Essentialism (II): What Is An Essentialist?

In his book Essentialism, Greg McKeown begins with a story about a corporate executive.

It is story that is likely familiar to many who been somewhat successful at their position:  willing to try to what he was asked and being successful at what he was given, he continued to volunteer and amass work until he was busy to the point of being able to no longer be essential or effective.  He asked a mentor what he should do; his mentor suggested to stay on in his job, but instead of leaving and being a business consultant, act like a business consultant.

And so, he tried the experiment.

He tentatively started saying no to things he did not know if he could actually accomplish or complete  When no-one pushed back on that, he expanded his experiment to begin asking the question "Is this the most important thing I could be doing right now?"  If the answer was no, he would decline the request.

He started letting others jump in on e-mail threads, not attending meetings where he could make no contribution.  He started making space for his work - and his work became working one project at a time, allowing him to make thorough plans and anticipate and remove obstacles. He began making actual progress in his projects.  He began to find time to go home and spend time with his family again.  And his performance ratings went up to and then beyond where they had been.

McKeown notes "...in this example is the basic value proposition of Essentialism:  only give yourself permission to stop trying to do it all, to say yes to everyone, can you make your highest contribution towards the things that really matter."

The Essentialist, says McKeown, lives by the motto of the German Designer Dieter Rams of the German corporation Braun:  Wenige aber besser (Less but better). Like the Rams' design of the record player that took it from a wood cabinet behemoth piece of furniture to a plastic cover over the turntable (I owned some of these), the essentialist is in pursuit of better.  It is not about getting more things done, he suggests, but rather getting the right things done; "It is about making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy in order to operate at our highest point of contribution by doing only what is essential."

The Essentialist lives by design, accepting that life involves trade-offs and decision that are difficult; that design means that the Essentialist lives by choice:  "The Essentialist deliberately distinguishes the vital few from the trivial many, eliminates the non-essentials, and then removes obstacles so the essential things have clear, smooth passage.  In other words, Essentialism is a disciplined, systematic approach for determining where our highest point of contribution lies, then making the execution of the those things effortless."

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Thoughts and Applications:

What strikes me most in reading this example is that I am precisely familiar with it, as likely are a lot of people.  We slowly get pulled into other things that are beyond our ability to influence or control because we are "in that department" or "we would like to have your voice in the room (although it is never called on)" or "this is a critical initiative".  Too, we are often inclined to help people when asked for help, often even at the cost of our own ability to do our work, because that is how we are raised as a people.

And to be clear, the application goes far beyond that of the workplace.  It strikes me that the idea of having to make to make choices (and accepting that this is so) is one I have attempted to disprove all my life.  I am one of those people that really does think I can do and be far more that is physically or temporally possible; as a result, I often lose the chance I do have to become better at something because I want to become okay at a lot of things.

McKeown uses the term "Life by design".  I like the idea of "life by design", but my application to this point has been "design in too much".  Clearly, that is not a winning philosophy.

The Collapse CLXXV: Murder

 09 Oct 20XX +1

My Dear Lucilius:

We seem to have had a murder.

I say “seem to”; I clearly was not present at the time. All that has been presented is that one person is dead, another person is accused of killing them, and we have something that needs to be resolved.

The circumstances of my own awareness are such: Yesterday I was out moving wood. Somewhere, to the West, a shot was fired. Then another. Then another. It was close enough that it sounded as if it were in town but not close enough that I could identify it.

Hmmm. Hunting, I thought to myself, then carried on about my business.

Later that day, Young Xerxes came around with more information and an urgent need for me to come with him. Apparently it was not a hunt; it was a killing.

I have mentioned before the RV Park and bar that is on the state highway through town. In times past this would have been closing up more or less as the Summer tourists would have left and few if any stay here through Winter in a Recreational Vehicle. Due to the relative suddenness of The Collapse, there were some that were essentially marooned here with not enough fuel to get anywhere worth getting.

Who they are I cannot really tell you; I seldom if ever went to the bar before and I simply do not go there now. Likely they came to the town meetings, but surely I would not have known them from anyone else; even I am somewhat considered an “Out of Towner” after living here as long as I have.

The facts, Young Xerxes explained as we walked the quarter mile to the Park, was that there was some kind of argument that escalated from words to pushing to shooting. Someone was clearly dead. Someone had clearly shot them.

By the time we arrived at the Park, there was a small crowd: Park residents obviously, local residents that heard the shots, and people that came out afterwards as this was the biggest thing that had happened in months. Two men held a third man, struggling to get free. In front of a long block-like Recreational Vehicle (are they not all long and block-like) was a series of blood stains. To the side, in the shade of the bar, was a covered body and a grieving woman.

