Aug 23, 2017 · 9 min read

This is my Book Metamodern Leadership in 110 Tweets!
*INTRO: Leadership seems to have been around awhile. Sometimes that same thing means different things to different people.
- Especially people who are different ages and have experienced different things at different stages of life
- Elders seem to always have a hard time accepting the ways of the young.
- A lot of stuff happens in just one generation now. Things seem to be moving fast.
- It seems like we need to keep up to stay relevant- but shouldn’t that also include knowing some important things learned in the past?
- CHAPT1: (Warning- some light philosophy) Aristotle said in “Nichomachean Ethics” there are a lot of “Shoulds” out there. I think we have come to the point in society to call them out.
- Culture- especially western culture- kept itself intact-through wars- and a Christian metaphysical and ancient way of being.
- The printing press, the steam engine, the automobile, and the iPhone have killed most of that.
- Oscar Wilde- be like- man, reality does not really make sense or provide much meaning
- 1890s Ezra Pound be like . . . yep I see all of this new stuff let’s get this culture rolling.
- William James be like . . . I’m a pragmatist- Philosophy bakes no bread so let’s get some shit done that needs to get done- we know what to do and culture will work itself out.
- Heidegger be like- dude- all of these people are perceiving completely different things in the same exact circumstance?
- Postmodernists be like yeah man- there is like so much stuff out there- and there is like no beginning or ending point- so what is the point?
- Meanwhile people were living trying to grapple with the same problems of human existence by less roadmaps of history.
- Hope and Faith should probably be a part of your religious or secular life. Maybe they can be the same if you can figure it out.
- Chapt 2: We have to determine what hill to climb. It seems that on a Genetic level we will select what hill is best for us “The Selfish Gene”.
- Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer be like yeah that is how we may be biologically but now we know way before our genes that we need to work together.
- Adam Smith be like- man- when we start monetizing shit some people seem to be making way more and that seems about right.
- Completely hypothetical here but could all the “fast pace” be affecting who gets jobs which are the “financial and meaningful” basis that people need
- if so do we have any role to play in it?
- Sociologist Charles Murray be like The bell curve- the pareto principle- seems to be valid. Some people seem to be doing better
- Great. There is inequality — and it may be that those at the bottom of the bell statistically produce behaviors that may be considered less sustainable.
- This should offend conservatives but it offends liberals for some reason.
- The science of sociology is difficult but there does seem to be some correlation between well-being and strong character.
- Chapt 3: We are biologically the same people for the most part as humans for a long time but we think much differently. We are modernized.
- A lot of smart people for a long time thought there were some vague patterns to the culture we had been carrying on
- A lot of these patterns intersect with the human life span- about 80 years.
- Strauss and Howe be like cultural traditions are reborn every 4th Generations last about 20 years.
- There are some social scientific findings embedded in this work but it is better understood mythologically or metaphorically.
- There is history on top of cultural eras on top of generations on top of culture on top of individuals. What do we make of this complexity?
- Chapt 4: History is long and it keeps going. There is really nothing we know that someone else did not already figure out and if there is that is good.
- There does seem to be an evolutionary component to everything from human consciousness to biology
- While recording history we found out how fast we go and we seem to always have a need for competition (the selfish gene) and our capacity for empathy
- Freedom, capitalism, democracy and their capability to spread the news led to first neoliberal ideas of globalization
- Technology and Globalization might have a small impact on our decisions as to where to devote our life’s work!
- These things seem to have really helped the world-especially very recently and in parts of the world that need it most.
- Chapt 5: Around 1900 Upton Sinclair be like- working conditions for our food are gross.
- Fredrick Winslow Taylor be like- we did everything else in science let’s do some scientific management
- John Maynard keynes be like- uh- dudes- what we just did led to like- the Great Depression- let’s do something else
- Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman be like- we went way overboard on that Keynes idea- let’s get some economic freedom back- and everyone listened
- Things got better and the pie grew but it caused other issues
- We were caught in the Veblenian Nightmare or stuck on Hedonic Treadmill. This caused younger generations to perceive and act differently than we do and did.
- Chapt 6: Lots of great tradition and progress made America exceptional
- Edmund Burke be like- you better stick close to Leviathan or else people are going to come and kill you because they are all bad
- Rousseau be like- people are not like that- just be cool and have the government act cool and we won’t have any problems
- Louis Hartz in 1955 be like- Americans never adopted an ideology like the communists or fascists. We seem to be doing pretty good.
- The 1960’s cultural revolution polarized the country and brought us to the postmodern where perhaps for the first time ever our political perceptions are convincingly subjective.
- Chapt 7: Mary Shelley be like- Here’s Frankenstein- this is what happens when you reach too quickly for progress. It kills you.
- Alvin Toffler said in like 1970- Hey, people are just about to become paralyzed by too much information- it’s gonna be wacky.
- Nicholas Carr and Maryanne Wolfe be like- there seems to be something important about reading and contemplating.
- There is so much to learn to keep pace with technology- how do you know what to focus on?
- Julian Huxley be like-It seems that we are inextricably tied to technology- and it will just get more complicated to stay relevant
- Chapt 8: Plato be like- dudes- I just escaped this cave and there is more to reality. Why won’t you guys believe me?
- Kahneman and Tversky be like- because we take mental shortcuts based on our experiences and perceptions.
