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Garr over at Presentation Zen has a great article on the Lessons Jazz can give everyday life. These lessons might come from the music world but can be used in any situation where 2 people are connecting.

1. “The most important thing I look for in a musician is whether he knows how to listen.” (Duke-Ellington)
2. “Writing is like jazz. It can be learned, but it can’t be taught.” (Paul-Desmond)
3. “Don’t bullshit… just play.” (Wynton-Marsalis)
4. “If they act too hip, you know they can’t play shit!” (Louis-Armstrong)
5. “Master your instrument. Master the music. And then forget all that bullshit and just play.” (Charlie-Parker)
6. “It’s taken me all my life to learn what not to play.” (Dizzy-Gillespie)
7. “You can play a shoestring if you’re sincere.” (John-Coltrane)
8. “When people believe in boundaries, they become part of them.” (Don Cherry)
9. “Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple.” (Charles Mingus)
10. “I can’t stand to sing the same song the same way two nights in succession. If you can, then it ain’t music…” (Billie-Holiday)
11. “A great teacher is one who realizes that he himself is also a student and whose goal is not to dictate the answers, but to stimulate his students creativity enough so that they go out and find the answers themselves.” (Herbie-Hancock)

A concept raised for Renaissance Souls is that you don’t need to do everything. Don’t go for a massive ice cream cone with one flavour. Don’t even go for a massive double scoop with a combo. For us Renaissance Souls, the idea is to have a sampler. This allows us to taste a little bit of everything: a bit of Sewing, a bit of Writing, a bit of time on the Car, etc…. Part of this is to keep our always wandering attention. Instead of allotting time to just one activity, only to feel drained when we do it. We do “one of…” something. We don’t plan until we are in the moment.

Bring in a phrase “Energy Management“. I read this from Worthwhile. And while I don’t think we need to “ruthlessly manage” our energy like Anita believes. I do think more then the number of tasks on our plate needs to be in consideration for wether or not we are overwhelmed.

Example: I’ve been working on a project to combine and relaunch a couple of sites into one. The project had some pretty tight timelines. But do you know what I did for the first 3 months? Picture a lot of reading, and a lot of filler. It’s not that my time was poorly managed, it was that people didn’t feel the need to rush. But now the project is getting to the end, people are running around like their hands and hair were on fire. Some people are seriously snapping from the stress. The project could have gone more smoothly simply by taking the amount of panic energy they have, and divide that by the number of months this project has been going.

Solution: Work energy should be managed like diabetes. It’s not always the level of sugar, it’s the spikes that cause the damage. The same goes for energy. We should be able to have a reading maybe twice or 3 times a day that tells us how are energy is doing. And our job is to make sure it’s a steady as possible. Spikes in energy could cause psychological damage like diabetes causes to the body.

I have the pleasure of working with an insightful and talented woman. Darylynn Rank entered my life in a weekend of coincidences where I met a man who went to the same high-school as I did, and graduated the same year I started. We never met until about a year ago. This might have been not so strange except for the fact that we were at his creative camp in Caltus Lake BC, and went to high-school in Guelph ON on the other side of the county. Darylynn was a workshop presenter for “finding your creative voice”.

Since then the course title has changed, however I have be privately working with Dari for some time. She is an exquisite navigator of the tides of experience, and is helping me find my own boat and ore to sail mine.

Now to the point….

For those of you living in BC; are willing to travel to Langara College; and have a desire to get through writers block or simply need to find the creative power to start hitting the keyboard, she is open to share her insight with you. Check out langara.bc.ca for her course Discovering The Writer Within.

I love cartoons. I don’t love every cartoon, but there is always at least one or two that peak my curiosity. Lately, the top on my list is Avatar: The Last Airbender.

The premiss is simple. Take a world where there are four nations: Earth, Air, Water Fire. In these nations there are those born who can mould the element or “Bend” it. But there is one, The Avatar, who can Bend all four.

There are loads of great lessons that come out of a 30 minute story. But today I made a connection. The Avatar is a Renaissance Soul ( or for some of you a generalist) . Here is a society that is built on specializing in one element. And here comes a single individual that is looked up in this world to be able to bend several elements.

Unlike the story, I think that we have thousands of Avatars walking our streets and roaming our world. They have in them the ability to bend more then elements. One might bend Music and Math; another Leadership and Sewing. The combinations are endless. What can you bend?

I did it again! I missed the first day of Spring last year, and I missed it again! For others it might not be a big deal, however Spring Solstice is one of the most important celebrations. Why? New beginnings; rebirth. There is a reason why it’s called “spring cleaning”. It’s the real New Year. Nature wakes up again; refreshed. As a tradition for the spring I read over the story of Jumping Mouse. So many lessons so many analogies.

