Julian Treasure: 5 Ways to Listen Better and Steven Johnson: Where Good Ideas Come From

In response to this week’s TED assignment, please discuss the liquid network. What is it? How does it function? Do you agree with this theory for explaining innovation? How is it affected by Julian Treasure’s commentary on listening better? How does it affect the work we do for Council and for the College of Humanities?

In responding, certainly take into consideration the other responses written before you. You’re free to quote from and respond to those ideas, but also know you’re expected to contribute original thought.

David Brooks: The Social Animal

Respond to David Brooks’ talk, including at least one of the following ideas or statements in your discussion:

“While the conscious mind writes the autobiography of our species, the unconscious mind does most of the work.”

“We’re social animals, not rational animals.”

“What it really takes for us to do well, to lead a meaningful life, are things that are deeper, things we don’t really even have words for.”

“People learn from people they love.”

Mindsight

Equal poise

Metis

Sympathy

Blending

Limerence

Seth Godin: This is Broken

Seth Godin just scratches the surface of an interesting discussion about common sense and problem solving. Consider the questions below and respond to at least one:

1. Do you agree with his statement that “If I think it’s broken, it’s broken. If you think it’s broken, it’s broken.”? What are some problems with this statement? And if you ultimately agree with it, how do you work around those problems?

2. After having some conversations about problems we see in the College, can you see things that are “broken” in the College of Humanities? Have our attempts to solve those problems been worthy of making Godin’s slideshow? Are we guilty of any of the items on his list, as a Council and as a College?

3. What are ways that being “broken” could be appealing? How could we use being “broken on purpose” to our benefit? Is there a specific audience that we could reach by being “broken”?

4. Does Godin go too far in his argument? Does he give human beings enough credit for common sense? Or is the way we frequently function and understand things, even when they are poorly designed, beside his point?

Check out Seth Godin’s blog if you’re interested in this sort of discussion. He has some fun things to say and provides some interesting food for thought!

http://goodexperience.com/

Itay Talgam: Lead Like the Great Conductors

Please consider Talgam’s discussion of the relationship between content and meaning. When discussing the smiley director Kleiber, he says that he “not only creates a process, but also creates the conditions in the world in which this process takes place, and, “…you need to have process and content to create the meaning.” Later, when discussing his own maestro, Bernstein, he says that “Lenny Bernstein always started from the meaning.”

What does Talgam mean by the words “content,” “process,” and “meaning?” What is the relationship between these three things? Is one or more of these elements more important than the others? How should we think about content, process, and meaning in our work as a Council?

Passion

We all have things we’re passionate about right?  We even have things we’re passionate about that we haven’t yet realized.  One of the greatest moments is discovering that new thing that makes us happy, that really moves us, that makes us feel like we can fly.  That was a point Benjamin Zander pointed out as he presented his argument that people really love classical music and just don’t know it.  He exemplified this through the story of the young man in London that had never heard classical music before.  As the young man listened to the music and thought about his brother he was so moved that he started to cry.  He found a new passion that had always been within him, it just had never been properly exposed.

It is passion that drives us.  It motivates us and pushes us and gives us satisfaction in the things that we do.  This week we wanted to take this class blog post and do something different.  We want to create a blog post of passion- in a BYU approved way.  We want to make it a post of OUR passions.  Meaning all of our passions.  We thought we’d start by talking about some things that we are passionate about:

Italy- I LOVE Italy.  I am passionate about its traditions, its people, and its culture.  I love the tall old buildings and world-famous architecture.  I love the small cobblestone streets lined with family owned shops.  I love the three hour lunch break they take every day so that families can all eat together.  I love their passion for good food: daily, fresh ingredients in homemade sauces and dishes.  I love pasta, gelato, and pizza.  I love the legacy of art and culture left from centuries and found in remnants across the whole country.  I love the Italian language.  I love the warmth and friendly attitude of the people.  I love seeing random strangers strike up a conversation as they wait in line or share an experience.  I love their laid-back attitude and appreciation for leisure.

Food-  Good food.  There’s nothing like it.  I love trying new things and developing new tastes.  I used to not be adventurous in the things I would eat, but I have since come to love all different types of foods from all different cultures.

Organization-  I am crazy about being organized.  I love taking a messy room, desk, closet, or whatever and making it organized.  It is so satisfying to see the transformation.  It is fulfilling to see a direct improvement as a result of my thought and energy.  I love knowing EXACTLY what I have and where everything is.  I love assigning a “home” to objects and then making sure they live there.  I love the order and control I feel when things are organized.  I am passionate about being organized.

So we want to invite all of you in this week’s comment to write a post about something you are passionate about!  Let’s fill this blog with passion (please keep it appropriate…Ha.)

