(I wrote this on January 9, 2009. Figured it was time to post it.)
On msnbc.com there’s an interactive map of the US, showing the unemployment rates for each state. I helped my mouse travel around the country, saddened when I noticed my wife’s parents’ home state of Michigan at 7.3%. Everybody knows that Detroit’s been hit pretty hard, but when people you love live there it gets personal, more painful. My home, California, was at 5.6%.
Then I realized the top slider was on September of 2007.
Not good.
With much hesitance, I slid the tracker along the timeline and watched the map change from lighter shades of green to darker hues, grimacing as percentages slowly climbed. Michigan turned to black first—signifying a 8-10% unemployment rate—followed by Rhode Island, and then California. We added South Carolina and Oregon to our glum ranks in November.
I realized that today in Michigan, if you have a party at your house with 10 people, one of you doesn’t have a way to pay your bills.
//
I don’t know if this happens anymore, but when I was a kid we learned a song in school. It started with the lyrics: “God bless America; land that I love. Stand beside her, and guide her through the night with a light from above.”
Well, a light to cut through the darkness sounds pretty good right about now.
It doesn’t take too much time surfing across the internet news channels to begin to wonder when—or if—we will bounce back from this. And even though you and I might not be suffering, for so many of our brothers and sisters the crisis is already personal, and their anxiety nearly palpable, bleeding from the pictures we see and the stories we read.
In six days we’ll have a new president. The weight of the world will transfer to new shoulders and the country will look in his direction for something he’s promised us: hope. And even as the administration shifts, talks will likely continue in the direction towards economic growth being our panacea. But I’m wondering about a few things.
For example, wasn’t it at least partially a mentality of a perpetual growth that brought us here, to where we are? Like most strengths, I am afraid that our insatiable thirst for “more” also drags a shadow along with its unmatched productivity: greed.
If that’s true, the solution cannot simply be more growth.
Perhaps instead, might the way out be a better management of what we already have…?
Have you ever known a family to solve their problems by working longer hours? Of course not. So then, why do we think that, as a unified family of Americans, our results would be any different?
//
As much as I dislike the idea, it’s good for me to remember how rich I am. Honestly, it feels much better for me to go on thinking that I am poor, that I don’t have enough; to compare myself to those who have more than I do.
We, as Americans, have a unique opportunity at this point in history to stop and realize some things. To open our eyes to the fortune in our lives. To see the abundance that constantly surrounds us. To consider that maybe it’s time we sing a new song. Maybe God’s already blessed America. And if that is true, instead of recognizing our responsibility to share that abundance with the world, we have instead simply let it inspire a hunger for more… for us.
A government cannot solve our problems; it cannot legislate a solution to something that is, at its core, a localized crisis. And as much as I might like him to, Barack is not going to stop by my house and tell me how to manage my money or teach me how to be more generous with it.
//
Yes, there is hope for us. But it will not dawn with the inauguration of a new president. Hope will come when we, as a family of resilient American brothers and sisters stand tall and accept the responsibility for our own actions. It will come when we wake up and embrace the quiet resolve and mature compassion that recognizes the butterfly effects of our choices and that we, as human beings, were meant to be connected.
And that we will need each other if we want to discover a new path for a sustainable and successful life for all of us.
Hope will not come searching for us; it will not pop up from an interactive widget on the internet, arrive in the mail with a paycheck, or show up at your door to do your budget. But if we look, I have no doubt that we will find it.
//
I finished reading Malcom Gladwell's latest book, Outliers, a few nights ago.
I know what I have to say about this book is going to be completely esoteric, in the sense that you will likely have to read it before fully participating. Not that you're not brilliant people; I'm sure you can easily make sense out of my words. But my fear is that if you haven't read it, you may be tempted to take some of the things I say at face value, which is not how they're written -- they're written with the mental tapestry of Outliers as a background. I'm not sure of another way to do this, as I want to attempt to take the concepts Gladwell presents in Outliers one step further.
