Context of Scripture | Notes & Review

William W. Hallo, and K. Lawson Younger, Jr., eds. The Context of Scripture, volume 1: Canonical Compositions from the Biblical World. Brill, 2003.
________. The Context of Scripture, volume 2: Monumental Inscriptions from the Biblical World. Brill, 2003.
________. The Context of Scripture, volume 3: Archival Documents from the Biblical World. Brill, 2003.

Amazon.com, Logos.com, Eisenbrauns.com (link problems currently). Here’s the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society review by David Howard.

(Huge thanks to Eisenbrauns for the amazing deal we got on the purchase of this set!)

VOLUME 1

INTRODUCTION

“Classical and Near Eastern parallels have been used to illuminate the biblical text for as long as there have been biblical studies.” (xxiii) And Pritchard’s Ancient Near Eastern Texts (ANET) has been a staple of that study for decades. “As ever more new texts are made available, the relationship between biblical and ancient Near Eastern studies has assumed an ever growing importance if only as measured by the sheer output of books and articles inspired by their comparison.” (xxv) However, according to Moshe Yitzhaki of Bar-Illan University and his “bibliometric approach”, he “concludes that, at least in the small and somewhat random sample tested, ‘the figures indicate a relatively low use of the research and literature of one field by the other.’” (xxv)

“If his sample is representative, we face an anomalous situation: an ever increasing stream of ancient Near Eastern texts…which is relevant for biblical studies, but a statistical reluctance to employ them. Under the circumstances, a new compendium is called for all the more urgently…a new compendium to assemble the existing renderings, update them where necessary, and indicate their relevance for biblical scholarship.” (xxv)

“The ‘context’ of any given text may be regarded as its horizontal dimension — the geographical, historical, religious, political and literary setting in which it was created and disseminated.”

…translations should serve…not only for comparison and illustration, but for contrast. – Gressmann, quoted in ANET.

“…it is useful to raise questions of category and genre so that, as nearly as possible, like is compared with like. … On a lower level of literary context, due attention is paid to genre (Gattung) and to the associated concept of life setting (’Sitz im Leben’). … Finally, the questions of where, when and in what direction an alleged borrowing may have occurred is occasionally raised in the commentary, even if the question frequently cannot be answered.” (xxvi)

“It also has its place on a vertical axis between the earlier texts that helped inspire it and the later texts that reacted to it. We can describe this feature of its interconnectedness as its vertical or, in line with currant usage, its intertextual dimension.” (xxvi)

Regarding translation, “one can aspire to match the native terms and idioms with their English counterparts in such a way as to approach the ideal of a 1:1 relation in which each word (and only that word) is rendered by a given English equivalent, each derivative of that word with a derivative of that equivalent. This ideal cannot, of course, be carried out perfectly in practices…”but with the help of a data base, it should theoretically be possible — though difficult in practice — to make the attempt, and to see how many improvements emerge in the understanding, both of the text itself and of its relation to other texts.”

The 2 Samuel 11 provides an illustration showing that “the Uriah pericope is made up, at least in part, of traditional literary topoi or folkloristic motifs, and justify the inclusion of the newly recovered Sumerian legend in the discussion of the biblical treatment of the theme.” Hallo criticizes Regina Schwartz in her treatment of this text because it fails, “not because of its political overtones, but because it presumes the historical validity of the episode, utterly ignoring its literary character. Where but in the Bible could one find national literature preserving the materials for so scathing a self-examination? And within the Bible, where more so than in the ‘court history of David’ in 2 Samuel? And what if the author has not written history, but woven a traditional story of the ‘deadly letter’ into an imaginative recasting of the succession narrative? Familiarity with the motif and its antiquity would at least suggest this alternative possibility.” (xxvii)

This context begs the questions, “can we, in fact should we, separate literary and ideological considerations in assessing ancient sources? Can we and should we divide our sources strictly into literary and historical ones? … I have long pleaded for using literary and historical sources to illuminate each other — treating literary sources as precious aids in reconstructing history, and reconstructing history as the essential context for literature” (xxvii)

What all this “implies is the rejection of any hard-and-fast dichotomy between ‘history’ and literature’ in favor of a recognition that, often enough, history is literature, and vice versa. The old conceit held that biblical literature can be validated as history only when relfected in extra-biblical historical sourcs such as the Stele of Merneptah or the Mesha Stele, but is falsified as history and reduced to ‘mjere literature’ when anticipated or echoed in extra-biblical literary sources such as the Akkadian Sargon Legend or now the Sumerian Sargon Legend. This alone would justify a separation of the comparative material into historical munuments, cannonical compostiions, and archival documents. but the new attitude goes further. It recognizes that hte assessment of a biblical text, so far from ending with the identification of an extra-biblical parallel, begins there.” (xxviii)

Ten Trillion and Counting

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tentrillion/view/

A few select quotes that stood out to me in the program:

When choosing between what is politically right, and what is economically right, they chose what is politically right at the expense of the economy.

