Fear, Loathing and Limbic Hijacking #34 #cong21

Synopsis:

Where we are going is a not nice, it is not safe; where we’re going isn’t going to be fun. We may have finally realised that the only thing we know for sure is that we don’t know anything for sure.

Total Words

770

Reading Time in Minutes

3

Key Takeaways:

  1. Face & embrace your fear
  2. Learn how to learn
  3. Make sense and orient yourself
  4. Don’t wait until it’s too late

About Gar Mac Críosta

Dad, Architect, Socio-technologist, Dog owner & Walker, Tinkerer, Connecting People & Ideas, Certain I’m Uncertain that Continuously Curious

Contacting Gar Mac Críosta

You can connect with Gar on LinkedIn.

By Gar Mac Críosta

Litany Against Fear

“I must not fear.

Fear is the mind-killer.

Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

I will face my fear.

I will permit it to pass over me and through me.

And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path.

Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

— Dune, Frank Herbert

Where we are going is a not nice, it is not safe; where we’re going isn’t going to be fun. We may have finally realised that the only thing we know for sure is that we don’t know anything for sure. But soon enough we will forget, we will lapse comfortably, wrapped in the warm blankets of certainty on cushions of prediction. But the blankets are now threadbare and the cushions are empty.

The only true wisdom consists in knowing that you know nothing.”

– Socrates

We’ve built a world based on the value of certainty the value of knowledge. The idea that we must know things to have value. Those in leadership positions suffer most from this, the expectation is clear your worth is in your knowledge. And never more so that in the middle of this pandemic.

What happens when we don’t know, when we can’t know, when unexpected events happen and unpredictable circumstances emerge?

We’ve found ways of hiding when things don’t work, enter big transformation programs. When we are stuck we hire some consultants (the bigger the better). We reorganise/transform; the mistakes are consigned to the past. Nearly all of this falls into the Theatre of Knowing. We must appear to know what to do and if in doubt we hire others who must know what to do. The strategies we generate are derivative. As higher primates we have learned how to mimic each other; the mimicry perpetuates the myth that we know. Ideas are constrained onto what fits on a PowerPoint slide (16:9 to give it that widescreen pizzazz), symmetry is important, things are neat and organised. When the deck is ready we are done, we get the satisfaction that comes with completion even though in reality nothing has even started.

We do this mostly because it’s safer and it’s cognitively easier. Dealing with uncertainty is expensive — socially, emotionally, politically and most of all cognitively.

I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours.

— Hunter S. Thompson

But how else could it be? The other road is full of uncertainties and uncertainty causes unease & unrest. Fear grows with uncertainty, fear for the future, fear for my position, fear for my status, fear for my safety. It so much easier to wallow in the analgesia of a well crafted PowerPoint deck delivered in a reassuring tone by the loathsome Certainty Merchants. The wise grey heads who seen it all before…..

They seduce us into believing that we live in an ordered world even the unexpected is expected. A whole generation of leaders have been limbically hijacked; they fear the consequences of stepping into the unknown.

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

— Hunter S. Thompson

We must develop the ability to smell the wind and orient ourselves, making sense of where we are. We can’t always live in an orderly predictable paradise. We can’t keep selling this to others and we have to stop believing in our and others ability to predict, it’s more dangerous now than ever.

But the truth is that we should embrace the lesson in the Litany Against Fear and face our fear of uncertainty, accept that we don’t know and we can’t know. Be curious, be puzzled, LEARN. We need to (re)learn how to learn. The future we’re going to could be fun but it’s unlikely to be safe.

A man who procrastinates in his choosing will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance.

