The Bamboo Project Blog

7 More Things You Don't Need to Know About Me

I've been tagged by Cammy Bean for the 7 More Things You Don't Need to Know About Me meme currently making the rounds, which seems like a good time to update the 8 Random Facts meme. So here goes:

1. I did get a Wii for Xmas and I have been kicking everyone's ass in bowling. I am the Wii Bowling Queen!

2. I have become slightly addicted to Daily Kos and the Huffington Post in the past few months.

3. I am currently exploring meditation and finding that "monkey mind" is a serious affliction for me. If I'm honest, I think it's gotten worse as a result of all my time online.

4. Every year I see the week between Christmas and New Year's as the time for me to take stock and prepare for a new year. I then expect myself to really hit the ground running on January 1 with all sorts of new projects, ideas, etc. Somehow it never works that way. So this year I'm honoring the cycle of the seasons and using the winter months to "get the ground ready" (as it were) for launching bigger things in the spring. Winter really is not my best time of the year, so I'm going to see what happens when I stop pressuring myself to "get stuff done."

5. My first job ever was as a nurse's aide in a nursing home. While other 16 year olds were serving Happy Meals, I was cleaning and feeding senior citizens in a fire trap that eventually burned down several years after I stopped working there. On certain shifts, patients were routinely over-medicated with Mellaril so that they would be quiet and leave the staff alone.  After discussing this with a nurse, I began throwing away meds. I couldn't stand to see these poor men and women drooling and out of it because staff wanted to be able to watch TV for most of the shift.

6. I have played Dungeons and Dragons. Within the past year. And enjoyed it.

7. I have recently taken up knitting as a sort of meditational practice. Anyone interested in a scarf?

Now I'm tagging:

Catherine Lombardozzi

Ken Allen

Jeff Cobb

Virginia Yonkers

Sarah Stewart

Kevin Jones

Brent MacKinnon

Happy Holidays--Time to "Let the Belly Go Jelly!"

Tis the season . . . to gain weight! And in that vein, let me share with  you the latest holiday tune, "Let the Belly go Jelly," from a colleague who apparently has a lot of time on his hands. (That's Tim on the left, in the hat).

Happy Holidays!

P.S. It's not like I've been writing a lot in December anyway, but I might as well make it official. Posting will be sporadic over the next week or so as I enjoy time with my family, (hopefully) play on the Wii I requested and work on getting my act together for January.

And one final question--what do you hope Santa leaves under the tree for you?

When Memories Exceed Dreams

Michael Hammer said:

When memories exceed dreams, the end is near. The hallmark of a truly successful organization is the willingness to abandon what made it successful and start fresh.

I think this is true for individuals, too.

Have your memories exceeded your dreams? What do you need to abandon? How could you start fresh?

Flickr photo via Zerone Eric Ouano

I'm Sorry, But This is Taking Twitter TOO Far!

An NYU grad student has invented a device that his pregnant wife can wear to transmit each kick of their unborn child.

For a class project, the second year grad student invented what he dubbed the Kickbee.

The wearable device made of a stretchable band with embedded electronics and sensors isn't exactly a model of comfort.

Small Piezo sensors attached directly to the band transmit small but detectable voltages when they are triggered by movement underneath.

An Arduino Mini micro-controller wirelessly transmits the signals to an accompanying Java application via Bluetooth.

"I have a vibrating device in my pocket at all times," says Menscher. ""Every time the baby kicks, it uploads a message to the server and I get a text message on my phone as well."

He says he chose Twitter because not only is it easy to initiate an SMS message to any mobile phone, but it also acts as a data log.

Future versions of the Kickbee belt could update sites such as Facebook, too, Menscher notes.

Is it me, or is this a little much?

The Company We Keep--and the Environment We Make

As American's we're taught (sometimes implicitly) that we rise or fall on our own merits, that through our individual goals and activities we can achieve anything we want.  I've always had a problem with this philosophy. I've seen too many times how the greatest personal effort can die when you lack access to the resources and advantages enjoyed by some of your fellow citizens.

With this in mind, I just finished reading Malcom Gladwell's new book, Outliers. In it, he argues that insanely successful people are less a product of their abilities than of a series of lucky breaks that can put them in the position to develop and/or take great advantage of those abilities.

Gladwell points out, for example, that Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and several other high tech gurus happened to be born at a particular time (the mid 1950's) and in a particular place (Silicon Valley) that favored their specific talents. In turn, they had access to people and experiences that helped them build on their abilities. In other words, if Steve Jobs was born a few years earlier or in South Dakota,  I might not be writing this on a MacBook Pro.

