Thoughts on Data, Culture, and Organizational Development
Ah yes, life before cell phones. I remember that time.
My Freshman year of college I drove several hours to visit a friend and had to call them from a pay phone to get directions to their house. Continue reading “Life Without Cell Phones”
Oh yes, that’s right. Kriss Kross. They made you want to Jump Jump. I know you wore your overalls backwards ’cause you wanted to be just like them. Then you figured out how unwise that was the first time you need to go to the bathroom. Continue reading “Kriss Kross Makes You Jump Jump”
At my heart, I’m a geek. No, not a geek. A hacker. Some of you are hackers and don’t know it. According to Wikipedia’s 3rd definition a hacker is someone “who combines excellence, playfulness, cleverness and exploration in performed activities”. [Tweet That]
You can check it out here. So, I do work with computers and web technology a lot. Mainly because the ecosystem makes the barrier for entry cheaper. Really though, I’ve also worked on cars, houses, and I work in the church. I can apply the definition above to all of these areas. I tend to do that. Looking at things and asking “how can these things get better?” You may say you want that, but trust me, it’s a double-edged sword. I’ll come back to that, let’s talk about design.
I ran across two articles on design a while back. First one here and then here. These were excellent articles regarding user interaction. Especially considering we live in a world where everyone thinks that a world viewed through glass is amazing. We think it’s so amazing we’re addicted to it.[Tweet That]
If it was up to us, the keypads on our SUV’s would be a screen that we swipe to unlock (a bad idea given the context). So let’s change context and talk about church.
If church were an interface, what would you change? Depending on the church I’d change some things. Picture a split in the screen of your mind and imagine yourself as a guest visiting A) a church for the first time and B) a Starbucks for the first time. What differences do you see? In a Starbucks if the barista asks you if you’re a 1st time visitor, then announces it and everyone claps and cheers my guess is that you’d never go back. Why do some of us think this is OK at a church?
So what’s the point of this? With church, with iPhones and iPads? For me the question comes back to “Why are we so easily satisfied?” This is true for life in general. Not just User Interfaces or Experiences. This is true of your spiritual journey.
C.S. Lewis stated it this way:
[quote]It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.[/quote]
The challenge for me is to hack. Hack my technology, my house, my church, my spiritual journey. To improve upon my improvements. To continue iterating through each improvement with the question “How can this get better?” I want to leave this world better than I found it. I want to participate with God in His creative acts by taking up His challenge to cultivate (make better) the garden (world around us).[Tweet That]
Will you join me in this journey? What will you hack today?
All set for our interactive showing of the princess bride. #d8night #valentines
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Remember when TV was free? No, not like it is now, where you can use Hulu (besides, you need to pay for Hulu plus). No that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about when it was free over the air to the tinfoil enhanced antenna that you had connected to big box that took up actual space in your living room. Continue reading “Free TV”
There’s a phrase the you hear a lot. I’ll start it and you finish it. “You reap what you….”
OK, got the phrase? If not, just wait. I’ll come back to it later.
I was helping someone walk through conflict with another friend a few weeks ago. The hard part in communicating during conflict is Continue reading “Our Just Desserts”
Ah yes, Lite-Brites. Those were fun weren’t they? Heck yes they were! I mean, paying $30 for what essentially equates to a giant flashlight covered by peg board and black construction paper, who doesn’t think that’s fun? Well, at least when we were kids they were awesome. They were incredible. A whole world of possibilities Continue reading “Lite-Brites”
Are you from an ask or a guess culture? You may be unfamiliar with these concepts. If you’re like me, you’re already putting the pieces together of what ask culture and guess culture are. I’ll give you a short explanation and for further clarity, you can read about these concepts at 99u, The Guardian, or the original concept at ask.metafilter.com. These articles came across my desk this week and I had a need to share them. For me, it explained some otherwise nuanced things in my relationships with others. I think it will also explain some relational pain points to you in regards to asking vs guessing cultures. Continue reading “Asking vs Guessing”
Ah Yes, Afros. You remember those? Some of you may still have one, or you may have that friend who doesn’t realize that it’s not as stylish as any movie made in the 70’s would tell you. If you don’t have that friend, you may be that friend. Quick, check your head for a giant poof of hair!! No? Don’t have an Afro? Whew <sigh> that was a close one. So…about those Afros. Continue reading “Afros”
