursday’s Episode 87 in Season 2 of  “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 30th day of July in the summer of 2020.  

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

Table of Contents

Season One and Two are a two-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed during the “normal” pre-pandemic and then in this unfolding pandemic year.

Previously in Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E86 — How To Avoid a Disastrous Career Like Mine; S2 E85 — How to Up the Odds in Your Favor; S2 E84 — Maybe Robin Hood Got It Right After All, Eh?

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E87 — Pipe Bombs Destroy Vacation Bliss; S1 E86 — Day 86 of My 1-Year Natural Experiment; S1 E85 — What happens when the fear subsides?; S1 E84 — Crisis averted?  Energy depleted?  What are we going to do?

Context

This is a continuation of “Volume Two Manuscript — WorkFit” a work-in-progress.

In a previous episode I summarized everything you need to know about four basic organizations to stack the odds in your favor when shopping around for your next job opportunity.  

Oh, what disaster to avoid (unlike me) in your next career move.

Five Major Stages of Growth for Organizations

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

Now we’re building on each of the 16 talent profiles and how they can take advantage of opportunities in stages of organizational growth from Start Up to Maturity and from Decline to Reinvention.

Start Ups

What do we know about them?  For our purposes we assume two driving forces conspire together — a disruptive innovation and a rapid pace to commercialize an invention into the marketplace to establish a first movers advantage.  Think Apple, Google, Facebook, and say, Tesla.  

Their founders are often described as a maniac on a mission. In the very beginning they grow organically through loose collaborations. Innovation leads to an IPO or acquisition by a larger company like Google or Amazon or other more mature players in the space. 

What they develop, independently, usually dramatically speeds up a standard process, or eliminates major steps, or in some radical way revolutionizes business-as-usual. 

Think Amazon and retailers. 

Somehow, they are capable of anticipating something new and act decisively to establish a new market, industry, technology, or a new scientific discipline. Seemingly against all odds they’re able to refine and deliver a rapid prototype of the new product category.  

Only technology enthusiasts are interested. 

Here’s the rub. 

Their market niche emerges too slowly for them. 

In the early stage it is built up around one or more visionaries who see the potential for the new technology and fund the first proofs-of-concept. 

Talent Profiles Seeking Better Fits

It makes sense that two Paradoxy-Morons and one Emerging-Entrepreneur are attracted like moths to a flame:

16 Talent Profiles by Organization Type

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

So what do they have in common?  

The first two, 101 Breakpoint Inventors and 103 Commercial Innovators, share the need for speed with the third, but being Paradoxy-Morons they’re really into disruptive innovation.

Speed drives 105 Marketing Athletes, but their focus is on learning from their experience and generating new knowledge while building product teams putting that proprietary intellectual property to work again and again.

Three Talent Profiles Attracted to the Start Up Stage

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

The typical scenario for the “garage start-ups” is a tricky proposition. If they come up with a discontinuous technology whose sole benefit is to lower cost and improve productivity within a well-worn application arena, they have essentially an unmarketable opportunity. 

The longer it takes to convert visionary influence into early pragmatist orders tests the start-up’s capacity for survival.  

It has to generate enough cash initially, and then stabilize its business by eliminating cash flow problems. 

And that my friend is the crux of the problem.

Oh, and the vast majority of “garage” Start Ups “bonk” against the garage door and never make it out of the first stage.  

More on that later.

Evidence

“3”  Steve Zahn, 51: “The importance of planning will be highlighted. Start with what you want, otherwise, the world will decide your weekend for you and then you get what you get.” Scorpio

Hmm … now I’m wondering why I selected this in the first place.  Sorry!

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Today’s Holiday Birthday:  

You have the power to move people — a gift that was bestowed to you long ago through the opportunities inside of hardship. This year, you’ll articulate your growth and show how you assimilated life’s lessons. You will teach, inspire and leverage your strength into the creation of an environment where you and yours can thrive.