What strikes me about Gladwell's premise is how it takes away from us this idea that somehow we're successful ONLY as a result of our individual talents. It reminds us that as much as we want to believe that we're products of our own efforts we are not. Time, place, our social environment--all of these have a far greater impact than we give them credit for.

Part of me feels a loss of control in this idea. If my success is a function of time, place and other people, then what the hell do I do with that?  At the same time, it removes a level of guilt--if I'm unsuccessful, then maybe it wasn't my fault after all.

What Outliers really left me thinking about, though, was the issue of the company we keep and the ways in which we create advantageous environments for the people around us. This seems particularly important in a networked world and in a world that currently seems to be falling apart. And it seems that we have more opportunities than we once did to spread our positive influence in ways that can make more people more successful.

So the question is, what can we do to support making more people into "Outliers"? How can we contribute to creating an environment that breeds success?

What Are the Rules of Your New Ecosystem?

Seth Godin has an interesting post:

Businesses live in ecosystems. A series of rules and assumptions that, taken together, make a thriving mechanism. . . .

We get stuck because we believe that the rules of our ecosystem are permanent and transferable. In fact, they are almost always temporary and rarely transferable.

My approach now is simple: take a look at the rules of the new ecosystem. Do they make sense? Is it possible they'll come to pass? If they do, what happens to you?

This seems like some good career advice to consider in turbulent times. In our jobs, within our organizations and industries, what new rules and assumptions form our new ecosystem? If they come to pass, what does that mean for us? How does the new system change:

• Our customers?
• Our industry?
• Our roles and responsibilities?
• The skills needed to do our jobs?
• The ways we develop new skills?
• The people we work and interact with on a daily basis?
• Where we do our work?
• The tools we use?
• How we communicate and collaborate with people around us?
• How we think about ourselves and the work that we do?

The answers to these questions can give us a way forward, a path from the old to the new. If we haven't been having these conversations, maybe we need to start them now.

So what are the new rules of your ecosystem? How do you need to adapt?

Flickr photo via ecostaticist

Dealing with The Tyranny of Now

Last week I wrote a post about the "Tyranny of Now"--the always-on society we live in and how we're pressured to monitor and respond to it 24/7. I got a lot of great advice and comments on it that deserve to be elevated to a post.

Ken Allen suggested that dealing with multiple demands on your attention is a little like playing tennis:

I raised this in conversation recently - the 'nowness' as you coined it though I didn't call it that - and someone said glibly that it's just like playing tennis, "you return the ball from which ever direction it comes, that's the skill."

But it's more than just that.

It's more like playing tennis with several players, all of them on the other side of the net, and all serving with a different ball.

For a satisfactory return that leads to something useful, one has to simply ignore certain serves, and find ways of doing this. It's not easy.

That way, however, you have prioritised your interactions, for you are in control.

Use whatever means, when necessary, to freeze that incoming ball in mid air while you deal with the previous one, otherwise you end up missing both.

Ken Stewart reminded me that there's a difference between immediate and urgent:

I must say there is a difference between immediate and urgent. This phenomenon seems to underscore 2 very fundamental oversights:

1) Lack of planning
2) Lack of respect for other people

I work in a customer service business - a very high tough company. Many of us work in service - of some sort or another, and each of us have varying degrees of pressure we face. I do acknowledge this fact.

Past this, someone else's poor planning should not become my emergency. It sometimes does, but I have learned to build that need to my day.

As I read through your post, I found myself tensing up, unconsciously even - recoiling from the on-slaught of this "Tyranny of Now". My 2 cents would simply be that we must each determine where our boundaries are, and in so doing - establish rules of engagement so as not to allow others to rob us of our sanity, of our calm, and of ourselves.

Catherine Lombardozzi offered additional advice:

#1 - Sunday night is off limits. I have found that I have gone from my work week, to a busy weekend working on my faculty and other professional commitments, and left no time for taking a deep breath. I've tried to commit to after dinner on Sunday as time to sit by the fire and read, or to reflect in my journal. It's worked wonders on my sense of calm when I've actually stuck with that plan... so I intend to make it permanent and immutable.

#2 Cut back. - In 2008, I asked my employer for a 30-hour work week and was stunned and blessed when they said yes. I took a pay cut, but wow, what a difference it has made!! Now I can work a steady job, teach some evenings, and still have time for friends and family.

