When you look at many of the “Great” contributors of society, men and women that have made significant contributions to human consciousness, if you remove all the glory, they often seem cookier than the guy on the street yelling at no one.

A correlation between Madness and Genius seems to exist. Possibly even a causal relationship.

Greatness doesn’t come from being in the middle of the bell curve.  It comes from being at the furthest tip of the curve or beyond.  The problem is, escaping the middle of the curve is difficult, there is so much inertia that wants to keep you caged there.  Rules, practices, traditions, genetics, governments, excuses, doubt, all these things force you back into the middle.  Ultimately, escaping all these forces requires some extreme types of behavior–what we’d call deviant behavior.  Behavior that steps into the realm of bizarre, maniacal, or outright wacky.

But the truth is, deviant behavior opens doors to new things.  You’d think it was pretty fucking weird if all I did was eat, sleep, and throw a ball at a red fleck of paint on the wall standing 100 feet away.  But,  this obsession has some probability of creating an opportunity that I’ll have access to that you won’t.

This doesn’t mean being outwardly weird is a requirement for being great.  Rather, this cookiness comes as a side effect.  You don’t have to act like a wack-job to paint great portraits.  But, the lust for something different and new and interesting and cathartic sometimes seems to seep out in other ways beyond just the primary pursuit.

So what’s the difference between a Genius and a Madman?

On the superficial level–money, power, fame. You can’t talk smack when the quivering idiot has a hand full of aces and you don’t.

But we can dive further than this.  As far as I can see, there’s 2 deeper differences:

1) Context. In one context, throwing a ball at a wall all day in new and different ways could just seem outright dumb.  Throwing a ball in the same manner while standing on a pitcher’s mound in a baseball game could be brilliant.  If you can’t hear the music, the dancer looks crazy.  And if you’re in the wrong spot, your gift can seem like a curse.

2) Adaptability. It’s possible that the genius is better able to focus his “madness” in ways that are more beneficial.  The genius is able to find his way to the edge where madness bears gifts, no matter the Context.

These aren’t mutually exclusive, and likely, it’s some sort of  co-evolutionary process.

But, if I were to choose the one that really matters, I’d choose Context.

This may be the product of my biased view of the world that everything comes from the expression of our internal state.  Every action we take is an expression–whether we like it or not. If you’re controlled by your lowest desires, you become a despicable brute.  If your head is empty, you’ll be controlled by the contorted thoughts of dictators–something must fill your mind, and it will be filled for you if you don’t.

And when I look at great people, I see their internal state coming out loud and clear.  They’re clawing towards where they’re compelled to go–driven by intense pain or pleasure or both.  They’re doing what they do and spend their lives trying to get to where they can do more of it.  As far as I can tell, they didn’t change themselves.  They found their own way to their ray of light.

So maybe the primary difference really is just Context.  But then does it boil down to luck of birth? where you’re born and when?

Sure, that has something do with it.  But I have this insane belief that people are stronger than circumstance, and that, metaphorically speaking, Alchemists and Wizards and Ubermen exist, and I think that’s the right belief to hold.  Great physicists and writers escaped terrible prisons in the middle of Siberia so that they could be united with their craft. How many great phsysicists or writers died in the same process, we’ll never know. But the belief that we’re strong creates a probability of success.

So maybe this post boils down to these two thoughts:

a) If you’re a Madman, and if you believe you are strong, keep moving until you find yourself in the right place.

b) If you’re just an average joe, be glad you’re not a Madman, love your stable environment, kick back, enjoy the show the Madmen will provide, and hope it doesn’t destroy your world.

-Kevin
1.27.2012

The short of it:

1) Go to this site (http://bit.ly/zM4UW2) and donate $10 to help my friend achieve her dream. (You’ll find more info there on how the money is used.)

2) Reach out to one person you’ve genuinely been meaning to get in touch with, and see if they’re willing to pitch in. (You can tell them it was my idea if you don’t like asking people for money.  feel free to blame it on me.)

