Wasted Days

"The man who views the world at fifty the same as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life."

-- Muhammad Ali

By the same token, if I view the world at the end of today the same as I did at the end of yesterday, did I not waste today? How has your view changed today?

Initiative: Key to a World Too Fast

"The world is changing too fast. Without the spark of initiative, you have no choice but to simply react to the world."  -- Seth Godin, Poke the Box

Are you an initiator or a reactor? With the ever-increasing speed of change, reacting to it becomes increasingly difficult. Better to initiate and let the world try to keep up with you!

Patterns of Randomness

I envision a future post speculating on whether anything is truly random, but I'll leave that for another day. The issue today is this - within my "random" ruminations, you will almost certainly begin to see patterns develop. One such pattern is the asking of questions.

I ask questions for several reason. First, it is an attempt, in this disconnected world, to engage in dialog. You are welcomed, even encouraged, to place your responses in a comment. If you have questions of your own, I will do my best to respond to those. (Unfortunately, my ability to do so is limited by available time. My blog - indeed all my writing - is currently a hobby, not my full-time career.)

Secondly, I'm genuinely curious. I don't know all the answers, so I ask questions. I'm certain there is someone out there who has an answer for every question I can perceive. (Whether the person or persons with the answer to my question actually reads my blog is a different matter altogether.)

Finally, I fully believe the following quote...

"Questions make people think; answers make people question."  -- Author Unknown

I first heard this (or something similar) around the time I was in high school. At that age many of us focused on the latter half of the quotation. For every answer we received, we had questions - most commonly "Why?" or "Why not?" Occasionally the question was "How?"

In college, I had a professor whose standard response to most student questions was "Well, what do you think?" Many students were frustrated by this approach, but eventually we realized an important lesson. To truly appreciate some lessons we have to think through them ourselves. Far less is learned and the learning doesn't last if we simply memorize an answer provided by someone else. Much more is learned when we are forced (or allowed) to think it through on our own. We then see it as a process and can repeat the process to get an answer even when our memory fails. Our professor wasn't unwilling to provide an answer, he was simply unwilling to deprive us of the learning experience.

Think of it this way... If I simply write a bunch of information and never ask a question, isn't it human nature to begin asking questions? What do you know about it? What's your experience or expertise? Why should I care what you have to say? On the other hand, if I ask you a question or allow you to ask me a question, then I can provide information that's useful or at least interesting to you.

So, what do you think? Are you more inclined to ponder a question or an answer?

Questions: Is anything truly random? Do limited patterns imply lack of randomness in the whole? Does anyone know the author of the above quote?

By the way, the answer to "What do I know?" is "I know a little about a lot and a lot about very little."

A few more thoughts on rules...

I'm currently reading Patti Digh's book Life Is a Verb: 37 Days to Wake Up, Be Mindful, and Live Intentionally. My "pen" (or at least my Kindle keyboard) has been handy and active. What follows are a selection of highlighted quotes and margin notes that seemed to me related to my prior post.

"Any fool can make a rule and any fool will mind it."  -- Henry David Thoreau

This may not be a direction to break rules, but at the very least it suggests we should not simply (foolishly) follow any arbitrary rule. We need to use our minds to first understand the rule, then make a knowledgeable choice about whether to follow it.

"Rules are not necessarily sacred, principles are."  -- Franklin D. Roosevelt

So, what principles do you live by? What happens when a rule contradicts one or more of those principles?

These quotes are used in a section of the book entitled "Bust Your Toast Rules." The concept of toast rules came from a story of ordering toast in a restaurant only to be told it was "past toast time." Toast rules are arbitrary. Could the waiter not make a piece of toast after a certain time of day? Wouldn't the customer have been much more satisfied had the waiter given some thought to the situation and chosen to break the "toast rule?" Ms. Digh goes on to write:

"It's one thing to acknowledge the absurdity of other people's rules; it's another thing altogether to recognize and own the absurdity of the rules that we've made up (helpful hint: They're all made up, some so ingrained that we can no longer see they are Toast Rules). So when a rule pops to the surface, see it for the Toast Rule it is, made up to serve some social norm that is itself made up.... Bust your toast rules."

What rules have you created for yourself? Are there some that should be tossed out like so much burnt toast? Or is each guided by your principles?

P.S. Lest it sound like I'm some sort of anarchist, believing in no rules at all, let me be clear that I am not. I do, however, think it's important to understand the purpose of the rules, compare the application of that rule to each circumstance, and make a mindful choice about whether to follow.

Breaking the Rules

I enjoy an apt quote. I'm also intrigued by the nature of how our brains work. Have you ever noticed when working in a particular topic area that certain quotes stand out which might otherwise be uninteresting? This happened to me while defining a set of best practices (rules, guidelines) for a project. While doing so, I was also reading Tim Hurson's Think Better: An Innovator's Guide to Productive Thinking where he summarizes his "productive thinking" method as follows:

"As in any discipline, to become good, you need to first learn the rules. To become great, you need to break them."

He follows up with a Chinese quote (he did not happen to say proverb, which I found somehow interesting):

"Not to have a method is bad; to stop entirely at method is worse still."

So, first we need to understand the rules; then we become great by learning when it's appropriate to break them.