The “starve the beast” notion, that when you cut taxes you are forced to cut spending, though ideal, is not true. Now borrowing at an extended rate.

We borrowed money from China to give tax cuts to the best off people in our society and leave our kids paying the bill for a war that we chose to fight. That was really unprecedented.

We have “unfunded liabilities.”

It’s hard not to get viscerally concerned regarding our fiscally irresponsible behavior. It’s hard for me to imagine what one million dollars looks like, much less a billion or trillion. The numbers are so large, it’s daunting and petrifying.

But more than mere accounting, the thing that ought to strike anyone listening to this program is the driving ethic and ideas that people have, specifically Americans, about money and their standards of living. Fundamentally, we have lost any sense of reason, have high expectations, high demands, and low personal investment. We have an ethic of entitlement and greed, and we’re unwilling to take personal responsibility for our own delinquencies. And when fear kicks in, we ignore the mirror and look out the window and blame everyone else.

Money is hardly ever about money; always about attitude.

But instead of paralysis what if we chose to see this as opportunity to learn how to be more responsible with what we’ve been given; use credit cards for convenience, NOT for credit, spend less than we make, adjust our standards of living to our economic situation, not the other way around. Have a disdain for perceived obsolescence of goods and services, and be so thankful and joyous at what we do have, rather than pitifully whiny at what we don’t.

Regardless of the President’s slogans, hope alone will not get us to where we need to be. Rather, we need personal and corporate moral renewal that is deeply laced with discipline.

And it starts with me.

When Our Brains Short-Circuit – Maybe It Was Never Connected

Kristof is one of the most popular of the NYTimes.com Op-Ed writers. His most recent article “When Our Brains Short-Circuit” suggests:

Evidence is accumulating that the human brain systematically misjudges certain kinds of risks. In effect, evolution has programmed us to be alert for snakes and enemies with clubs, but we aren’t well prepared to respond to dangers that require forethought.

I actually wonder if evolution isn’t to blame. Rather, perhaps the culprit is education, societal ethics, and the insulated experiences of our narcissistic nation.

— VIA —

EDUCATION. Kristof’s article doesn’t take into account the early developmental psychology that precedes “adults” and “adult” ways of thinking. Children at an early age are unable to think long-term, to understand consequences, and to piece together cause and effect, costs and benefits. But that’s why we educate. His example of the $50 and $100 experiment/survey has been shown in multiple studies with children and cookies. What is also shown, is that as we as a society can help to shape that thinking and those processes by how we engage children, and how we craft their educational environments. Perhaps what we’re reaping now, in these studies, is not the consequences of our evolutionary history. Rather (and more immediately) it is due to our fundamental lack of understanding in how to raise the young right when the most active cognitional development is happening.

SOCIETAL ETHICS. While it is important to understand the psychology of “threats” when it comes to issues such as global warming, the other side of the coin is the moral centers from which we make our decisions. If we sift through the rhetoric of the environmentally skeptical, we run into deeper objections that are rooted in ethical (it’s my right to drive an SUV), moral (it keeps people employed to keep the economy the way it is) and religious (God’s coming back anyway to destroy this planet) underpinnings. Again, perhaps it’s not evolution at work, but a collective societal ethic (made up of smaller pockets of ethics) that keep us from understanding the future.

INSULATED EXPERIENCES. This is why journalism is so important (and why so many appreciate Kristof and others and their work) as  it exposes us to worlds that are so far removed from us we would have never known about them had it not been for their efforts. While globalization is still rapid, there are still many in this world who know little to nothing outside of their “home-grown” experiences. This “ignorance by absence” is a detriment that can only be solved through exposure, and that by travel.

Either way, Kristof and I agree on the conclusion:

Still, all is not lost, particularly if we understand and acknowledge our neurological shortcomings — and try to compensate with rational analysis. When we work at it, we are indeed capable of foresight: If we can floss today to prevent tooth decay in later years, then perhaps we can also drive less to save the planet.

