Swimming against the current 2011

Today Discardia hit 500 "likes" on Facebook, which may not sound like a lot, but for a community that actively pares away distractions and which pays attention to hidden costs like having to keep close track of privacy policy changes, it's kind of amazing.

Weeding through old bits of paper... 2011

One of my Discardian goals is to have nothing which I have not consciously looked at in the past two years and said "Yes. I still want this." Every possession's 'service contract' is up for renewal or I'm canceling it.

Now this is a big undertaking. I have not suffered a big loss of stuff. There has been no fire or tornado or other disaster to destroy any home I've ever lived in. I have stuff that dates back through my entire life, and I've got some things from my parents, grandparents, and ancestors further back. I have made big moves – to college, to a year abroad, to Hawaii for six months – but all of those took place when my childhood home was still owned by my folks. That big old Victorian house had plenty of room for me to tuck things away while I was gone. It was not until they sold that house in the late 1990s that I really had to start winnowing down. Even so, I lived in big enough places (or had kindly friends with basement storage to spare) that I was able to keep a lot of stuff.

The first really stern paring down of my belongings happened in 2002, when I moved to San Francisco, with all the self-focus and self-reinvention that that move usually implies. This is a city which encourages you to be true to yourself and shed your old snakeskins. It was at the end of that year that I invented Discardia. Since then, I've been very consciously evaluating what I have and letting go of what isn't bringing me utility and pleasure.

There are still boxes to go through, however. Not many, but some. Today I sorted through a box of papers and put them into the recycling bin or one of a very small number of piles: shred, scan and toss the original, file (almost entirely health and taxes stuff, all of which I plan to re-evaluate and pare down in a subsequent project), and "capture into blog or contacts or something else digital" (the scan stuff actually is destined for that category after it's digitized as a picture).

So what are these bits and bobs that I am not ready to just toss? Ideas, memories, contact information, and personal history data that tells when I was where doing what. Here are the bits that don't fit in somewhere else, put into my blog where I can easily search for them.

- books I'm glad I read a long time ago (that helped shape my thinking): Kevin A. Lynch's Good City Form (which I think was assigned in a class as an undergrad at UCSC).

- on my first visit to New York City I planned a walk for myself with these notes: "St. Pat's -> Park Ave downtown to maybe duck in at Waldorf Astoria at E 49th, continue on Park, Grand Central Terminal, west exit, 42nd, Madison, "Library Way", 5th, downtown, pass Empire State Building". On that first trip Joe and I went to the Campbell Apartments, WD-50 (appetizers, Rye & Quince cocktail, and a happy introduction to Amaro Montenegro), and Pegu Club.

- The Rye & Quince led us to seek out quince syrup which we found at Kalamala.com, "The Online Iranian Grocery Store". Along with that essential ingredient for a very tasty cocktail, we got a bunch of wacky stuff from them including willow water which is basically a refreshing-ish aspirin beverage. They currently only have quince lemon syrup which looks different from what we bought before, so I'm going to keep questing. Been craving a Rye & Quince again.

- Why the hell isn't Bill Irwin's brilliant show The Regard of Flight available on DVD? Grrr. Use the device, people!

 

It has just occurred to me that I can make my contact lists a lot easier to work with if I put zzz in front of the names of those I no longer am in regular contact with but for whom I want to keep the last known contact info. (I know, I know, I should use tagging or something, but this method will sync between any system I've got. Sometimes crude is more compatible.)

My Lessons from The Three Sisters 2011

Saw a great production (with a very pleasing translation) of the Chekov play at Berkeley Repertory Theatre last night. Here are my takeaways:

• Don't get married just because everyone seems to do that.
• Don't marry someone who doesn't help you be more the person you most want to be.
• Don't marry someone until you've figured out you enjoy living together.
• Don't have kids until you take care of other people's children enough to figure out that you both enjoy it.
• Don't assume that something external to you – person, job, city – can be the source of all your happiness.
• If you do have the foresight to adapt the world around you to better fulfill your vision of a happy life, don't be petty, passive-aggressive, and/or abusive in how you go about it or everyone will hate you.
• Go to motherfucking Moscow already. Jeez.

