Category: Best Places

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S4 E41 — Admiring Ancient Sinaqua and Anasazi Cultures

As we began running out of steam along the cement sidewalk, me with my Trekking poles in anticipation of exploring Sedona in a couple of days, Jay turns to me with a puzzled look that came over his face after staring at Montezuma.  “They really got the shaft, didn’t they?”

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

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Knowledge ATMs 

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

Table of Contents

Hi and welcome to Sunday’s 41st Episode in Season 4 of  “Our Disruptively Resilient Year” on this 15th day of May in the spring of 2022.

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll

    • @KnowLabs suite of 36 digital magazines, according to my analytics, grew from 12943 this week to 12982 organically grown followers.
    • Orange County Beach Towns 204 viewers stopped by the week before.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Context

Ever searching for connections and patterns, I fell back in time while staring up at Montezuma’s Castle. 

Back to our adventure in Mesa Verde.

The ranger said to visit the museum and the Spruce House since we could visit without tickets or a guide. 

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Not until we hiked down to the Spruce House, did I begin to appreciate the severely shortened stopover. We climbed down into a Kiva and then I forgot about our time constraint.

Like I was transported into a different world, a different time. I could begin to use my imagination. 

Here at Montezuma’s Castle access to a similar experience could no longer be allowed.  And hadn’t for decades because of the growing deterioration.

It would make sense that just like in Colorado, if warring tribes or other threats challenged the ancient Sinaqua’s existence, they moved to the cliffs for protection. 

In Mesa Verde we barely had enough time to take in cliff dwellings that now appeared in the shadows across the canyons from a turnout. 

We stopped and photographed like so many other tourists before and after us — until the rain moved in. 

The centuries of inhabiting this area begins to sink in when you stand here next to our SUV with digital cameras in hand and gaze out across the canyon to the complex of early Anasazi cliff homes — what, some 1400 years before the first European explorers laid eyes on the territory – or even stepped on North American shores!

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Maybe Mesa Verde felt grander because, well, it is and you can climb through it and view it from across the mesa.  

I remember the Anasazi people — Ancestral Pueblo-ans — lived for roughly 700 years in Mesa Verde, having migrated from the Four Corners region. 

That’s three or four times longer than the United States has been in existence.

The heart of the Anasazi region spanned northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, southeastern Utah and southwestern Colorado —a land of forested mountain ranges, stream-dissected mesas, arid grasslands and occasional river bottoms.

So, here we are in Arizona and I wonder how the Sinaqua are related to the Anasazi, or if they are.

Because in the 12th or 13th century over a period of one or two generations the Anasazi vanished from that mesa. They left no written records, so their story is incomplete. 

Image Credit: Mesa Verde National Park

At Montezuma Castle the Southern Sinagua flourished in the Verde Valley, just as for thousands of years hunters and gatherers had preceding their period of agriculture and architecture.  Apparently they were influenced by the Hohokam and the Northern Sinagua in southern and central Arizona.  Hohokam moved north into the valley between 700 and 900 CE (Common Era) and grew corn, beans squash and cotton in irrigated canals.  

Northern Sinagua culture in Flagstaff featured above ground masonry dwellings something around 1125.  Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot villages reached their maximum size in the 1300s while remaining occupied for another 100 years.

Why did the Southern Sinagua, like the Anasazi, migrate away from this area by early 1400s? Both mysteries remain.  Both may have resulted from overpopulation, depletion of resources and diseases or territorial wars.

But it is the pueblos of Arizona and western New Mexico and those of the upper Rio Grande drainage that greeted the Spanish expeditions into the Southwest in the 16th century.

What began as a small trickle grew into a flood as several million Europeans and their descendants forced their ways upon the indigenous people of the New World over the centuries to come.

For four centuries, from 1492 — 1890, Europeans convinced the “heathens” they found, to adopt their ways.

In 1539, for instance, Franciscan Friar, Marcos de Niza, followed by Francisco Vasquez de Coronado’s Spanish expedition first came looking for trade routes to the orient and Seven Cities of Gold, as well as to colonize the New World.

Disappointment over the lack of physical riches soon was replaced by Spain’s legendary missionary zeal.

And the Spaniards were sorely tempted by the wealth of the American Indian souls ripe for conversion. 

So, by the end of the 16th century Juan de Onate officially had claimed this area for Spain.

It certainly seems clear, that while the Anasazi had abandoned the mesa before the Spaniards came, they had mastered community living — taking advantage of nature by building their homes under the protection of overhanging cliffs. 

Apparently, analysis of the ruins and excavated artifacts point to a civilization using rectangular shaped sandstone blocks held together with cement made from mud and water. 

It says  in the official park brochure that their rooms averaged about 42 square feet and housed two or three people. They stored crops in isolated rooms and in the upper levels.

Ironically, garbage heaps, from years of tossing over food and broken tools — knives, axes, awls, stone and bone scrapers, and pottery — have yielded the most knowledge about the Anasazi. 

I’d hate to think what story a lifetime of garbage would tell future archeologists about me!

But from their’s, we know they farmed beans, corn, and squash crops. They hunted deer, rabbits and squirrels and domesticated turkeys and dogs. 

Before they learned how to make pottery, they had mastered the art of basket making using a spiral twilled technique for hauling water, storing grain and perhaps even for cooking. 

And a thousand years before the Spanish conquistadors and missionaries arrived, around 550 A.D. pottery obsolesced basket weaving. They created pots, bowls, canteens, ladles, jars and mugs. 

They stored and cooked in them. Rituals and ceremonies incorporated them. 

They managed to produce a surplus of goods that gave them an advantage in a trading economy — stretching all the way to the Pacific coast, as evidenced by seashells.

In similar fashion, the Southern Sinagua mined salt deposited a few miles from present-day Camp Verde nearby, and traded salt widely throughout the Arizona region.

They also fashioned stone axes, knives and hammers and “man’s and metates” for grinding corn.  Beyond survival they Made bone awls and needles, cotton-woven clothes with shell ornaments together with turquoise mixed with a local red stone called argillite.

Back in Colorado, about five hundred years after their first pots appeared — by 1100 to 1300 – the Anasazi entered the Mesa’s classic period when about several thousand tribal members concentrated in compact villages with many rooms, kivas, and round towers seen today. 

We know more about their history than we do about the Southern Sinagua.   Most of the Anasazi cliff dwellings were build from 1190 to 1270, ranging in size from one-room house to 200-room villages — Cliff Palace. 

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

With a kiva — a Hopi term for the ceremonial room — underground chambers in which they performed healing rites, prayed for rain, luck in hunting or for good crops in the upcoming seasonal harvest. 

 

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

And kivas may have been the community center where weavers and potters gathered to practice their craft. A small hole in the floor, called a sipapu, is the symbolic entrance to the underworld. 

But, they lived in the cliff dwellings for less than 100 years. By 1300 Mesa Verde had become a ghost town. Why?

At Montezuma Castle, the Southern Sinagua reached their maximum size in the 1300s and were occupied for another century, until they too migrated away in the early 1400s.

Probably due to a draught, scientists theorize. Crops may have failed. Or after literally hundreds of years of intensive land use the soils, the forest and their animals may have become depleted resources. 

Or maybe the political and social climate made it intolerable for the tribe to remain. 

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

What remains today at Mesa Verde in Colorado are three major cave dwellings on Chapin Mesa. The Spruce Tree House. Cliff Palace. Balcony House. Driving the loops of Ruins Road from canyon rim vantage points can see other dwellings.

But whatever the reasons, they traveled south into what is now Arizona and New Mexico becoming reacquainted with relatives already settled there, right?

As we already found out in Arizona, some of the Pueblo people and other tribes in the region are direct descendants of the cliff dwelling Anasazi. 

And we already know that those Pueblo tribes chafed under Spanish occupation, especially in New Mexico – culminating in the 1680 Pueblo Rebellion. 

“Are you alright?” The question Emma the Baroness asked snapped me out of my memory of the Anasazi cliff dwellers. 

Oh, yeah I told her and asked if she too remembered our Mesa Verde adventure?

Sure how could I not was her answer.

As we began running out of steam along the cement sidewalk, me with my Trekking poles in anticipation of exploring Sedona in a couple of days, Jay turns to me with a puzzled look that came over his face after staring at Montezuma.

“They really got the shaft, didn’t they?” Jay says rhetorically.

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

Table of Contents

“5”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “A habit has served you well for a very long time, and yet you can do much better. This you’ll find out as you make the switch to less costly and more fulfilling options. Eventually, the new choice will come easily to you.” Pisces

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 E40 — Don’t Bet Against Montezuma or the Yavapai-Apache Nation; S4 E39 — Closing in on Uncle Billy’s Lynx Creek Mining Claim; S4 E38 — Billy and Buckey Blow My Brain in Whiskey Row’s Palace 

Related 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?; 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; S1 E37 — Day 37 of My 1-Year Experiment

Evidence

“4”  Steve Zahn, 51: “The enemy of communication is noise. To increase the clarity of your signal, you need to eliminate everything that is not the message. Being succinct and direct will earn you respect and status.” Scorpio

I get your message and will work on editing down what isn’t relevant about these two ancient people who seemed to flourish around the same time and in the same manner.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Today’s Holiday Birthday: 

Love in many forms will fortify and support you. You’ll find yourself on a mission so important, you’ll tune out the rest of the world and anything distracting from your goal. You’ll push past the point when others would have given up. Good fortune rains on you as you reach the mile markers at extraordinary distances.

So mile markers and extraordinary distances, could be twisted to mean our roadtrip only enhances to love that has flourished between Emma the Baroness and me.  I like to think so, even if today’s birthday isn’t one either of us can claim.

“4”  Steve Kerr, 54: “Morning brings a strong inclination toward the things that will make your life better. Evening brings a strong inclination toward ease. So, what can you do to make a desired behavior easier to accomplish, no matter what time it is?” Libra

Hmm.  This is one of those questions that requires a little solitude while pondering the answer.

