Shape-Shifting Robots?

Researchers have developed miniature, shape-shifting machines capable of transitioning between solid and liquid states using magnetic fields. These devices, inspired by sea cucumbers' ability to change stiffness, leverage gallium, a metal that melts slightly above room temperature. Magnetic particles embedded in the gallium enable remote control of its movements and phase transitions.

Key advancements include:

1. Material Properties: The gallium melts when exposed to an alternating magnetic field and resolidifies at room temperature. Permanent magnets manipulate its movement in both solid and liquid forms.
2. Capabilities: The material can carry heavy loads (10,000 times its weight), stretch, split, merge, and flow through tight spaces.
3. Demonstrations: Examples include a toy figure escaping a jail cell by melting and reforming, and a device removing a ball from a model human stomach by enveloping and extracting it.
4. Applications: The material shows promise in tasks like soldering and potential biomedical uses. However, adjustments are needed to make it viable in the human body by raising its melting point with additional metals like bismuth and tin.

While the innovation represents a significant leap in soft robotics, challenges remain in precise control within biomedical contexts. Future advancements may involve integrating this material with others for broader applications.

These shape-shifting devices melt and re-form thanks to magnetic fields

Gallium plus magnetism equals something straight out of Terminator 2

Link

Quotes for December 22, 2024

Today's Quotes

Ben Ramalingam, Aid on the Edge of Chaos

"simplicity is repeatedly, consistently, and damagingly chosen over relevance and appropriateness." (Ben

Ramalingam, Aid on the Edge of Chaos)

Ben Ramalingam's quote highlights a critical flaw in decision-making, where the allure of simplicity often overrides the necessity for context-specific and nuanced solutions—especially relevant in addressing the complexity of global aid and development challenges.

Donella H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems

"The behavior of a system cannot be known just by knowing the elements of which the system is made." (Donella H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems)

Donella H. Meadows reminds us of the emergent nature of systems, where the whole transcends the sum of its parts. This perspective urges us to look beyond components to understand relationships and dynamics.

Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance

"For so many of us, feelings of deficiency are right around the corner. It doesn’t take much—just hearing of someone else’s accomplishments, being criticized, getting into an argument, making a mistake at work—to make us feel that we are not okay." (Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance)

Tara Brach captures a universal human struggle—our vulnerability to feelings of inadequacy. Her insight encourages self-compassion and awareness of how external stimuli can shape our self-perception.

Robin Leichenko and Karen O'Brien, Environmental Change and Globalization

"recent economic research shows that "ceteris paribus, the more egalitarian a society, the better its growth record and growth potential" (Sanchez 2003," (Robin Leichenko and Karen O'Brien, Environmental Change and Globalization)

Robin Leichenko and Karen O'Brien provide a powerful argument for equity, reinforcing that societal structures fostering egalitarianism are not just moral imperatives but also drivers of sustainable economic growth.

Chip Heath, Dan Heath, Made to Stick

"This is the Curse of Knowledge. Once we know something, we find it hard to imagine what it was like not to know it. Our knowledge has “cursed” us. And it becomes difficult for us to share our knowledge with others, because we can’t readily re-create our listeners’ state of mind." (Chip Heath, Dan Heath, Made to Stick)

Chip and Dan Heath underline the "Curse of Knowledge," a cognitive bias that complicates communication. Recognizing this bias is essential for effective teaching, leadership, and collaboration.

Planning When It Doesn’t Come Naturally: Neuroscience-Backed Strategies for Success

The article A Way to Plan If You’re Bad at Planning by Elizabeth Grace Saunders in Harvard Business Review explores how individuals can develop planning skills, even if their brains are not naturally wired for it. Saunders uses insights from neuroscience to explain why some people struggle with planning and offers practical strategies to improve.

Key Points:

1. Brain Dominance and Planning:

   • People with back-left brain dominance find planning easier as their brains are naturally wired for linear thinking.
   • Others must exert significantly more effort to plan, as their brain's neurochemistry makes it less natural for them.

2. Understanding and Accepting Difficulty:

   • Recognizing personal strengths and weaknesses through self-assessments (e.g., from Thriving in Mind by Dr. Katherine Benziger) helps set realistic expectations. 
   • Address the challenge from a position of strength. Know that normative expectations around the capacity to plan can restrict society's ability to fully access the broader ecosystem of awareness and knowledge.
   • Accepting that planning is challenging can reduce frustration and build resilience.

3. Overcoming All-or-Nothing Thinking:

   • Avoid perfectionism in planning. Progress, rather than perfection, is the goal.
   • Flexibility in adapting plans fosters consistency and reduces self-criticism.

4. Adapting Systems to Individual Styles:

   • Tailor planning tools to personal preferences:
     • Visual thinkers might use sticky notes or mind maps.
     • Spreadsheet enthusiasts could use Excel or numeric-based apps.
     • People who think in terms of flow may prefer adaptable paper lists.

5. Seeking External Support:

   • Collaborate with organized individuals for advice or borrow their planning systems.
   • Avoid overly critical feedback and focus on practical, beginner-friendly solutions.

6. Building Resilience Through Practice:

   • Planning skills improve through persistence and self-compassion.
   • Adjust plans as needed, embrace mistakes as learning opportunities, and focus on small improvements over time.

By understanding the neurological basis for planning challenges and adopting tailored strategies, individuals can enhance their ability to organize time effectively and build resilience in the process.

James Gray's film: Armageddon Time

James Gray's film Armageddon Time reflects on his childhood in 1980s New York, exploring themes of memory, class, and privilege. The story follows a young boy named Paul Graff and his struggles with family and school, set against a backdrop of significant political changes. Gray sees parallels between his past and today's polarized society, warning of the dangers of losing integrity in a transactional world.

