TED Tuesday #6 – We need more compassion!
Foreword: I do sincerely apologize for the non-Tuesday nature of this post.
When you hear the word “compassion” what comes to mind? Is it helping others? Sharing? Giving hugs? Thinking about how your decisions will affect others, even if they are not directly around you? For Daniel Goleman, psychologist and author of Emotional Intelligence, I believe that compassion is all of that and more.
In his 2007 TED talk, Goleman explores the notion of compassion in a variety of arenas, from helping homeless in our midst to buying clothes from facilities where water is properly disposed of. He presents the case for a more compassionate existence, a life of heightened awareness of others and how we are interacting with them.
After watching his video twice, “compassion” seems to be a great term to encompass a number of movements going on right now, from human rights to sustainability. Watch Goleman’s talk and let me know if you think we need more compassion in our lives. I’m making the decision to be more compassionate each moment and I hope you will join me. As Goleman says, “I’m optimistic.” (Video in full post).
TED Tuesday #5 – Robert Gupta on music as the medium
TED Tuesday #5 is a short video that leaves you with a lot to think about. In under 10 minutes, violinist Robert Gupta discusses his interactions with schizophrenic Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, a Juliard-trained musician in Los Angeles, California.
Through interacting with Ayers, Gupta realizes that music is what allows Ayers to take his thoughts and delusions and shape them into reality. It is the medium by which Ayers is able to interact with society; his medicine and his sanity.
While it may not be music that allows you to truly speak, take some time to watch Gupta’s talk and think about how it is that you best communicate and receive messages. What is your uninhibited medium?
If the medium is the message, Twitter has a lot to say
While I had originally intended to post about the New Media Literacies paper “Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture,” I opened my computer and found Paul Levinson’s chapter on Twitter, from his book New New Media, thanks to the mass amounts of PDFs which I downloaded from my school library and have yet to read.
Although Levinson title’s the chapter “Twitter,” and indeed goes to great lengths in his exploration of Twitter, the chapter read more like an examination of what new media represents to society, largely in part to his discussion of Marshall McLuhan. On the second page of the chapter, Levinson states, “instant publication—whether of text, images, sounds or videos—is one of the hallmarks of new new media.” In our society, it would be hard to disagree, especially with Isaiah Mustafa and the team at Wieden + Kennedy cranking out Old Spice videos in record time. (More on that at Fast Company)
In regards to McLuhan, Levinson points out that much of his writing looks like what we see in today’s current twittersphere, with statements like “nobody ever made a grammatical error in a non-literate society” or “the content of any medium is another medium.” Self-contained statements such as these are popular on Twitter, as they give us a lot to think about in 140 characters. Yet, what McLuhan really said that addresses Twitter is his notion of media “effects” and the “tetrad.”
McLuhan designed the tetrad as a pedagogical tool, phrasing his laws as questions with which to consider any medium:
1. What does the medium enhance?
2. What does the medium make obsolete?
3. What does the medium retrieve that had been obsolesced earlier?
4. What does the medium flip into when pushed to extremes?
- From Wikipedia
This notion connects to what Levinson asserts a few pages earlier:
“The automatic sending to Twitter (via applications or “apps”) of links to anything and everything on the Web … and the instantly subsequent, automatic relay of these tweets to Facebook and “meta” new new systems…constitute a self-perpetuating, not entirely planned, expanding network that has much in common with living organisms and evolutionary systems.”
Twitter is essentially aggregating all mediums and media into it, albeit through many other systems, (Bitly, Twitpic, etc). We see proof of this through the wide use of Twitter, thanks to it being the most convenient digital tool for both interpersonal and mass communication at the same time.
I highly recommend reading Levinson’s chapter, (and probably the whole book, though I myself have not yet read it), and giving thought to his ideas. He makes many strong assertions and I have only touched on a few of them here. You can download the chapter on Twitter free here.
TED Tuesday #4 – Sheena Iyengar on the story of limitless choice
Stop for a moment and think about how you make decisions as well as what decisions are made for you. In this edition of TED Tuesday, Professor Sheena Iyengar goes “around the world in 18 minutes” discussing the American notion of choice and how choice shapes our lives.
