full posts
- cephalopod intelligence!
- AI
- religious freedom
- streaming as a cultural unifier
- the future of travel
- and more!
- Pink: Where has the Spirit been moving? Do you sense any prompting?
- Red: What are you avoiding? Where do you need support?
- Orange: Name a blessing. Express gratitude.
- Yellow: What have you lost? What hurts? Cry out.
- Green: Where is there new life? What needs redemption or resurrection?
- Purple: Reflect on the life & teachings of Jesus. Where should you follow?
- Black: Memento Mori. Consider your death.
- White: Where do you sense peace? Where can you help make peace?
- a few minimal technology ideas
- good news and some warnings re: the health of our planet
- Brood X - the incoming cyclic cicadas
- a Bruderhof take on nonviolence
- octopod dreaming
- warnings about the voter-suppression movements happening in the USA
- and much more
- why I recommend Readwise.io
- a quick response to an allegedly-Christian shirt I saw in the news
- a book review of Harrow the Ninth
- a few thoughts about Guiding Principles
🖋 Ugmonk Analog + Baron Fig Strategist
I love the idea of Ugmonk’s Analog system. Yet, as you may know (from a previous post), I have a system that is working well for me for daily notes & tracking tasks.
Still, there are times I need to jot some notes by hand. Maybe I’m brainstorming, doing a little journaling, or writing a follow-up while presenting (a common occurrence).
The good news is that Baron Fig’s Strategist cards fit in the holder perfectly, too. You get the nice standing view, as well as the card storage in the block. I expect this would work well with any rounded-corner 3x5 index cards, too. (If you have others that you try, let me know!)
(pictured on top of my super favorite veg-tan Hobonichi cover, with a TWSBI Go Smoke and Sailor ink.)
📑 Sunday Quote
There’s this tendency in modern conversations of justice to look at everything as zero-sum, winner-or-loser, exploiting-or-exploited.
It’s been exacerbated by celebrity figures who push this line of thinking, as well as by advertising-driven social media algorithms picking “winners” in virality wars.
But we have to do better than that. We have to want a better world for everyone. We have to look at how improvements can make things better overall.
We don’t get there simply by being anti-. We don’t get there by treating others as enemies to be defeated. Rather, we can look to others as potential co-conspirators ready to tackle challenges together.
One way to step out of the enemy-making view is to look at a level level above the individual. What is the mood of the group? What is the spirit of the organization? What is the faith of the locality? What is the tone of the structure?
You can mix and match these words, too. The Christian Bible talks about the “principalities and the powers”. German philosophers talk about “the zeitgeist”. You may have another metaphor.
However we think about it, before we go after people, let’s take a moment to think about the overarching system affecting the problem. What powers are at work, and with that in mind, how can we work with others to make things better?
-Todd
Originally posted at Hey World
📚 Finished Reading: The Feather Thief
Read it and want to discuss? Hit me up!
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Tagged: Nonfiction
Originally posted at Hey World
Sunday Quote 📑
Crucial Conversations is an important book with a very helpful perspective.
If I go into an challenging discussion just trying to get my way, I’m not helping the situation. If I go into a challenging discussion acting like I care about the other person’s perspective, I’m still not helping the situation. It’s only when I actually care about their perspective that we can find a wise path forward.
Are there discussions you’ve been avoiding? Do you have the capacity to care about their perspective? Do you have courage to have the talk?
May you live a bold and caring week ahead!
—
Tagged: Grow
Originally posted at Hey World
Saturday Creek Stomping
First fun thing I saw today was a pair of ducks that seemed understandably wary of me, but otherwise seemed to be loving the weather.
Next, I noticed somebody has been planting (grafting, maybe?) heritage raspberries along the back side of one of the runoff creeks. I couldn't identify them at this stage, but they were labeled and had stakes to help them grow. I fixed one that had lost its support. I don't know how safe those will be for human consumption due to the runoff from parking lots (if you have thoughts, please share!) but they should be a nice addition at least for the animal life.
I couldn't navigate everywhere I wanted, due to the depth and speed of the water, but I had a lot of fun. This reminds me that I'd like to get some nice waders. (Any recommendations?)
On the way back, I startled a rabbit. We spent some time watching each other, and it was good. The bun was a little wet from the rain but still fluffed up, finding shelter under a neighbor's trailer, and looking warm.
