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S2 E97 — Frame Blindness and Decision Traps

These are the experts who love their profession instead of a specific organization like Sustaining-Associates do. They’re attracted to the challenges that come with large, complicated systems found in most organizations at the Mature stage of growth. 

“5”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “Stay away from the ‘I did it, and so can you’ type of messaging today because it’s overly simplistic and does not account for the myriad of ways that people are so different from one another.”  Aries

Hi and welcome to Saturday’s Episode 97 in Season 2 of  “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 15th day of August in the summer of 2020.  

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

Table of Contents

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

Previously in Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E96 — Two Kindred Spirits Drawn to Mature Complications; S2 E95 — The Founder’s Curse Unleashed by the Edifice Complex; S2 E94 — Sustained Growth: Slicing Turnover and Grooming Experts

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E97 — My Top 19 Reasons for Failing; S1 E96 — Old Rabbits Die Hard; S1 E95 — No Back to Work Days or Hump Days Allowed; S1 E94 — Wasn’t There a Movie about the Tau of Steve?

Context

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

In previous episodes we described Start Up, Emerging Growth, Rapid Growth, Sustained Growth and Maturity stages.  But, each with the emphasis on how a specific stage provides another better fit opportunity for one or more of 16 Talent Profiles.

9. Consultant Life and Mutual Fund Company

It was founded in the late 1800s by a former governor in the state capitol of California. Roughly a century later the executives decided to move to Newport Beach overlooking the Pacific Ocean so families could enjoy a higher standard of living.

It was the kind of mature organization that employed maintenance workers just to polish its brick entry way.  It was the kind of mature organization that hired and groomed knowledge workers before the term was coined. 

116 Institutional Traditionalists

They included 116 Institutional Traditionalists, Systematic-Professionals delivering products and services in heavily regulated markets the company served, such as annuities, and mutual funds, a variety of investment products and services to individuals, businesses, and pension plans.

Four Talent Profiles Attracted to Systematic-Professional Organizations

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

Why?  Because 116 Institutional Traditionalists are adept at managing fact-based complex systems with traditional analytical methods and tools. They’re dedicated to maintaining the institution’s smooth running. 

They defend the status quo by believing in preserving the rules and procedures.  They are practical, realistic and matter-of-fact.  In short 116 Institutional Traditionalists make good administrators because of their talent for organization.

Like other large hospitals, banking and financial institutions it was probable that a supervisor or a manager or even an executive hadn’t encountered a major transition from one growth stage to another over their careers.

Two Systematic-Professionals Attracted to Maturity Growth Stage

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

The buzzword my client described when he engaged me was this project was a major cultural change.  

But, it would unfold over many years, so urgency wasn’t felt, as much as it was anticipated.  

I had worked in several large, mature companies and had come face-to-face with immune systems that rejected any type of change.  

Maintaining the status quo across product lines and departments and divisions had become a way of life. 

My client told me our challenge was — how can you inject innovation into a century’s old mature company? 

It was a complex, complicated maneuver requiring tons of new knowledge and new idea packaging.  

It reflected the company’s structural change from a mutual ownership to a mutual holding company business model. 

114 Brand-as-Experts  

They become known for their impartial analysis and an affinity for agreed upon standards.  They excel in fact-based work situations in which you advance through continuing education, peer reviews and achieving licenses.  

The co-founder served as a model.  He  grew from being an investment analyst into a fund manager and co-founded their global fixed income investment business with  hundreds of billions managed in a Total Return Fund.

He was known as “the nation’s most prominent bond investor”. As a 114 Brand-as-Expert  he advised the Treasury during financial crises and was described as a fund manager who made people filthy-wealthy.  

In a way, he became the epitome of what my client had in mind for educating supervisors, managers and executives.

The goal as to bottle his ability to identify market inefficiencies and exploit them by adjusting the company’s strategies.  He embraced new technologies and exotic derivative products while harassing the power of the internet.

There was a requirement for a special blend of talents and skills across high-yield businesses building better traders and analysts and salespeople.

Rrom a management and executive development strategy it was to cultivate the ability to distill complex ideas into something simple enough to take action.

My client wanted build a hybrid curriculum drawing upon university experts with internal consultants to offer the early stages of a corporate education division.

“Advanced Curriculum for Officers” focused more on  managing divisions and new units in anticipation of favoring newer industry niches and technologies, but leading in a strong tradition based on an industry resistant to change.  

My first role was to manage external experts, define the curriculum based on executive assessments and development plans, and to provide referrals to seminars and recommended development activities.

Plans were based upon individual assessments. They defined gaps to be closed to qualify for the next advancement step, and admission into the high potential development talent pool.

The curriculum was the first for officers and included new courses I researched and designed, updated management courses they had (Management by Objectives was obsolete) and a curriculum I had developed and Fluor and Unisys.  

The plan included an “intrapreneurially shared services approach” I had described as a business model I’d experienced and managed before. 

During and after “de-mutalization” breakups, my client’s corporate group would have to sell and customize courses for the new business groups while competing with outside vendors and universities.

