Category: Foundational Values

A Vacation and a Cell Phone Walk Into a Theme Park…

Post author By Drew Saur
Post date February 5, 2023

🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq3BylHjiuk.

“I suppose,” I said to my family, “that this is a sure sign that I am getting old, having a hard time relating to the younger generation.”

“No,” replied my 20-year old niece. “All my friends say the same thing. They hate it, too.”

This particular exchange occurred while I was vacationing with my family this past Thanksgiving week. We had just discovered that — despite a distressing amount of preparatory work that should never be required for something called a vacation — there was no place where we could sit down to a simple lunch without a reservation. We were informed that we had to find a place willing to feed us; enter a lunch order on one of our mobile phones; and wait for a time to pick our food up, sit down, and eat.

Imagine our family of seven, all perusing menus on our phones, finally passing around a single phone (I don’t recall how we chose the winner) to enter our orders in the midday sun, taking time to review everything one more time before pressing “submit order.” Then began the indeterminate countdown to lunchtime. How does it feel to spend 30 minutes out of an expensive 8 hour day doing something so “non-value-added?”

Then I looked around more closely, and saw that everybody else was doing the Same. Darn. Thing. Thus began a weeklong journey in lessons of customer experience.

I don’t know that I ever imagined a day when Walt Disney World would find so many ways to alienate its visitors.

I once had rule that I would not touch a computer when I was on vacation. Then airlines began using phones as a primary means of alerting us all to delays, and that rule began to erode. Leading into this particular vacation, it became clear that web sites and phones were going to be part of the daily experience. We needed Magic Bands. We needed the My Disney Experience app. All of this, as it turns out, is part of a concept Disney calls MyMagic+. Part of this is the Disney Genie+ S e r v i c e. Please read those last two links. They are lessons in missing the point.

As our first day wore on, and my family worked hard (!) to achieve the experiences we desired, I could not unsee the vast amount of time people were spending on their cell phones rather than enjoying real-life experiences.

The afternoon of November 21, 2022 at Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida

These photos were taken on Sunday, November 21, 2022…just hours before Disney’s Board of Directors brought Bob Iger back as CEO. That day led to a week of me pondering: Should a vacation require that you so regularly employ personal technology? How did Disney get here? This is not The Disney Way.

As that evening wore on, shortly after the Iger announcement, I began to recall a passage from the book User Tested: How the World’s Top Companies Use Human Insight to Create Great Experiences:

In the 1950s, smooth-tasting Arabica coffee beans began to rise in price, in part because they were delicate and prone to dying under cold or inclement weather conditions. So, in 1954, Maxwell House, a popular brand of grocery store coffee, began blending Robusta beans into their mix to lower costs.

Not only are Robusta beans cheaper and more plentifully grown—they’re pest and weather resistant.(1). Unfortunately, they taste bitter and harsh. To mitigate this issue, Maxwell House introduced Robusta slowly and gradually so customers could acclimate to the flavor. They performed user tests along the way, asking longtime drinkers of Maxwell House to weigh in, and virtually none of them noticed a difference between all-Arabica and Arabica cut with a hint of Robusta. So they continued to add more Robusta, test among loyal customers, and roll out blends with less and less Arabica.

For many years sales boomed and profits were healthy, but over the decades, sales began to decline. Maxwell House’s U.S. market share in fresh and instant coffee sales fell from 8 percent in 2013 to 6.7 percent in 2019, and in April of 2019 parent company Kraft Heinz was attempting to sell off the once-iconic brand.(2) So what went wrong?

Maxwell House consistently found that longtime customers were happy with their product. Weren’t they doing everything right?

Not quite.

The company was only asking current customers for input, the people who had been slowly acclimating their palates to a Robusta-dominant blend. New customers who tried Maxwell House for the first time frequently hated it, so the company was failing to attract new buyers.

Had they run user tests with both current and prospective customers, they may have avoided this mistake and saved their brand.(3)

When you’re planning a round of user testing, you can’t invite just anyone to the party. And, surprisingly, you can’t always just invite your current customers to weigh in either. Deciding who to consult to get the perspectives that matter to your company requires a thoughtful approach.

