The Best of 2022 - Part 1
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The Best of 2022 - Part 1
Well, at least one post from every month.
Quote of the Moment
When the past is always with you, it may as well be present; and if it is present, it will be future as well.
| William Gibson, Neuromancer
There is an inherent danger — or at least the possibility of a misstep — when attempting to summarize the past in service of insight. But on the other hand, what else do we have to go on?
The human condition can almost be summed up in the observation that, whereas all experiences are of the past, all decisions are about the future. It is the great task of human knowledge to bridge this gap and to find those patterns in the past which can be projected into the future as realistic images.
| Kenneth Boulding
It’s the time of year when I withdraw more than usual from the world. The winter lethargy, when ancient humans would huddle in caves, waiting for the broadening of the light, and would fall into a hibernation-like stupor.
Which is to say I am falling back to a post a week or so until 2023.
Peace unto you and yours.
A new tradition: I am dedicating this issue and the next to a post (or two) from each month that is worth another look. Or maybe a first look for those who weren’t subscribers when they first came out, or perhaps (even now) couldn’t be accessed except by paid subscribers. So I am making these posts freely accessible until Groundhog’s Day for everyone. A jubilee!
Since all these issues have been unlocked, it’s a great issue to share with others to see what all the fuss is about.
January 2022
Céline Schillinger, Dare to Un-Lead
The art of relational management in a fragmented world.
I think our organizations, and more generally our society, are sick – they make us sick. This is because of a noxious leadership that we continue to perpetuate, revere even, despite all the evidence that it doesn't work.
| Céline Schillinger
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Every Moment A Doorway
You can go any direction, although directions can be impeded.
I like to think of a new year being possible at any moment, as every moment is a kind of doorway. You can go any direction, although directions can be impeded.
| Joy Harjo, poet laureate of the United States
February 2022
Derek Thompson on the Five-Day Workweek
It's becoming a three-day office week within a longer workweek
“The number of person-days in the office is never going back to pre-pandemic average, ever,” Bloom told me. After two years of working from home, he said, employees don’t just prefer it. They also feel like they’re getting better at it. Despite widespread reports of burnout, self-reported productivity has increased steadily in the past year, according to his research.
In the next decade, U.S. workers will spend about 25 percent of their time working from home, Bloom says. That’s 20 percentage points higher than the pre-pandemic figure, leaving companies with an important choice: sign for significantly less office space, or accept that significantly more of your space will go unused on a given day.
| Derek Thompson
March 2022
Mark Storm on A Time Between Worlds
Are we at a point of inflection like the Enlightenment? Let's hope so.
In Post scriptum (2022, week 12), Mark Storm has looked into the liminal time we are in — a time between worlds — where by 'worlds' he means epochs of human civilization.
This discussion ranges beyond the normal boundaries of the future of work, but work is enmeshed in the larger world, and as that world is subjected to new pressures, so too do we feel those pressures in work culture. As the world changes, so too does work.
April 2022
DICE, RACI, DARE, and Consent
Many grapple with 'who decides?' leading to many proposed solutions.
Consensus decision making is often thought of as being more empowering for employees, but in fact it is more like the tyranny of the group blocking innovation and experimentation, since everyone has to agree to the decision. This is due to the natural conservatism in groups, and aversion to risk. Consensus decision making is quite similar to Top-down, in that regard.
‘Tis the season…
May 2022
Unretirement
Don’t count out the possibility that people want and need work. | Nick Bunker
Jenny Zhang is hypnotic in her exploration of the impact of technology, but Zhang’s writing cuts to ground truths:
Nine days out of ten, I am terrified about the future of the world, the rising seas and the burning skies. The only thing I’ve found solace in are the people who do still believe in reciprocity, the mutual aid efforts that have sprung up in the wake of the systemic failures of governments, the altruism that shines through when disaster unfolds, the same $20 that gets Venmo’d back and forth depending on whose need is greater at that time. This duty of care is, I think, the height of what it means to be human, and our commitments to one another are what shapes our senses of self, what we consider right and wrong. Who we are is inextricable from our relationships and our community.
Yes. Remember, honor is a duty we owe to ourselves.
June 2022
Commuting Is Evil
It goes against Aldo Leopold's Golden Rule.
A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.
| Aldo Leopold
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Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There!
Emma Goldman | Return to the Office | Workers Rights | The Good Working Life | The Action Bias
The defenders of authority dread the advent of a free motherhood lest it rob them of their prey. Who would fight wars? Who would create wealth? Who would make the policeman, the jailer, if woman were to refuse the incriminate breeding of children? The race, the race! shouts the king, the president, the capitalist, the priest. The race must be preserved, though woman be degraded to a mere machine.
| Emma Goldman
Since all these issues have been unlocked, it’s a great issue to share with others to see what all the fuss is about.