Firestarters

The status quo can be like an old blanket, comfortable and psychologically safe to wrap yourself in because it's known and predictable. Sure, it may be worn out and full of holes or smell like mothballs, but it feels good because it's a sense of familiarity to cling to on a cold winter night.

But, it's kinda fucking boring, isn't it?

I don't really know when my obsession with piracy began, but I've found it immensely rewarding to try new things, rally against the norm, and embrace the code.

Back in 2005, I had the pleasure of spending some time with Kathy Sierra talking about culture change by subverting from within:

I spent yesterday at Microsoft. And yes, it was on a "passionate users" mission –

It's so tempting to say that anyone who really cares that much about users ought to get the hell out of the big company. I know, having done my time at Sun. But I'd forgotten how to see Microsoft as something other than a Big Company. I'd forgotten (or never recognized) that it's a collection of individual people, and no matter how entrenched the company's views, policies, practices, values, bureaucracy, etc. are, there are motivated, smart, caring, creative people who work there.

And these folks have a chance to make a Difference (capital "D") on a scale that most of us will never touch.

So when I was recently introduced to the idea of organizational fire-starters, a role that Ian Forrester at the BBC describes as 'bringing ideas forward,' it got me thinking about how this represent a modern day pirate.

But, what skills do you need to change the status quo?

In Paul Grahams epic essay, How to do Great Work, he writes:

There's a kind of excited curiosity that's both the engine and the rudder of great work. It will not only drive you, but if you let it have its way, will also show you what to work on. What are you excessively curious about — curious to a degree that would bore most other people? That's what you're looking for.

He repeats near the end:

Curiosity is the best guide. Your curiosity never lies, and it knows more than you do about what's worth paying attention to. Notice how often that word has come up. If you asked an oracle the secret to doing great work and the oracle replied with a single word, my bet would be on 'curiosity.'

Curiosity is the spark to ignite change.

As I write that, I'm reminded of Sir Ken Robinson's amazing TED Talk, "Do schools kill creativity?" Why are so many afraid to challenge "that's the way we've always done it"?

And by the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity. They have become frightened of being wrong. And we run our companies. This, by the way, we stigmatize mistakes and we're now running national education systems where mistakes are the worst thing you can make. And the result is that we are educating people out of their creative capacities. Picasso once said this. He said that all children are born artists. The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up.

And maybe that's the most important thing we can remember as we age. Stay curious.

Lots of rambling tonight. But, in an interesting irony, as I finish this one, the trailer for the new documentary Jim Henson Idea Man was just released, and there's few others that embraced curiosity as he did.

If you enjoy these posts, you can subscribe to Club Mako ($1/mo) 📆, buy me a coffee ☕️, check out the store or just share my work. If you'd rather just keep up with my ramblings, follow me via your favorite RSS reader or via Mastodon. Your support is much appreciated!

Shop 🛒

You know the deal - you're listening to someone talk and talk and talk, and you recognize that you're not the problem; they are. Adding a new "philosophical mottos" shirt to the shop was an excellent opportunity. It comes in black, gray, blue, white or pink.

Also, I decided to throw on a few new ones, including a tote bag variant of "its not me," and a bunch of new drinkware!

Exploration 🧭

A total WTF moment from history, read about a man so hated that his corpse was dug up for the sole purpose of mutilating it because being dead wasn't good enough for those who hated him.

The Posthumous Execution of Oliver Cromwell describes the wacky event in which his 'body was exhumed so his corpse could be put on trial for treason and regicide.'

The trial took place in a typical courtroom with a judge, jury, and the accused. Only in this case, the accused was a three-year-old rotten, probably stinking corpse. As you might expect, the defense strategy of a thousand-mile-stare with dead eyes didn't go over so well, and Oliver Cromwell's corpse was found guilty.

So, Oliver Cromwell's corpse was hanged at Tyburn, London, and then thrown into a pit. His head was then chopped off and stuck on a pole outside Westminster Hall, where it sat until 1685.

Yeah... like twenty-four years.

It was then sold off to the highest bidder and changed owners several times for years after, occasionally getting put on public display. A few centuries later, in 1960, Oliver Cromwell's head was again laid to rest in a somewhat secretive location.

To Watch 📺

Monica Parker has a beautiful video on why "not" to pursuit happiness, but rather, seek out wonder. She argues that 'in our quest to be happy all the time, we can fall victim to toxic positivity.'

And, one more to watch, Simon Sinek on why "leadership is a team sport." Echo's many of the sentiments I've previously mentioned in why it's important to have a personal board of directors.

Quotables 📚

Lucas Puskaric had a great post over on Threads:

And... the interesting evolution of swearing in Taylor Swift albums (posted by Jon Hanshaw)..

Articles Worth Reading / Link Rot 🧠

Here are a few random findings that I thought would be interesting to share. It really is just a dump of things sitting in my "thats interesting" pile, that I threw some categories on for you to pick out what tickles your fancy.

Thinking 🤪

• The Day I Learned to Break the Rules

Leadership 😳

• Leadership and the art of dancing alone
• Top ten ways to promote good design in your organization
• Has Your Workload Gotten Out of Hand? This Stanford Professor May Know Why

Games 🎱

• The New York Times Games Are More Popular Than Its News
• 15 Most Difficult Arcade Games Ever

Tech 📟

• The Tyranny of Content Algorithms
• How Tech Giants Cut Corners to Harvest Data for A.I.
• Substack Is Setting Writers Up For A Twitter-Style Implosion
• AllTrails Proves Vital for Hikers of All Levels

Privacy 🕵🏻

• What We Give Up
• Threads is the gas-leak social network
• Why Corporations Fail to Protect Our Data

Life 🫶🏻

• How Taylor Swift changed the copyright game by remaking her own music
• Eating Like a Salmon Is Better Than Eating Actual Salmon, Study Finds
• A Map of Global Happiness By Country in 2024
• Monkey Run
• Women at the Bottom of the World
• Why do we do things that are bad for us? The ancient philosophers had an answer

Oddities 🤔

• The Earthquake That Will Devastate the Pacific Northwest
• NYC Man Spent $200 for a Five-Year Stay at the New Yorker Hotel
• Space organizations want the moon to have its own time zone
• The Science of Conspiracy Theories
• How an Amateur Sleuth Found the Missing Clue That Could Finally Solve the D.B. Cooper Hijacking Mystery

Recommended 🎸

I can't get Olivia Rodrigo and Noah Kahan's live performance of "Stick Season" out of my head. Enjoy.

Be well. ✌🏻