Getting Closer, Going Later (#SXSW) 2011

I missed morning sessions here at SXSW Interactive today. Partly that was my fault – I set myself up for a bad night's sleep by having caffeine (which I normally don't), drinking at parties and dinner, and reading scary news from Japan – and the spring forward clock switch is always tough, but even in my sleep-deprived state there was a critical moment this morning (8:44am) when I could have rallied, quickly showered, and made it to the first time slot session I wanted to hit.

So why didn't I? I had told my friend doing the session I'd get there, I was excited about the topic, and my first choice for the subsequent time slot was at that same campus.

The problem is that that campus was outside of rallying range.

Unless I paid for a cab it likely would take me about half an hour to get there. With room size now frequently smaller than demand, the risk of arriving late and being unable to get in after a long-range scramble to reach the campus is daunting.

So what would be better?

Instead of spreading out to the Hyatt Regency Austin, over the bridge down on Barton Springs Road, or the seriously distant AT&T campus, I'd rather see 6:30pm sessions at the locations within six blocks of the Brush Park/Hilton/ACC hub.

There are 27 sessions today at the Hyatt campus. If 11am is typical of the number of rooms (and skipping meetup rooms), those sessions could all fit in a 6:30pm slot at ACC, Hilton, Courtyard and Hilton Garden Inn campuses without even needing to stretch out to the Sheraton, Driskill, or Radisson.

I'd like to see SXSW grow in time, not space. Stretching session programming a little bit more into the evening won't cramp people's style in having evening opportunities to connect and have fun. We've had 5pm happy hours competing with last sessions for a long time now and it's worked out fine.

Tasty podcasts 2011

Thanks to a lot of plane trips lately, I'm starting to catch up on my backlog of subscribed media. Here's the cream of the crop! (Note for those on slower connections, the TEDTalks are all videos).

 

Science

Darwin Day Special, Part 2: Evolutionary Psychology and Religion Yes, yes, heard this two years late, but this is what happens when your commute is less than 30 feet.

60-Second Science: Caterpillar's Innards Move Before It Does

60-Second Science: Superstar Is Remnant of Three-Star System Mangled by Black Hole

60-Second Science: Case Study: Tongue Stud Play Causes Front Teeth Gap Don't get a tongue piercing, really.

60-Second Science: Almost a Million Years Added for Earliest Human Ancestor Stone Tool Use and Meat Eating And, on Steve Mirsky's excellent advice, I just visited the marvelous Australopithecus afarensis models in the Hall of Human Origins at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. It's a magnificent collection of exhibits and teaching tools, as well as being full of beautifully moving things like these little figures that loom so large in our understanding of our origins.

TEDTalks : Anthony Atala on growing new organs - Anthony Atala (2009)

TEDTalks : Bill Gates on energy: Innovating to zero! - Bill Gates (2010) An inspiring and encouraging talk about the great challenge and just how to address it.

TEDTalks : James Randi's fiery takedown of psychic fraud - James Randi (2007) Randi is always a kick in the pants.

TEDTalks : Bart Weetjens: How I taught rats to sniff out land mines - Bart Weetjens (2010) Hooray for hero rats!

 

Games

TEDTalks : Toys that make worlds - Will Wright (2007)  Heard it before, but loved it again.

TEDTalks : Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world - Jane McGonigal (2010) Super wonderful inspiration!

 

Culture and Change

60-Second Science: Fancy Brand Logos Send Mixed Messages Paging Cayce Pollard...

60-Second Science: Public Underestimates Savings of Energy Efficiency

TEDTalks : Institutions vs. collaboration - Clay Shirky (2005) Nice to view in context of more recent work. Interesting to see where his research focus has shifted.

TEDTalks : Eric Dishman: Take health care off the mainframe - Eric Dishman (2009)

TEDTalks : Sam Harris: Science can answer moral questions - Sam Harris (2010) Grabbing the bull by the horns.