You should probably view these initial paragraphs as much of a disclaimer as anything else, as I don't want to "give away" the book for you. Go read it and come on back!
I enjoyed this read immensely, as I have all of Gladwell's works, and this is perhaps even my favorite. Where all his works provide plenty of abstract intellectual fodder for my mind to gleefully process for weeks, Outliers has a sharp edge of pragmatism that makes it special. It also contains tinges of the kind of social activism that really revs my engine, turns my crank, places my soapbox before a microphone... that kind of thing. Here's a few thoughts:
1. Education
How can the educational system continue to ignore works like this? In Outliers, Gladwell presents a bevy of facts (not to mention crystal clear logic) for how and why the college admission process, for one thing, is mostly an outdated ludicrous absurdity. But he doesn't stop there; it turns out, the social constructs we've built around most organized projects (schools, sports, music, etc.) have become self-fulfilling prophecies, archetypal facades that have been built on so many layers of edifice that they can no longer even see where they began, and for what purpose.
How does one even go about reforming these magnificent disasters of greed and perpetual fragmentation? Do we even try? I'm inclined to encourage the beginning of something else; to foster and support a brand new educational model, for example, that can hopefully someday replace the current system. (Gladly, some of this discussion has already begun: P21, KIPP, etc..)
2. Self-Made BS
I love the idea that the "self-made man" is a total myth. I've suspected this to be true for awhile, intuitively, so it's nice to see some logical background for it. The truth is, nobody makes it on their own. EVER.
This makes infinitely more sense to me. People don't live in a vacuum; we are constantly "made" by our social surroundings. That's not to say we have no control, but once we begin to realize that we need to change our surroundings and not just ourselves, I think we'll be a long way towards undersatnding how to better create the future.
3. Social Assessments
How can we connect an understanding of the social construction component in success with studies of our own lives, past and future?
This is the issue that intrigues me the most about the implications of Outliers: is there a way to somehow extrapolate a model from Gladwell's work to where we could analyze our own life story -- our own social constructs, our family backgrounds, the month and year in which we were born, and the particular moment of history we were born into -- and combine it with personal research into individual talents and strengths, and then multiply that knowledge by what we are passionate about, thereby providing a much more insigntful process into each person's unique "place in the world"...??
Seems like a an intense endeavor, to say the least, but just imagine the possibilities if we could! We've already made so much progress within individualized assessments (psychological, emotional, talent, etc.); why couldn't we develop systems to generate "social" or "contextual" assessments?
//
I came across an fascinating list of stats provided by Dr. Donald E. Wetmore, the President of the Productivity Institute in Connecticut. Some pretty interesting stuff in here!
- There will be 2 million marriages in this country this year and 1 million divorces. 95% of divorces are caused by a “lack of communication”
- The average working person spends less than 2 minutes per day in meaningful communication with their spouse or “significant other”. The average working person spends less than 30 seconds a day in meaningful communication with their children.
- 80% of employees do not want to go to work on Monday morning. By Friday, the rate only drops to 60%.
- 31% of working Americans do not use all their vacation time that they have earned. On average, three out of twelve (one quarter!) of all vacation days go unused.
- The average person gets 1 interruption every 8 minutes, or approximately 7 an hour, or 50-60 per day. The average interruption takes 5 minutes, totaling about 4 hours or 50% of the average workday. 80% of those interruptions are typically rated as “little value” or “no value” creating approximately 3 hours of wasted time per day.
- On an average day, there are 17 million meetings in America.
- By taking 1 hour per day for independent study, 7 hours per week, 365 hours in a year, one can learn at the rate of a full-time student. In 3-5 years, the average person can become an expert in the topic of their choice, by spending only one hour per day.
- 95% of the books in this country are purchased by 5% of the population. 95% of self-improvement books, audio tapes, and video tapes purchased are not used.
- 97% of workers, if they became financially independent, would not continue with their current employer or in their current occupation.
