Category: Blog Wisdom

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Seth Godin: Has Your Journey Been Worth It?

Blog Wisdom, Ethics
Seth Godin

Worth it?

That's a question you hear a lot. “Was it worth it?”

Not certain what either “it” refers to, but generally we're saying, “was the destination worth the journey? Was the effort worth the reward?”

The thing about effort is that effort is its own reward if you allow it to be.

So the answer can always be “yes” if you let it.

Phi Beta Iota:  Those on journeys generally know they are on a journey – and the pain is part of the deal.  Those not on a journey – those who settle for being drones and gerbils repeating the same motions, the same experience, year after year without question – may not realize that the fastest way to experience conversion and start a journey is to reconnect with one word: INTEGRITY.  Is all that you do consistent with the Constitution, with service to the public, with honor toward the Republic?  If it is not, start your journey today.

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John Robb: Radical Energy Innovation Here Now

05 Energy, Blog Wisdom
John Robb

RC ENERGY TIDBIT: Leveraging the Earth for Heat/Cooling

Resilient energy leverages the terrain.

Resilient guerrillas/warriors leverage the terrain they are fighting on to the max.  In our case, we want:

  • plentiful, low cost (hyper efficient) energy that
  • uses a process that's inexpensive to maintain and is
  • under our control (not subject global supply chain factors and limited to locally available labor).

The way to do that is through the installation of geo-exchange systems.  These systems run water through plastic pipes buried in the ground.  Since the ground (below six feet or so) remains at a constant temperature (50-65 degrees) year round (it's a heat sink), this circulation process will heat or cool water to the ground's temperature.  This allows heat pumps that run 2-3 times more efficiently and cooling that is dirt cheap.  For example:

Here's a note from Australia on a recently built hospital. Lithgow hospital uses 1/3 less energy as any other hospital in the state and it's heating/cooling system requires less maintenance.  It also eliminates noise and the risk of Legionnaires disease (an added bonus).

See Also from John Robb:

“Reinventing Fire maps pathways for running a 158%-bigger U.S. economy in 2050 but needing no oil, no coal, and no nuclear energy.”

Virtual power plant market set to zoom.

International Academy of Astronautics says we need to start building an orbital solar power system.

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Seth Godin: Adversity and the route to success

Blog Wisdom
Seth Godin

Adversity and the route to success

Resource-rich regions often fall behind in developing significant industrial and cultural capabilities. Japan does well despite having very few resources at all.

Well-rounded and popular people rarely change the world. The one voted most likely to succeed probably won't.

Genuine success is scarce, and the scarcity comes from the barriers that keep everyone from having it. If it weren't for the scarcity, it wouldn't be valuable, after all.

It's difficult to change an industry, set a world record, land big clients, or do art that influences others. When faced with this difficulty, those with other, seemingly better options see the barrier and walk away.

Why bother? The thinking is that we can just pump some more oil or smile and gladhand our way to an acceptably happy outcome.

On the other hand, people who believe they have fewer options take a look at the barrier and realize that even though it will be difficult to cross, it's the single best option they've got.

This is one of the dangers of overfunded/undertested startup companies. Without an astute CEO in charge, they begin to worry more about not losing what they've already got than the real reason they started the project in the first place.

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Howard Rheingold: Crap Detection & Critical Thinking

04 Education, Advanced Cyber/IO, Blog Wisdom, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, IO Sense-Making, Methods & Process, Movies
Howard Rheingold

YouTube Library

Howard Rheingold on essential media literacies [6:09]

Howard Rheingold on Crap Detection (Part 1) [9:59]

Creating a Critical Society – Howard Rheingold on Crap Detection (Part 2) [4:49]

Determining Site Credibility – Howard Rheingold on Crap Detection (Part 3)

TED: Howard Rheingold: The new power of collaboration (19:34)

Amazon Page

Selected Books on Thinking by Howard Rheingold

Net Smart: How to Thrive Online (Forthcoming March 2012)

Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution (2002)

Tools for Thought: The History and Future of Mind-Expanding Technology (1986)

Howard Rheingold Short Pieces

Howard Rheingold: 10 Online Tools for Better Focus

Howard Rheingold: Mindfulness for Executives

Howard Rheingold: Finding Credible Social Information & Crap Detection

Howard Rheinigold: Cultivating a Personal Learning Network

Howard Rheingold: News Filters for the Future – Technical Services or Human Networks?

Howard Rheingold: Infotention Skills + Citizen Intel RECAP

Worth a Look: Pierre Levy Interviewed by Howard Rheingold on Collective Intelligence

A slice of life in my virtual community

Rheingold at OSS ’92

Below the Line:  Full Text Article and More Links

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Seth Godin: Independence & subjugation

Blog Wisdom, Cultural Intelligence
Seth Godin

Independence and subjugation

Tribal management often involves power struggles. One thing that's been shown again and again–subjugating another tribe, taking it over–it almost never works. It can take hundreds of years before the two tribes get into sync, if ever.

On the other hand, granting independence to a rising tribe, letting them go–this is harder to swallow but it generally leads to a quick and beneficial relationship between the two new groups.

When Atari was struggling after it was acquired by Warner, many top programmers left, some to start companies like Activision. Activision, ironically, was one of the bright spots for Atari after that. The passion and creativity of the nascent group was exactly what the original group needed.

Or consider the excellent relationship that the UK has with both the United States and India. In both cases, the wars of independence weren't as nearly brutal or as drawn out as they could have been.

While conventional views of power and authority seem to indicate that you should co-opt and capture other tribes, you can often achieve more by freeing your own people to maximize their vision alongside yours.

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Kevin Carson: How Much of the Economy is Friction?

Advanced Cyber/IO, Blog Wisdom, Civil Society, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Government
Kevin Carson

How Much of the Economy is Friction?

Charles Hugh Smith raises the question of how much of the U.S. economy consists of the actual output of goods and services, versus the friction entailed in producing them.  As a small example, he cites a physicians’ group that includes ten doctors — and twelve billing clerks.

That’s the general subject of a research paper I did for Center for a Stateless Society (C4SS), The Political Economy of Waste.

The larger and more hierarchical institutions become, and the more centralized the economic system, the larger the total share of production that will go to overhead, administration, waste, and the cost of doing business.  The reasons are structural and geometrical.

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Ronnie Reprise: On Democracy & Technology

Blog Wisdom
Public? What Public?

Horse and Buggy Representation in the Space Age

The representation aspect of our democracy is structured the way it is, primarily due to practical considerations: the unwieldiness of pure democracy.

But since computer technology is changing that, the same philosophical arguments that were made for representative democracy can now legitimately be used for emergent democracy. The only arguments against it before pertained to practicality, not principle.

Now that the practical barriers are being removed, no legitimate philosophical argument can be made against taking advantage of new technology to better fulfill the intent of the principles that The Declaration of Independence and the U. S. Constitution were founded upon.

Continue reading “Ronnie Reprise: On Democracy & Technology”