“4”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “It starts off small enough. You notice what another person has and it creates a sharp indent where a seed of want is planted in your being. This is not just about envy; it is the distant cry of a calling.” Aries  

Today’s TauBit for our Patron Saint seems so tortured in the telling that I can’t really tell you what it’s about.  But it includes intention and starting small and a calling, so doesn’t seem to fit what a Start Up is all about?  Well doesn’t it?

“3”  Steve Howey, 42: “You will know the particular kind of thrill that comes with pretending to be someone else and pulling it off to the spectacular degree that ‘someone else’ is actually a new version of you.” Cancer

Haha, is this the flip side of “Being careful what you wish for?”

“4”  Steve Carrell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “These days, it’s not how many people show up but how they show up that matters. Scores of intentionless people can’t make the difference that one intent human being can.” Leo

If there was a motto at the heart of what 105 Marketing Athletes bring to Start Ups, it would align with this TauBit of Wisdom.

“4”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61; Stephen King, 72: “You’re in the final throes of a minor project and will probably be surprised at your feelings about it. This was more of an emotional investment than you thought it would be. At the end of a journey is a new adventure.”  Virgo

At least through this Pandemic I’m grateful for even minor projects, though by now it doesn’t feel very minor.  Yes, it was an emotional investment revisiting this WorkFit work-in-progress.  

“4”  Steve Aoki, 41: “If you think you’re satisfied, then you are. If you think you’re wealthy, then you are. If you think you’re in love, then you are. But if you think you’re wise, then you are not. Wisdom is not a conclusion; rather, it’s an endless question.” Sagittarius

Are you with this on me? The first three “If you thinks” don’t add up.  But, the last two wisdoms do.

“3”  Steve Harvey, 62: “With the pleasantness of falling for someone comes the hopes that, at the bottom of it, there will be a soft place to land. There’s a period in which you can test this out, but once you’ve leaped, it’s too late.” Capricorn 

Well, I recall your TauBit rang true when Emma the Baroness and I first hooked up.  I don’t remember hoping for a soft place to land at all.  Having leaped, I’m eternally grateful for the faith she had in me.

“4”  Steve Nash, 45: “After years of neglect, one area of your life is about to receive rigorous focus. You’ll get a dozen ideas about it over the next 48 hours. This is the beginning of an overhaul.”  Aquarius

Yeah, although this seems like a never ending Pandemic Year, I’m hoping for some inspiration vs. dread.

“5”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “You can take the heat today, especially if you’re the one providing it for yourself in the form of self-discipline or lofty ambitions. You may not achieve all you desire, but you’re better for the effort.” Pisces

I gotta say composing and then editing this work-in-progress aka Volume Two Manuscript — WorkFit may yield a low ROE — Return On Energy.  

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll 

    • @knowlabs followers of one or more of my 35 digital magazines organically grew from 4427 to 4516.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Long-Form

    • Saw the movie, didn’t realize that one of my favorite authors, Michael Connelly — his detective Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch book series and Amazon Prime series — also wrote, “The Lincoln Lawyer” which I just finished. Gotta tell you I can’t not see his lead character (Mickey Haller, Bosch’s half brother) as anyone else but Matthew McConaughey. 

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

The Knowledge Path | Know Laboratories | Knowledge Banking | Knowledge ATMs | Western Skies and Island Currents | Best West Road Trip

Posted on

S2 E86 — How To Avoid a Disastrous Career Like Mine

Every organization, including our 4 fundamental aspires to grow. The growth stages follow one after another from Start Up to 3 Growth phases to Maturity and Decline unless a Reinvention transformation kicks off before it is too late. 

“5”  Steve Zahn, 51: “You will be attracted to a subject appreciated by many and understood by few. When you go deeper, you will learn how you are uniquely equipped to be among those few should you choose to devote focus to this.” Scorpio

Hi and welcome to Sunday’s Episode 86 in Season 2 of  “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 26th day of July in the summer of 2020.  

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

Table of Contents

Season One and Two are a two-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed during the “normal” pre-pandemic and then in this unfolding pandemic year.

Previously in Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E85 — How to Up the Odds in Your Favor: S2 E84 — Maybe Robin Hood Got It Right After All, Eh?; S2 E83 — Why Shouldn’t You Always Lean On Things That Worked Before?