James Gray’s Vision of American Dysfunction

Why Putting Down Your Phone Builds Trust

 The study "Smartphones undermine trust and cooperation" by N. P. Li and colleagues, published in the journal Social Networks, investigates how smartphone use during social interactions affects trust and cooperation. Through a series of experiments, the researchers found that individuals who used smartphones during face-to-face interactions were perceived as less trustworthy and were less likely to engage in cooperative behavior compared to those who did not use their phones. The findings suggest that smartphone use can negatively impact the quality of social interactions by reducing trust and willingness to cooperate. The authors recommend minimizing smartphone use during social engagements to foster better interpersonal relationships.

News Item: We’re Trusted More When We Put Down Our Phones

Academic journal article: Smartphone use decreases trustworthiness of strangers

Dancing with Systems: Navigating Complexity for Transformative Change

These systems quotes collectively emphasize the importance of understanding systemic behavior (e.g., delays, nested dynamics, resistance), embracing ambiguity, and fostering iterative learning. They advocate for a perspective that balances analysis with action, recognizing that transformative change requires navigating complexity with vision, adaptability, and respect for the interconnected nature of systems. 

Photo by Alina Grubnyak 

Systems Quotes

"Delays are pervasive in systems, and they are strong determinants of behavior. Changing the length of a delay may (or may not, depending on the type of delay and the relative lengths of other delays) make a large change in the behavior of a system."
–Donella H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems

"Such challenges are often inhibited by individual and organizational ‘defensive routines’, firmly entrenched in minds, setting cognitive and social limits on learning."
–Ben Ramalingam, Aid on the Edge of Chaos

"Defensive routines" is an important concept when it comes to understanding how learning can be inhibited, both individually and organizationally. These routines, as Ben Ramalingam describes in Aid on the Edge of Chaos, are deeply ingrained patterns of thinking and behavior that create cognitive and social barriers to learning.

This idea also reminds me of something I recently came across about organizations exhibiting an "immune response" to resist change efforts. It seems closely related, as both highlight the instinctive resistance to disruption or transformation within systems.

"to date there is a lack of studies that bridge the divide between small case-based interventions and global systems at broader scales, and the complex interactions across scales and processes. This paper works with a leverage points framework to consider systems transformation. It focuses on four individual sustainability interventions in the textile sector and explores how they are embedded within a complex set of nested systems, and how these connected systems shape the transformative potential of the interventions."
–link.springer.com, Processes of Sustainability Transformation Across Systems Scales: Leveraging Systemic Change in the Textile Sector - Sustainability Science

"Understanding processes of systems change therefore requires us to ‘dance with systems’ (Meadows 2001), meaning to learn from and engage with systems through dynamic, rather than static, perspectives, with passion and vision, to understand their functions or purposes and connections, and see how our values and the system properties may interact (Meadows 2011; Constable et al. 2019)."
–link.springer.com, Processes of Sustainability Transformation Across Systems Scales: Leveraging Systemic Change in the Textile Sector - Sustainability Science

The Strata: A story of dystopian wealth

 

Over ten years ago, when I was living in Bangkok, a story idea—or at least the premise of one—began forming in my mind. It’s a dystopian, quasi-sci-fi narrative set in a future that blends darkness with a veneer of promise. I call it dystopian because, in many ways, the world it depicts is bleak. However, there are also elements that seem bright and hopeful—or at least appear that way on the surface. In this future, the wealthy will lead incredibly privileged lives, but the poor will suffer even more in relative terms than they do today.

The idea revolves around a vision of a city with multiple levels, each offering a very different quality of life. This concept was inspired by my time in Bangkok, where I noticed the contrast between life at street level and life on the elevated walkways, especially downtown beneath the Skytrain (BTS). On the elevated walkways, it was often easier to walk—fewer vendors, fewer crowds—creating a distinct divide between the two levels of the city.

I imagined a futuristic city with many such layers, where people could move between them depending on their means. Each level would come with a cost, perhaps charging a small number of credits per kilometer to use. The lowest, "free" level would be the street level, but with the effects of climate change, it would likely be wetter, prone to flooding during high tides, and increasingly neglected. Over time, it might become grimy, dangerous, and difficult to traverse, as there would be no resources allocated for its upkeep. Life at this level would be a struggle, while the higher levels offered more comfort and security—at a price.

Future NYC

Imagine a futuristic New York City transformed by rising sea levels, where the lower parts of Manhattan are permanently submerged, and midtown experiences regular flooding during high tides. The city has adapted with a vertical design: a complex, layered infrastructure of roads and pathways at multiple heights. The lowest layers are accessible only by boats, creating a canal-like environment reminiscent of Venice, but shadowed by towering structures above.

Higher levels consist of elevated roads and platforms, reserved for those who can afford escalating fees. The wealthiest live and travel at the uppermost layers, enjoying cleaner air, sunlight, and exclusive amenities. Meanwhile, the poorest are confined to the damp, shadowed lower levels, enduring daily flooding and limited resources. Access to higher levels becomes a stark representation of privilege, with each ascending tier symbolizing increased wealth and power.

This cityscape embodies a stark socioeconomic divide, with verticality serving as both a literal and metaphorical representation of inequality. Describe this multi-scale, multi-height city, where every layer tells a story of adaptation, ingenuity, and disparity in the face of climate change.

Quotes for December 20, 2024

Greetings from "The West" - That is Western USA. It is December 20, 2024 and we here in the Northern Hemisphere are near the nadir of daylight hours. Hence, the pagan "season of lights" where trees are brought into the home.

The common theme in today's quotes is that we can achieve better results by working with our natural ways of thinking and feeling, rather than resisting them. This applies to using systems to solve problems (such as structured approaches to behavior or problem-solving), rethinking emotions like anxiety, or recognizing how our mindset influences decisions. The key is to accept and utilize our natural tendencies to create positive changes or manage challenges more effectively.