TEDTalks : Catherine Mohr builds green - Catherine Mohr (2010) Going greener isn't always obvious.

 

Food

TEDTalks : Jamie Oliver's TED Prize wish: Teach every child about food - Jamie Oliver (2010) And that led me to his fun Ministry of Food videos available through iTunes. Looking forward to trying some of those recipes.

TEDTalks : Dan Barber: How I fell in love with a fish - Dan Barber (2010)

 

Art and Creativity

TEDTalks : All roads lead to Rome Antics - David Macaulay (2002) I'm a loooong time Macaulay fan and really enjoyed this insight into his creative process.

TEDTalks :  Joshua Prince-Ramus: Building a theater that remakes itself - Joshua Prince-Ramus (2009)

TEDTalks : Steven Johnson: Where good ideas come from - Steven Johnson (2010) A wonderful romp and encouraging (especially with concepts like the "slow hunch"). I'm happy that one of the next books in my to-read stack is by him.

TEDTalks : Ze Frank's web playroom - Ze Frank (2010) Ze's stuff is so beautiful. He makes the web and the world better.

The spoken word and the personal voice remain incredibly powerful 2011

Here's just a hint of the experience I had this week at Mike Daisey's The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs at Berkeley Reperatory Theater.

This doesn't do the full experience justice and only gives a hint of the interwoven stories of beautiful technology, our love for it, the people we think of who bring it to us, and the people who do that we don't think of.

I urge you to see this show. It will move your mind.

Human voices 2010

Remember when The Cluetrain Manifesto was a radical, new idea back in 1999? The crazy notion that big organizations might be able to communicate with us in a really different, less dehumanizing way?

My City Attorney's office (@SFCityAttorney) just told me on Twitter about their new Facebook page.

Recently enjoyed podcasts 2010

Still catching up on my subscriptions, which are sized a little large for someone who no longer commutes or takes many plane flights. Despite that, I'm keeping the list I have because the content is just so frequently rewarding when I do make the time to listen.

Productivity

"David Allen - Guided GTD Mind Sweep"

 

History

Love love love the British Museum/BBC series A History of the World in 100 Objects. Here are some favorite episodes:

"Early Writing Tablet"

"Lachish Reliefs"

"Sphinx of Taharqo"

"Oxus Chariot Model"

"Head of Augustus"

"Warren Cup"
"Last week we looked at power and how it was exercised around the world 2000 years ago. The theme of this week's programmes is pleasure, social activities. We're spinning the globe again, taking in pipe smoking and ball games in north and south America and in China a kind of Debrett's guide to court etiquette for women. We start and end the week, though, with the Roman empire and with spice, both actual and metaphorical. We end with pepper and we're going to begin with porn."

"Hoxne pepper pot"

"The David Vases"

"Icon of the Triumph of Orthodoxy"

"Shiva and Parvati Sculpture"

"Durer's Rhinoceros"

 

Science, Technology, Education, Design

Some great bites from Scientific American's 60-Second Science:

"Last Supper Keeps Swelling"

"Climate Change Ups Infectious Disease Risks"

"Synchrotron Focuses on New Hominid Fossil"

"Cheap Photovoltaics Wins M.I.T. Clean Energy Prize"

"Baby Coral Home In by Sound"

"Entomophagist Calls for Cricket Casseroles"

"And the Weirdest New Species Are..."

"Bone Marrow Transplant Stops Mouse Version of OCD"

"Construction: Don't Hold the Rice"

"Tech Team Puts Microscope on Cell Phone"

"Encourage Walking with Urban Planning"

"Copying Butterfly Wing Scales Could Fight Forgers"

"Vodka Brand Differences May Reflect Water-Alcohol Arrangement"

"Male Voice Good Indicator of Physical Strength"

"Ostriches Offer Clues to Dinosaur Motion"

"Later School Start Time Leads to Better Students"

"Design Boosts Chances for Air-Powered Motorcycle"

"Sports Results Affect Voter Behavior"

"Mass Transit Encourages Exercise and Weight Loss"

"Arctic Genes Make Vaccines That Can't Stand Heat"

"Clothing That Can Record or Produce Sound"

 

TED Talks

"Eve Ensler: Embrace your inner girl"

"Derek Sivers: Weird, or just different?"