I love these little local jaunts, and hope someday to have a place where the jaunts are even better.
Happy spring to you!
-Todd
Originally posted at Hey World
Friday Good Reads
Still got jelly beans around from easter? You can also try the jelly bean prayer.
Read anything interesting this week? Please share!
Originally posted at Hey World
Jelly Bean Prayer
May this be useful to you.
Originally posted at Hey World
Friday: Good Reads
This is the Friday roundup/reminder for things I enjoyed reading this week: linked here. Stories and topics include:
This week, I wrote about:
Originally posted at Hey World
I recommend Readwise
If you’re an avid reader like I am, I heartily recommend Readwise.io
Every day I read through 15 or more of the highlights (and associated notes) I’ve made from things I’ve read (books, articles, tweets). It’s a great way to retain the best information, reflect on lessons, and synthesize new ideas from different sources.
I also export my book highlights into my books pages (that’s where you will sometimes see a “exported notes and highlights” section on nonfiction). If I listened to the audiobook, I’ll hand jot some notes instead, but I opt in for seeing other peoples top highlights in Readwise for those books. Those stylized graphics I use for quotes? Also courtesy of Readwise!
For daily reviews, I’m #54 on the leaderboard and determined to get to the top.
📚 Finished Reading: Harrow the Ninth
Tagged: Fiction
This is the second in a series of mega-horror, murder-mystery, sci-fi, fantasy, all-the-genres books.
You may not guess it based on giving it 4 stars, but it took me a long time to get through this book. Why? Because it’s tough.
Look, I’m not dumb, but this book often made me feel almost-dumb. With a plethora of fringe vocabulary, deep mysteries, strange perspectives, unreliable narrators, and a significant plotline that appears to contradict the whole first book…it was a challenge to wrap my head around.
Here’s the thing though: I like to be challenged in my reading. It’s just that this was a fiction book and therefore a “before bed” read, meaning I often didn’t get far with it before going to sleep.
It takes about 4/5ths of the book before things start to come together, but it’s worth the wait.
I’m looking forward to book 3!
Further reading:
Gideon the Ninth, the first in the series. Also ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Guiding Principles
Guiding principles are a set of statements about how we will act, based on what we believe.
Maybe you have them for an organization where you work or volunteer? Maybe you have some for your church or other group?
In my world, I also wrote 6 Guiding Principles for my team at work (written with my team at work), aligned to our corporate Guiding Principles, but adding more specifics based on the type of work my team must do.
I also have a personal document where I am writing and evolving my own Guiding Principles and Operating Procedures. (Operating Procedures work similarly, but are aimed at a more detailed level, helping to forge habits by having a pre-defined decision on how to act in particular situations.)
As part of my Monday morning weekly planning, I look over my Guiding Principles as a way of reminding myself what's important and how to act accordingly.
Security Tax
"If you can't afford to protect it, you can't afford to deploy it."
Unfortunately, many services treat basic privacy & security features as an add-on, rather than table-stakes for operating.
One frequent model is for services to market themselves at the user level, grow a userbase, and then charge organizations to manage access and security. (Yammer and Slack grew this way, for example, as have many others.)
I recently came across this resource that is specifically fighting the SSO (single-sign-on) security tax.
They explain why SSO should be a default in many services, or at least a reasonable upcharge. There's also a table of data showing the delta between normal price and SSO-included price. Take a look!
Now, I'm not saying all services require SSO. I'm not saying all services need advanced security & privacy features. But each SaaS provider should look at the incentives they are creating, consider the needs of their users, and act accordingly.
Lean Security - Introduction
How do we build in helpful behaviors? How do we make doing the right thing easy? How do we make things repeatable, scalable, and resilient? How do we spend our time on the most valuable things?
There are, of course, multiple interesting answers to these questions and many things our teams are doing to excel in these areas. But one of the things that came out of this discussion was that our CTO was having engineering leaders go back and read the (now classic) book, Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit by Mary and Tom Poppendiek.
So, I decided to do the same, and I also planned to share the lessons with my direct team (of Business Information Security Officers) and the broader team of Risk & Security. One of the BISOs on my team (who has also read the book) has also volunteered to work with me on materials. We’ve got a great partner, too, who will help us turn the lessons and principles into handy resources that the broader team can use.