Quotes

"The Fundamental Attribution Error is the reason why we love TV shows like The Dog Whisperer or Supernanny, in which seemingly irredeemable dogs and kids are tamed by outsiders who come in with a new system of discipline."
–Chip Heath and Dan Heath, Switch

"It may sound counterintuitive, but telling yourself to be less anxious is “a signal to your brain to focus on anxiety more,” Dr. Galanti said. Having some anxiety is part of being human — so it is fruitless to try to banish the feeling entirely. “It’s more like, ‘If I feel anxious, then what?’” she added. So rather than focusing on your anxiety, think instead about the personal traits that you value."
–Christina Caron, New Year’s Resolutions for the Anxious

"These results are shocking. The mere act of calculation reduced people’s charity. Once we put on our analytical hat, we react to emotional appeals differently. We hinder our ability to feel."
–Chip Heath, Dan Heath, Made to Stick

Photo by Shelby Taylor Thorn 

Quotes for December 19, 2024

Reflections on Four Powerful Quotes

"Finally, new scientific evidence like last year’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report reveals that the impacts of climate change are leading to more devastating consequences sooner than anticipated, reinforcing the urgent need to curb emissions, drive adaptation and significantly increase financing for both."
–WRI.org, Next-Generation Climate Targets: A 5-Point Plan for NDCs

This quote resonates deeply because it’s grounded in an unflinching fact: the impacts of climate change are accelerating beyond expectations. The sooner we face this reality head-on, the sooner we can chart a path toward growth and resilience. Ignoring these truths is like squandering the legacy of our ancestors—the gifts of stability, resources, and opportunity they worked so hard to secure. We owe it to future generations to act decisively and stop living off borrowed time.

"He’s nothing. No substance. But having him there, the latest in a two-and-a-half-century-long line of American Presidents make people feel that the country, the culture that they grew up with is still here—that we’ll get through these bad times and back to normal.”
–Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower

Written in the early ’90s, Butler’s words feel eerily prescient today. They capture a dangerous illusion—that a figurehead, a symbol of stability, can somehow return us to “normal.” Denial won’t solve our problems. Pretending everything is fine or that we just need a strong leader to set things right is a recipe for failure. This is a time that demands clarity of thought and responsibility, not the dangerous mix of performative politics and authoritarian impulses that dominate our era. True leadership must be forward-thinking, rooted in care for generations to come.

"Because we are afraid of being embarrassed or hurt, we hold back our openness and our love."
–Adam Kahane, Power and Love

Kahane’s words remind us that true courage lies in vulnerability. Fear often holds us back—whether it’s the fear of failure, rejection, or looking foolish. But only by embracing openness and love, even in the face of potential pain, can we foster the connections and progress that truly matter.

"We construct our beliefs, mostly unconsciously, and thereafter they hold us captive. They can help us focus and make us more effective, but sadly, they also can limit us: they blind us to possibility and subject us to fog, fear, and doubt."
–Dave Gray, Liminal Thinking

Gray insightfully points out how the very beliefs we construct to navigate the world can also trap us. They provide structure but can also blind us to new possibilities, leaving us stuck in fear and self-doubt. In the midst of challenges, it’s easy to forget that many of our barriers are self-imposed. Remembering this truth can help us break free from those limitations and see the path forward more clearly. 

Quote for the day - Dec 18, 2024

Not much to add today other than here are some quotes that I found interesting that showed up in my Readwise feed today.

"The core value of the working class is being part of a like-minded group—a family, a union, or a community, which engenders a strong sense of loyalty. The core value of the middle class is achievement by the individual."
–Alfred Lubrano, Limbo

"The division between the emotional brain and the rational brain runs deep in our culture and is clearly expressed in the cultural divide between religion and science that first emerged during the European Enlightenment. It is, in the words of Tony Leiserowitz at the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, “a long cultural mistake” to divide the two."
–George Marshall, Don't Even Think About It

The Landscape Approach to Global Health

The relationship between personal health, community health, and landscape health can be understood as an interconnected system, where each component influences and is influenced by the others. From a climate perspective, this connection is especially significant, as environmental changes—such as shifts in temperature, precipitation patterns, or biodiversity—create cascading effects that impact health at multiple levels.

For example, changes in the landscape, such as deforestation or urbanization, can directly degrade air and water quality, leading to increased respiratory illnesses, waterborne diseases, and heat-related conditions. Conversely, the resilience of the landscape—its ability to sustain diverse ecosystems and provide critical services—helps buffer communities from health risks associated with climate extremes, such as floods, droughts, and heatwaves.

Examining these linkages through a climate lens opens the door to innovative approaches to health and environmental stewardship. For instance, restorative practices like reforestation, wetland conservation, and regenerative agriculture offer co-benefits for both the environment and communities. These practices can improve food security, reduce exposure to pollutants, and enhance mental health by providing greater access to green spaces.

The concept of biophilia—our innate connection to nature—further highlights the importance of healthy landscapes. Biodiverse and aesthetically rich environments have been shown to reduce stress, enhance cognitive function, and foster social cohesion. This reinforces the mental and emotional benefits of living in harmony with nature.

Additionally, climate change alters disease dynamics, creating new challenges for public health. For example, shifting ecosystems may provide habitats for disease vectors like mosquitoes, enabling the spread of illnesses such as malaria or dengue fever to regions previously unaffected. This demonstrates the need to integrate climate resilience into public health strategies to mitigate such risks.

Ultimately, the interplay between personal, community, and landscape health forms a dynamic and complex system. Adopting a holistic, climate-informed approach allows us to address the interdependencies between environmental health and human well-being. By doing so, we can create solutions that are more sustainable, equitable, and impactful across scales.

Article

Health and landscape approaches: A comparative review of integrated approaches to health and landscape management

This article explores the relationship between health and the landscape approach, a form of systems thinking. It focuses on three distinct applications of the systems approach, each grounded in unique ontological foundations.

