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Microsoft Aims to Save $1 Billion (PC World)Microsoft Aims to Save $1 Billion
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 In Beyond Civilization, Daniel Quinn
says:People will listen
when
they're ready to listen and not before. Probably, once upon a
time,
you weren't ready
to listen to an idea than now seems to you obvious, even urgent. Let
people
come to it in their own time. Nagging or bullying will only alienate
them.
Don't preach. Don't waste time with people who want to argue. They'll
keep
you immobilized forever. Look for people who are already open to
something
new.
When presenting a new
idea, you don't have to have all the answers. It's better to say 'I
don't know' than to fake it. Make people formulate their own
questions.
Don't take on the responsibility of figuring out what their difficulty
is. We each internalize information differently. If you don't
understand
a question, keep insisting they explain it until it's clear. Nine
times
out
of ten they'll supply the answer themselves.
Above all, listen.
Your close attention is sometimes more important than your
articulateness in winning converts. And learning is always a good
thing.
When I've talked to people about the ideas I've presented in this blog, I get the sense that maybe 10% really understand and appreciate what I'm saying. Perhaps another 40% are ready to listen and want to believe, but either my inarticulateness or their internalization mechanism garbles the message. After all, saving the world (or, as one recent commenter 'geo' put it more accurately "changing how humans live so we as a species can continue to survive") is not easy or obvious, or we'd all be busy doing it. This reading list is for that 40%, in the hope that better writers than I can convey more clearly and compellingly what we need to do and why. The remaining 50%, I suspect, are not ready. Five years ago someone gave me The Spell of the Sensuous and I gave up after five pages -- I just wasn't ready. Here's the list -- 56 books and articles that forever changed my worldview, and my purpose for living:: What Life was Really Like Before Civilization: Revisionist History
Radical Analysis, Radical
Solutions (these are the most important readings, but you
probably won't 'buy' their arguments unless you've first read much of
the material above)
Toolkit for Change: Knowledge We Can Use to Save the World
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 During
my ten years as a Chief Knowledge Officer, I spent a lot of time
trying
to figure out how people should use knowledge, and to some extent how
people learn, but it never occurred to me to develop an overarching
'theory of knowledge' until I decided to write a book called The Cost of Not Knowing. This
article summarizes that theory.This is not a new epistemology. I am disinterested in academic arguments that use language, a clumsy and artificial abstraction, to try to justify theories that to me are needlessly complex, counter-intuitive and of no practical use. For students of philosophy, and I'm sure this will come as no surprise to my regular readers, my theory is consistent with Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological view of epistemology. For those interested in the philosophical basis for this theory, I would recommend David Abram's Spell of the Sensuous, much of which is devoted to explaining Merleau-Ponty's philosophy. I'm merely interested in its practical implications, in work and in life. My theory starts with learning. Learning is the process of direct and indirect experience and observation, and knowledge is simply the personal, collected, internalized result of learning. We learn in different ways (fig.1): The best way is through active participation, which engages all our senses in the learning experience. Next best is observation, where we see or hear but where some of our senses are not engaged. The least effective way is second-hand, through communication of reports from someone else. When a squirrel learns, by personal trial and error, how to defeat a baffle on a bird feeder, this is powerful knowledge, well retained and employed. When that squirrel instead watches another squirrel show how to do it, the knowledge is less valuable, less credible. The observing squirrel may not be able to replicate the other squirrel's moves, and the method may not be the best one for the observing squirrel, which may have a different body-weight or dexterity than the demonstrating squirrel's. And if one squirrel merely tells another, unfamiliar squirrel of the presence of food in a bird-feeder 'over there' that can be accessed by navigating around the baffle, that knowledge is even less valuable. The squirrel listening may doubt whether the baffle was or even can be overcome -- perhaps this second-hand report is merely bragging or a ruse on the part of the reporting squirrel. In human activities, we now get almost all of our knowledge second-hand, through books, newspapers, television and online, and its relative lack of credibility causes us to develop and assign a trust 'rating' to different sources, based on how often, in our experience and that of others we trust, that report has turned out to be accurate or useful. A blogroll is one manifestation of that need to rate the trust-worthiness of second-hand sources of knowledge. Schools, unfortunately, now provide almost all learning second-hand, and it is not surprising that 'field trips' are so loved by students -- an experience to learn something first-hand. It is also not surprising that the most effective and credible form of second-hand report is the story, which conveys knowledge in a way