thinking

My 2017

It was …

A year of sadness as I bore estrangement from a group of people I love and miss. Learning to respect their choices has been a good discipline, through the sorrow.

A year of joy as I found a wonderful “tribe” of professionals to chat with and learn from (more on this later).

A year of difficulty as, for the second time in my life, I had dealings with someone who was offended by cheerfulness and enthusiasm. Sad to say that I was slow to recognise it, and it cost me professionally. I tend to assume that others are more “with it” than I am, and I need to learn that that is not always the case.

A year of reconnecting with friends from long ago. I’m so grateful for them and all the others through the years who somehow were able to see the tiny sparkle in me before it was very visible.

A year when I discovered that I can, in fact, write with a fountain pen, left-handed klutz that I am. How fortunate that I saved my parents’ old Parker 51 when we cleaned out their house after Mom got sick! I look forward eagerly to getting it back from the restorer a few months from now.

A year of festivity and reading-reading-reading with the release of Oathbringer (more on this later too). “Unite Them!”

Yet another year when I didn’t get as much done as I’d hoped—not by a long shot—but even still it was a good year.

Significant memories:

Writing for TFL’s Basics Conference in May. What a treat to hear each session, especially those taught by Sinclair Ferguson. I now “hear” his voice in my head when reading things he’s written, such as the fantastic book Devoted to God: it too has been a 2017 blessing.

Being part of the pilot team at TFL to edit and develop full transcripts. The work is enjoyable, especially because I learn something new on each pass through the audio.

Participating in a new and refreshing online professional group, the Training, Learning and Development Community. Such a wonderful discovery! Brent Schlenker, Luis Malbas, Cara North, Craig Sybert, and the many participants and guests have all challenged me to grow in my profession and to keep thinking beyond the next deliverable.

Finishing several pieces of beadwork, which I need to add to the gallery here asap. (Sad to report, though, that I failed at last year’s resolution to not start any new pieces till all the unfinished ones were through the pipeline…)

Surviving three days without power in (cold!) early November. If it ever happens to you, here’s the secret: boiled potatoes. Srsly, trust me on this one!

Attending the book release event for Oathbringer, the latest volume in Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archives. First and foremost, it is Dalinar’s book, and Dalinar is my favorite. Brandon has said that he feels OBR is the best book he’s ever written and I agree. On top of the book (all 1,235 pages!) being so awesome, my trip to the Salt Lake City/Provo area went as smooth as silk. I especially enjoyed Sunday morning worship at the EV Free Church where I met some lovely sisters in Christ, heard a solid sermon, and added my voice to the great congregational music. Another pleasure was the (just opened!) El Pollo Loco right up the road from my hotel—I do love me some El Pollo Loco! (Please please come to Ohio!) At the book release party (1st photo below; green circle is me … well, the top of my head anyway!), my cosplay went over well: lots of knowing nods for my “awespren” hat (2nd photo below), and Brandon himself re-tweeted the photo I shared online! I’d thought the OBR release a once-in-a-lifetime thing for me, but I had such a blast among those 1,600 rabid Sander-fans that I might just go again; if so, I’ll for sure stay at the same hotel which was convenient and provided excellent customer service.

Continued blessings this year have been my awesome friends, my Parkside Church family, my great job at Cinécraft, my good health (thanks Mom!), JoJo and Maria (meow!), Cleveland Orchestra concerts at Severance Hall (my “team” always wins!), lots of fun genre movies that came out (Wonder Woman! Thor Ragnarok!), my humble home where my neighbors are so amazing … too many things to name. Most of all I’m thankful for the gift of knowing God through His Son the Lord Jesus—how He knows me to my core and loves me anyway. Praise His glorious grace!

I can’t know what 2018 has in store, but a possible theme has formed in my mind:

Love reaches. Love covers. Love hopes.

May God help me to learn it well.

Postmodernism as a Wall

A while back, I thought about going into academics. I was working on a Masters in the humanities and all was well except … I just couldn’t do postmodernism.

Maybe it’s my background in the hard sciences, but when people would say that nothing really exists, it was difficult for me not to respond, “Well, why don’t you just give me all your money then? It exists to me.” When recognized experts insisted that words have no intrinsic meaning, I fought with myself not to say, “Well then, why should I pay you to teach me? Why shouldn’t it be the other way around?”