Link to article

Description:

Landscape approaches focus on managing specific areas by bringing together ideas from different fields to create sustainable solutions. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on how people live, move, and interact with the environment, highlighting the need for health approaches that connect humans and nature. This has led to an increased focus on integrated health approaches in policy discussions.

Approaches like One Health, Ecohealth, and Planetary Health are all types of landscape approaches because they address the connections between health, the environment, and society. This study reviews these health-oriented approaches to understand their shared ideas and unique differences. It looks at their history, how they’ve developed, and their approaches to solving health and environmental challenges.

The study finds that all these approaches share key features, such as systems thinking, working across disciplines, and promoting collaboration across different fields. However, they differ in the specific problems they address, the areas they focus on, and the ontological roots (the underlying mindset) guiding their research. By examining these approaches together, the study suggests ways to strengthen landscape approaches by using health-focused methods to better understand the connections between health and landscapes.

Quotes for December 15

 Hi everyone, here are the quotes from my readwise stream this morning. Happy Sunday!

People often complain about the present times, but human life has never been better than it is now.

As Yuval Noah Harari states in Homo Deus:

"For the first time in history, more people die today from eating too much than from eating too little; more people die from old age than from infectious diseases; and more people commit suicide than are killed by soldiers, terrorists, and criminals combined."

Despite this progress, social divisions persist. These divisions often rely on "othering" narratives to uphold power structures within their domains—a phenomenon that could be described as "ontological blinkardness." Our institutional silos, our tendency to "other," and our self-centered thinking prevent us from making further progress.

Jim Sidanius and Felicia Pratto highlight this in Social Dominance:

"The split earlier in this century between sociology and social psychology contributed to these divisions and continues to hinder a more comprehensive and rich understanding of the problems of racism, sexism, classism, and general group oppression."

But perhaps, the issue isn’t just out there—maybe it’s me.

Anthony De Mello and J. Francis Stroud, in Awareness, suggest:

"We see people and things not as they are, but as we are. That is why when two people look at something or someone, you get two different reactions. We see things and people not as they are, but as we are."

On growing up, Lulu Miller offers a profound insight in Why Fish Don’t Exist:

"‘Growing up,’ she told me, ‘is learning to stop believing people’s words about you.’"

And maybe, it’s also about letting go. As Silvio Funtowicz said in a discussion on post-normal science advice:

"You have to abandon this idea that you can predict and you can control."

But wait, there's more

Breaking Ontological Silos Through the Zettelkasten Approach

Sönke Ahrens, in How to Take Smart Notes, describes how the Zettelkasten method disrupts traditional, siloed ways of thinking:

"That the slip-box is not sorted by topics is the precondition for actively building connections between notes. Connections can be made between heterogeneous notes – as long as the connection makes sense. This is the best antidote to the impeding way most information is given to us in our learning institutions. Most often, it comes in modular form, sorted by topic, separated by disciplines and generally isolated from other information. The slip-box is forcing us to do the exact opposite: To elaborate, to understand, to connect and therefore to learn seriously."

By avoiding rigid categorization, the Zettelkasten approach encourages a deeper understanding through the creation of meaningful connections, breaking down institutional silos that often isolate knowledge into disconnected disciplines.

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Understanding the Difference Between Chaotic and Complex Systems

Per Bak, in How Nature Works, explains the key difference between chaotic and complex systems:

"Chaotic systems have no memory of the past and cannot evolve."

This distinction helps clarify why chaotic systems remain unpredictable and stagnant, while complex systems—like human societies—retain memory and adapt over time.

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The Complexity of Humans and the World

The world is undeniably complex, as are humans. Yet, as Ben Ramalingam points out in Aid on the Edge of Chaos, we often try to impose simple solutions on deeply complex problems:

"Aid tends to try and solve simple problems through narrow, prescribed interventions."

This highlights a critical flaw in many systems of aid and intervention: they fail to account for the intricate, interconnected nature of the challenges they aim to address. 

Today's Public Service Post

I saw this in a CapitalOne email, and these two scams stood out to me as some of the newest and latest schemes that need to be highlighted.

“My family member sounded like they were in trouble.”

Impersonation of a loved one Scammers may use artificial intelligence or other technologies to mimic voices when impersonating a trusted individual or organization. On these calls, they often impersonate a loved one in an emergency who needs money fast, or a trusted business needing to verify sensitive information. New technology makes it increasingly difficult to tell fake video or audio clips from real ones.

Helpful tips

Listen for unnatural pauses or robotic speech. Question unexpected requests for personal or financial information. Always verify the caller’s identity—often a loved one claiming to be in trouble—through a trusted source. To protect yourself, you can set up a code word with loved ones for true emergencies.

“My bank called me about fraudulent transactions.”

Bank impersonation scams Scammers may pose as a financial institution, like Capital One, to try and gain access to your account. They often use a fake caller ID that shows up as the financial institution and claim you’ve had fraudulent transactions on your account. To resolve the situation the scammer will have you make payments to reverse the fraud and protect the account. They’ll also sometimes ask for your Social Security number, government ID, or a digitally sent one-time passcode (OTP) to gain access to your account. Once they gain unauthorized access to your account, the real fraudulent transactions begin.

Helpful tips

If you’re ever in doubt when speaking over the phone, hang up and call the number on the back of your card. Financial institutions will never ask you to purchase gift cards to make payments to your account. Never send money transfers or give the number on the back of a gift card to anyone you don’t know.

The Power of Listening and the Peril of Oversimplification

In a world buzzing with voices, the art of listening often takes a backseat. Kate Murphy, in You're Not Listening, reminds us that true listening goes beyond hearing words. "To listen well is to figure out what’s on someone’s mind and demonstrate that you care enough to want to know." This simple yet profound insight underscores a timeless truth: authentic connection comes not from speaking louder, but from listening better.