“5”  Steve Aoki, 41; Steven Spielberg, 74: “It’s a long way to the end of a project, and trying to extend your mind all the way there might produce feelings of overwhelm and anxiety. Instead, think about the next 10 minutes, and then the 10 minutes after that.” Sagittarius

Unless I’m misreading these two, aren’t they in direct contradiction?  This TauBit is one I subscribe to the most.  Just power up this MacBook Air.  Put aside the feelings which come when you consider the crippling magnitude and focus instead on what’s directly in front of you to make incremental progress.

“5”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “A habit has served you well for a very long time, and yet you can do much better. This you’ll find out as you make the switch to less costly and more fulfilling options. Eventually, the new choice will come easily to you.” Pisces

I’m associating your TauBit with this very long and by extension very, very long passion project.  I’ve mastered a template which greases the whole process along efficiently, but I’m feeling twinges of pivot opportunities.  Maybe this vacation serves as a catalyst into something else entirely which I’ll find less costly and more fulfilling. I’m looking forward to an easier decision.

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

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S4 E40 — Don’t Bet Against Montezuma or the Yavapai-Apache Nation

Still not remembering that Mesa Verde National Park is in Colorado, not Arizona, I noted the Montezuma Castle was constructed on the face of the cliff here in the Verde Valley created by the Verde River.  

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

Hi and welcome to Saturday’s 40th Episode in Season 4 of  “Our Disruptively Resilient Year” on this 14th day of May in the spring of 2022.

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll

    • @KnowLabs suite of 36 digital magazines, according to my analytics, grew from 12880 this week to 12943 organically grown followers.
    • Orange County Beach Towns 204 viewers stopped by the week before.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Context

Jay’s smashes avocados and whips them up into his secret recipe for an awesome breakfast of avocado toast. About 45 minutes later Jay switches to Elle’s Lexus SUV and I ride shotgun while the chicks gab in the back. 

But this time they want the air conditioner to work.

Image Credit: Apple Maps

Pulling out of their shared driveway and winding downhill we escape into the Verde Valley southeast of Prescott.

Maybe an hour later, Jay pulls into the Cliff Castle Casino grounds operated by the Yavapai-Apache Nation Indian tribe on our right. 

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard Copyright 2022

We then we immediately turn left,  winding down towards the national monument. 

Almost simultaneously all four of us realize that we left park passes at home or in the other SUV without backseat air conditioning. 

At the bottom of the hill Jay commandeers a parking slot up close to the main entrance immediately after a Camry exits. 

Some people have all the luck. 

Welcome to Montezuma’s Castle. 

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard Copyright 2022

But still following COVID space protocols there’s a limit to how many can occupy the combination souvenir store, history displays and the ticket counter. 

So, Jay does the talking about our forgetfulness as he has in other situations when he used to ask for professional courtesy as a fireman to talk his way out of speeding tickets or to explain why he’s driving without a California Driver’s License.

Getting up there in age with a bum knee getting bummer from climbing ladders, he no longer can get away with appeals for firemen favors, but he does have away about him, and we all pass without pay.

We pick up a folding brochure and a white map with black lines showing “Highways & Public Campgrounds” with a squared in “Points of Interest” legend showing the US Forest and Arizona State Parks camp grounds if that was our mission.

But it wasn’t.

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard Copyright 2022

Emma the Baroness and I both gazed over it quickly enough to see a dark thick black line labeled I-17 meandering from the upper left boarder (with an arrow to Flagstaff) down to the near middle page terminating under the corner of the legend square (with an arrow to Phoenix).

Near the mid range meandering above the legend “Points of Interest”  we saw a thinner, but dark line all squiggly yet paved road (89A) with an arrow pointing west towards Prescott.

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard Copyright 2022

Since this wasn’t inside South Coast Plaza and we weren’t standing next to the directory map, it took a few moments longer to zero in to “You Are Here” in this case Montezuma Castle National Monument.

“ WTF?” I muttered to myself.  I didn’t know what I expected as we strolled down a cement sidewalk through a clump of trees until they parted revealing the side of a cliff wall.

These are the Mesa Verde 5-story cliff dwellings, only not here in Arizona and not called by the right name.

Don’t take my  word for it, try Wikipedia:

When European-Americans first observed the ruins in the 1860s, by then long-abandoned, they named them for the famous Aztec emperor Montezuma in the mistaken belief that he had been connected to their construction. 

Having no connections to the Aztecs, the Montezuma Castle was given that name due to the fact that the public had this image of the Aztecs creating any archaeological site.

In fact, the dwelling was abandoned more than 40 years before Montezuma was born, and was not a “castle” in the traditional sense, but instead functioned more like a “prehistoric high rise apartment complex”.

Still not knowing where we were exactly, I asked our local European-American couple —Jay and Elle —who hosted us and drove us here, if they had been to Mesa Verde National Park which lies south of Durango on 1-160, where they used to live and we visited twice, once before they moved in when we explored the Balcony House and the Cliff Palace?

Elle flicked a fly that buzzed around her face and said she and Jay had talked about it, but didn’t.

Still not remembering that Mesa Verde National Park is in Colorado, not Arizona, I noted the Montezuma Castle were constructed on the face of the cliff here in the Verde Valley created by the Verde River.  

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard Copyright 2022

“Mesa Verde” and “Verde Valley”  and “Verde River” have to be connected, right?  I mean look up at the five stories main structure with about 20 rooms built over the course of three centuries.

Oops, I now recall it was the Anasazi people — ancestral Pueblo-ans — that lived for roughly 700 years in Mesa Verde, having migrated from the Four Corners region.

Here in Camp Verde, Arizona, built by the Sinagua people:

A pre-Columbian culture closely related to the Hohokam and other indigenous peoples of the southwestern United States, between approximately AD 1100 and 1425.

Like it was way back then, the Verde River is one of Arizona’s last free-flowing river systems. But, now like the I-17, the water flows to over 2 million people in the greater Phoenix area. 

Mesa Verde, now that was like the Trump Towers compared to Montezuma’s Castle.  

The first time we visited Durango, Colorado we left the Grand Canyon and came to a fork in the road.

Image Credit: Google Maps

East takes us past Mesa Verde National Park, on 160 towards Durango.

Bummer. 

We’re twenty minutes away from the first set of Mesa Verde ruins and the ranger told us they close in an hour. We lost an hour during the time change — something we hadn’t counted on. And, that put us into the park entrance later than we wanted. 

Image Credit: Mesa Verde National Park

That means that the Balcony House and the Cliff Palace tours would be closed. 

Where did we mess up? We plotted our route taking us near Mexican Hat to the 666 and towards Cortez,

I didn’t even consider a time change for Mesa Verde and Durango. 

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard Copyright 2022

This has been one trip with a lot of driving. All I had thought about is next stop the Mesa Verde and then 45 minute drive to Durango, our outpost for three nights and two days before pressing on to Denver. 

But this time, here now at Montezuma’s Castle in Arizona Jay is doing all the driving.

Turning Montezuma’s Castles brochure over sitting in Jay’s passenger seat I noticed Sedona in the upper right hand corner.  First we’d spend a day in Jerome, and then bid goodbye to our Prescott friends and end our vacation in Red Rock country.

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

Table of Contents

“5”  Steve Zahn, 51: “New communities and circles intrigue you. You can’t tell from the storefront what this is all about; you have to go in and feel the vibes. You’ll know within the first dozen interactions.” Scorpio

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 E39 — Closing in on Uncle Billy’s Lynx Creek Mining Claim ; S4 E38 — Billy and Buckey Blow My Brain in Whiskey Row’s Palace; S4 E37 — Racing a Little Wobbly on Whiskey Row

Related 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; 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

Evidence

“5”  Steve Zahn, 51: “New communities and circles intrigue you. You can’t tell from the storefront what this is all about; you have to go in and feel the vibes. You’ll know within the first dozen interactions.” Scorpio

Let’s see now.  We’ve visited Durango, Colorado twice.  The last time when Jay and Elle lived there.  Of course we spent almost two weeks with Jay and Elle on our anniversary vacation in Italy, when they had moved back from Colorado to Mission Viejo, but struggled to keep the documents flowing for closing escrow in time for their current home, here in Prescott.  

So yes, new communities do intrigue me, especially the history. I love to imagine what things were like in the past.  And of course, I wrote the series, The Knowledge Path: Live, Love, Work, Play, Invest and Leave a Legacy which I’m now describing as Volume One all about the “where” — and two of the books drill down into the “how” of finding the best quality of life communities for you in California and in Colorado.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Today’s Holiday Birthday: 

You’ve faced a lot of challenges that conditioned your grit. Now you’ll put that knowledge to the test on a wondrous challenge. You will create yourself. Through actions, wishes, exercises, work and reflection you’ll become someone navigating a life you once only dreamed about. Your support system and your family tree will expand.

“4”  Steve Kerr, 54: “As the sign of balance and fairness, you are keenly aware of how the quest for justice often leads to injustice. And yet, you still try to make things right, a mission that will absorb some of your hours today.” Libra

Well, if you scroll down near the bottom, you’ll see how I’m stuck on “accountability” and the shrinking “justice role” so prevalent today.  What my dear friend Jay calls conservatism and the Baroness and I call selfish, shady, corrupt and definitely not good business as one of her sorority sisters described the former president.

“3”  Steve Aoki, 41; Steven Spielberg, 74: “You’re exciting because you entertain risky ideas, not because you always do them — that would make you foolhardy! What you’re cooking up in that playful mind of yours is making you very attractive to someone.” Sagittarius

I’m chalking this up to wish fulfillment.  If you’re like Jay you don’t favor anything that threatens a status quo — taking something away.  Or entertaining ideas like AI or quantum physics or any of the trends and forces influencing the direction and opportunities available to those of us who pull our heads out of the sand.  There, I said it.

“4” Steve Nash, 45: “This role you took on no longer feels like a good fit. Now what? Well, this script you’re going by is not the Ten Commandments. It wasn’t written on stone tablets. You can change it without a chisel.” Aquarius

What we’re talking about here is what I cover in “Volume Two Manuscript”.  How in your work life, if you now realized the misfit and are pursuing a better fit, I’ve got you covered. Of, course this also applies to how a one-year natural experiment turned into the 4th season and dragged me into the middle of it kicking and screaming.  Wink.

