January 2nd, 2025 - Quotes

Good morning—hello, Thursday, January 2, 2025. I hope this day turns out to be exactly what it is meant to be. Of course, that might sound like a strange statement because, in truth, every day is precisely the day it is meant to be. Still, I can imagine that for some people, certain days are so difficult that it’s hard to believe those days were ever "meant to be." Out of respect for anyone experiencing such a hard day, I’ll simply leave it at that.

Below are some quotes from my Readwise stream that stood out for me.

Quotes

"There are, in fact, only two ways to beat the Curse of Knowledge reliably. The first is not to learn anything. The second is to take your ideas and transform them." (Chip Heath, Dan Heath, Made to Stick)

"One in nine people around the world depends on the money sent by migrants." (dandc.eu, In Countries of Residence as Well as Origin, Policymakers Should Engage With Migrant Communities)

"The time is very urgent – we must slow down." (Bayo Akomolafe, The Times Are Urgent: Let’s Slow Down • Writings – Bayo Akomolafe)

"The gorilla study illustrates two important facts about our minds: we can be blind to the obvious, and we are also blind to our blindness." (Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow)

Quotes for December 27, 2024

Nothing really to add today to these quotes I'm sure that we could painfully go through some process to find how they connect with one another and it would seem sharp and wise and the lake and I don't, or I shouldn't dismiss such fun work when it is being channeled. But right now that's not where my mind is.

*Update: I am being lazy. In adding labels/tags to this post I realized how much they have in common. To some degree. each quote weaves together insights into how we interact, make decisions, and share power, knowledge, and communication within societies. Together, they form a tapestry of ideas that challenge us to think about structures of democracy and how they lead to equity, collaboration, and resilience.

Quotes

"There can be no creative power without some acknowledgment of the other’s interests, just as there can be no healthy love if the self is wholly lost in concern for the other."
(Adam Kahane, Power and Love)

"According to the neoconservative position, because private firms are more subject to free market forces than are public firms and government agencies, one should expect less employment discrimination within the private sector than within the public sector. However, the empirical evidence offers no support whatsoever for this reasoning. As a matter of fact, whenever employment audits have been used to compare the discriminatory behavior of private versus public firms, private firms have been consistently found to display substantially higher rates of employment discrimination than public firms."
(Jim Sidanius and Felicia Pratto, Social Dominance)

"“if we (humanity) don’t find ways to become more comfortable with uncertainty, we have a big problem. Because it means that anyone who promises certainty will always have a following.”"
(Sonja Blignaut, Reconnecting With the Spirit of Exploration)

"Therefore, the behavior of complex adaptive systems is determined by both their internal structure and contextual relations. Change can be induced from the outside, but these contextual influences do not result in uniform, predictable output; as these external perturbations are ambivalent, they can be both disturbing and the source of further development. They are modified and rearranged in line with the system's internal state and structure. The resulting behavior can be explained neither by the external influences on the system nor by its internal states alone, but through the interaction of both. So having trust in self-organization is about paying attention for emerging patterns and responding to them."
(Bob Williams, Richard Hummelbrunner, Systems Concepts in Action)

"Abstraction makes it harder to understand an idea and to remember it. It also makes it harder to coordinate our activities with others, who may interpret the abstraction in very different ways. Concreteness helps us avoid these problems. This is perhaps the most important lesson that Aesop can teach us."
(Chip Heath, Dan Heath, Made to Stick)

"Far better than being first, Tellis and Golder concluded, is being what some have called a “fast second”: an agile imitator."
(Annie Murphy Paul, The Extended Mind)

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.

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 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