But what happens when this skill is absent in times of crisis? Robert O. Paxton’s reflection in The Anatomy of Fascism offers a stark warning. He writes, "For all these reasons, the economic crisis of the 1880s, as the first major depression to occur in the era of mass politics, rewarded demagoguery. Henceforth a decline in the standard of living would translate quickly into electoral defeats for incumbents and victories for political outsiders ready to appeal with summary slogans to angry voters."

The juxtaposition of these ideas reveals a critical tension. Listening fosters understanding and empathy; oversimplification preys on frustration and fear. In challenging times, the path we choose—to listen or to fall for easy slogans—shapes not only personal relationships but also the health of our democracy.

To navigate the complexity of modern life, perhaps we should take Murphy’s advice to heart: let’s listen with care, especially when the stakes are high. In doing so, we may resist the pull of demagoguery and instead create a space where nuanced solutions can flourish.

Quotes

"To listen well is to figure out what’s on someone’s mind and demonstrate that you care enough to want to know." 
–Kate Murphy, You're Not Listening

"For all these reasons, the economic crisis of the 1880s, as the first major depression to occur in the era of mass politics, rewarded demagoguery. Henceforth a decline in the standard of living would translate quickly into electoral defeats for incumbents and victories for political outsiders ready to appeal with summary slogans to angry voters." 
–Robert O. Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism

Exploring Paradigms: How Societies Decide What to Remember and What to Forget

Societies are shaped not just by the actions of their people but by the invisible frameworks that dictate what can be thought, remembered, and discussed. These paradigms—unwritten rules about what belongs in the social psyche—are influenced by collective anxieties, historical shifts, and the impulses that drive political movements. Examining the works of George Marshall, Heather Cox Richardson, and Robert Paxton reveals how these forces operate and evolve over time.

Denial and Anxiety: The Silent Architects of Paradigms

George Marshall, in Don't Even Think About It, explores how denial and anxiety are deeply interlinked. Societies, much like individuals, repress ideas that they cannot reconcile with their existing worldview. This repression stems from a collective need to avoid anxiety, leading to what could be described as societal cognitive dissonance.

As Marshall writes:
“They have a common basis in the need to avoid anxiety and defend ourselves. From a psychoanalytic perspective, denial and anxiety are closely linked. Things that cannot be assimilated are repressed.”

He builds on Stanley Cohen’s insights about societal agreements:
“Without being told what to think about (or what not to think about), and without being punished for ‘knowing’ the wrong things, societies arrive at unwritten agreements about what can be publicly remembered and acknowledged.”

In this way, controversial or uncomfortable subjects—such as climate change or systemic injustice—become marginalized not through censorship but through collective avoidance, creating a societal paradigm that prioritizes comfort over confrontation and stability over truth, while simultaneously entrenching blind spots that make transformative change more difficult.

Paradigm Shifts: Lessons from the Civil War Era

Heather Cox Richardson provides a contrasting perspective by examining moments when societal paradigms are deliberately reshaped. Writing about the Civil War era, Richardson highlights the transformation driven by the Republican Party under Abraham Lincoln. While the Confederacy sought to entrench hierarchical systems, the Republicans pursued a vision that prioritized the "common man" over established elites.

She explains:
“When the leaders of the Confederacy seceded to start their own nation based in their own hierarchical society, the Republicans in charge of the United States government were free to put their theory into practice. For a nominal fee, they sold farmers land that the government in the past would have sold to speculators; created state colleges, railroads, national money, and income taxes; and promoted immigration.”

These policies, which today might be categorized as social reforms, marked a profound shift in how the United States government engaged with its citizens. Richardson’s account reminds us that societal paradigms are not immutable. With vision and determination, they can be reconstructed to reflect new priorities—even amid deep political division. The Civil War era demonstrates how crises can catalyze the emergence of new frameworks that challenge entrenched hierarchies and expand opportunities.

The Fascist Impulse: Paradigms Rooted in Action

Robert Paxton, in The Anatomy of Fascism, explores another dynamic: the visceral urge that underpins fascist movements. Unlike paradigms that evolve slowly or are reshaped through deliberate action, fascism thrives on immediacy—an impulsive drive to protect and regenerate the nation against perceived threats.

As Paxton explains:
“Fascisms seek out in each national culture those themes that are best capable of mobilizing a mass movement of regeneration, unification, and purity, directed against liberal individualism and constitutionalism and against Leftist class struggle.”

This suggests that fascist paradigms are less about ideology and more about harnessing collective anxieties to spur action. They channel fear and uncertainty into a unifying narrative, often at the expense of individual freedoms and democratic norms.

Tying It Together: The Power and Fragility of Paradigms

Marshall, Richardson, and Paxton each highlight different aspects of how societal paradigms form, endure, or collapse. Marshall shows how denial and repression maintain stability at the cost of progress. Richardson demonstrates how visionary leadership can reshape paradigms to promote equity and opportunity. Paxton warns of the dangers when paradigms become dominated by reactionary impulses rather than thoughtful reform.

These perspectives challenge us to reflect on our own societal frameworks. What ideas are we repressing out of collective anxiety? What opportunities for transformation are we overlooking? And how can we guard against the rise of destructive impulses that exploit our fears?

Understanding how paradigms function is not just an academic exercise—it’s a call to action. By recognizing the invisible rules that shape our collective psyche, we gain the power to question them, reshape them, and, when necessary, break free from them.

Quotes

"they have a common basis in the need to avoid anxiety and defend ourselves. From a psychoanalytic perspective, denial and anxiety are closely linked. Things that cannot be assimilated are repressed. As Stanley Cohen wrote about human rights abuses, “Without being told what to think about (or what not to think about), and without being punished for ‘knowing’ the wrong things, societies arrive at unwritten agreements about what can be publically remembered and acknowledged.”