“4”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “It will be challenging to lead others to your purposes today. The key is to be consistent and repetitive. People will learn and dance to your rhythm, but first you have to start banging that drum.”Pisces

Bang. Bang. Bang.

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

 

Posted on

S3 E50 — Swinging with Systematic-Professionals, Sorta

Sig went missing.  As did Mary.  The rumor that floated in gossip streams at the state hospital was he suffered a heart attack and Mary caught a flight back to upstate New York.

“5”  Steve Aoki, 41: “You’ll reach a turning point in your work. Pause here a while to really consider the options. Once you pick a direction, its reversal, though not impossible, will be awkward and time-consuming.” Sagittarius

Hi and welcome to Saturday’s Episode 50 in Season 3 of  “My Paradoxically Normal Year” on this 22nd 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 E49 — Stealing Your Sign Without Doing the Time; S3 E48 — Is That an Ace Up Your Sleeve or Are You Just Glad to See Me?; S3 E47 — Why’s and How’s of the Genius Art of Procrastination

Related from Season Two, The Pandemic Year

S2 E50 — 5 Fundamental Uncertainties; S2 E49 — Navigating Waves of Disruption When You’ve Lost Your Bearings; S2 E48 — Tracking Millennials from One Resort to Another; S2 E47 — 27 Adventure Regions for Your Remote-Working Bucket List

Related from Season One, The Normal Year

S1 E50 – The Bias Brothers or Just Plain Losers?; S1 E49 — Magnetize the Version You Imagine; S1 E48 — Holiday TauBit Trumps Funk; S1 E47 — Day 47 of My 1-Year Experiment

I initially introduced this story as: 

17. Graduate Assistant Internship — 

Working for the State of California half time and professional services startup in the afternoons, as my first job in the field of psychology, and first mentioned in the beginning of “Volume Two Manuscript — WorkFit,” a work-in-progress.

Sig went missing.  As did Mary.  The rumor that floated in gossip streams at the state hospital was he suffered a heart attack and Mary caught a flight back to upstate New York.   

I wasn’t buying it.  

My sweet deal blew up.  

I’d been living the dream nestled in a small bungalow on Fernleaf in Corona del Mar on the western side of Pacific Coast Highway.  I hiked on a walkway over Bayside Drive, what for what may be 3 or 4 blocks to the bluffs overlooking the mouth to Newport Harbor and the small beach at Pirates Cove.  

If I walked the same distance, but east of my rental, I spooked ground squirrels and those owls who burrow in the ground through and open field to the office in Newport Center.  

Two things saved me.  

    • I could still hang on to my internship at the state hospital at the beginning of my psychology career and I met the love of my life, Emma the Baroness. At the hospital he supervised be in one program full of developmentally delayed clients and Les in another.   
    • As a business model was a doctor-knows-all in a pecking order of nurses and administrative staff. I was shocked with his out of the blue comment and his prescience when he told me I wouldn’t stay married long. I chalked up to his wisdom as a clinician, until looking back I wondered if he had recruited me for something else entirely.

In their private life, Sig and Mary swung if that is how you say swingers in the past tense.  

That fact only slowly emerged as celebrity-like friends of theirs visited our Institute office near the athletic club and the shopping destination overlooking Corona del Mar hidden in swaying palm trees and Balboa Island and Peninsula off in the distance, but still at the edge of the Pacific Ocean.  

Sig needed money to keep the Institute’s doors open.  

He put the touch on several of their swinging friends from Beverly Hills and others who streamed through our suite of offices to sample our bio-feedback services.  

The background story I eventually heard was Sig fled New York, left his wife, son and a psychology practice with Mary, his girlfriend,  and settled a mile or two just outside the border of Huntington Beach. 

Sig envisioned a business model similar to a franchise of bio-feedback centers in Southern California.  

We couldn’t find clients, let alone celebrity investors or potential franchisers.  But, the challenge opened my eyes to corporate medical and wellness centers in large organizations and eventually to several career changes.

So what happened to Sig?  

Did he fake his death to throw off his creditors?  I never found out and it wasn’t until later that I understood organizations and organization types that I see we were Systematic-Professionals.

We Systematic-Professionals come in four flavors — talent brands of experts who love their profession and their local location. In general we are known for methods and metrics. 

    • We prefer to distance themselves to remain objective and follow a well-articulated and tested methodology.
    • We find occupational homes in university research centers, professional practices, academic institutions and in standards-setting associations. 
    • Our identity is tied to their profession.

Systematic-Professionals by the very nature of their work make the best candidates for developing a Mobile KnowCo that allows them to live and work anywhere in the world. 

Which made it easy for Sig to leave his practice in New York, affiliate with a state hospital in Orange County, and launch BMI.

But, many stay in one place –- in or around university towns or urban and suburban centers where they find clients for their services.

Which led to “Knowledge Banking” many years later, when I looked around and asked, “Should I stay or should I go?”

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Ha!  Too bad this wasn’t Sig’s birthday, right.  Maybe we could travel back in time and find his investors to fund BMI.  And, this ain’t my birthday, but the lessons I learned and took note of paid dividends for me over my career trajectories.

Today’s Holiday Birthday:

A rebellious spirit pervades. The rules you break will liberate you. You’ll attract investors. The money helps you get a project off the ground, but there’s even more value in the time and lessons you gain. To repeat this success will bring you exponentially more, so take careful notes, pay attention and be methodical.

“5”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “Success in one area of life won’t automatically bring success in other areas, but certain basic principles will apply universally. The work is best chunked down into small steps and mastered in order.” Aries

Yup, Steve chunking is good.  I used to call it knowledge chunking, breaking down lessons learned into knowledge nuggets so you could apply them in a variety of settings.

“4”  Steve Smith, 30, Stevie Nicks, 72: “There’s a time to keep score, and a time to indulge and share without worrying the least bit about who gave what. Scorekeeping turns giving and receiving into a job or a game instead of a spiritual act or a pure pleasure.” Gemini

Thanks Smithy and Stevie.  This reminds me of research I stumbled upon in my behavior modification days.  If you rewarded kids who truly enjoyed math with stars and tokens they grew to hate math.  I’m not sure about the spiritual corollary, but I’ll take it.

“5”  Steve Aoki, 41: “You’ll reach a turning point in your work. Pause here a while to really consider the options. Once you pick a direction, its reversal, though not impossible, will be awkward and time-consuming.” Sagittarius

Wow, Steve.  Not only did my physical therapist know who you were and shared your sign, but your Holiday Tau proves meaningful to me today.  I’m writing up my report about Phase 1, including the expansion of the 1-year natural experimental format into our pandemic year somewhat reluctantly, while I figure out Phase 2 in which I solicit TauBits from real Steves.  I’m thinking through my strategy attempting to gauge how much time and effort it will require, versus my return-on-investment.

“4”  Steve Harvey, 62: “While you’d rather go into a game with a strategy, those require time you won’t have today. So, the best strategy will be to stay on high alert for clues and trust your instincts.”  Capricorn

Since when Steve are you in collusion with Aoki?  Here’s my takeaway when I combine both of your Holiday Taus — keep an evolving scenario in the background, but start with small steps so I can iterate without reinventing the wheel and essentially starting over.

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll 

    • @KnowLabs suite of 36 digital magazines jumps from 8203 to 8218 organically grown followers.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Long-Form

    • “Why?: What Makes Us Curious,” by Mario Livio. “… socially shared myths, rituals, and symbolism were most likely the first sophisticated responses to nagging why and how questions and were therefore the fruits of curiosity. The chain reaction that resulted from the positive feedback between curiosity and language turned Homo sapiens into a powerful intellect, with self-awareness and an inner life.”

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

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S4 E38 — Billy and Buckey Blow My Brain in Whiskey Row’s Palace

He was a sheriff, newspaper editor, miner, politician,Georgist, gambler and lawyer, mainly in Arizona. His nickname came from his tendency to “buck the tiger” (play contrary to the odds) at faro or other card games. He later became a captain in Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, and died in battle.

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

Hi and welcome to Thursday’s 38th Episode in Season 4 of  “Our Disruptively Resilient Year” on this 12th day of May in the spring of 2022.

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll

    • @KnowLabs suite of 36 digital magazines, according to my analytics, grew from 12880 this week to 12943 organically grown followers.
    • Orange County Beach Towns 220 viewers stopped by the week before.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Context

As we strolled around, waiting for the cycling race to slow down so we could safely cross Whiskey Row without altering the race results, I wondered who that statue represented — somebody like Wyatt Earp? 

Image Credit: https://www.visitarizona.com/

It would makes sense, because Prescott tourism definitely played up the Old West Themes.

“No,” Jay said as we entered the dark wood old west bordello and saloon-themed restaurant “he’s a Rough Rider named Buckey somebody who was a mayor.“ 

Turns out a little later on Wikipedia I discovered  Bucky O’Neill was a man of his time like Wyatt Earp — a Permanently Temporary.

He was a sheriff, newspaper editor, miner, politician, Geologist, gambler and lawyer, mainly in Arizona. His nickname came from his tendency to “buck the tiger” (play contrary to the odds) at faro or other card games. He later became a captain in Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, and died in battle.

But, a Georgist, WTF? Not a typo? I never heard of that and it can’t be a version of his name like Esquire, right? 

Single tax movement, is an economic ideology holding that, although people should own the value they produce themselves, the economic rent derived from land—including from all natural resources, the commons, and urban locations—should belong equally to all members of society.

He believed in what today’s Representative to Congress from his district, Paul Gosar, would openly consider as socialism.

But, I couldn’t contain myself once my eyes grew accustomed to the dark interior having passed the famous western bar — brown wood walls with dark wood trim — and pictures and paintings and drawing on every wall. I browsed one wall after another.

After we ordered some appetizers to share and I took pull on a long neck bottle of Corona I excused myself to visit more history on both sides of the hallway to the lavatory.  Once in the head standing at the urinal I couldn’t help but laugh.  