Questions: Do you think to be truly great you must break a few rules? Are there rules you are unwilling to break? Does it help to think of the set of rules as a box, following rules as staying within the box, and breaking rules as "thinking outside the box"?

Commonplace

"I would advise you to read with pen in hand, and enter in a little book short hints of what you find that is curious, or might be useful."

-- Benjamin Franklin

For as long as I can remember, I have been an avid reader. I enjoy learning from some and escaping into others. It is a treat to find good quotes for inspiration and wisdom. 

While growing up, I was taught to appreciate - even respect - books. By that I mean I read them, but didn't mark in them, didn't dog-ear the pages, didn't crack their spines. It didn't matter whether it was a mass market paperback or antique - all were treated as museum quality. It was truly a wonder I didn't handle them with white cotton gloves.

Today, I own a few that should be treated in just that manner. But I'm far more interested in those that I can mark up with abandon, turn down page corners, and almost literally rip from the covers the knowledge they have to offer. I've come to appreciate Franklin's quote. I learn much more from a book if I take notes while reading. From the simple margin notes to outlines for essays that come to mind from a single line. Taking notes compels me to stop and ponder (ruminate) on any part that intrigues me. It allow me to interact.

But placing these notes in the book margins makes it challenging to find them again later. I need a way to pull thoughts from various books into a single place ... the commonplace. According to Wikipedia, a commonplace (or a commonplace book) is "a way to compile knowledge, usually by writing information into books." In today's world, a blog seems an appropriate vehicle for such information. World-wide availability and search capabilities, for myself and others, make the Internet an ideal storage place for these kinds of compilations. Wikipedia further suggests that commonplaces are "essentially scrapbooks filled with items of every kind: ...quotes, letters, poems, ...proverbs, [and] prayers." Those are the types of things I'll share here. Whenever possible I'll share the sources so that if you are interested you can find your own copy and start your own commonplace.

Question: What are some of your favorite books and what tidbits of wisdom have you retained from them?

Random Connections or "The Way My Mind Works"

If there is a reason I call this blog "Random Ruminations," it is because of the way my mind works. When an interesting topic presents itself, I'll often do a quick Google search (sorry Bing) to find out more. As I'm reviewing that topic, another will present itself, and with a quick link, I can find something about that topic. If I'm not careful, this link-and-learn session can last several minutes or even hours. (The hazards of working in a hyper-connected, technology world, I suspect.)

Case in point...The other day I heard it suggested that we needed a new "New Deal." I recalled learning something about the New Deal back in high school, but could not recall which president was responsible for it. (I could recall it occurring as a result of the Great Depression, but that was about it.) A quick search led me to Franklin D. Roosevelt. While reading about Roosevelt, I ran across links to YouTube videos of portions of his inaugural addresses. One of his famous quotes followed his first election: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

Now, this is the way my mind works - rather than contemplate the context of the quote (depression, world war, etc.), a question popped into my mind. What do you call the fear of fear? Phobiaphobia? (I attribute this leap to having just watched an episode of Monk.) So, I looked that up. Turns out I wasn't far off; it's phobophobia - defined as "an abnormal fear of developing a phobia".

Where does my mind go next? I find myself hoping that none of you (my readers) have a fear of randomness, for which I'm afraid I could not find a phobia.

Question: Anyone know a name for the fear of randomness?

New Day, New Name

Ruminate - to chew the cud, as a ruminant; to meditate or muse; ponder.

Same concept, different word. Why? As I pondered the name along with a potential name for a second blog, I realized that alliteration may be just the thing. I like to play with words and my current pondering suggests "Random Ruminations" is simply a better fit than "Random Musings".

I can almost hear it now. Better fit? I thought the whole idea was random, unpredictable, and no discernible pattern? How can there be a good or bad fit? Guilty. There is a minimal pattern. But apart from how the name of this blog may relate to one or more future blogs, that's really it. There is still no common theme within this blog; it will indeed be random. I've simply changed from musing to ruminating.

Question: Aside from "thinking" what word do you use to describe those moments of far off concentration?

P.S. Some of you may notice it's not really a new day either. But in my corner of the world, a day doesn't end until you go to bed - even if that happens to come well after midnight.

Random Musings: An Introduction

Random - proceeding, made, or occurring without definite aim, reason, or pattern; odd or unpredictable in an amusing way.

Musings - absorbed in thought; meditative; contemplation; reflection; pondering.

That pretty well describes my intent here. I'm a ponderer. Sometimes I share because I think I've read, seen, or otherwise found something that may be of value to others. Other times I share in hopes of receiving feedback that may help me. I trust some entries will be amusing to some readers; minimally, I guarantee odd, unpredictable, and with no discernible pattern.

While each entry may have an aim or reason, the collection as a whole does not have a common theme. I have tried single themed blogs in the past - one or more of which I may resuscitate in the future - but have found them overly restrictive. What if I'm inspired to write on a different theme? Where do I put that? Do I create a new blog for each new theme? (I tried that but soon found I had several blogs with one or two entries each and couldn't possibly maintain a regular writing schedule for any of them.)

So, here's to new beginnings, to pondering, and to proceeding at random with no definite aim.