Top priorities for my client were how to bring about change, how to prevent frame blindness and avoid decision bias from a long list of decision-making traps plus scenario building tools.

I was all too happy to oblige!  

Evidence

“3”  Steve Zahn, 51: “You’ve known things to be more work than anticipated, but today’s thing is ridiculous. Devote yourself when it’s adding up to something that will matter. This isn’t. Get out of it.” Scorpio

Wait, what?  

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

“5”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “Stay away from the ‘I did it, and so can you’ type of messaging today because it’s overly simplistic and does not account for the myriad of ways that people are so different from one another.”  Aries

So, this is really hard to do.  Except what I intend to accomplish is not so much copy me, but to choose which talent cultures work for you as a best fit.  Ask yourself how many degrees from high to medium do you need: independence, affiliation, speed, mastery, disruptive innovation, improvement, new knowledge creation or embodied knowledge.

“3”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “The reality of a situation is much better than you’re thinking it is. You just have to ask different questions of it. A person coming from a different place in life will help you frame things another way.” Taurus 

How in the world is this unending pandemic much better than I think?

“3”  Steve Smith, 30: “Any mistakes in the work will actually be mistakes of planning. The more time you spend thinking ahead and setting yourself up for a win, the better your day will go.” Gemini

Unless, of course, I fall victim to the curse plaguing almost every introvert I know — OBE, overtaken by events!

“3”  Steve Howey, 42: “Your natural responses cannot be correct or incorrect. They just are. The behavior you choose after you feel a certain way can be very much wrong or right. You’ll choose carefully tonight.” Cancer

I guess we’ll have to wait for 8 hours or more to find out.

“5”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61: “It turns out that the period of time when you felt like you were meandering was actually a long and deliberate planning stage for what’s going on with you today.” Virgo

Busted.  How long?  Almost a year of surviving until I could break the code of jargon my new career spoke in.  And then that career transition was repeated and repeated in several industries, types of companies, and at various growth stages.

“3”  Steve Kerr, 54: “When you are in an observant, receptive and artistic mood, ‘always,’ ‘never’ and other extremes of language fall away. You revel in life’s many colors and shades beyond black and white.” Libra

As much as I want to own this one, I only picked it for the first part of the first sentence up until the second comma.  What was I thinking?

“4”  Steve Harvey, 62: “There was a time when you stretched yourself to fit a role. And then, slowly, steadily, you grew to fit the title. You’re about to repeat this process with a new challenge.” Capricorn 

Was there ever!  I totally talked myself into my first job in a new career in a mature company about to fall into a decline.  I learned so much in it and didn’t know it at the time but it fueled this original research I taught at UCI’s Executive MBA program.  So, bring on the new challenge!  And, now I’m struggling to describe in this “Volume Two Manuscript — WorkFit” work-in-progress

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 4636 to 4733.

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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S2 E91 — How to Master Rapid Growth Without Gifting Your Competitors

Rapid Growth is the stage when you need to build out your brand.  And it’s the time when you are most vulnerable to high turnover, which translate into major knowledge leakage.  And something your competitors will thank you for later.

Hi and welcome to Thursday’s Episode 91 in Season 2 of  “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 6th day of August in the summer of 2020.  

 

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

Table of Contents

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

Previously in Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E90 — How Many Road Warriors Does It Take to Fuel Our Growth?; S2 E89 — Garage Bonking and Chasm Jumping; S2 E88 — Convincing Family, Friends, Fools and Angels

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E91 — If that, then this … ? The daily double?; S1 E90 — Day 90 of My 1-Year Natural Experiment; S1 E89 — Because If You Don’t Someone Else Will. It’s Worth It!; S1 E88 — Who’s Marc Maron and What’s da Vinci got to do with him?

Context

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

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

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

Emerging to Rapid Growth

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

Just a quick recap.  To bridge the gap between a Start Up to the next stage the venture has to address its Leadership Crisis, or in reality the lack of leadership. The founder is content to grow organically, until, well the company doesn’t grow any more and angel investors may be ready to pull the plug.

To land in Emerging Growth the venture needs to tighten its operations with good old structure.

Stages of Growth

Start Up: Loosen — Leadership Crisis — Tighten

Emerging Growth: Tighten — Functional Crisis — Loosen

Let’s continue by adding to the first five of  16 talent profiles  we’ve covered so far.

Where to Find Best Fit

Talent Profile Growth Stage Organization Type
101 Breakpoint Inventors Start Up Paradoxy-Morons
103 Commercial Innovators Start Up Paradoxy-Morons
105 Marketing Athletes Start Up Emerging-Entrepreneurs
107 Resilient Product Teams Emerging Growth Emerging-Entrepreneurs
108 Core Business Group Emerging Growth Emerging-Entrepreneurs

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

Rapid Growth is the stage when you want to build out your brand.  And it’s the time when you are most vulnerable to high turnover.  Which translate into major knowledge leakage.

Rapid Growth: Loosen — Autonomy Crisis — Tighten

Back to that Yin-Yang cycle thingy.  The good news up until now was how we resolved the loosey-goosey lack of leadership crisis during Start Up by tightening and structuring operations in the Emerging Growth stage.