Image Credit: WikiCommons

Not everyone remembers William Boyd aka Hopalong Cassidy a stable of cowboy westerns filmed around WWII and later shown on television in the ‘50s, but there he was with his white hair in black hat and black shirt and pants looking down at me in what seemed like a 4-foot poster astride his trademark white horse.

“Anybody remember the name of Hopalong Cassidy’s horse,” I teased Jay, Elle and Emma.  Jay had it on the tip of his tongue.  I then said, “Champion and I’m pretty sure I peed on his feet.”  They laughed and Jay announced he wanted to see for himself. 

Anyone driving towards Mammoth Mountain for a ski holiday slows down to 35 mph while passing through three small towns before accelerating back to 70 on Hwy 395.  

Is it Independence?  Or Lone Pine? I should look it up, right?

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard Copyright 2022

Each time we pass we tell ourselves we should stop one time and explore the museum dedicated to all those western movies filmed in the Alabama Hills, including those staring William Boyd.

As Betsy, our dyed blonde server sauntered over in her corseted costume with a knife in a sheath fastened over the small of her back, you know like you’d expect for sex workers here at the faux brothel upstairs, I noticed a little history on the menu.

The Palace is the oldest frontier saloon in Arizona, and the most well-known and historic restaurant and bar in the state.  Past patrons include Wyatt Earp, Virgil Earp, Doc Holliday and Big Nose Kate. Virgil was Prescott’s Town Constable.  Originally built in 1877, The Palace was destroyed in the Whiskey Row fire in 1900.  Patrons moved the bar and lower back bar across the street and drank and watched Whiskey Row burn to the ground.  It was rebuilt in 1901.  Today, The Palace maintains its history, grandeur and old west atmosphere, is a favorite for locals, and attracts visitors from all over the world.

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard Copyright 2022

Sitting at our round wood table I glanced at the wall almost directly behind Jay’s shoulder.  A glass display of mining tools used back in the day caught my eye. 

But immediately to the left of the display I saw a small brown framed black and white picture with a brass black below the photo, 

 

“Yavapai County, Burro Man Circa 1890s.”

Two seemingly unrelated factoids tumbled in my mind and came together like a conspiracy theory.  

Could it be?

In the photo a gold seeker in a broad-brimmed hat kneels next to a small makeshift wooden sifting structure.  To his right you can see two pails and a home made scooper — a short wooden handle attached somehow to a metal can.

I vaguely recall pieces of a family story about someone my father’s aunts wrote about in a newsletter which told the story of our extended family ancestors.

Image Credit: WikiCommons

And something I discovered about O’Neill.

O’Neill arrived in Prescott in the spring of 1882. There he rapidly progressed in his journalistic career. Starting as a court reporter, he soon founded his own newspaper, Hoof and Horn, a paper for the livestock industry. He became the editor of the Arizona Miner weekly newspaper in 1884 to February 1885.

That’s it.  Uncle Billy ended up in two Prescott articles and with a little research I discovered one story appeared in the Arizona Miner.  Is it possible Bucky interviewed Billy?

Roughly five years apart Uncle Billy made both the Arizona Miner and the Prescott Enterprise.  Seems as though my great, great uncle’s letter got published in the Prescott Enterprise in 1871.

In the summer of 2005 here’s what I wrote about him in, Uncle Billy, the Earl of Dunraven, Pearl Street & Emaciated Mountain Goats” 

He wrote it to the Honorable S.C. Miller telling him he is living in Castle Rock in Douglas County, Colorado. Uncle Billy wandered from Osage County, Missouri sometime after the 1850 census listed him – as it had Confederate War casualty Nathan – my great, great grandfather.

That got me thinking about Samuel Clemons who began his writing career by sending letters to newspapers signing them “Mark Twain”.  Like Mark Twain, he was drawn to the West to find his fortune working mining claims. 

Twain roamed California and Nevada, while Billy mined his 400 feet lode on Lynx Creek in what is today a quaint vacation spot near Prescott, Arizona – north of Phoenix and south of Flagstaff.

Did he strike it rich? 

Like almost everybody else, he made and lost a fortune in the Gilpin County gold leads. 

In an 1871 report on mining, he’s described as “… a fine specimen of a Western Pioneer, one of the men who have always kept in advance of railroads, and who doesn’t feel well unless separated from civilization by hundreds of miles of Indian country.”

Indian country before trains, huh?

Continuing in the 1871 Arizona Miner interview he describes an incident while going from Prescott to Walker’s Camp, at the head of Lynx Creek. 

Near Yellow Jacket Gulch, he sees a huge fire and rising smoke. He says parties recently from Skull and Kirkland valleys “report Indians aplenty down that way. They are around, sure, and there is no telling when or where they will strike the first blow.”

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard Copyright 2022

So, I’m not saying that photo on the wall next to the glass display is Uncle Billy, but I do know we passed through Skull and Kirkland valleys on the way to Jay and Elle’s Prescott home.

And, the timing is off by a decade or more for Bucky O’Neill to have interviewed Billy, like it sometimes is when you do any ancestry research.  

In letters he wrote back home to Missouri he describes the struggle between guarding against Indian attacks, robbers and the long distance he has to travel for supplies. 

Before Bucky sauntered into Prescott, I’m fairly certain Billy had pulled up stakes already.

Forced to move on due to bad luck, he tries his hand mining in the Black Hills and tries settling for a short time in Castle Rock, before finally returning to his family farm in Missouri.

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

Table of Contents

“5”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “Everyone is not on the same page. Some around you are not even in the same book. For this story to go right you must establish common ground and build from there.” Taurus

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 E37 — Racing a Little Wobbly on Whiskey Row; S4 E36 — Big Rigs, Skull Valley and Yarnell Hotshots ; S4 E35 — Prescott Pitstop Knocks Me Off Balance

Related from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year

S3 E38 — Sliding on a Super Slippery Slope to 2nd or 3rd Cousins; S3 E37 — Tell Me More Lies I Can Believe In; S3 E36 — Placebo, Meaningful Coincidence or Just Feeling Lucky; S3 E35 — This Ain’t No Zemblanity

Related from Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E38 — What Should You Do If You Stumble Across Loaded Information?; S2 E37 — How Deep is the Chasm? What Do We Do?; S2 E36 — Turning Lemons into Margaritas; S2 E35 — Was this Pandemic Year a 1-Off or New Way of Life?

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E38 — Day 38 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E37 — Day 37 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E36 — Day 36 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E35 — Day 35 of My 1-Year Experiment;

Evidence

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Today’s Holiday Birthday: 

Your victories will be satisfying and numerous. Through the next 10 weeks you work unwaveringly, with unshakeable focus and resilient intelligence. A complicated relationship irons out. As a result of your efforts to broaden your intellectual horizons, your earning potential will increase.

Ten weeks you say?  That’s ending sometime after the middle or the end of July, but I shouldn’t get my hopes up because this is probably your birthday and not mine.

“5”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “Everyone is not on the same page. Some around you are not even in the same book. For this story to go right you must establish common ground and build from there.” Taurus

Well, so far so good.  Elle and Jay have been long-time friends even having traveled to Italy for our anniversary vacation.  But, in terms of politics I don’t hold out any hope that we’d be in the same chapter.  Common ground, yeah that’s the ticket.  Fingers crossed. 

“3”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61; Stephen King, 72: “You may decide to do things differently from how your predecessors did because new tools are available. Experimentation takes time and the risk doesn’t always pay off, but you’d be remiss not to try. The future is for the brave!” Virgo

So my predecessors wrote long-hand letters, but my mother typed all of hers and posted them by mail.  She included clipped articles from her newspapers or magazine subscriptions.  Me?  I didn’t want all the clutter from paper and files, so I always looked for digital alternatives.  But, even now I feel I can’t keep up.

“4”  Steve Kerr, 54: “As for the one who doesn’t understand what you’re doing… it could be a perceptual limitation of theirs, but it could also be that you’ve yet to effectively impart the vision. How can you explain it differently?” Libra

So true, I’m in the weeds on most of my passion projects.  And, because I’m one of those endangered introverts, at least by percentage of similar temperaments, I get how most (95 to 97%) won’t understand what I’m doing until I can simplify and simplify some more.  Am I getting closer?

“5”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “Here’s an argument for keeping it simple: If the issue at hand grows more complex, and the stakes are raised too, the analysis of choices will consume more energy, which may lead to decision fatigue and delays.” Pisces

WTF have you been eavesdropping?  I couldn’t put it any better than that.  Nailed it!

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

Posted on

S4 E37 — Racing a Little Wobbly on Whiskey Row

Over the loud speaker we heard, “And, here comes #32 Alan Lars.” The cyclists ended their race at the intersection to our right.  Jay told us across the street were Prescott’s historic buildings, including The Palace, Arizona’s oldest restaurant and bar.

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

Hi and welcome to Sunday’s 37th Episode in Season 4 of  “Our Disruptively Resilient Year” on this 8th day of May in the spring of 2022.

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll

    • @KnowLabs suite of 36 digital magazines, according to my analytics, grew from 12880 this week to 12943 organically grown followers.
    • Orange County Beach Towns 220 viewers stopped by the week before.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Context

By the time Jay and I returned from inspecting their property in a cookie-cutter suburb that might have been a stereotypical community in California, except instead of anything green for this spring time of year, all you could see was Palm Springs-like decor but without the palm trees.  

Like at Jay and Elle’s house smaller and larger rocks filled in their landscape.  At least in their front dry-rock gulch instead of a lawn, trees shaded their entryway.  Not so much at their house they had intended to flip or rent to other California investors.

There, the sun reflected off the street, the dry rock landscape and brownish block walls adding to the morning temperature without a breeze.

Image Credit: https://www.visitarizona.com/

As Jay navigated through The Dells (Granite Dells), on each side of the road made up of large boulder granite outcroppings that have eroded into a spectacular appearance of bumpy rock features, we talked a bit about his former career in firefighting, but more specifically about the Yarnell Hill Fire years before he moved to Prescott.