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E86 — Day 86 of My 1-Year Natural Experiment; S1 E85 — What happens when the fear subsides?; S1 E84 — Crisis averted?  Energy depleted?  What are we going to do?; S1 E83 —The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book

Context

This is a continuation of “Volume Two Manuscript — WorkFit” a work-in-progress.

In the last episode I summarized everything you need to know about four basic organizations to stack the odds in your favor when shopping around for your next job opportunity.  

Oh, what disaster to avoid (unlike me) in your next career move. 

Now, we’ll build on better and worse fit options for each of the 16 talent profiles:

Paradoxy-Morons

      • 101 PMBI Breakpoint Inventors
      • 102 PMTL Thought Leaders
      • 103 PMCI Commercial Innovators 
      • 104 R&D Experimenters

Emerging-Entrepreneurs

      • 105 EEMA Marketing Athletes
      • 106 EEOA Operational Accelerants
      • 107 EERPT Resilient Product Teams 
      • 108 EECBG Core Business Groups

Sustaining-Associates

      • 109 SAICA Internal Change Agents
      • 110 SAAS Analytical Specialists
      • 111 SAAT Agile Tiger Teams 
      • 112 SALS  Loyal Survivalists

Systematic-Professionals

      • 113 SPIC Idea Packagers
      • 114 SPBE Brand-as-Experts
      • 115 SPPP Professional Practitioners 
      • 116 SPIT Institutional Traditionalists

Let’s we review stages of organizational growth from Start Up to Maturity and from Decline to Reinvention.

Five Major Stages of Growth for Organizations

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

Key points to keep in mind:

  1. Every organization, including our 4 fundamental aspires to grow.
  2. The growth stages follow one after another from Start Up to 3 Growth phases to Maturity and Decline unless a Reinvention transformation kicks off before it is too late.
  3. Each new stage of growth requires a different talent culture than the previous one. One or two dominate at each stage.
  4. There’s no guarantee a specific company and organization will master the gap between stage its current and potential next stage.
  5. That fact represents a second set of better or worse fits.

Next up.

Let’s begin in the “beginning” with Start Up and build a case for “peeling off” two Paradoxy-Morons and one Emerging-Entrepreneur:

        • 101 PMBI Breakpoint Inventors
        • 103 PMCI Commercial Innovators
        • 105 EEMA Marketing Athletes

Did you notice we “skipped” some?  That’s odd, isn’t it

Evidence

“5”  Steve Zahn, 51: “You will be attracted to a subject appreciated by many and understood by few. When you go deeper, you will learn how you are uniquely equipped to be among those few should you choose to devote focus to this.” Scorpio

I forget finding the right fit remained frustrating elusive to me until I noticed how companies and organizations evolve into talent cultures that define them, until something forces a change and a different set of talent is required to survive.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

“4”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “Behind the door that’s a few stops down the lane exists another world, a world that you will lend some imagination to until you’re let in and can get a sense of its reality.” Taurus

Is that the portal to the Twilight Zone? There was a time when I lived in Cincinnati about a mile and a half from the house that Rod Serling lived as he imagined the original.

“3”  Steve Howey, 42: “Generally, most people feel automatically sure of what is reality. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to go about their day. To question your automatic responses is always an act of growth.” Cancer

Is it too late for me to challenge myself about why I selected this one?

“3”  Steve Carrell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “It will occur to you that an area you’ve focused on seems devoid of juice. There’s nothing here for you now, if there ever was. Move on. There are other things to squeeze.” Leo

Only one area?  Haha. Another element to consider is just how long it takes an introvert like me to muddle through these passion projects.  Or, is this about Patreon?

“3”  Steve Kerr, 54: “You’re safe to let whimsy have its rule. Wish crazily. There is something of value in far-out or silly dreams. You can assess what is possible later. Right now, let your imagination soar.” Libra

Whimsy and silly don’t seem to be on my pandemic lock down agenda for the day.  But the day is still young and I have to say I’d love to let my imagination soar!

