I’ve been thinking about something that occasionally happens to me after a bike ride in the rain, or the cold, or pulling my daughter in the bike trailer, or any type of cycling other than the flat, short, sunny kind you see in REI catalogs.
I’ll get where I’m going and a well-meaning person will say something like “that’s hardcore” or “you’re a badass” and it’s hard to resist the rush that comes with getting complimented on one’s fortitude. So I’ll say “thank you” and that’ll be the end of it.
But what happens in these situations is this: by accepting the compliment without following up, I’m perpetuating the stereotype that cycling is difficult, or only for the fit athlete, inaccessible to the flabby masses. That I somehow deserve a reward for riding a bike under less-than-ideal conditions.
Getting where you want to go by bike is NOT badass. It’s not extreme or special or difficult, especially in Seattle. It’s something almost anyone with two legs* can do. So by letting cycling have an unchecked aura of unapproachability, I’m actually hurting the chances that the other person (or anyone else in earshot) will try it some day.
Riding a bike (even in the rain, or pulling cargo) isn’t “badass.” It’s what you do when you want to save money, save time, stay safe, help the planet, etc. That’s called “normal”. Driving a car short distances is what you do when you want to stay broke, sick, and sad. That’s not normal. And if your commute is so long you “have” to go by car, that’s just crazy.
My close friend Abby was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, fought the cancer off, got a clean bill of health, and when the cancer sadly came back, she started treatment again THE NEXT DAY. That’s really badass.
So keep riding your bike, and also find some real badasses who deserve the title. Then, when you mistakenly get a “badass” comment for riding, you can say “thank you! Speaking of badasses, you should meet my friend…”
* Actually, I once got passed on the Burke-Gilman Trail by a cyclist with ONE LEG. So I take back the “two legs” thing.
Even though I’ve been quiet on the blog, I mostly followed-through with my goal of meditating daily throughout 2015. I fell off the wagon this year but meditation has become a welcome addition to my morning routine.
The plan was to meditate for a year and see how that changed my time-perspectives (more on this from last year’s post). Here’s a summary of my new 2016 numbers compared to my 2015 numbers and the “ideal” numbers:
Time Perspective
2016
2015
Ideal
Past Negative
2.7
2.9
2.1
Past Positive
4.1
4.1
3.7
Present Fatalism
1.9
1.7
1.7
Present Hedonism
3.3
3.1
4.3
Future
3.8
3.8
3.7
Transcendental Future
2.9
2.2
3.4
Meditation was supposed to increase my “Present Hedonism” and “Transcendental Future” perspectives, which it did, though not by much.
Memorial for women who fought–and aided others–in the Vietnam War
I’ve been learning a lot about low-level sexism in the workplace. I don’t think any of us men in the tech sector wake up in the morning and say “I’m gonna be misogynistic at work today!” Yet sexism still continues in such a pervasive manner that it’s almost impossible to root out of tech culture unless you’re actively searching for it.
My eyes have been opened up to this over the past year or two, from teaching and working with students and graduates from Ada Developers Academy. For all the mentoring, onboarding, and skills-development I do for my team, I think it’s fair to say that the my team has taught me more than I’ve taught them.
For instance, it wasn’t until a few months ago that I heard about the concept of “microaggressions“, little sexist things that people do/say without thinking about them and certainly without intending any harm. Things that individually are meaningless, but in aggregate determine the culture of a group.