–George Marshall, Don't Even Think About It

"When the leaders of the Confederacy seceded to start their own nation based in their own hierarchical society, the Republicans in charge of the United States government were free to put their theory into practice. For a nominal fee, they sold farmers land that the government in the past would have sold to speculators; created state colleges, railroads, national money, and income taxes; and promoted immigration."
–heathercoxrichardson.substack.com, December 29, 2023

"Fascisms seek out in each national culture those themes that are best capable of mobilizing a mass movement of regeneration, unification, and purity, directed against liberal individualism and constitutionalism and against Leftist class struggle."
–Robert O. Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism

Good Morning, December 11

Where I am right now, it’s raining. Despite the weather, I still plan to head out for my run.

Today, I want to share two quotes that resonated with me from my Readwise feed. They touch on themes of kindness and complexity, offering thought-provoking insights into how we interact with ourselves, others, and the world around us.

1. On Kindness (Pema Chödrön, Start Where You Are)

The first quote is by Pema Chödrön and speaks to the power of kindness, particularly the importance of being kind to ourselves. It highlights how our self-treatment radiates outward, influencing our relationships with others. This idea is simple yet profound:

"By being kind to ourselves, we become kind to others. By being kind to others – if it’s done properly, with proper understanding – we benefit as well. So the first point is that we are completely interrelated. What you do to others, you do to yourself. What you do to yourself, you do to others."

This interconnectedness is a reminder that the way we treat ourselves sets the tone for how we engage with the world.

2. On Complexity and Catastrophic Shifts (Per Bak, How Nature Works)

The second quote comes from Per Bak's exploration of complexity in How Nature Works. It delves into the behavior of complex systems and the sudden, dramatic changes—what we often call catastrophes—that can occur within them.

Bak explains that much of the world operates as interconnected systems where small, incremental pressures can lead to stability over time. However, those same pressures, when combined or slightly altered, can suddenly push a system into a completely different state. This is what he describes as a "catastrophic shift."

Here’s the quote:

"If this picture is correct for the real world, then we must accept instability and catastrophes as inevitable in biology, history, and economics. Because the outcome is contingent upon specific minor events in the past, we must also abandon any idea of detailed long-term determinism or predictability. In economics, the best we can do, from a selfish point of view, is to shift disasters to our neighbors."

While the term “catastrophe” often implies disaster, in systems science, it simply refers to rapid, large-scale transformations. These shifts, sometimes called tipping points, can be either beneficial or detrimental. Positive transformations are often celebrated, while negative ones are viewed as crises.

This quote serves as a reminder of the unpredictable nature of complex systems and the importance of resilience and adaptability in navigating them.

December 10, 2024 – Quotes!

Good morning all! It's far too early on Tuesday, December 10, 2024. Before my run this morning I'm going to offer you yet another set of quotes!

The first quote is from Robert O. Paxton's book The Anatomy of Fascism. It explores the mindset underlying fascism, characterized by the belief in a great leader uniquely capable of representing the nation and their group. Note its resonance with the notion expressed by a certain individual: "I alone can fix it."

"a national chief who alone is capable of incarnating the group’s destiny;"
–Robert O. Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism

The next quote is from Ben Ramalingam's book Aid on the Edge of Chaos. This book introduces what could be described as the "epistemic injustice" of development, offering a compelling critique of the unequal power dynamics within the aid industry. It underscores the extent to which Northern-based aid actors must strive to truly serve communities and support development that aligns with local contexts.

"Aid is produced by those at the top of the pipeline: donors, the rich, the developed. It is delivered by means of ‘experts’ and other ‘knowledgeable persons’ of the ‘pipeline’ down to ‘beneficiaries’ such as local development agents, policymakers, advisors, farmers, and researchers at the receiving end."
–Ben Ramalingam, Aid on the Edge of Chaos

The next quote serves as a reminder that unless you write something down or complete a task, it will occupy mental space—taking up mindshare that could otherwise drain your energy and focus throughout the day.

"Zeigarnik effect (Zeigarnik 1927), in which our brains tend to stay occupied with a task until it is accomplished (or written down)."
–Sönke Ahrens, How to Take Smart Notes

I suppose I should group these quotes from one source together, but I haven't. Here, once again, we encounter the "epistemic injustice" of aid—a reminder of why it is crucial for aid actors to approach their work with greater care and consideration. When working with communities and individuals in developing contexts, we must reflect on what we represent, how we present ourselves, and, most importantly, our ultimate goals. These goals should always center on serving the community we aim to support, rather than advancing our careers or short-term programmatic objectives. If our programmatic goals do not align with the community's needs, it is the goals—not the community—that are flawed.

"Because power is knowledge, and power above all else seeks to sustain itself, we can see that the rhetoric around development knowledge—‘like light’—is not just optimistic but also clearly wildly inaccurate."
–Ben Ramalingam, Aid on the Edge of Chaos

Quotes for the Day - December 9th 2024

 Today was a rich day for quotes. Almost all of the ones in my Readwise feed resonated with me.

"Most people tend to think in terms of dichotomies: strong or weak, hardball or softball, win or lose. But that kind of thinking is fundamentally flawed. It’s based on power and position rather than on principle."
–Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"Collective ways of working such as collaboration and genuine partnerships are key aspects of climate integration and can support different stakeholders to enable climate integration across development programs."
–weadapt.org, Climate Risk Integration: A New Era for Aid and Development Programming - weADAPT

"You are the detective, always asking, “Why is this person telling me this?” understanding that speakers sometimes may not know the answer themselves. Good listeners help speakers figure that out by asking questions and encouraging elaboration."
–Kate Murphy, You're Not Listening

"Resilience thinking is the capacity to envisage your system as a self-organizing system with thresholds, linked domains, and cycles. Resilience practice is the capacity to work with the system in order to apply resilience thinking, to manage its resilience."
–Brian Walker, David Salt, Resilience Practice

"Not causing harm requires staying awake. Part of being awake is slowing down enough to notice what we say and do. The more we witness our emotional chain reactions and understand how they work, the easier it is to refrain. It becomes a way of life to stay awake, slow down, and notice."
–Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart

"Being open with your insecurities paradoxically makes you more confident and charismatic around others. The pain of honest confrontation is what generates the greatest trust and respect in your relationships. Suffering through your fears and anxieties is what allows you to build courage and perseverance."
–Mark Manson, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

Quotes for December 8 - 2024

 Good morning all - I hope you are finding this Sunday morning a good one where you find yourself.

