Gaia Community: Duff's Blog

The 11th Hour of Personal Development: Ecology and Consciousness

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:50:20 -0000

I recently watched The 11th Hour, a documentary produced and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio about the global environmental crisis. I've also been reading and thinking about systems, and "the ecology of mind."

The problems we are facing with global warming, peak oil, overpopulation, etc. are due to the ways we have been thinking, especially the ways we have been thinking about creating energy and making stuff. We have been thinking in abstractions and ignoring contexts.

People are starting to understand that if you make something, it's a problem if it is made with something nonrenewable (like coal) or creates "waste." In a closed system, waste is food, or else it is destructive. Economies become more productive only when they don't liquidate their "natural capital."

The ideas that there are "unlimited natural resources" and "unlimited places to store our waste "are ending as we come up against the limits and carrying capacity of our planet.

Similarly, within personal development literature there is much written about your "unlimited potential" to be, do, or have whatever you want in life. This is false. Your potential is limited, just as the Earth's supply of stored sunlight in the form of fossil fuels is limited.

Intense personal development workshops that promote ideas of unlimited potential can induce states of mania and psychosis. It can take days, weeks, or years to integrate the fallout from these irresponsible approaches to change.

It's time for an ecological personal development movement to emerge alongside the movement to save civilization (not the planet--the planet will survive even if human civilization does not).

We must understand that our personal development can be ecological, whole, and integrated. We do not need to have a "breakthrough"--nature will break us in it's own time anyhow. By recognizing our limitations and by understanding the limitations of the methods we use to develop ourselves we can grow and change and minimize painful side effects.

What we are learning is that limitations do not necessarily limit our thinking or limit our ability to increase our productivity personally and globally. By understanding that waste = food, by thinking in terms of contexts and systems, and by intelligently designing our solutions to problems we can continue to grow and develop in more elegant ways.

If we do not begin thinking ecologically at all levels, we may experience some very painful consequences, personally and globally. Let's promote healing that we don't have to heal from. Let's promote global solutions that increase productivity and quality of life without reducing the stability and long-term health of the planet's ecosystems. We have the knowledge and the ability to do this.

Coolest Book Advertisement Ever: The Adventures of Johnny Bunko

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 01:55:52 -0000

Check this out, but watch it full screen and with the music up:

Johnny Bunko trailer from Daniel Pink on Vimeo.

Looks like a brilliant way to get people to read your business book, from Dan Pink who used to be Al Gore's speechwriter.

Don't Declare Email Bankruptcy! Get Bit Literate Starting Now.

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 21:33:08 -0000

Episode number one of my new podcast Precision Change went live recently. Enjoy!

Are you overwhelmed by information? Do you have 1000's of emails sitting in your inbox right now, many unread, all nagging at you to do something about them? Have you declared email bankruptcy, hoping that "if it's important, they'll write back?"

You are just minutes away from a permanent and responsible solution...and it has nothing to do with getting a Blackberry or the latest upgrade of Microsoft Outlook.

According to Mark Hurst, author of Bit Literacy: Productivity in the Age of Information and E-mail Overload, the digital age has created both new opportunities and new problems with these things he calls "bits."

In this interview, listen to Mark teach you...

How to "let the bits go" in a world of infinite bits, and why this is vitally important to your productivity.
How the inbox was not designed to be a filing system and an address book and a to-do list and a calendar.
How to get your email inbox and to-do list to zero—today and every day—even with exponentially increasing incoming messages.
How to procrastinate more effectively by deferring things into the future as far as possible.
Why you need a simple to-do list, and how to get it to 0 so you experience the feeling of being done.
How mastering bits gives you time to actually do your work, and enjoy your life more when you're not working.
Why you may have failed with David Allen's complex Getting Things Done method, and what to do instead.
The power of bit levers, and why you are typing far more than you need to if you aren't using one.

Take responsibility for your relationship to the digital world by listening to this interview now.

Is "is success a choice?" a meaningful question?

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 23:07:50 -0000

From the post-modern department of Linguistic Philosophy and General Semantics, today's blog post is a commentary on a post from The Simple Dollar called "Is Success a Choice?".

In this post, Trent is writing to encourage his readers to go for their goals and to make no excuses. He is also writing in response to the criticism that he is not accounting for people in poverty or who otherwise cannot help themselves. This is his conclusion:

So, yes, I believe that for most people success is largely a choice - success can come to anyone at any time, but you steadily improve or worsen your chances with each choice you make. So go out there and start making choices to open the door a little wider - and have a little patience, too.