#3 Schedule time and set time limits. - I admit that I love to get lost in blogs and reading news on the internet (like now, for example)... so when I'm really busy, I set myself time limits. In an upcoming experiment, I plan to set aside specific time for reading and responding to blogs... I find that by doing it as part of my daily routine, I don't have time to comment and so it gets away from me. I'm hoping by setting time, I can better retain what I'm getting out of reading them rather than let them blow by. Most posts aren't time-sensitive anyway.

Kim McCollum shared her tips, which are very similar to the strategies I've been using lately:

When I find that I feel too pressured to do things "Now" and like I don't have enough time, I try to cut back. I stop reading blogs for a week and clear everything out with a press of the "Mark All As Read" button. Then I go in and get rid of some subscriptions. I realign priorities and drop some personal projects (usually to be picked back up later, when it is more convenient). After whittling down my commitments, I tend to have less things pressing for my time "Now".

And Virginia Yonkers offered one final bit of advice:

I think you need to overcome the tyranny by saying, "in a minute". I have found that even my students are patient if I just give them a plan or schedule (I'll have it done by X date, and yes I received your e-mail, communication, etc...). You just can't rush us tortoises, but you can count on us to deliver!

Great ideas from everyone--thank you! Any you would add?

The Tyranny of Now

Lately, I've been ruled by "The Now"-- the insistent demands of the ringing phone, the urgent email, the client who needs me to do something IMMEDIATELY to solve her problem. 

What is demanded of me in the present moment has come to hold more sway over me than what I've set for myself as my longer-term goals. In fact, I have to say that I've completely lost sight of any actual goals. I'm too sucked into the screaming vortex of "NOW!"

I've been adding to this burden of "now-ness" (a word I've just made up), through my own uses of technology. I have my Gmail account open at all times, so that I see every email as it slides into my inbox. My Netvibes winks growing numbers of unread posts at me in another Firefox tab, urging me to check my feeds before things get out of control. And of course I have Twitter and blog comments and two phone lines, each calling for attention, too.

There's something to be said for living in the present. Isn't that what we're constantly told we should do?  But I'm not really living in MY present. Instead, I'm living in a present created by other people and what they say or want or need me to do. I'm so busy taking in new information and responding to it that I'm not actually doing much to shape it. There's too much to take in and I haven't been doing a good job of controlling that.

I  think that we have a very real cultural pressure to give in to the Tyranny of Now. We're expected to be responsive and adaptable, to take in large quantities of information and to DO something with it as quickly as possible. If you can't handle that, then there's something wrong with YOU, rather than with a system that demands immediate action. You need to get with the program, man. Figure out how to deal with the information tsunami or someone else will.

Seth Godin says that we sometimes overpay in our quest for the Now. I agree.

So how to break the tyranny and lower the costs? How to get away from "NOW!"?

Vote for Your Favorite Edubloggers

It's time for the 2008 Edublog Awards! Lots of categories with excellent blogs nominated in each.

Check them out, add some new ones to your feed reader and be sure to

Vote for your favorites!

P.S. Thanks for those of you who nominated me--I'm incredibly flattered, especially to find myself in this category. I have to say that I nearly fell over when I saw it. It's an honor to be in such esteemed company.

Things I've Been Doing Instead of Blogging

• Prepping for an Open Space Technology conference I'll be helping to run next week. 

• Skyping with my 20-year old daughter about the angst-ridden journal entries she wrote when she was 16. Apparently I was "insensitive" and "a nightmare" on more than one occasion. 

• Adding tons of bookmarks to my jobsearch tag in Delicious. Did you know that an online community manager averages $74k in Philadelphia? Also, Jim Stroud's webinar on job search strategies is excellent (fast forward to about 6 minutes in), as is the Firefly Manifesto. 

• Recovering from the tryptophan coma that followed our Thanksgiving dinner.

• Attending meetings and participating in long conference calls that challenge my ability to focus and suck out of me every ounce of creativity I possess. (OK, I exaggerate a little. I have a FEW ounces of creativity left). 

• Eating soul food and listening to great jazz at Warmdaddy's.

• Watching The West Wing on DVD, a series I never watched when it was actually on TV, I think because it might have been too depressing to see President Bartlet and compare him to current White House residents.

• Not responding to comments here, for which I apologize.

• Dreaming about salmon for dinner. 

Is it me, or is there a food theme going on here?