So what is this writing for, then? This is my out-loud pre-work before we make those materials for the team.
I’m calling this series “Lean Security” instead of “Lean Software Development” because I’m coming at it from these two angles:
- What do risk & security professionals need to understand about their product & engineering customers?
- What elements from Lean Software Development also apply to security practices & products?
We have to be careful with the second bullet. Why? This is covered in the introduction of the book:
What’s the difference, you might ask?
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With that in mind, we’ll focus on the principles. We’ll reflect on how security practitioners can be good partners with alignment to people practicing Lean Software Development. We’ll reflect on what security Practices we might follow to carry out lean Principles.
Here’s the refresher of the Principles:
- Eliminate Waste
- Amplify Learning
- Decide as Late as Possible
- Deliver as Fast as Possible
- Empower the Team
- Build Integrity In
- See the Whole
Future posts in the series will cover each principle.
I’m happy to hear your thoughts, questions, or insights along the way!
---
tagged: Security
Originally posted at Hey World
Sunday Quote 📑
This is a quote I have in my favorites simply so that I get the reminder frequently.
In another of his books (Food Rules) Pollan also says:
The banquet is in the first bite
and
No other bite will taste as good as the first, and every subsequent bite will progressively diminish in satisfaction.
and
...as you go on, you’ll be getting more calories, but not necessarily more pleasure.
In many attentive eating paradigms (the works of Michael Pollan, mindful eating, intuitive eating, Naturally Slim, etc.), there is a focus on really paying attention to and enjoying what we are eating.
Part of the unhealthy habits many of us have learned around food contribute to food moving from something to savor to something to consume. Like other parts of consumer culture, we look for the latest "advances", the best bang-for-our-buck, the quickest thing, the most popular thing, the best advertised thing, or the super-utilitarian-just-get-the-nutrients-in-me thing.
Whichever of these we drift towards, our relationship with food moves away from thinking of food as something to enjoy in-and-of-itself, shifts away from cultural food traditions (with all their accumulated wisdom), and shifts away from (non-performative) eating with our community.
This reminder, then, is a simple call back to paying attention to what is being eaten.
Take a small bite.
How does it smell?
How does it feel?
How does it taste?
Does it change as I chew or as it lingers in my mouth?
Following this paradigm, a few things happen:
- I enjoy my food much more
- I'm amazed how the tiniest of bites can give as much (or more) satisfaction as a large one
- I realize that after more than a few bites of anything, I'm not enjoying anymore, but merely consuming
- I realize my fullness much more quickly
- I can eat my foods in any order I want, because I won't overdue it with anything on my plate, but know I will move on once I am no longer enjoying that item
Now, there is one big exception to this "intuitive" approach to eating. Some of these programs handle it, others may not.
SUGAR is basically a drug.
Sugar makes us more hungry. Seriously. Because of the way fructose and glucose work in the body, having sugar (and even simple carbs, which are effectively glucose) causes our bodies to store fat and ramp up our appetite. So, "intuition" gets short-circuited by our biological processes.
Pollan has lots of advice to help avoid this trap. Naturally Slim advocates cutting sugar. I'm not sure if Intuitive Eating handles it. (email me if you know?)
Because I used a Pollan quote related to dessert, let me pair it with these other practices from Food Rules, in order to present the more-complete picture. Bold is Pollan's wording, italics are my comments.
- 4 Avoid food products that contain high-fructose corn syrup.
- 5 Avoid foods that have some form of sugar (or sweetener) listed among the top three ingredients.
- 35 Eat sweet foods as you find them in nature. (e.g. whole fruit with fiber)
- 37 “The whiter the bread, the sooner you’ll be dead.”
- 39 Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself. (e.g. if you want pie, chips, or ice cream you gotta make it from the raw ingredients!)
In the week ahead, this is a good reminder for me to be mindful. To eat rather than consume. May it be helpful for you, as well.
tagged: @Eat
-Todd
Originally posted at Hey World
Pen Pals
It's fun to put real pen to real paper. It's fun to give and receive. It's fun to find something in the mail.