— Hunter S. Thompson

November 22, 2021 2021 Leadership No comments yet

Conspire, Collude, Corrupt, Compete & Collapse #55 #cong20

Synopsis:

Coming Soon

Total Words

1,615

Reading Time in Minutes

6

Key Takeaways:

  1. Wake-up
  2. Find ways to to breath the same air
  3. Play together
  4. Seek together
  5. And maybe we survive together

About Gar Mac Críosta

Gar Mac Críosta is an IASA certified architect and spends much of his time trying to figure out what being a sociotechnologist is; so he can be one. He regularly engages in humane human experiments and is very certain that he spends most of his time being uncertain. Currently (since March 2020) he is the Product Lead for the COVID Tracker App in the Health Service Executive (HSE) in Ireland (www.covidtracker.ie) a COVID-19 pandemic response app. Gar has worked as a Digital Advisor to the CIO in the HSE since early 2019. Gar is the founder of Business Model Adventures and has been an active contributor to IASA Global since 2006, developing & delivering education and certification programs. Gar has facilitated the development of change programs with C-level executives, senior managers, technology leaders, and executives in the areas of business model innovation, digital strategy, architecture, and design across various indus­tries. Gar is a Certified Architect Professional (IASA CITAP), a Fellow of the Irish Computer Society, a LEGO Serious Play Practitioner (LSP) and in the process of becoming a Cynefin Practitioner.

Contacting Gar Mac Críosta:

Coming Soon

By Gar Mac Críosta

Conversations about the future tend to hinge around what it will look like when we get there. How things will be better, fairer, more just, more equal. If you had a subatomic particle sieve that you could push our universe through i don’t believe you will find one ounce of fair, one atom of justice. We the talking monkeys on the back of this organic space ship who at this point after 200,000 years of development have a story about ourselves that includes the ideas of heroes/villains, good/bad, right/wrong, success/failure, friend/foe. These are all stories that we use to make sense of the world we briefly inhabit, they are passed down, distilled, washed and amended to suit. We can tell ourselves these beautiful stories and it’s entertaining, hopeful and optimistic. It also gives us a sense of certainty we imbue the story with belief, we invest time, we give this future, life and we jointly share it with each other.

We have created a story about the way the world works and for many people we cannot see this matrix-like weaving of story internally, communally and globally that traps us into a system that is adversarial, self-terminating and running out of time unless the techno-optimists dreams come true (Mars, Meteors and more).

If we accept that we are in some ways trapped in this mesh of stories in a potentially self-terminating system then waking up from this can be quite scary. It’s easier to cling to these fantasies. This situation is compounded by the increasingly partisan nature of communications, the pollution of the information ecology and an increase in mis-information and dis-information. Our loss of self and loss of sovereignty render us like a neotenous newborn who cannot survive outside of the current system.

Wake Up

  • How do we wake up and what do we do if we wake up? I’m not an naive idealistic believer that this will all magically fix itself. I’ve got the baggage and the mental malware associated with 20+ years of work plus 20+ years of education running inside my cranium. Leave aside the bad code – the wiring isn’t great and the plumbing could do with some work.
  • That said the conversations I’ve been having over the past 36 months give me a sense that there is an increased awakening and recognition not just of the immediate risks but rather of the the existential risks and generator functions that are leading us down a self-terminating path.
  • Waking up is not just being alive to possibilities it’s about investing time in the development of self – (not just woo
  • -woo self development stuff) our relationship to information and our relationship to others. This is real development of self with relation to sensemaking and choicemaking, our relationship to others, our ability to engage in the world in a different way are a prereq to anything.
  • Given the scale of the problem this is not one we can tackle alone, nor is one person (definitely not me) able to make sense of it all, therefore collective sensemaking will be needed.
  • Cong is a place where we get to glimpse, we meet, we share and we marvel with others who are in varying degrees of waking up and some still sound asleep. What do we do next?
  • Well we make some moves and throw some shapes and see what happens. The moves we make will use familiar words in unfamiliar ways.

Conspire – breathing together

  • conspire – make secret plans jointly to commit an unlawful or harmful act breathing together with
  • etymology – fromcon– ‘together with’ + spirare ‘breathe’.
  • Conspire has such a bad name but unless we breath the same air and plot together we will never get out and make progress. The unlawful or harmful nature is only with relation to the current prevailing story and narrative. If our goal is to break free we need to mentally unhook ourselves from the shackles of this story. Breaking the mold is never comfortable, but finding people to explore idea and breath the same air is a start. Cong is one such place to start to breathe the same air.