- 20% of the average workday is spent on “crucial” and “important” things, while 80% of the average workday is spent on things that have “little value” or “no value”.
- In the last 20 years, working time has increased by 15% and leisure time has decreased by 33%.
- A person who works with a “messy” or cluttered desk spends, on average, 1 1/2 hours per day looking for things or being distracted by things or approximately 7 1/2 per workweek. “Out of sight; out of mind.” When it’s in sight, it’s in mind.
- The average reading speed is approximately 200 words per minute. The average working person reads 2 hours per day. A Speed Reading course that will improve the reading rate to 400 words per minute will save an hour per day.
- 90% of those who join health and fitness clubs will stop going within the first 90 days.
- 9 out of 10 people daydream in meetings.
- 60% of meeting attendees take notes to appear as if they are listening.
- 40% of working people skip breakfast. 39% skip lunch. Of those who take a lunch break, 50% allow only 15 minutes or less.
- The average American watches 28 hours of television per week.
- 78% of workers in America wish they had more time to “smell the roses”.
- 49% of workers in America complain that they are on a treadmill.
- Angry people are twice as likely to suffer a heart attack as a person in better control of their emotions.
- 75% of heart attacks occur between the hours of 5:00 a.m.-8:00 a.m., local time, and more heart attacks occur on Monday than on any other day of the week.
- 25% of sick days are taken for illness. 75% of sick days are taken for other reasons.
- 95% of the things we fear will occur, do not occur.
- Taking 5 minutes per day, 5 days per week to improve one’s job will create 1,200 little improvements to a job over a 5 year period.
- 1 out of 3 workers changes jobs every year.
- 1 out of 5 people moves every year.
- 70% of American workers desire to own their own business.
- 75% of American workers complain that they are tired.
- The average worker gets a 6 hours and 57 minutes of sleep per night.
- The average worker spends 35 minutes per day commuting.
- When someone is asking for our time for a meeting, 80% of the time, there is an alternate date and time that will be acceptable.
- Good time managers do not allocate their time to those who “demand” it, but rather, to those who “deserve” it.
- The most powerful word in our Time Management vocabulary is “no”.
- 1 hour of planning will save 10 hours of doing.
- Hiring a college student to do routine tasks (grocery shopping, yard work, household chores, etc.) will create as much as 20 hours per week for the average person to devote to more productive uses.
- The average person today (1999) receives more information on a daily basis than the average person received in a lifetime in 1900.
- We retain 10% of what we read. We retain 20% of what we hear. We retain 30% of what we see. We retain 50% of what we hear and see. We retain 70% of what we say. We retain 90% of what we do.
- Half of what is known today, we did not know 10 years ago. The amount of knowledge in the world has doubled in the last 10 years. And it is said to be doubling again every 18 months.
Perhaps you are on the cutting edge of technological innovation, are already harnessing the awesome syndicating power of RSS, and recognize it for what it is: a snapshot of what the web will become in the next few years.
But if you're confused about what the heck RSS even IS (much less pondering its future ramifications), this post is for you.
Now, I'm pretty nerdy. I get some serious jollies from techno-dorky articles, read blogs like Engadget fairly regularly, and sleep with my iPhone under my pillow so I can feel connected to the world (just kidding on that last one... most nights). But honestly -- can anything with the word SIMPLE in its title (RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication) be MORE confusing than RSS?
Even with my techie proclivities, RSS was confusing at first. I've searched all over the web trying to find an article that will clearly explain what it is -- and more importantly, how the heck to use it productively. Trust me: everything out there sucks. (OK, I didn't read them ALL, but whatever.) So I decided it's time for me to give it a shot. Hopefully my explanation will suck less than the others.
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RSS INFO STARTS HERE
At its core, the idea of RSS is somewhat simple. All it IS is a single page called a "feed" that compiles and lists new articles that are posted to a specific site. That's it: one page that will list the new stuff that is put on a site.
A blog is the probably the best example. The reason people visit blogs repeatedly is to see new content. Most blogs have RSS feeds because they are updated regularly.