I found myself feeling a bit overwhelmed with the prospect of writing back, over time. As I contemplated this, I realized that I felt mounting expectations from longer correspondences, and the idea of having to cover things just so or in a specific way. So here's the rule I'm using to get me back into it:
- Postcard only
I've got plain craft postcards that will be my default, though I have some other postcards I could use, too. This constraint will help with my creativity and responsiveness. I may open back up to longer letters as I'm back in the flow, but this is how I'm getting back to it, for now.
So, if you're one of those folks waiting to hear back, it will hopefully not be much longer! I plan to finish any open threads this Sunday.
My Keto Question on the Peter Attia Drive Podcast 🎙
They've had many deep dives on various issues of metabolism and metabolic syndrome, something that we are seeing is at the heart of many modern chronic diseases. I was connecting the dots among a few episodes, and had some questions, which I submitted.
On the latest Ask Me Anything episode, they addressed my question. I'm copying that part of the show notes here, under fair use. If you want to hear the AMA episode(s) or get access to show notes and other benefits, please become a subscriber.
---
From AMA 21:
Electrolyte supplementation during fasting and keto, and why uric acid may increase [59:30]
After listening to the Dom D’Agostino AMAs (Part 1 and Part 2) and the Rick Johnson episode, a subscriber has a question about electrolyte supplements as well as about salt and uric acid and ketogenesis:
If salt does this conversion to fructose in the body, how is that affecting keto?
- “Good question. I don’t think I know the answer.” says Peter
- As a general rule, the salt supplementation in keto is really not necessary for everyone, and personally for Peter, he doesn’t find it necessary during his brief periods of keto (and even when he’s short periods of fasting)
- However, during the longer fasts, Peter does need sodium, but that’s because he’s not eating food and he’s trying to just get sodium back to normal levels
- In keto, he does not supplement sodium at all, but he does supplement magnesium
- Again, when he’s fasting, he needs more magnesium and sodium, but that’s just to bring him up to what he’s not getting with his nutrition
Potential change in uric acid
- Peter says why uric acid may increase is an interesting question and he’s not sure he knows the answer
- But he has some thoughts on it…
- First, we clearly see uric acid spike during a fast
- And, there’s probably also an increase during ketosis
- Is it transient in ketosis?
- If so, is it because uric acid and BHB are competing for the same transporters in the kidney? ⇒ That would obviously explain why you would see it in a fast
- An alternative explanation, which doesn’t have to be mutually exclusive, is that uric acid is going up because of the turnover of DNA that would take place during a fast, vis-a-vis autophagy and things like that.
Originally posted at Hey World
Processing my Leadership Competency Survey
The Background:
All the leaders in my broader group (think: my boss's boss's group, about 800 people) are going through a leadership curriculum. As part of this, we had a leadership competency survey that went to our manager, a small number of self-selected peers, and a small number of self-selected stakeholders. There were 27 questions rated 1-5, with 3 questions for each of the 9 competencies that were being measured.
Initial Observations:
- Benchmark: One of the first things I looked at was whether I exceeded the benchmark score. This was not simple vanity: it's at the top of the report. The summary shows how I scored myself overall, how each of the respondent groups rated me overall, and how the broader respondents rated everybody (the benchmark). I'm happy to see that I exceeded the benchmark, but without a view of the distribution I can't tell for sure how significant the difference is. I realize I should not spend too much time here, as it's comparative with others and not necessarily fruitful.
- Perception Gaps: Next, the survey advises to be wary of gaps between the self-rating and those of respondents, or between types of respondents. They suggest that 1 point (in either direction) is cause for concern. I've made progress here! In other community assessments (e.g. EQ360) in years past, I significantly underrated myself. I'm pleased that I still erred towards under-estimation, and that the margin of under-estimation has dropped to 0.28 points (on that 5-point rating scale). My goal is to continue to get that closer to 0, but as long as there is an error, I'd rather it be on the side of under-estimation. I had no major gap between respondent group types, which indicates I'm not overly-prioritizing some audiences over others. Later in the report we'll look at gaps on specific rating areas.