highly analogous to the way we might have experienced it personally. Why do we learn? The squirrel learns in order to survive -- by direct participation at first in play and then, often by observing its parents, in gathering food, building a nest etc. The squirrel draws as well on instinctive knowledge, which is coded in its DNA as an evolutionary advantage, which 'teaches' it the knowledge of its ancestors, for example to 'freeze' when it senses a predator species, which is often more effective than fleeing predators whose eyesight is attuned to motion, more than shape. That instinctive knowledge also tells it at what point, as the predator approaches, to flee, based on its ancestors' cumulative learnings of that point at which the probability of evasion through flight begins to exceed the probability of non-detection by the predator. Instinctive knowledge doesn't need to be learned, so it doesn't appear on fig.1 above. We're born with it. In natural systems, where the community, the physical area in which animals spend their entire lives, is small and almost completely 'knowable', we learn only to survive and make a living, and because nature has evolved us, as an adaptive mechanism, to find learning fun (fig.2). In such closed systems, we can get almost all the knowledge we need from direct experience and observation, and from our instincts -- there is little need to rely on second-hand reports as a source of learning. As that physical area that we need to know to survive increases, we can no longer get by with direct experience and observation, so we need to evolve languages to convey more and more knowledge second-hand. Our society becomes inevitably more interdependent, and in addition to survival there are now three more reasons to learn:
I had dinner last evening with some of our neighbours, and we were talking about some of these immense problems, and one of my neighbours, a student of history, said that no problem in history has ever been solved until it got so bad for so many that there was a spontaneous revolution. What would it take, he asked, before these problems -- overpopulation, famine, oppression, violence, disease, resource scarcity, pollution, war, suffering, cruelty, misery -- got bad enough that people would rise up and demand immediate resolution? I think the massive unrest and strife we see everywhere in the world indicates that we have already passed that point. However, in order to have a revolution there must be (a) consensus on the need for change, (b) consensus on the change that is needed, and (c) a simple process to bring about that change. Historically, the solution has been political -- to oust, violently if necessary, an identifiable oppressor, the cause of the problem, and replace him (or them) with new leaders committed to the consensus solution. And although billions have shown that they see Bush's corporatist imperialism, and the oligopolists' 'free' trade and globalization, to be causes of some of the major problems we face, once we get rid of these scourges, most of the biggest problems will remain. These more intractable problems have no identifiable enemy and, as yet, no consensus solution. They are systemic problems that can only be changed by a radical change to our entire global economic and political systems. And changes to these massive, entrenched and leaderless systems have historically almost never come about by political means, but rather by introduction of disruptive technology innovations that undermine the existing system, as the agricultural and scientific and industrial revolutions did. It is tempting to believe that scientists, not collective human energy and collaboration, are the only hope we have for saving us from ourselves, of rescuing us from our colossal ignorance. What is the cost of not knowing when, even if we could communicate enough knowledge to achieve global consensus on the need for change and the change that is needed, there is still no simple process to bring about that change? If we were to magically and suddenly be able to bring knowledge to bear that would persuade the vast majority of people on the planet that unless we quickly reduce human population below one billion and reduce each human ecological footprint to no more than one eighth of the current Western footprint, would that be enough to precipitate a combination of voluntary abstinence, intense social pressures, and (over the objections of the very powerful elite) laws and taxes and sanctions, to ensure that these targets were met? We did bring about the end of slavery this way, and the end of the Vietnam War, and in much of the world women's suffrage. Is the intractability of our greatest problems really the lack of a simple, known solution, or is it rather the lack of consensus on the problem, and of its severity and urgency and what needs to be done to find a solution? -- The cost of not knowing. Until the reactionary cult of leadership took over business thinking a few short years ago, there was a consensus that the best way to run a business was to agree on and articulate the business' objectives, get each employee to define their role in achieving those objectives, remove the obstacles that prevented them from fulfilling those roles effectively, and otherwise stay out of the way and trust the Wisdom of Crowds to produce better results than the arrogance of a few. Could the same principle, applied to the world's most challenging and threatening problems, work in society as a whole? And if not, why not? It is the examples of slavery and the 60s peace movement and women's suffrage that have caused me, insufferable optimist that I am, to think that there is hope. The solution of