Substitute “Disney cast member” for “customer” above, and I think you will get a sense for what I was thinking. This experience was the result of insidiously-introduced Robusta without enough new taste testers to spit it all out. But here we were, Arabica drinkers all…

If it weren’t for my niece’s comment, I would have been surprised to find this set of Google results as I was reading about Bob Iger’s return that Sunday night.

Google search results: *“disney world too much tech not enough fun”*

Since so much has already been written about Disney’s current state of affairs — prior to Iger’s return, and since — it has taken me three months to decide if I have anything meaningful to add to the canon. The piece you are reading has been in flux during those months; I finally decided here in early February what it was that I wanted to share.

In the teaching side of my career, we spend considerable energy encouraging software engineers to define metrics that can be used to help articulate success or failures in their products and processes. Rarely have I ever seen a team define “reduced user engagement time” as one of those metrics. One smart blogger I found seems to get it, but this particular search will help you appreciate just how upside-down the world can be.

A key goal of every piece of technology (with the exception of games and related experiences) should be: get all users done with it as quickly as possible so they can get back to other things. How many of your own projects actively strive for reduced user engagement?

I’m fairly certain that Bob Iger wasn’t forced to use his phone for anything during his recent visit to the park.. What does “going back to the office” mean for him? I suggest that it means that every employee responsible for UX at Walt Disney World strap on a Magic Band, plan a week at the park, and let their bosses know at the end if working at home was actually more relaxing. I know what my answer would be.

My family has long loved the Disney experience. But this trip left all of us with the same feeling: there is no need to go back as long as this is the way things are. Several post-vacation discussions have revealed that my family is not alone in feeling this way—and let’s not forget my niece’s friends, either. While I have some good memories from my recent trip — it wasn’t all bad — one stands out above all others: a renewed interest in doing everything in my power to ensure that reduced user engagement is a part of every technology initiative I undertake. On top of it all, I will seek vacation experiences that underscore these values.

The notion of vacation involves leaving something; one of those things should be the trappings of technology that we have every non-vacationing day of the year. Walt Disney Land and Walt Disney World both existed for decades before cell phones did. There is no reason other than shareholder return that it can’t operate the way it once did. Disney shareholders would do well to understand the correlation between reduced user engagement and long term shareholder return, lest they find themselves delighting in Robusta while missing out on investments in companies who care more deeply about the human experience.

The best software is the kind you can finish using as soon as possible.

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Humility Vulnerability

Self-Confidence: The Misplaced Key That Unlocks the Door to Many Workplace Solutions

Post author By Drew Saur
Post date April 25, 2023

🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9paltc-bpTQ.

It’s been a while since I have written a new long-form piece. My day job has been keeping me busy; I hope you can forgive me. I’ve had this piece in my mind for a long time, and I hope you get as much out of reading it as I did thinking about it. Cheers!

When an employee acts brashly, insensitively, selfishly, or in other emotionally-unintelligent ways, there is an opportunity for the people responsible for their care to take a step back and ask: Where is this person along their journey toward true self-confidence?

Aging has brought me many gifts, and one of those is the discovery that self-confidence issues are the heart of nearly all our thorniest problems. This is particularly true in the workplace, where we are paid for our skill and knowledge, and where exposing our weaknesses seems to be in direct conflict with our employers’ expectations of us. Part of my life’s journey has involved confronting this paradox, which, as a recovering low-self-confidence sufferer, I find fulfilling.

I am always fascinated listening to people’s answers when I ask:

How would you describe a person who is self-confident?

If you are smart, you have, will have, or have had, an issue with self-confidence at some point in your life (if not your entire life). This has been a barrier to your sense of forward movement and attitude about the world around you. It has affected the number and quality of your relationships. It has stunted your emotional growth. It has caused you anxiety and, perhaps, depression. It has caused horrible arguments. It has left you feeling lonely and confused. It might have amplified addictive behaviors and underpinned many others.