But, too much of one thing, like an overuse of a strength creates the next crisis.  And the prescription for over-tightening is, you guessed it, loosening by delegating and spreading autonomy around during Rapid Growth.

So if you’re building a “sticky” yet competent talent culture, you want to attract two talent profiles from the third of our organizational types — Sustaining-Associates.  If you recall, they are known for a high to medium mix of affiliation, improvement and mastery.

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

111 Agile Tiger Teams thrive on the challenge of doing whatever it takes in high performing teams more than 50% loyal to their team leader.  They cultivate extraordinary teamwork as their core competency by emphasizing knowledge sharing in a culture of reciprocity, trust and community values.

112 Loyal Survivalists apply their skills as a marketer, in effect extending individual product brands into an organization known for multiple brands you can trust.

At the rapid growth stage one major challenge is how to make certain the organization sustains past innovations while renewing itself without losing sight of its core identity.  

Through their day-to-day behaviors they develop a trust mark that keeps bringing in new and long-term customers back again and again.

So let’s update our career options.

Where to Find the Best Cultural Fit

Talent Profile Growth Stage Organization Type
101 Breakpoint Inventors Start Up Paradoxy-Morons
103 Commercial Innovators Start Up Paradoxy-Morons
105 Marketing Athletes Start Up Emerging-Entrepreneurs
107 Resilient Product Teams Emerging Growth Emerging-Entrepreneurs
108 Core Business Group Emerging Growth Emerging-Entrepreneurs
111 Agile Tiger Teams Rapid Growth Sustaining-Associates
112 Loyal Survivalists Rapid Growth Sustaining-Associates

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard  Copyright 2020

But, wait there’s still more … nine more to be exact.  

Evidence

Move along, nothing to see here. For the first time, no relevant TauBits of Wisdom for today.

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 4516 to 4636.

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

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

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

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

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

Table of Contents

Previously from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year

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

Related from Season Two, The Pandemic Year

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

Related from Season One, The Normal Year

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

Context

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

Is there a theme for today?  

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

But, who can blame them?  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A theme?

Evidence

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

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

Today’s Holiday Birthday: 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll 

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

Foresight

 Quality-of-Life   

Long-Form

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

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Season Four continues now within domestic and global chaos.

Previously in Season Four, The Disruptively Resilient Year

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

Related from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year

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

Related from Season Two, the Pandemic Year

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

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

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

Context

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

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

Anonymous better known as Miles Taylor documented his character.

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

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

S4 E20 — Resiliently Living Through Domestic and Global Chaos

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

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

S4 E21 — Not Since the War of 1812

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

S4 E22 — Now, Who Could Argue With That? 

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

S4 E23 — When In Doubt, Follow the Money

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

S4 E24 — Another Spooky Role to Play on the Outside

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

S4 E25 — Accountability?

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

There’s Boris Epshteyn

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

And John Eastman waving the Pence Card

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

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

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

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

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

Let’s revisit Peter Navarro here.

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

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

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

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

Evidence

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Today’s Holiday Birthday: 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll

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

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Long-Form

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

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

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

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

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

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

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

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

Table of Contents

Previously from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year

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

Related from Season Two, The Pandemic Year

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

Related from Season One, The Normal Year

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

Context

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

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

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

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

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

There’s more.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pig says, “How nice.” 

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

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

To which Pig says, “Specificity is overrated.”

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

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

Today’s Holiday Birthday: 

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

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

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

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

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

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll 

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

Foresight

 Quality-of-Life  

Long-Form

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

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

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

Posted on

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

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

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

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

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

Table of Contents

Previously from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year

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

Related from Season Two, The Pandemic Year

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

Related from Season One, The Normal Year

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

Context

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

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

I dare you.  

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

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

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

Moving on.  

I’ve got a Kindle addiction.  

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

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

Why?  

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

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

Nobel Memorial Prize

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

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

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

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

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

Evidence

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

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

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll 

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

Foresight

Quality-of-Life  

Long-Form

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

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

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

Posted on

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

Trump supporters subsequently stormed the U.S. Capitol in a riot that resulted in the deaths of five people, including a police officer, and temporarily disrupted the counting of the Electoral College vote.

“5”  Steve Carell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “You are wise and people who need your wisdom are attracted to you. Your policy to help only when asked or when clearly needed will hold you in good stead.” Leo

Hi and welcome to Saturday’s 31st Episode in Season 4 of  “Our Disruptively Resilient Year” on this 23rd day of April in the spring of 2022.

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

Season Four continues now within domestic and global chaos.

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

Table of Contents

Previously in Season Four, The Disruptively Resilient Year

 S4 E30 — Green Bay’s Conspiracy-Theories-R-Us from The OC; S4 E29 — How Much Mo Did He Pay for the Brooklyn Bridge?; S4 E28 — Why Do Those Who Know the Least Talk the Longest?