This softens the claim "success is a choice" to "for most people success is largely a choice." While this phrase feels better in my belly, and I find it inspirational, I have no way to evaluate this softened phrase for it's truth value because it still lacks specific content.

Who is choosing to do what instead of what else to achieve what outcome in what context?

“Success” is not a choice–it is a nominalization. So is “choice.” A nominalization is a part of speech where you take a verb like "relating" and change it to a noun like "relationship." It has the effect of making something sound pervasive and permanent that is in effect a collection of events in time.

One test of a noun to see whether it is a nominalization is to ask "can you put it in a wheelbarrow?" Test: democracy (no), bananas (yes), courage (no), success (no), choice (no), magazine (yes).

Another test is to put "an ongoing..." in front and see if it makes sense. If yes, it is a nominalization. Test: an ongoing relationship (yes), and ongoing banana (no), an ongoing choice (yes), and ongoing success (yes), an ongoing pencil (no).

The problem with nominalizations is they are not actionable. You can't do anything about "a choice," but you can choose to make a phone call. It's unclear how to get more "success," but it may be more clear how you might act if you were to successfully make a presentation at work, and what you might need to do to prepare for a successful presentation.

It's difficult to answer the question "is success a choice?" for all people in all contexts. Until we sort out the particular cases by answering the question "Who is choosing to do what instead of what else to achieve what outcome in what context?" and make generalizations based on aggregate data, we are merely spouting rhetoric.

David Allen 45 Minute Free Video on GTD, i.e. Getting Things Done

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 21:31:04 -0000

Everyone geeky about GTD has probably already seen this video, but I just happened upon it today. Hat tip to Cody.

Get 1-on-1 Life Coaching (Boulder only)

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 00:24:17 -0000

I'm once again opening up my life coaching practice, after a period of hibernation due to the workload involved in starting a company.

If you are looking to make a change in your life--whether changing careers, finding a perfect relationship, discovering your purpose, or increasing your productivity--and are local to Boulder, CO, I'd love to work with you! (I prefer working with clients in person when possible. I find the work to be more powerful.)

The first session is a free consultation to see if we'd be a good fit. I've just secured a beautiful space for this powerful work to take place.

Please get in touch: andrewmcduffee [at] gmail [dot] com.

Or if you know someone who'd like coaching, referrals get 10% off a session for you and 10% off a session for the person referred.

Yes We Can...create hypnotic political videos empty of content :)

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:01:13 -0000

Ok, I admit it. I'm completely non-involved in American politics. I'm a bit embarrassed, honestly, but trying to give myself a little tiny education in the issues and current state of things by...*ahem*...watching YouTube videos.

Obama's video gave me goosebumps:

But then I didn't realize until about 3/4 of the way through that there isn't one bit of content in the entire video. What an excellent example of hypnosis!

This video contains exactly zero specific agendas or claims or platforms whatsoever. Just celebrities, an optimistic tone, and an upbeat pop tune in a major key. Oh, and nominalizations like "justice" and "equality"--static words devoid of any specific meaning. Is campaign finance reform "equality"? Is the war in Iraq/Afganistan/Iran "justice"? These things are left unspecified. Why? So you can fill in the blanks unconsciously and then feel like you agree with Obama, even though you know nothing about his platform at all.

This is not a critique of Barack Obama in anyway whatsoever. This is how politics (and hypnosis) works. This is merely my observation of the mass hypnosis that is political campaigning, which I find fascinating! :)

In a hypnotherapy session, the therapist might say "As you breathe out, you might imagine going to a place that is peaceful and relaxing...". This statement says nothing--on purpose--so that the therapist can fully honor the client's experience while also leading them to relax. These words make it seem like the therapist specified the location and therefore client and therapist are in agreement.

When Obama says "Yes we can heal this nation," this implies a response to someone saying "no, we cannot heal this nation," which is a fiction, but creates a "hallucination" or even a false memory of someone claiming this--especially some other political leader. It also leaves completely unspecified what "healing this nation" looks like in terms of specific political agendas, which means everyone can agree!

Wow! What fun.

It's Business Time! A Lesson in Marketing from the Conchords

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 17:58:36 -0000

If you haven't seen Flight of the Conchords, a comedy TV show about two guys from New Zealand who are in a band, then you are missing out on a hilarious meme, and some important lesson in modern marketing:

The lesson? Give your best stuff away for free...but have something else to sell too.

