Original Thought

Everything is a Draft

I am never really done. I begin and edit and adapt all the elements of my life. My choices today lead to an opportunity or challenge that requires a different approach towards a undefined outcome. I scribble ideas that are pertinent in the moment and get stale or inappropriate in a longer view. The drafts allow evolution and revolution to occur. There is no once and for all Statement of Belief or final product. I ship ideas, opinions, content and creative with the understanding and willingness to reframe, rethink, and rework. This allows the shipment to encourage, provoke, challenge, anger, disturb or humour the recipients and hopefully generate engagement.

When it all is an unfinished piece of business I can be curious rather than defensive. You can be inquisitive rather than passive and it opens the door to an as yet unimagined conversation.

I was volunteering with Beakerhead (a Smashup of Arts, Science and Engineering) over the past few days as a curiousity rover. I was able to begin micro conversations with thousands of people and in minutes make a connection that influenced the next interaction.  There was silliness, seriousness, satire, and scientific inquiry when I began with questions rather than statements. I learned about aliens, about people, about the hotel industry and some strong convictions about creation and certainty. In draft form, I was able to incorporate what resonated and consider what disrupted my confirmation bias.

It isn’t easy feeling like nothing is ever finished but for me it keeps me motivated and alive.

Make Today Remarkable, by creating a few draft conversations,

B

Self Improvement

Striving for Simplicity

Simplicity isn’t a slow man’s solution to complex problems but a gateway to a deeper conversation.
Winston Churchill thought and wrote a lot about simplicity and complexity and in his tenure as a wartime Prime Minister he had to wrestle with complicated connected variable pieces that could save or cost lives and he needed to communicate the results of his battle with clarity and brevity.

“A vocabulary of truth and simplicity will be of service throughout your life.”
“Out of intense complexities intense simplicities emerge. Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words when short are best of all.”
“All the great things are simple.”
“All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.”

If we frame a discussion, debate or generative conversation in a complex mind map overly with lines and shading connecting strength, direction and reciprocity we can overwhelm and disinvite participants. Academics and bureaucrats like complex expressions of though because it raises the status of their domain. But if we open a door with some simple thoughts and possible remedies, we create space for wider engagement and diverse input.

Readers will know that I suffer from some serious confirmation bias and pretty strong delusions of grandeur so masking uncertainty with a web of connected observations can be a tendency of mine. I realize that I can have more creative, ingenious and original interactions if I can begin without the pretense of convolution and elaboration.

Make Today remarkable, by beginning with simplicity,
B