It’s been a long time coming.
It’s time to get back into writing on a more regular basis. I miss it. And I think maybe you, dear reader, maybe miss me too?
(more…)Category: hmm… thoughts
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Here’s why I’m a NO on Prop 10 on the California ballot
Continuing my trip through the California ballot, here’s why I am NO on Prop 10:
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My Life is Like a Garden
[I just spent 4 hours in the garden this morning. It’s helped me get over the Aztec loss last night. At least a little.)
My life is like my garden.
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What are you thankful for?
So far, 2016 has been a survival year. Broken bones, Zika, break-ins, bullet holes, school drama, the works! And with all the external chaos it feels like 2016 is coming in for a hard landing. So, friends, I’m asking… what are you thankful for in 2016?
Inspire me.
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Raising Up Generalists
In the summer of 1994 I shared a dorm room at Moody Bible Institute with a former Olympic Sprinter from Liberia. I believe his name was Samuel. I was barely 18 years old, living on my own for the first time, and he was in his 30s, a married man trying to save money to bring his wife over to the United States while he finished his schooling.
He and I weren’t close. Sharing a room was about all we had in common. But I thought he was cool… he’d run in races around the world against Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis.
Late in the summer the school sponsored a 5k race to raise money for a cause. And Moody’s athletic director, with a flair for promotion, invited Samuel to be a part of the race so that he could put on the flyer that an Olympic runner would be involved.
On the day of the race I had a very interesting conversation with Samuel. He was nervous about the race. He wanted to do it because he felt it was an honor to be invited and he knew the school was counting on him. But he’d never run 5 kilometers. He was a sprinter. And he was convinced that he couldn’t run that far.
He was right. When the race started he dropped about about a kilometer into the course. He joked, “I went as far as a sprinter should ever go.”
Raising Up Generalists
We celebrate specialist. These are people who have taken something that lots of people could maybe fart around with and maybe be alright at… but they’ve focused all of their attention at getting really good at one thing.
The truth is that specialists are great to work with. You know what they do, that it’ll be great, and you can count on them.
But being a specialist is also problematic. There’s a difference between a persons specialty and their passion, those don’t automatically line up.
The longer you are seen as a specialist in a specific field the less people assume you know anything or are interested in things outside of your field. I run into this all the time. And it drives me insane.
Raising Up Generalists
The reality is that while the specialist gets all the attention, the generalist gets things done. Organizations need both to thrive.
I would recommend that we each examine ways that we can celebrate the non-specialized parts of our specialists and celebrate the generalists in your organization who get stuff done every single day.
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What You Learn From Looking
This weekend I’m in Chicago.
I’m here for the Vertical Conference just a few blocks away. A thousand young adults crammed into a former Masonic Temple now Christian Church, connecting with God, and– no doubt— eager to hear the wisdom of a middle-aged man about how to live as a Christian on the internet.
Yes, I’m debuting a new talk tomorrow. One that I’m really excited about. Let’s set that aside for later.
Yes, this hotel is three blocks from Moody, where I got my ministry training and met Kristen. Let’s set aside memory lane for later, too.
Instead let’s talk about my hotel room. Actually, what’s outside my room.
It’s is on the 25th floor.
As you enter the room the dominant feature is a massive window. It’s the full width of the room. And the view? Other buildings.
Of Course You Look
Upon arrival, the first thing I did was open the curtains so that the natural light would flood in. Next, I sat on the bed and turned on a bowl game to enjoy because it’s New Year’s Day. And then I promptly fell asleep.
After about an hour I woke up and decided to do some work at the desk situated next to the window.
Of course you look.
You look down at the street and see the tiny cars moving around.
You try to peer between buildings to see more buildings down the block.
But you look directly outside at the 25th floor of the building across the street.
It’s human nature to look.
It’s taboo to look. Actually, it’s taboo to stare. There are people who have telescopes… I think that’s too far. I’m not talking about that. But to look for a few seconds when something catches your eye? Of course you look.
What You Learn From Looking
The first thing you learn is that not very many people are home. Maybe 10% of the windows are lit at a time. Where are all these people?
The second thing you learn is that other people’s lives are as mundane as your life is. Just like I fell asleep watching a bad bowl game, I woke up, put on my glasses, and across the street to see someone else laying on their couch asleep in front of the same boring bowl game. (Sorry, Iowa.)
The third thing you learn is that it’s just as easy for them to look into your room as it is for you to look into their apartment. Reciprocation is fair, I suppose. There are a couple of apartments in buildings that face the hotel that have telescopes. That’s taking it to the next level, I’m not 100% comfortable with that, but I can see how curiosity gets the best of you.
The fourth thing you learn is that it’s really awkward to momentarily look out the window and make eye contact with someone doing the exact same thing in another building 100 feet away. Nothing will make you close your drapes faster, it seems.
What does it mean to look? It means your human. What does it mean to be human? That we’re all that… just humans.
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The Most Powerful Three Words You Know
Look. We have Google now. If you want to know something you just have to Google it. If I had appendicitis while backpacking in the wilderness, my hiking companion could probably save my life with a YouTube video. Many of the more remote trails in the United States now have great mobile coverage. I was able to stream live video from Eastern Sierra streams using Periscope this summer. Watching that video on YouTube it didn’t look too hard. In a pinch, anyone could probably remove an appendix if they needed to, right?
Right?
Well, maybe.
Was that his appendix or his stomach?
Everyone is [Not] an Expert
The great danger of living in an age where you can Google anything you want to know is that everyone is now capable of perpetrating themselves as an expert.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard someone spout a book-report-quality argument for their newfound expertise and thought… “I better not ask them a question, they’ll have no idea what I’m talking about.”
In truth, sometimes I ask questions just to see how far they’ll carry on the charade.
- They read a couple articles… so they are an expert.
- They watched a couple TED talks… so they are an expert.
- They have a blog… so they are an expert.
- They have a platform… so they are an expert.
And it’s kind of cute, this Google-found-expertise. Cute like buying a tiger as a pet. Eventually both will kill you.
The problem is that these folks get so used to perpetrating the lie that they are an expert on some things that they start to believe they are an actual expert.
What they are is sophomoric. The age of Google inspires them and the age of social media gives them a stage. And it’s pathetic to watch.
Experts Stay With What They Know, So-Called Experts Continue the Charade
We’ve all been around actual experts. People with lots of letters after their names, years of experience in the field, and accolades to back it up.
Most people shut up with their Google research when they encounter an actual expert.
At least the smart people do. But the truly sophomoric, those with a PhD in Googling Stuff, interrupt an expert with things they think they know because they watched a YouTube video a couple years ago.
So how do you know who is an expert and who is a so-called expert?
Three words: I don’t know.
An expert is going to stick to what they actually know. When you ask them something they don’t know, they’ll say it. Because they know getting outside of their expertise makes them look foolish.
A fake expert is going to continue the charade. When you ask them something they just keep talking, they might even start spouting opinions as facts. To them, as long as you’re listening, there’s no line between fact… opinion… and just making stuff up.
Stick to What You Know
When I see people carrying on the charade I just want to remind them, “Please, stick to what you know.”
A lot of my friends are experts in theology, religion, and Christian doctrine. My advice? Stick to what you know.
We need you to stick to what you know. We live in a world where everyone seems to be just making it up as they go along. And we need experts who are brave enough to tell people what they know but also wise enough to say “I don’t know about that…”
It’s OK to say you don’t know. In fact, in a world where everyone seems to know everything about everything… they might be the three most powerful words you know.