Related from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year

S3 E31— Treat It Like a Pawn Ticket to Sketchier Things; S3 E30 — Steal These TauBits, Please. It’s Only Fair!; S3 E29 — Why 83.3% of the Time I Swiped Your Tau; S3 E28 — Why I Stole Your Daily Horoscope for a Year 

Related from Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E31 — Getting Charged from Box Automattic-aly; S2 E30 — It’s Crazy. Why does Amazon Prime Work, but Netflix Doesn’t?; S2 E29 — Three Months That Changed the World; S2 E28 — Hosting Norwegian Zooms While Trump Eliminated the Virus in April; 

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E31 — Day 31 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E30 — Day 30 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E29 — Day 29 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E28 — Day 28 of My 1-Year Experiment;

Context

On January 6, 2021, Rudy Giuliani spoke at a “Save America March” rally on the Ellipse that was attended by Trump supporters protesting the election results. 

Wikipedia’s cited news sources and streaming video remind us that he repeated conspiracy theories that voting machines used in the election were “crooked” and called for “trial by combat”.

Trump supporters subsequently stormed the U.S. Capitol in a riot that resulted in the deaths of five people, including a police officer, and temporarily disrupted the counting of the Electoral College vote.

Behind the scenes before and during the insurrection Giuliani called Republican lawmakers to “urge them to delay the electoral vote count in order to ultimately throw the election to Trump.” 

A Tommy Tuberville butt dial?

Giuliani attempted to contact Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a Trump ally, around 7:00 p.m. on January 6, after the Capitol storming, to ask him to “try to just slow it down” by objecting to multiple states and “raise issues so that we get ourselves into tomorrow – ideally until the end of tomorrow”. — Wikipedia

However, Giuliani mistakenly left the message on the voicemail of another senator, who leaked the recording to The Dispatch. 

Giuliani faced criticism for his appearance at the rally and the Capitol riot that followed it.

Even Rick Perlstein, a noted historian of the American conservative political movement. had had it with Rudy.

According to Wikipedia cited sources, he termed Giuliani’s attempts to slow certification in the wake of the riot as treasonous. 

Sedition.  Open and shut. He talked about the time that was being opened up. He was welcoming, and using, the violence. This needs to be investigated,” Perlstein tweeted on January 11, 2021.

Not to be outdone,  Former Congressman and MSNBC host Joe Scarborough called for the arrest of Giuliani, President Trump, and Donald Trump Jr. 

If Rudy has not yet been held accountable for his actions, maybe a few billion dollars might do the trick, right?.

Remember how he and Sidney Powell claimed that election voting machines had been rigged?  They falsely claimed two rival companies, Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic were at fault for Trump’s loss. 

The list of his their claims, according to Wikipedia cited sources. included: 

    • Smartmatic owned Dominion; that 
    • Dominion voting machines used Smartmatic software; that 
    • Dominion voting machines sent vote data to Smartmatic at foreign locations; that
    • Dominion was founded by the former socialist Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez; and that 
    • Dominion is a “radical-left” company with connections to antifa.

Both companies sued Giuliani and Fox News. 

Dominion filed a defamation lawsuit against Giuliani on January 25, 2021, seeking $1.3 billion in damages, and separately sued Fox News for $1.6 billion. 

A few weeks later on February 4, 2021 

Smartmatic also filed a lawsuit that accused Giuliani, Fox News, some hosts at Fox News, and Sidney Powell of engaging in a “disinformation campaign” against the company, and asked for $2.7 billion in damages. 

Oh no, a slap on the wrist …

On September 10, 2021, Fox News told Giuliani that neither he nor his son Andrew would be allowed on their network for nearly three months. — Wikipedia

If Rudy hoped for cover from New York State Supreme Court, he was sadly mistaken.  

The judge ruled in March 2022 that the Smartmatic suit against Fox News and others could proceed, though he dismissed some allegations against Giuliani.

Evidence

Today’s Holiday Theme: 

We’re anxious for the future to start. If we were to build it from scratch, it would take so long that by the time the thing was finished it would already seem outdated. (Which) suggests we consider ready-made, plug-and-play, turnkey-type options.

I can’t lie, I’m ready for accountability to start.  It seems like the Justice Department and the January 6th Select Committee are starting from scratch.

“4”  Steve Zahn, 51: “It might help to think of the people you deal with today as creatures with features very different from your own. Smooth interactions happen when you cater to their specific abilities and temperaments.” Scorpio

Ha ha, creatures with features different from my own.  I love the phrase.  I may have to deploy it in the not too distant future when we visit our friends in Prescott, Arizona.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

“4”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “Though your intention is pure, your motivation has been unreliable. No worries. You’ll soon pick up momentum and you won’t need motivation anyway. It will be enough to simply eliminate resistance.” Aries

Until justice is served, I find myself compelled to follow the evidence and facts as they continue in episodes one long weekend at a time.  At least the story is longer that four episodes at a time.

“3”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “It is said that the one who is lucky is feeling; the one who is unlucky is thinking. This principle will apply as you feel your way through the day, collecting delights.” Taurus 

Damn I’m thinking too much today to feel lucky.