This video has received over 1.3 million views on YouTube. If you look at other Flight of the Conchords videos, most have received between 1-6 million views. Many, many people have sent me to watch these videos. But here's the deal: this video is an excerpt from the copy-protected episode that airs on cable television.

Many networks are shutting down "illegal" uploads of their shows to YouTube. These guys cut out the best part of their shows and uploaded them for free (or allowed them to be uploaded--I'm not sure). In my opinion, the non-singing parts of the show are pretty lame in comparison. But the point is that the popularity of this show started on YouTube, then moved to watching, renting, and purchasing the real show.

Ok, I just have to share one more video. :)

Love-Infused Chocolate Improves Mood in Double-Blind Study!

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 21:51:17 -0000

Dean Radin of the Institute of Noetic Sciences has created chocolate, blessed by monks, that has a statistically significant positive effect on mood, verified by double-blind studies. Wow!

10,000 Hours to Mastery

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 17:17:25 -0000

A great article was published today on LifeClever about the oft mentioned claim that mastery of something takes about 10,000 hours of practice.

From what I've seen, this is true. This means that we are unlikely to master very many things! For it would take 5 years of 5.5 hours a day of practice, or 10 years of 2.75 hours a day of practice to master something by this formula.

Great musicians practice at least this much, if not double. My friends in the conservatory of music would practice 5-10 hours a day, in addition to music theory classes and ensemble practice. The best practice more, and have natural passion and talent, and practice more intelligently too.

What one thing would you like to master? What is your life purpose and passion?

For me, I find that I want to master so many things it's hard to narrow it down. But there are ways of seeing the multiple things I am working on mastering as "one thing"--just as Ken Wilber mastered the "one thing" of integrating everything.

Job Security Through an Entrepreneurial Mindset

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:42:50 -0000

Good stuff today from Penelope Trunk (emphasis mine):

Even if you don’t want to launch a start-up, you still end up functioning like an entrepreneur in today’s new workplace. There is no long-term stability, so the way you create stability is with your skill set and your connections. You are the product, and you are the sales and marketing team for your product. On average, people today are changing jobs every two to five years, which means you must function like an entrepreneur nearly all of the time if you are going to bring in a steady paycheck.

Perhaps instead of asking "how's it going?" we should ask "how's business?"

Coolest. Soccer. Ever.

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 21:50:03 -0000

Why can't the World Cup be like this? :)

The Moses Code: It's Like The Secret + the Old Testament

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 17:55:29 -0000

Apparently people haven't gotten enough of The Secret, because now Moses is apparently the one who discovered the Law of Attraction.

Why does this stuff both annoy and inspire me? Is it just the cheesy production quality of such "spiritual" movies? Or is it the strong proclamations of Aristotelian "truths" and "laws" that would be better considered with maybe logic and as-if thinking?

Or perhaps it is the facile switching between egocentric wants and spiritual affectation, such as in this paragraph, which I find credulous:

Join millions of people from every corner of the globe in learning the most powerful manifestation tool in the history of the world. Then on one momentous day we’ll use the code to promote peace and compassion for all beings through over 1000 gatherings worldwide.

Of course, I was once into Tony Robbins, and worked for Ken Wilber. And even S.N. Goenka strongly exaggerates the claims of the technique of Vipassana.

Is it necessary to exaggerate and use hyperbole to get attention in this overcrowded world?

Why is Kevin Kelly optimistic about our collective future?

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 21:52:50 -0000

Kevin Kelly is an uber-geek. He's been on the net so long his personal domain name is only two characters long (kk.org). Here is his suprising answer to why he is optimistic:

I am optimistic because I think that while disease, illness, stupidity, wickedness, problems, and evil fill 49% of the world, health, wisdom, light and goodness fill 51% -- and that tiny 2% difference compounded over time is what makes civilization and cultural.

That makes a lot of sense to me--the power of little acts of courage and kindness with compounding interest leads to exponential growth given time.

Hat tip to Mark Hurst.

It's easy to be wrong about the future

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 16:13:23 -0000

This guy is right about something. He intuits that something is dying.

In the Tarot, the card for death indicates symbolic death which precedes all change or transformation.

Trust your intuitions, but rigorously question your interpretations.

200 Impressions in 17 Minutes

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 20:19:12 -0000

This guy is outta control:
One could learn a lot about modeling others behavior from someone like this.

Signs of Hope

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 16:07:37 -0000

Perhaps there will be a coming apocalypse, but there is also a lot of evidence that things are getting better, and that solutions to our biggest problems are emerging.