After reading that article, I vowed to stop doing #13 on the list: Staying quiet when other men do these things. Today I was put to the test in an online forum I visit, filled with tech industry leaders. It went a little like this:
joe: They can be dudes, girls, or goldfish. And as individuals, I bet they’re not sexist people. Doesn’t change the fact that the product name is sexist.
tim: I dunno. It’s not the most enlightened name, but it’s not actively discriminating either.
tim: If I’m reading that right, it needs to be unintentional to be a microaggression, right? i.e. Don Draper’s aggressions aren’t terribly “micro” (I’d like to state for the record that I’m not approving of the name)
joe: First off, I have to admit that I’m way out of my league at this point in the discussion. I’m pretty new to the “women in tech” issue and just trying to do my part (e.g. by following guideline #13 in that article). I think that doing something sexist doesn’t make you a sexist person, but it still makes what you did a sexist thing. So it’s a microaggression regardless of intent.
tim: joe, so it sounds like we agree on quite a bit, from my perspective, this is a rather minor semantics discussion (and therefore utterly unproductive)
joe: Tim, I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree on this one, b/c I think this gets to the core of the issue: having an inclusive culture so you can hire the best talent. Earlier, I noticed you asked “How do I avoid making female candidates feel excluded/unwelcome?” Perhaps you’re a bit closer to the answer now, if you stop to think about it.
* Totally Tim’s real name because fuck you Tim! Just kidding, not his real name and the transcript was cleaned up for concision and to remove anything identifying.
I would NEVER have done that a year ago. I would have either chuckled at the product name; thought to myself “that’s gonna turn some people off but the free-market will decide”; or thought “I hope someone else calls him on that.”
Ironically, its my dominant position in the industry that gives me the freedom to go out on a limb for others like this. I’m a white male with a great job, a huge professional network, and over a decade of industry experience. I’m practically drowning in my own privilege.
BTW, I don’t consider myself a hero. In 2012, I took issue with how long Obama waited to make a public stance in support of gay marriage. He literally waited until the day after 50% of the voting public approved of it in political polling. Now I did something similar by going most of my career without speaking up for what I think is right. I can only apologize for my past cowardice, and use my ungodly levels of privilege to keep on following Rule #13.
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Ada Developers Academy is now accepting applications for their Fall class. Please pass this on to every woman you know. In talking to current and former Ada students, the one thing I hear over and over is “I was always interested in technology but when I was growing up, nobody ever told me that I could be an engineer.” And these are super-intelligent people with grit and an aptitude for learning. So even if you don’t pass the news along to anybody, please do me one small favor. Find a girl in your life that you love and say this to her: “Know what? You can be an engineer or scientist if you want to!” Imagine how many more engineers we’ll have in 10 years, inventing the technology that will power the future.
What: Once a sprint, we have a company-wide Sprint Demo, where engineers can show off the work they’ve done in the previous sprint. It’s pretty casual. No powerpoints or vaporware allowed, just live demos of working product (which could be new user-facing functionality, or a command-line tool for internal usage).
Just as sprints deliver small iterations of work, there’s no feature too small to demo. We’ve had engineers show off everything from “I got a new server up… see, you can hit this URL and it gives you a Welcome page!” to “We finally put the finishing touches on this huge multi-month project”…and both receive the same thunderous applause and kudos from the company.
Who: Invite the entire company. It’s essential for Senior Management to attend and participate, to show that this is a valuable use of everyone’s time (which it is… See “Why” below). Our CEO has a running bit where he says “This is awesome!! When can we fucking sell this?” at least once per sprint.
How/Where: Ours are in the lunchroom right after lunch (we have free catered lunch every day…and we’re hiring). If we weren’t already getting fed, I’d bring some snacks or drinks. Any common area where the entire company can gather, with a monitor large enough for all to see what’s going on. It’ll depend on the size of your company. We’ve needed to add more A/V as we’ve grown: larger monitor, Hangouts for remote folks, wireless microphones for participants to ask questions, etc. But it started with just a few people around a monitor, so don’t let A/V scare you off.
Why: It’s really about recognizing the hard work that the dev team puts in, sprint after sprint. One downside of iterative development is that it’s rare when a huge chunk of work is pulled out of the oven, unlike in sales where they go dark for months and then land a huge deal with champagne and liquid shrimp. When devs present their work, they can show off what they’ve accomplished and get recognized by the rest of the team. It’s so simple and light-weight that few people realize it’s a fortnightly venue for dev recognition! Also, it’s a low-pressure way for devs to practice public-speaking skills (see below).