Here is a subset of the quote that showed in my Readwise feed this morning.

Quotes for today, Sunday (not Sundae), December 8th

"For most of the history of Western political thought, writers focused on demagoguery only in the context of arguing that democracy was a poor form of government. Aristocratic critics such as Thucydides and Plato blamed popular leaders for dismissing experts, exploiting the poor and soaking the rich, sparking factional violence, and starting foreign wars to distract the populace from their tyrannical tendencies."
–nytimes.com, Opinion | How to Protect America From the Next Donald Trump

"For me, if you’re not in the arena getting your ass kicked, I’m not interested in your feedback."
–Brené  Brown, Rising Strong

"If the upside of strongman rule is the ability to make difficult decisions quickly, the downside is that it greatly raises the odds of making costly blunders. The consensus-based decision-making of the earlier era might have been slow and inefficient, but it prevented radical or risky ideas from becoming policy."
–foreignaffairs.com, China’s Coming Upheaval

Systems Quotes

"A system is more than the sum of its parts. It may exhibit adaptive, dynamic, goal-seeking, self-preserving, and sometimes evolutionary behavior."
–Donella H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems

"A shadow network is not active all the time and so does not have maintenance costs, but it can be quickly brought into play without the normal period of trust building required for a network to operate."
–Brian Walker, David Salt, Resilience Practice

"An analysis of global governance in Science (Walker et al. 2009) found that the global institutions that do exist tend to address the concerns they were set up to deal with largely in a silo fashion."
–Brian Walker, David Salt, Resilience Practice

Seventh of 12, Twenty Twenty-Four - Quotes

Quotes for the Day

 

"You’re not a lump of clay, but you’re not a god either."
–Matthew Hutson, The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking

"Snowden argues for local engagement in multiple parallel safe-to-fail actions. These actions are generated from narratives gathered using a technique known as distributed ethnography, which reveals the potential that is in the system."
–Danny Burns and Stuart Worsley, Navigating Complexity in International Development

"personal company is the most important factor for long-term satisfaction."
–weforum.org, A Neuroscientist Who Studies Decision-Making Reveals the Most Important Choice You Can Make

Systems Quotes

"We highlight inclusive interventions such as education and capacity building, development of alliances and partnerships, and enabling sustainable livelihoods, or governance arrangements led by Indigenous peoples and local communities or private actors, as levers to promote positive transformations in the social-ecological systems of protected areas."
–Miguel A. Cebrián-Piqueras and Miguel A. Cebrián-Piqueras, Ecology & Society: Leverage Points and Levers of Inclusive Conservation in Protected Areas

"We began with some boundaries: in order to be successful for water utilities, we needed to focus on systems (ecological, infrastructure, social); we needed to understand how these systems might be experiencing change; and we needed to measure resilience."
–Home, Water Utilities: Moving From Risk to Resilience — Alliance for Global Water Adaptation

"Promoting the involvement of local people and supporting adaptive learning are two important aspects of managing the resilience of social-ecological systems."
–Brian Walker PhD, Resilience Thinking

Quotes for December 6

Good morning, everyone - or good "time of day" to you since I have no idea what time of day it is for you. 

Later this morning I plan to go for a run - but until that time I will post a quote here for you. (Not a very interesting story, I know; too short, and the plot is, well, pointless)

These are quotes on my Readwise feed that resonated with me this morning.

Today's Quotes

"Remarkably unchanged, mycelium has persisted for more than half of the four billion years of life’s history, through countless cataclysms and catastrophic global transformations."
–Merlin Sheldrake, Entangled Life

"Because of the complex interdependencies, efforts to solve one aspect of a problem may reveal or create other problems."
–Sustainable Communities, Ecosystem Services and Human Well‐being

"In Frederick Douglass’ 1869 speech “The Composite Nation,” he defends Chinese immigrants and says that he believes we're going to become a multiracial, multiethnic democracy one day. For a former slave to be saying that is what makes America unique, and is equally part of America's story."
–Anand Giridharadas, Ro Khanna Wants Progressives to Embrace Patriotism, Aspiration, and Experimentation

HBR's Management Tip of the Day

And while I am here I will add a bonus from Harvard Business Review, their Tip of the Day.

Today’s Tip

Use Notes to Calm Your Public-Speaking Nerves

Speaking on a stage can feel daunting—the elevated platform, unfamiliar setting, and all eyes on you can make your mind go blank. If you’re a nervous public speaker, don’t overlook the power of good notes. They can make a big difference in your delivery, especially if it’s your first time on a stage. 

Before you start your presentation, set your notes on a lectern or a small table on the stage. If your mind goes blank or you lose your place, start walking toward your notes as you’re speaking. This purposeful movement looks natural and ensures you’re in position to glance down and find your place without disrupting your flow.

Having a water bottle on stage is also useful. When stuck, take a sip while nodding thoughtfully, glance at your notes, and then continue. This brief pause feels natural and helps you reset without drawing attention to your lapse. If you find yourself stuck and unable to look down at your notes, acknowledge the pause with humble humor. Try saying something like, “I had the most brilliant point, and it just escaped me!” Or you can pause for questions: “Let me stop here and see what questions you have, then I’ll summarize what we’ve covered so far.” Confidence and authenticity will keep your audience engaged.

This tip is adapted from “Nervous About Public Speaking? Here’s How to Use Notes Like a Pro.” by Allison Shapira.