The full version, and why you should do this:

“dreams” are things we long for. They seem to be slippery and fleeting.  We have lots when we’re kids.  They diffuse away as we get older.

This sure seems to be the case, because as far as I can tell, not that many people have them.  Not dreams that are strong enough to drive them to take deliberate steps to achieve them.

How many people do you know that have a real dream that they want more than anything?

~

I have a friend.  Her dream is to run in the Boston Marathon, as a numbered runner, and complete it in under 4 hours.  Moreover, she’s running for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society, and her goal is to raise over $5,000 for the cause.

She mentioned this years ago, and she’s doing it.  She’s right on track.

However, dreams aren’t achieved without the support of others. Afterall, none of us really work alone. And we should want to see each other achieve our dreams, because it’s a reminder to the rest of us that we can achieve our own.

So how can we help her achieve this?

She needs a little more than $4,000 to reach her goal.  For people with income, $10 is a reasonable sum of money to give, which means she just needs 400 people to donate at least $10.

~

We’ve all probably met hundreds of people in life.  We fall out of touch with many of them.  This offers an opportunity to get back in touch with a few of them.

I’ll call this the “400 by 10 ” challenge.  This needs to be done in approximately 30 days.  Here’s what I propose:

• I’m going to start reaching out to people to re-connect and to see if they’re willing to donate $10.  Of course, I won’t be able to reach 400 people in time.  So……
• If you can, take the opportunity to reach out to 1 person you’ve genuinely been meaning to talk to, and see if they’re up for helping.
  • Perhaps you might say, “Kevin Vogelsang wrote this post (http://bit.ly/zaXvE2).  Reminded me I needed to catch up with you.  If you’re up for it, play along and kick in $10 at this girl’s Boston Marathon fundraising page (http://bit.ly/zM4UW2). Anyway, ……”  Something like that.

I have a feeling getting involved will energize you, and get you thinking about your own dreams.  Let us know how we can support. (Seriously, send me an email.)

I appreciate your help. Things come full circle.

-Kevin
1.18.2012

I have a younger brother named Michael.  He’s a junior in high school, smart kid, and a really good football player (starting defensive end on a very good team).

When I was visiting home for the holidays, I learned something interesting: apparently he bakes a whole plate of cookies for all his friends on their birthdays.  And when he doesn’t know someone, but feels he should, he does the same for them as well.

Upon learning this, I thought to myself, “wow, that’s unbelievable.”  I was really impressed, and even inspired.  He’s busy just like the rest of us and does things like this for people.

~

Later, I of course started thinking about this.  Was I ever that kind? Have I gotten overly-selfish?

Making your way out in the world can be tough.  Sometimes you have to be near-ruthless to protect yourself and get what you need.  And amidst all the elbows, calamity, pain, and weariness, I worry we become much colder people.

And very likely, this transformation is needless and counter-productive.

~

I’d been thinking about this for a while.  And then something funny happened the other day….

So there I was, sitting at my computer, feeling lousy.  I was tired from travelling.  I had multiple personal issues spring up that were distressing.  I also hadn’t exercised or written in a while which didn’t help.  I couldn’t concentrate and didn’t have the energy to do anything I wanted to do, so I naturally started wasting some time on facebook.  Then, rather unexpectedly, this message popped up on my screen from a grade school classmate:

Hey Kevin, you probably don’t remember me, but my mom and I saw you guys at christmas eve mass and were talking about back when we were in school. I remember once when I was upset you came over and gave me a hug at recess, I just want to let you know that it meant a lot to me and I’ve never forgotten it. I appreciate how kind you were to me.

Amazing.  She remembered something that happened over 10 years ago, and thought to send me a message.  And it came to me in (what is thankfully) a rare moment of sharp lousiness.  It helped get me back up and at it.

~

Kindness is powerful, and we forget it.  And we become a bit too callous.