“4”  Steve Harvey, 62: “Don’t fight against problems. Struggle wastes energy. Sink to the bottom of a problem as if it were a swimming pool. It won’t take much to bounce off the bottom with your toes and resurface to a cleansing breath.”  Capricorn

My metaphor living on the California coast near the Pacific Ocean shifts to waves of change about to break over you while you body surf.  You dive quickly to the sandy bottom allowing the force of nature to push and pull you as it passes and then you spring to the surface mindful of a second and third set.  You select one and ride it to shore, or you duck dive one more time. 

“4”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011: “Why do people tell you their stories and share with you the intimate details of their lives? It’s because your warmth is a heart-opener that they do not get every day.”  Pisces

Early in my first career one school of psychology grew out of California’s North San Diego County and advocated for “unconditional positive regard.” I’m guessing that value has underpinned my engagements with clients, C-Suite executives, students and co-workers throughout all my careers.

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll 

    • @knowlabs followers of one or more of my 35 digital magazines organically grew from 4427 to 4516.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Long-Form

    • Saw the movie, didn’t realize that one of my favorite authors, Michael Connelly — his detective Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch book series and Amazon Prime series — also wrote, “The Lincoln Lawyer” which I just finished. Gotta tell you I can’t not see his lead character (Mickey Haller, Bosch’s half brother) as anyone else but Matthew McConaughey. 

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

The Knowledge Path | Know Laboratories | Knowledge Banking | Knowledge ATMs | Western Skies and Island Currents | Best West Road Trip

 

Posted on

S4 E32 — A Rudy By Any Other Name Still Smells …

Now anyone who recalls “Rudy” keeps an against-all-odds memory, but not in a good way.  Giuliani was once “America’s Mayor” who awkwardly appeared in a tribute on “Saturday Night Live” when 9/11 was fresh in all our lives in the wake of the Twin Towers attack.

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

“5”  Steve Howey, 42: “There’s freedom in a pen. You can go anywhere in writing, so don’t hold back. At the very least, express what’s been bothering, exciting or draining you. Getting it out and onto the paper will make you lighter.” Cancer

Hi and welcome to Sunday’s 32nd Episode in Season 4 of  “Our Disruptively Resilient Year” on this 24th day of April in the spring of 2022.

We concluded the three-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed — during the “normal” pre-pandemic year compared to the pandemic year, and more recently to the paradoxically normal year. 

Season Four continues now within domestic and global chaos.

Previously in Season Four, The Disruptively Resilient Year

S4 E31 — Butt Dialing Your Way to a $Billion, What Could Go Wrong?; S4 E30 — Green Bay’s Conspiracy-Theories-R-Us from The OC; S4 E29 — How Much Mo Did He Pay for the Brooklyn Bridge?

Related from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year

S3 E32 — But, Why Should You Care?; S3 E31— Treat It Like a Pawn Ticket to Sketchier Things; S3 E30 — Steal These TauBits, Please. It’s Only Fair!; S3 E29 — Why 83.3% of the Time I Swiped Your Tau 

Related from Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E32 — Trapped and Bored? Or Unleashing a Reinvention Wave?; S2 E31 — Getting Charged from Box Automattic-aly; S2 E30 — It’s Crazy. Why does Amazon Prime Work, but Netflix Doesn’t?; S2 E29 — Three Months That Changed the World 

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E32 — Day 32 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E31 — Day 31 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E30 — Day 30 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E29 — Day 29 of My 1-Year Experiment

Context

Remember when everyone who heard “Rudy” quickly recalled the positive, heartwarming story about a Catholic kid who worked like a dog and with shear determination turned a walk on opportunity at Notre Dame University into a football movie.  It was such an uplifting against-all-odds story.

A Rudy By Any Other Name Smells …

Now, anyone who recalls “Rudy” keeps an against-all-odds memory, but not in a good way.  Giuliani was once “America’s Mayor” who awkwardly appeared in a tribute on “Saturday Night Live” when 9/11 was fresh in all our lives in the wake of the Twin Towers attack.