Smart people share many issues, and the most ironic is an ability to see how ignorant they are about many things, which is a common cause of constantly-unsettling private distress. Those who are ignorant of their own ignorance are truly blissful. But as we effortlessly declare ourselves the apotheosis of intelligence, we cite our self-ascribed superiority as fact to our children the moment they begin to inquire about our companion creatures on this planet, setting them on a confusing inner journey of self-doubt that is embarrassing for them to confront aloud.

We’re gentle to our children during their earliest learning years, but with the arrival of kindergarten, each child sees the commencement of years of punitive, competitive schooling. If knowledge failure is shamed, why would a child want to admit mental shortcoming? The inward spiral of self-humiliation knows no bounds, and we craft façades to shield intruders from our ignorance.

As adults, if we aim to strengthen — rather than raze — the know-it-all façades we have been programmed to build, they become barriers to the success we are paid to achieve. This is a shame, yet the pattern is rampant. Unraveling this fact requires us to take the time to examine what true self-confidence really looks like.

So: How would you describe a person who is self-confident?

Take a breath and ponder for a minute before moving on.

Which of the following is true about people with true self-confidence?

They consistently speak with remarkable authority about any topic imaginable.
They are seemingly-impenetrable to criticism.
They have a way of ensuring that they are always “put together,” exerting great effort into appearing polished in every way, from their jewelry to their body to their vehicle.
They work hard to exemplify the superiority of the human race.
They work hard to make sure people like them.
They are consistently assertive and decisive, never showing chinks in their armor.
They readily and eagerly admit when they are wrong.
They try to speak sparingly and carefully.
They understand their limitations and are open to criticism.
They earnestly apologize for wrongdoing and make amends.
They appreciate their weaknesses, and enjoy an opportunity to share and discuss them with others.
They balance assertiveness and decisiveness with vulnerability and humility.
They care more about doing right by others than being liked.

How did you answer?

If 1–6 were among your answers, you have grand opportunity ahead to experience the relief and power of true self-confidence.
If your answers included elements of 7–13, you are on the road already.
If all of your answers were from 7–13, you fully understand what true self-confidence is.
If you live 7–13, you are a truly self-confident individual.

Those Who Are Self-Confident…

Let’s take a close look at the hallmarks of people who are truly self-confident:

They readily and eagerly admit when they are wrong.

Truly self-confident people are not afraid to share and explore their misunderstandings. They know that a lack of knowledge and understanding is a universal experience, and they don’t fear the possibility that others will think less of them because of it, however real that possibility may be.

They try to speak sparingly and carefully.

Truly self-confident people recognize that they generally stand to learn more from listening than from speaking, and they choose their words carefully to stimulate, rather than control, conversation. When they open their mouths, they try to do so without attempting to raise their status.

They understand their limitations and are open to criticism.

Self-confident people are curious to learn more about their weaknesses. They find comfort and opportunity for companionship with humans from all backgrounds and statuses. They welcome criticism that is delivered with good intention, because they know that it is a gift that is difficult for many to give.

They earnestly apologize for wrongdoing and make amends.

Self-confident people are not afraid of admitting when they are wrong, and they are not afraid of an apology’s amplification of that admission. They also understand that an apology offered without amends might be merely self-serving. An apology without amends is a ”Where’s the Beef?” moment.

They appreciate their weaknesses, and enjoy an opportunity to share and discuss them with others.

Self-confident people enjoy the comfort that comes from connecting with others about their shortcomings. They laugh together, and feel less alone. You’ve seen old people do this when they talk about forgetting things, sharing gaffes, and comparing age spots.

They balance assertiveness and decisiveness with vulnerability and humility.

Truly self-confident people may have strong egos in certain areas where they have developed experience, but they are also likely to demonstrate their vulnerabilities and shared humanity when confronting their weaknesses, and they do not hesitate to ask for help in these circumstances.

They care more about doing right by others than being liked.

Self-confident people will act in the best interest of others whenever possible, even if their actions might diminish their superficial likability. Interestingly, Roman Catholics consider doing otherwise a sin. In a country whose politic skews Christian, why does this seem like a lost value?

