Things are much simpler than they appear. “Man has an uncontrollable urge to make things more complicated than they are. We constantly seek explanation, meaning, something more than things merely existing. And ultimately we create, we invent, we seek what is artificial but still somehow important to us.” - Karmin
During my last year in school I and many others sat for a state wide mathematics test. An advanced one: there were four mind-boggling questions to unravel in three hours. Afterwards I was unhappy because my peers were talking about the complicated and convoluted answers they had written, while I sadly reflected on my lack of understanding and the fact that my answers were fairly brief, in fact I couldn’t follow some of the post mortem discussion at all. When the results came out though, rather than getting a poor result, I ended up getting top marks in the state and winning a rather substantial prize. That taught me one thing; that in some things, mathematics at least, I could cut through the noise and see clearly the simple answers. In turn that gave me confidence to apply myself in other areas of life, knowing that my instinct and reasoning could be trusted even when others had different views.
Pattern recognition
Our brains are wired to be creative. And inventive. Creativity is the ability to put disparate things together in a new way; the ability to generate a new perspective from which inventiveness and inventions arise.
Someone who can both analyse AND synthesise does best; some people who get a small team together with complementary skills, ones who can work together; do even better. Rare; because people forming teams often invite/promote people who are the same as them! Big mistake if we are looking for innovation, creativity, and progress. Like geese, if we could overcome our competitive instincts and work together without fear or compromise, even more could be achieved.
Unfortunately, what I have seen of leadership teams, egos try to dominate, and along the way, agendas are formulated and pushed. Eagles and turkeys. Bad mixture. To nullify the egos, teams need to form and disband, in a fluid manner. A liquid society. Not afraid to wipe the slate clean and start over. Born again.
Who cares what people think? “Everyone has been and will be worrying about how themselves and how they look, so in truth people won't pay that much attention to people other than themselves, and so we shouldn't have a huge need to worry about what others will think because it is somehow, maybe, possible that they won't even be thinking about you”. - Karmin
Then when you run; be yourself, run like nobody’s watching, Sing like nobody’s listening. In fact, fly like a goose. I attended a grandchild’s concert yesterday. One child was self-conscious, declined to participate, and cried. The others all joined in at the top of their lungs. It’s sad when people miss the fun and freedom of living life to the full in the company of others. Does it have to be this way?
Australian politics
Probably the less said about our sad, reactionary, dysfunctional, parliament the better. You can skip this bit. But I will say, democracy rewards mediocrity, that’s what I think. I also think that compromise is failure. There are too many voices, and too much chaos, and too few incisive minds, and too few risks taken. And everything’s too complicated, from the tax systems, to planning processes, and everything in between. Including how to handle global warming, (“climate change”), with the apparent need to listen to the fools who believe there is no global warming happening. And it’s all coloured by personal ambition. Ah democracy. It all gets very boring, after a while.
I don’t know what that says about teams.
Come together. Right now. Over me.
Just my patchwork thoughts late on a Wednesday night and beyond.
Thanks Karmin for the quotes and ideas.
During my last year in school I and many others sat for a state wide mathematics test. An advanced one: there were four mind-boggling questions to unravel in three hours. Afterwards I was unhappy because my peers were talking about the complicated and convoluted answers they had written, while I sadly reflected on my lack of understanding and the fact that my answers were fairly brief, in fact I couldn’t follow some of the post mortem discussion at all. When the results came out though, rather than getting a poor result, I ended up getting top marks in the state and winning a rather substantial prize. That taught me one thing; that in some things, mathematics at least, I could cut through the noise and see clearly the simple answers. In turn that gave me confidence to apply myself in other areas of life, knowing that my instinct and reasoning could be trusted even when others had different views.
Pattern recognition
Our brains are wired to be creative. And inventive. Creativity is the ability to put disparate things together in a new way; the ability to generate a new perspective from which inventiveness and inventions arise.
Someone who can both analyse AND synthesise does best; some people who get a small team together with complementary skills, ones who can work together; do even better. Rare; because people forming teams often invite/promote people who are the same as them! Big mistake if we are looking for innovation, creativity, and progress. Like geese, if we could overcome our competitive instincts and work together without fear or compromise, even more could be achieved.
Unfortunately, what I have seen of leadership teams, egos try to dominate, and along the way, agendas are formulated and pushed. Eagles and turkeys. Bad mixture. To nullify the egos, teams need to form and disband, in a fluid manner. A liquid society. Not afraid to wipe the slate clean and start over. Born again.
Who cares what people think? “Everyone has been and will be worrying about how themselves and how they look, so in truth people won't pay that much attention to people other than themselves, and so we shouldn't have a huge need to worry about what others will think because it is somehow, maybe, possible that they won't even be thinking about you”. - Karmin
Then when you run; be yourself, run like nobody’s watching, Sing like nobody’s listening. In fact, fly like a goose. I attended a grandchild’s concert yesterday. One child was self-conscious, declined to participate, and cried. The others all joined in at the top of their lungs. It’s sad when people miss the fun and freedom of living life to the full in the company of others. Does it have to be this way?
Australian politics
Probably the less said about our sad, reactionary, dysfunctional, parliament the better. You can skip this bit. But I will say, democracy rewards mediocrity, that’s what I think. I also think that compromise is failure. There are too many voices, and too much chaos, and too few incisive minds, and too few risks taken. And everything’s too complicated, from the tax systems, to planning processes, and everything in between. Including how to handle global warming, (“climate change”), with the apparent need to listen to the fools who believe there is no global warming happening. And it’s all coloured by personal ambition. Ah democracy. It all gets very boring, after a while.
I don’t know what that says about teams.
Come together. Right now. Over me.
Just my patchwork thoughts late on a Wednesday night and beyond.
Thanks Karmin for the quotes and ideas.
Never stop creating. And keep moving.