Now, not so much.  You may have already forgotten about that Rudy, right? 

Right after the violent transfer of power in 2021 his against-all-odds promotion of lies and miss information triggered condemnations.

Manhattan College president Brennan O’Donnell stated in a January 7 open letter to the college community, 

“One of the loudest voices fueling the anger, hatred, and violence that spilled out yesterday is a graduate of our College, Rudolph Giuliani. His conduct as a leader of the campaign to de-legitimize the election and disenfranchise millions of voters – has been and continues to be a repudiation of the deepest values of his alma mater.”— Wikipedia

On January 11, the New York State Bar Association announced their investigation into whether Giuliani should be removed from its membership rolls.

They cited both Giuliani’s comments to the Trump supporter rally at the Ellipse on January 6, and that it …

“has received hundreds of complaints in recent months about Mr. Giuliani and his baseless efforts on behalf of President Trump to cast doubt on the veracity of the 2020 presidential election and, after the votes were cast, to overturn its legitimate results”. — Wikipedia 

Then The Suits Arrived

And then according to Wikipedia’s cited sources, the suits arrived — not the ones artists and songwriters complain about, but …

    • New York State Sen. Brad Hoylman and lawyers’ group Lawyers Defending American Democracy, also filed a complaints against Giuliani with the Attorney Grievance Committee of the First Judicial Department of the New York Supreme Court, which has the authority to discipline and disbar licensed New York lawyers.
    • Also on January 11, 2021, District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine said that he is looking at whether to charge Giuliani, along with Donald Trump Jr. and Representative Mo Brooks, with inciting the violent attack.
    • On January 29, Giuliani falsely claimed that The Lincoln Project played a role in the organization of the Capitol riot. In response, Steve Schmidt announced that the group would be taking legal action against Giuliani for defamation.
    • On March 5, 2021, Representative Eric Swalwell filed a civil lawsuit against Giuliani and three others (Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Representative Mo Brooks), seeking damages for their alleged role in inciting the Capitol riot.

On November 8, 2021, the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack issued subpoenas to Eastman and five other Trump allies present at the meeting — who Rolling Stone described as “Trump’s ‘Elite Strike Force’ of Election Fraud Lawyers” 

Including Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, and Boris Epshteyn all received subpoenas from the panel, which also reportedly got ahold of Eric Trump and Kimberley Guilfoyle’s phone records.

So What Were They After?

On November 30, 2021, The Guardian further reported that Trump personally called his lieutenants at the hotel on the night of January 5 to discuss how to delay certification of the election results.

On December 27, 2021, the House select committee announced its intention to investigate that phone call.

A link from the article on Oath Keepers’ crowdfunding failure reveals Sidney Powell’s defending him (Stewart Rhodes).  

Giuliani was subpoenaed in January 2022 to testify before the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack.

Stay tuned as the story plays out.  

And try Wikipedia for the time line, the characters as the narrative unfolds, but all in one place. 

Evidence

Today’s Holiday Theme: 

… Represents a stubborn refusal to accept the lessons of the future. It’s the cosmic equivalent to “Get off my lawn,” representing generational arguments and threats to territory that are more symbolic than anything else. The future comes whether or not we resist it.

Or, grab a cool one, go to the beach (not in that order) and continue reading …

“4”  Steve Zahn, 51: “Daydreaming about the future helps you start to realize what needs to happen for the mental picture to become reality. There are some sacrifices to be made, and you’re ready to make them.” Scorpio

Daydreaming requires a time and space for it to play out instead of a deadline anxiety-filled headspace.  Shocks and surprises don’t help.  Assuming those in charge won’t escape their accountability doesn’t help either.  

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Today’s Holiday Birthday: 

Seemingly disparate ideas will add up to a realization about who you are and what you want to do next. You’ll think strategically, form brilliant plans and advance key relationships. Your work gets more interesting and changes on your team allow you to stretch to fill new roles. The money will be sweet, too.

I want this one to be about me.  Except for a couple of small details.  I’d have to steal your birthday (again) since this is not mine.  And I don’t have a team formed around me.  