Those Who Lack Self-Confidence…

How do we know if an individual lacks self-confidence? Back to numbers 1–6:

They consistently speak with remarkable authority about any topic imaginable.

People who lack self-confidence tend to have a significantly diminished ability to demonstrate vulnerability. They like to “show off” how much they know in every situation imaginable, hoping that it compensates for the doubt that they feel inside. They believe that imparting knowledge — not lack of it — boosts their status in the eyes of others.

They are seemingly-impenetrable to criticism.

People who lack self-confidence tend to make excuses when criticized, not wanting to show the chinks in their armor.

They have a way of ensuring that they are always “put together,” exerting great effort into appearing polished in every way, from their jewelry to their body to their vehicle.

It is natural to care about looking nice and having nice things. But with the possible exception of people who are in a courting mode of life — or stars and models who are paid to look a certain way — people who exert unusual energy on perfect looks and outward signals of success in a showy sort of way are more likely ashamed of something resembling the lack of those things. Think of the person who posts a photo of the Rolex on her wrist in front of the steering wheel of her Mercedes on Instagram. Conversely, think of the old man down the street who is not afraid to pick up his mail or newspaper in his underwear. Who is demonstrating true self-confidence?

They work hard to exemplify the superiority of the human race.

What do humans gain from assuming that our self-ascribed intelligence makes us superior to other creatures on this planet? Does intelligence have intrinsic value? Does our worldview get in the way of looking more objectively at the capabilities of our non-human companions? Is it OK to feel as insignificant as an ant or a cockroach? The more we are able to embrace our microscopic significance in the universe, the more we will appreciate that our need for others is not a weakness, but an opportunity.

They work hard to make sure people like them.

When we are too focused on being liked, we miss opportunities to do the right things by others, which might have an impact on our popularity. See “They care more about doing right by others than being liked,” above, for the rest of the story.

They are consistently assertive and decisive, never showing chinks in their armor.

Many people mistake this characteristic for self-confidence. But while many self-confident people will justifiably have an ego for things that are underpinned by significant, hard-won experience, truly self-confident people leave room for uncertainty, allowing others to come in to refine even their deepest areas of expertise.

How Can We Help One Another on Our Self-Confidence Journeys?

Given all the above, you may say to me, “Drew! It sounds an awful lot like you are saying that an ability to show weakness is a sign of true self-confidence!” To that, I would say, you are correct. Our current public standards seem to indicate that we are on a helter skelter ride in regard to true self-confidence, so there isn’t a better time to amplify these conversations than the present.

My experience has taught me that there are typically a small handful of early life events at the root of all self-confidence issues. When working with a person on their self-confidence journey, it’s helpful to begin by talking about the concepts we’ve been pondering here together.

Start with the question at the top. I can assure you, the answer will be fascinating. Listen actively; allow more than a few moments for details, and consider where they fit into the spectrum outlined above.

If the answers paint the common picture of misunderstanding, gently ask: what might have happened in your life that makes each or any of these things difficult for you? Sussing out the answers to this question will take more time, because they are likely to be deeply buried or involve significant embarrassment or trauma.

If you are in a position to lead an individual through these discussions, your ability to share stories about your own journey will be invaluable. Nothing is as powerful as a personal demonstration of vulnerability in helping open the dialogue about self-confidence. With sensitivity, time, and multiple rounds of shared storytelling, we all stand a chance to appreciate — and laugh about — our shared weaknesses so that we can build genuine strength.

True or False?

People with genuineself-confidenceare consistently assertiveand decisive.

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Current Events: 2023 Willingness

ChatGPT Challenges Us to Focus on Better Things. Are We Up for It?

Post author By Drew Saur
Post date April 30, 2023

🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPjoWN0SCb0.

Is a written piece inherently valuable?

Does the world need more writing?

Does it need more writers?

Or would it benefit from more original thought?