Or take a news site like CNN.com for example. They currently offer two different RSS "feeds:" one for Top Stories and one for Recent Stories. Remember: feed is the word typically used to describe that singular page that is continually updated. Each feed page will typically list the 10-20 most recently written articles.
With me so far??
The "feed" is crucial because it is the piece that will actually make RSS helpful.
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SUMMARY SO FAR
So... so far we have a page that is updated by whomever is authoring the webpage. That page is called a feed, and is essentially what people are talking about when they say "RSS." But the other piece to this equation, that is sadly much less often discussed, is how the heck we make it USEFUL and/or why we should CARE about it!
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WHY YOU SHOULD CARE
I don't know if you feel this way, but one of my biggest challenges is staying updated with what's happening around the world while at the same time not being utterly overwhelmed by the staggering amount of information that's out there. Frankly, I don't even remotely care about all of the news out there, but there are some things (for me it's things like technology, entertainment, and economics) that I want to make sure I'm current with.
This is where RSS actually makes my life easier.
What you can do is take one of those RSS feed pages and "subscribe" to it.
The benefit of subscribing to an RSS feed is that the news you want comes to you. You don't have to go looking for it, explore a bunch of different sites, or waste a bunch of time.
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HOW TO SUBSCRIBE
In order to subscribe, the first thing you need to know is how to recognize if a website is providing an RSS feed. If the site you're on provides RSS, up in your URL bar (where the website address is) you'll see an icon on the far right side that will probably look like one of these:
If it's got one of these (or something similar), you're in business! They're providing an RSS feed and you can subscribe. (As you should be able to see, this blog site provides an RSS feed.)
To subscribe, though, you need something that will "read" the feed. It's just like you need an Internet Explorer, Safari, or Firefox browser to "read" a website. Make sense? You could most likely use that same browser to read an RSS feed, but you're not really gaining much, as you still have to go to each site and you'll just be looking at a more boring version of the articles. (This will probably make more sense if you click on a few of the feed links I provided above.) RSS feeds aren't pretty, and they aren't meant to be a substitute for a webpage; they're actually built to be subscribed to! Remember, the trick is to make the news COME TO YOU.
So the question, then, is what should I use to "read" these feeds, right?
There are a few "online" readers -- Google and Yahoo both have them built into their account services. These would probably be useful if you have a Gmail or a MyYahoo account. But for the rest of us -- particularly if you use Outlook or Apple Mail -- I would suggest just using your email program as a reader!
This is where it gets a bit tricky, as there isn't one way to subscribe to an RSS feed; it varies by browser and by email program. If you're using IE7 and Outlook 2007, this page looks like it would be helpful.
If you're using Safari, just click on the RSS button in the right side of URL bar. (If it shows options, pick one and see if it lists the things you want. If it doesn't, try the others.) This opens the feed, and at the bottom of the menu list on the right you'll see an option that says: "Subscribe in Mail." Click it. It's that easy!
The major benefit of using your email program as your reader is that not only do you get the benefits of RSS and the latest updated news will come straight to you, but If you're like me, you have your email open ALL THE TIME anyway! This way, if one of your news sources updates a feed, you'll get the new article right away, just like a new email!
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BLOGS
As mentioned, most blogs have an RSS feature built in, as well. For example, you can feel free to subscribe to my blog, if you like. Click here for my feed (or click the RSS icon above).
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THE FUTURE
RSS offers us a glimpse into the future of the internet -- technology like this gives us a way to manage something as vast and completely unmanageable as the internet (which is, of course, growing more gorged with every second that passes as people add more content to its servers). I'm convinced that we will see more and more applications like this as we are forced to find ways to make SENSE of the petabytes of information that will bombard us.
We're probably not as far from this as we think:
So, enjoy RSS for what is is.
Because soon it will be scanning your retina. ;-)
//
If it's got one of these (or something similar), you're in business! They're providing an RSS feed and you can subscribe. (As you should be able to see, this blog site provides an RSS feed.)