The wildfire near Yarnell, Arizona ignited by dry lightning on June 28, 2013. By June 30, it overran and killed 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots. Just one of the hotshots on the crew survived—he was posted as a lookout on the fire and was not with the others when the fire overtook them. The Yarnell Hill Fire was one of the deadliest U.S. wildfires.

Jay vaguely remembered how the widows survivor benefits weren’t paid, getting tangled up in some sort of finger-pointing and counter lawsuits.  I thought the hotshots were independent contractors so they weren’t entitled to benefits.

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard copyright 2022

We pull into his driveway.  Apparently the two wives had run out of stories to share about us, so they’re ready jump into Jay’s dark blue SUV for a drive into historic downtown Prescott.

As a footnote, Elle points out Jays rearview air conditioner doesn’t work properly and  suggests we switch to her SUV for our next sight seeing adventure.

Jay and Elle point out a few restaurants and shops on the way down the hill towards the main town.  They discuss parking tactics.  Jay swings left and crosses a few intersections until he spies public parking lots near the destination he has in mind.

Image Credit: https://www.visitarizona.com/

The old courthouse.  The one where they have public rest rooms.

Negotiating the space, he tells us he’ll let us out on the passenger side, so he can squeeze in as close as he can to the cement wall.  Elle winces a little as he moves back and forth inching closer and closer to the wall.  She’s now glad he’s not driving her car.

From a distance, the town seems to be laid out like other western towns.  In fact, I’m reminded of a combination of Durango and Telluride in Colorado. Everything old time western radiates out from core frontier square.

My new, left knee replacement holds up well as we walk downhill two blocks and hear cheering, an announcer and gazed over to our left and notice where it looks like a bandstand had been set up and picnickers sat on blankets in front of it.

Wait, I remember the headline of an article that made its way into my Apple News feed before we hit the road in California.  

This must be that race known as the Cocodona 250.  More specifically, Here’s Who To Watch For At The Cocodona 250 – And How.  

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard copyright 2022

Over the loud speaker we heard, “And, here comes #32 Alan Lars.” And over there too must be where you can watch, right?

Jay picked up the pace heading towards a statue.  I joined him as instead of climbing the stairs to the courthouse straight ahead, he veered off to our right and trotted around the side to the back entrance and bolted for the door which said, “Men”.  

I joined him.

Having done our business, we mingled in among a crowd of cyclists and made our was to where the race was under way.

Between occasional cyclists the announcer chattered about how long he’d been calling the race, how you can listen to him and where you could catch his webcast I think.  Honestly it was hard to tell above the general din of supporters, spectators and tourists like us.

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard copyright 2022

I hung back a little scanning the row of cycling gear marketing tents and began to read a vertical banner hung on a light pole, like at a bus stop listing all the stops and transfers you should know before boarding.

I could only make out that this race, it was a race at all, included tiers of participants based upon I knew not what.  But, it burst my assumption about it being the Cocodona 250.

“What?”  I only faintly recognized Jay’s voice.

Jay had to yell out what he told Emma the Baroness and Elle for me.  “This is Whiskey Row.”

The cyclists ended their race at the intersection to our right.  Jay told us across the street were Prescott’s historic buildings, including The Palace, Arizona’s oldest restaurant and bar.  

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

Table of Contents

“5”  Steve Zahn, 51: “Maybe you feel your pattern is very predictable, but people around you still don’t seem to know what you’ll do next. There are advantages to keeping mystery alive as long as possible.” Scorpio

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 E36 — Big Rigs, Skull Valley and Yarnell Hotshots; S4 E35 — Prescott Pitstop Knocks Me Off Balance; S4 E34 — Preconceived Notions Hit the Road for Prescott

Related from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year

S3 E37 — Tell Me More Lies I Can Believe In; S3 E36 — Placebo, Meaningful Coincidence or Just Feeling Lucky; S3 E35 — This Ain’t No Zemblanity; S3 E34 — Why You’re Susceptible to Subliminal Suggestions Like …

Related from Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E37 — How Deep is the Chasm? What Do We Do?; S2 E36 — Turning Lemons into Margaritas; S2 E35 — Was this Pandemic Year a 1-Off or New Way of Life?; S2 E34 — Why Is This Kicking Off the 4th Industrial Revolution? 

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E37 — Day 37 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E36 — Day 36 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E35 — Day 35 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E34 — Day 34 of My 1-Year Experiment;

Evidence

Today’s Holiday Theme: 

Mother’s Day, a celebration of a commonality that goes beyond the human species. This tribute to the person who is, at best, a first friend in life, and at least the double-X chromosome contributing to our physical existence … children, playfulness and theatrics.

“5”  Steve Zahn, 51: “Maybe you feel your pattern is very predictable, but people around you still don’t seem to know what you’ll do next. There are advantages to keeping mystery alive as long as possible.” Scorpio

Haha I remember Jay asking if I was an influencer yet.  He had no idea what I described as phase two of my natural experiment which will lead to “The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Today’s Holiday Birthday: 

Your magic formula for success starts with curiosity — a most alluring quality that will keep you in the best and brightest company this year. Ask questions, even if you think you know the answers. Thinking you know the answers is disadvantageous, but the rewards you find as you continue to clarify the world will make you positively rich.

Curiosity killed the cat. I’m glad I’m not a cat.  I’m sad. I so wanted to claim this birthday, but it’s not for me.  I hope it is yours.

“4” Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “You’re friendly and inclusive, and yet still careful about who gets into your inner circle. It’s not that you’re afraid, more like practical. It’s cleaner and smarter to keep some things on a need-to-know basis.” Taurus

We’re friends with Jay and Elle.  But, not to the extreme fear of an impending argument about politics, I know something may erupt to harsh our vacation mellow along divisive party lines.   

“3”  Steve Harvey, 62; Stephan Patis, 53;  Stephen Hawking (1943 – 2018): “‘Talk is cheap,’ they say… But if that were true, public speakers and spokespeople wouldn’t be paid nearly so well. Words paint mental pictures that inspire action. Yours are definitely worth something today.” Capricorn

That’s so flattering.  I’m not sure if I hit the 14,000 hours necessary to claim the ability to paint mental images to inspire you, but I’d lie if I weren’t aspiring towards the goal.

“4”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “The secret to your success is that you don’t show up once or twice, rather you do so consistently over long periods of time. Good things are coming to you, hard-earned and well-deserved.” Pisces

I prided myself as a Executive MBA career advisor to be there for the students over the two years they attended, and to stay in touch with them after graduation to see how or if they actually applied what they learned, especially if I had matched them to a mentor.

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

Posted on

S4 E36 — Big Rigs, Skull Valley and Yarnell Hotshots

“Why are there so many trucks on the road?” Emma the Baroness asked rhetorically. And, then I glanced in my rearview mirror and spotted a white hatchback riding the right shoulder, “Like he was frustrated by the slow pace and wanted to cheat.”

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Table of Contents

Hi and welcome to Saturday’s 36th Episode in Season 4 of  “Our Disruptively Resilient Year” on this 7th day of May in the spring of 2022.

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll

    • @KnowLabs suite of 36 digital magazines, according to my analytics, grew from 12817 this week to 12880 organically grown followers.
    • Orange County Beach Towns 220 viewers stopped by the week before.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Context

I felt much better after sleeping in on Saturday morning.  Jay made coffee and waited for us to emerge from their guest room. Elle exercised and stretched upstairs. 

While Jay and Elle claimed nobody was in a hurry to do something I could tell Jay itched to take us on a tour.

But, our conversations continued about how when we transitioned to the 10 freeway our CarPlay Apple Maps cautioned us that all lanes were block up ahead.  Emma the Baroness and I exchanged anxious glances not knowing what to do while Siri assured us we were still on the fastest route.

A few hours later we saw no sign of blocked lanes.  Sure the traffic flow slowed, but the lane blockage cleared as far as we could tell.

A couple of times Siri would announce a traffic slowdown and gave us an option to exit.  We declined.  “We followed your advice not to take alternative routes, Jay.”

Emma the Baroness and I took turns telling the story about the portion an hour or two west of Blythe and Quartzite while in the middle of nowhere and climbing two lanes our progress again slowed by back-to-back big rigs ever so slowly passing each other.

“Why are there so many trucks on the road?” Emma the Baroness asked rhetorically.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

And, then I glanced in my rearview mirror and spotted a white hatchback riding the right shoulder, “Like he was frustrated by the slow pace and wanted to cheat.”

“One CHP with siren and lights flashing from the opposite direction, drives down the median embankment to turn and speed in our direction,” I add.

They wanted to know if we ever found out what was going on.  Emma the Baroness told them we were dead stopped in traffic, a tanker had pulled over into the shoulder, but when all four CHP cars finally began waving everybody through we saw the white car catty-cornered with its hatchback open.

The last time we slowed behind a huge bulldozer as we headed downhill after we passed through Skull Valley and Kirkland following Jay’s texted directions as we approached Prescott.

Skull Valley, Arizona Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

   

Jay added, “You noticed the basecamp for firefighters on your way in, right?” He told us Elle had raised money to donate food for them, as they’re on high alert for fires in this part of the West — Prescott National Forest.

Image Credit: Apple Maps

“Yeah,” I said. And, we crested on a hill where a memorial honors those hotshot firefighters who lost their lives a few years ago when surrounded by flames and they couldn’t make their way out.  

Yarnell Hill Fire Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Emma the Baroness wanted to know why the haze seemed more than usual for the part of I-10 which cut through the Coachella Valley, even when we passed exits for Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage and La Quinta.

“Where are the fires?” she asked.  Here in California, in Arizona where we’re headed or is smoke blowing west from New Mexico we both wanted to know.

And with that, he said he had to check on their property which was closing escrow and invited me along while our wives talked about us and got ready for adventure.

His realtor who represented him and the buyer had tempted him to sell it when she told him how much he could get for it and, oh by the way, she had a buyer for it.  

The only sticking point that Jay felt the builder should fix and the new buyer should be responsible for was a flaw in the guest bathroom bathtub.