The Electronic Wasteland

Where do the millions of computer monitors, cell phones and other electronic refuse our society generates end up? In places like Guiyu, China. There are similar places in other countries like India, and it’s unseen, underground, and highly toxic to the local residents.

60 Minute’s “The Electronic Wasteland” program.
60 Minute’s “Following the Trail of Toxic E-Waste” program.
Time’s “E-Waste Not” article.
Time’s “China’s Electronic Waste Village” slide show.

PROBLEM SOLVING:

NYTimes.com’s “A Green Way to Dump Low-Tech Electronics” article.
E-Stewards Initiatives by the Basel Action Network.
San Francisco based Electronics TakeBack Coalition.
VIA’s “Story of Stuff” blog post.

The following photos are screen shots from the 60 minutes program.

“…we throw out about 130,000 computers every day in the United States.” And…over 100 million cell phones are thrown out annually.

Greenpeace has been filming around Guiyu and caught the recycling work. Women were heating circuit boards over a coal fire, pulling out chips and pouring off the lead solder. Men were using what is literally a medieval acid recipe to extract gold…We have a situation where we have 21st century toxins being managed in a 17th century environment.

Pollution has ruined the town. Drinking water is trucked in. Scientists have studied the area and discovered that Guiyu has the highest levels of cancer-causing dioxins in the world. They found pregnancies are six times more likely to end in miscarriage, and that seven out of ten kids have too much lead in their blood.

The recyclers are peasant farmers who couldn’t make a living on the land. Destitute, they’ve come by the thousands to get $8 a day. Greenpeace introduced us to some of them. They were afraid and didn’t want to be seen, but theirs are the hands that are breaking down America’s computers.

The most poignant quote in the video is this one:

“Well, desperate people will do desperate things,” Puckett replied. “But we should never put them in that situation. You know, it’s a hell of a choice between poverty and poison. We should never make people make that choice.”

— VIA —

The world is broken, and we are holding the hammer.

I’m thankful for these reports, the investigations, and most of all for the efforts of those who are attempting to remedy the situation. I’m mostly concerned that the vast majority of us simply do not care. Kristof’s recent article, When Our Brains Short-Circuit may be a huge part of why, but I muse that we all may be suffering from a global and social sociopathy.

Perhaps this is mere ignorance; that if we know better, we’ll do better. Maybe, but my cynical self can’t help but think that selfishness, greed, narcissism, and possibly prejudice, racism, ethnicism is also at work. And the solution is not found in changing big systems, but rather, the solution is making big changes in individuals.

Jonathan Sacks in his To Heal A Fractured World lays out a plan for restoration using the term “social responsibility.” He writes,

We have grown use to delegating such responsibilities to governments, in return for which we pay taxes — substituting politics for ethics, law for moral obligation, and impersonal agencies for personal involvement. As a result, ethics has tended to turn inward, becoming a matter of personal choice rather than collective responsibility. (7)

I have yet to finish the book, (and I highly recommend it), but a quick skip to the end yields a great commissioning of his message:

The only antidote to fear is responsibility: the refusal to believe that there is nothing we can do, the decision never to take refuge in blaming others, making them the scapegoats for our frustrations and fears. It is easy to complain: to say it is someone else’s fault. Courage is born the moment we decide not to complain but instead to make a personal protest against the evils of the world by doing good, however slight. An ethic of responsibility yields individuals of astonishing resilience — people able to survive any setback and face any future without fear. (270)

The Medici Effect | Notes & Review

Frans Johansson. The Medici Effect: What Elephants & Epidemics Can Teach Us About Innovation. Harvard Business School Press, 2006.

http://www.themedicieffect.com/
http://themedicieffect.typepad.com/

“This place, where the different fields meet, is what I call the Intersection. And the explosion of remarkable innovations that you find there is what I call the Medici Effect. This book is about how to create it. … The idea behind this book is simple: When you step into an intersection of fields, disciplines, or cultures, you can combine existing concepts into a large number of extraordinary new ideas.” (2) “The Intersection is certainly not the only place to uncover new ideas, but I’ll argue that it is the best place to generate and realize extraordinary ones.” (4)

PART 1 – THE INTERSECTION

CHAPTER ONE: The Intersection — Your Best Chance to Innovate

“The mind-reading experiment (where a monkey moves a cursor on the screen with his mind) was creative because it was new and valuable, and it was innovative because the creative idea had become realized.” (14) “…creativity really occurs when people act in concert with the surrounding environment, and within society. Ultimately society decides whether an idea is both new and valuable.” (15)