- The future is nothing but uncertainty. Shouldn’t we learn how to negotiate it with a little statistical intuition?
- Planck’s Quantum theories, Shannon’s Information theory, Lorenz Butterfly Effect led to Toffler’s Future Shock- and we are only up to 1970.
- To be successful in prediction we need the complete story. Not just what confirms our bias. This seems like a better way to navigate reality.
- Chapt 9: Krishna be like- Arjuna- dude- you’re an archer and everyone you know if getting killed- you better start shooting some arrows.
- Teddy Roosevelt be like- I read like a book every day and still go do a bunch of stuff. Stop whining and go do something.
- Max Weber be like- there seems to be a Work Ethic trapped in this culture which seems to be a pretty good thing
- We need to find out what we need to do and then do it. Since scientific management that “calling” seems to be harder to find decipher.
- William Whyte be like- dudes- It’s the 1950’s and everyone is the same. What about the rugged individual? We’re going to need some Bob Dylan stat!
- The way this whole thing is going you’re going to have to make your own path.
- Chapt 10: Hillary Clinton in 1990’s be like- Hey- maybe we should examine what we want out of society for positive role models. Everyone was like- booo!!!!!!
- Robert Putnam said by like the year 2000 we were bowling alone. No one joined anything anymore. We were alone together or something.
- David Hume be like- I’ve seen this one farmer dude with a different crop who helped another farmer dude and vice versa. Helping people helps you.
- In 1958 Leonard Read be like- This one simple stupid pencil has the labor of like 1000 people embedded in it. Imagine complex things!
- James Surowiecki be like- I’m pretty sure lots of people put together know way more than you do individually
- We should probably keep that in mind as the economy shifts to more technological efficiency and automation.
- Chapt 11: Henry Ford be like- shut up worker and keep putting together that same part and I will give you a nice living.
- Scientific management never tied meaning to an act- like a behavioral psychologist- it was reward and punishment
- 1940’s Abraham Maslow be like- wait- I think there is some higher level human need we just recently cut out of work
- 1958 John Kenneth Galbraith be like- we built an affluent society- like the world has never seen- now what?
- Through the stagflation of the 1970’s into the 80’s and 90’s we kept getting more efficient. Six Sigma saved GE like $2 billion.
- 1970’s Edward Deci be like- Hey, people are looking to be competent, work together, and have the power to make their own decisions.
- The same economic safeguards- pension, healthcare, job security, cheap education, etc were drying up from the affluent society
- Guess what? People are no longer sacrificing their higher level needs for economic safeguards.
- Jobs should probably be a little more personal because of that
- Chapt 12: In the stone age we were like- the same stuff keeps on happening
- In the bronze age we were like- you think if we wrote stuff down we could record stuff and then work on other stuff?
- In the Iron age we were like, man- we really have a lot of good stuff to write down that we have been learning
- In the middle ages we were like- we should start thinking about some form of curriculum!
- In 17th century Francis Bacon be like- let’s get smarter by using science. We can do it!
- By 20th century almost no one went to high school. Adolescence was not a thing.
- By the 1980’s everyone went to high school and many to college. Are we learning the right things?
- Chapt 13: Viktor Frankl be like- you should probably be responsible for something if you want something to be meaningful.
- Secular humanists will say meaning can be derived from nature, relationships, and knowledge informing social constructs.
- Past Rick Warren be like- what are you going to do with what you are given?
- Justin Martyr and Pierre Teilard de Chardin be like divinity of the human spirit seems to be a truth that we can all agree on.
- Have we lost the spiritual connection between sacrifice for a higher purpose for narcissism?
- What if that story precedes millennials and what about purpose itself will be injected back into our being?
- Could the Zen like phenomenon of applying meaning to our work lead to better leadership and more productivity?
- Chapt 14: 20th century- Joseph Campbell be like- dudes- hasn’t anyone noticed that we have been telling each other the same stories everywhere for like 5000 years?
- We, as a culture, determine a hero, then that hero goes and does something no one wants to do that makes it better for everyone.
- Odysseus, Gilgamesh, Osiris, Buddha, Jesus are the same hero. As history unfolds our heroes reoccur but evolve
- James Joyce be like- Leopold Bloom is the mundane 20th century middle class hero. He goes to work and eats gross food.
- Heroes are closely tied to leadership. Ideally they should both make up the characteristics that we value.
- As factors cause our institutions and organizations to change shouldn’t we update leadership?
- The iron fist of Gilgamesh will not likely help you lead your software project but the story itself might.
- Chapt 15: We evolved to notice what catches our eye- what fruits to eat and what predators to avoid
- When we organized into civilizations we needed tribes to keep us safe from invaders. There were not yet sophisticated moral codes
- By Organizing under myth we could build a framework that made sense of the ancient world.
- By organizing under religion we could build a framework that made sense of the world (middle ages)
- By organizing into nations and adopting the “Natural Law” of capitalism and democracy we could progress (Enlightenment)
- By accepting diversity as a historical necessity for progress do we advance productivity
- The world is not perfect but the Berlin Wall fell, racial barriers are less, and opportunities are abundant
- New people always update the values to which we organize- and that is important.
- Our largest, most educated generation has solidified their value systems (happens around the age of 25)
- Wouldn’t it be practical to apply that to the way that we prepare for the future?