While I am not exactly mesmerized by ChatGPT, I do enjoy it as much as any new toy I’ve had in my hands throughout my life. There is no doubt that it can — and, likely, will — have a significant and positive role in the development of our civilization. I am aware that this is at odds with much of what is being written of late, so if you choose to proceed reading, I appreciate your willingness.

I am thankful for the public discourse that all manner of generative AI has spurred in the last five months, but as with all major shifts, it is amusing to watch people struggling to keep things in historic perspective. As with Clever Hans or many other magic tricks, it’s wise for onlookers to get a grip on the reality behind the illusion. Generative AI is merely the world’s most advanced parrot, underpinned by an ingenious application of statistics. If you haven’t read that last link (courtesy of Stephen Wolfram), you owe it to yourself, because it is simply the most lucid explanation of ChatGPT that has ever been written for people unschooled in the art.

TL;DR? Generative AI uses a corpus of previously-written material to generate new-ish content that is statistically derived from that corpus. In other words, the likes of ChatGPT are superb at repeating phrases that have already been uttered across all of written history, at lightning speed. And that is about it.

People are worried, as they always seem to be when it appears that the need for certain skills might disappear. Once you’ve taken it all in, however, you might feel relieved about the potential for large language models and generative AI to refine the menial work that we do so that we can focus on better things.

In the world of software engineering education, where I spend some of my most interesting off-hours, some are concerned about the ability for generative AI to interfere with learning the art of programming. Nonetheless, the best educators already have experience with the manual means to the same end: things like Stack Overflow, SourceForge, GitHub, and other similar repositories that amplify the adage that discourages us all from reinventing the wheel: “The best programmers are lazy programmers.” Because of this, these leading instructors are in the process of inverting their curricula with an emphasis on expository exercises that have students explain what their generated and third-party code is doing.

Education asks us to learn, and learning involves a balance of creation and understanding. Is one more essential than the other? Does one have to be able to create in order to understand? Or is one better off developing understanding to foster creation?

You may recall grade school science projects that involve electricity…wiring up a battery with a light bulb to make a quiz circuit; generating electricity from a potato; electromagnets; crystal radios; and so forth. My father and two of my older brothers were in the electronics industry. When I came home one afternoon in the late 1970s with my sixth grade project assignment, my family’s expectations took me by surprise. They felt I needed to present a project that plugged into a wall outlet, involving electronic components. They proceeded to conceive of a flashing neon tube project that involved a diode, a resistor, and a capacitor, similar to what you see in this video, but finished cleanly with professional soldering and clear heat-shrink tubing, installed on an attractive piece of 70s-era plywood paneling with labels on the back.

I was puzzled. Was my family encouraging me to cheat? They assured me that I wouldn’t be getting away with anything. They demanded that I learn the principles of the diode, the resistor, the capacitor, the physics behind the neon tube, and had me explain those back to them, countless times, in my own words, before I set foot in school with my assembled project.

I sat alongside them as parts were selected and as the project was assembled.

The day I walked into class with my paneling-mounted electronics, I watched a few presentations that employed D-cells and lantern batteries. When I was called, I nervously walked to the front of the room and plugged my little project into the outlet in the black-top lab desk. While I got a small thrill from being different from everyone else, I was still nervous, and I am sure I remember the teacher looking a little worried himself.

It went well. My fellow students were as astonished as I was about the bright, blinking light. We all learned something in the process. My classmates learned about things that weren’t in the curriculum, and I learned this: It’s one thing to make something; it’s a whole other thing to be able to explain how and why it works.

My teacher surprised me with an “A” grade, and I learned not only something about electronics…I learned a lesson in education that I still can’t forget.

At some point in the next 10 years, our workforce will see the demotion of scores of software engineers who eschew generative AI programming. If you don’t believe this, then ask yourself: would you, today, tolerate a software engineer or IT professional who refused to use a search engine to find solutions to a technical problem? Of course not; you’d fire them as soon as you could.

I’ve heard some software engineering instructors wonder how bad generative AI will make things for liberal arts educators. But the answers are strikingly similar on that side of campus.