reducing human population by 90% and ecological footprint by 10% (in the third world) to 90% (in the West) is daunting, but it's also a simple, clear, measurable objective. And if we have six billion people working on it, convinced that this is what must be done to save the world, there's no reason why it shouldn't be achievable. Women choose not to have babies if they know pregnancy would put their lives in danger, why wouldn't they choose likewise if they knew it put their world in danger? Would knowledgeable people agree to participate in an annual lottery for the right to have a baby, and live with the results, as they now compromise so many of their 'rights' for the greater good? Would they agree to a 100% tax on all wealth beyond sustainable consumption levels, to be distributed to the poor? Would they shut down permanently businesses that knowingly damage the environment? Would they abandon urban sprawl and big centralized governments in favour of self-managed, self-selected, self-sufficient communities if it could be shown that these are more socially and environmentally responsive, and responsible, political units? Would they wrench power, by citizen and consumer action, from unrepentant corporatists who refused to give up their excessive wealth and influence? It is hard to give up old paradigms. I know a lot of people that see the salvation of the world in global government, to which all states will cede authority. I see no reason to believe that bigger more powerful governments, which largely got us into this mess, and which are more removed from the people they supposedly represent, would do anything but make the problems worse. But as the Internet has shown, the real power in any system remains at the ends: The front lines, the communities, where people learn by direct experience what works and what does not, what makes sense and what does not. It is as individuals and as members of small communities that we define ourselves and establish our belief systems and commit ourselves to action and to change. As citizens and consumers and members of communities, if we only knew, we could accomplish what needs to be done. It is time for a bloodless coup, the taking back of power and authority from central corporatist political and economic institutions and its reinstatement in local communities and in individuals. To bring it about, we need only accomplish these four daunting tasks:
The cost of not knowing is the end of our world. It's too great a cost to pay, and the answer, if we use the power of knowledge, is within our collective reach. |
Apologies for my unannounced silence since
last Saturday. The power supply on my Dell failed, draining the
battery
so I couldn't even back up my files to another computer. I just got it
back now. More on this spectacular failure next week. This week has
given me the chance to work on my novel, The
Only Life We Know, and my book Natural Enterprise, as well as a chance to catch
my breath and think about (a) what to blog about next, and (b) what to
do with myself once the three books are finished.Here are some of the things I'm planning on blogging about in the next few weeks. If there's anything else you'd like me to write about, let me know.
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 Last week I listed
forty actions
-- technological, social, entrepreneurial, political -- that could
create a new
'tipping point' to restore our planet's, and our, health, and replace
the thirty thousand year old, well-intentioned but fatally flawed and
unsustainable culture called
civilization. These forty actions would undermine civilization and
render it obsolete, not by taking us back to hunter-gatherer culture, but by taking us
forward to a
post-civilization culture in balance and harmony with nature. This transition to a new culture --which I have called Relater-Sha rer culture -- could, I argued yesterday, take decades or even centuries to accomplish. It will start slowly, as more and more of us abandon the existing political, educational, economic, business, religious and media systems and institutions, and build a new culture with the building blocks shown in blue in the chart above. Increasing natural scarcities, pressures and disasters (factors shown in green above) -- all consequences of civilization's excesses and failures -- will begin to dissuade adherants of civilization's perpetual growth mantra, and create a further sense of urgency for a sustainable, Relater-Sharer culture, as the established institutions of civilization continue to prove themselves unable to adapt. I also made the point yesterday that the mechanisms by which we usually try to bring about change -- politics, law, economics, and formal education -- really aren't up to the job this time, and although sympathetic changes to these systems won't hurt, ultimately they're neither sufficient nor necessary to take us forward out of the mess we have created for ourselves and our world. For that reason, they're not represented in the building blocks of Relater-Sharer culture shown above. And although these artefacts of wealth and power will be wielded, as always, by those most determined to maintain the status quo, they ultimately won't be effective against builders of the new culture who will simply opt out of these bankrupt systems, which are as unnecessary in a Relater-Sharer world as they were in the Hunter-Gatherer culture that preceded civilization. Several readers have said this analysis is informative but not helpful -- it doesn't indicate what each of us, as individuals, can do that will at least not make things worse, and which could make the transition a little less painful and a little quicker, perhaps, for our descendants. Here is such a list, a combination of the forty actions in last week's post and the Save the World Roadmap I published last year, but taken down to the personal, practical, present-day level. Answers to the question: What Can I Do Now?  Trust your instincts:
Reconnect with them, listen to them, and don't let other people tell
you you're stupid, crazy, irrational, or immoral. If you're unhappy
it's for a reason. Your gut
feeling, your intuition, is written in your DNA, and it's the source
of
knowledge that allows every living creature to know
what to do. And it worked for man for the first three million years of
his life on Earth as well -- before language, before laws, before
codes
of right and wrong -- and these were arguably the most successful,
leisurely, and happy years of man's existence. Listen to them, and
they'll tell you what to do. Listen, Learn, and Teach
Others:
Spend time both in nature, away from civilization, and with people,
listening and talking about things that matter. In nature, reawaken
and
reconnect with your senses, focus each sense until you really see,
hear, smell, taste, feel, connect with the rest of the living organism
called Earth. Open yourself up to the joy, and learning of nature. Pay
attention. Re-learn to wonder. Then, 'back' in civilization, have the
courage to talk openly to people about things that really matter to
you. Ignore the raised eyebrows and comments about your seriousness
and
intensity -- you'll find most people care, too. Then listen, don't
preach. Leave behind one
practiced, important (to you), articulate idea or thought with the
other person, like planting a seed. Learn to tell stories -- it's the
only effective way to teach. But share what you know. When you're
talking to someone who strongly disagrees with you, listen, don't try
to convert them. There's a reason
why they feel so differently from you -- ferret out and really
understand what that reason is (don't assume they're ignorant or
stupid). Then sow a single seed of doubt. And read quickly and
selectively, but don't let it keep you indoors, or away from people.
The real learning is outside. So travel when you can, but forget the
hotel chains and chain restaurants. Live with the locals, talk to
them,
try different things, listen and learn. Learn and Practice Critical
Thinking:
Challenge 'established wisdom', especially your instincts tell you
it's
dubious. Learn your vulnerability to spin, and how to recognize and
discount it. Learn to avoid the intellectual fallacies of groupthink
and arrogance, but also avoid black hat thinking.
Develop emotional
intelligence, but never
use it to manipulate. Re-Learn How to Imagine:
The school system and most business environments drive it out of us,
and it's easy to get caught up in your own left brain. It can also be
frightening: imagining literally means putting your thoughts into
images. But it's powerful, motivating, educational, and creative.
Imagine -- picture it -- what
it happening in Sudan where genocide is happening right now. Imagine
what is happening in the factory farms before you decide what to make
for dinner. Imagine what you could be doing if it wasn't for your
boring, meaningless job. Imagine a better way of doing something, a
better way to live. Imagine what could be. Your instincts will tell you what to do
next. If we can't imagine, we can do anything. That's what got us into this mess. Use Less Stuff:
Consumerism is doubly addictive -- you get the fleeting pleasure of
acquiring something, and then you have to work harder and earn more
money for The Man so you can pay off the debt you incurred to buy it.
Learn to live a Radically
Simple
life -- buy better quality stuff that lasts longer, make your own
meals
instead of using processed foods, think before you buy, don't get into
debt (only buy when you have the cash in your account), buy local
rather than imported goods (especially stuff from countries that have
poor social and environmental standards), complain about excessive
packaging, recycle, reuse, buy used, share tools with neighbours, turn
off the lights, cover the pool, use energy-efficient lighting, keep
your tires inflated, carpool, walk or bike instead of driving -- you know what to do. Make a list,
draw up a schedule, and do it. Stop at One:
Consider the virtues of a single-child family. Learn why children in
such families are the happiest and most successful. Better yet,
adopt. Become Less Dependent:
Learn how to fix things and make things instead of always having to
buy
replacements. Cut your own lawn, and perform other services yourself,
even if you can afford someone else to do it. Self-sufficiency is good
for your self-esteem, reduces consumption and waste, helps the
environment, and is good exercise. Become an Activist: Pick a
cause you care about, research what needs to be done, use the Internet
to organize, and do it. But follow Peter
Singer's advice
to make sure your time is well-spent. Especially the parts about not
getting caught up in administration, and not trying to change, or
enforce, laws. The most fruitful activism is all about informing and
educating people, making them aware of their options, and their power
as citizens and consumers, often one person at a time, until enough
people have changed their minds or their behaviours to change the
system. Volunteer:
Rather than sending guilt money, go out and spend time helping those
suffering or in need. Pick a charity that you really care about -- the
soup kitchen, the animal shelter, whatever. Get involved, and talk to
the people you're helping. Don't get talked into fundraising
activities
-- really get out there and do something with your own two hands.