There is no way to know whether a thought is new except with reference to some standards, and there is no way to tell whether it is valuable until it passes social evaluation. – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (15)

“If you operate within a field, you primarily are able to combine concepts within that particular field, generating ideas that evolve along a particular direction — what I call directional ideas. When you step into the Intersection, you can combine concepts between multiple fields,… — what I call intersectional ideas. The difference … is significant.” (16-17)

In summary, intersectional innovations share the following characteristics:

• They are surprising and fascinating.
• They take leaps in new directions.
• They open up entirely new fields.
• They provide a space for a person, team, or company to call its own.
• They generate followers, which means the creators can become leaders.
• They provide a source of directional innovation for years or decades to come.
• They can affect the world in unprecedented ways.

“Not only do we have a greater chance of finding remarkable idea combinations there, we will also find many more of them…the Intersection represents a place that drastically increases the chances for unusual combinations to occur.” (20)

CHAPTER TWO: The Rise of Intersections

“The centuries that followed [the Renaissance] saw a growing specialization of knowledge. Disciplines became more fragmented as we broke the world into smaller and more specialized pieces.” (21) But those traditional boundaries are disappearing. “There are three distinct forces behind the rise of intersections, and at this moment, perhaps for the first time, they are all working together.” (22)

Force 1: The Movement of the People. Globalization,
Force 2: The Convergence of Science. Cross-disciplinary sciences and multi-authored papers.
Force 3: The Leap of Computation. Faster, better, etc.

“Because the effects of these three forces are so pervasive, your understanding of a field is likely to become intersected many times during your lifetime.” (32)

PART TWO – CREATING THE MEDICI EFFECT

CHAPTER THREE: Break Down the Barriers Between Fields

This chapter introduces the “associative barriers” which are automatic and subconscious which keep us from finding the Intersection, helps us to “unravel” the “chain of associations,” (39) and encourages us in “divergent thinking.” (40)

CHAPTER FOUR: How to Make the Barriers Fall

Here’s what a few innovators did. They,

• exposed themselves to a range of cultures
• learned differently
• reversed their assumptions
• took on multiple perspectives

We must remember that “there is always another way to view things” which is “particularly true as one compares cultures across the world.” (46) “Research also indicates that people who are fluent in multiple languages tend to exhibit greater creativity than others.” (47) We must abhor “single-disciplinary incrementalism” (51) by broadening our education and recognize that “expertise, for all its strengths, can make it more difficult to break out of established patterns of thought.” (52)

“The purpose is not necessarily to come up with a specific idea, but to shake your mind free from preconceived notions.” (55) Here are a couple suggestions

• apply the idea to someone or something else
• create constraints

CHAPTER FIVE: Randomly Combine Concepts

N.R. Maier, in an attempt to understand the nature of insight developed this creativity experiment. A subject is led into a room where they see two long strings hanging from a high ceiling. Close by is a desk with a variety of tools, including a pair of pliers. They are told that the object of the experiment is to tie the two strings together and that they can use any of the tools available to solve the problem. Usually the subject tries to first tie the strings by simply pulling them together, but this, as you may have guessed, is not possible. If the subject grabs one string and walks over to the other they will find that it is out of reach. The strings are too far apart. In order to solve this puzzle the subject must use the pliers in an unusual way — as a pendulum. (66)

Research has shown that two main types of random combinations are involved in generating creative ideas. 1) “flash-in-the-sky serendipity” which usually happens when you are trying to solve a problem. (70-1). 2) “prepared-mind discoveries” happen when someone with a “prepared mind” encounters a phenomenon he or she had not set out to find. (71)

CHAPTER SIX: How to Find the Combinations

• By diversifying occupations
• By interacting with diverse groups of people
• By going Intersection hunting

” A Renaissance man is someone that can see trends and patterns and integrate what he knows. To me the modern Renaissance man is curious, interested in different things. You have to be willing to ‘waste time’ on things that are not directly relevant to your work because you are curious. But then you are able to, sometimes unconsciously, integrate them back into your work.” (76) One person even called herself “an expert at being a generalist, or an expert-generalist…someone who is adept at generating innovative strategies and insights for any industry.” (76-7)