"Fabian Hemmert: The shape-shifting future of the mobile phone"

"Jessica Jackley: Poverty, money -- and love"

"Heribert Watzke: The brain in your gut"

 

Ockham's Razor

"An innovator for the ages"

"A noun in your auricle"

Great writing 2010

"The most unmistakable chemical transformation is that of a matter's state – a solid liquefies, a liquid evaporates, a vapor condenses into rain. For most of the furnishings of our everyday life, we associate a particular substance with only one of those three states. Wood, steel, and stone – solid. Oxygen and helium – gas. Alcoholic beverages – liquid (you can keep a bottle of Bombay Sapphire in the freezer, and somehow it remains an ever pourable starter to a gin and tonic). Water again bucks convention and seems almost equally at home in all three forms, as ice, steam, and liquid. In fact, Earth is exceptional in its possession of tristate water. Mars has a lot of water, but it's frozen away underground. Jupiter and Saturn have traces of water, too, but as orbiting ice crystals or a gas among miasmic gases. Only on Earth are there ocean flows and Arctic floes and sputtering Yellowstone fumaroles; only the Goldilocks planet has water to suit every bear."

- Natalie Angier, The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science

My voting slate for the November 2010 California election 2010

I was surprisingly on track with the Bay Guardian this time.

Governor: Edmund G. Brown
I like Jerry. He was a good governor the last time he was my governor.

Lieutenant Governor: Gavin Newsom
He's a little too much of a friend to super-wealthy people and corporations, but I don't hate Newsom and I definitely don't like Maldonado.

Secretary of State: Debra Bowen
Bowen does a good job and, from everything I have heard, runs a very clean ship.

Controller: John Chiang
Another good public servant worthy of continuing support.

Treasurer: Bill Lockyer
And another person who's served the state well and who I continue to support.

Attorney General: Kamala Harris
I hope she will improve (drastically) her performance over her time in San Francisco, but I definitely choose Harris over her death penalty lovin' opponent Steve Cooley.

Insurance Commissioner: Dave Jones
No nose-holding on this one: Jones is a strong consumer advocate and health care reformer and not a right-wing, corporation-lover like opponent Mike Villines.

Member, State Board of Equalization, District 1: Betty Yee
Bring back in my theme of continuing support for folks who've been doing a good job.

United States Senator: Barbara Boxer
See my full post on this race, but in short: I worked at HP when Fiorina was CEO; I definitely don't want her representing my state.

United States Representative: Nancy Pelosi
With the pressure against her and any vaguely progressive agenda, it's a wonder the House has been able to make the progress they have. Pelosi knows how to fight this fight, so let's keep her working at it.

Member, State Assembly: Tom Ammiano
My man in the assembly. Keep on keepin' on, Tom.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction: Tom Torlakson
Aceves wouldn't be the end of the world, but Torlakson's approach seems inclined to make him more effective.

Assessor-Recorder: Phil Ting
Seems to run a good team and to bring in the revenue the city is owed. Their communication during the Prop 8 case ruling was pleasing.

Public Defender: Jeff Adachi
Sure. Okay. Disagree with him on his Measure B advocacy, but he does fine as public defender.

Proposition 19: Yes.
Changes California Law to Legalize Marijuana and Allow It to Be Regulated and Taxed.
We need to change pot from a cost to a revenue source (and incidentally weaken drug cartels by giving them legitimate competitors). I just wish it didn't smell like cow ass.

Proposition 20: No.
Redistricting of Congressional Districts.
Allowing some unelected committe to redraw the lines is highly unattractive.