“5”  Steve Howey, 42: “There’s freedom in a pen. You can go anywhere in writing, so don’t hold back. At the very least, express what’s been bothering, exciting or draining you. Getting it out and onto the paper will make you lighter.” Cancer

Seriously I didn’t put Holiday up to this for today and for the previous episodes, but it very nearly describes my intentions and motivations, except for the pen part and the paper part.

“3”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61; Stephen King, 72: “Are you ready to seize the moment? When you enter the scene, everyone will wonder who you are and what you do — an opportunity to fill them in with what you think they should know about you.” Virgo

If the opportunity arises today, I’ll give it my best shot.

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll

    • @KnowLabs suite of 36 digital magazines, according to my analytics, grew from 12559 this week to 12654 organically grown followers.
    • Orange County Beach Towns 216 viewers stopped by the week before.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Long-Form

    • “Here, Right Matters: An American Story” by Alexander Vindman. “We’d long been confused by the president’s policy of accommodation and appeasement of Russia, the United States’ most pressing major adversary. Russia’s president Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, seizing the Crimean Peninsula, attacking its industrial heartland, the Donbass, from the capital, Kyiv. By 2019, little had changed, Russian military and security forces and their proxy separatists continued to occupy the Donbass. The biggest change was to Ukraine’s importance as a bulwark against Russian aggression weeks earlier, the White House had abruptly put a hold on nearly four hundred million dollars.” 
    • David Enrich begins his book with a suicide in “Deutsche Bank Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction” and then meticulously details the bank’s Russian money laundering operations. Deutsche’s Russian business surged after revenues had fallen 50% due to the 2008 financial crisis. Putin’s Russia, poured in to Deutsche from deals it did with VTB Bank, linked to the Kremlin’s intelligence apparatus. Deutsche positioned itself as a crucial cog in “The Laundromat” by doing what couldn’t be done — processing cross-border transactions for banks that were too small  and didn’t have offices outside their home countries.
    • “Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy” by Jamie Raskin recalls one tragedy no parent should endure — the suicide of his son — and then a second tragedy at almost the same time — the insurrection on January 6th 2021, that terrified he and his congressional peers who were tasked by the Constitution to routinely oversee the orderly transfer of power from one former president to the duly elected new President. 
    • “A Warning” by Anonymous (Miles Taylor) written prior to the January 6th Insurrection as an insider’s account documenting how frequently the former President’s behavior and rage without any “guard rails” showed just how far he would go to win the next election at any cost while spinning lies and misinformation on top of each other.  
    • “Peril” by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa provides anecdotes, stories and inside reporting documenting the controversial last days of Donald Trump’s presidency, as well as the presidential transition and early presidency of Joe Biden. 
    • “Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Nationalist Uprising,” by Joshua Green tracks the money behind the scenes leading up to the 2016 presidential election and the growing influence of Steve Bannon’s network of extreme nationalists.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

The Knowledge Path | Know Laboratories | Knowledge Banking | Knowledge ATMs | Western Skies and Island Currents | Best West Road Trip

Posted on

S3 E40 — How Stealing Your Sign Led Me to a Nobel Prize

Greetings from the land of sun (drought) sand (except in Newport Beach) outdoor adventures (leave your trash in Lake Tahoe) and a recall.  

“5”  Steve Carell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “Speak your mind. This may be the very thing the other person is thinking but hasn’t said. Or it may be that you’ve synthesized ideas that the others haven’t quite put together yet. Either way, the world needs your voice.” Leo

Hi and welcome to Thursday’s Episode 40 in Season 3 of  “My Paradoxically Normal Year” on this 6th day of May in the spring of 2021 — which is a three-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed during the “normal” pre-pandemic year and then in the pandemic year, and now months after.