Why are people so hesitant about working in diverse teams? Psychologists call this tendency “the similar-attraction effect,” the tendency to stick with people who are like themselves and avoid those who are different. (80) “A sure path to inhibit your own creativity is to seek out environments where people are just like you.” (82) So how do you bring diverse groups of people together? “For starters, it is important to depersonalize conflicts.” (83) Go intersection hunting by “selecting items with no apparent connection,” (85) and “buy a couple magazines you usually do not read.” (86)

CHAPTER SEVEN: Ignite an Explosion of Ideas

“The most successful innovators produce and realize an incredible number of ideas. The strongest correlation for quality of ideas is, in fact, quantity of ideas…it is typical to find that around 10 percent of the creators are responsible for 50 percent of all the contributions.” (91) Why? “The intersection of fields, cultures, and disciplines generates combinations of different ideas, yes; but it also generates a massive number of those combinations. People at the Intersection, then, can pursue more ideas in search of the right ones.” (91)

Dean Simonton says “innovators don’t produce because they are successful, but that they are successful because they produce. Quantity of ideas leads to quality of ideas.” (96)

CHAPTER EIGHT: How to Capture the Explosion

• Strike a balance between depth and breadth
• Actively generate many ideas
• Allow time for evaluation

“Too much expertise can fortify associative barriers…yet, expertise is clearly needed in order to develop new ideas to begin with.” (104) “One of the best ways to brainstorm privately is to place a target for the number of ideas that you wish to generate before you start considering whether they are any good.” (106)

The buzz of a good brainstormer can infect a team with optimism and a sense of opportunity that can carry it through the darkest and most pressure-tinged stages of a project. – Tom Kelley (107)

1. Produce as many ideas as possible
2. Produce ideas as wild as possible
3. Build upon each other’s ideas
4. Avoid passing judgment on ideas

How to brainstorm: First, brainstorm individually. Then practice “brainwriting,” in which you write on the board the ideas, building off each other without speaking at all. (111) Then, “if you want to capture intersectional ideas, your best bet may be to take your time.” (113) “The incubation period is so well documented in creativity research that it is simply bad planning not to include time for it while working on a project.” (114)

PART THREE – MAKING INTERSECTIONAL IDEAS HAPPEN

CHAPTER NINE: Execute Past Your Failures

Using Prothrow-Stith’s intersection of heath and law enforcement for violence prevention amongst kids, I was thankful for these insights: “It turns out few kids like to think of themselves as ‘high risk.’ ” (122) “For many students, it was inconceivable not to answer every insult with an escalation. Many students didn’t know that there were less risky ways to handle a confrontation.” (123)

“Mistakes are inevitable if you want to succeed.” (124) “Successful execution of intersectional ideas, then, does not come from planning for success, but planning for failure. It is a counterintuitive idea, but a critical one. Since we cannot rely on past experience to devise a perfect execution path, we must rely on learning what works and what doesn’t.” (126)

CHAPTER TEN: How to Succeed in the Face of Failure

• Try ideas that fail to find those that won’t
• Reserve resources for trial and error
• Remain motivated

“…the best results would come in an environment where success and failure are rewarded equally — and where inaction is punished.” (129)

• Make sure people are aware that failure to execute ideas is the greatest failure, and that it will be punished.
• Make sure everyone learns from past failures; do not reward the same mistakes over and over again.
• If people show low failure rates, be suspicious. Maybe they are not taking enough risks, or maybe they are hiding their mistakes, rather than allowing others in the organization to learn from them.
• Hire people who have had intelligent failures and let others in the organization know that’s one reason they were hired.

“…just by saying that one activity is a reward for another activity can lead to a decrease in actual creative output.” (137)

“Consider this experiment: The subjects were asked to mount a candle on a vertical screen. They could use only the screen, the candle, a book of matches, and a box of thumbtacks to solve the problem. This experiment contained what researchers call a ‘break set,’  which is a fancy way of saying that the subject must use an object in an unusual way. In this case the subject had to empty the tacks from the box and then tack the box to the screen as a platform for the candle. Of course, the hard part here was seeing that the box could be used as a platform and not merely a container for the tacks. One group was told that they would receive a $5 reward if their solution time to the problem was in the top quartile and $20 if their solution was the fastest. The second group did not get these instruction. As you might have guessed by now, the group that had no chance of getting a reward solved the problem significantly faster than the people who did.” (137-8)

“Explicit rewards, then, can be an effective way to kill off our creativity. Why exactly? [There is] a connection between our internal drive, or intrinsic motivation as it is called, and our creative efforts. If intrinsic motivation is high, if we are passionate about what we are doing, creativity will flow. External expectations and rewards can kill intrinsic motivation and thus kill creativity.” (138)

