The Corrigan Encore

Its not new

October 27, 2022 John Corrigan

In 1976 Richard Dawkins wrote a book called “The Selfish Gene” . In his book he explained how genes are passed down from generation to generation for survival of a species. The book was insightful and made a huge impact in the scientific community. Dawkins viewed genes as units of information spread through biology. In chapter 11 of the book Dawkins begins to look at culture as if it were evolving in the same way as a species biology. If culture were evolving how would that happen, not through genes but through memes (yes you read that right, Richard Dawkins invented the term meme and we are using it the same way he hypothesized we would).

Dawkins used the Greek word mimeme which translates to, something imitated to come up with the word meme. Dawkins suggest that a meme is like a gene in that it holds information pertinent to societies survival and passes it down in a unit like song, film, funny internet picture.

Very often I hear younger folks throw around words like disruptor or new or revolutionary for ideas that have been around since before I was born.

In the book of Ecclesiastes the writer gets down about the monotony of life and complains that there is nothing new under the sun it is business as usual. This can be true and may seem like an inevitability. Something as “new” and “fresh” as the term meme is not new or fresh at all. Every new idea that has been introduced was actually introduced earlier.

There is nothing revolutionary about Air BNB and Uber. The companies are offering services that have been around for centuries and they are doing it pretty poorly for everyone involved except their share holders. Employees of both are treated poorly and by employees I mean everyone people who sublet their apartments and cars are not compensated fairly and the office employees that work on the platform are also mistreated. Customers safety is of no concern to management or shareholders, based on inaction and half steps currently taken. There is nothing revolutionary about being bad companies that are selfish and put profits over people.

What then would be revolutionary? What would be an evolutionary cultural jump in our species? Did you knw that at one time there were nine ttypes of humans walking the earth? Yeah crazy to imagine right?

Homo Habilis
H. Erectus
H. rudolfensis
H. heidelbergensis
H. floresiensis
H. neanderthalensis
H. naledi
H. luzonensis

What happened to all these other humans? No mass extinction, or significant changes in the earth seemed to kill them. Most scientist agree that all evidence points to homo sapiens committing genocide. Violence seems to be very much intrinsic to homo sapiens. Even know we have so many examples of homos sapiens hurting and killing each other because of their religion, skin color, and imaginary lines on a map. Homo sapiens created religion and politics and when people could not agree on what they invented they killed and kill each other over their disagreements on what they or their grand fathers made up. Homo sapiens invented money and when they did not equally spread out the money they let people who did not get a fair share die.

Want to be a real disruptor? Want a real revolution? Ditch the violence, care for life, show real unconditional love for life.

A Nugget of Kindness

October 26, 2022 John Corrigan

This story almost brought tears to my eyes! Enjoy reading this

Storyshucker

I took a final gurgling slurp through my straw, balled up the empty hamburger wrapper and gathered trash as I stood to leave. That’s when I heard the little boy at the next table.

“No more chicken nuggets? I’m still hungry.”

As he asked, he and his little sister opened and shut the empty containers several times as if to verify their mother’s response when she answered “All gone.” The sight of two hungry kids looking earnestly between empty containers and their mother’s face almost made me ill. Memories have power. Even mine, some twenty years later.

My kids, then four and five, had just finished their own chicken nuggets. They were happily playing with the meal’s tiny toy when my daughter stopped and looked at me.

“No more chicken nuggets?”

Those were bleak years for me. A divorce, a lay-off, rent payment, car payment, and everyday bills made life…

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Happy Birthday Bootsy

October 26, 2022October 26, 2022 John Corrigan

Today is Bootsy Collins Birthday. Bootsy Collins was the Bassist for James brown and The Parliament-Funkadelic. Bootsy Collins is incredibly talented and a hard worker in the music community. The man hasn’t stopped making an incredible impact on music since the 60’s.

Today he no longer plays the bass in concert because of doctors orders but he still teaches musicians how to play the bass through a school he founded.

The goal for many workers is retirement but when you are doing something you are passionate about I don’t think many ever really retire. They continue to work in their passion and help others.

The major problem I see is that there are many folks out there not working in their passions. We have to pay bills and taxes and often our passions do not provide bill and tax money.

My hope is that everyone gets the chance to engage in their passions more often. I think if everyone was doing what they love for a living than living would be that much better.

Sola dosis facit venenum

October 25, 2022 John Corrigan

I was rushed off the cattle car with the rest of the soldiers at Fort Sill Oklahoma, the drill sergeants had us line up on the concrete pad and do what felt like a million pushups and sit ups. After the exercises the drill sergeants had us drink all the water in our canteens (two of them), we refilled the canteens and were made to finish off two of them again. Some of the soldiers could not finish the canteens others vomited up the water that they drank. We were dangerously close to hyperhydration or water toxemia. Clean water can become poisonous when too much is drank within a short period of time.