And shouting. There was a lot of shouting, shouting coming from some men and women by the grieving woman, others from the man in custody, others from men and women by him.

The shouting went on until Young Xerxes fired a shot. The silence, as they say, was deafening.

The question quickly became what to do – with the body, with the captive, with the murder.

For the body, burial that day was obviously in order. The men by the body said they would take care of that.

For the captive, there were – not surprisingly – two counterarguments. One was the shouts of “Execute him!”, the other of “It was justified!”. Young Xerxes – who never seems to have a problem making a decision – delegated two men to take him into the bar and hold them there.

Finally, what to do about the murder.

Judging from the shouts, there were obviously two different points of view with what would have been very different outcomes.

“A trial, then” suggested Young Xerxes in a voice that would not be brooked for opposition.

“But who will judge?” shouted the grieving woman. “I do not trust anyone that has lived here for years.”

“But not someone that has not lived here at all” came the response from out of the crowd.

Young Xerxes slowly scanned the crowd. “Not an outsider, not a life-long resident. Perhaps someone with experience and knowledge. Perhaps even someone that has already served this town loyally. Perhaps….my father in law?”

All eyes turned to me.

It seems, Lucilius, I need to quickly brush up on my legal proceedings.

Your Obedient Servant, Seneca

New Home 3.0: The Great Arrival of The Ravishing Mrs. TB

 Today marks the formal arrival of The Ravishing Mrs. TB.

For the record, this brings us together (more or less - see below) after approximately 10 months of living apart.  Not consistently, of course - I had made a few trips back and she had made a few trips here and we met at least one time at third location (San Diego).  But by and large, we have been apart.

I have to admit it will be a little bit odd to have someone living in the house with me again.  10 months is enough time to develop your own habits and ways of living -  - my meals, for example, are probably atrocious by the standards of dining in that they tend to consume as little time as possible to make and eat.  And while most of the things are put away not everything is and I have become comfortable living with the disarray (That, also, will likely change).

I say more or less - she is going back to New Home 2.0 in February to take care of some last things before the move, then will be gone a few days in March, then down to Old Home to help her mother, then out to New Home in May, then in June... you get the idea.  "Great Arrival" does not mean "Final Arrival".

It also means - by default - that her former employment will have ended.  Fortunately through my relocation, she has a twelve month support program for resume help and a job search - although she has joking referred to the upcoming year as her "adult gap year".

Still, after 10 months, it will be nice to have here.  Although, I suppose, I will probably have to sit down and really "eat dinner" again...

2024 Turkey: Ruins of Güzelyurt

 Prior to the 1924 Population exchange - an event where entire populations of Greek and Turkish citizens switched countries to be within ethnic national borders - Kapadokya was largely Christian and the city of Güzelyurt largely Greek.  The Greeks are all long gone, but the ruins of churches, monasteries, and even just living quarters remain.  After our lunch, we took a hike down the hill.

Here you can clearly see how the rock was carved:

One cannot be sure why this arch was built overlooking the mountain, but it could have made a wonderful backdrop to an altar:

These all appeared largely unoccupied:

Another moment of "Imagine growing up with this in your backyard":

Walking by these, I wondered their stories: Who carved them?  Who lived there?  Why did they leave?

From the ruins, it is clear that the city once had a much larger population:

Now, only the plants and occasional animal or bird frequents these haunts.

Hammerfall 2.0: Epilogue

 On 02 January of this year, doing my now semi-regular check of the status of the company that created the layoff called Hammerfall 2.0 (which indirectly lead to New Home 2.0), I came across the following notice:

"Thank you for visiting the website for <Former Employer> ("Company"), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company formerly based in New Home.  The Company is no longer operating.  Any questions may be submitted to <FormerEmployer@Fomer.com>.

Previous SEC filings for the company may be found at <The place you find such things>.

Correspondence can also be sent to <Former Employer>, Small Office Complex, Somewhere, United States."

That is it.   A company history of something like 15 years - 6.5 years of my own life - hundreds of millions of dollars - all gone except for a web page and assets to be liquidated.

The hours we spent there.  The amount of work.  The sacrifices of sleep and emotion.  The things that had to be done - right then - because they were the most important thing in the world, because our bosses told us so.

All gone.

I try and tell the young ones of this, that a company will ask everything of you and will let you go at the drop of a hat, that while doing good work is important and you should always avail yourself of every opportunity you can, never give the company everything.  Because sometime - it happens to most of us anymore - all of your efforts and emotions and sweat will disappear without a trace.

Sic transit gloria mundi - Thus passes the glory of this world.