Money is great stuff to have, but when it comes to the act of creation, the best thing is not to think of money too much. It constipates the whole process.” – Stephen King (138)

CHAPTER 11: Break Out of Your Network

” ’swarm intelligence’ is a fascinating field filled with biologists, computer programmers, and others trying to find trends and answers by running programs that mimic the behavior of social insects.” (145) “Virtually all of your existing relationships and structures seem to be holding you back.” (146) These “value networks” “are needed to succeed within a field. That’s why we form them. And that is…where all the trouble starts.” (149) “Although value networks are essential for directional innovation, they can prevent us from successfully pursuing intersectional innovation.” (149)

CHAPTER 12: How to Leave the Network Behind

• Break the chain of dependence
• Prepare for a fight

CHAPTER 13: Take Risks and Overcome Fear

“…because of something called acceptable failure, society’s expectations can make the perceived stakes at the Intersection seem much higher than those associated with directional ideas. The risk people tend to fear most is not financial loss or wasted time. Rather, it is the risk to their pride, status, and prestige, to what their peers will think of them if they fail. In other words, the risk of failure can weigh more heavily than what is at risk.” (163)

“Although the evidence is mostly anecdotal, there seems to be a clear link between a specific society’s stigma of failure and the corresponding amount of entrepreneurial activity.” (164)

“Humans have a fundamental tendency to live their lives at a certain ‘acceptable’ level of risk…Gerald Wilde calls this risk homeostasis which says that people will compensate for taking higher risks in one area of life by taking lower risks in another.” (166-7)

CHAPTER 14: How to Adopt a Balanced View of Risk

• Avoid behavioral traps relating to risk
• Acknowledge risks and fears

“Our quirks prod us toward directional innovation and away from intersectional innovation, even if the risks in both approaches are the same.” (173)

Trap 1: If Things Are Going Well, We Stay Within a Field. “Suppose, for a moment, that you were forced to make the following choice: You must either pay $3,000 or take a gamble with an 80 percent risk of paying $4000 and a 20 percent chance of paying nothing.” Ninety-two percent of respondents in an experiment said they would gamble on paying $4,000 with a chance of not having to pay anything. But what happens if the question is inverted? You will either be given $3,000 or have to take a gamble with an 80 percent chance of winning $4,000 and a 20 percent risk of getting nothing. In an intriguing reversal of values, most people choose not to take the gamble.” (173-4)

“Prospect theory suggests that it is not so much that we hate uncertainty, but rather that we fear losing. It is not that easy to see how things in our life could instantly get better — but it is easy to see how they could quickly get far worse.” (174) “The problem here is that if we take chances only when we have something to lose and play it safe when we have something to gain, we will be losing in the long run.” (174) “Most of us would rather coast than risk losing what we have. It is comfortable and often very prudent to move forward in small, controlled steps, making sure to reap the gains we know we can get.” (175) “The problem is that if we are willing to take risks and pursue intersections only when we are doing poorly, we’ll hurt our overall chances of success. This is the point when we tend to be short on resources, contacts, credibility, and time. This is when we have the lowest chance of executing past our failures. Instead, we should try to innovate, to take more chances, when things are going well.” (175)

Trap 2: Time Spent in a Field Becomes a Reason to Stay in the Field. “What they have done in the past does not by itself become a criterion for what they should do in the future.” (177)

Trap 3: We View Risks at the Intersection from a Directional Perspective

“Imagine that a terrible disease has broken out in your community and you are the health care strategists in charge of taking action. It is believed that 600 lives are at stake and you can choose between one of two vaccines. The first vaccine will definitely save 200 lives. The second vaccine is experimental and has an uncertain outcome. It offers a 33 percent chance that all 600 people will be saved, but a 67 percent chance that no one will be saved. What would you do? Kahneman and Tversky found in their studies that most people choose to save the 200 lives.

Now, imagine that you instead had to choose between the following two options: With the first vaccine, 400 of the 600 people will die. The second vaccine is experimental and has an uncertain outcome. It provides a 33 percent chance that no one will die, and a 67 percent chance that everyone will die. What would you do? In this version, 78 percent of respondents said they would try the experimental vaccine.