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

Table of Contents

“5”  Steve Smith, 30, Stevie Nicks, 72: “You’ll sort the puzzle, decipher the meaning of the code, or discover the intention. This ability to sense what’s really going on will serve you well and help a friend too.” Gemini

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 E35 — Prescott Pitstop Knocks Me Off Balance; S4 E34 — Preconceived Notions Hit the Road for Prescott; S4 E33 — When Was The Last Time Honesty and Character Counted?

Related from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year

S3 E36 — Placebo, Meaningful Coincidence or Just Feeling Lucky; S3 E35 — This Ain’t No Zemblanity; S3 E34 — Why You’re Susceptible to Subliminal Suggestions Like …; S3 E33 — Do Meaningful Coincidences Really Exist?

Related from Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E36 — Turning Lemons into Margaritas; S2 E35 — Was this Pandemic Year a 1-Off or New Way of Life?; S2 E34 — Why Is This Kicking Off the 4th Industrial Revolution?; S2 E33 — What Happens When Your Business Collapses?

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E36 — Day 36 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E35 — Day 35 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E34 — Day 34 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E33 — Day 33 of My 1-Year Experiment;

Evidence

Today’s Holiday Birthday: 

Though inspiration has been known to strike you, in the months ahead it occurs with a gentler and more constant touch. You’ll absorb the wisdom of great minds. Acting on the pulse of creativity, you’ll bring into form: events, teams, systems, presentations and more. Key relationships will bring sweetness and surprise to your days.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

“4”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “It’s scary to go from what you know and love to what you don’t know and aren’t sure you’re going to like. But this is also the way to find out who you are, so it’s worth it.” Taurus 

I guess so.  Wait, I know so based on how many career transitions I negotiated in my life so far.  What’s that old marketing and startup saying, “Fake it until you make it?” I’m re-rating your TauBit, because it just dawned on me that I’m following the full cycle aspect of this roadtrip into a different website I administer.  How will that work out?

“5”  Steve Smith, 30, Stevie Nicks, 72: “You’ll sort the puzzle, decipher the meaning of the code, or discover the intention. This ability to sense what’s really going on will serve you well and help a friend too.” Gemini

Is this all about the sheer number of “Patriot” flags flying in Arizona and specifically in Jay and Elle’s neighborhood including at their home?

“4”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61; Stephen King, 72: “To the outsider watching you mingle, it looks like you’re having a good time, but inwardly it feels like work. Rightly so. Building relationships is the essential labor of success.” Virgo

Negotiating these encounters make me seem like and ENTP — the emphasis on extrovert.  But, the shear energy depletion I feel at the end of engagement clearly signals I’m a card-carrying introvert, INTP.

“4”  Steve Nash, 45: “You’ll get carried away with a project and you may forget about various responsibilities and healthful necessities. But your complete involvement is warranted — you’re about to make a breakthrough.” Aquarius

 Did I pick this TauBit because it was true, or because it is just wishful thinking like many others over four seasons?

“5”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “While understanding what everyone stands to gain or lose from a situation may be key to achieving your goals, you mostly study people for the fun of it.” Pisces

Yup, that’s me.  I’m a quick read of intentions and motivations and incentives before leading the way forward.  And, yes it is shear fun!

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

 

Posted on

S4 E35 — Prescott Pitstop Knocks Me Off Balance

I recalled how Jay and Elle took us down the shared dirt and gravel driveway to Shelly Junior’s “compound” where his divorced wife and son lived at one end of the property.  Junior was in the midst of building out a massive wooden deck on the second or third story home — underneath a gigantic Confederate flag waving in the occasional breeze beneath the trees.

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

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Knowledge ATMs 

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Table of Contents

Hi and welcome to Friday’s 35th Episode in Season 4 of  “Our Disruptively Resilient Year” on this 6th day of May in the spring of 2022.

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll

    • @KnowLabs suite of 36 digital magazines, according to my analytics, grew from 12817 this week to 12880 organically grown followers.
    • Orange County Beach Towns 220 viewers stopped by the week before.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Context

“How was your trip?” Jay had been looking for us to pull into his driveway after we texted Siri’s estimated arrival time.  

His house like many of the other neighbors we noticed as we drove uphill to his shared driveway proudly displayed the Stars and Stripes as a signal each housed Patriots.

“Park here” he directed us to a pad in the front near the front door for easy unloading.

He had been expecting us an hour earlier, based on how long he and Elle usually took to make the reverse trip to visit their kids in Ladera Ranch.  “Yeah, well we stopped to eat at Chipotle near the Outlet stores and the Morongo Resort Casino just outside of Palm Desert.”

Image Credit: Google Maps

Later, on Mother’s Day as when we recounted the entire vacation, Delta Girl said she too felt disappointed when she drove out of her way for an advertised bowl that the restaurant no longer offered.

Emma the Baroness and I both ordered substitute bowls and chips and overstuffed ourselves.  Returning to the CR-V the wind blasted us.  Not like the hot oven wind we’d grown accustomed to when enjoying long desert weekends at Shadow Mountain, Palm Springs, Palm Desert, or La Quinta.

In Prescott with Jay and Elle, we sat around in their large dark wood dining room table after being shown to our first floor guest room and laying out our suitcases.

Image Credit: Apple Maps

Dinner was ready. 

Later we retired to the back yard porch for more wine and desert, while former fireman Jay, turned on his natural gas flame momentarily which in turn ignited the wood he piled meticulously on top of the outdoor fireplace grate.

I stuffed myself again overeating, but couldn’t help it. The approaching nighttime darkness found us catching up with stories about our Italy vacation and what it’s like for them living now in Prescott instead of in California.

I wanted to know about how Jay’s longtime fireman friend was.  “How long has he been confined to a wheelchair and when did he suffer his accident?”

Jay thoughtfully paused for a moment and told us his first back problem occurred when they were both new recruits training together.  And, then a dozen back surgeries later he remains in pain.  We briefly stopped by their house when we had visited Durango, Colorado the second time and stayed at Jay and Elle’s home there.

Image Credit: Apple Maps

“Didn’t he and his son own some property together in Durango?”

“Yeah,” Jay ran some calculations in his head.  “Originally 40 acres and Shelby gave his son a couple of acres while selling off most of the other acres.”

I recalled how Jay and Elle took us down the shared dirt and gravel driveway to Shelby junior’s “compound” where his divorced wife and son lived at one end of the property and Junior was in the midst of building out a massive wooden deck on the second or third story home — underneath a gigantic Confederate flag waving in the occasional breeze beneath the trees.

Back then I didn’t realize the significance until driving from Durango to Dillon with stop in Telluride.

If you’re like me your mind wanders as you drive between destinations on long trips. I was day dreaming about our  last vacation trip to this region

We simply ran out of time and skipped Telluride.

This year we skipped a stop in Silverton, because as empty nesters both of us felt the community was just too small and remote for us. We passed ranches and old mines dotted with buildings in various states of disrepair.

And then a strange incident popped into my head.

One that just seemed odd at the time and remained just that until much later after Donald Trump’s 2016 election victory. Only then did it connect two things political.

Our Durango friends reintroduced us to their life long friends. And, took us to visit their friends divorced son. Junior greeted us at his home which was undergoing a major remodel.

Two things.

We hadn’t seen such gigantic log beams supporting his new roof. And, we hadn’t seen someone proudly displaying a huge Confederate flag on the top of the roof. This in contrast to the flowing American flag at the entrance of our friends best friends.

We just hadn’t encountered that before.

On our short vacation it just seemed odd. We didn’t attach any importance to it We were totally clueless. Naively we asked our friends about it.

They glossed it over with a back story that Gen-X Junior had always been rebellious growing up and in school. Now, I wonder if they guessed we knew the significance of it.

But at the time we didn’t.

It just seemed odd flowing so magnificently there, clearly thousands and thousands of miles from the deep South.

We might have figured it out.

Especially when Junior’s mother told him to take it down, in that scolding tone all young boys feel in their bones. But he didn’t, although now it reminds me of the headline about the previous election.

“Swastika On Campaign Sign Sparks Outrage”

On Tuesday, Jeff Widen, a volunteer with the La Plata County Democrats, looks at a Barack Obama campaign sign he put up the previous day near U.S. Highway 160 and County Road 222 east of Durango.

Sure, I can fess up to drinking too much, but not enough to where I lost my balance more than usual or fell victim to my eyes crossing.  But I threw up twice in the night — elevation sickness?

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

Table of Contents

“5”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “The mind gets stronger in the same way muscles do — through lifting. In today’s case the work includes words and concepts, feelings, puzzles and a few logistical problems too.” Aries

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 E34 — Preconceived Notions Hit the Road for Prescott; S4 E33 — When Was The Last Time Honesty and Character Counted?; S4 E32 — A Rudy By Any Other Name Still Smells …  

Related from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year

S3 E35 — This Ain’t No Zemblanity; S3 E34 — Why You’re Susceptible to Subliminal Suggestions Like …; S3 E33 — Do Meaningful Coincidences Really Exist?; S3 E32 — But, Why Should You Care?  

Related from Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E35 — Was this Pandemic Year a 1-Off or New Way of Life?; S2 E34 — Why Is This Kicking Off the 4th Industrial Revolution?; S2 E33 — What Happens When Your Business Collapses?; S2 E32 — Trapped and Bored? Or Unleashing a Reinvention Wave? 

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E35 — Day 35 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E34 — Day 34 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E33 — Day 33 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E32 — Day 32 of My 1-Year Experiment

Evidence 

Holiday Theme: 

… it’s a fine weekend for hosting. And while a main joy will be the company of others, a side perk is the way you see yourself and your home through the eyes of your guests. Other people are better mirrors than actual mirrors. We are all too familiar with our own visage to properly see ourselves.

We didn’t leave much room in our schedule for a getaway vacation on a roadtrip to Arizona.  First stop, Prescott.  And then a driving tour of Jerome, Cottonwood and Montezuma’s Castle.  Second stop, Sedona.  Then back to southern California in time for  the long delayed remodel or our master bathroom — due to pandemic supply chain disruptions. And finally, hosting the family in honor of Emma the Baroness on Mother’s Day.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

“5”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “The mind gets stronger in the same way muscles do — through lifting. In today’s case the work includes words and concepts, feelings, puzzles and a few logistical problems too.” Aries

Wait, did you include memories and connections? And conversations and topics that spark associations that ignite other “spark-able” links to shared moments?