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

Table of Contents

Previously from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year

S3 E39 — Ready for Your Big Leap Forward?; S3 E38 — Sliding on a Super Slippery Slope to 2nd or 3rd Cousins; S3 E37 — Tell Me More Lies I Can Believe In

Related from Season Two, The Pandemic Year

S2 E40 — The Profound Impact of the Pandemic on Nouns; S2 E39 — The Best Tau for the Pandemic Year, Don’t You Agree?; S2 E38 — What Should You Do If You Stumble Across Loaded Information?; S2 E37 — How Deep is the Chasm? What Do We Do?

Related from Season One, The Normal Year

S1 E40 — Nothing to See Here, Keep Moving On; S1 E39 — What’s Up with Facebook?; S1 E38 — Day 38 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E37 — Day 37 of My 1-Year Experiment

Context

Greetings from the land of sun (drought) sand (except in Newport Beach) outdoor adventures (leave your trash in Lake Tahoe) and a recall.  

At least the governor’s name isn’t Steve.  

I dare you.  

Try as hard as you might you can’t come up with anyone bad or evil named Steve, right?  You can’t.  

    • Oops seconds after typing “You can’t” two popped into my brain, so I’ll have to recall the challenge.  
    • I completely forgot about Bannon and Miller but, only those two. I rest my case.  The exceptions that prove the rules.
    • Oh, wait is that guy with the bear in recall ads a Steve? 

No? Phew!  It wouldn’t matter anyway because he’d lose to the former Olympic gold metal champion and ex- Kardashian in a runoff.

Moving on.  

I’ve got a Kindle addiction.  

Or, more precisely let’s call it what it is.  

I’m a cheap ass who scans my library for free available-to-borrow Kindle books.  I picked up Daniel Kahneman’s, “Thinking Fast and Slow” metaphorically and began highlighting passages like a mad man.  

Why?  

Count it as background research as I try to make sense out of my 1-year natural experiment and draw conclusions. So far in the “Conclusions” section of the 1-Year Natural Experiment Report I’ve covered: 

    • Horoscopes, 
    • Biases, 
    • Intuition,
    • Synchronicity, 
    • Meaningful Coincidences, 
    • Pattern Recognition, 
    • Serendipity, 
    • Luck, 
    • Rituals, 
    • Super Simplification and 
    • True Believers.  

Nobel Memorial Prize

One of the headlines I considered for an article is “How stealing your sign led me to a Nobel Prize” — but only in a meaningful coincidental way. Kahneman and Vernon L. Smith shared the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.  

Choosing books based solely on their availability probably qualifies as selection bias in the same way that I figured I try out another headline, “Why I Stole Your Sign and Will Do It Again” because it was available and mine sucked.

All serious enough aside, I sketched out two more sections for inclusion in the “Conclusion” — Filters, Associative and Lateral Thinking for which Kahneman sheds some light on. 

Kahneman describes two different ways the brain forms thoughts, which I’ll probably include: 

    • “System 1” which is meant as a fictional shorthand — not as a brain system or structure: Fast, automatic, frequent, emotional, stereotypic, unconscious.
    • “System 2”: Slow, effortful, infrequent, logical, calculating, conscious.

Evidence

Meanwhile, Stephen Colbert was interviewed by Terry Gross on her Fresh Air podcast about what he learned from broadcasting his late night show during the pandemic. I not only like him because he and I spell our first names identically, but Emma the Baroness and I look forward to his more intimate Zoom one-on-one conversations with his guests.

Steve McQueen’s house is for sale in Malibu beach. Now you and I both know it’s not really his house anymore.  Just like his Holiday Tau isn’t really his anymore since he passed away four decades ago.  But, anything celebrities touch turns to gold.  At one time he and Ali McGraw shacked up in Carbon Beach.  To find out more and to buy it, check it out here.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Haha, when I first read this I felt our Patron Saint’s Holiday Tau would lead to a spiritual place on the other side.  But, no.

“3”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “You’re already thinking about what’s on the other side of today’s task, and the thought of moving on will motivate you to do what it takes to get a job done efficiently and completely.” Aries

If I really, really exercised System 1 thinking, I could make this work somehow.  But, sorry Steve, Stevie and Stephen your Holiday Tau just isn’t working for me today.