2 examples for today, based on 2 principles of Natural Capitalism:

1) Turning carbon dioxide into fuel. Whether this particular invention works or not (I'm guessing not), this is a great way of thinking! One could call this an example of biomimicry, in which we model what nature does, in this case photosynthesis. If we could get something like this to work, especially with nanotechnology, we would be eliminating problems of global warming while simultaneously producing energy from "alternative" fuel sources. Wow!

2) Movie rentals from iTunes. You can now download a movie, watch it, and 24 hours later it disappears back into the ether. Renting is an example of the service-based economy, or as the marketers are calling it, the "experience economy." This is just one example. Why is this good? The purchasing of experiences and not products encourages companies to reuse the things that create the services. For example, if everyone leased cars (purchased transportation), car companies would have motivation to build cars to be deconstructed and reused for new cars. Plus we would be selling the thing that actually meets the need--transportation--instead of the thing itself. This leads to the meeting of human needs without the creation of unnecessary "stuff."

Is the world actually becoming a better place? To what extent do our filters determine whether we see a bright green future or a bleak post-apocalyptic nightmare? And what effect do our filters have on the future we create together?

Studies of optimism show that people with an optimistic explanatory style are less accurate than pessimists, but are happier. In my experience, when I'm optimistic I'm more likely to try something new. This emergence of novelty seems to be key for finding novel solutions to our problems.

Apocalpse soon? 7 Ways to Prepare for an Uncertain Future.

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:27:11 -0000

It seems like everyone is talking about the end of the world.

Conservative Christians interpret every bit of news from the middle east as evidence that a Jewish mystic from the 1st century is coming back to condemn us for having premarital sex.

Leftists on the other hand, prefer to use predictions from violent primitive civilizations plus the evidence of global climate change and depleting oil supplies as "proving" that we are about to experience a total crash of civilization, sending us (at best) back to the 1850's industrial age.

Meanwhile the transhumanists seem to think that things are inevitably getting better, and at an exponential rate, unless of course self-replicating nanobots eat the biosphere.

And of course, there are still many missing nukes, and many terrorists who'd like to use them.

Perhaps one of these scenarios will occur, or perhaps not. Y2K and 911 if anything simply boosted the economy, especially in the bottled water and canned food sectors.

So what's a reasonable person to do? Here are my 7 hot tips for preparing for the uncertain future:

1. Develop a sense of humor. No matter what happens, it's gonna be hilarious! Wouldn't it be great to see Jesus come back and tell us that we are all going to be eaten by nanobots because we didn't conduct enough Mayan human sacrifices to the oil gods?

2. Meditate. No doubt, the future is going to be weird! The best way I've found to develop the ability to roll with the weirdness is to practice non-attachment, and meditation is a great way to do that. Plus meditation helps one develop an ability to see things as they are, and to enjoy the present moment.

3. Get healthy. Whether we are heading towards a post-oil apocalpse or a transhumanist immortality in the metaverse, your health matters more than ever. Aim for the kind of health that will lead to a long life, with a robust immune system. That way you can live long enough to experience as much of these strange times as possible!

4. Drop the drugs. Drop pot and cocaine in particular, as they tend to make people paranoid. We have enough to be worried about as it is--we don't need any additional drug-induced paranoia. I have a hypothesis that many of the conspiracy theories and apocalptic visions of the left are simply pot-induced paranoid fantasies. Do some personal growth work on paranoia and worry. Learn to let go and accept your own death (read Who Dies? by Stephen Levine).

5. Think in systems. Only systems-thinking solutions will work for systems-level problems. Global warming is largely a problem of imbalance in the carbon cycle--we've moved much of the carbon that was stored in trees and fossils into the atmosphere, and removed many of the trees that kept the system balanced. Learn the systems archetypes. Study systems theory, on all levels.

6. Think in probabilities and models. Modern science no longer considers absolute truth attainable, but rather thinks in terms of useful models and approximations. Alfred Korzybski pioneered thinking this way in all domains, which he called General Semantics. Read Robert Anton Wilson's Quantum Psychology to begin to think with more sanity and less dogmatism.

7. Become incredibly curious about the human addiction to certainty. Expose yourself to several intelligent yet contradictory perspectives on the future. Read The Long Emergency and The Singularity is Near and Natural Capitalism and 2012. Argue one at a time that each one poses an exact view of the inevitable future. Then, try to figure out which one or combination of which ones are "correct." Let all these perspectives go. Become incredibly curious about the human addiction to certainty.

