Click Farms Vs. Philip Glass
The Glass problem: Prolific production of something no one wants.
I’ve heard rumblings of sweatshops where thumbs and fingers are put to use liking various social media status updates. An AP story running in the Startribune a couple days ago identified even our own State department as buying clicks, possibly from a click farm in Dhaka, Bangladesh. If not exactly illegal, the practice certainly carries the sense of fraud in the false “Like” economy Facebook introduced us to and to which all social media fall prey.
The desire to be liked is so compelling. I’m hoping you’ll like this story (as if you needed to read such a disclosure). But I’m also trying to wean my myself off this desire for constant attention and this eagerness to let a click tell me how successful I am in life. There’s good reason to investigate the internal compass of gifting and bent and pairing those with the hope of connecting solidly with a few rather than seeking the transient adoration that “like” seems to represent.
Then again, the money is in the Likes.
A more balanced and possibly more productive approach to doing our best work is to dive ever-deeper into the well of “What am I here for?” When we ask that question and look to see what fascinates us and what (some, few) others react to or what seems to help those few, then we are on to something. That is a very different process than scanning keywords and offering click bait.
Consider Philip Glass. Maybe you like his music. Maybe you despise his “repetitive structures.” I find his music soothing and at times invigorating and always terrific for writing. But when he started playing and composing, it sounded very different thing from everyone else. He had very few “likes.” In fact many just said to him,
But he persisted and found something new.
That’s what I’m expecting from many: to find passion and service flowing together, even if others don’t understand it. It takes courage to keep walking forward in this way. But that’s the kind of courage we need.
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Image credit: un-gif-dans-ta-gueule via 2headedsnake
Mike Spitz: Medicated for your Protection – Portraits of Mental Illness
Looking for traces of normalcy
Sometimes an image can help us have a difficult conversation. Mental illness is one of those topic areas we continue to have difficulty talking about.
Mike Spitz is a clinical therapist and photographer who set out to document the faces of people with mental illness. Here’s his process:
Despite their mental and physical deterioration, abandonment by friends and family, and their pathology, my aim was to capture the subjects’ humanity, dignity and any traces of normalcy. I was not trying to present them as “crazy.” I shot in a straight forward manner without unusual angles, blurring, or other tricks to create a madness “effect.”
Mr. Spitz shot photos on weekends and nothing was pre-arranged and the photos depended on the willingness and mental condition of the people being photographed:
Most of them were friendly, helpful, eager to participate, and lacking in the usual self-consciousness and inhibition of models and other “normal” or “sane” subjects.
Check out the full post at Lenscratch, which remains a daily must-read for me.
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Image credit: Mike Spitz via Lenscratch
28 Years Ago Today My Wife Got Married
I was there too. It was cool.
Cold, actually. And snowy and sunny and windswept–just like today.
Did I mention the cold?
A lot happens in 28 years: life (three, to be exact, off seeking their fortune in the wide world) and death, sickness (some) and in health (mostly). For richer (considering the entire globe—yes!) or poorer (not much of this).
Besides being gorgeous and lively and devoted and way smarter than me, one of the many things I appreciate about Kris (Mrs. Kirkistan’s name outside this bit of the blogosphere) is this long, long conversation we’ve had—28+ years’ worth. About everything under the sun: from travel to faith to work to philosophy to money to house repair (and lack thereof) to all manner of family issues to, well, you name it. The concept of Conversation is an Engine likely started 28 years ago today. I just didn’t start writing until 2009. The skinny guy with the (now) hipster glasses had only the barest inkling of the possibilities.
Hey—here’s to marriage (raises coffee cup jauntily)! I’ll just step away from this keyboard now and tell Kris how much I appreciate her. In real time.
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Image credit: Kirk Livingston
Better Listening in 2014
Wonder + Bigger + Spark
Robert Kennedy Funeral train, Harmans, MD, 1968
Three attitudes that can help us listen better in 2014:
1. Regain a sense of wonder. It’s easy to pose as world-weary: our culture rewards the cynic and pessimist as more experienced. But let’s remember the fun of being with people who have a sense of wonder. It’s why we take young kids to see Santa or fireworks or midnight mass or sunrise service: they have the capacity to take it in without the baggage and doubts that come from years of living. It’s a capacity to believe and it need not be lost forever. I still cannot quite believe our Toyota—or any car—runs at negative 13 degrees (Fahrenheit). Slow down to savor the cold, or the taste of Mrs. Kirkistan’s stew or fresh bread, or the smart thing your spouse or colleague just said—all these inch us back toward wonder. And that is where we belong: amazed at the life around us, listening to eagerly take it all in.
