Focus Better with Minimalist Tech

Avoiding the Mall of the Mind

For today I thought we’d get away from the serious and the dark and the thoughtful and talk a little pragmatica. Specifically, in my own attempts to get off the Gravy Hose of social media, I’ve…

Grandpa Love

I spent a good portion of the day today with Eldest Grandson, and it was a busy day. We started by shoveling some snow, which fairly…

The Adjacent Possible, Part 1

The adjacent possible is a kind of shadow future, hovering on the edges of the present state of things, a map of all the ways in which the present can reinvent itself…The strange and beautiful truth about the adjacent possible is that its boundaries grow as you explore them…

FlowBane

Step right up, one and all, yes, I’m talking to you, good sir, I can see by that distracted expression that you have a problem!

Oh, yes, you do! If you don’t mind, sir, I’d like to take a moment to allow you to help out your fellow man! Just step right up here, that’s it, thank you…

The Tightpants Lifemodel

Sorry. These metaphors occur to me. It’s congenital.

One day, you wake up, and you put on your favorite pair of jeans. Except there’s one problem: the jeans don’t quite fit anymore. They’re a little too tight.

Twitter Me This

Let me tell you about my grandson’s birthday party.

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Two more stylish gents never before have graced such an establishment…[/caption]

Augmented Grandpa

I know what you’re thinking: Skype. To which I say, with grandfatherly verve, pshaw. Skype? That’s so pre-Mayan-apocalypse! The…

Mourning

I’ve had many thoughts about what to write today, during this tragedy of the most recent school shooting.

There are many things to say. Many things to discuss.

Many things need to change, and I hope that the “two sides” can understand that there is more to the…

Adjacent Dangers

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OK, so this one will be easy…[/caption]

The Gravy Hose

Twitterers… can trick the brain into thinking its having a meaningful social interaction, while another (ancient) part of the brain “knows” something crucial to human survival is missing. — Kathy Sierra

They promised a friend, but delivered a performance. — Sherry Turkle…

The Adjacent Possible, Part 2

When we last left our intrepid idea of life, things were looking a bit bleak. We had realized that social media and our “always-on” society had given us a constant supply of variable rewards — which I termed the “Gravy Hose.” That tasty gravy gives us constant stimulus, not…