 

The 3 A’s of Awesome

In order to truly understand the power of Neil Pasricha’s TED talk entitled “The Three A’s of Awesome,” we need to consider his personal life experiences that allowed him to succeed in the face of depressing circumstances. Only a few years after his marriage, he and his wife started growing apart. Their relationship deteriorated, ending with his wife telling him that she no longer loved him.  Around this same time Pasricha’s closest friend committed suicide while struggling with mental and emotional problems. A failed marriage and the suicide of a close friend seem like the kind of circumstances that would naturally, if not justifiably, lead to a jaded, pessimistic, and despondent view of the world.

But in the spirit of J.K. Rowling’s comments on the fringe benefits of failure, Pasricha responded to these circumstances with optimism in the form of a blog that takes inventory of all the “awesome” things that we encounter during our menial day to day activities. He based his blog on the three A’s of Awesome: attitude, awareness, and authenticity.

When speaking on attitude, he broke his approach to life into two simplified decisions—you can be gloomy forever or choose to move forward. This spin on attitude—that it is a decision rather than a reaction—probably sits well with an LDS audience who believes in the power and importance of agency. The power to choose how you will respond to external circumstances allows you to see the potentiality for good in any situation. It’s easier to write about this than to live it, but it works.

Awareness is one’s ability to notice the things that have an effect on their life. It’s really easy to notice the bigs things that effect our life. Sadly, it’s not actually the big things that are the easiest for us to be aware of. The negative things, big or small, are the ones that we typically take notice of in our own lives. It’s amazing how we can forget the big blessings in our life when small negative things block the view. Neil’s point is that you can improve your quality of life by focusing on the the little positive things in your life. After trying to notice the small things in your life that are so good it becomes remarkably easy to also notice the bigger ones.

Authenticity could be understood from many different angles. The facet of authenticity that makes it of great worth to us is honesty. Authenticity as essentially being honest to others and to one’s self is the key to making this a useable concept. You can still be open to influence and change while remaining authentic because of your honesty. I think that for someone to be truly authentic they need to be internally aware. How can you be honest with others if you’re not honest with yourself and how can you be honest with yourself if you’re not even aware of who and what you are.

All of these things of course apply to us as council members and to the council as a whole. Since we are made up of people our council awareness, authenticity, and attitude is at least the sum of all of our own awareness, authenticity, and attitude. Is there a broader way to apply the three A’s to the council though? How does the awareness of the council differentiate from the personal awareness of the council members? How does one’s personal use of the three A’s effect the council and the students we serve? Maybe there is more to the three A’s when you mix together all the personal dynamics in a group that could be viewed as a single entity. What do the three A’s mean to the Humanities College Student Council and how do the personalviews of the council members affect that?

                                                – Andrew & Shaun

Being Wrong

Everyone knows what it feels like…you raise your hand in class, give your best answer, and the buzzer sounds—WRONG. You go to work and do exactly what your boss told you to do, except, try again—WRONG. Making mistakes is something we, as human beings, do as readily as breathing (except breathing is hard to get wrong—thank heavens). From a religious standpoint, it’s essential to God’s plan that we are allowed to make mistakes. It’s how we grow. But from early childhood it is pounded into our minds that being wrong is bad. Being wrong is the worst thing that could happen to you because if you’re wrong, you can’t be right, and therefore can’t be successful, to which point I will give an emphatic WRONG! I’m not saying it’s okay to be wrong, or even that it’s “good” to be wrong—I am saying, just as Schulz did, that it is good to recognize the wrong choices before you make them, or realize you are wrong and pick yourself back up and maybe laugh a little and get back on track, fixing your mistakes and remembering not to make them again. I think a problem humanity has, that it could benefit greatly from changing, is the unwillingness to admit they are wrong. If you don’t admit you are wrong you will never fix the problem and you won’t be successful. What if Thomas Edison had stopped at light bulb formula 10 and said, “This is it! I’ve discovered it! Never mind that it doesn’t work—it’s right.” And all because he didn’t want to say he was wrong? We would have a mess on our hands, and possibly light bulbs that explode after fifteen minutes of being on.

I agree with everything Shulz said about this; we are all a bit “self-absorbed” in that we all see through rose-colored glasses. We all have our “belief windows” that we see the world through. What we don’t realize is that if we move away from the window and open a door, sure we see that the grass is green and the sky is blue instead of the pinkish hue we’ve insisted on our entire lives. Out there we’re more vulnerable, it’s true; our there we might realize that we are and with that comes all of those yucky feelings we try to avoid by convincing ourselves that we are right. But if we can move past that then we can focus more on being right, instead of always fearing that we are wrong. And maybe, just maybe, we’ll be more able to see mistakes coming and have time to sop before my feet lose ground like Shulz’s example of Wiley Coyote.