Proposition 21: Yes.
Establishes $18 Annual Vehicle License Surcharge to Help Fund State Parks and Wildlife Programs and Grants Free Admission to All State Parks to Surcharged Vehicles.
Restores a funding source we shouldn't have lost.

Proposition 22: No.
Prohibits the State from Taking Funds Used for Transportation or Local Government Projects and Services.
There are already enough constraints on state spending. Let's not tie hands while we get this budget working.

Proposition 23: NO!!!
Suspends Air Pollution Control Laws Requiring Major Polluters to Report and Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions That Cause Global Warming Until Unemployment Drops Below Specified Level for Full Year.
Climate change is going to cause more harm to our state's economy than holding polluters accountable for their sacrificing our future for their profits. Let's keep the pressure on as high as possible to jumpstart the green economy.

Proposition 24: Yes.
Repeals Recent Legislation That Would Allow Businesses to Carry Back Losses, Share Tax Credits, and Use a Sales-Based Income Calculation to Lower Taxable Income.
Repeal special-interest tax breaks!

Proposition 25: Yes.
Changes Legislative Vote Requirement to Pass a Budget from Two-Thirds to a Simple Majority. Retains Two-Thirds Vote Requirement for Taxes.
Let's get this state goverment able to operate effectively again. The party of inaction needs to be unable to hold back the rest of us.

Proposition 26: No.
Increases Legislative Vote Requirement to Two-Thirds for State Levies and Charges. Imposes Additional Requirement for Voters to Approve Local Levies and Charges with Limited Exceptions.
What's bad for budget approval effectiveness is also bad for other charges. Let's stop this now instead of having to repeal it later.

Proposition 27: Yes.
Eliminates State Commission on Redistricting. Consolidates Authority for Redistricting with Elected Representatives.
An unaccountable, unrepresentative commission is not a better answer than having the legislature draw these lines.

Measure AA: Yes!
Vehicle Registration Fee
Let's get cars working for a more livable city.

Measure A: Yes!
Earthquake Retrofit Bond
We need this. It will save lives and blocks. Building collapse is definitely a huge danger in an earthquake, not only to those within that building but to the surrounding area due to the risk of collapse leading to fire. As a NERT, I can help up to a point, but big fires are beyond our skills, training, or resources. We will not have enough fire crews to fight many major fires around the city after a major quake and we must do what we can to avoid this risk.

Measure B: No.
City Retirement and Health Plans
This is not the way to solve the issues in this area. Furthermore, charging the same increased amounts to workers regardless of their income level is unfair.

Measure C: No.
Mayoral Appearance at Board Meetings
A healthy relationship between the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor should be part of our city government, but given the current membership of the board this does not seem like the answer.

Measure D: Yes.
Non-citizen Voting in School Board Elections
The residents from our city come from all over the world. Those who choose to raise their children here should have a say in how those schools are run.

Measure E: Yes!
Election Day Voter Registration
Whatever makes it easier to get more public participation in democracy is good.

Measure F: Yes.
Health Service Board Elections
Was on the fence on this one, but swayed by Supervisor Chiu's support for it.

Measure G: Yes.
Transit Operator Wages
This is most definitely not a fix for all Muni's problems. However, it does send a strong 'get your shit together, people' message. A bit on the fence over this, but edging down on the yes side.

Measure H: No.
Local Elected Officials on Political Party Committees
I don't see why we would want to stop competent, experienced people from serving. Also, is this even constitutional?

Measure I: Yes.
Saturday Voting
We get to test drive this and someone else will pay for it? Hell yeah.

Measure J: Yes.
Hotel Tax Clarification and Temporary Increase
The increase in costs this brings will not keep people from visiting our city and we need revenue. Jump on it!

Measure K: No
Hotel Tax Clarification and Definitions
This measure makes some small improvements in how tax is calculated (like J), but does not add any new revenue. Kill it!

Measure L: No!!!!
Sitting or Lying on Sidewalks
You've got to be fucking kidding me. The problem isn't sitting or lying, it's aggressive panhandling. So you're gonna ticket someone lounging on a PARK(ing) Day installation and not the standing guy berating you for not giving him change? This measure is a load of crap.

Measure M: Yes
Community Policing and Foot Patrols
How about actually enforcing our existing laws and building strong neighborhood/police connections instead, hmm?

Measure N: Yes
Real Property Transfer Tax
A little more taxing on transactions over $5 million dollars? Duh. These guys can well afford to pitch in.

Whatever you do, vote! It makes democracy go.

This one's easy: Barbara Boxer for U.S. Senate 2010

There is, as usual in a good democracy, a lot to consider in this coming election, but one which requires no additional research on my part is who to vote to be my senator. I have been paying attention to what Barbara Boxer does and I am pretty consistently pleased.

• She is not a corporate tool.
• She has been a long-time opponent of the war in Iraq and one of those who helped keep the pressure on to get us out of there.
• She helped us get health care reform. There's still more work to be done, but something big and positive and life-changing happened and I'm grateful to her for her part in it.
• She is a defender of education, the environment, reproductive rights, and small business.
• She opposes Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
• She acknowledges scientific reality and is a strong advocate for green jobs and a cleaner economy.
• She is an experienced and effective force for positive change.

Her opponent, Carly Fiorina, is also known to me. I worked (on contract) at Hewlett-Packard when she first came on as CEO. Though I was initially rooting for her – the sexism of the entrenched 50s/60s good-ol-boy culture still infected the company at all levels – as time went on my enthusiasm was replaced with profound disappointment. She was unable to pull together disparate groups to make the company more effective. She did not succeed in keeping internal infighting from tearing things apart from the inside and motivating the most skilled employees to jump ship for competitors or small startups. The merger with Compaq can accurately be described as a trainwreck. Under her leadership HP stumbled, badly.

California is diverse, large, complex, struggling to find its direction, just as HP was. Fiorina has demonstrated she is not the right person to have at the helm in that situation.

But that was a while ago, so let's look also at some other reasons not to support her:

• She favors the mega-rich (individuals and corporations) over the rest of us in her fiscal and intellectual freedom policies.
• She opposes net neutrality.
• Unlike the leaders of almost every democracy in the world she does not believe in climate change. I only support reality-based candidates, so she's off my list on this alone, but of course there's more:
• She doesn't regularly vote.
• She wants to repeal the healthcare bill despite the very real benefits it is bringing to many, many people.
• She is a big supporter of big oil and the BP spill did nothing to sway her support for offshore drilling in California.
• She opposes abortion rights even in cases of incest or rape.
• She opposes marriage equality.
• She opposes the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.
• In a world with an increasingly global perspective she is obsessively fixated on closing our borders, proposing approaches which would drain resources from other vital services.
• She has no political experience which would allow her to be effective from day 100 let alone day one.

There is no way I see Carly Fiorina bringing positive change to the Senate or my state.

I'm definitely voting for Barbara Boxer again.

Notes from last week 2010

Things you can do with no internet:

Have a cup of tea. Tidy up the house. Laundry. Listen to music. Clean the nasty stuff out of the fridge. Carry out the trash / recycling / compost. Write postcards. Read books. Walk on the treadmill. Watch some of your backlog of video podcasts. Do dishes. Take a nap.


Things you could do with no internet but actually didn't get around to:

Draft blog posts. Hand wash delicates. Sort through old stuff and take pictures or scan things and add to the Goodwill box / recycling / trash. Sweep the front steps. Sweep the back porch. Make soup stock.

Emergency Operations Center 2010

"A location where uncomfortable officials meet in unfamiliar surroundings to play unaccustomed roles making unpopular decisions based on insufficient information in much too little time."

- Art Botterell

Kobayashi Maru, man. 2010

I love Merlin Mann and Jeff Veen's kickass brains.