In this blog, where we discuss matters relating to the nexus of liberal arts and technology, it’s worth referencing a simple but commonly-overlooked fact: writing itself is a technology. Predating the written word was the oral tradition, where people composed stories of easy-to-remember “epithets” to create stories like Homer’s Odyssey. The invention of writing liberated people from epithets, allowing people to string together create fanciful combinations of words that — to people’s horror! — could not be remembered without referring to the medium to which they were committed. If you are curious about the details of this consequential and antique technological transformation, I could not recommend a work more highly than Walter Ong’s Orality and Literacy.

Since writing is a technology — and not at all natural – we would do well to remember that enhancements to any technology are normal, and not to be considered at odds with what is natural. Much writing that we do today is what one might call “perfunctory.” Think of the vast number of forgettable emails and text messages that we hurtle back and forth each day, whose purpose is merely to drive a larger conversation about a single concept. It’s perfectly fine to have help typing those thoughts out in a way that relieves our fingers and saves us time.

We have names for certain classes of communication. Linguists have a term for the most routine communication that we employ every day: phatic. The world of generative AI presents us with an opportunity to expand our palette. Consider the following:

Phatic communication (greetings and other similar pleasantries)
Perfunctory communication (emails; simple essays about basic concepts; text messages; common persuasive communication; and other forgettable acts of discourse)
High-value communication (first-person journalism; original documentary writing; poetry; creative writing; lyricism; cognitive dissonance; and other forms of inventive discourse that are designed to be memorable and durable)

Generative AI is likely to find its greatest application helping us deliver perfunctory communication with breathtaking ease and speed, in the very same way that calculators help us all with a wide variety of perfunctory mathematical tasks, allowing educators to focus on teaching skills that support high-value communication, where we ask the human mind to be entirely engaged.

Consider works such as:

Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop by W. B. Yeats
The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot
I Have A Dream by Martin Luther King
I Am The Walrus by The Beatles
Now/Later/Soon by Stephen Sondheim

Want to be the first person to put “Expert texpert” in front of “choking smokers?” Generative AI isn’t going to get you there. Inventive combinations of words like these are at complete odds with the statistical models behind generative AI. They are high-value in that they are landmark works that have inspired millions if not billions of people through their originality of construction. Imagine a world of liberal arts education that focuses on the ability to craft these sorts of works? The degree in “letters” might be transformed, for the better.

What does all of this portend for education in any discipline that is affected by generative AI? We would do best to ensure that we engage students to explain the reasoning behind their work in real time. This is not a new concept, but it’s an unfortunately rarified one, reserved for pivotal moments like the defense of a thesis. Education would be transformed, but teachers would have to work much harder. Of course, things that are hard are things worth doing.

Consider what it might be like to re-focus on the talents that have been neglected since the days of the oral tradition: speaking that inspires and creates movement.

Imagine a day when we frown upon PowerPoint presentations, and look forward to our fellow humans speaking extemporaneously and creatively, from their hearts, providing insight and inspiration at the times we need it most.

Imagine a day when our programmers are freed from writing login screens, and where they can focus on creating user experiences that not only save us time, but touch our hearts and souls with software that provides insight and inspiration.

Many are concerned about how “correct” generative AI is; they are alarmed by the potential effect of “hallucinations.” But these notions are not new; every book on every shelf of every library is written and edited by fallible human beings, a great deal of whom acted out of not only ignorance, but out of self-interest or with ill intent. Consumers of information have always had a duty to think critically before acting on that information. They still do.

Technology changes how we live. Writing’s initial gift was a reduction in our need to remember details. Writing’s second gift was its ability to be mass-produced, bringing us more-or-less perfect one-to-many communication. Writing’s third gift was its ability to show us how repetitive and perfunctory so much of our communication is. Generative AI gives us a chance to make perfunctory communication — and programming — even more perfunctory, liberating us for better things…if only we allow ourselves the opportunity.

Once more:

Is a written piece inherently valuable?

Does the world need more writing?

Does it need more writers?

Or would it benefit from more original thought?

Since writing is a technology — and not at all natural – we would do well to remember that enhancements to any technology are normal, and not to be considered at odds with what is natural.