“5”  Steve Carell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “You are wise and people who need your wisdom are attracted to you. Your policy to help only when asked or when clearly needed will hold you in good stead.” Leo

I’m a wise-guy for sure.  But no-one wants takes advice before it is requested.

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll

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

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Long-Form

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

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

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S3 E39 — Ready for Your Big Leap Forward? 

This morning my knee weather is tight, with a chance of pain, but dull achy in my left hip bone, feeling like a COVID vaccine site, with a slight chance of improving if I wear a sleeve.

“5”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “It appears that someone took a big leap forward, when, in fact, this was just a series of small but consistent steps over time — doable for anyone with the tenacity. You are most certainly in the category.”  Taurus

Hi and welcome to Sunday’s Episode 39 in Season 3 of  “My Paradoxically Normal Year” on this 2nd 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 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

Related from Season Two, The Pandemic Year

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?; S2 E36 — Turning Lemons into Margaritas

Related from Season One, The Normal Year

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; S1 E36 — Day 36 of My 1-Year Experiment

Context

You know when you sprain your ankle sometimes you can walk it off?  And then later when you sit down for any extended period of time the pain sets in with the swelling and stiffness?  

Really?  

Thank your lucky stars, then.  Well, Saturday was that day.  Only I tripped over  a 6 inch sprinkler next to a fading green telephone utility cylinder which brought me unexpectedly to my knees. 

They hyperextended buckling under me until in the same motion I rolled on the cement edge of our driveway.  Luckily releasing the mower handle’s squeeze bar automatically shut it off so I didn’t have to use my feet to push against the mower rolling towards me.  

Ouch. I struggled to stand.  Once I assured myself with Emma the Baroness’ help that I could walk some of it off I hobbled over to our garage and sat in a tan plastic molded chair, rested, drank an energy drink and calculated I’d better walk it off like a sprain.  

I did. 

I finished mowing the lawn. Like an ankle sprain, the swelling ache with occasional sharp pain here and there took over for the rest of the afternoon and into my dreams last night. 

This morning my knee weather is tight, with a chance of pain, but dull achy in my left hip bone, feeling like a COVID vaccine site, with a slight chance of improving if I wear a sleeve.

P.S. The grass looks fabulous. 

Evidence

Will rest and pain pills and positive thinking take me through the upcoming week?  What’s the forecast?

Holiday Forecast for the Week Ahead: 

People cannot talk themselves into happiness, and people who demand smiles from others are unlikely to get real ones. Why? Because feelings speak their own language, a tongue as complex and nuanced as it is raw and verbless. 

Even those who exist inside a feeling state are often at a loss as to the particulars of its communication, let alone how to recreate it. Even though emotions seem to defy spoken command, they are not impossible to conjure. ‘I have’ and an accompanying misconception that possessions are the key to emotional satisfaction. 

The theory has remarkable resilience. No matter how many times it’s disproved, the desire to acquire never seems to abate. But at least our quest to own things tunes us in to our senses and gives us an appreciation for the material world that often ends up aiding our journey to a feeling. While owning things, claiming people or chasing the material cannot create an emotion, the quest makes us aware of how we join the moment. Appreciation, wonder, criticism, frustration, joy and other feelings are conjured not by life but by our choice of response to life.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Yeah, right.  Funny you mention “lend a leg up,” right?  But not to worry.  As you know, this ain’t really my birthday.  I hope it is yours and you find relief from self-regulation.

Today’s Holiday Birthday: 

Your love-hate relationship with self-regulation is about to change into all love. You’ll get into the swing of treating yourself so sweetly and nudging, nay, seducing yourself into the habits that give you the life and look you want. You’ll leverage social vibes skillfully; relationships lend a leg up in the professional world and vice versa.

Boy, for two singers and a comedian your Holiday Tau is especially mean.  I’ve been working with my physical therapist on my left knee to straighten it out, rebuild my muscles around it and master my balance.  So don’t give me “someone took a big leap forward.”  That was probably your idea, right Colbert?

“5”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “It appears that someone took a big leap forward, when, in fact, this was just a series of small but consistent steps over time — doable for anyone with the tenacity. You are most certainly in the category.”  Taurus

What is it about today?  Oh, right two more comedians.  I don’t appreciate your Holiday Tau emphasizing “a break and a distraction” as a benefit.  Luckily it wasn’t a break, more like a hyperextension in both knees.  As far as a distraction, “Emma the Baroness, will you bring me another pain pill, please darling?”

“4”  Steve Carell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “Once your heart sets a quest in motion, it’s pretty difficult to stop the search. However, since things often show up when you’re not looking for them, you’ll benefit from a break and a distraction.” Leo

At least your Holiday Tau feels a little more reality-based, except for your first part, G&G.  We’d been working on my balance issues, my physical therapist and me (or I?), and you can’t not take chances even though they involve stomach-churning risk, right?  

