I am lying on my bed, looking up at my ceiling, listening to The Smiths. It is 1985, maybe. Meat is Murder is on repeat on the turntable, and hours go by. My ceiling has polystyrene tiles with random zigs and zags, lines at obtuse angles, a meaningless mélange of shapes. Yet within them, staring deeply for hours at a time, I can see many strange things: animals, narratives, emotions, thoughts scattered and now ordering. I am making sense of myself. It is 1998, I am living in Japan, and still staring at the cracked ceiling, lying on tatami. My … Continue reading Staring At The Ceiling Gets Me All Quantum Up On That Thing.

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Asking “What If?” Can Raise your IQ

March 11, 2014March 10, 2014 ThisMuchWeKnow

In yesterday’s post I evidenced the growing requirement to ask questions if one is to survive and thrive in this mad, mad, mad world of ours. No sooner had I hit Publish, another piece of evidence crossed the wires from Warren Berger in this Fast Co. article. Asking big questions is where innovation comes from, and is associated with overcoming fear. John Seely Brown suggests starting with simply asking: what if? Yes, what if? Could there be a more beautiful question? Berger has other beauties to ask in his new book, and a quiz to take too, so you can … Continue reading Asking “What If?” Can Raise your IQ

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Simple / Complex. I’m Confused.

March 6, 2014March 2, 2014 ThisMuchWeKnow

I often get myself tangled up in the conversation about complexity, because I prefer things to be simple (I consider myself a simple fellow at heart) yet I recognize the (increasing) complexity of work/life and I am determined to manage it insofar as I can, embrace it proactively, and benefit from it. So, I am stuck with a conundrum. The ambiguities inherent in complex, complicated, chaotic, chaordic environments seems to point in a different direction to simplicity, that place I call home. How can I square this away? By looking to those who have trodden the path before me, more … Continue reading Simple / Complex. I’m Confused.

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There Are Change Agents, And There Are Change Agents. It’s #FutureOfWork Checklist Time! #CAWW

February 28, 2014February 26, 2014 ThisMuchWeKnow

Fellow CAWWer Catherine Shinners has a good review of recent thinking on what organizations need for breakthrough performance via the Conference Executive Board: read her article for some detail. I will suffice here with listing the CEB checklist of differentiating competencies for high performance: prioritization, teamwork, organizational awareness, problem solving, self-awareness, proactivity, influence, decision-making, learning agility and technical expertise. I like! All of these are in reach of all of us. Attitude, and forward momentum is all that is required to get us on this road… Shinners also shared a Future Work Skills 2020 study that sees successful trends to be: sense-making, … Continue reading There Are Change Agents, And There Are Change Agents. It’s #FutureOfWork Checklist Time! #CAWW

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For Asthmatics, Every. Word. Counts.

February 27, 2014February 25, 2014 ThisMuchWeKnow

The incomparable Miranda July ran one of her weird and wonderful art projects last year where she asked some renowned people to share some of their email correspondence with the world on various topics, under the moniker We Think Alone. One week, the topic was I love you. Here’s what Etgar Keret had to share, on the subject of Asthma Attacks, magically: When an asthmatic says “I love you,” and when an asthmatic says “I love you madly,” there’s a difference. The difference of a word. A word’s a lot. It could be “stop,” or “inhaler.” It could be “ambulance.” … Continue reading For Asthmatics, Every. Word. Counts.

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#Unsquirrel 4: You Say Benevolence, We Say Malevolence

February 19, 2014February 12, 2014 ThisMuchWeKnow

More on Canada’s psyche: Americans are benevolently ignorant about Canada, while Canadians are malevolently well-informed about the United States.” – John Bertlet Brebner Agree. People here in Canada know more about US politics / affairs than they do their own country’s. We pity them. Americans’ ignorance of Canadians means we get away with a lot… ←This Much We Know.→ Continue reading #Unsquirrel 4: You Say Benevolence, We Say Malevolence

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#Unsquirrel 3: Morphing Is The Canadian M.O.

