*AndreA* > Recent Status Updates

"that is what migrations and relocations do to us: when you leave your home for unknown shores, you don’t simply carry on as before; a part of you dies inside so that another part can start all over again."

What should we focus on?... 1)Science is converging on all-encompassing dogma, which says that organisms are algorithms and life is data processing 2)Intelligence is decoupling from consciousness 3)Non-conscious but highly intelligent algorithms may soon know us better that we know ourselves.

Dataism declares that the universe consists of data flows, and the value of any phenomenon or entity is determined by its contribution to data processing.

Ai is nowhere human-like existence. But 99% of human qualities and abilities are simply redundant for the performance of most modern jobs. For AI to squeeze humans out of the job market, it needs only to outperform us in the specific abilities a particular profession demands.

Certain sections of people even today a quest to find the 'true' essence or the purest version of the past. The irony is that such a past does not exist, and what exists is not 'pure' but rich and layered and marvelously complex - a past where there are Hindu sultans and Maratha padshahs, where forebears of a Hindu king could seek the blessings of a Muslim pir.

The commitment statement should include a resolve to do the red work and a plan to shift back to Blue work based on meeting some condition or after some duration of red work. "I intend to start the next phase.. our next bluework pause will be in 10 days"

Ou intuition and curiosity are very powerful internal compasses to help us connect with our ikigai. Follow those things you enjoy, and get away from or change those you dislike. Be led by your curiosity, and keep busy by doing things that fill you with meaning and happiness.

Wabi-sabi = beauty of the fleeting, changeable and imperfect nature of the world.
Ichi-go ichi-e = this moment exists only now and won't come again.

The happiest people are not the ones who achieve the most. They are the ones who spend more time than others in a state of flow.

Finding flow in the tasks you have chosen to do, eating in a balanced and mindful way, doing low intensity exercise, and learning not to give in when difficulties arise.
In order to do this, you have to accept that the world is imperfect but that is still full of opportunities for growth and achievement.

Naikan meditation= deepen our sense of responsibility...
1) what have I received from person X?
2) what have I given to person X?
3) what problems have I caused person X?

An ode to longevity... To keep healthy and have a long life eat just a little of everything with relish, go to bed early, get up early and then go out for a walk. We live each day with serenity and enjoy the journey... If you keep moving with your fingers working hundred years will come to you.

The reason that it is easier to commit to action when we put ourselves in learning mode, and the reason we are more resilient in action when facing setbacks, is that it taps the way our brains are wired. Humans like to explore, discover and learn new things. Psychologists call this the "seeking" system.

Move from Compliance to Commitment:
1. Commit to learn, not (just) do
2. Commit actions, not beliefs
3. Chunk it small but do it all

Compliance only gets minimum fulfillment of requirements, whereas commitment invites discretionary effort.

A culture of deliberate decision-making, an energetic bias for action, a focus on achieving excellence rather than avoiding errors, and personal ownership and accountability for outcomes. [...] The key is that there must be choice before there is commitment.

A well-designed experiment: has an end... is fully documented... is conducted under controlled conditions.

Two years ago, the letter felt like dead end. ... but now I see it was really a catalyst, a beginning... I am who I am because of what the letter set off in me.

The dance in my dream was the beginning of a new center inside myself - the feminine matrix that the Old Woman seems to represent...

I know my impulse to tear open the closed,secret place in my daughter comes from a need to stave off my own fear. When is the impulse to help an adult child a wise intervention and when is it self-serving and prying?

In an argument it was always wise to show respect for your opponent: people disliked antipathy.

If you're running your meeting properly and divergent thinking still isn't happening, your responsibility as a leader is to go looking for it... your confidence in a decision should directly correlate with the amount of divergent thinking that went into it.

But in organizations that practice dissent, where people are dissenting with the best interests of the organization in mind, and where people respond to dissenters with curiosity, dissent does not feel disharmonious. Dissent creates a sense of excitement and energy...

Since all innovation starts as an outlier thought, driving consensus is bound to suppress innovation.

Technique: "pause, rewind, fast-forward"...
1) What do you see? How do you see it?
2) How did we get here? What happened before this?
3) What would we want to have happen? What should we do next?

Tell me about that...
How would that work?...
What is behind your decision?... What do you see?
How do you see that?...
What might go wrong?...
What am I missing?...
What could we do better?

The seven sins of questioning... Question stacking, leading questions, why, dirty questions, binary questions, self-affirming questions...

Metacognition = thinking about our thinking.
Agile management is an effective tool... When will we pause and evaluate where we are?

Stress is dangerous because it inhibits your ability to recognize when you need to exit redwork.

Like a borewell, he managed to tap into deep reserves of privilege; it had to be the source of his ambition, his resilience. An immutable sense of superiority. A sense of superiority that demanded acquiescence.