Collude – playing together

  • collude – to work together secretly especially in order to do something illegal or dishonest
  • etymology – early 16th century: from Latin colludere‘have a secret agreement’, from col- ‘together’ + ludere ‘to play’.
  • colluding equally has a terrible reputation but if you look to it’s roots we find the opportunity to play together, to experiment to explore. Col == together. This is not a passive or academic only exercise, you need to roll up sleeves and get stuck in to do the work. Not playing is not an option. We need to become better players with more skill and a deeper understanding.

Corrupt – breaking altogether

  • corrupt – having or showing a willingness to act dishonestly in return for money or personal gain.
  • etymology – Middle English: from Latin corruptus, past participle of corrumpere‘mar, bribe, destroy’, from cor- ‘altogether’ + rumpere ‘to break’.
  • Corrupting yet another midunderstood beast but look to it’s roots and we see the heart of a nobel pursuit, altogether we break remaking and reimagining a system will require corruption – of ourselves and of others. It’s a remaking of the story and retelling of the tale. True versus truth each story has a truth a perspective upon which it judges the actors in that story. It’s ours to change, searching for what’s true is a different pursuit.
  • If at this point you are feeling uncomfortable then stop reading. This is not for the feint of heart.

Compete – seeking together

  • compete – be able to rival another or others.
  • etymology – early 17th century: from Latin competere, in its late sense ‘strive or contend for (something)’, from com-‘together’ + petere ‘aim at, seek’.
  • To seek together and to strive or contend. The best doesn’t always win, the pull of the past is strong. The attractors that hold us in place, keep us satisficed create an inertia that is difficult to break the previous steps of conspiring, colluding and corrupting are necessary to create the conditions and develop the intelligence to outcompete the current system.

Collapse – slip and fall together or rise and survive together

  • collapse – of a structure or system suddenly fall down or give way
  • etymology- early 17th century (as collapsed): from medical Latin collapsus, past participle of collabi, from col- ‘together’ + labi ‘to slip’.
  • If we are successful we collapse the system Jim Rutt calls the current system Game A it’s rivalrous and self-terminating and Game B is the unnamable future it will emerge and emergence is key, fitness and survival. If we can’t compete then together we will slip and fall and become a cautionary tale that whoever is left behind will look with pity on. One way or the other collapse seems inevitable.

Time Traps

  • The time for this is not now, we are trapped by the arrow of time. We mark things in minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years. A move to lifetimes and inter-generational timeframes leads us to think of ancestors, what we leave behind, your grandchildrens grandchildren. Letting go of your small existence is not easy, we are bound by it and to it. Lifting our heads we see that Society X.0 is not a thing, not a destination or a set of qualities at a point in time. It shouldn’ be named too soon as it limits us and it. We need to breathe the same air, play together, break altogether, seek together and slip and slide or survive and surf together.

My thoughts are not my own

  • Much of this is influenced by the work of Jim Rutt, Daniel Schmactenberger, Jordan Hall, Bonnitta Roy, Nora Bateson, Dave Snowden, Shane Parrish, Buckminster Fuller, Ryan Holiday, David McWIlliams, Juval Noah Harari, Hanzi Freinacht, John Stuart Mill, the Stoics and others combined with conversations with friends, congregation alumni and others Orlaith, Stephen, Néady, Tim, Paddy, Charlie, Carlos, Laurence, Jacl Chris, Martine, Ruth, Haje, Sally Anne, Páidí, Clare, Dermot, Paul, Barry, Eoin Kennedy, Joan, Tracy, Conn, Conor, Eilish, Tim, Leo, David, Paddy, Miklos, Danese, Denis, Chalky, Al, Terry, Joe and many more

“If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the universe” – Joe Rogan

 

References

  • https://www.jimruttshow.com/the-jim-rutt-show-transcripts/transcript-of-episode-8-jordan-greenhall-hall/
  • https://www.jimruttshow.com/the-jim-rutt-show-transcripts/transcript-of-episode-7-daniel-schmachtenberger/
  • https://medium.com/@memetic007/a-journey-to-gameb-4fb13772bcf3
  • https://www.gameblibrary.com/

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November 19, 2020 2020 Society 3.0 No comments yet

Community, Consensus and Theories of Ideas #48 #cong19

Synopsis:

If you are building, designing or participating in communities you would do well to make sure you understand how ideas enter and move around any social system, how they shift and change.  Know that we all lie (sometimes) because we are afraid of judgement and isolation. As groups we suffer from being stupider together. The only way we can defend is by driving diversity & openness into the heart of our ideas and our communities. This is a ramble through some interesting ideas in the areas of community, consensus and the theories of ideas in emerging and evolving communities including the Overton window, preference falsification, pluralistic ignorance, heterdoxy, boundary theory and more.