“4”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “People are drawn to the comfort of your warmth. You don’t need to fix anyone or provide structure or direction. To offer your acceptance and love will do more than you know.” Taurus

I’m accepting this compliment on behalf of Emma the Baroness, the true recipient, even though I add offbeat dad’s humor good for a laugh or two.

“4”  Steve Howey, 42: “What you’re doing is inherently important. That means whether you make sure everyone knows this, or hide out and act in secret, it’s just as essential. Right now, the work is what matters, not how popular it is.” Cancer

So operating in stealth mode counts?  Mostly with Emma the Baroness’ friends we find we have to avoid conservative’s topics like religious beliefs and political persuasions — although many who voted for him the first time, could stand to do so the second time.

“4”  Steve Aoki, 41; Steven Spielberg, 74: “People concerned with proving their superiority are typically overcompensating for a deep sense of inadequacy. Align with the successful and laid-back types who live like we are all in this together.” Sagittarius

So just how do you accomplish this TauBit of Wisdom graciously.  It seems like at any given moment 45% of us are against them and visa versa.  

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

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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

S2 E85 — How to Up the Odds in Your Favor

Up until this point, the discussion about better and worse fit jobs and clients focused on me for illustrative purposes.  But you may have, hopefully, noticed an affinity for one or more of the four organizations.  And you may have felt an attraction to one or more of the 16 talent profiles which define an employer’s culture.  

“5”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61; Stephen King, 72: “It would be cool if you had a manual for this project, but all the information out there is either too plentiful or too scanty to be of use to you. Reach out to a mentor for information that’s the right size.” Virgo

Hi and welcome to Saturday’s Episode 85 in Season 2 of  “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 25th 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 E84 — Maybe Robin Hood Got It Right After All, Eh?; S2 E83 — Why Shouldn’t You Always Lean On Things That Worked Before?; S2 E82 — How Do You Inject Innovation into a Century’s Old Company?

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

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; S1 E82 — Why Writers Aren’t the Only Endangered Species. Sigh.

Context

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

In recent episodes (S2 E78, S2 E80, S2 E82 and S2 E84) I shared my Worse and Better fit experiences to illustrate a little more in depth description of what it is like working in and for clients in Paradoxy-Morons, Emerging-Entrepreneurs, Sustaining-Associates and Systematic-Professionals.

In this episode, let me summarize the key points you may to know to avoid your next career disaster.

Four Talent Profiles Attracted to Paradoxy-Moron Organizations

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

Summary

What makes Paradoxy-Morons tick?

Disruptive Innovation, Independence and Speed

They notice how limited the traditional, status quo solves the really complex problems and challenges

Disrupting. 

A fast-paced, innovative culture that attracts and retains the best of the best. 

Motto?

“It’s better to seek forgiveness than to ask permission.”

What are their unique challenges? 

        • They champion paradigms based on new science discoveries.
        • Once is not enough. From one world beater to several again an again
        • Finding commercial applications of disruptive innovation in the form of new product categories — which haven’t been proven until flawed prototypes and buggy technology work themselves out

What are the takeaways?  

Innovations have to come faster.  Concurrent overlapping talent demands.

In the start up stage they are capable of anticipating something new and act decisively to establish a new market, industry, technology or a new scientific discipline.

Which Talent Profiles find a better fit with Paradoxy-Morons?

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

In which organization will they find a worse fit?

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

Sustaining-Associates with their emphasis on:

          • Higher degrees of Sustained Improvement, Affiliation and Mastery
          • Building predictably upon past history and loyal customer retention.

Four Talent Profiles Attracted to Emerging-Entrepreneur Organizations

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

Summary

What makes Emerging-Entrepreneurs tick?

They rapidly introduce new products into new rapidly moving niches while capturing emerging knowledge no-one else has and based on that experience introduce tweets to early business formulas.

Bias for Action. 

New Knowledge, Affiliation and Speed

Knowledge creation — teams introduce new products by applying emerging new knowledge for a competitive advantage.

Motto?

“There’s no time like the present”

What are their unique challenges? 

        • The 20% accomplish 80% of the results.
        • They learn rapidly by doing.
        • Figuring out what has to happen to boost performance with fewer and fewer trials and errors.

What are the takeaways?  

Imagine a relay race with individual record holders.  But, it takes flawless baton passing as a team to achieve world-class status.

Affiliation bonding is to the team.  It’s up to the team to learn the fastest way to take a new idea and introduce it into the marketplace.

They need to guard their organization’s core capabilities and emerging proprietary processes while quickly managing increasing degrees of complexity as they grow.

Which Talent Profiles find a better fit with Emerging-Entrepreneurs?

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

In which organization will they find a worse fit?

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020 

Systematic-Professionals with their emphasis on: 

          • Higher degrees of Embedded Knowledge, Independence and Mastery
          • Classified, categorized, tested and benchmarked knowledge.

Four Talent Profiles Attracted to Sustaining-Associate Organizations

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

Summary

What makes Sustaining-Associates tick?

112 SALS Loyal Survivalists anchor the Sustaining-Associates culture. They manage people, technologies, processes, and organizational structures to sustain the innovation they’ve already mastered. Employees identify with the organization and have high affiliation needs that favor slower paced industries and cultures.

Brand Loyalty. 

Sustained Improvement, Affiliation and Mastery

Building predictably upon past history and loyal customer retention.

Motto?

“If it win’t broke don’t fix it.”

What are their unique challenges? 

        • Missing competitive threats and responding too late.
        • Resting on their traditional successes.
        • Preparing the next generation of leaders for a different competitive environment.

What are the takeaways?  

To mature and survive their brand needs to be accepted by the majority of the total available market.

A loyal affiliated talent culture needs constant retention so associates maintain the organization’s reputation.

Through their behaviors they develop a trust mark that keeps bringing long-term customers back again and again

Which Talent Profiles find a better fit with Sustaining-Associates?

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

In which organization will they find a worse fit?

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

Paradoxy-Morons with their emphasis on: 

          • Higher degrees of Disruptive Innovation, Independence and Speed
          • How limited the traditional, status quo solves the really complex problems and challenges

Four Talent Profiles Attracted to Systematic-Professional Organizations

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

Summary

What makes Systematic-Professionals tick?

These are the experts who love their profession instead of a specific organization like Sustaining-Associates do. They’re the Idea Packagers, Professional Practitioners, Traditional Institutionalists in standards-setting associations led by well-known Branded Experts in the field.

Advanced Degrees and Certifications. 

Embedded Knowledge, Independence and Mastery

Emerging knowledge is classified, categorized, tested and benchmarked.

Motto?

“Robin Hood had it right”

What are their unique challenges? 

        • Research into complex problems and complicated large systems
        • Working in knowledge organizations and consulting partnerships.
        • Application of proprietary best practices and knowledge gleaned from their benchmark databases.

What are the takeaways?  

Methods and Metrics.  They prefer to distance themselves to remain objective and follow a well-articulated and tested methodology.

Their majority of clients are large-cap companies, government partners and the medical industry systems.

Studying these organizations provides a giant learning laboratory.

Acknowledged expertise attracts potential clients.

Rainmakers play an outsized role developing new and repeat business. 

Which Talent Profiles find a better fit with Systematic-Professionals?

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

In which organization will they find a worse fit?

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

Emerging-Entrepreneurs with their emphasis on: 

          • Higher degrees of New Knowledge, Affiliation and Speed
          • Knowledge creation — teams introduce new products by applying emerging new knowledge for a competitive advantage.

Up until this point.

The discussion about better and worse fit focused on me, for illustrative purposes.  Hopefully, you may have noticed an affinity for one or more of the organizations.  And you may have felt a tendency for one or more of the 16 talent profiles.  

Next up,

We’ll build on better and worse fit options as we review stages of organizational growth from Start Up to Maturity and from Decline to Reinvention.  

But, first what do the Steves offer as TauBits of Wisdom?

Evidence

“5”  Steve Zahn, 51: “Things may not change immediately or even slowly, but the important thing is that they will change eventually. Never give in to cynicism. Your mind is made for beautiful thinking.” Scorpio

Got it, you are preaching to the choir with the first sentence.  It’s the second one that is extremely hard for me in this pandemic world today.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

“4”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “If you worry about what you are going to say, then it will prevent you from listening to what is being said. Whatever you can do to put yourself at ease will give you an advantage.” Aries  

Gotta tell you I followed this TauBit of Wisdom after learning it the hard way.  I was so intimidated by advising former Vice Presidents and CEOs when I never was one, until I asked a simple question, “What have you been doing about …?” and listened.

“3”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “Are you holding on to false hope? No. Hope, in and of itself, is an act of truth and light. Believe the best and hold on, white-knuckled, to that version.” Taurus 

Or does hope lead to false expectations? And do false expectations lead to confirmation bias.  And does confirmation bias lead on a slippery slope to conspiracy theories?  Seem like it, eh?

“4”  Steve Smith, 30: “Your head and your heart have not had a meeting in a while, and they will go in two different directions until you bring them into alignment through something peaceful, like meditation, dance or creative play.” Gemini

I choose the first and last alignment choices.

“4”  Steve Howey, 42: “Make space. Get rid of things before you have a replacement. Emptiness is not nothingness. Space is a “something” even if you don’t know what it is. Potential counts.” Cancer

Yeah, I see how being cooped up for so long drives you a little crazy without space.

“4”  Steve Carrell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “Assume that people are doing their very best. If they don’t act like this is the case, they may be consumed with fighting a battle you do not know about. Give the benefit of the doubt wherever possible.” Leo

I’ll have to repeat this over and over today for when I venture out to my local Ralph’s grocery store and encounter the number of unmasked COVID-19 spreaders.

“5”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61; Stephen King, 72: “It would be cool if you had a manual for this project, but all the information out there is either too plentiful or too scanty to be of use to you. Reach out to a mentor for information that’s the right size.” Virgo

OK, it would have been cool years ago when I conducted my original research for this work-in-progress, my WorkFit manuscript. Maybe you can use it as a manual for you.