I’m in the process of transitioning over to Dreamhost. There are several reasons why

1. Damn! - They have a great deal for the bandwidth, space and scripting possibilities.
2. Rudy on Rails - I’ve been eyeing it for some time, but if I don’t have a host that allows it, what’s the point?
3. Attune to Customers Needs and Knowledge. - Now this is something unexpected. I originally signed up for the 1st 2 reasons. But as I was learning about how they do business I found they go to lengths to understand their customers expectations really well. Just look at these 2 options in their contact form they understand how to respond, when to respond, and maybe…just maybe they get the customer to chuckle:

Please select the type of this request:

• Just a casual question, comment, idea, suggestion.
• I need some help but it’s not super time-sensitive.
• I can’t get things done until I hear back from you, please reply asap.
• Things are broken and I’d like them not to be!
• OMG! EXTREME CRITICAL EMERGENCY!! EVERYTHING’S BROKEN! People are DYING!

Please select your general expertise in the area of this request:

• Please explain everything to me very carefully.
• I do know some stuff, but please don’t assume too much.
• Overall I know my stuff, but I’m a little shaky in this area.
• I have a good understanding of this stuff.
• Not to be rude, but I probably know more about this than you!

Nice!

If you stand in the middle of the IT department, lick you finger and point it up to the sky to try to find the wind, you’ll notice something’s happening. The winds are changing. IT over the next 6 years is going to have a new face. Some might say pretty, and some might say maimed. Who knows.

Taken from a Thread on TechRepublic

This is the only field where 20 years of experienced is used AGAINST you. It seems to have a good career in IT, you have to kill yourself with IT 24/7…and you’re still booted out when you’re 35 or 40. I know I’m not the only who feels this and I’ve decided to plan an exit strategy to leave the field because I’ve had enough.

Just one of the responses

I call them the “NOW” generation. They have been working with computers since they where 5 years old and know some things like the back of their hands, but they want everything NOW when it comes to IT jobs and things. They want the BIG salary that you and I took 10-20 years to get, NOW. They want their parent’s $250-500,000 fully furnished Home with all the latest and greatest high-tech toys, NOW. They want the coolest Car with the latest and greatest High-tech, DVD, CD, Play Station 2 Sound system, NOW.

So often I hear people warn the pitfalls of curiosity, saying the over quoted “Curiosity killed the cat”, however I would like to remind everyone the whole rhyme

Curiosity killed the cat
Satisfaction brought it back

Always, I repeat, always remember the second line.

I recently watch Grizzly Man with my Brother and Vanessa, I find myself in slight awe of Timothy Treadwells story. I believe what some see as one mans struggle to be a Bear, is everyones struggle with life. The only difference between Timothy and Us, is he was willing to say it out loud and on film. “I will die…”

Society around us, gives us the ability to cloud the truth. We have savings accounts and stocks, credit cards and mortgages, multi vitamins and fad diets: All saying, live for tomorrow. And in doing so they take away our power which is seeing the truth and the beauty of life which exists in each moment.

For Timothy he was willing to die for the animals, for which he ultimately did. But imagine what could be accomplished if everyone found what they would die for.
Now imagine what could be accomplished if we found what we would get fired for; loose our lover for; our trucks; our houses; our blood for. That is a passion that everyone should have.

What would you get fired for?

In my own search for coming to understand what a generalist is, I came across yet another definition for a versatilists. The idea coined from Gartner is that this “new” breed has the ability to bridge the gap between thinking and doing. “Versatilists, in contrast, apply depth of skill to a progressively widening scope of situations and experiences, gaining new competencies, building relationships, and assuming new roles.”

At first thought I seemed intrigued by this word. However, the more I thought, the more I concluded all in all I think it’s a bad title for something that’s been around forever. What I realized is that a versatilists, or at least my understanding of it, is another fancy term for teacher. Ever day teachers go into a classroom and no matter who the audience is, whether 5 or 65, they have the constant battle and challenge to put things in context that can be understood. They have a talent for putting things into a perspective or light that wasn’t seen before. Teachers are found in more places then just the classroom. Teachers do not always stick to curriculum and tests. Teachers often know a lot more then they let on. Teachers know a lot more than just one topic. Teachers bridge the gap between concept and application. Teachers can do a lot more then just “teach”.

This new term so far is focused primarily on the IT industry, and if you look at it in terms of a teacher, it makes sense. The gap in knowledge and culture between the doers and thinkers is so vast it makes the grand canyon look small. Programmers don’t understand marketing, and visa versa. The company I work for tries to use the all powerful Business Analyst, but these people just end up being isolated by both. So no wonder it would take a teacher who understands in depth the world of programming, to effectively “teach” and advise those who don’t know. This person can subtly educate the Board of Directors so they can truly understand the extent of a technology based proposal.

With today’s abuse and lack of acknowledgement of the educational profession in the western world, these people with this talent need to survive. They sure as hell aren’t going to go into the classroom, so why not the boardroom. I say call these people who they really are and by a name that they should be proud of - call them Teachers.