Personal Critical Infrastructure
Something about Discernment
A new ignorance is on the horizon, an ignorance borne not of a lack of knowledge but of too much knowledge, too much data, too many theories, too little time.
With HT to
I always value the first hour of the day. For me, it’s early, before too many people have used it, a short period where I can sit in the wealth of ignorance before confining myself to the work of the day, constrained by goals, deadlines, responsibilities and the other paraphernalia of our work culture.
If ignorance is noise, then wisdom is signal, but without noise, there is no signal.
The first hour of the day is about discernment. Choosing what we want to unlock.
Amidst the digital detritus of the weekend, sandwiched in corners between the temporary high-energy, attention-consuming, advertising-saturated sporting fixtures, and the temporary hysteria over a thankfully failed amateur assassination attempt (if we sink to the level of having to shoot those we disagree with, we really have lost the plot) were elements of signal that resonated with what interests me at the moment:
The Stowe Boyd article, linked above, brought the idea of “progressive realism” from diplomacy to my attention - of dealing with relationships as they are, not what we would like them to be, whether that is political cultures or the idea of “working from home”. We create enormous amounts of friction by trying to persuade people to be what suits us, as against building relationships with them where they are.
I was struck by how easy it is, in a world full of noise, to outsource our identity, whether that is to a football team, a tennis player, or other event that we use as a proxy for who we are, instead of acting as who we are. The fan who had this tattooed on his arm in advance of the result might be regretting it this morning.
We have developed a habit of thinking if we change the leader, we change the organisation. Speculation will be rife that England will change their manager, and elsewhere, Burberry is changing theirs following a sales slump. One would think that a little cause/effect analysis might be in order, but that may uncover things we would rather not see, so change the leader and kick the can down the road…
An article in the Economist today also caught my attention. Its essence is how vulnerable the internet is to having critical infrastructure cut. The Government thought it was all secret. Turns out it’s not…
Source: Economist They all combined to make me think about our “critical personal infrastructure” - our CPI - the care and attention we put into looking after the relationships, ideas, connections, craft, that are central to us becoming what we might be, even when everything else goes sideways.
As an endpiece, this wonderful piece by Sir Ian McKellen, reading a letter by Kurt Vonnegut, will be the most reading three minutes you are likely to spend today. With thanks to Sue Heatherington.