Author Archives: Steve Mays

“Don’t do anything”

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An explanation of meditation by S. N. Goenka:

“Don’t try to control the breath or to breathe in any particular way. Just observe the reality of the present moment, whatever it may be. When the breath comes in, you are just aware — now the breath is coming in. When the breath goes out, you are just aware — now the breath is going out. And when you lose your focus and your mind starts wandering in memories and fantasies, just remain aware — now my mind has wandered away from the breath.”

Improved Mobile Check In

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I’m starting to see more and more businesses, mostly national chains for now, updating their mobile apps to make it easier to be safe when making purchases. Most local businesses (in Jefferson City, MO) do not have apps so the process is more cumbersome. Ordering from our favorite Chinese restaurant means calling and telling them we’d like to place an order, pay for it over the phone with a credit card, call them when we arrive, and have them bring it out to our car. “Just come inside and pay!” Nooo, we don’t want to come inside. Will you bring it out to our car? After checking with someone in charge, they say okay. Not a big deal but a process that could be improved with an app.

Production-line Education

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“The Industrial Revolution has bequeathed us the production-line theory of education. In the middle of town there is a large concrete building divided into many identical rooms, each room equipped with rows of desks and chairs. At the sound of a bell, you go to one of these rooms together with thirty other kids who were all born the same year as you. Every hour a different grown-up walks in and starts talking. The grown-ups are all paid to do so by the government. One of them tells you about the shape of the earth, another tells you about the human past, and a third tells you about the human body. It is easy to laugh at this model, and almost everybody agrees that no matter its past achievements, it is now bankrupt.”

— 21 Lessons for the 21st Century