What Iyengar’s research points to is the notion that the value of our choice depends on our ability to perceive differences between the options. Often times, Iyengar states, many of these differences are artificial. Furthermore, Iyengar identifies three key assumptions that Americans make about choice and how those assumptions define a world view. As I sit here in Malaysia, I am trying to reflect on what choices I have, as well as what choices those around me have.
I am here with 13 other members of my family and I have to wonder which decisions are best to be made by all and which we should leave to a smaller number. Check out Iyengar’s video in the full post and think about it for yourself.
TED Tuesday #3 – Lewis Pugh swam Mt. Everest and lived to tell about it
As I am currently in Kuala Lampur, and about as close to Mount Everest as I think I will find myself in a while, this week’s TT is a talk given by Lewis Gordon Pugh, a man who loves to “pioneer new swimming routes.”
After swimming the North Pole, Pugh set his sites on something even colder and more challenging – a glacial lake under Mount Everest. Pugh encourages us to think about what it is we need to do in our lives to make a “safe, secure, and sustainable” world for our children and future generations. Check out his talk (as well as his TED talk after the North Pole swim) in the full post.
“Tweet Less, Kiss More.” Indeed.
I love Twitter. The reason I love Twitter is not because I can listen in on what celebrities are doing, but because my Twitter feed contains tons of posts from interesting people about interesting things. I’ve blogged about some of these before, often relating to things posted by Kathy Gill or Hanson Hosein.
If you have read posts from previous weeks, you might recall my comments on Hosein’s post “Death to Distraction.” Today, thanks to Katey Deeny, I found someone else who shares our views. On July 16, 2010, New York Times Op-Ed Columnist Bob Herbert wrote a piece entitled “Tweet Less, Kiss More.” In it, Herbert shares many of the same sentiments that Hosein and myself (as well as many others) have:
I don’t think we can stay in touch with our song by constantly Twittering or tweeting, or thumbing out messages on our BlackBerrys, or piling up virtual friends on Facebook.
We need to reduce the speed limits of our lives. We need to savor the trip. Leave the cellphone at home every once in awhile. Try kissing more and tweeting less. And stop talking so much.
Listen.
I couldn’t agree more. I was recently on a trip to the Oregon coast, and tried to keep my phone away as much as possible, only bringing it out to search for restaurants on Yelp and take pictures. It was a wonderful feeling of freedom and disconnectivity.
I definitely recommend giving his article a read. While you’re at it, check out Hosein’s segment on New Day Northwest, where he discusses going on a gadget diet.
TED Tuesday #2 – Jeff Bezos on gifts versus choices
For the second installment of TED Tuesdays, I want to draw your attention to a talk given by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos to the graduating class at Princeton University this past May. What Bezos outlines is that while talents and gifts are beneficial and can definitely guide you in your life, ultimately it is your choices that define your story. Do not be seduced by your gifts, he warns, but be wise in the decisions you make. Check it out at TED or in the full post.
TED Tuesday #1 – Rory Sutherland and the “Chief Detail Officer”
Given my love and appreciation for TED, I’ve decided to start a series here on the W+I called “TED Tuesdays,” where I share a Ted Talk that I’ve seen over the past week that resonated with me.
To kick off TT, I want to share Rory Sutherland’s talk on how small changes can have large impacts. In his presentation, Sutherland examines a graph of cost versus impact, breaking it up into the four quadrants of High Cost/High Impact, High Cost/Low Impact, Low Cost/Low Impact, and Low Cost/High Impact. While we have names for the first three of these (Strategy, Consultancy, and Trivia, accordingly) there is no term for something that has high impact but costs little. Sutherland believes that this is because there are too few people in the world (and in business) with lots of power but no budget. But we need these people, Sutherland asserts, and his proposal is the creation of a “Chief Detail Officer” in businesses and a “Ministry of Detail” in the government.
Check out his talk in the full post.
OhMyZod! Finally Up
If you’ve checked out my blog before, OMZ may be a familiar name, so the words “finally up” attached to it could be confusing. For a while, I was using the domain to showcase the art portfolio of my friend Suria as she applied to schools. Now that she is happily moving down to California, I was able to take some time and post my own work. 
Above is a snapshot of the new site, built with Core CMS. There still are a few tweaks to be made (try clicking “can’t stop” or “won’t stop), but for now, it should be a new home for my work. Check it out and let me know what you think!