“3”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61: “You’re open to the magical, wonderful happenings, but you’re also aware of the stomach-churning risks involved. One won’t happen without the other, and most likely, the risk comes first.” Virgo

Oh, okay.  First I didn’t expect today’s Holiday Tau to come from someone like you.  And second, being laid up on the couch made me appreciate Emma the Baroness’ interior design talent.  But, pain trumps all else in my internal environment.

“4”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “Your internal environment is worth addressing since it’s the temperature and lighting scheme you live in all day. Give intentional thought to what would make you feel more comfortable.” Pisces

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll 

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

Foresight

Quality-of-Life  

Long-Form

    • I enjoy any of the Harry Bosch detective books in the series authored by Michael Connelly.  “A Darkness More Than Night,” described “A strange constricting feeling filled his gut. He didn’t believe in coincidences… (It) was a coincidence that even a believer in coincidence would have a difficult time accepting.”So much for detectives, tying up loose ends, relying on their hunches and reordering data, information and witness first hand accounts. 
    • Or, in “Black Box,” Connelly’s latest Harry Bosch adventure he writes, “But Bosch stayed positive.  He’d gotten lucky with Pistol Pete and the serial number.  There was no reason to think it wouldn’t hold.”  Of course, Harry had a run in with his newer Lieutenant a page or two later … “So much for his luck holding… he felt that more than his luck suddenly ebbing away.  His momentum and positive attitude were eroding. It suddenly felt like it was getting dark out.” 
    • “Future Shock” by Alvin Toffler, a classic I feel which still holds up. As the pace of change quickens we experience self-doubt, anxiety and fear.  We become tense and tire easily, until we are overwhelmed, face-to-face with a crisis situation. Without a clear grasp of relevant reality or beginning with clearly defined values and priorities, we feel a deepening sense of confusion and uncertainty. Our intellectual bewilderment leads to disorientation at the level of personal values. Decision stress results from acceleration, novelty and diversity conflicts. Acceleration pressures us to make quick decisions. Novelty increases the difficulty and length of time while diversity intensifies the anxiety with an increase in the number of options and the amount of information needed to process.  The result is a slower reaction time.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

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

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S3 E38 — Sliding on a Super Slippery Slope to 2nd or 3rd Cousins

While the horoscope I stole from you today or yesterday probably isn’t of the Super Simplifier variety on that slippery slope to becoming a True Believer, it may be its second or third cousin. It’s all relative if you get my drift. Even more so.

“5”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “You, like the other animals, respond and adapt to your environment. The people, things and routines that rule your days have a stronger effect than willpower. Changing your lifestyle is what changes your habits.”  Aries

Hi and welcome to Saturday’s Episode 38 in Season 3 of  “My Paradoxically Normal Year” on this 1st 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 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

Context 

I’m your host, a Steve, who feels lucky for having you join us. Is it just clean fun? And entertainment, like the Comics Page of Los Angeles Times’ print edition warns?  Or does following your own horoscope grease that proverbially slippery slope to conspiracy theories and insurrections?  Wait, that itself sounds like a conspiracy theory, right?

Slippery slope or not, you and I are back at Report’s Conclusion Section of The One-Year Natural Experiment which previously explored why Super Simplification is a potential reason for why so many people fall for “Lies you can believe in.”

While the horoscope I stole from you today or yesterday probably isn’t “of the Super Simplifier variety” on that slippery slope to becoming a True Believer, it may be its second or third cousin. 

It’s all relative if you get my drift.

Even more so. 

Why?  

Today’s 24 hour mediascape feeds us bewildering information and misinformation.  Who has time for tracking down the truth behind chem trails when our jobs and way of life are at risk from artificial intelligence and machine learning?

Instead it’s only human to search for an idea or single neat equation to explain all the complex novelties like 5-G speeds and mRNA vaccines so we can focus on the tasks we need to complete by the end of the day.

And then along comes conspiracy theories. 

How Does It Work?  

Too much stress can trigger delusions, according to Kurt Andersen, and engaging in fantasy can provide relief from stress and loneliness. 

      • We know that religion flourishes more in societies where people frequently feel in economic jeopardy. 
      • And, we also know that belief in conspiracy theories flourishes among people who feel bad about themselves and powerless to improve their lives. 
      • So becoming knowledgeable about all the circulating secret plots gives true believing, super simplifiers a huge jolt of what power feels like. They’re in the in crowd, feeling good with a growing sense of belonging.

Andersen is the first to admit that his explanation in fact appears to be “… condescending, but it is also true that the least educated are almost twice as likely as the most educated to be highly predisposed to believing conspiracies.”

What’s The Harm? 

A conspiracy theory can be revised and refined and further confirmed, but it probably can’t ever be disproved to a true believer’s satisfaction.

      • Misinformation, disinformation and more lies in circulation! 
      • Their beliefs, like religious faith, are unfalsifiable by facts. 
      • Conspiracy constellations, is what Andersen calls them. 

Here’s an example, 

“He no longer recognized the world in which he lived. Fake news now carries as much weight as real news.  A data constellation, describing what amounted to a collection of seemingly random and disparate data points or factoids that conspiracy theorists were encouraged to analyze and connect in meaningful ways to create possible ‘constellations.’”