2. This thing is bigger than me. In a week or so I’ll start teaching a professional writing class at a local Christian college. One supporting thought I return to again and again is a theological notion that giving ourselves away pays far more dividends than hoarding and habitual self-focus. It’s a thought that pivots around the old notion of kenosis or self-emptying. There are some great ancient texts that work this out and it never fails to open a set of productive thoughts for me, especially when it comes to the task and opportunity of writing. Two take-aways:
- It’s quite possible, and even likely, that I learn more about myself by serving others and focusing on others’ needs than I do constantly obsessing over my own needs and wants.
- Listening becomes like a tasty meal when I start to wake to the needs and opportunities around me.
This is a message I need to hear all the time. I constantly forget this.
3. See the spark in another person. No one likes the notion that we may have responsibility for a complete stranger, but there is an undeniable pang when you see the homeless person on the corner with the sign. That pang means you are still human (Congratulations!). This notion also has theological roots in the old idea of hospitality to a stranger. That pang moves us to do something—or perhaps we hide from it. Either way, the pang is there. Those moments of recognition occur all day long and they are a call to honor and, yes, listen to, the humans around us. It starts by acknowledging the names of the people in our meeting and moves out from there.
If we grew in listening this year, interesting and possibly amazing things would happen.
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Image credit: Paul Fusco via MPD
A better way to set goals
1000 words: from goal to discipline
Revisit and add detail as you go forward
Mrs. Kirkistan and I talked up goal-setting with our good friends over New Year’s Eve. Goals get a bad rap these days and I know why.
Looking back at my 2013 goals, I see they were too ambitious and without proper milestones. Even so, they served as directionals that propelled me forward as I revisited them over the course of the year. Mrs. Kirkistan and I will take an hour or so and talk through and pray through our goals before the weekend. Then I’ll post them on the back of the door into Suite 102 of the Livingston Communication Tower (high over Saint Paul).
As I labor to expand and then trim back my personal, business and spiritual goals, I realize more than ever this is not a static process. Much like the sketch above, I’m sort of blocking out broader desires and expectations while adding in definite dates and details for only a select few. But some of these goals fit better as disciplines than goals with timelines attached. For instance, the discipline of writing 1000 words a day has served me well over the past few years (thank goodness I never stipulated they had to “good” words—that kind of pressure would gum the works). That goal has turned to a discipline, which is great—the day feels wasted if I’ve not written 1000.
I have a goal of publishing ListenTalk: Conversation is an Engine early this year (that’s right, Juxtapose: How to Build a Church that Counters Culture is back to the original title, for those who follow such things), and I have a few milestones with dates attached to help make that happen. Last year’s goal helped me finish the book and get it to and back from an editor, though I severely underestimated how much time it would all take.
But some things just work better as disciplines, like ongoing exercise and the daily ground-breaking conversations with colleagues and potential collaborators.
How does goal-setting work for you? Rather than give up on goals because they are too hard, is there some useful piece you can take and make work for you?
By The Way: Check out this meditation on goals from The Pietist Schoolman: I like his challenge to focus out, rather than just in, on personal goals.
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Image credit: changethethought.com via 2headedsnake
Thanks for stopping by in 2013
The entire staff of Conversation is an Engine wishes you an extraordinary 2014.
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Image Credit: Kirk Livingston
Concrete Ledge with a View
Ailsa’s focus on birds (Where’s my backpack?/Travel theme: Birds) got me thinking about these pigeons I saw in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
When a woman below started sprinkling handfuls of seed on the sidewalk, the pigeons dropped like curtains of rain. I was not practiced enough with shutter speed to catch the action. But I did catch them looking smug and satisfied.
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Image Credit: Kirk Livingston
conversation is an engine 