Inspired by Anne-Laure LeCunff, I spent a few hours yesterday trying to get TiddlyWiki to work.  It was one of the things I had on my list to try before the end of the year, because it appeared to be a useful tool to weave together the various strands of reading & notes.

After three hours of frustration though, I gave up. The instructions were well written, but I was clearly either missing something or there was some upgrades from the time the documentation was written. It kept overwriting the credentials to save to Github. I’m sure it was me messing up. The part that got me questioning it’s usefulness was when I thought writing a note meant I had to include a whole bunch of formatting code.

Ah, well. I tried.

For years, I’ve been  struggling between a physical notebook and capturing them digitally. Earlier this year, I started using Notion. I learnt a few things about it along the way: using databases as a primary way to keep notes, and some tips too. It’ll do for now.

 

Just the reminder I needed 🙂

Particularly the part about writing.

 

Highlights:

• The little ray of sunshine last evening, and his hilarious and adorable performance
• A disappointing result from the audition, and a way to inspire more preparation
• Watching the young fella learn how to ride his bike at the skate park, lose a bit of his skin and get tutored by the other kids on how to roll his body weight as he goes down the side.

I’m struggling a little to find the motivation to write at this hour. I’m struggling with the speech I’m to deliver this Saturday. There’s a lot going on in my world, or rather in the world of the people I care about. I feel compelled to provide some support. At some point this too shall pass. Until then, it might be shorter writing but I will continue to write even a small paragraph at the least.

No two consecutive days without a post, that is my promise to myself.

Highlights:

• A day out in the sun, with young, curious people, learning a little bit about a new part of the business. The energy of the sun, & the energy of youth to lift my spirits up
• Closure on family matters needing communication and humor
• Watching the love of my life fall asleep, exhausted.

Not my words for today…. Robert Fulghum’s Kindling for the fire from his notebook entries.

KINDLING FOR THE FIRE

“I’m a salami writer. I try to write good salami, but salami is salami.” Stephen King – commenting on his own writing.

---

Bumper stickers I’ve seen:

God loves you, whether you like it or not.

I used up all my sick days, so I called in dead.

Even if the voices aren’t real, they have some great ideas.

---

Sweatshirt messages I’ve seen in downtown Moab:

You couldn’t handle me if I came with instructions.

Come to the dark side. We have free cookies.

Heaven doesn’t want me and hell’s afraid I’ll take over.

---

And some more serious thoughts and ideas:

Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are.

If you do what you’ve always done, you will get what you’ve always gotten.

If you do everything you should do, and do not do anything you should not do, you will, according to the best available statistics, live eighteen hours longer than you would have otherwise.

Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are a good person is a little like expecting a bull not to attack you because you are a vegetarian.

Expectations create experience.

A semi-poem after hearing Cosy Sheridan sing:

There are places you’ll never go back to. And friends you won’t see again. Roads that will never be traveled. There are loves that go unrequited. But torches you always will carry. Walks you wish had never ended. There are memories you never go back to. And memories you never forget. Fires you will always keep tending. Changes you’ll finally get used to. And learn to keep on moving on.

Festina Lente – Latin – keep moving and slow down – simultaneously

It’s all such a delicate balance – To worry does nothing but steal from the living.

Fallacious logic is often the offspring of wishful thinking.

Speculation is not information. Guesses are not facts. Wishes and dreams are smoke from the fires of imagination. Collect kindling for those fires as you go.

# Highlights:

• • MK reaching out in the moment to inquire about me.
  • The opportunity to re-examine my identity, and its various dimensional overlaps.
  • A long walk on a warm yet windy day in the middle of the day.

How do you learn?

Depends on what I’m learning. It’s by doing, by watching others do, by reading, by asking questions, by listening, by breaking things into smaller chunks, by listening to my body, by practising when I don’t need to. Investing time is what I do best.

The lesson repeats itself unless I take the time to learn from it. Today has been a day of learning about psychological safety in a workplace, and how easily it is destroyed. Being able to share what’s on one’s mind, how one is feeling, without being judged is an invaluable trait. Having the wisdom to not share what’s on one’s mind because “being perceived to be a negative nanny” is also valuable. Having the space that I’ve helped create and nurture along with many others over the years, ruthlessly destroyed in less than a minute, taught me in that moment, of what a good leader ought to do.

I trust my intuition. It’s right more often than it’s wrong. It also makes me vulnerable, and sometimes, like today, gets taken advantage of.

“Engineers like action. It gives them comfort that there is momentum, even if it is directionless.”

When the tide is flowing one way, it is easier to go with it than to fight it. Knowing that it will turn in about six hours is ought to be remembered. “Be like water”. I’ve not done that this time, and it’s a lesson I won’t forget.

Highlights:

• • Lunch with a colleague who has been a great partner-in-crime with our innovation ideas. I am grateful that there are several colleagues who I feel safe to be with, and share what’s on my mind without fear of judgement or being taken care of
  • Another conversation with a colleague that has a lot in common, including a language we speak. Again, I deeply appreciate the opportunity to help the person lay down their mental burden with a incredibly challenging situation they are facing.
  • A third colleague who was gracious and kind with his words about the situation I find myself catastrophizing about.
  • Discovering that a colleague I have known for a while actually lives just around the corner. Met the person when we got off the train together!

What is your impression of formal education?

There’s a place for formal education, and it can be taken too far, as has been my experience & impression with it.

The pressure of performing well, regardless of the interest in the subject is debilitating. I can see that with my own kids. Peer pressure, societal pressure, parental pressure… it’s a pressure cooker. And what does it really serve to create, I wonder?