My parents have always told me that I’m terrible at admitting when I’m wrong.  I became a rather skilled debater as a child, twisting words and phrases and using all manner of childhood rhetoric, just to prove that I was right, or at least, that I wasn’t wrong.  Because Schulz is right; realizing that you’re wrong feels awful, but being wrong doesn’t feel too bad, because it feels like being right.  I have recognized this as a weakness in myself and have tried to get better.  This student council has actually been an excellent forum for opening my eyes to my own fallibility because I have been made the executive director of people who are just as capable and intelligent, and sometimes more so, than myself.  I am continually coming to the realization that my view of reality is not the view of reality, and is often not even the best view. Since entering this council I have become a lot less defensive of my own ideas and plans, and a lot more open to the ideas of my committee and other people in the council.  I liked when Schulz said, “The miracle of your mind isn’t that you can see the world the way it is. It’s that you can see the world the way it isn’t.”  If we truly understand this, we can not only respect other people’s perspectives, but rejoice in them and use them to further our goals of bettering the college experience for Humanities students.

Schulz also said several things that, when considered, can have a much more gospel-related. eternal message. “The miracle of your mind isn’t that you can see the world the way it is. It’s that you can see the world the way it isn’t… Augustine said: “Fallor ergo sum. I err, therefore I am. Our capacity to screw up is not an embarrassing defect; it’s fundamental to who we are.”
From childhood, we have been encouraged to imagine, create, and ask questions. This exploration of the world, the natural curiosity that we have, is part of our human nature, as children of God. Indeed, our Heavenly Father wants us to learn all we can and find things out for ourselves. We are meant to be gods of our own worlds and this earth is meant as a trial period to grow and create and become like Him. This is why President Hinckley encouraged: “You have a mandate from the Lord to educate your minds and your hearts and your hands. . . . There can be no doubt, none whatever, that education pays.”. The time we spend in council and in our daily lives here at BYU learning, developing, helping, creating–allowing ourselves the chance that we may be wrong so that we can be original and learn from our differences– ultimately these efforts are not just to help BYU Freshmen decide to be Humanities majors or Juniors find an internship. Our efforts go toward our eternal progression. So, while we meet each week and do our best to positively affect our college and fellow students, let us devote ourselves all the more, remembering that each action is a step towards the person we will be for eternity.

Failure and Empathy

In her 2008 Harvard Commencement speech, J.K. Rowling talks about the “fringe benefits of failure.” “Benefits of failure” sounds like an oxymoron, because no one wants to fail. Rowling herself mentions that what she feared most wasn’t “poverty, but failure.” She also mentions how the Harvard crowd she addresses probably doesn’t know much about failure—at least, not in the way Rowling knows it. It makes me wonder if we as BYU students don’t really know much about failure. How can we prepare for something we’re not well-acquainted with? And how well-acquainted are we with failure?

 

Rowling also talks about how failure is practically inevitable. Failure and risk go hand in hand. If there is no risk, there is no failure . . . but there is also no reward. If we don’t try, we don’t succeed. Living means failing . . . but it also means opportunity and growth. So how do we deal with this inevitable failure?

Failure is something we all fear. The idea that we put our hearts and efforts into accomplishing something, and then fall short is one of the most dreaded feelings in the world. JK Rowling points out that in failure, we can learn what is truly important to us; we direct all of our energies to that which is of utmost importance. It can act as a sieve through which we sort our priorities.

Another way the failure is beneficial is that it can become a foundation upon which to begin building. When we hit rock bottom, it can become that on which to begin building something great. It is all in how we look at the situation. Thomas Edison said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Failure can be a building point for us to work off of, and hone our ideas or techniques so that we are left with that which is most promising.

Failure is a test. It tests our character and drive, as well as our relationships. It shows us that we have to ability to survive as well as the strength of our will. It also helps us to know where are true friendships lie, for only those who are willing to be there for us even through failure truly care.

Theodore Roosevelt said, “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” If we are too afraid to try things that are overwhelming , daunting, and great, we fail already.

One of the greatest benefits of failure is that it has to the potential to push us in a new direction. At the pinnacle of despair, we are often at such a low that our only choice is to try something new or continue down the path of failure. At this point, imagination can be our greatest asset.

Rowling mentions one definition of imagination as “the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not.” Every day we are presented with opportunities to see more than just the world around us. We often try to see beyond our limited experiences and imagine an alternate reality, usually far better than the one we are experiencing. However, as Rowling points out, we cannot end on that definition. The key to letting imagination transform our world is to act. If we are able to imagine a better life or a better world, yet we take no steps in that direction, we are no better off than we were before.