Secret Plots 

It may seem counterintuitive, but the more fantastic the better. 

“Fantastical conspiracy theories tend to imagine secret plots of colossal scale, duration, and power. Appealing to true believers a paranoid style seems to resonate the best given their conviction that an exclusive monolithic structure has imposed a purposeful pattern on otherwise unpredictable events.”

“Skepticism,” Andersen explains “after all, is an antonym for credulity. But when both are robust and overheated, they can fuse into conspiracy-mindedness. (M)ix epic individualism with extreme religion; mix show business with everything else; let all that steep and simmer for a few centuries; run it through the anything-goes 1960s and the Internet age; reality and fantasy are weirdly and dangerously blurred and commingled.”

Whew, and that’s how we got here.  To the here and now.  

Evidence

To today’s Holiday Tau. Other than a growing frustration because Zahnny’s Tau didn’t measure up to anything worth mentioning, is it worth going to jail for stealing Tau from any of the other Steves?  Looks like it.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Whoa, now I remember why we designated you our Patron Saint!  If we could sum up the conclusion section of my 1-year natural experiment your Holiday Tau is my candidate.

“5”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “You, like the other animals, respond and adapt to your environment. The people, things and routines that rule your days have a stronger effect than willpower. Changing your lifestyle is what changes your habits.”  Aries 

Other than banning Alex Jones and ex-President Trump from platforms like Twitter, how do you do that? 

“4”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “One approach to the problem at hand is to starve it out. Don’t give it the fuel that your attention so readily provides. Ignore, neglect and shun the thing until it goes away.” Taurus

Hey Coach Kerr, if your Holiday Tau suggests those new places are social media groups, will your TauBit of wisdom be wise?  Or am I missing your point metaphorically?

“4”  Steve Kerr, 54: “The places that used to energize you have gone stale or no longer exist. In these weird times, ‘new environments’ can be taken as a metaphor. Go out in search of that very alive feeling.”  Libra

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll 

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

Foresight

Quality-of-Life  

Long-Form

    • I enjoy any of the Harry Bosch detective books in the series authored by Michael Connelly.  “A Darkness More Than Night,” described “A strange constricting feeling filled his gut. He didn’t believe in coincidences… (It) was a coincidence that even a believer in coincidence would have a difficult time accepting.”So much for detectives, tying up loose ends, relying on their hunches and reordering data, information and witness first hand accounts. 
    • Or, in “Black Box,” Connelly’s latest Harry Bosch adventure he writes, “But Bosch stayed positive.  He’d gotten lucky with Pistol Pete and the serial number.  There was no reason to think it wouldn’t hold.”  Of course, Harry had a run in with his newer Lieutenant a page or two later … “So much for his luck holding… he felt that more than his luck suddenly ebbing away.  His momentum and positive attitude were eroding. It suddenly felt like it was getting dark out.” 
    • “Future Shock” by Alvin Toffler, a classic I feel which still holds up. As the pace of change quickens we experience self-doubt, anxiety and fear.  We become tense and tire easily, until we are overwhelmed, face-to-face with a crisis situation. Without a clear grasp of relevant reality or beginning with clearly defined values and priorities, we feel a deepening sense of confusion and uncertainty. Our intellectual bewilderment leads to disorientation at the level of personal values. Decision stress results from acceleration, novelty and diversity conflicts. Acceleration pressures us to make quick decisions. Novelty increases the difficulty and length of time while diversity intensifies the anxiety with an increase in the number of options and the amount of information needed to process.  The result is a slower reaction time.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

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

Posted on

S3 E35 — This Ain’t No Zemblanity

What about luck? An “architecture of serendipity” provides exposure to new ideas, people, and ways of life so crucial to you, because it expands your horizons.  And, when you boiled away all the jargon, this was at the heart of my new knowledge creation and innovation services.

“5”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “The first idea that comes to you may indeed be the best one, but come up with more anyway, if only for the accompanying thrill of heading into unexplored directions.” Aries

Hi and welcome to Sunday’s Episode 35 in Season 3 of  “My Paradoxically Normal Year” on this 25th day of April 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 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

Context

In the Report’s Conclusion Section of The One-Year Natural Experiment we’ve covered meaningful coincidences and synchronicity, now it’s about their second cousin,  serendipity or happy accidents as in unplanned, but fortunate discoveries.

What about luck? Let’s skip “zemblanity” coined by William Boyd — you know, “If it weren’t for bad luck I’d have no luck at all.”

In my career workshops I emphasized the path to higher paying and more enjoyable positions was paved with preparation — identifying what you did well, was valued by decision-makers facing challenges you could capitalize,  who commanded the budget needed to engage your services and in which types of or phase of growth would value your skills and abilities the most.  

That’s the preparation part of organizing you luck.  

Over the years I was able to predict with almost with 90% accuracy when a person would luck into the job of their dreams if they interviewed almost anyone informally, described which challenges a client or employer faced (that you met before), asked for three referrals to other people and broadcast to your audience in a similar matter. 