February 18, 2014February 12, 2014 ThisMuchWeKnow

“Canada is a land of multiple borderlines, psychic, social, and geographic. Canadians live at the interface where opposites clash. We have, therefore, no recognizable identity, and are suspicious of those who think they have.” – Marshall McLuhan Morphing is [Canada’s] modus operandi…states the anonymous article. Hear, hear. In an age of constant change, such a situation – perhaps, once, a weakness – is a +1. Those with an identifiable identity will increasingly scurry to update their status and bemoan the[ir] stupidity of youth. Newer nations, unencumbered by layer after layer of history – like Canada – will be ahead of … Continue reading #Unsquirrel 3: Morphing Is The Canadian M.O.

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#Unsquirrel 2: The Fruits Of Idleness

February 17, 2014February 12, 2014 ThisMuchWeKnow

Dang! I should unsquirrel to myself a bit more often. Here I was, on the last day of 2013, writing about flanerie: How could it be that this word, this idea, this approach to life has passed me by all these years?!… it’s a flâneur’s life for me. And yet, all along, squirreled away, hidden, I had this nugget from printed publication unknown, from the German Marxist commentator Walter Benjamin (from The Arcades Project): Basic to flanerie, among other things, is the idea that the fruits of idleness are more precious than the fruits of labour. Amidst the existential angst of … Continue reading #Unsquirrel 2: The Fruits Of Idleness

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#Unsquirrel 1: Concerning Owls

February 14, 2014February 12, 2014 ThisMuchWeKnow

From The Natural History of Iceland (1758): The entirety of Chapter XLII, “Concerning Owls.” There are no owls of any kind in the whole island. Sometimes, we need to waste a little energy to move forward. Not everything we share MUST add value. This is a huge get over it! requirement for 80%(?) of us. The very act of sharing, of working out loud, of considering “Maybe, just maybe, someone out there in my community might find value from my knowledge, data, content” – this is the critical transition from ‘Who knows?” to “Who knew!” ←This Much We Know.→ Continue reading #Unsquirrel 1: Concerning Owls

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The #SocBiz Dogme Manifesto

February 10, 2014February 5, 2014 ThisMuchWeKnow

Researching this series of posts on modern art and social business, I revisited a post I wrote about the Dogme manifesto (and its relationship to other manifestos). One portion seemed particularly apropos to the journey of social / networked business many of us are on. Herein extracted: Festen, the original Dogme film, was an utter delight to me. I believed “I could do that!” and I could (at least from a technical perspective, notwithstanding my lack of creative genius.) Similar to the Incomplete Manifesto for Growth, Dogme says do not (over)embellish. Just do it. Like the Passionate Creative Worker, it says blaze new trails; never settle. The Cult of Done Manifesto says … Continue reading The #SocBiz Dogme Manifesto

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A Simple Person Embracing Complexity

January 20, 2014January 5, 2014 ThisMuchWeKnow

So I have been reorienting myself around the idea of complexity. By nature, I consider myself a simple soul – simple design, food, routines, lifestyle. Simple can be subtle and sophisticated, but generally not complex. Conversely, I like change, and change tends not to be simple or linear. I had seen my ability as being able to simplify the complexity and disturbance of change. To subvert and avoid. I had it wrong. “I would not give a fig for the simplicity on this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity” So said Oliver Wendell Holmes. Complexity is … Continue reading A Simple Person Embracing Complexity

This Much We Know

Curiosity, #FutureOfWork, personal narrative and brand, Un/Re/Learning.

Tag: Synthesis

Staring At The Ceiling Gets Me All Quantum Up On That Thing.

Asking “What If?” Can Raise your IQ

Simple / Complex. I’m Confused.

There Are Change Agents, And There Are Change Agents. It’s #FutureOfWork Checklist Time! #CAWW

For Asthmatics, Every. Word. Counts.

#Unsquirrel 4: You Say Benevolence, We Say Malevolence

#Unsquirrel 3: Morphing Is The Canadian M.O.

#Unsquirrel 2: The Fruits Of Idleness

A Simple Person Embracing Complexity