Rowling is a wonderful example of this in the way that she rose from what she considered her darkest moment. According to her, “imagination is indispensable when we have failed.” Through her experiences we learn that sometimes through the most difficult times, we learn about human goodness in unexpected ways. Imagination thus serves to do more than give us a positive outlet, it gives us the power to learn and understand without having experienced. It gives us the opportunity to change our reality based on our ability to learn. As Plutarch stated, “What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.”

Starting a Movement

Derek Sivers’ clip “How to Start a Movement” used what may seem like an odd example of people dancing to illustrate how to start a movement, but he highlighted some important principles. One of the surprising things was the importance that is placed on the first follower of the movement; without the first follower the leader of a movement will not receive validation and may be made out to be foolish. However, once the first follower comes it starts to become a movement.

Not only does the first follower help validate a movement, the first follower is a leader for the rest of the followers. For example, in the clip if the first follower had mauled the first dancer, that would have effectively killed the movement. Instead, the first follower started dancing and joined the first dancer, soon more and more people joined the movement and started dancing.

Simon Sinek’s clip “How Great Leaders Inspire Action” brought up another interesting point. People go for the reason behind a product, not necessarily the product itself. One thing he said that illustrates this idea is, “What you do proves what you believe.”  Essentially, you explain why you do something and everything you do proves what you say you believe.

This can also be applied to Sivers’ clip. The first dancer was more than likely looking to have fun and expressed that through dance. When others saw the “product,” (the dancing), they realized that they wanted to have fun too so they joined in, and soon a whole movement was started based on the fact that someone wanted to have fun.

According to Sinek’s clip, belief determines if a movement can succeed or not. However, according to Sivers’ clip, someone (the initial follower) must be able to understand your beliefs for the movement to continue. How can we discover what is really important to us, both personally and as a council group? What are some of the best ways to portray what we believe, so that we can achieve those initial followers.

Although it may seem easy enough to act upon what you believe, there are many factors that can complicate that. In the example above the movement started was simple and harmless enough. However, in situations where a movement is not most advantageous to the greater good, how can we make a change? What do we have to consider when attempting to change things?

Discussing this reminds me of a film called “A Bronx Tale.” The plot revolves around this young man, who for years, admires the mafia leader in his community; he admires him because of the prestige and power he has. However, because of the blind respect he has for this mobster, he fails to understand that real power comes from hard work.  In the end when the mafia leader is killed the young man finally understands the meaning of: “The saddest thing in life is wasted talent, and the choices you make will shape your life forever.” In relation to the theme of starting a movement, this quote is significant because it prompts us to realize that we need to work hard, to use all our “talents” and push them to the limit if that will help us be that change that we want to see.

Peace One Day and 8 Secrets

When we look at a problem confronting us, whether it is a large global one like global peace, or something smaller scale, even those confronting the Humanities College of BYU, it is easy to identify all of the elements of the problem. It is even easy to find some examples of success, exceptions to the problem. But like Jeremy Gilley discovered, there is often no starting point for the answer to the problem (e.g. peace one day). After doing his homework and really trying to understand the root of the problem, Gilley made a plan and enacted it. People who were in key positions realized what he was trying to do; Gilley’s plan of action resonated with them, resolving in a day of peace. What are the core problems that we face as a Humanities Student Council at BYU, and are there any platforms in place for addressing these concerns? If not, what can be created? If so, what can be enhanced?

Even if we follow Gilley’s example, we may still face one of the obstacles that he ran into. Even after he had achieved a certain level of success, cynics told Gilley that his Day of Peace “[didn’t] mean anything . . . [that it was] just symbolism.” We are trying to convince busy students that they need to take time out of their day to participate in our activities. There will be students on campus who see our efforts as meaningless symbols. How can we show the students we are trying to serve that what we are doing is really valuable to them? Even more importantly, how do we avoid this cynicism when our efforts don’t seem to make a difference?

Richard St. John addresses some of these issues by revealing his eight secrets that lead to success: passion, work, good, focus, push, serve, ideas, and persist. He argues that in order to succeed, you must take something you are passionate about, work hard to become good at it, push yourself through self-doubt and shyness, generate an idea to serve others something of value and persist even in failure. This is applicable to our council because it outlines a way for us to accomplish our goals for the College of Humanities. His notion of pushing ourselves and persisting through problems is an interesting and important one. Although we are unsure if our ideas and events will turn out the way we hope, we must push ourselves despite any inhibitions we may have and give one hundred percent of our effort. That way, even if it fails, at least we will be able to learn from it and do things differently and better the next time. What are some specific ways we can be consistent and persistent when following through with our projects? How do we keep our primary focus (to enrich and serve our fellow humanities students) in mind while doing this?

By Spencer, Kylee, and Cory