Have a wonderful day! And try to relax, ok? :)

7 Lessons learned from last-year's goal-setting

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 23:56:40 -0000

For several years now, I've been setting yearly goals at the beginning of the new year, and reviewing the goals from the previous year.

I'd like to share some of the lessons I learned from reviewing my goals for 2007, in the hopes that you can learn vicariously through my failures. :)

1. The value of minimum commitments. A big success I had this year was to practice yoga asana daily. While I didn't hit every single day, I practiced very consistently, which is the first time I've done exercise daily. A key was that my goal was 20 minutes daily, which didn't allow me to weasel out of practicing. I didn't think 20 minutes would be enough, but many days this is all I did, and I found it very beneficial physically, as well as emotionally. Try asking "what's the minimum I'm committed to?" with your goals.

2. Strong determination for gaining momentum. Even though I was excited about practicing yoga, when it came time to practice, I still didn't want to do it! But I held myself to my commitment, and it took about 3 months before I felt weird if I didn't do yoga right before bed. Combined with the minimum commitment, this kind of holding yourself to the fire is very useful for getting going on a new habit. Patiently persist for the first few weeks or months!

3. Some goals take much longer than you'd like. About half of my goals on my list didn't get achieved. Why? Because my timeline was waaaaaay off. I guess this is a case of the saying "most people overestimate what they can achieve in a year and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade." There's an exponential growth curve to personal development--it seems like nothing is happening for a while, and then BAAAM! Your outcome arrives like magic. Be patient and kind to yourself if other things need to happen first before you can reach your goals.

4. The value of precise, expert help. I've had digestive troubles most my life. This year I got help from an herbalist and now they are mostly healed. It took 7 months working with him, changing my diet, slurping down gross chinese herb teas, and cutting out chocolate and caffeine, but it worked, and now I don't have chronic stomach pain. And more than that, I now have real data about my situation--e.g. if I drink a cup of green tea or eat some tofu, within 30 minutes my stomach will be inflamed and within an hour I'll be heading for the bathroom. Knowledge is power--go get expert help.

5. Follow the rabbit hole. Several of my goals ended up going in very different directions than I thought. I typically set "outcome specific" goals, as is recommended in almost every book on goal-setting. For example, I set a goal "learn systems theory." I imagined this to consist of reading several books on the subject. I didn't read any books on systems theory, but instead my mind opened up this year to thinking more systemically! This is far better, but I couldn't have imagined this before starting down the path. Sometimes it's better to follow your intuition than stick rigidly to your idea of how things should be proceeding.

6. Experiences change habits. I mentioned above that I healed my digestion this year. In large part this came from stopping certain habits that were causing problems, like drinking caffeine. How did I give up my delicious green tea? Well, my herbalist had me remove all potential allergens for a period of time, then reintroduce them. Removing the allergens cured my chronic stomacheache. Then I drank a cup of tea and within minutes I was in pain. Now I know that tea comes with a side of bellyache! It's an easy choice to drink something herbal instead. If you are having trouble quitting a habit, find a way to experience the real consequences--or if there aren't any, just enjoy it!

7. The power of relationships. Many of my goals were achieved magically when I joined the team at Falling Fruit. Many others were achieved in my intimate relationship. I had envisioned achieving these goals on my own, but they happened far more easily by working with others, and as a side-effect of the things we were doing together! Remember that you don't have to do it alone, and many times it's easier not to!

I hope that was useful to you.

Here's a simple process for reflecting and setting goals for the new year. Simply ask and answer the following questions. It will be more powerful if you share this process with someone you love.

How was 2007? List memories, accomplishments, challenges, and life changes.
What did I learn from my goals for 2007?
What do I want to create for 2008? What does wild success look like?
What can I definitely commit to achieving in 2008? Remember: minimum commitments, with strong determination.
What's on the someday/maybe list for 2008? These are other things you might do, but aren't committed to.
What are some other intentions, affirmations, and orientations for 2008? These are things like "Be Proactive" instead of "Initiate 5 things daily at work."
What magical things am I open to receiving in 2008?

May 2008 be your best year yet.

The end of incandescent light bulbs starting in 2012!

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 19:53:14 -0000

Check this out: only compact florescent and LED light bulbs will be allowed for traditional use by 2014, saving consumers $40 billon!

http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1243/

A recently passed energy bill phases out the use of incandescents starting in 2012. Maybe this is the true meaning of the Mayan prophecy. haha :)