The whole episode of Dan Benjamin's The Conversation is very worth watching, but this bit resonated deeply:

Merlin: "There's still companies today where they are feverishly trying to lock down, like not let you get to Gmail and not let you get to any of this stuff, but you've got 3G on your phone! You know? It's there's this shift that – ...we usually use this in the sense of talking about media – but the toothpaste is out of the tube with this stuff. ... It's not like it used to be like you're describing, Jeff. Like back in the day when if I wanted to do anything with email, I had to go to the office and sit down with Eudora and my Hayes modem and that was a completely different way of thinking about my work than it is today. And I think that you're describing a shift, though, that's a whole constellation, a syndrome of changes that IT in particular is probably having a pretty hard time keeping up with."

Dan: "Well, you know, just the existence – to kind of support what you're saying - just the existence of apps like Gowalla, the existence of the Gowalla/Foursquare mentality, of something like that couldn't have existed the way it does now just a few years ago, let alone a decade ago. And I think people want to be in touch and it's like would a company now, today, a new one, ever be able to do anything but encourage this kind of thing? And when is enough enough?"

Jeff: "Well, I'll tell you, there's another shift as well, and it's not just this 'IT departments trying to exert control', but it's also this notion of how you measure productivity. Right? ... In the past corporate productivity measurements were about your butt in a chair for forty hours a week. Right? You know, filing your TPS reports. So that's why you see crazy stuff, like, you know, firewall filters that won't let you go visit Facebook while you're in the office. As opposed to... be more milestone-based, set out your objectives, know what they are, get them done, have a deadline, and then leave me the hell alone. I'll get my work done and that might actually require me connecting with somebody on Facebook to answer a question, or, or whatever! Right?"

Merlin: "Yeah, it's infantilizing!"

Jeff: "It is!"

Merlin: "What's funny to me in this is again another thing from the book, but, like, to me this is a huge pattern is that what is knowledge work at the heart of it? Knowledge work is you hire somebody because they're smart and they either know how to solve a problem you don't know how to solve or they know how to solve it better and more efficiently than you. So they're a part of this value chain where, like I call it the black box career, but you don't need to know everything about MySQL to go hire the guy who's your MySQL admin. You just need to know that that person does a good job with it. ...Pragmatic Thinking and Learning, Andy Hunt (one of the Pragmatic Programmer guys), he has this wonderful term, and I really recommend this book for anybody... and the phrase he uses is... that the problem at a lot of companies like you're describing, Jeff, is they're trying to herd racehorses and race sheep. And so, in that instance, you are infantilizing people whose job it is to figure out what their job is. ... You know what, just tell me the deadline and the rules. Kobayashi Maru, man. I will figure out how to do this, but, like, get out of my face and stop trying to give me unnecessary rules. In my opinion, that is a failure of management. You look at somebody like Lopp, right? Michael Lopp. You talk to Michael and he will just say 'You know what my job is as a manager? My job is to get out of the way, remove barriers, and then run defense so my people don't get interrupted.' And that is so different from 'You need to be sitting and checking email all day long so I know that you're there.'"

Jeff: "It's about trust, right?"

Merlin: "The lack of trust, absolutely, the lack of trust. And also... when you get to the big company level you end up having... more mortar than brick."

Good news and an opportunity for San Franciscans 2010

I'm very relieved that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Budget & Finance Committee has maintained funding for the Neighborhood Emergency Response Team program. This is a wonderful, practical, and free program to train ordinary San Franciscans to stay safe and, where possible, help others in case of disaster. Unfortunately, there's no guarantee the funding will be preserved in the future, so take advantage of the program now while we have it.

Why should you care?

California has a 99.7 percent chance of having a 6.7 magnitude earthquake or larger during the the next 30 years. The likelihood of a more powerful quake of 7.5 magnitude in the next 30 years is 46 percent. Such a quake is more likely to occur in the southern half of the state than in the northern half. ... the probability of a 6.7 magnitude earthquake or larger over the next 30 years striking the greater Los Angeles area is 67 percent and in the San Francisco Bay Area is 63 percent [source]

The best way to deal with this threat is to understand what it would mean for you and your household and how you can reduce your risks of being badly hurt during a quake. Take the classes, they're free and interesting. Download the NERT manual and learn how to put together an emergency kit. Get involved with your local team and stack the deck in favor of coming through the next big shakeup unharmed.

