Keep Imagining

This is exerpted from an essay by Scott Burkin entitled:

#40 - Why smart people defend bad ideas

Death by homogeny

"The second stop on our tour of commonly defended bad ideas is the seemingly friendly notion of communal thinking. Just because everyone in the room is smart doesn’t mean that collectively they will arrive at smart ideas. The power of peer pressure is that it works on our psychology, not our intellect. As social animals we are heavily influenced by how the people around us behave, and the quality of our own internal decision making varies widely depending on the environment we currently are in. (e.g. Try to write a haiku poem while standing in an elevator with 15 opera singers screaming 15 different operas, in 15 different languages, in falsetto, directly at you vs. sitting on a bench in a quiet stretch of open woods).

That said, the more homogeneous a group of people are in their thinking, the narrower the range of ideas that the group will openly consider. The more open minded, creative, and courageous a group is, the wider the pool of ideas they’ll be capable of exploring.

Some teams of people look to focus groups, consultancies, and research methods to bring in outside ideas, but this rarely improves the quality of thinking in the group itself. Those outside ideas, however bold or original, are at the mercy of the diversity of thought within the group itself. If the group, as a collective, is only capable of approving B level work, it doesn’t matter how many A level ideas you bring to it. Focus groups or other outside sources of information can not give a team, or its leaders, a soul. A bland homogeneous team of people has no real opinions, because it consists of people with same backgrounds, outlooks, and experiences who will only feel comfortable discussing the safe ideas that fit into those constraints.

If you want your smart people to be as smart as possible, seek a diversity of ideas. Find people with different experiences, opinions, backgrounds, weights, heights, races, facial hair styles, colors, past-times, favorite items of clothing, philosophies, and beliefs. Unify them around the results you want, not the means or approaches they are expected to use. It’s the only way to guarantee that the best ideas from your smartest people will be received openly by the people around them. On your own, avoid homogenous books, films, music, food, sex, media and people. Actually experience life by going to places you don’t usually go, spending time with people you don’t usually spend time with. Be in the moment and be open to it. Until recently in human history, life was much less predictable and we were forced to encounter things not always of our own choosing. We are capable of more interesting and creative lives than our modern cultures often provide for us. If you go out of your way to find diverse experiences it will become impossible for you to miss ideas simply because your homogenous outlook filtered them out."

Don't even get me started....

I was at the store the other day buying some sundries (we'd run clean out of sundries @ home.) and on the list I brought was "avacados." I judiciously selected four and went to check out. I'd noted the price as I did. At the checkout, the register said they were $1.50 more than the sign did. I told the cashier.

What ensued was a full 20 minute rig-a-ma-roll. The supervising cashier was overly apologetic about the wait and "trouble." I said "Ma'am, there are people all over the world huddled together trying to stay warm, right now my biggest problem is I have to wait a few minutes for my avacados, it's not a big deal."

She stared at me in disbelief. "that's a great attitude to have.....you'd be surprised at how upset people get around here sometimes." I assured her that I wouldn't be surprised.

Dan Wilt, a friend of mine, wrote this on his blog. "Life is meant to be well lived" It was almost in passing that he mentioned it, but the weight of the words hit my soul. I've long been an advocate of living well in the true luxuries of gratitude, simplicity, joy and fun; the "excesses" of close friends and peaceful living. It is in these things that real abundance is found.

Dan's right - life is to be well lived, for it is in living well that we celebrate God's goodness to us. So enjoy your appreciation of a great orange in the middle of winter. Linger deeply in the warmth of a blanket, or the smile of a loved one. These are the things that a well lived life embraces as graces from the Lover of our souls.

Live very well, love as extravagantly as you have been loved by God and bask in the true luxuries of life

Osama Grah'm Hardie

My friend's wife thought a photo he had posted on the web made him look like a terrorist. I wanted to give her a something to compare it too.

My true love gave to me 12 creepy Santas!

Check out my photo album titled "creepy" and you'll see what I mean!

My thanks to the folks @ Scared of Santa for their work that made this possible. I just gleaned the shots where I thought the kids had an obvious reason to be freaking out - even if they weren't.