Hugh Garry's Posterous

Simplicity is not the absence of clutter, that's a consequence of simplicity. Simplicity is somehow essentially describing the purpose and place of an object and product. The absence of clutter is just a clutter-free product. That's not simple.

At every point in human history there have been philosophers claiming that the current civilization has fallen from an earlier halcyon state, that the ways of the ancients had been lost, and modern innovations and practices threatened to destroy all that was good in society and culture.

“Working from a method or a formula is guaranteed to do the same thing to the effectiveness of an idea that time does to a loaf of bread. Ideas must be hot out of the oven if they are to arouse the appetite. That is why, in communications, imitation is commercial suicide.”

One major implication of these findings is that Digital Immigrants are intuitively linear – they want to see a beginning, middle, and end to stories. For Natives, stories still need a beginning, middle and end, but they will accept it in any order. Digital Natives are subconsciously switching between platforms and can pick up different pieces of a story from different mediums in any order.

Don’t call it a comeback – I’ll have hair for years. I’m scared. I’m scared that my abilities are gone, I’m scared that I’m gonna fuck this up, And I’m scared of you. I don’t wanna start – but I will. This is an invocation for anyone who hasn’t begun, Who’s stuck in a terrible place between 0 and 1. Let me realize that my past failures at follow through are no indication of my future performance – they’re just healthy little fires that are gonna warm up my ass. If my F-I-L-D-I is strong, let me keep him in a velvet box until I really really need him. If my F-I-L-D-I is weak, let me feed him oranges and not let him gorge himself on ego and arrogance. Let me not hit up my Facebook like it’s a crack pipe – keep the browser closed. If I catch myself wearing a tutu, too fat, too late, too old – let me shake it off like a donkey would shake off something it doesn’t like. And when I get that feeling in my stomach You know the feeling when all of a sudden you get a ball of energy And it shoots down into your legs and up into your arms And it tells you to get up and stand up and go to the refrigerator and get a cheese sandwich – that’s my cheese monster talking. And my cheese monster will never be satisfied by cheddar, only the cheese of accomplishment. Let me think about the people who I care about the most And how when they fail or disappoint me I still love them, I still give them chances, And I still see the best in them. Let me extend that generosity to myself. Let me find and use metaphors to help me understand the world around me and give me the strength to get rid of them when it’s apparent they no longer work. Let me thank the parts of me that I don’t understand or are outside of my rational control – like my creativity and my courage. And let me remember that my courage is a wild dog and it won’t just come when I call it – I have to chase it down and hold on as tight as I can. Let me not be so vain to think that I’m the sole author of my victories and a victim of my defeats. Let me remember that the unintended meaning that people project onto what I do is neither my fault or something that I can take credit for. Perfectionism may look good in his shiny shoes but he’s a little bit of an asshole and no one invites him to their pool parities. Let me remember that the impact of criticism is often not the intent of the critic, but when the intent is evil – that’s what the block button’s for. And when I eat my critique let me be able to separate out the good advice from the bitter herbs. [[but if the impact on a few is hardly just a small impact]] Let me not think of my work only as a stepping stone to something else And if it is… let me become fascinated with the shape of the stone. Let me take the idea that has gotten me this far and put it to bed. What I’m about to do will not be bad, but it will be something. There’s no need to sharpen my pencils anymore. My pencils are sharp enough. Even the dull ones will make a mark – [works] in all. Let’s start this shit up. And god let me enjoy this – life isn’t just a sequence of waiting for things to be done.

"There are three diseases in Panama.  They are yellow fever, malaria, and cold feet; and the greatest of these is cold feet."

I love that line.  I'd wager that more organizations die of cold feet than from the burns that come with trying and failing.  For anyone who has ever engaged with getting an organization to change, it's cold feet that you're fighting.

So, it is striking that the Samba Schools have a range of different mechanisms for encouraging participation, some more forceful than others, but that it also recognizes and values that sometimes wearing a t-shirt or some other marker of affiliation may be as far as any one person is ready to go in their process of absorbing the norms and values of the community and crossing the invisible threshold into full participation.