The next thing

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David Cain has soared to the top of my must-read list. His latest post has made my day richer and I hope it does the same for you. Here’s a taste:

“As I very slowly get a little better at managing the “stuff” in life, I am getting markedly better at being okay with everything’s eternally-half-done status. I’m getting better at coexisting peacefully with stuff that needs fixing, problems I don’t know how to handle, opportunities I am mismanaging, and even my anxious moods. Peace with anxiety. Anxiety, with peace. Somehow.

Now and then I can sit right in the middle of all of my uncertain and unfinished business and relax in the knowledge that everything really is in its right place. Strangely, the more I’m okay with everything being not quite okay, the better I am at moving the little things along to a place where they do feel okay. Make sense? Not really? That’s okay.”

I’m reminded of a trip from Des Moines to Jefferson City. Greg Brown (now our CEO) was at the wheel and working hard to pass slower cars on the two-lane highway. It dawned me that he was trying get to the “front of the line.” His face confirmed this when I mentioned it. Greg and I are older and wiser now.

A brief chat with Keith Povall

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This is the first in what I hope will be a series of posts featuring brief interviews with some of the friends I have made online.

Keith Povall and I have never met but I know more about him (and he about me) than most of the people that live on our street. It’s a rare day that we do not exchange a few words.

Keith is a curry chef; raises carnivorous  plants and, of course, a blogger. He is also the curator of a cringe-inducing (for me) archive of photos of people wearing sandals and sox. Yes, he was a dry, biting sense of humor.

You also need to know that I am a shameless anglophile. I love all things British. The way they talk, their food, and their weather. So, my plan to to touch base with Keith every week or so and get his take on things happening in the world.

And when we run out of things to talk about, I’ll introduce you to some other lovely people.

AUDIO: Interview with Keith Povall (13 min)

Clay Shirky: The Shock of Inclusion

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“If you were in the news business in the 20th century, you worked in a kind of pipeline, where reporters and editors would gather facts and observations and turn them into stories, which were then committed to ink on paper or waves in the air, and finally consumed, at the far end of those various modes of transport, by the audience.

What’s going away, from the pipeline model, isn’t the importance of news, or the importance of dedicated professionals. What’s going away is the linearity of the process, and the passivity of the audience. What’s going away is a world where the news was only made by professionals, and consumed by amateurs who couldn’t do much to produce news on their own, or to distribute it, or to act on it en masse.

We are living through a shock of inclusion, where the former audience is becoming increasingly intertwined with all aspects of news, as sources who can go public on their own, as groups that can both create and comb through data in ways the professionals can’t, as disseminators and syndicators and users of the news.”

Looxcie wearable camera

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“The Looxcie is not a high-definition camera. It records at a resolution of 480 x 320 pixels at 15″ frames a second. But it has a special button that makes it ideal for taking video of unexpected moments. When the camera is running in continuous-capture mode, and the wearer suddenly sees a goal scored at a hockey game, for instance, a quick push of the button will tell the camera to automatically save a clip of the preceding 30 seconds. The camera weighs about an ounce and stores up to five hours of video.”

Scott Adams: Eliminating Political Parties

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“Now imagine what would happen to campaign funding if political parties didn’t exist. In our current system, a union can give a million dollars to the Democratic Party and it doesn’t seem too wrong because the party represents about half of the voters in the country. But if political parties didn’t exist, unions or corporate interests would have to donate to individuals. And a large donation to an individual campaign would either be illegal or it would look so much like a bribe that it would be counter-productive.

I think political parties made sense in pre-Internet times. It was a good way to organize and to produce candidates who had a legitimate chance of getting elected. Now it’s easy to imagine the Internet being a better platform for electing the right people. The problem is that there’s no way to get to a different type of system from here. The major parties are too entrenched to give up power, and belonging to organizations is a fundamental freedom.”

Changing Education Paradigms

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A couple of things. I don’t think I would have listened to this presentation (10 min?) without the animation. Because of the animation, I listened much more closely. Focused. Much better than watching the speaker at a podium or –god forbid– Powerpoint slides.

Secondly, I am really grateful my nephews and niece were home schooled. Well done Blane and Tonya. If you have children in school –or plan to– you should watch this.

Thanks to Rebecca Landwehr

Does my vote really matter?

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All my life I have been told that it does. The candidates have told me that. The news anchors told me that. My civics teacher told me that. And like many such givens, I beleived it must be true.

But this thoughtful post by David Cain has made me reconsider. I’m just pulling a graf to keep this short so if you give a shit one way or the other you really should read his entire post:

“Many people are uncomfortable with the idea of not voting because they feel like they would then be forfeiting the only power they have over who governs. But your vote contains no power. It is a virtually inert token of your participation, which does carry some sentimental value to some people. But it has no election-swinging ability. There are plenty of actions that can make a difference but casting your vote isn’t one of them.”

For some bizarre reason, Mr. Cain’s post caused me to flash on the carnival midway. One of the “games” involved trying to toss a wooden hoop around a small fishbowl that contained a goldfish. The bowl was just two feet away and you could almost lean over and drop the hoop on the bowl. But not quite. The carney guy understood something that I didn’t. Even if I got the goldfish, he wins.

Mr. Cain also argues that if the election is really important to you, you’ll do more than vote. You’ll knock on doors and work your ass off in other ways. I can find no flaw in that logic.

Before you dismiss the idea that your vote doesn’t really make a difference, read the post.