writingwithnothing

[writingwithnothing]

Constant change.

Travel light.

Empty soul.

[writingwithnothing]

Time, Young and Old

“Time flies when you’re having fun.”

“It’ll be here before you know it.”

Time flies as you get older, so we must be having more fun. (Does time fly twice as fast when we’re old and having fun?)

They say time is a construct. Maybe some people perceive time differently, the way some people are color blind, or synaesthesia—how some people hear color, or taste sound. We’ve at least all felt time slow down when we’re in “flow.”

Useful thoughts? Maybe not. But interesting, and fun—a fun way to pass the time.

[writingwithnothing]

Special Means One

Whether it's time, people, or quality, special means being unique.

One time only.

One person, one family, one exclusive group.

One separating distinction.

It’s one.

Some things are special because they’re temporary. Life, childhood, special experiences. Once.

Some things are special because they’re ours. Exclusive. Something my own or something we share. Love, personality, purpose. Ours.

Some things are special because they’re better (or worse). Skill, passion, special qualities. Only.

[writingwithnothing]

Surprises

“Assumptions blind, hypotheses guide. Good negotiators going in know they have to be ready for possible surprises. Great negotiators aim to use their skills to reveal the surprises they are certain exist.”

“A label’s power is that it invites the other person to reveal himself… [Say it] and then go silent.”

“Calibrated questions avoid verbs or words like can, is, are, do, or does. These are closed-ended questions that can be answered with a simple yes or a no. Instead, they start with a list of words people know as reporter’s questions: who, what, when, where, why, and how… It’s best to start with what, how, and sometimes why. Nothing else.”

“When someone seems irrational or crazy they most likely aren’t… Search for constraints, hidden desires, and bad information.”

“Ten minutes of face time often reveals more than days of research.”

—

Source: Never Split the Difference, by Chris Voss. https://www.amazon.com/Never-Split-Difference-Negotiating-Depended-ebook/dp/B014DUR7L2

[writingwithnothing]

Special

“I should do this every day.”

But then it wouldn’t be special, right? Or would it. 🤔

Special things are special because we say so.

So why do we say so?

spe·cial /ˈspeSHəl/ adjective - better, greater, or otherwise different from what is usual.

I’ve no idea, but apparently we’re not as special as we used to be.

We hit peak special back in the ‘60s:

Source: http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?year_start=1800&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=7&case_insensitive=on&content=special

Disillusioned?

Perspectives change. We’re not all “unique little snowflakes” anymore. When people say, “Everyone is special,” we know, “That’s just another way of saying no one is.”

It’s not gone, though. “There’s some good in this world… and it’s worth fighting for.”

So what’s special to you?

[writingwithnothing]

Knock on the Door

“Hey, I’m here.”

No answer.

Ten minutes later, drives away.

Phone call.

“Hey, where are you?”

“Oh, I left.”

“What?”

“Yeah, I texted and you didn’t answer so I left.”

“Why didn’t you knock on the door?”

“Oh, I didn’t think of that…”

We’ve reached peak millennial—when friends text you from the driveway instead of knocking on the door.

What other strange ways have we changed?

[writingwithnothing]

License Plates

I’m obsessed with vanity license plates.

Some people collect stamps, others coins. I keep a list of personalized license plates—anything I happen to notice cruising around Charlotte, NC.

First it was a joke. Now it’s a habit.

“I can tell you the license plate numbers of all six cars outside.” https://youtu.be/IjrWOZby8s8?t=46

WIFEY

EL FUEGO

LILBLOO

CORTANA

MOTHRA

IRISHGUY

Back in Florida, nobody had these. I mean, sure they did—but not nearly as many as North Carolina. Here it’s a phenomenon.

Why?

I’m curious: How many people with personalized license plates also have tattoos? Or are vanity plates a kind of “safe” alternative to tattoos?

Whatever the reason, I’m fascinated.

[writingwithnothing]

Understanding

“We learned that the impossible is not impossible. We learned that if you think you can do something, you may very well be able to do it 1000 times better once you understand what’s going on.” —John Mayo

“In contrast to the military, the medical profession has incessant practice. Yet the great advances in medicine and surgery have been due more to the scientific thinker and research worker than to the practitioner.” —B. H. Liddell Hart

“Creative environments that foster a rich exchange of ideas are far more important in eliciting important new insights than are the forces of competition.” —Steven Johnson

“Management of people requires knowledge of the effect of the system on the performance of people. A company requires the help of profound knowledge. And as a good rule, profound knowledge comes from outside. And by invitation from someone eager to listen. A system cannot understand itself. A system cannot understand itself.” —W. Edwards Deming

“It was because [Wellington] really understood war that he became so good at securing peace.” —B. H. Liddell Hart

“The energy of the intellectual himself springs from an emotion: love of truth—the desire for wider knowledge and understanding.” —B. H. Liddell Hart

“If you hear a teacher boast of being able to understand and interpret the writings of Chysippus, remember—if Chysippus had written clearly and simply, there would be nothing to brag about.” —Epictetus

[writingwithnothing]

Old Words

“The word malaria is a corruption of the Italian for ‘bad air,’ as it was believed the disease was airborne; the connection with mosquitoes wasn’t established until later.” —Kassia St Clair, The Secret Lives of Color

Ideas change, but always rooted in history.