Moreover, it doesn’t require great investments, just open eyes and a few moments.  Something small to you could be large to someone else.

Remember?

-Kevin
1.17.2011

“Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness” – Seneca

Image via Wikipedia

The term “Edge of Chaos” stems from observations made by researchers in complexity science.  Here’s the basic idea:

On one side of the spectrum, a system can be highly ordered and in equilibrium.  Imagine a very rigid company that makes a specific amount of a certain widget each month and carries out its function as efficiently as possible.

On the other side of the spectrum, a system can be in chaos, and no longer function as a system.  Imagine a company that was just a room full of 3 year-olds with each of them running in different directions.

Somewhere between these extremes is the “Edge of Chaos” where the system displays the most variety and a rich set of complex behaviors.  Some make the generalization that this is where systems are the most adaptive and creative.

All the things I’ve created thus far in my life that I consider great have come from chaotic times when there were very real and scary consequences for failure.  It’s important to challenge yourself, but there’s a difference between running to beat your best time, and running to escape a lion.  When you’re trying to beat your best time, you run harder.  When you’re being chased by a lion, you run faster than you knew you could and will likely be forced to try new things.

This comes back to a very important principle of my philosophy — define your environment so that the environment defines you in favorable ways.

So, if you want to learn or discover something, you might consider taking some part of your life to the “Edge of Chaos”, a place where you will be challenged, struggle, and will have to innovate to win.  I’m quite certain, that if done correctly, this will lead to a richer and more interesting life–if that is what you want.

-Kevin
12.18.2011

I came across this video on YouTube of Feynman talking about knowledge and purpose:

“I’m just trying to find out more about the world…..I don’t feel frightened by not knowing things,by feeling lost in the mysteious universe without having any purpose.  Which is the way it really is as far as I can tell possibly.  It doesn’t frighten me.”

The paradox tickles me.  Feynman’s life has proven that one can be full of purpose, and at the same time, recognize that there may be no purpose at all.

Feynman’s lifelong motivator was absolutely unrelenting curiosity.  His purpose was simply finding out more about the world.  There was no need for an external purpose to be bestowed upon him by the universe–his purpose was created internally, driven by his passions.

-Kevin
11.23.2011

I enjoy studying the stories of “great men”.  If you approach a biography of one of history’s great minds with the right filter, you can pick up some good data on what it takes to be great — just look out for the tendency of writers to get things wrong and get rid of the idea that they’re demi-gods that operate in isolation.

I recently finished a biography on Walt Disney (Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination).   So what made Walt become the name of one of the greatest brands in the world?

• He was willing to put up with a lot of shit — socialist instigators, animators walking out on him, unions, all the people that would try and screw him, not having any money, and on and on.
• An interest in novelty.  This is very important.  Walt loved novel things.  He took a fascination to trains and built a track at his house.  He helped push Disney to add sound to cartoons.  He liked things that were unusual.  He liked new technologies and embraced them.
• He was not afraid to take credit. He took credit for things.
• He insisted on quality.  He faced a constant struggle between quality films and budgets.  This at times seemed like a fault, and very well may have been, but he did come out on top.
• A belief in and desire for utopia.  Walt tried to build a utopian workplace for his company.  It is also what later pushed him to make Disney Land.

There’s one other thing.  People talk about how “failure is important” and “why you shouldn’t be afraid to fail” — a lot of stuff that isn’t true.  So let me present the observation instead of trying to tout some sort of idiotic half truth on failure:

Overall, Walt Disney’s story sounds like a failure.

If you replaced his name with someone else’s, and removed the last 2 chapters of his life, you would think you were listening to a story about the disillusionment of the American dream, not a triumph of American imagination.