Symptoms of water intoxication tend to start appearing after you consume more than 3 to 4 L of water in a few hours.

“The dose makes the poison” or in Latin, “Sola dosis facit venenum”. In the Christian Bible there is a verse in the book of 1 Corinthians And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.

There is another idiom I think of as well from Aseop which is; “Too much of a good thing “It is possible to have too much of a good thing.”

Balance is so important in our lives. I have seen people get their dream jobs and experience burn out in less than a year. Some retirees suffer from depression and anxiety from withdrawing from work to rapidly and not keeping themselves busy.

What is the secret to balance then? The secret is to understand that balance is accomplished day by day and looks different for everyone. Listen to yourself and if you need to seek professional help. Often what drives some people is unresolved issues that are not worked out in healthy ways. It is unhealthy to work more than you see your family and we are all doing this right now with the promise of more time from society but that time may never come so when you have that time you want to enjoy it. Finally take time for yourself and family.

Mistakes were and will continue to be made

October 24, 2022 John Corrigan

I goofed. It happens to the best of us, most of the time my goofs seem to only impact me but there are other times when the mistake impacts others, that is when it can really stink.

Making mistakes doesn’t always stink sometimes mistakes are insight and answers to other problems. There is a book titled “Mistakes that worked“, the book tells the story of 40 inventions that were mistakes.

“To err is human but to forgive is divine” – Pope

In his essay on Criticism Pope coined a phrase that is often cut short to just “to err is human”, but see when we are mistakes affect others and we must through ourselves to the mercy of the court we are looking for the divine and need to keep in mind the entire turn of phrase. “To err is human to forgive is divine”.

Human nature is both a forgiving and vengeful one. Here is an incredible article outlining how human nature is both forgiving and vengeful. The writer concludes with a call not to change human nature but to change the world. Forgiveness is easier to do when we are more connected and a closer community. Think about how many times you have forgiven close family members and “written off distant friends”.

I think it is kind of poetic that forgiveness is easier when we are more connected and divinity is all about connections and relationships. God is all about relationships. Almost every major religion is about how to live in harmony with life and the earth.

Be like god and forgive others and if you made a mistake look a little harder and see if this is the next invention that will rock the world.

It wants what it wants

October 21, 2022 John Corrigan

“John, people want to believe that they make rational decisions, but they do not.” My wife kindly reminded me with those words when I was questioning some of the actions of folks that I dealt with early on in the day.

She is of course absolutely right, every human being out there on the planet acts with their heart. We know this on a deep cultural level. Here in the United States when someone is not working or playing to their full potential we say things like; “their heart isn’t in it”.

In 2009 I read a pretty great book called “Sway; The irresistible pull of irrational behavior”. The book was written by, two brothers Rom and Ori Brafman. The brothers detailed how seemingly rational people make consistent and completely irrational decisions.

Every choice you make was done with your heart not your head. Your head may have advised your heart but if you didn’t feel like doing it you didn’t do it. You may point out that you breath and your heart beat and you didn’t have to feel like doing that but you didn’t really make a choice to do that did you? As a matter of fact there comes times when we have beleaguered breathing, due to strenuous conditions and we have to convince our selves to keep breathing.

Two things that will help when trying to understand our own decisions and others is keeping in mind that people always act with their heart.

I worked with a team in a factory. The team was charged with changing technology used in the factory and implementing new technology on the shop floors. One of the things that the leadership talked about was “client buy in”. Client Buy in is the cat of agreeing on or accepting terms or technologies. To get client buy in we as a team could not merely show the users the technology we had to build a rapport with the factory workers and leaders. The factory workers would not offer buy in until they were convinced in their head and hearts to do this.

It is tempting to just stick to the facts and not involve emotion at all when dealing with life but it is foolish and basically impossible. So why do we try? Well, emotions or an emotional show can leave us feeling vulnerable and that is not comfortable. I would however encourage you to get vulnerable and let your emotions show. How come I can stop thinking about the trolls movie and the scene where the two trolls sing true colors? All digressions aside face your emotions allow yourself to be vulnerable and live a great life

Why I Did What I Did

October 20, 2022 John Corrigan

There is so much talent out there! This diary entry is an amazing example of that talent. Maybe it resonates with me a little too and that has slanted my opinion on it, but honestly this is a great piece of work.

maia diaries

…because first and foremost, before anything else, I am me.

It was a bad day and I could not spend any more hours sitting in my car in the parking lot before classes. I took two girls out to a late lunch that day and told them: in a distant past, I did a very bad thing and I haven’t been able to move on from it.

They didn’t ask questions, they just sat there with me, eating.

That day I decided, I was going to quit my job.

