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Sunday: track, Papa Razzi, book review
Sep. 8th, 2019 03:03 pmI took T. to track. He had a good time. We had lunch at Papa Razzi. It was very pleasant, altho I spent the whole time answering detailed and somewhat repetitive questions about impeachment. T. struggles to understand which is fine, this is complicated stuff and a lot of adults ask me basically the same questions and struggle with the same basic concepts. We have grown so accustomed to expecting fairness in our governance that even when our noses are absolutely ground into partisan politics impinging on fairness in governance, we just do not want to see it. Also, so many of the lessons of Watergate were never really properly understood, much less communicated to later generations.
Oh well! We will keep having to do this until we understand the principles. Only then can we move on. And to be fair, the correct principles are: departures from fairness in the name of loyalty are generally speaking a terrible idea. No matter how much you love your family member, fairness is much better for them and everyone else. Not just in the long run, either. If something is too cruel to do to a family member, you probably should not have been doing it to anyone. And if you cannot tolerate ordinary consequences happening to your family member, you really, really, really have a big problem. Which is NOT your family member. It is inside of you.
I decided to read something very different after finishing _Assassins: Discord_. I picked _One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way_ by Robert Maurer. It was a good choice! There is a lot of Deming in it, which is pretty much always awesome to me. Maurer applies Deming principles of iterative, small improvement, focusing on the information available to the people involved in the process, to changes that people are struggling to make in their own lives. Think, New Year’s Resolution material: stop smoking, eat healthier, do better portion control, exercise more consistently, spend less money, find a life partner, make friends, improve one’s family relationships, etc.
Maurer’s focus is on the laughably small first step. So this is pretty solid when it comes to task breakdown! Sort of. Actually, not really, probably just a closely related area. Anyway. Someone needs to exercise, but cannot find the time and/or get up off the couch? Stand up and march in place for one minute. After the woman does that for a few days, she thinks, I will do this the whole commercial, pretty quick she is doing it for the duration of a show, etc.
He does NOT explain it in the terms I would have used, which is Make Homeostasis Work For You Instead of Against You. Standing up and walking in place for one minute does not disrupt homeostasis particularly (you were already doing something similar when you went to get a snack, answer the phone, or go to the bathroom). Once you are getting up and walking in place, it is easier to keep going than to stop. See? Make Homeostasis Work For You.
The way he frames it is, super tiny things do not trigger Fear Reactions, Self Criticism, etc. Which is almost certainly true.
Also, super tiny things are generally speaking concretely defined things that are time limited, resource sippers (not resource hogs), and we already know how to do them (otherwise, they would not be super tiny).
He has a rule to deal with people who start tiny, but then try to push too hard once they get going: back down to super tiny. Again, I would call this Make Homeostasis Work For You or, doing a consistent job on task breakdown. But I am starting to suspect that those concepts are too large for the people he is helping to contemplate. Super tiny baby step is not too large to contemplate.
There is plenty to quibble about in the book; most notable he spends a few pages on the broken windows theory thing. His take on it is less objectionable than some I have seen, but the whole frame (er, sorry) is problematic and irritating.
Anyway. Totally worth reading. If you read lots and lots of Time Management, Personal Organization, Decluttering, or other self help books, and have trouble translating the really great ideas in them into your life, perhaps reading this book will help you get to where you can start using the ideas in the other books. Or not! I really enjoyed the book.
Oh well! We will keep having to do this until we understand the principles. Only then can we move on. And to be fair, the correct principles are: departures from fairness in the name of loyalty are generally speaking a terrible idea. No matter how much you love your family member, fairness is much better for them and everyone else. Not just in the long run, either. If something is too cruel to do to a family member, you probably should not have been doing it to anyone. And if you cannot tolerate ordinary consequences happening to your family member, you really, really, really have a big problem. Which is NOT your family member. It is inside of you.
I decided to read something very different after finishing _Assassins: Discord_. I picked _One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way_ by Robert Maurer. It was a good choice! There is a lot of Deming in it, which is pretty much always awesome to me. Maurer applies Deming principles of iterative, small improvement, focusing on the information available to the people involved in the process, to changes that people are struggling to make in their own lives. Think, New Year’s Resolution material: stop smoking, eat healthier, do better portion control, exercise more consistently, spend less money, find a life partner, make friends, improve one’s family relationships, etc.
Maurer’s focus is on the laughably small first step. So this is pretty solid when it comes to task breakdown! Sort of. Actually, not really, probably just a closely related area. Anyway. Someone needs to exercise, but cannot find the time and/or get up off the couch? Stand up and march in place for one minute. After the woman does that for a few days, she thinks, I will do this the whole commercial, pretty quick she is doing it for the duration of a show, etc.
He does NOT explain it in the terms I would have used, which is Make Homeostasis Work For You Instead of Against You. Standing up and walking in place for one minute does not disrupt homeostasis particularly (you were already doing something similar when you went to get a snack, answer the phone, or go to the bathroom). Once you are getting up and walking in place, it is easier to keep going than to stop. See? Make Homeostasis Work For You.
The way he frames it is, super tiny things do not trigger Fear Reactions, Self Criticism, etc. Which is almost certainly true.
Also, super tiny things are generally speaking concretely defined things that are time limited, resource sippers (not resource hogs), and we already know how to do them (otherwise, they would not be super tiny).
He has a rule to deal with people who start tiny, but then try to push too hard once they get going: back down to super tiny. Again, I would call this Make Homeostasis Work For You or, doing a consistent job on task breakdown. But I am starting to suspect that those concepts are too large for the people he is helping to contemplate. Super tiny baby step is not too large to contemplate.
There is plenty to quibble about in the book; most notable he spends a few pages on the broken windows theory thing. His take on it is less objectionable than some I have seen, but the whole frame (er, sorry) is problematic and irritating.
Anyway. Totally worth reading. If you read lots and lots of Time Management, Personal Organization, Decluttering, or other self help books, and have trouble translating the really great ideas in them into your life, perhaps reading this book will help you get to where you can start using the ideas in the other books. Or not! I really enjoyed the book.