And, then out of the blue one of your connections hosts you and your future client or boss at a lunch, you loosely propose what you do and one thing leads to another and boom you’ve been hired.

In my other career, advising innovation teams and product development teams I introduced a variety of tools to increase serendipity into decision making, problem solving and creative endeavors.

Innovations made by chance have gained purchase throughout the history of product invention and scientific discovery. 

Most everyday products had serendipitous roots (Post-Its, Silly Putty, microwave, velcro, popsicle and even penicillin) with many early ones related to animals or imitations of nature.

Serendipity has potential application in the design of social media, information searches, and web browsing.

In some Paradoxy-Moron organizations serendipity factors into potential design principles for online activities capturing a wide array of information and viewpoints, rather than just re-enforcing a researcher’s opinion.

 An “architecture of serendipity” provides exposure to new ideas, people, and ways of life so crucial to you, because it expands your horizons.  And, when you boiled away all the jargon, this was at the heart of my new knowledge creation and innovation services.

Now in this passion project of living life like an art form in a natural experiment, each day’s Holiday Tau triggered lucky new insights and fresher perspectives.

Evidence

While Zahnny, the Fonz, Emma the Baroness and I inherited a sucky Holiday Tau today, the outlook for next week had our names all over it.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Wait, what a coincidence, throw in a smidge of serendipity and we’ll be on to something, Steve

“5”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “The first idea that comes to you may indeed be the best one, but come up with more anyway, if only for the accompanying thrill of heading into unexplored directions.” Aries 

Hi Howey, I’m already a believer in your Holiday Tau.  It’s already 2:46 p.m. and I’m still banging away on this document.  Did somebody say squirrel?  Time break this composition off and step outside!

“4”  Steve Howey, 42: “The most productive day involves stints of concentrated effort followed by breaks in the fresh air. To skip the breaks makes the journey much less enjoyable, and longer, too.” Cancer

As an introvert, I’m already tuned into my supply of emotional energy almost like a battery knowing when I need some time to myself to plug back in to the source.

“5”  Steve Carell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “While emotional energy, like love, may be invisible, to your eye, it animates the physical world quite obviously. You will easily tell how people are feeling, especially when they are trying to hide those feelings.” Leo

So, let’s piggy-back on the Holiday Tau of the inventor and his two comedian partners in Tau.

“5”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61: “Daydreaming is anything but a waste of time, though don’t expect concrete ideas to come from it now. Today’s flights of fancy open up the borders for later breakthroughs.” Virgo

Will somebody throw a little serendipity my way?  I’m well overdue.

“4”  Steve Nash, 45: “You’ve a quirky style and a worldview that could be described as ‘singular.’ You’re unintentionally entertaining, and this works in your favor. Once disarmed, people are so amenable to your suggestions!”Aquarius

Normally, Steve I love your TauBits of Wisdom, but not so much today.

“3”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “You don’t fear the influence of others. You know who you are. It is because your rules for yourself are so firm that you can afford to have an open mind.” Pisces

Holiday Forecast for the Week Ahead: 

“This…will not disappoint by ramping up the tension. Besides the domain of life, death and transformation, seduction, with a penchant for using shadows and fog to enhance the allure of our fascinations. Some will be drawn to build temptations, and others will be called to fall prey to them. An early theme of this transit is: what a little power can do. It changes people. Some would say it corrupts them. … will recall to us the times we’ve used and abused power, and the times we were victimized by forces more powerful than us. The lessons of these happenings aren’t learned all at once. They soak in over time. Just when we think we’ve gotten all we can from a past lesson, … will show us a new level of meaning we hadn’t been aware of before.”

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll 

    • @KnowLabs suite of digital magazines jumps from 8003 to 8068 organically grown followers

Foresight

Quality-of-Life 

Long-Form

    • “Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge” by E.O. Wilson, an entomologist who studied colonies of ants for their insights.  But didn’t stop there, according to The Wall Street Journal, “A dazzling journey across the sciences and humanities in search of deep laws to unite them.”
    • “True Believers,” the novel by Kurt Andersen (which seems to precede Fantasyland)? I like how he goes back and forth from now to the ‘60s in which the main character is writing a memoir, but needs “Okays” from her friends who had been hiding a secret for 40+ years that could ruin their careers?  Like, what’s my equivalent
    • “Disappearing Through the Skylight” by O.B. Hardison, Jr. which proceeded “Consilience” by a decade.  Hardison’s been described as a polymathic renaissance man who wrote, “… Nature has slipped, perhaps finally beyond our field of vision.”  What does it mean for “… science, history, art and architecture, music, language, ultimately, for humanity”? This one provides missing chunks of understanding where we came from and where we’re going.
    • I enjoy any of the Harry Bosch detective books in the series authored by Michael Connelly.  “A Darkness More Than Night,” described “A strange constricting feeling filled his gut. He didn’t believe in coincidences… (It) was a coincidence that even a believer in coincidence would have a difficult time accepting.”So much for detectives, tying up loose ends, relying on their hunches and reordering data, information and witness first hand accounts.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

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

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