Resigning from an established institution was a torture. Convincing your superiors that they could easily let me go, that there will be someone else, and they might be a lot better doing what I was doing, is. a. torture. Of course they wouldn’t let me go. They offered me positions, new spaces, new title. New office in the city. They were…

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When things do not go as planned

October 20, 2022 John Corrigan

Humans as a species crave order. Everything needs to make sense to them. There is a perception of control that humans seem to desire. We want to exert control of our environment and produce desired results. A good example of this would be in humanity’s desire to create time and mark time.

Try to imagine a life without timekeeping. You probably can’t. You know the month, the year, the day of the week. There is a clock on your wall or the dashboard of your car. You have a schedule, a calendar, a time for dinner or a movie. Yet all around you, timekeeping is ignored. Birds are not late. A dog does not check its watch. Deer do not fret over passing birthdays. an alone measures time. Man alone chimes the hour. And, because of this, man alone suffers a paralyzing fear that no other creature endures. A fear of time running out.
― Mitch Albom, The Time Keeper

It’s crazy when you think about it time is simply the “measurement” of persistence. For something so tenuous and amorphous it seems foolish to give it so much value.

Most founders of companies (yes including startups) are actually in their 40’s. You may get a little discouraged because you hear about the 20 year old starting a business or a family but do not get discouraged time is nothing but a weird made up number and you are doing great.

The only real time you have anyways is right now, so do the best you can with what you have, where and when you are.

Be like scientists

October 19, 2022 John Corrigan

Life and business often gives us the opportunity to make decisions. Buying a car, taking a new job, getting a loan, how we spend our day. It is estimated that we will make 35000 decisions a day. That’s a lot of thinking that goes on and just thinking about all that thinking is giving me a headache and a little anxiety. Most of the decisions are inconsequential and Hobson choices (maybe that will make you feel a little less anxious or more), however some of the choices are of consequence especially when that choice is made continually. If we read for thirty minutes a day, we become smarter, happier and get better sleep. That decision is of consequence and not many of us read that much. The average person reads 16.8 minutes per day. Reading thirty minutes a day would be a good decision to make and something good to do but how do we know that?

We know that reading thirty minutes a day will help us because researchers engaged in six simple steps.

Step 1: They made an observation, research is good.

Step 2: They asked a question(or a few questions), in what ways is it good.

Step 3: They formed a test table / hypothesis, reading 30 minutes a day improves brain function

Step 4: They make a prediction, if a person reads for thirty minutes a day they will experience more improvement in brain function than an individual who hasn’t or if a subject reads thirty minutes one day and 0 minutes the other day the amount of brain function improvement will be higher on the read days.

Step 5: They test the prediction, A person reads one day has a brain scan, doesn’t read the next has a brain scan

Step 6: They evaluate the results and make adjustments, Brain function did improve in readers not non readers. Read more

The steps used to discover that reading improves brain functions was the scientific method. Scientists use this method all the time to prove or disprove theories and basically make decisions. Why shouldn’t we do the same when faced with choices? One thing to remember though is that scientists are using and have used this method often and published many of their findings so….. We may be able to skip to step 6 and read the scientists results. Time saver life hack but when we cannot and those situations will arise lets act like the scientists.

Science s willingness to accept facts even when they are opposed to wishes
BF Skinner

Look what I can do

October 18, 2022 John Corrigan

Scientists and researchers call it the Hawthorne effect. Management at the Hawthorne Electric plant just outside of Chicago wanted to understand how they could make workers become more effective. Changes were made to the working conditions and then researchers measured the employees productivity after the changes. After every change the researchers noticed higher productivity levels followed by a return to the productivity levels prior to the change.

Turns out if a change is made and observed the act of observing the participants makes the change work. The Hawthorne effect is an observer effect. The observer effect is the fact that observing a situation or phenomenon necessarily changes it.

Quantum Physics has been dealing with the Observer effect for years. Here is an interesting interview about the observer effect and Quantum Physics.

My wife tells the kids that there are cameras everywhere they go. Skate park, cameras there, mall, McDonalds, the city park, cameras everywhere. She doesn’t do this to instill fear she does this because she knows that the observer effect works and she wants them on their best behavior.

My mom would tell me that God is always watching and my dad would tell me that you can never get away from yourself. Holding yourself accountable requires a pretty high amount of self awareness and pragmatism. My wife has often told me that I cannot expect the world to be as self aware as I am (maybe this was a compliment I think it was more of a be easier on people and set some lower expectations).

Someone is always observing and measuring us, maybe it is you and family members, and friends. It is definitely family members and friends but not always you and really I think it should be us measuring ourselves against ourselves.

My son ran for school and he would have his numbers for his 3 and 5 mile runs on printouts he would show me. Some of the lines had the letters PB on them. I asked him what the letters meant and he said Personal Best. Ourselves that is our best measure and the one we should all be using. Did we do better? Did we meet our goals? Are we improving?

You can and will get better, just be patient with your self and measure what you are doing and have done. If you just get 1 % better a day in about 1/3 of a year you will be 100 % better than when you started!