- Competencies: Across the 9 competencies, mine were all clustered around the same rating (only 0.27 difference between my best and worst), with scores I'm happy with. The only surprising result here was "Dare to Be Curious" being my worst. Why? Because curiosity is one of my primary approaches, especially in challenging moments or situations. Looking at the three questions that contributed to that competency rating, my lowest result (4.6) was for "Asks the 'right' questions to size up or evaluate situations". I know that sometimes I go too quickly to brainstorming and solving instead of asking coaching-style questions. I'll continue to work on this practice. Here is the ranking of my competencies, in order:
- Model the Way
- Value Every Voice
- Respect Differences
- Connect with Purpose
- Improve and Grow
- Partner for Success
- Embrace Transparency
- Make it Happen Today
- Dare to Be Curious
Breakdown:
I like the way they've looked at the four quadrants based on self-rating and respondent rating. E.g.:
- Strengths: These are the top 5 areas. As with StrengthsFinder I should lean into these. I am glad all of these are in the Strengths section:
- Welcomes the contributions of team members
- Treats people with respect
- Keeps others informed about decisions that affect their job
- Openly discusses my career path goals with me
- Demonstrates strong business/personal ethics
- Areas for Improvement: These are my bottom 5 areas. These are questions where the answers are a little painful and represent my biggest development opportunities. I'm not going to beat myself up about these, because even my worst was a good score (4.56 out of 5), but they are still places where I can and will continue to grow.
- Fosters an environment where employees want to do their best
- Asks the "right" questions to size up or evaluate situations
- Understands how to get things done through formal/informal processes and procedures
- Openly shares mistakes, shortcomings and failures to help others learn and avoid similar issues
- Has the ability to link long-range visions and concepts to daily work
- Hidden Strengths: Earlier, we talked about how being off by a whole point could be a gap in perception. Well, these are the two questions where I scored myself a point less than my respondents (I gave myself a 4 and they gave me a 5). I should update my perspective in these areas:
- Treats people with respect
- Keeps others informed about decisions that affect their job
- Blind Spots: none! There were no questions where I gave myself a point more than the respondents did. I'm very happy to see that.
This was a good experience to go through. I'll look to lean in more to my strengths, continue to work on my areas for improvement, and update my perceptions of my skills.
Originally posted at Hey World
📚 Finished Reading: An Altar in the World
I had heard the author's name before, but resolved to go read one of her books upon experiencing one of her reflections in my Lenten readings (collected
…
this feed cutoff because we are debugging feed copying via IFTTT. See the origianl post here
How I take my daily notes in Craft
edit: this is no longer accurate, but I’m leaving it for legacy purposes/posterity. Craft Docs also now has dates/todos as a first-class item.
I’ve used Evernote, Roam, Obsidian, Notion, Bear, Drafts, IA Writer, various Zettelkasten tools, and many other systems to try to organize all my notes. But none of them have worked for me like Craft.do has.
I can’t put my finger exactly on why it’s the winner, but it’s some combination of features, speed, visual appeal/distinctiveness, and customer-responsiveness. (The price point is great, too!)
I have three different workspaces:
- My second brain/public notes/digital garden (link)
- Personal notes & tasks (what we’re here to talk about today!)
- A shared space for home & family1
So, how am I handling my personal notes & tasks? Let’s dive in.
Considerations
I want notes to be easy-to-enter. I want them to accommodate both daily planning, ongoing note-taking, and tie-ins to project, people, or topic pages.
I like the idea of Leuchtturm’s 5-year journals, which give the ability to look back on what I was doing this day in previous years. But, for me, it’s hard for me to to keep a good habit of writing in them.
The Setup
I created a top level page (a “Document”, in Craft parlance) called “Dailies”. I made it one of my Starred Documents for easy access.
“Dailies” has sub-pages for each month. Each of those subpages has day subpages. Here’s what that looks like.
Let me explain a few things you’re seeing here.
First, sub-pages show a bit of their internal content, by default2. I didn’t start until the 10th of January, so that’s why you’ll see January’s first internal entry being “10”.
Second, you’ll see March is empty but April is not. This is because I created the April 1st entry ahead of time, because I have something planned (for April Fools). This is an intended feature of my system: the ability to put a note or task on a future date, so that I see it when I get there.
Third, you’ll see the bottom of this page (and all pages) have a “Links To This Page” section. These are backlinks, an important feature. Craft supports linking to pages, subpages, and lines/blocks to show the backlinks on the page that is being referenced elsewhere.3
The Month
Ok, so what does it look like when we dive into a month? Here’s that April view.