“5”  Steve Harvey, 62: “You won’t get that push from the world today, so you’ll have to give it to yourself. Do so in the form of an intention. Setting an intention leads to actions you wouldn’t have taken otherwise.” Capricorn

Totally see how this TauBit applies — in a lockdown pandemic world intention comes a little easier for us introverts.

“4”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “You’ll thank the roadblock, as it helps you find your own path. You’ll thank the mistakes, as they are your best teachers. You’ll thank the enemy that keeps you so strong.” Pisces

So, two out of three is still pretty good, right?

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 4397 to 4427.

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 E84 — Maybe Robin Hood Got It Right After All, Eh?

I won’t lie to you, my initial transition back to civilian life wasn’t easy.  But, I adjusted to studying and working in the first of many Systematic-Professional Organizations over several of my careers.  

“5”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “There really are things that turn out better because you don’t know what to expect and are utterly unprepared. Bias is usually unavoidable, but a lack of assumptions will work in your favor.” Pisces

Hi and welcome to Friday’s Episode 84 in Season 2 of  “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 24th 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 E83 — Why Shouldn’t You Always Lean On Things That Worked Before?; S2 E82 — How Do You Inject Innovation into a Century’s Old Company?; S2 E81 — 3rd of 4 Secrets to a Better WorkFit

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

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; S1 E82 — Why Writers Aren’t the Only Endangered Species. Sigh.; S1 E81— Is This My Wake Up Call, Steve?

Context

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

In recent episodes we broke out talent profiles for each of the 4 Organization Types starting with Paradoxy-Morons, Emerging-Entrepreneurs, Sustaining-Associates and Systematic-Professionals.

Four Talent Profiles Attracted to Systematic-Professional Organizations

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

Here are some examples from my list of best fit companies and clients to illustrate what it means to love Systematic-Professionals, the “blue box” organization, with it’s unique blend of talent profiles:

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

16. Graduate Student Assistant — Better Fit

My initial transition back to civilian life, I won’t lie to you, wasn’t easy.  But, I adjusted to studying and working in the first of many Systematic-Professional Organizations.  

I enjoyed learning and mastering something new and planned to practice my psychology profession after I earned my masters degree. I looked up to Professors with Phd’s — especially the 114 SPBE Brand-as-Experts — who in actual practice taught very little in the classroom while devoting the majority of their time researching and publishing their results.  

We research associates and graduate assistants performed the lion’s share of their teaching load, laboratory and library research assignments. Once they hit tenure they enjoyed extraordinary independence pursuing foundational research. 

I never qualified for tenure.  I didn’t stay on the doctorate track.  But, later I did work in a State Hospital system in which two talent profiles  — 115 SPPP Professional Practitioners (medical doctors, psychologists, speech and music therapists, social workers and physical therapists) collaborated with 116 SPIT Institutional Traditionalists the front-line workers on the wards who resembled Army’s lifers to me.  

Put in your time in a daily grind and collect your pension in the end. 

Of course, some of the 115 PPP Professional Practitioners knew a good thing when they saw it.  They could run their fledgling practices and side businesses while working half time or less at the state hospital. My job was to work under the supervision of two different psychologists (at two different times) and conduct intelligence testing and client assessments.  

What intrigued me was how the brain worked (or didn’t) and asking if there was any research (cerebral dominance, left and right brain functions) that could be applied. 

17. Graduate Assistant Internship — Better Fit

Under the supervision of my first Phd we ran a side-business start up offering bio-feedback services to individuals (a few) and organizations (none). 

It was kind of like a professional services start up with 115 SPPP Professional Practitioners.  So Les — Dr. Sig’s second intern at the State Hospital — and I would leave at lunch, drive from Costa Mesa towards the Pacific Ocean, park behind the Edward’s Cinema near the pricey Athletic Club and meetup in the standard medical layout office.  You’d enter into a reception area with three offices behind it.

At the Behavior Modification Institute (BMI) the office walls were painted white and the plush carpet was an electric navy color. The office furniture — modern see-through plexiglass — catered to a small niche of well heeled clientele.  At least that was the business model. I was brought in to create chapters for a manual instructing clients how to use our biofeedback equipment to create relaxation and meditative states of consciousness.

BMI felt like a sure thing, when in reality it was a classic under capitalized startup.

Forced into bankruptcy the side business died and unfortunately the founder did too shortly thereafter. 

The office closed.  I managed to work full-time at the State Hospital. Les took off for Hawaii embracing “est” — short for Erhard Seminars Training and also Latin for “it is” promoted by Werner Erhart — one of many New Age commercial offerings. I felt I suffered from PTSD symptoms, depression and general purpose anxiety.

Someone who traveled in the founder’s circle of friends and who lived in Beverly Hills thanks to the Entertainment Industry described the Leadership Crisis to me at a social function.  I was probably clueless at the time so wanting for everything to work out.  

But, he told me, “Most firms go out of business six months before they realize it.”  

The founder, following an emerging trend, sunk his own money into two white egg-shaped bio-feedback “chairs” wired up to help train a customer who wanted relax and meditate at deeper levels. 

He leased an office with a reception area for medical practice and two offices — all outfitted with electric royal blue carpeting. He sold me, it was so exciting and on the cutting edge of psychology for the time.

7.  Professional Training Company — Worse Fit

The focus was on customizing suite of supervisory training programs.  Seemed old school to me at the later stage of my second career. I’d “been there and done that” so the projects didn’t engage my attention.  I didn’t meet their expectations since I didn’t sell new business. However their business model made sense to my growing knowledge management “Robin Hood” understanding of repurposing what you’ve already done for other clients and applying a customized version for new clients as an efficient way to grow consulting revenue.  

But, I also learned I wasn’t cut out to design and deliver supervisory courses for clients like university hospitals, a transportation agencies, or even to three technology companies. I lost interest in management training for slow moving mature organizations while craving the adrenalin rush of working in Paradoxy-Moron companies. 

It just didn’t satisfy the idea packaging  talent I had developed years earlier when the ideas were old and trending towards commodity knowledge.

27. Knowledge Management in Brand Company — Better Fit  

We crashed our models together — learning and development, knowledge creation, media production, internet communities, advertising and marketing in a newly formed strategy and brand consultancy. 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.  Each of us had become 114 SPBE Brand-as-Experts providing what Emerging-Entrepreneurs couldn’t afford at their stage of growth.

28. Knowledge Media Business — Better Fit 

Three of us tried to make a go of our pioneering efforts to capture the new knowledge being spun off so it wouldn’t fall through the cracks for Paradoxy-Moron and Emerging-Entrepreneur organizations.  But the market didn’t support it, again I couldn’t sell it and so we had to go our separate ways.

29. Key Executive Advisor — Better Fit 

I was offered a Senior Vice President position heading up the Key Executive outplacement services in the Southern California regions for C-suite executives paid for by their former companies. I delivered individual and group facilitated services for offices from San Diego to Woodland Hills, Pasadena and West LA.  It dawned on me that who you (they) knew made the most difference for people at this level so I created an online community for information and insight sharing and of course for trusted referrals. 

33. Advisor — Executive and Healthcare MBA Program — Better Fit 

For a decade I conducted a field test or a laboratory applying the content in these second volume of books. I proposed a curriculum to the Director for him to review and meet with me.  “Why would anyone choose to come back to school for an executive MBA (and spend over $100,000 over two years) when you’ve got all they’d ever need in this curriculum? 

And soon, you won’t have to either.

Summary

What makes Systematic-Professionals tick?

These are the expert who love their profession instead of a specific organization like Sustaining-Associates do. They’re the Idea Packagers, Professional Practitioners, Traditional Institutionalists in standards-setting associations led by well-known Branded Experts in the field.

Advanced Degrees and Certifications. 

Embedded Knowledge, Independence and Mastery

Emerging knowledge is classified, categorized, tested and benchmarked.

Motto?

“Robin Hood had it right”

What are their unique challenges? 

        • Research into complex problems and complicated large systems
        • Working in knowledge organizations and consulting partnerships.
        • Application of proprietary best practices and knowledge gleaned from their benchmark databases.

What are the takeaways?  

Methods and Metrics.  They prefer to distance themselves to remain objective and follow a well-articulated and tested methodology.

Their majority of clients are large-cap companies, government partners and the medical industry systems.

Studying these organizations provides a giant learning laboratory.

Acknowledged expertise attracts potential clients.

Rainmakers play an outsized role developing new and repeat business.

Evidence

“3”  Steve Zahn, 51: “Staying humble is the most important aspect of your game plan. The cosmic omens warn against self-satisfaction. Remain focused on what still needs doing.” Scorpio

WTF?  My only legitimate TauBit for today can’t match the four 5s the rest of the Steves earned.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

“5”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “The middle ground isn’t so easily found. You first have to go to two extremes to touch the outlying boundaries. Be patient with yourself. This is a process, and you’re making it up now for the first time.” Aries 

Can I get an “Amen!” to that?  

“5”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “There’s an art to envisioning your projects. Think of outcomes that are just beyond the reasonable, so that you’re sure to keep stretching and growing.” Taurus 

An art, you say?  Just beyond reasonable, you say?  OK I’ll by that, if you will.

“5”  Steve Aoki, 41: “This long-term project does have an end, although that is hard for you to see right now. If you can glimpse it, even for a second in your mind’s eye, you can and will have it eventually.” Sagittarius

Even glimpsing the next few steps for a second here and there keeps me going.  But, I have to confess it feels sometimes that all I’m accomplishing is to expand that end, because explanations were missing so critical to you (and my) understamdomg/

“5”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “There really are things that turn out better because you don’t know what to expect and are utterly unprepared. Bias is usually unavoidable, but a lack of assumptions will work in your favor.” Pisces

In more politically charged social situations I’ve come to ask, “What would I have to believe to agree with you?”  We’re all susceptible to confirmation and selection bias, so instead of rejecting people outright, I find it more satisfying to hear their assumptions (and set them straight, haha).

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 4397 to 4427.

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

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