This is rather interesting considering that the two situations described are exactly the same; they were just expressed differently. In the first case the situation was framed as saving 200 lives, in the second as letting 400 people die. People’s risk taking behavior changed significantly depending upon how they read words ’save’ and ‘die.’ ” (177)

Courage is the resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear. – Mark Twain (181)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Step into the Intersection…and Create the Medici Effect

Expect the unexpected. There is logic to the Intersection, but the logic is not obvious. “The unexpected nature of the Intersection makes it a place of uncertainty.” (188)

Take the leap.

— VIA —

While much of the book could have been condensed into a more concise form, the read was still worth it for the insights, experiments, and quotes listed above. In a short personal thought exercise, I began to pair youth advocacy with garbage collecting, air traffic control, and cooking. As for counseling and leadership, I began pairing elephants and race cars, cell phones and octopuses, eating and escalators, anger and skydiving, drama (the bad kind) and UPS. It’s been fun, and I’ve very much appreciated the lengthening and widening of my associative barriers.

I’m also thankful for his segments and failure and risk, which are key components of human behavior. It’s further insight into the pride of life, and the fear of losing, which are both Biblical themes to overcome.

So, I’m excited to see how this is going to take hold in my organization, as we are experiencing fairly high levels of success right now. So, it must be time to take some risks into the Intersection!

Mozilla’s Director of Evangelism – Have You Ever Been “Jesus Jumped?”

While watching Firefox’s new browser release videos, this popped on to the screen:

The phrase that caught my attention in the video is “real world performance characteristics.” I think I’ve fallen in love with that statement, more so than the phrase usually associated with “evangelism,” (at least in faith communities) of “spreading the good news.”

In Greek, the word “evangelism” does denote “good news,” or “good tidings,” but it unfortunately connotes (to many), “proselytization,” “tracks,” “sharing the gospel,” etc. A friend of ours (who is a Christian) relayed a personal story in which her friend (who is not a person of any faith) was recently “Jesus Jumped.” I’m sure many would find that statement appropriate. In some ways, this kind of “loving evangelism’s,” “real world performance characteristics,” means a “verbal assault” of religious platitudes and exhortations.

So, thanks Mozilla, for giving me a phraseology that I think I’ll begin to employ when thinking about what, in faith communities, is known as “lifestyle evangelism.” We ought to ask the question, what are the “real world performance characteristics” of this faith we profess?

The Edible Schoolyard – Why College Should Not Be The Goal

Alice Waters. The Edible Schoolyard: A Universal Idea. Chronicle Books, 2008.

http://www.edibleschoolyard.org/

The Edible Schoolyard (ESY), a program of the Chez Panisse Foundation, is a one-acre organic garden and kitchen classroom for urban public school students at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, California. At ESY, students participate in all aspects of growing, harvesting, and preparing nutritious, seasonal produce.
Classroom teachers and Edible Schoolyard educators integrate food systems concepts into the core curriculum. Students’ hands-on experience in the kitchen and garden fosters a deeper appreciation of how the natural world sustains us and promotes the environmental and social well being of our school community. View video >

Searching the internet yielded another Edible Schoolyard in New Orleans, LA.

— VIA —

I’ve been thinking a lot about education lately, and I was struck with the “mission” and “goals” of some of the other projects that I’ve posted on this blog. Primarily, their objectives are academic advancement, at least at first glance, and at face value of their rhetoric. This has left me unsatisfied. Pursuing college, attaining the basic skills of literacy, history, mathematics, etc., is clearly important, and I have no depreciation of these subjects being taught. Yet, (and this is often risky to say), why is “going to college,” the ultimate goal that we instill in these kids at such an early age? I recently saw a video clip of some graduated seniors from a local academy, one that is famous for 90% of their graduates (from an impoverished demographic) being accepted at well-known accredited colleges. The kids were loudly, and with great jubilation, chanting the mantra, “I’m going to college!”

I ask the irritating question, “Why?”

Why is college so important? And, why is “college” the captivating value ultimately for education? Don’t get me wrong. I went to college, and am still going in fact. However, I’m sure any college graduate will tell you that there is a disproportionate cost/benefit balance when it comes to true education, and more importantly, true life skills. In addition, given the moral and ethical failures that we are seeing in abundance, perhaps there should be other disciplines and ideas given, taught, and “educated” into our kids as they head for higher education.

In contradistinction to other education projects, The Edible Schoolyard stood out, to me, as a “life approach” towards the subject, not simply an academic one. From what I’ve read and seen, their goals were not simply that they attain to the highest levels of agricultural education, but rather, they’ll teach things like, “Good food ought to be a right and not a privilege,” and “No work, no benefits.” This quote from the New Orleans site caught my attention:

Our goal is to transform a typical commercialized cafeteria into a dining experience that models sustainable patterns of living and encourages students to use their senses and to enjoy meaningful social interactions with staff and other students.