4 Key Takeaways:

  1. Make sure you understand the range of acceptable ideas in your community
  2. Make sure you understand the range of possible ideas that could exist but aren’t expressed
  3. Try and find the shadow realities that are being created at the edges
  4. Make your community open & make it diverse otherwise BOOOOM!!!!

About Gar Mac Críosta:

Gar Mac Críosta – dad of 4 husband of 1, architect & designer of systems, experimenter, unsuccessful founder, happy human. I’m very certain that I can’t ever be certain about anything and I’m deeply committed to being constantly curious about everything.

Contacting Gar Mac Críosta:

You can follow Gar on Twitter connect with him on LinkedIn, read some smart thoughts on Medium, or browse some of Gar’s presentations.

By Gar Mac Críosta,

WARNING: this will ramble and may not have a point as I struggle to make sense of these thoughts

This is a ramble through some interesting ideas in the areas of community, consensus and the theories of ideas in emerging and evolving communities.

IDEAS: overton window, preference falsification, pluralistic ignorance, heterdoxy, boundary theory

I’m going to jump into each topic and hopefully tie this into something at the end. I’ve been involved in building and developing communities (both practice & interest). As I’ve come to understand more about these concepts it’s given me pause to consider how communities work, how they change and how they can break. The point is that if you are consciously designing a community these aspects are important.

The Overton Window

Communities convene around ideas, the ideas could be explicit in the case of a cause or implicit the desire of people to live in a place e.g. Cong.

  • Communities of interest
  • Communities of practice
  • Communities of belief
  • Communities of necessity
  • Communities of circumstance

Over time the ideas, beliefs and shared values of the community eb & flow. The community allow new ideas in or repel the same ideas based on the prevailing consensus of what’s OK for members of communities to believe. Communities are driven by consensus surrounding the idea, this acts as a binding agent to keep the idea safe and the community together. As the idea evolves so does the community therein lies the challenge if there is no room for challenge the guardians of the idea become the high-priests determining the goodness and suitability of the people in the group. There is nothing to stop the polarisation of that community. Within any community the range of interpretations of that idea can be narrow or broad. The acceptable idea space at any point in time is call the Overton Window it describes the range of beliefs that are acceptable at that point in time.

The Overton Window & Degrees of Acceptability

Overton window

According to Joseph P. Overton, the window contains the range of policies that a politician can recommend without appearing too extreme to gain or keep public office in the current climate of public opinion.

Overton Window CC BY-SA 2.0

If we extend this, the model can be used to explain the evolution of ideas broadly in society and more narrowly in communities. The model is based on the degrees of acceptance of an idea which goes from policy to unthinkable

  • Unthinkable
  • Radical
  • Acceptable
  • Sensible
  • Popular
  • Policy

Every community regardless of the origin has developed a set of views that can be mapped onto a window. The openness of the community usually determines the susceptability and speed of that community to shifting windows of acceptability.

Point 1: Watch the window -opening, closing, shifting

Preference Falsification

This podcast its long but explores the topic in detail

Preference Falsification is an observation that people will often misrepresent their personal views in public. We have all experienced both sides of this, feeling uncomfortable in a public setting about a thought, belief, idea OR being in the company of someone who we may have suspected isn’t being completely honest about their views on a subject. It lays the foundation about why things can change extremely fast and how the Overton Window can shift radically, rapidly and seemingly unexpectedly. Our assumption is that these things move slowly but our experience over the past few years of life is that things change radically all of a sudden. The Overton window sets the framework of acceptable views and if you as a member of a community begin to diverge 1) you assume you are alone and therefore vulnerable and 2) you assume that others will respond negatively to your views.

