one little cog

Of all the week’s that have come and gone — the past week could probably be ranked as one of the most turbulent and toughest for me simply because of daily circumstances that are beyond my control. My week just wouldn’t be fulfilled without a few drops (or waves) of inspiration.

I use a lot of different content management systems these days. However, I use Wordpress … a lot. I remember my first step into publishing a webpage, oh … way back when HTML pages with everything centered on to the page were prominent. One of the things I always wanted was an online publishing system that would be simple enough for anyone to make use of (without requiring a substantial amount of technical expertise) but also allow for people to customize the way it worked and presented content. Over 10 years or so, I’ve had the opportunity to see so many types of content management systems spring up but it has really been the idea of a blog and the Wordpress platform that has had such an enormous impact on the way we communicate. I was just surfing around and happened to notice a video that Matt Mullenweg had posted on his blog.

I like Wordpress

Going off topic for a second — I often remind friends and family that everyone’s selling something out there whether it may be an idea or a more tangible item like a product. What I like to ask myself is whether or not the idea or product has created a ripple effect in the world that will help others. It’s easy to believe that something we create will change the world, but what’s the impact of that change? How does that genuinely help others?

Back to the video that Matt had posted — an introduction to Glenda Watson Hyatt, The Left Thumb Blogger. It’s good to see the genuine impact of those many small yet substantial steps that the many people involved with Open Source initiatives and Wordpress, have made. It’s inspiring to see the opportunities that people around the world have created together for others.

Could My Spine Tell a Story Like That?

Nina Katchadourian’s storytelling via book spines was quite a fascinating discovery via twitter. I know of book covers for series tend to carry a design that cross references the different individual titles but I wonder if marketing departments will ever try to tie together the copy on book spines in a manner that can summarize the plot or topic? The different

I’ll have to try one myself sometime when I can figure out how to work in the overwhelming number of books I own by Gordon Korman and John Steinbeck.

Everyone can be a Hero

I grew up watching cartoons (like many kids in North America have) and the idea of heroism. Although one of my favourites continues to be Osmosis Jones, a white blood cell.

Fun and humour aside, a very important talk that everyone should really watch is one by Philip Zimbardo who led the Stanford Prison Experiment. I should warn that there are some pretty graphic scenes in this talk (below) so it may not be suitable for everyone. While Zimbardo emphasizes that it is the “system” that is flawed and that to prevent future atrocities, we need to inspire future generations to strive to become the everyday hero sans the super abilities and power; I think we need to accept the fact that what we do isn’t always good or bad but rather can often be both good and bad depending on how we look at the consequences and impact. Sometimes we are being influenced and other times we are influencing — I think the following quote summarizes how we should potentially make a decision:

“Do not accept anything by mere tradition. Do not accept anything just because it accords with your scriptures. Do not accept anything because it agrees with your opinions or because it is socially acceptable. Do not accept anything because it comes from the mouth of a respected person. Rather, observe closely and if it is to the benefit of all, accept and abide by it.” - The Buddha to the Kalama People

One of the possible outcomes of inspiring children to become everyday heroes is potentially an eventual change in the way we do business. There are still so many products out there and the goal has always continued to be sell, sell and sell. In my opinion, we need to do better than that — something greater.

Another Commencement Speech

I had no idea who David Foster Wallace was until Avinash Kaushik pointed out Wallace’s commencement speech at Kenyon College in 2005 on learning not just how to think, but learning how to control how you think.

“The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.” — David Foster Wallace

Whew! That was quite a bit, but I guess makes up for the past couple of weeks when I wasn’t around.

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