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Humility Read Other People’s Stuff

Read Other People’s Stuff: 5

Post author By Drew Saur
Post date May 15, 2023

🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgtNp-hRojw.

In regard to https://theprogressivecio.com/slate-star-codex-and-the-state-of-things/, here’s an interesting read:

https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/rational-magic

I happen to be writing something that is related to this topic…coming soon. Stay tuned!

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Love Willingness

Smile

Post author By Drew Saur
Post date December 24, 2023

🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAErD8xzjCM.

As an introvert — and a CIO — interacting with thousands of holiday shoppers over the course of a couple of days is not within my normal activity range.

But at this time of year, when I do my part as a greeter in Palmer’s Direct To You Market, my extroversion skills get a Schwarzenegger-style workout. Our market is a 174-year old tradition in Rochester, and I am thankful for every person who visits. Our clients deserve — and expect — a great experience when they walk through the door.

I am reminded of the following six things when I take this exercise on. What occurs to me today is that these behaviors support us in all aspects of life:

Through your voice and face, project a greeting with authority — mean it.
Give a genuine and lasting smile when you are doing it.
Do everything within your power to bring out the smile in others.
Do everything within your power to make them laugh, too.
Unless cultural norms declare otherwise, make eye contact, and keep it every chance you get.
Always care about other people’s children.

It was wonderful seeing so many familiar faces walk through our doors, from neighbors to long-time business associates.

A goal of mine for 2024 is to remember the six lessons of this week. A very happy holiday to you and yours! Cheers!

Yours truly on the left, with my colleague, Dan Walsh.

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Foundational Values

2024: A Year of Revisiting the Foundational Values

Post author By Drew Saur
Post date January 7, 2024

🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PJiWtlAphQ.

Happy 2024. This coming July, The Progressive CIO will be four years old. As I reflect on this milestone, I must admit that I feel it’s been too long since I’ve written in any depth about the ten foundational values that I hold close to my heart:

Vulnerability • Humility • Empathy • Love • Patience • Compassion • Curiosity • Commitment • Willingness

In the weeks and months ahead, I commit to you that I will revisit these topics, taking a deeper and fresh dive into what makes them critical for life.

Cheers!

Empathy Foundational Values

Imagination With Relation

Post author By Drew Saur
Post date April 14, 2024

🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhVqt2As8Hg.

This fine spring morning, I went for a run between Lancaster and Witmer Pennsylvania, in what is colloquially known as Pennsylvania Dutch Country. If you haven’t walked or run these roads, I recommend you add this to your list of things to try. There is a magical humanity in the exchange of a wave from a sunlit hand peeking forward from the shadows of a horse-drawn buggy to warmly greet you as you pass from the opposing direction on the shoulder of a road. The sound of horseshoes on worn pavement ruts enhances the atmosphere, which is quite unlike anything else in the modern world.

While running west on Horseshoe Road under cloudless skies, I saw an Amish boy of nine or ten topped with a straw hat, transporting a reel mower from a neighbor’s property on the opposing shoulder. As I got closer, I saw him look over at me. We exchanged waves, as the people of Pennsylvania Dutch Country are pleasantly prone to do. He mostly focused on his errand, but he continued to occasionally glimpse over his shoulder and behold me as I slowly chugged past him. I wondered what he was thinking. Would he prefer to be free of chores and playing as I was? Did he simply think what I was doing was inane? Or was he simply wondering what I might be thinking of him and his activities?

As I passed from view, I thought: we will never see each other again, and he should live for decades beyond me. Might he recall today’s vignette as a random memory long after my time here, as I have for so many similar scenes from my youth?

About ten minutes later, I witnessed a similar scene of an Amish girl of like age, busy mowing her front lawn with a nearly-identical mower. As I ran past, she dropped her machine onto the green grass beneath, and ran toward her front door in a way a child who wanted to do anything but chores might. En route, she, too, took a moment to look over at me and wave in a similarly kind manner as the boy had. She quickly disappeared inside.