“3”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “You’ll have a sense of it today: ‘You are loved. There’s an invisible world all around you. A kingdom of spirits commissioned to guard you, do you not see it?’ from ‘Jane Eyre,’ by your signmate Charlotte Bronte.”  Taurus

Haha, Howey.  Busted. How transparent is it?  I can confirm that the plot in your Holiday Tau is correct.  Now, if only I could get my System 1 to cooperate with my System 2 I’d be in better shape.  Any ideas?

“5”  Steve Howey, 42: “The plot will highlight your expertise. Your wins are partly due to good planning and partly due to good instinct and you’ll seamlessly swing between these modes.” Cancer

This from three Steves in a row.  Thanks for your TauBit of Wisdom, it feels so uplifting today.

“5”  Steve Carell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “Speak your mind. This may be the very thing the other person is thinking but hasn’t said. Or it may be that you’ve synthesized ideas that the others haven’t quite put together yet. Either way, the world needs your voice.” Leo

I had misgivings about today.  Why did I select so many Holiday Taus — 7 of the possible 12?  To make up for Zahnny missing in action?  Or just what?  But, yours G&G is wise and it isn’t the first time I heard it.  The other time one of my mentors told me the same thing,  “Quit researching and write.”  

“5”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61: “At some point, you have to stop learning and planning because action will teach you the rest. You’re almost there. Give yourself the deadline and start the countdown.” Virgo

So this is the real answer to my question posed to G&G.  I don’t suffer fools and people who are bored and complain as well.  Maybe seven Steves provide access to kindred souls during the end of this pandemic year?

“4”  Steve Kerr, 54: “Avoid those bored people who have nothing better to do than work up one another’s emotions over petty things. You benefit from sticking with the kindred souls with varied interests and wide horizons.” Libra

Hey Harv.  On the surface your TauBit of Wisdom describes maturity.  It so reminds me of a poem in one of Carlos Castenada’s books, “A Path With a Heart” which summarizes becoming “a man of knowledge, if only for a brief moment, ‘… that moment of clarity, power and knowledge is enough.’”

“5”  Steve Harvey, 62: “Once upon a time, you launched yourself into the unknown for adventure’s sake. Now, you’re much more purposeful. You want answers! New friends! Resources! Adventure is just a byproduct of the quest.”  Capricorn

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll 

    • @KnowLabs suite of digital magazines jumps from 8003 to 8088 organically grown followers

Foresight

Quality-of-Life  

Long-Form

    • “Future Shock” by Alvin Toffler, a classic I feel which still holds up. As the pace of change quickens we experience self-doubt, anxiety and fear.  We become tense and tire easily, until we are overwhelmed, face-to-face with a crisis situation. Without a clear grasp of relevant reality or beginning with clearly defined values and priorities, we feel a deepening sense of confusion and uncertainty. Our intellectual bewilderment leads to disorientation at the level of personal values. Decision stress results from acceleration, novelty and diversity conflicts. Acceleration pressures us to make quick decisions. Novelty increases the difficulty and length of time while diversity intensifies the anxiety with an increase in the number of options and the amount of information needed to process.  The result is a slower reaction time.
    • Daniel Kahneman’s, “Thinking Fast and Slow”describes two different ways the brain forms thoughts: “System 1” which is meant as a fictional shorthand — not as a brain system or structure: Fast, automatic, frequent, emotional, stereotypic, unconscious. “System 2”: Slow, effortful, infrequent, logical, calculating, conscious. I’m learning a lot about my energy levels first described from within an introversion frame now, from within differences between System 1 and the harder working, energy depletion System 2.  Self-control, for instance is hard and takes a lot of energy to accomplish.  When I write the concentration requires effort until I can find the “flow.” Implications for True Belief — it’s easy to stay in System 1 vs. critical thinking — System 2.  Set some marketing and working on the business goals — System 2 and then ignore them by following the lateral thinking and associative thinking  which Leo da V invites me to do — System 1.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

The Knowledge Path | Know Laboratories | Knowledge Banking | Knowledge ATMs | Western Skies and Island Currents | Best West Road Trips

Proudly powered by WordPress