To subscribe, though, you need something that will "read" the feed. It's just like you need an Internet Explorer, Safari, or Firefox browser to "read" a website. Make sense? You could most likely use that same browser to read an RSS feed, but you're not really gaining much, as you still have to go to each site and you'll just be looking at a more boring version of the articles. (This will probably make more sense if you click on a few of the feed links I provided above.) RSS feeds aren't pretty, and they aren't meant to be a substitute for a webpage; they're actually built to be subscribed to! Remember, the trick is to make the news COME TO YOU.
So the question, then, is what should I use to "read" these feeds, right?
There are a few "online" readers -- Google and Yahoo both have them built into their account services. These would probably be useful if you have a Gmail or a MyYahoo account. But for the rest of us -- particularly if you use Outlook or Apple Mail -- I would suggest just using your email program as a reader!
This is where it gets a bit tricky, as there isn't one way to subscribe to an RSS feed; it varies by browser and by email program. If you're using IE7 and Outlook 2007, this page looks like it would be helpful.
If you're using Safari, just click on the RSS button in the right side of URL bar. (If it shows options, pick one and see if it lists the things you want. If it doesn't, try the others.) This opens the feed, and at the bottom of the menu list on the right you'll see an option that says: "Subscribe in Mail." Click it. It's that easy!
The major benefit of using your email program as your reader is that not only do you get the benefits of RSS and the latest updated news will come straight to you, but If you're like me, you have your email open ALL THE TIME anyway! This way, if one of your news sources updates a feed, you'll get the new article right away, just like a new email!
+++
BLOGS
As mentioned, most blogs have an RSS feature built in, as well. For example, you can feel free to subscribe to my blog, if you like. Click here for my feed (or click the RSS icon above).
+++
THE FUTURE
RSS offers us a glimpse into the future of the internet -- technology like this gives us a way to manage something as vast and completely unmanageable as the internet (which is, of course, growing more gorged with every second that passes as people add more content to its servers). I'm convinced that we will see more and more applications like this as we are forced to find ways to make SENSE of the petabytes of information that will bombard us.
We're probably not as far from this as we think:
So, enjoy RSS for what is is.
Because soon it will be scanning your retina. ;-)
//On Friday my lovely Mitten-native wife brought home a black and white copy of an article out of a recent issue of Sports Illustrated. It's worth noting that we are probably one of the least sporty-inclined couples you will ever meet, so this is no small feat.
In the frosty winter of 2001 I made my first of what's become a yearly trek to Detroit. I actually don't actually remember if it was cold that season or not, but when you're going to Michigan in December, it's a pretty safe bet.
It was quite a Christmas; I met my future extended in-laws for the first time, got my first taste of exquisite Olga's snackers, and received a terrificly trashy romance novel called Forbidden Fruit from Allison's grandma as a present (seriously... it was awesome). Over the last eight years, a little ranch house in a small suburb outside of Motor City has become one of the most consistent addresses I've been attached to.
The recent hardships of Motown have been pretty well-documented. From the failings of the mayor to the blunders of Big 3 executives to the historic, nearly inconceivable, 0-16 record of the Lions... Detroit has slowly sunk into its status of America's favorite bastard-child city, the metropolis we love to mock and try to forget.
But I am wondering... why are we so eager to bash one of our own? How much of our rich American heritage was born in Detroit? Let's just take music and cars -- without this singular city, cars would not exist and music would be missing a large chunk of its soul. Concerning my current home: where would Los Angeles be without our beloved cars? I suppose you could say we like music here too, but we LOVE cars. Have you been on the 405 lately? We live in the damn things!
For whatever it's worth, I think its time we remember a fellow American city that's fell upon some pretty hard times.
The SI article I mentioned at the beginning was written by Mitch Albom, a native Detroiter and a fantastic writer. It's a few pages long but well worth your time. Check it out here:
THE COURAGE OF DETROIT//