-Kevin

11.9.2011

Image via Wikipedia

This past weekend, I was walking along Commonwealth Avenue in Boston near Kenmore Square.  On the sidewalk in front of me next to an apartment building’s stoop, I noticed a character in a dark brown leather jacket, a navy t shirt, jeans, and a dark baseball cap, pulled pretty low with a pretty steep curvature of the bill — a “duck bill” as we called them back home.  He wasn’t poor, more like an untidy college student.

As I was about to walk past him, he stepped out and shouted, “excuse me, can you help me for one minute?”  I hesitated a bit, and turned to look at him, paused, and then shook my head, and started to walk on.  He then shouted, “C’mon! Just one minute, literally, just the equivalent of flipping a light switch.”

I walked on, and after these words, I had no qualms about it.

He didn’t come out and say what he wanted.  He was hiding something.  He was trying to get me to stop and commit to a conversation.  Most people then have a hard time walking away once they’ve made the committment to stop and talk. If you’ve walked around Boston, you’ve probably encountered some sly people that will do this with a simple request and then, before you know it, they’re telling you about something you don’t have time for.

He was a time thief.  He was going to try and steal my time.

~

Imagine a crowd of people.  A man appears before the crowd in a puff of smoke.  A wizard or something.

The wizard says, “I’ve got one hour of time to sell.  You must use it today.  It will go to the highest bidder.”

What do you think the highest bid for different people would be?

$0 for some. What would I do with an extra hour of time today?

$40 for some. I can make about $80 dollars and hour so it’ll be like a free $40.

$10,000. I have as much money as I need. I just don’t have enough time.

Their life savings.  My wife could die at any moment today.  An extra hour would be worth it.

~

The valuation of time is very complex.  It depends on income, mental energy, physical location, and so on.  And consequently, people value their time very differently.  And worse, the value of time varies substantially even for an individual.

This causes trouble.

For instance, some would say 5 minutes is a rather trivial amount of time.  So they might think interrupting someone for 5 minutes should never be a problem, and anyone that gets upset about ebing interrupted for 5 minutes is some sort of  sociopath.

But what if I’m entranced with a thought or problem and that 5 minutes will destroy my train of thought.  That loss of 5 minutes is actually a substantial loss.  Like having an incredible dream you get woken up from, that you know you’ll never have again.

With such huge variation in the value of time, a time thief doesn’t know the value of what they’re stealing.  It might be useless to them, but invaluable to you.

Unfortunately, people don’t value each other’s time.  This annoys me.  It might seem ridiculous, but no one is entitled to anyone’s time. And I mean no one. We often operate under this assumption that we’re entitled to certain peoples’ time.  This is how we turn into time thieves

~

The points of this chain of thoughts is this:

• Don’t let people steal your time.  Avoid people that do this.
• You are not entitled to anyone’s time.
• Best Practice: Operate under the assumption that any particular moment of time means the world to the person.  This has many positive benefits.

-Kevin
10.23.2011

Image via Wikipedia

It’s a very unique type of riddle.  Here it is:

5 of history’s greatest physicists are sitting at a round table.  They’re faced with a problem.

Physicist Number One proposes a plausible solution. The others then pose potential solutions.

They then discuss problems with the various solutions. All of the solutions are great ideas.  Many of the ideas contradict each other.

Physicist Number One never repeats his solution or argues for it. No one ever repeats anyone’s idea.

After some debate, the Chairman says, “Well, it’s time to make a decision.  Number One’s solution is clearly the best.”

They all instantly agree that Number One’s solution is the best.

Question: Why is there no arguing?

There are multiple answers to this.  It isn’t a logic puzzle.  This is a puzzle concerning intellectual fields and human social dynamics.

This scenario actually was one encountered by the incredibly interesting character Richard Feynman.  Feynman concludes, or perhaps assumes, 1 reason why this happens.

I can think of  5 very distinct forces that could each cause this to happen (that aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive).

What is your answer?  (Or set of answers).

Think of as many distinct forces as you can that caused them to reach a decision without arguing, and write your answer in the comments or send me an email.  I’ll post my answer (and Feynman’s)  in the comments on Sunday evening.