You'll learn a lot, you'll feel better, you'll make a difference, and
you just might find out something important about yourself. Be a Role Model: Talk to
others about, and show others, what you're doing,
not just what you're thinking. People are far more inspired by a good
role model than a good speech. And if people tell you you're a good
role model, get out there and flaunt it in the right places -- if
you're a woman engineer, go out to the schools and tell girls what a
great career it is. If you're doing half the things on this list, you're a great role model -- inspire others
to follow your example. Be a Pioneer:
If you have the time and the passion for it, pick a new cause, use the
Internet to find like minds, do your homework, organize, and do
something completely new. Start a community energy co-op. Set up a
'virtual' market for local crafts, organic or free-range foods, or
whatever needs better local distribution. Establish a community-based
business. Or create a whole community, self-selected, self-organized,
self-sufficient, with people you love, and show the world how much
more
sense this makes than living in a community of strangers and driving
long distances to work for someone you dislike so you can buy stuff
you
don't need made by other strangers even unhappier with their lives
than
you are. The new culture will be built bottom-up, one community at a
time, and the sooner we start finding a community model that works
well
in a post-civilization society, the better. Find or Create a Meaningful
Job:
Each of us has talents, interests, and time. It's amazing how many of
us spend all our time doing work that we find uninteresting, and which
doesn't effectively use our talents. We become wage slaves,
underemployed and bored because we're convinced or afraid that a
better
job doesn't exist. And we work so hard at it we have no time left to
challenge that conviction or fear. That's what the corporatists are
counting on. Don't give them the satisfaction. Find the time to figure
out what you really would like to do with your life, how you'd really
like to make a living. Then research the possibilities, talk to people
who are doing it, find out what's possible, learn what's involved in
creating your own business (and don't listen to accountants or MBAs).
If we were all doing jobs we loved, with people we love, and in charge
of our own careers, the corporatists would have no staff, and their
environmentally devastating empires would crumble. Share Your Expertise:
If you have talents, specialized know-how, or technical or scientific
skills and knowledge that could be useful in solving birth control,
clean energy, disease prevention, conservation, animal cruelty,
pollution and waste, local self-sufficiency, non-animal foods,
'more-with-less' product streamlining, self-organization,
collaboration, consumer and citizen awareness and activism, animal
communication, conflict resolution, mental illness, and other issues
contributing to environmental deterioration, create 'open source'
spaces where others can access what you know, contact you, and
collaborate with you and with others to solve these problems. Be Good to Yourself:
You're not going to be any use saving the world if you're depressed,
unfit or stressed out. Don't take the problems of the world
personally,
or blame yourself for them. If news or failure to accomplish something
gets you down, go out and do something you enjoy. Eat healthy and stay
fit, but don't make a religion of it -- indulge yourself from time to
time. Learn how to prevent illnesses instead of waiting for them to
occur. Spend time with people who like you, and accept their
compliments warmly. Love yourself, realize that you can do anything
you
want to do. Appreciate that you're part of the solution, and that
makes
you extraordinary. Infect Others With Your Spirit and
Passion:
Love openly, completely, as many people as you can. Be emotional,
except in those very rare occasions when dispassion is needed. Smile
excessively. But refuse to tolerate cruelty, suffering, unfairness,
bullying, jealousy, apathy, despair, cynicism or hate, in yourself or
others -- alleviate it, disarm it, discharge it, whatever it takes to
stop these negative emotions and activities, and appreciate that
they're signs of sickness, not evil. A period of great change is always turbulent and unsettling, and the transformation to a Relater-Sharer culture won't be achieved in our lifetime. So we will need to be, like all pioneers, patient, indefatiguable, and aware that the beneficiaries of what we do starting now will be our descendents, future generations who will only know us from stories. As human beings, and as the species that created this mess in the first place, we owe them no less. We know, instinctively, that that is why we're here. |
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