That would be an example of a higher level of education that rises above “higher education.”

So, my muse is quite simple. Definitely encourage and push kids towards college, towards higher levels of education. But most of all, push them to understand why. And, give them the intrinsic guiding principles, the moral center, the fundamental human values that embrace and contextualize their education for something so much greater than the education which they are receiving.

Our goal is to transform a typical commercialized cafeteria into a dining experience that models sustainable patterns of living and encourages students to use their senses and to enjoy meaningful social interactions with staff and other students.

Ready For The Storm

Today was my day off, and so this post is a bit more “personal” than critical. For some reason, I picked up my guitar, and started playing one of my favorites that I haven’t heard performed in over a decade, at least. Written by Dougie MacLean about fishing, this Scottish hymn, has become a popular parable for life, and for faith. It’s one of my favorites.

The waves crash in and the tide tide pulls out
It’s an angry sea but there is no doubt
That the lighthouse will keep shining out to warn the lonely sailor
And the lightning strikes and the wind cuts cold through the sailor’s bones, to the sailor’s soul
‘Till there’s nothing left that he can hold except the rolling ocean

CHORUS
And I am ready for the storm, yes sir, ready
I am ready for the storm, I’m ready for the storm

Oh give me mercy for my dreams
‘Cause every confrontation seems
To tell me what it really means to be this lonely sailor
And when you take me by your side you love me warm, you love me and
I should have realized I had no reason to be frightened

The distance it is no real friend
And time will take its time
And you will find that in the end it brings you me, the lonely sailor
And when the sky begins to clear and the sun it melts away my fear
I’ll cry a silent weary tear for those that need to love me

Up

http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/up/

My wife and I are simply inspired by Disney/Pixar’s ability to tell as story. UP is a beautifully woven adventure story spanning the entirety of life, from childhood through death. The joys and disappointments of life are brought to the screen in amazingly moving ways, often without dialogue (again, Pixar’s amazing ability to tell a story through imagery). So, if you haven’t seen it yet, be sure to bring tissue.

The beauty of UP lies in the tragedies of disappointment. That is, of course, a great formula for a great story. Without Carl Fredrickson’s losses (no children, loss of his wife, the wealthy developers surrounding his beloved home, his childhood hero turned villain), there would be no tension from which to spring towards overcoming the disappointments. A great lesson in these kinds of stories is that tragedy and disappointment are always opportunities for new seasons, and/or new adventures.

I’m also struck with how the inspiration of UP comes from the surrounding players, Ellie and Russell, who are constantly reminding Carl of the joy that is right before him. Eventually, Carl comes to an appreciation of the life he still has, rather than the life that he has lost, a lesson for us all. Let us also not forget the inter-generational aspect, that the young is inspiring the old. And not just that Russell is a great leader of Carl, but that the younger Carl and Ellie is a great inspiration to himself.

Perhaps in a bit of “title irony,” the message of UP is that you ought never let circumstances bring you down. And the only way to keep yourself from looking down, is to be surrounded by people who are dreaming big and looking up. And it is not until the end of the story that we see in Ellie’s “Adventure Book,” that she’s been looking up, all along.

The 10/13 Window

The May/June 2009 edition of Children’s Magazine published this article by Alan Nelson. Below is the full article in .jpg., and you can download the .pdf here.

Alan is the author of From Me To We, and the founder of www.KidLead.com, “America’s only leadership development program that specifically targets leaders when they’re moldable.”

My thanks to Alan for sending me the article, and for valuing the young enough to develop and run this program.

A few select quotes:

Sometimes I tell people that I could beat the world’s fastest runner in a race. They look at me and curiously wonder what I’m getting at, as they quietly stare at my middle-aged physique. I say, “I could beat the fastest person in the world—as long as I had a big enough head start.”

After 25 years of pastoral ministry, including over 15 years of training leaders and writing books and articles on the topic, I’ve come to a conclusion about leadership: The best hope for developing ethical, effective leaders is to train them during their preteen years.

The 10/13 window is a unique period when a child’s cognition is sufficiently developed to learn sophisticated social skills such as leading and his or her character is still pliable enough to be shaped. The goal in this window is to teach character in the context of leadership—in other words, to teach leadership that’s ethical and Christ-centered.