Tag: bookmarks

The Last Quiet Thing

Your possessions came alive. Now they won’t stop talking.

https://www.terrygodier.com/the-last-quiet-thing

Sometime in the last twenty years, our possessions came alive.

Your thermostat has opinions now. Your television requires a login. Your car updates itself overnight, and sometimes when you start it in the morning, the interface has rearranged itself, as if someone broke in and reorganized your dashboard while you slept.

Your earbuds won’t play music until they’ve updated their firmware. Your refrigerator wants to be on your Wi-Fi.

None of this is broken. This is the product functioning as designed.

Nothing you own is finished. Everything exists in a state of permanent incompletion, permanently needing. Your phone needs updates, needs charging, needs storage cleared, needs passwords rotated.

Your apps need permissions reviewed, terms accepted, preferences re-configured after every update.

Your subscriptions need evaluating, need renewing, need canceling, need justifying to yourself every month when the charge appears. The purchase isn’t the end of anything. It’s the first day of a relationship you didn’t agree to, with no clean way out.

You live in a house full of dependents.

What if the exhaustion everybody feels isn’t a moral failure but the completely rational response to being made responsible for an ecosystem of objects that never stop asking?

This is a brilliant post by Terry Godlier because it highlights something I’ve been realizing for quite some time now.

We are no longer living in a world of simple or complicated things.

We are living within a world of complex things.

And we are the ones who have created them, trying to making “everything better now.”

In fact, the systems we are creating now are so complex that they have effectively become ecosystems in themselves.

And ecosystems have lives of their own.

This article highlights a narrative repeating itself throughout time.

The AGI Builders at Davos Quoted This Movie. They Missed Its Message Completely.

Intelligence isn’t something you build. It’s something you receive.

https://abiawomosu.substack.com/p/the-agi-builders-at-davos-quoted

There is an emptiness within us that we are trying to fill, both individually and societally.

Filling the void can’t be done by building or consuming something to fill it, it’s done through relationships.

Societally it’s about building interpersonal relationships by relating to others as they are.

Individually it’s about building an intrapersonal relationship with yourself by relating to yourself as you are.

This applies to the stereotypical zen quote.

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.

What most people are misinterpreting and misunderstanding about this quote is that the teacher has always been there, waiting patiently for you to hear it, recognize it, and become aware of it.

This teacher is your larger sense of Self, waiting patiently for you to listen, recognize, and embrace a larger sense of yourself.

Thus getting out of your own way is actually slowing down, listening, and making space for your larger sense of Self to emerge.

In other words, your larger sense of Self is already there, waiting patiently for you. You just need to recognize and become aware of it.

Again this embodies what creativity means to me.

It’s discovering something that’s been there all along but you just weren’t unaware of it until you discovered it and became aware of it.

So you can’t growth and development unless you’re willing to accept and receive a larger sense of your Self that’s already there, waiting patiently to emerge.

The Power of Embracing Uncertainty

Accepting life’s unpredictability can enhance growth, creativity, and well-being.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/beyond-limits/202404/the-power-of-embracing-uncertainty

In the realm of psychological inquiry, much focus has been placed on the “knowledge-action gap,” which separates what we know from what we do. However, another critical yet underexplored area is the “question-answer gap.” 

This gap is where uncertainty, the unknown, and the unknowable live, marking the distance between the questions we pose and the answers we seek. It embodies the core of human curiosity and the drive to explore, whether in personal growth, education, or professional endeavors. This isn’t merely a void; it’s a space filled with possibilities, where our curiosity propels us to challenge conventional wisdom and extend the edges of our capabilities.

Here, adopting an “I don’t know” mindset evolves from a potential critique to a powerful stance. Uncertainty and the unknown are typically viewed with apprehension, yet they are the very elements that catalyze learning and innovation. 

Embracing this gap allows us to transform uncertainty into a catalyst for significant insights and breakthroughs. It prompts us to recognize that not having all the answers isn’t an endpoint but a starting point for discovery. This perspective is essential for fostering continuous growth, pushing us to constantly seek new knowledge and innovative solutions, thus unlocking our full potential and expanding the realm of what’s possible.

Uncertainty, rather than a barrier, can be the fertile soil from which creative thought and action springs. It invites us into a space free from the constraints of predetermined outcomes, where new ideas can take root.

Embracing uncertainty opens up a landscape rich with potential paths, each inviting personal exploration and growth.

Cultivate curiosity. Curiosity allows for an exploratory engagement with the world, inviting a rich tapestry of experiences and learning. Jackson (2023) describes uncertainty as “wisdom in motion,” emphasizing that knowledge is not static but evolved through the embrace of the unknown. By fostering curiosity, individuals can navigate uncertainty with an empowered stance, viewing each moment of not knowing as an opportunity for growth.

Practice patience. The rush towards certainty can overshadow the potential hidden within uncertain moments. O’Donohue (2018) beautifully captures this sentiment, stating that “possibilities are always more interesting than facts.” This perspective invites a patient approach to life’s uncertainties, recognizing that the journey, with its myriad of potential paths and outcomes, is as significant as the destination.

Psychologist says socially awkward people have thrived through history because of this hidden trait – Upworthy

A major reason humans have evolved and thrived is our ability to socialize and work together, so if that’s the case, why do socially awkward people still exist? A psychologist reveals that socially awkward individuals have some hidden talents that others may not have.

www.upworthy.com

Upworthy has an interesting article talking about how socially awkward people have often thrived though out history. And most of these descriptions pretty much describe me exactly, as it is becoming more and more evident in my life that I’m looking at the world in a unique way that often doesn’t “conform to social norms.”