Quotes for Thursday, December 5th

 Good morning December 5 - Happy Thursday.

Here are some quotes that popped up on my Readwise stream this morning.

“White people in this country will have quite enough to do in learning how to accept and love themselves and each other, and when they have achieved this—which will not be tomorrow and may very well be never—the Negro problem will no longer exist, for it will no longer be needed.”
– newyorker.com, Sunday Reading: Honoring Black History Month

"The New Deal and World War II transformed the U.S. economy from a market free-for-all into a system that was still capitalist, but with many of the rough edges sanded off."
– Paul Krugman, The Two Economists Who Fought Over How Free the Free Market Should Be

"That's actually the essence of authoritarianism and fascism: You arrange government so that you can be violent and corrupt, and get away with it."
– salon.com, “Empathy and Kindness Are for Weak People”: Why Trump Wants His MAGA Supporters to Be Cruel

" 'Fascism exists at the level of Stage One within all democratic countries—not excluding the United States. “Giving up free institutions," especially the freedoms of unpopular groups, is recurrently attractive to citizens of Western democracies, including some Americans. We know from tracing its path that fascism does not require a spectacular “march" on some capital to take root; seemingly anodyne decisions to tolerate lawless treatment of national “enemies" is enough.' "
– Robert O. Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism

Quotes for Wednesday, December 4th – December the 4th be with you.

Good happy December 4. Everyone, Wednesday, midweek, all these awesome aspects about the day. It's a short week for me. I'll be out of the office Thursday and Friday. So, really, today is my Friday.

Unlike yesterday, today, there were a lot of great quotes in my feed and I share a subset that resonated for me.

Quotes

"What work means to people often has less to do with what tasks they are actually performing than with how they relate to and compare themselves to other people."
– Keith Payne, The Broken Ladder

"Somehow we've entered a world in which we obsess over structural reforms and standardized tests, but skirt around the moral and psychological traits that are at the heart of actual success."
– sfgate.com, Self-Control Is the Key to Success (I know, an odd source, but that is what my app (readwise) captured. If interested, search the title.

"The key to sustainability lies in enhancing the resilience of social-ecological systems, not in optimizing isolated components of the system."
– Brian Walker PhD, Resilience Thinking

"When it comes to the long run, researchers struggle to find any measurable connection between our intentions and our actual behaviour"
– Sönke Ahrens, How to Take Smart Notes

"It was a brilliant idea: You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish. I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be. It’s their mistake, not my failing."
– Richard P. Feynman, Ralph Leighton, Edward Hutchings, and Albert R. Hibbs, "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" (The cite is almost as long as the quote!)

"This book will show that while economic institutions are critical for determining whether a country is poor or prosperous, it is politics and political institutions that determine what economic institutions a country has."
– Daron Acemoglu, James Robinson, Why Nations Fail

Quote for December 3rd

 Hello December 3. I could only find one quote today that was worth sharing. It was close. I almost didn't have any, but quite honestly, it doesn't really matter whether I find one or not. It matters only that there is a quote out there that resonates, so if one doesn't resonate that day, I don't have a quote, and that's fine.

"When under attack, our heart can take a similarly sudden and unconscious turn. When faced with pressure and strong opinions, we often stop worrying about the goal of adding to the pool of meaning and start looking for ways to win, punish, or keep the peace." 

– Kerry Patterson, Ron McMillan, Joseph Grenny, Al Switzler, Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High

Quotes for December 2, 2024

Good morning all – it is Monday, December 2 the 49th week of the year, and these are two quotes that popped up in my stream this morning that resonated enough for me that I captured them and post them.

"Hermeneutic (in the context of hermeneutical injustice)  A methodology of interpretation and interpretive meaning. Hermeneutical injustice refers to the challenges that disadvantaged groups face when trying to understand and communicate their experiences to others; there is a lack of concepts that resonates with their own sense of meaning. These experiences of injustice are usually embedded within a culture’s shared meaning structure and reflective of the dominant members of the culture." 

– Dave Snowden, Zhen Goh, Sue Borchardt, Riva Greenberg, Boudewijn Bertsch, and Sonja Blignaut, Cynefin - Weaving Sense-Making Into the Fabric of Our World

" 'The U.S. military is no more capable of operating without the Internet than Amazon.com would be. Logistics, command and control, fleet positioning, everything down to targeting, all rely on software and other Internet-related technologies. And all of it is just as insecure as your home computer, because it is all based on the same flawed underlying technologies and uses the same insecure software and hardware.' " 

–Richard A. Clarke, Robert Knake, Cyberwar

Today's Quotes for December 1st, 2024

 # Today's Quotes

Quotes for December 1

Quotes

"Slowly, it came into focus. This small web of people keeping one another afloat. All these miniscule interactions—a friendly wave, a pencil sketch, some plastic beads strung up a nylon cord—they might not look like much from the outside, but for the people caught inside that web? They might be everything, the very tethers that keep one bound to this planet." (Lulu Miller, Why Fish Don't Exist)

"high inequality is associated with higher rates of crime, greater risk of stress-related illness, and greater political polarization. These problems degrade the quality of life for everyone, including the affluent. This may be why people are happier in more equal places even after adjusting for their individual incomes." (Keith Payne, The Broken Ladder)

"I shall pass this way but once; any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again." (Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People)

"Lay hold of today's task, and you will not need to depend so much upon to-morrow's. While we are postponing, life speeds by." (Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Letters From a Stoic)

Systems Quotes for Sunday.

"Second, systems thinking catalyzes collaboration because people learn how they collectively create the unsatisfying results they experience." (David Peter Stroh, Systems Thinking for Social Change)

"a frequent issue is the highly linear logic, which suggests the world is much simpler and more predictable than in fact it is:" (Ben Ramalingam, Aid on the Edge of Chaos)

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar