Category: Mental Modes

Back To Normal

“The Only Constant Is Change” About three weeks after Hurricane Helene shut down the town and wrecked the region, and we could say that we are “getting back to normal.” But what does that mean when I took a shower in the parking lot of a bank? (In a trailer, full of showers, in a…
QuestionStorming

The expectation is that people will show up to a brainstorming session with a grip of solutions ready to go. I previously worked through an alternative approach to brainstorming for those who have teams of people with varied personalities (introverts, extroverts) and how to ensure the loudest idea wasn’t mistaken for the best idea. A…
Joyful Creation

via – Reclaiming Joy in the Creator Economy – by Thomas Klaffke (creativedestruction.club)
It’s a Wet Heat

We’re hitting the first hot and wet days here in Asheville. And as uncomfortable as it is, I tell myself that it could be worse. I know the Piedmont and coastal regions are easily 10 degrees warmer and 40 percent more humid just by being. I’ll never forget our late-July trip to Wilmington for a…
The Universal Reminders

Because sometimes you wonder if this is all worth it. Because doing your own thing, running your own business, sharing your story, making it matter, and going out of your way to try something way off base from the norm tends to fail far more often than it succeeds. Because sometimes you find yourself looking…
What The Hell Is a Hobby?

This all reminds me of Parkinson’s Law: work contracts to fit the time you give it. My goal is fairly simple: restrict my “work” to 15 hours a week. Three, five-hour days sounds simple enough. But when someone asks what I do for a living I sardonically respond: “Whatever the hell I want.” This makes…
A Personal Manifesto for 2024

Forget Resolutions. Long Live the Manifesto!
Math as a Liberal Art

The problem with math – at least with math instruction – is that everything is presented as a problem to be solved, and there is one solution. It wouldn’t be until a seminar on etymology that I started to understand where my mathematical collapse begun.
Notes On: The Manifesto

The first draft of every manifesto comes from a place of fear, anxiety, frustration – a position of “fuck this.” A single event – bad traffic, an asshole boss, an absurdly horrible day – and the pressure is let off. The gas burns, the rant begins. Most people rant, rave, have three glasses of wine…