The public preference set of options will only contain things within the window of acceptability. Members of a community then limit their public preference statements to those that are in the window of acceptability. The tension builds as the friction between public and private grows until BOOOM we get a dramatic shift. Our need for approval and the reinforcing signalling mechanisms as members of the community publically communicate false signals to demonstrate adherence to the norms.

Point 2: Assume that preferences are falsified

Pluralistic Ignorance

Pluralistic ignorance describes what happens in groups where everyone agrees because everyone thinks (incorrectly) that everyone else agrees with a particular view or norm (without anyone ever actually agreeing). It’s the net effect of individual preference falsification on a group or community. This leads to all manner of problems of mindless conformance, individuals feeling alienated, undervalued and misunderstood. Although the group acts as one the links are weakened by the collective as a result of the misalignment of public and priviate. The created imagined reality is made real by the group actions in accordance with the imagined reality.

Point 3: Imagined realities become reality with real consequences

Boundaries, Borders & Openness 

Borders define the outer edge of a community they determine who is in and who is out. The mechanisms to pass the border in either direction can be formal e.g. nomination & acceptance or informal e.g. wealth to purchase in the case of exclusively wealthy communities. Boundaries are the invisible lines we draw, neighbourhood to neighbourhood, or adjacent ideas within an Overton Window. We move freely over and back across boundaries but to move further takes more energy and may result in a stagnation of ideas due to the energy required to traverse multiple boundaries. The openness of the system determines the degree of permeability to new ideas within any community

Point 4: Know where the border is, understand the boundaries and evaluate your openness

So what’s your point

I don’t have any answers is the first thing but I’m interested in building & participating in communities. I’ve experienced the situations created by the theories above and I’ve fallen victim to the consequences. If we know that these things can happen we can begin to apply design to the problem but first bring awareness to communities you participate in.

Point 1: Watch the window -opening, closing, shifting

Point 2: Assume that preferences are falsified

Point 3: Imagined realities become reality with real consequences

Point 4: Know where the border is, understand the boundaries and evaluate your openness

A Hopeful Conclusion — Heterodoxy & Viewpoint Diversity 

If we believe we have all the answers then we are doomed. If we only talk to people who share our views we are doomed. If we can’t have conversations about challenging topics without resorting to name calling we are doomed. Heterdoxy is an antonym for orthodoxy, it’s about inclusivity of a broad range of ideas rather than slavish adherence to a dogma. To foster heterdoxy we need diversity. The Future Togetherness Handbook explains diversity in a really practical way from the perspective of designing communities & human systems.

  1. Diversity of goals and desires
  2. Diversity of identities or backgrounds
  3. Diversity of what’s meaningful to the people in a group

Three Kinds of Diversity

www.notion.so

If we limit any of these forms of diversity we are cursed to endure orthodoxy and dogma. We weaken links and we become lessened.

PS I love my annual Pilgrimage to Congregation. Eoin has done an amazing job in creating this unusual experience that embraces heterodoxy & diversity in all it’s forms. 

 

November 7, 2019 2019 Community 1 comment

Disciples of Curiosity #93 #cong18

Synopsis:

Coming soon

4 Key Takeaways:

  1. Coming soon

About Gar Mac Críosta:

Gar Mac Críosta is co-founder of MindRising. In Gar’s other life he has 20+ years, working in the areas in the areas of business model innovation, digital strategy, architecture and organizational effectiveness (lean/agile) across a variety of industries. His work as a digital architect, instructor and speaker has taken him around the world.  Gar is a certified architect professional (IASA CITAP), a Fellow of the Irish Computer Society and Certified Lego® Serious Play Facilitator. Gar has served on the board of the Irish Computer Society and the Board of Iasa Global.

Contacting Gar Mac Críosta:

Coming soon

 

 

By Gar Mac Críosta

We are the disciples of curiousity

We live in the liminal

We search out the gaps, we look for edges

We must look, we crave to see

Answers we seek to problems unknown

We connect we explore we share

We sense signals and follow the gossamer threads

To the curious the future

We are the disciples of curiosity

November 27, 2018 2018 Ideas No comments yet