Sunday Open Thread – May 27, 2007

still life
Photo: My own, taken last night while sitting out on the patio.

What I’m thinking about, and planning on writing (and podcasting) about soon:

Vignettes: Did two this past week, and I have more to come.

Improv: What are the ways we practice improvisation? Spontaneous conversations. Spontaneous flirtations. Spontaneous artistic expression. Unplanned brainstorming, collaboration, innovation, creation. Is there a danger that doing these things badly actually makes us worse at it instead of better?

Natural Enterprise: Time to update some of my earlier articles on a better, more joyful, responsible and sustainable way to make a living.

Good Working Models of Social Networking: When it comes to good working models of wikis and blogs in organizations, I’ve found very few good success stories, and some of the ones I’ve investigated are suspect. Is social networking unable to make its case in big companies, or are the managers of big companies just not listening? Or is this another case of ‘we do what we must’, and social networking is merely nice to have, not must-have, not urgent?

Blog-Hosted Conversations: Plan is for 30-minute conversations, once a week, on the subject of identifying and acquiring the essential skills and relationships we need to be models of a better way to live, and what those models might look like. The first few will be practice podcasts, and may not make it to the blog.

What are the skills you’ve been trying to develop, the changes you’ve been trying to bringabout in yourself, the important conversations you’ve had recently?

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5 Responses to Sunday Open Thread – May 27, 2007

  1. Jordan Mechano says:

    I’ve done my fair share of the ‘Who’s Line is it Anyway’ style improv, and I’ve learned that doing a bad job one or so days certainly doesn’t make you worse. Like the article you posted yesterday, you just learn more and more to accept and say ‘Yes, and…’, and screwing up just makes you realize even more the folly of saying ‘Yes, but…’ or even the sacrilegious ‘No’. Any practice is always good practice in my mind.

  2. Ed Diril says:

    > What are the skills you’ve been trying to develop, the changes > you’ve been trying to bring about in yourself, the important > conversations you’ve had recently?My head is finally clearing from all the sugar and caffeine induced blur. I am waking up!I realized that this “civilized” life we created out of fear (of I don’t know what) has separated us so much from our true nature, we don’t know who we are any more.I realized that we are extremely disconnected from how it is supposed to be. We created “technology” to do things for us and then forgot that we don’t need anything “external” to take care of us. We poisoned our minds on the inside and our bodies on the outside so much that now we are dependent on all sorts of external things.I realized that we have gotten so far away from our roots that we are trying to go all the way around (in the name of science) just to make it back home. All our desire to know is really our essence trying to prove to itself what it already knows, but it is afraid for some reason. It simply has to be proven. No less will suffice.I also realized that there is immense mental power which has been suppressed for some time, waiting for the right moment to burst out! I realized this power is our only chance to create heaven on Earth! Earth is an organism just like our bodies are, and make no mistake! It will defend itself! It has survived billions of years and it will prevail again.I realized my purpose it to wake up the others and help unleash our latent power; peal away all the crap that we built up inside and outside ourselves. And it is not too late to take action. Change does not have to take long, but it does require specific and focused action.All the skills we need are already within! We just have to stop trying to prove that we have them and start using them; listen to what they are saying. Turn off the TV, turn off the cellphones, turn off the chemical addictions and the inner voice will come through,loud and clear.

  3. Dawn Passaro says:

    It is not possible to make a mistake while improvising. That is the pure beauty and joy of it. I have begun to do improv dance. I have learned to find joy in the journey with no judgments. Dance like no one is watching.

  4. Dave Pollard says:

    Jordan, Ed, Dawn: Hmm…very interesting comments. Thanks. My point about ‘bad’ practice making us worse instead of better is not so much about making mistakes as about doing what you think you’re supposed to do until it becomes second nature, only to discover that that’s the wrong way to do it, so you have to unlearn your bad habit before you can learn to do it properly.

  5. Jordan Mechano says:

    Dave: That could very well be the best definition for how we got ourselves into this whole mess that I’ve ever heard, and for what we have to do to move forward.

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