-Kevin
10.21.2011

p.s. Here’s the first letter of each of my answers to help remind me what I thought of.  Feel free to try to use them to your advantage.

p

a

g

c

d

Image via Wikipedia

When do you really know someone?  And what’s the best way for developing this full understanding of the person?

I’ve thought about these questions from time to time.  I like understanding people.  But, reaching that understanding is difficult.  It’s a moving target, and you could say it’s the lifelong journey of two soul mates to fully understand each others desires, motivations, and sources of enjoyment.

This brings us to one of those (somewhat annoying) fundamental questions: who is someone?  Or, a better formulation of the question, what is the self ?

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who is now my favorite thinker and writer (although I still can’t spell his name without looking for it), has the answer I was looking for in his book called Flow :

[The self] contains everything else that has passed through consciousness: all the memories, actions, desires, pleasures, and pains are included in it.And more than anything else,the self represents the hierarchy of goals that we have built up, bit by bit, over the years.

the self represents the hierarchy of goals

Our goals, both explicit and implicit, are the greatest contributor to who we are.  Bear in mind the word “hierarchy” and that there are tiers of different types of goals that range from “become a neurosurgeon and save the world” to “start a romantic relationship with Sarah” to “keep a good lawn.”

This explanation has a delightful density of meaning, but what does this mean for our relationships?

If we don’t understand the goals of our friends and family, we don’t really understand them.

After reading this definition, I had to ponder to myself, of the people I interact with often, of the people that are close to me, for how many of them do I have an understanding of their goals?

Not many.

So here’s my question for you: is there someone you interact with regularly, someone you consider close to you, whose goals you don’t understand?  Is there more than one?

I’ll pose a challenge to you: find a way to understand their goals.

Discussion of goals isn’t a conversation most people are used to having.  Some people freak out at the mention of goals.  Some people are scared or embarrassed to talk about their goals — they’re very personal things.

To help break the ice and prime the conversation, you might consider sending them a link to this post

-Kevin
10.10.2011

Image via Wikipedia

On attempting to deprive one’s senses

First, an update on my trip to the Sensory Deprivation chamber….

Two weeks ago, I took a trip out to Boylston, MA to a “healing arts center” that had a Sensory Deprivation tank for the purpose of what is called “flotation therapy.”  This trip was a part of my journey in experiencing alternate states of consciousness.

Long story short: The place was about an hour out of Boston. I left with plenty of time.  But, of course, I have a lot of trouble finding this well hidden place.  I try calling them and no one answers of course. I eventually find the place, but the extra half hour of searching made me about 10 minutes late leaving me only about 45 minutes in my appointment.  I quickly get ready and hop in the salt water in the tank.  I lie there floating around, it’s pretty dark.   I’m taller than average, so I bump into the sides of the tank a bit.  This irritates me since its distracting, but I eventually calm down and get to a stable floating state so I’m not bumping into anything.  My mind chatters away like usual when I can’t go to sleep at night.  I eventually start to calm down.  And then. all of a sudden, I see a strong glow of light coming from above my head.  At first I freak out a bit since no light goes into a sensory deprivation tank, right? RIGHT??

I sit up a bit and rest on my elbow (the water is only about a foot deep) and crane my neck to see where the light is coming from.  I see 5 circles with light coming from them.  I sit up a bit and start feeling around the walls of the chamber, did I hit a button that turns on light in these things? are some people into light in the chamber?

As I sit up, unbeknownst to me, water starts to drip down my forehead…..and into my eyes.  I was quite frustrated at this point. Ah! Son of a bitch! Goddamit!! ( I cuss like a sailor sometimes. Bad habit. This is probably the censored version.)

I get the salt-water-in-the-eyes situation remedied, and I lie down trying to at least relax for a bit.  As I lie there, I hear the door slam from someone coming into the building.  I then hear voices of people talking.