How jaw surgery and one book have changed my life
2010 is my year. While it would be easy for some to agree, pointing out that I’ve graduated from undergrad, will begin my MS this fall, and am turning 21 in August, none of those things have had the impact on my life that two other events have: jaw surgery and reading Eckhart Tolle‘s book A New Earth.
The two events have a lot in common and by happening in tandem, taught me much more than either of them would have alone. On the surface, jaw surgery seems a bit cosmetic, if not shallow. However, for me, I have had a significant underbite for much of my life, one that caused me to bite most of my food around my canine teeth, since that was the only place my teeth came together. While this is not a life-threatening condition, doctors told me that I could have significant jaw and bone problems later in life if I didn’t have an operation, so I did. On May 24th, 2010, I had both my upper and lower jaws cut, moved, and screwed back in place.
My jaw, post-op, with 27 titanium screws.
Reading A New Earth lasted much longer than my surgery did, and for a good reason. It is not a book I would recommend anyone read through in one sitting. Each chapter feels like a lesson, one that you want to take time to process, meditate on, and come back to later. I started reading A New Earth in March, at the suggestion of a friend. After finishing the book earlier this week, I’m glad that I took as long as I did. There were many things in my life that were coming together around the time I began the book. I was coming to a new place of peace, becoming more aware of myself and my feelings, and significantly more able to savor each moment. I credit much of that to Buddhist readings and discussions with my advisor, Dr. Nathaniel Cordova. ANE deepened many of these feelings, and began to articulate what it was that I couldn’t; things that I felt but did not quite understand. While I don’t want to dive too deeply into ANE in hopes that you read it, I will explain how it related to my surgery (and ultimately, my recovery).
What Counts? – Chip Conley on “Measuring what makes life worthwhile” (TED Tuesday #0)
The question of “what counts?” is frequently asked in our society, but we often give the wrong response, at least according to Chip Conley, the founder and CEO of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, Californias largest boutique hotel company.
In his TED Talk, “Measuring what makes life worthwhile”, Conley discusses how he took his understanding of economics, his employee’s happiness in making her customers comfortable, and the Bhutanese King’s belief that Gross National Happiness, not GDP, should be the real indication of success, and reshaped his business model and perspective on life.
Conley focuses on the notion of tangible versus intangible in economics, noting how many managers are taught to only manage what they can measure, ignoring the things that truly matter, but often can’t be measured. By asking ourselves different questions, Conley suggests that we can overcome the “19th century industrial model of success” that we use and truly understand what it is that counts in our lives. I would strongly encourage you to watch the video (embedded in full post.)
Note: Thanks to Emilie for sending me this video and always encouraging me to ask myself “what counts?”
An ode to “Death to Distraction”
I really need to go visit the great folks at the UW MCDM program when I get on campus in the fall. If you read Sunday’s post, you will know that I come across tons of fascinating pieces online thanks to MCDM Professor Kathy Gill. This afternoon’s internet post that resonated with me came from her colleague, MCDM Director Hanson Hosein, titled “Death to distraction.”
Hosein’s post focuses on the way that we are constantly plugged in to our technology and the effects that such interaction has on our personal relationships (he is specifically addressing the influence that he and his wife have on their daughter). This conversation is one that I have had many times with my friend Emilie. Emilie is acutely aware of the way that everyone arrounds her engages with and through technology, and we have spoken at length about the degree that people lose themselves in digital space, failing to interact with others without walls of 1s and 0s between them. For her Rhetoric 350T (New Media and Technology) video, she created a digital story that reflected on the way that technology “burglarizes her being.” Our discussions leading up to the piece and throughout filming and editing made me intensely more aware of the way that I interact with others through digital space and how that can affect real relationships.
I have pledged, just as Hosein has, to remove technology from communal spaces in order to work on family relationships. Making that decision was not easy, given the fact that I am 20 and most of my peers have their phones glued to them, but thanks to Emilie, her video, the writing of Hosein, and others, I came to a place where I have realized that my friends and family are what I value most, so doing what it takes to engage mindfully with them and be present is what I want to do. I would definitely encourage you to watch Emilie’s video and read Hosein’s post, then take some time and think about how you engage with others through technology. Are those interactions you want to continue, or do your relationships need some reshaping?
A big thanks to Hanson Hosein for calling up these thoughts again today.