San Franciscans, once again, why should you care?

Because we have 17,000 residents per square mile and only about 300 firefighters on duty at any given time. You will need to be self-sufficient, especially in the first three days after a major quake.

It's not hard to be ready, but you do have to start preparing.

Every week, from now until the ground moves, devote a little time – even just a few minutes when you can't take a class or do a bigger safety project in your home – to providing for your future.

2010

Just realized the TypePad "Quick Compose" box is basically useless to me because it doesn't accept HTML, e.g. to put a link into a post. *sigh*

2010

"The kind of writing I do has always been designed either to elicit a conversation or to provide some framework for thinking about a problem, and you do that better if you're dealing with people whom you don't know in advance and who may not be inclined to agree with you. Usenet is a much better environment for that, frankly, than the Yale campus."
--- Clay Shirky, knocking my socks off again

2010

Spammer with an oooold list of domain data reminds me that at one time I owned synergystreet.com (no memory of what that was for) and brendanfrasersmouth.com (which was, of course, for those things on which gay men and straight women can agree and was bought, I strongly suspect, right after watching Gods and Monsters).

Definitely in motion on my road 2010

My latest Discardia post is about choosing what you most want and don't want in your life and then bearing those priorities in mind when faced with options (which we are all day, every day).

Here are my choices:

I want...
1. to be thriving in a great relationship.
2. to feel healthy and strong.
3. to be a published author.

I don't want...
1. to work in a cubicle.
2. to have little control over when I do what.
3. to be stressed all the time.

I'm making great progress on all of these goals. I quit my office job just over a year ago, went into business for myself as a productivity and life coach, started writing my book about Discardia, devoted more of my energy to my relationship with Joe, and consciously began designing my life for less stress.

The feeling healthy and strong part has been tough, though, I have to admit. I hate gyms. I have a weak knee and a weak ankle which make running or jogging very unattractive. Really, the only exercise routine I actually like and seek out many times a week is walking. As someone with a project of walking the city of San Francisco – every street, every block – that's not a surprise, right? :)

During the past two years I've made various attempts to up my activity level. I tried the Wii Fit for a while; fun, but not inspirational for daily activity. I got a pedometer and renewed my focus on my SF walking project; definitely a help, but not always compatible with working on a book and maintaining a happy home many hours a day.

Yesterday, I think I finally found the sweet spot: a treadmill desk.
I moved my Ikea office armoire to the other wall so the space in front of it wouldn't block our path to the back bathroom, switched the shelves around so that the extending desk surface could hold my monitor at face height when I'm standing, and put my treadmill in front of the desk. There are a couple tweaks needed – the typing surface needs to be an inch or two lower and the stereo speaker buzz needs to be resolved – but in the first part of my day today (less than two hours) I've already strolled at a comfortable speed of 0.7 miles an hour (while typing and reading) and logged over 2700 steps.

I can see that with this setup it will be very difficult not to reach a daily goal of at least 10,000 steps. Also my energy and alertness levels are both higher than when I'm sitting in a chair. Awesome!

Notes on my setup:
- LifeSpan Fitness TR200 Fold-N-Stor Compact Treadmill
- nice finished board
- two scarves to tie board on treadmill handles
- blanket under board for padding and as additional safety grip
- Ikea armoire with extendable shelf
- cheapish monitor
- MacBook
- creativity

Handy city info for your address 2010

I was checking to confirm who my city supervisor is when I found this handy dandy service from the San Francisco government. Just type in your address (or a cross street) and you'll find out

• Your parcel information (block & lot, zoning, lot area)
• Elected officials with links to their home pages (Board of Supervisors, U.S. House of Representatives, State Senate, State Assembly, BART Board of Directors)
• Street information with – woo hoo! – street sweeping info for both sides of your block
• Nearest school and public library

Hooray for public information!