The concept of “free speech” is more complex than most people realize. It’s much more than being allowed to say whatever you want.
Many people simply get that wrong.
Why I Stopped Reading “Enlightenment Now”
Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker gained notoriety of late because of Bill Gates’ statement that it was “My new favorite book of all time.” Bill’s hard to ignore, especially when something reaches the top of any of his lists. I picked up a copy and dove in.
It’s a great book. Not sure it makes the “favorite book of all time” list for me, but even having not completed the book I can already heartily recommend it. And yet, I’m setting it aside.
Why? Because of something I stumbled across elsewhere, and the fact that I agree with the message behind the book.
Facts, Misinformation & Priorities
- Fact check before sharing. It makes you more authoritative, and makes the world a better place.
- Misinformation shared only serves “the opposition.”
- Focus on what’s truly important.
My morning was derailed by three separate articles that really struck a nerve. The concepts are so simple and important, and yet so often ignored, I’m having a hard time thinking about much else.
We All Fear What We Don’t Understand
We all fear what we do not understand.
― Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol
I suspect that this quote actually pre-dates Mr. Brown’s 2009 book, but the original source is proving elusive. A longer, perhaps more telling version:
What we don’t understand, we fear. What we fear, we judge as evil. What we judge as evil, we attempt to control. And what we cannot control…we attack.
The author seems to be the exceptionally prolific, and in this case insightful, Mr. “unknown”.
All I can say is that humans apparently don’t understand a great many things.
Habit Fad
Two days ago I wrote that I’d “techniqued” myself into inaction. I was trying to do so many things, seemingly all at the same time, that I could do none of them well, and some of them not at all.
There’s what I’ll call a fad right now that says improving yourself — be it your productivity, your accomplishments, your health, your whatever — is all about establishing the proper habits. There are a multitude of blog posts, articles, and books on how to go about doing that.
It has a fad-like feeling to me. It wouldn’t surprise me if a few years from now we’ll haved moved on to a different productivity or self-improvement fadtechnique.
And yet, at a practical level, I’m paying attention. Fads often carry nuggets of wisdom.
Technique Overload
I’m not a self-improvement junkie, but it’s certainly something that I have interest in. The process began years ago when one of my managers at Microsoft introduced me to an assortment of books and resources on the topic, most notably Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Since then I’ve done a lot of reading, tried an assortment of time-management tools, watched videos, and tried various … I’ll call them “techniques”.
I ended last year over-techniqued.
Little Leo
I finally got around to having a couple of old movies digitized. Yikes. 
An Interested Interview
I was recently interviewed by Josh Spector, the man behind For The Interested, a curated newsletter of interesting articles and other information that Josh both finds and occasionally writes himself. There’s an associated For The Interested Facebook group made up of newsletter subscribers, and as part of an experiment to learn more about the people in it, Josh has been conducting a few short interviews.
Here’s mine, presented here with his permission.
Not. My. Monkeys.
I have opinions.
(I’ll wait for everyone that knows me to stop laughing….)
I tend not to be terribly shy about sharing said opinions.
(Again, another pause for the audience to catch their breath….)
I recently read an article that discussed how the Dutch are somewhat more “brutally honest” when it comes to opinions, and are often puzzled when people don’t accept and understand that they’re offered with the best of intentions. My Dutch heritage apparently runs deeper than I thought.
Of late, though, I’m trying to take a different approach when I react and want to share something I think important. And a simple phrase is helping.
Norma
Hello, my name is Norma. I’m a spayed female Pembroke Welsh Corgi, born in 2017. I live in Woodinville, Washington, but I do travel a little, mostly in western Washington. If you find me, my owners would love it if you let them know. You can reach Leo Notenboom via the 206 number on my … Read more
The Insidious Bubble
I was talking to a friend yesterday about our meditation practices. The observation we both made was that meditation, mindfulness, and related concepts were becoming more and more mainstream. What was once considered a fringe and somewhat “woo” activity had made its way into common discussions around everything from personal performance, to medical and mental health discussions.
But on one observation we differed in an interesting way.
The Shallows
As revolutionary as it may be, the Net is best understood as the latest in a long series of tools that have helped mold the human mind.
Last week I finished the book “The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains” by Nicholas Carr.
It brought a few things in to clarity for me, both with respect to my own ability to focus and dive deep into content, as well as how my audience is being impacted as well.
Five Things I Learned Writing About Gratitude Every Day For Sixty Days
In mid-August, sixty days prior to my 60th birthday I started a writing exercise I called “60 Days of Gratitude“. Ten years ago I wrote a thought piece entitled “Half Century Mark“. I wanted to do something similar to mark the next decade, and using a writing exercise focussed on gratitude seemed an appropriate approach.
Now that I’m done I decided to capture some of what I learned in the process.
Six Decades
Today concludes my sixty days of gratitude writing exercise.
Today is my 60th birthday.
I’m grateful to be here.
My Better Half
I’ll indulge with a repeat on my sixty days of gratitude.
Because she deserves it. And more.
Having An Audience
As I close in on the end of my sixty days of gratitude, one of the themes that’s become apparent is that many of the items I’ve identified are things we often take for granted.
I don’t want to take you for granted.
My Schedule
Being both retired and self-employed makes for a very interesting lifestyle.
The keyword is “flexibility”, which is both good news and bad.
Oma & Opa
“Oma & Opa” is Dutch for grandmother and grandfather. Pictured are my mother’s parents with us on their visit circa 1964.
I never met my father’s parents. They were long gone before I arrived.
In looking back, I miss having never met them, and conversely, I’m very grateful I got to spend time with my mother’s parents.