“People who achieve amazing things in this world, things that are kind of the tail end of the bell curve, they’re actually more likely to be more awkward.”

Tashiro explained that socially awkward individuals often have an “obsessive interest in things,” zeroing in on details and minutiae, sometimes at the cost of engaging with others or following social norms. However, he argues that this obsessiveness can translate into persistence during hard times and resilience in the face of challenges, ultimately helping them achieve great things. 

This could explain why many people perceive brilliant scientists as smart but poor communicators, and why so many highly successful people who are often considered geniuses or leaders in their fields are also introverts.

“Socially awkward individuals often spend a lot of time alone,” therapist Lesley Lesker told Upworthy. “This provides the opportunity for them to process information thoroughly, look at all different angles and analyze situations in a more depth manner than non-socially awkward individuals.”

“Social awkwardness is a blessing and a curse. The reason that many people are socially awkward is because their brain is so unique and sees the world in such different ways that they naturally don’t conform to social norms,” said Tyana Tavakol, a licensed trauma therapist in California and Florida, and virtual private practice owner of Uncovering You. “This uniqueness can build resilience when their awkwardness is more consistently than not taken as quirky, funny, or some other type of endearing way. This can happen when they grew up in a very attuned and accepting home or family, or happened to find friends or community that also have their own unique brains and can really appreciate that in others.”

And this final part about developing self-compassion, I believe is key to transforming oneself and building up this resilience. I’m still working on not beating myself up as much I did before but I’ve made massive improvements in doing so over the last five to ten years.

Overall, self-compassion is the key to working through socially awkward feelings and building resilience.

“Developing self compassion can help a socially awkward person to build resilience,” Lesker concluded. “It is common for a socially awkward individual to blame themselves excessively, but when you speak to yourself compassionately in the same way that you would speak to a friend, resilience will grow.“

AI Anxiety Is Real: Invest in the Skills AI Can’t Replicate

The soft skills you avoided are now your only differentiator. AI can’t replicate trust, presence, or empathy. Your humanity is your competitive advantage.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mental-health-in-the-workplace/202512/ai-anxiety-is-real-invest-in-the-skills-ai-cant

A Psychological Today article highlights the importance of soft skills today as the only primary differentiator against AI.

Most high achievers systematically compressed everything that felt “soft,” often because those things—presence, feeling, relationships—didn’t show up in measurable outcomes.

Zack Kass, who led go-to-market strategy at OpenAI, puts it bluntly: “Human skills are the moat that AI can’t build.” Trust, adaptability, empathy, courage, wisdom—these aren’t the soft skills anymore. They’re the only skills that still differentiate.

This is confirmed by the World Economic Forum’s research on fastest-rising skills for 2030. The focus is on building resilience, flexibility, agility, curiosity, and creative thinking. Notice what’s absent? Technical expertise. Rather than a differentiator, AI literacy is now table stakes.

The skills that differentiate are fundamentally regulatory and human. They require a nervous system calm enough to stay present under pressure, tolerate ambiguity without forcing resolution, and hold complexity without collapsing it into false simplicity.

What may not be evident about this article though (even though it is communicating it in a subversive manner) is that they are describing leaders with Self-Transforming Minds (as per Robert Kegan & Lisa Lahey’s work on the plateaus of adult development). The key statement about tolerating ambiguity without forcing resolution is an important characteristic of this mindset, as it is something that I am struggle to embrace and grasp myself.

In other words, just as employees need to level up for this newer, more complex world, so too do leaders need to level up as well. In effect, they need to embrace and be comfortable with uncertainty in this newly emerging VUCA world.

Time and again, this is where high achievers get stuck. The developments they need most—to build trust, emotional range, authentic presence, and the ability to sit in uncertainty—require exactly what they’ve spent careers avoiding: being uncomfortable. Feeling something and not having the answer.

Each of these asks your nervous system to do something counterintuitive: Slow down when everything screams speed up. That’s why it’s hard. That’s also why it works.

It’s all inside-out work. The kind that doesn’t show up on a performance review but shows up in every room you walk into, every decision you make, every person who chooses to follow you because they actually trust you.

What if AI isn’t making you obsolete, but forcing you to remember what actually makes you valuable? What if it is your invitation to live in a way that’s more real?

The leaders who will thrive in the next decade aren’t the ones processing the most information. They’re the ones who can sit in a room full of uncertainty and make people feel safe enough to do their best work; who make decisions that account for complexity rather than compress it; and who have enough internal capacity to lead through what’s actually happening, not what they wish were happening. That capacity isn’t a skill you add. It’s something you reclaim.

Yes, this is all inside-out work, more commonly known as vertical development. Yet the mention that this doesn’t show up on performance reviews is more telling for organizations than anything else.

Effectively what this means is that even though most organizations today are not focus on your inner growth and “vertical” development, but just your outer technical “horizontal” development, you have to take the lead with it as an individual on your own time, otherwise you will suffer the consequences.

This is the number one reason why most organizations are failing today and getting stuck with their economic growth. It’s because inner psychological growth and vertical development isn’t an integral part of the organization and thus it isn’t focused on within performance reviews in turn.

In other words, leader nor organizations can’t manage and change what they are effectively blind to.

So until vertical development becomes an important focus for organizations, not much will change within them…unless individuals initiate their own transformational changes themselves.

Actually most important of all as to why these vertical development needs to be integrated into the daily operations of the organization is that soft skills can’t be expedited like hard, technical skills can. In effect, soft skills can’t be learnt by taking a weekend course so as to fast track your learning of it. Soft skills can only be learnt by daily practice.