Yet I do see value in postmodernism. To me, it’s kind of like a wall. Not the Great Wall of China – more like a wall in an obstacle course or a garden wall.

I can take my ideas, opinions, and theories and bounce them off that wall, paying attention to which direction they bounce and how far, etc. This kind of testing of our ideas can reveal hidden presuppositions and prejudices, helping us to refine out thoughts and better line them up with reality. I was doing that instinctively before I even knew what postmodernism was.

The wall is really useful, but …

You can’t live on it. And I think maybe that’s where people go wrong.

They try to live on a vertical surface, instead of on the ground. It’s a little like the ancient pillar saint Simeon Stylites. To be sure, it’s an achievement to live your life in such an unlikely position. But gravity will catch up with you at some point, and then what’s it all been for?

 

Originally posted July 26, 2009 on White Tree Ideas

Scalzi on “Fear”

This post is a quote from The Sagan Diary by John Scalzi.

Outstanding insight, IMO.

[Fear] is what it is; the serpent in my ear, whispering the promise of the fall.

I am human. Fear lives in me and sets to make my heart bitter. But I know something about Fear. Fear is a scavenger who feeds on the future; on what may be and what is possible, extending down the line of our lives. Fear lives in me and I cannot change that. But I choose to starve Fear. I choose to live here [and] now.

 

Originally posted July 20, 2009 on White Tree Ideas

Remembering and Memorizing Are the Same Thing

Training industry thought leader Cathy Moore is a strong proponent – indeed a pioneer – of an instructional format that places the content to be learned into reference materials so that people do not need to memorize (remember) information – they just refer to their job aids.

In a recent webinar, cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Carmen Simon stated that “People can’t act on what they can’t remember” (what they haven’t memorized). Her research and consultancy focus on the goal of making information more memorable.

These two positions, taken in their purest forms, cannot both be right.

Each training project needs to balance appropriate memory stimulation for knowledge transfer against flexible just-in-time performance support tools that prevent cognitive overload (with the realization that “overload” varies among individuals).

But stepping back for a larger perspective, why is it OK for us to want people to remember (memorize) a marketing message, but not OK to want them to memorize (remember) processes and requirements for performing their duties as an employee?

Usability guru Steve Krug’s groundbreaking book Don’t Make Me Think was about designing products and websites that are intuitively easy to use. It was not, I suspect, intended to be a philosophy of life.

Bigger

I don’t know much about artist/musician Amanda Palmer, but a song she wrote a year or two ago really resonated with me.

Here are the lyrics to the chorus:

I am bigger on the inside

But you have to come inside to see me

Otherwise you’re only hating

Other people’s low-res copies *

I understand she wrote the song whilst dealing with a boatload of personal difficulty and facing strong but nebulous hatred from random strangers.

There are lots of things Ms. Palmer and I would agree about, and lots of things we wouldn’t.

I’m sure I don’t understand most of the stuff she’s been through, and likewise she wouldn’t understand all my stuff.

But I can say this unequivocally: Everyone needs to understand the meaning behind this song.

 

* Lyrics to “Bigger on the Inside” retrieved from the artist’s Patreon

Quandary 1

Here’s one of those things that’s difficult to understand:

We all like to think we’re so unique — like snowflakes or fingerprints or whatever.

And yet we’re surprised when other people disagree with us.

gathering the scattered pieces

It’s time.

For several years now, I’ve had an online presence, but I’ve been compartmentalizing it into neat, topic-based segments. Nice and tidy. Organized.

But life – real life – isn’t neat and tidy like that. It’s messy. Things get jumbled up. Unrelated stuff collides and interacts.

And sometimes that’s where the creativity – the sparks of genius – occur. Need evidence? Try searching for “Jef Staes red monkey story.” Fascinating ideas!

So over the next few months, I’ll be pulling together the bits and pieces I’ve been leaving around the internet, and collating them here.

Plus building a body of new ideas and questions and ponderings.

I’m still deciding how to handle Comments – whether to allow them only sometimes, or what-not. Wisdom is wise, here on teh interwebz.

There’ll be things you won’t agree with. There’ll be things that might surprise you. There’ll be questions that it’s just good to ponder, and settling on an answer isn’t even the point.

But no matter the topic, my goal is to write with respect and civility. Those of you who know me can attest that I really, sincerely like people – folks who are like me, folks who are nothing like me, and everyone in between. This will be a friendly place.