If I share that these bucolic scenes are elemental episodes of empathy, how do you feel? We are conditioned to believe that empathy involves identifying something amiss in another individual’s exigency so that we can find appropriate actions or words in response. We typically miss, however, that empathy is an emotion-agnostic notion that can be employed in myriad ways that enhance our appreciation of our world.

Because of this, I like to share that empathy is imagination with relation. In other words, empathy is the use of our imagination to gain an appreciation or understanding of another’s feelings or situation. This is done without regard to the emotions at hand. We can employ empathy when we behold the work of others, present or past, such as artists or architects; or artifacts as simple as laid pavement or the lines painted thereon. We can empathize with a willow swaying in a cold winter wind…an ant enjoying the honeydew of an aphid…a bumblebee hitching pollen in its fuzz…a dog gazing at us while munching a treat…or a turkey vulture tearing meat from a carcass.

The aim of empathy is not to agree and it is not to sympathize; it is merely to understand, or at least attempt to understand. To paraphrase Alfred, Lord Tennyson: It is better to have empathized and misunderstood than to have never empathized at all. An expression of deeply-attempted understanding between two people is more likely to be well-received than blunt ignorance. This is because humans recognize that it can be difficult for us to understood one another.

As has been quoted many times, Martin Buber once wrote:

In spite of all similarities, every living situation has, like a newborn child, a new face, that has never been before and will never come again. It demands of you a reaction that cannot be prepared beforehand. It demands nothing of what is past. It demands presence, responsibility; it demands you.
—Between Man and Man (1948)

When we demonstrate presence and responsibility, others tend to appreciate it, even if we wind up wrong. That mere appreciation opens the possibility of a response that ultimately helps us gain understanding.

Joe: Good morning! I see that big smile on your face, Mark. You must be looking forward to your fishing trip later today!

Mark: I sure am happy, Joe, but the real thing I’m looking forward to is seeing my grandson get his first bicycle for his birthday this morning!

When you hear “Happy Birthday” sung at a neighboring restaurant table, what do you do? You might survey the table to identify whose special day it is. You might look to see if a treat is being presented, along with the embellishments employed. You might look for smiles to make sure everything is as planned. You might even sing along and applaud.

But how often do you afford yourself to imagine, in any depth: What might it be like to be at that table right now?

I’m fairly sure that most of us don’t employ empathy at times like this. Why is that? I suspect it’s because it requires energy, and since we don’t have a clear idea of immediate gain, we choose instead to apply our energy to other things.

That might be a mistake.

Suppose you are fifty years old, and the birthday girl at your neighboring table is joyously celebrating her ninetieth year of life. Would you take a moment to think: I wonder what makes her particularly happy today? How does chocolate cake make her feel? Does she like icing? Dark coffee? What did she have for dinner? Or for lunch? How late did she sleep in? Did she listen to music or watch a favorite movie with her grandchildren? Did she feel a particular connection in her prayers this morning? Does she know how well those glasses complement her face? Did she put a lot of work into choosing them? What profound lessons did she learn from her struggles that enable her to feel at ease this evening?

You may tell me: I did that for a bit, but someone at my own table told me to stop daydreaming. Well, good for you.

Runners like to say:

The only way to run faster is to run faster.

The same is true for empathy. The more you do it, the better your conditioning will be. Taking every opportunity for “imagination with relation” will make you a stronger empathizer.

Postscript: Prior to today, I’ve penned ten posts touching upon empathy. I’d have written more if it weren’t such a tired topic. Despite that, empathy is, of course, one of the most useful skills that any of us could hone, so when I do write about it, I try to reward readers with something that I believe is novel. My introductory post on empathy in 2020 offered a brief but profound exercise that I hope you have an opportunity to try sometime.

A month or so later, I introduced the concept of invisibleism, a form of discrimination against people due to things we cannot see and, therefore, neglect to consider when dealing with others.

If there is something that ties these two notions together, it is an acknowledgement that empathy requires much more work than many people appreciate. I hope that this post, like the others, helps you with this, adding something new to the way you approach your empathy-building skills.