I went ahead and created the 2nd through 10th subpages, so you can see how the month view shows up. There’s nothing particularly exciting about the monthly subpage. It’s just a container.
But, as you can see with April 1st, I’m setup so that there’s a little preview of the top content for each day.
Let’s move on to…
The Day
Ok, this is the heart of it, then. Here’s how I might take notes for a day:
Again, a few points to note:
You can see in the upper left the hierarchy of notes I’m “in”. This is in my Dailies page, February subpage, and 19th page.
To get that year-over-year view, I’m using a toggle list feature to create a section for the year (and then for future years). This allows me to open the toggle and review previous years when I first open the note in future years, but then close the toggle to focus on the current date/year.
My notes are a combination of things I want to accomplish, things I’m considering, and micro-journaling of what I do throughout the day.
All of these lines can be subpages themselves (meaning I can go into it and take more notes), or can contain links to other pages, subpages, or blocks within my workspace. I often link to pages I’ve created for projects, people, or topics. (and then on that page I can see backlinks to this reference!)
The tasks can be checked off and completed.
Finally, just as I’ve linked out to other places, I have backlinks inbound to this date from other places. I can follow those links to see the connections.
Not pictured: I can add in-app sketches, scanned notes, documents, or images to my daily page.
Other Factors
I also keep a document that is my intake document, so all items that come in from OSX or iOS sharesheet go there first.
I have templates, including day start, week start, and week end. These include processing that intake inbox, making sure new notes have the correct home, and completing my planning and review activities.
Conclusion
I’m finding this process works very well for me. It’s easy to stick with. It let’s me keep everything in one place. It lets me find and search for what I need, easily. It’s not ugly. It’s fun to work with.
Would something like this work for you? What questions do you have?
-
Note: the 2nd and 3rd spaces will move to “Craft Connect” and “offline spaces” for additional privacy and control, when those become available in the near future. ↩︎
-
Though as with much in Craft, you can edit how things are visualized, more-so even than in some word-processing documents, and including in some ways that are unique to Craft. ↩︎
-
You can’t see unlinked references to a page, yet, but this is a feature they are considering. ↩︎
43
Photo by Hans Eiskonen on Unsplash
There are six things that the Lord hates, even seven things that are an abomination:
haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
and hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked plans,
feet that are swift to run to evil,
a false witness who pours out lies,
and a person who spreads discord among family members.
Proverbs 6: 16-19
43: the number of senators who were too scared or too shortsighted to vote in favor of conviction.
Unfortunately, it’s not surprising that the vote did not pass. More interesting is that there were actually 7 brave senators who did the right thing. In the modern USA, tribal affiliation & licentious grandstanding are much more important than truth, liberty, or justice.
“This is not who we are”, people said after mobs attacked congress. But unfortunately, it is part of who we are. And the result of this vote is another signal that it is part of who we are and who we will continue to be.
That is why I said “shortsighted”: far too many people are continuing to normalize lying and violence as acceptable means to achieve political goals. This is the road to ruin.1
This vote (and continued denialist behavior) all-but-guarantees that we will have more political violence. Further, the next populist & would-be-autocrat is unlikely to be as bumbling as 45, and much more capable at helping the powerful & politically-connected at the cost of everyone else.
All with good will towards humanity should seek to prevent the rise of the next dangerous populist, and to limit the harm that they can do if they gain power.
Here are some of the things Christians are called to do:
- Speak truth and refuse conspiracy, lies, and false witness2
- Love our neighbors and the people we encounter, especially ones unlike us3
- When we feel a loss of power & privilege, feel maligned, or have been harmed: love our enemies & persecutors and pray for them4
- Seek the good of the poor, the prisoner, the ailing, the oppressed5, the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner6
- Dismantle our weapons and create tools that support life7
-
Lying and violence are especially being normalized for groups that already have great power, with peaceful protests from among the marginalized being attacked and labeled as terrorism. This combination is not only the road to ruin but the road to fascism. ↩︎
-
Exodus 20:16 ↩︎
-
Luke 10: 25-37 ↩︎
-
Matthew 5: 43-48 ↩︎
-
Luke 4: ↩︎
-
Zechariah 7: 8-10 ↩︎
-
Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3 ↩︎