I get up and get ready to leave.

Before leaving, I asked, “Is the tank supposed to have light in it?”  Person working: “Yeah.  You can’t let it distract you though.  You just have to relax.”

the hell???

~

Let me think about the steps I went through:

• I heard from a number of sources about sensory deprivation which made me think that it was certainly a novel experience I should try
• I even further researched it online (looking up other sources on the topic, looking at different tank manufacturers), still trying to better understand what it was like
• I found a place and asked about the experience there and what it entailed, which seemed to match up with all the other sources.
• The chamber that the location had was even from one of what was supposed to be one of the leading Sensory Deprivation tank manufacturers (Samahdi Tank Co.)
• I booked an appointment and confirmed my appointment.
• I left on course to arrive more than 30 minutes early
• I had the number in my phone to call in case I got lost

Outcome:

• I was late
• the tank had light in it and I could hear quite easily things going on around me

By going to a chamber professionally made for sensory deprivation, I had assumed that my senses would be effectively deprived.  Maybe there would be some vibrations that they couldn’t block out, but for the most part, it would be dark and quiet. This seems reasonable right?  It’s a quite direct assumption I think.  And alas, this assumption turned out to be blatantly wrong.

I took a number of prudent steps to make sure things went well, but the most basic assumption–that my senses would be mostly deprived–turned out to be blatantly false.

On setting up business meetings

I go to a lot of meetings at major corporations.  For a meeting where you will be meeting with another company to give a presentation, the list of things you need to do is pretty absurd in order to ensure a successful meeting:

• is there definitely a conference phone in the conference room so my colleague can dial in?
• is there a projector?
• do i have the final presentation slides on my computer? who does?
• do i have the final presentation slides on a flash drive in case we can’t use my computer? do we have them in .pdf form in case powerpoint does not work for the other computer?
• do we need to be registered with security?
• do we have access to the conference room a half hour before the meeting start time so that we can get setup and ready?
• is someone available to sign us in early enough for us to get into the conference room and setup before the meeting starts?
• do the attendees from the other side know why they’re coming to this meeting?
• do we know what the other attendees want from this meeting?
• do we have the agenda agreed to?  Is it the “real agenda”?
• are all the attendees on my side properly prepped and know what they need to do?
• do we need some sort of screen sharing technology up and running for remote attendees?  can I set it up externally? or does the hosting party need to set it up internally?
• do I need to have something installed in order to share my screen?
• does everyone understand the goals of the meeting on our end?
• If my colleague’s cell phone dies or doesn’t have signal and can’t dial into the meeting, am I able to present his slides for him?
• What questions do we need to ask?
• What can we find out about the people that will be attending? have we done our research on them as individuals?
• Have I spoken to everyone on the other side of the table before?
• what don’t I know that is going to trip us up?
• do I have my computer? power chord? pen? paper?

I could actually keep going with this list.

the level of risk is probably higher than you think

Taking a careful look at these two examples brings to light how much can (and usually does) go wrong.  It’s true, I’ve shown up at the wrong site (it’s easier than you think).  My boss has gone to a meeting where they didn’t have a conference phone in the conference room. I’ve certainly been to meetings where someone’s time was wasted because they couldn’t get the A/V equipment up and running.  All these things happen and always threaten to derail the mission.

And sometimes even the most basic assumptions are completely wrong.  Check your premises I suppose.

Now scale this up to more uncertain areas of operation.  New relationships. New technologies.  New businesses.  In a more complex system, there are even more things that can go wrong.

It’s hard, but I try, as often as I can, to ask myself,  What are the assumptions I’m making? Are they correct? what are the risks? are there any steps I can take to prevent them?

Bearing in mind how hard it is to go lie down in a pool of saltwater or sit in a room and talk with a group of people in a useful manner, it seems like a damn miracle that anything ever actually works.

-Kevin
10.4.2011