[writingwithnothing]

It’s Old

Solomon said there’s nothing new under the sun.

Probably because we have to keep relearning the same things over and over.

Sure, there are new things—new technology, new theories of the world, even new people. But it’s funny how new people are both the cause and solution to the problem…

New people come up with new ideas, but they also have to relearn all the old ones.

We stand on the shoulders of giants, but only as long as we keep learning and leaving a legacy. Otherwise, what’s forgotten is lost and left to be rediscovered.

It’s that constant, bubbling evolution.

So repeat.

[writingwithnothing]

Surroundings

Why do you surround yourself with books and quotes?

Because I need ideas to jump start my own. My thoughts don’t spring from the ground, they ricochet off others. I’m reactive. A sounding board, not a font of wisdom.

I still feel the need to be original, but I can’t be that—not on my own. I need my surroundings to draw me out. I need people to ask questions that I can stumble over.

“A man is known by the company he keeps.” —Aesop

[writingwithnothing]

The Little Boy

Mike Mulligan was like John Henry. Both remarkable, both stories worth sharing.

But who shares the stories?

In “Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel,” Mike and his steam shovel, Mary Anne, help dig the great canals. They dig railroads through mountains and highways through hills. They dig landing fields for airplanes and deep cellars for big city skyscrapers.

Along come the new gas, electric, and diesel shovels and take away all the jobs. No one wants steam shovels anymore.

But Mike and Mary Anne find one last job to prove themselves: they dig a cellar for Popperville’s new town hall in just one day.

‘What!’ said Henry B. Swap. ‘Dig a cellar in a day! It would take a hundred men at least a week to dig the cellar for our new town hall.’

‘Sure,’ said Mike, ‘but Mary Anne can dig as much in a day as a hundred men can dig in a week.’

Enter the little boy…

Mike and Mary Anne start work early the next morning—alone.

The little boy is the first to join. Then a few others come along, and the boy sees Mike and Mary Anne work “a little faster and a little better” for the small crowd.

He decides to share the story.

The little boy runs off and tells everyone he can find about Mike and Mary Anne—and he starts with the postman.

He found repeaters.

Mike and Marry Anne were remarkable, but they still needed someone to share their story.

Every story, every idea worth sharing, needs someone to repeat it.

The little boy started it, then the postman, then the telegraph boy, then the milkman and the doctor and the farmer coming into town.

But it wasn’t just the little boy: “Now the girl who answers the telephone called up the next towns… and told them what was happening…”

Sure, every generation needs its heroes, but we also need repeaters.

[writingwithnothing]

The Ninth Man

Beginner’s Mind makes it way easier to play devil’s advocate—easier to be on the devil’s side when you don’t know any better.

The catch is you still need someone else to believe in you.

Sure, a dissenting voice makes a big difference (see Asch conformity experiments), but you still need someone else open to the idea—someone to validate your dissent.

The Tenth Man needs the Ninth Man.

We need repeaters.

“The first follower is what transforms a lone nut into a leader.” —Derek Sivers, https://youtu.be/V74AxCqOTvg

[writingwithnothing]

Beginner’s Mind

Beginner’s mind is great for learning new things. Come empty, fill new. Free yourself of preconceptions to help spot the obvious.

It’s great for meeting new people. Ask questions, listen intently. Be genuinely curious.

But it sucks for repeat crowds.

At least, it’s easy to get tired of being the dumb one. Same for everyone else having to explain themselves.

More importantly, it’s hard to constantly work up to mature conversations—the kind you can only have when both sides already know the basics.

Sometimes I feel like a drag being so empty-headed.

Maybe it’s worth it?

[writingwithnothing]

Preparation

What are you preparing for?

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

Habits build up. So do ideas.

Keep your time open. Let your mind wander.

[writingwithnothing]

Lifestyle Fragmentation

Businesses today (consumer services) are built around all the fragmented parts of our lives we lose track of in our busy, 21st century world.

The busier we become, the less time to live, the more opportunity to specialize.

What everyone had to know before, only a few manage now.

[writingwithnothing]

Information

“Organizations are held together by information rather than by ownership or command.” —Peter Drucker, paraphrasing Chester Barnard

Source: https://hbr.org/2004/06/what-makes-an-effective-executive