A Year of Humility (II): Definitions The First

 As a writer and reader, words not only matter to me but are fascinating to me.  As someone who loves to study foreign languages (if he does not end up speaking them very well), what a language has and does not have for words and concepts and how it expresses those concepts tell one a great deal about the culture and thought processes without a single word about the actual culture and thought processes.

Thus, rather than start from the typical "Here is what the Greek/Hebrew says, this is where it appears, and this is the word we use for it", I would like to reverse the order and start where we are now and work backwards.

Humility, were you to look it up in your red hardback Webster's New World Dictionary, Second College Edition (1982), would be defined as "The state or quality; absence of pride or self assertion".   Were you to go back a page to page 683, you could look up humble:

"Humble:  1.  having or showing a consciousness of one's defects or shortcomings; not proud; not self-assertive; 2.  low in condition, rank, or position; lowly; unpretentious.  Verbal Form (-bled, -bling): 1. to lower in condition, rank, or position; 2 to lower in pride; make modest or humble in mind".

You would also find right below this:

"Synonymy:  humble, in a favorable sense, suggests an unassuming character in which there is an absence of pride and assertiveness (a humble genius) and, unfavorably connotes and almost abject lack of respect."  Words presented as synonyms include lowly (an older equivalent to humble with no unfavorable connotations), meek, and modest.

Finally, the entry would tell you the world entered the English language during the period of Middle English as humilitte, which is derived from Old French and ultimately Latin.

Fair enough.  There are many, many terms in Modern English that we ultimately derive from Latin via Latin directly or as a parting gift from the Norman Conquest.  But it always makes me wonder:  what was the original Old English term.

As an example text going forward for this discussion (and next week's), I will use Luke 14:11:  "For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted".

The Old English (from the circa 990 A.D. West Saxon Gospel)  reads:

"For-ðam aelc þem hine up-ahefð byð genyðerud (ond) se þe hine niðereð se beoð up-ahafen."

Literally, "For every one that lifts himself up (up-ahefð) will be brought low/put down (genyðerud) and the one that brings himself low (niðereð), he will be lifted up (ahafen)".

So to the Anglo-Saxon mind, the idea of "humble" was that of being made to lower one's self - whether in physical manner or in social standing.  In a society that valued in its literature and culture warrior prowess and bravery, this must have seemed like a very foreign - and not desirable - concept.

So if the Anglo-Saxons saw being "humble" as lowering one's self (as opposed to lifting one's self up), where did they get that idea from?  Stay tuned for next week, where we reach farther back into (linguistic) history.

A New Library Card

Two weeks ago to cap out the old year, I got a library card.

I have not had a library card in something like 12 years - which is an odd exception, as for the bulk of my life I have always had one for whatever local library I belonged to; as I have related in the past, for many years the biweekly library visit was the highlight of my childhood week.  

That all changed in 2013 when, as part of the purchase of our house in New Home, we moved from one county to another.  Even though the library we had always gone to was still the closest one, we were unable to continue our library services there because we were now "out of county" and as such, no longer considered "free" users of the library (we could join for $100 a year).  And so the library lapsed, at least for me.

We did have a smaller community (read "Home Owner's Association") library that I could have joined, but for some reason it never took with me - also, I certainly had enough materials to read at home.  The Ravishing Mrs. TB joined though, and over the years borrowed and listened to many a book.

With our move to New Home 2.0, the closeness of the library (a little over 1 mile away), and the fact that this year is going to be a little lean financially, it seemed like a good time to do so again.  Especially because - thanks to being a county resident - it is "free" (free in the sense my rent pays the property taxes of my landlord that help fund it).

When I was growing up, inter-library loans were not much of thing:  what you had in the library is what you had.  That is no longer the case, judging from what was arguably less of a collection of books than the library I belonged to as a child (eyeballing it, of course).  That said, interlibrary loans are no much more of a thing.  Add to that an app (Libbyapp.com) that allows you not only to do things like reserve. request, and extend expiration dates, but actually check out the electronic books to your phone or electronic device - and suddenly the dearth of physical books is not quite the difficulty I thought it would be.

(The electronic books are both audio and a reader on your app.  I struggle with audio books, really only being able to focus on one thing at a time.  The app for my phone, however, is much better than I had anticipated and I can actually read on it).

My list of "Books I would like to buy" on Thriftbooks has now become the basis of a reading list:  if the book is at the library, I will start there.  If it is not, then I get to ask the question "Do I really want it?"

It is not that I expect my reading to decrease significantly because I am borrowing instead of buying (the final count was 116 books in 2024).  But the variety of books I have access to has expanded greatly.

Who knows what kind of (intellectual) trouble I can get myself into now.