More general best-practices:
Here are a few other things I’ve learned that will make the demo run more smoothly…
Create a sign up sheet accessible to all, and have folks sign up ahead of time. Then you’ll know the agenda.
Coach your teammates on how to prepare for giving a demo (especially the introverts). A lot of this is public-speaking best-practices, but few devs have exposure to these skills…
Have them practice the demo
Have URLs ready so they can walk up to the demo laptop and type them in
If applicable, get on the Google Hangout (if presenting remotely or from their own computer)
Increase their font size, until it seems ridiculous
Speak up
Repeat audience questions to make sure everyone heard them
Before going into the demo itself, address the Whys: “Why was this built?”, “What customer (or internal) pain-point does this solve?”
The person giving the demo has the floor, so as MC it’s your job to maintain order. It rarely happens, but sometimes audience members are really excited to jump in with a question/anecdote/etc.
Other best-practices for meetings apply too: take longer discussions offline, keep things positive and constructive, etc.
Conclusion
Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions. It’s a great investment of one hour per sprint, and a fun tradition.
The first of the Twelve Paths to Happiness is Meditation. Meditation can mean a lot of different things, and there are lots of ways to meditate. In general, the practice of meditation usually involves sitting still and focusing on breathing, a positive message, or whatever comes to mind, with the aim of being non-judgemental, patient, and open.
There’s some stigma in our busy society about the benefits of “sitting around and thinking about nothing”, but evidence of the benefits of meditation is solid, and based on years of empirical research.*
Meditation has been shown to improve physical health, cognitive abilities, and of course to increase happiness and other positive emotions (or we wouldn’t even be discussing it). The cynic in me thinks that the only reason we’re not all meditating daily is that nobody has figured out how to get rich peddling meditation.
Or have they? While researching easy ways to get a mediation habit to stick, I found this great website/app called Headspace. It’s an on-demand meditation guide, starting with a 10-minute daily session, and increasing from there. Like many online services, it’s free to start, and you pay to access the more advanced lessons.
I started using it a few days before New Years, and I’ve been really happy with the results. I feel calmer, and more in touch with the small details of what’s going on around me. My goal is to continue 5 days a week, either with Headspace or on my own. (I’m not getting a kickback from Headspace for promoting them, I just think it’s an awesome idea: “the gym membership for your mind”)
Now we’re going to get down to business. The creators of that quiz worked together with a colleague (author of The How Of Happiness) to group specific happiness-inducing activities into the different time-perspectives.
So all you need to do is look at the following chart, find the time-perspectives you want to work on, and do the corresponding activities. I’ll write a post highlighting each, though I recommend you only pick two or three to work on, and no more than one at a time. (See below for more tips).
Time Perspective
Past
Present
Future
Transcendental Future
Activity
Express gratitude
Practice acts of kindness
Cultivate optimism
Practice religion or cultivate spirituality
Avoid overthinking & rumination
Nurture relationships
Develop coping strategies
Learn to forgive
Increase “flow” experiences
Set and pursue life goals
Savor live’s joys
Take care of your body (exercise/diet)
Meditation
Those are the twelve (+1, if you include the Transcendental Future) paths to happiness.
I’m going to begin with Meditation in my next post. Why mediate? How to get started?
A note on starting a new habit.
Why is starting a new habit so easy when it’s a bad habit, but hard when it’s a good one? I’m not sure, but I do know a few things about getting good habits to stick.
After training for–and completing–a half-marathon, I realized that running the race was the easy part. It was just a matter of putting one foot in front of the other, for a couple hours. The hard part was the months of training: turning down late-night social events so I could get up in the morning to run, etc.
I did some research on how to set myself up for success (including reading this great book about habits) and found that making changes requires willpower. Willpower is like a muscle, you can make it stronger by exercising it. Also, you use your willpower muscle throughout the day (e.g. by going to work instead of the park, avoiding a second dessert after dinner). By the end of the day it’s worn out! It’s strongest in the morning, so that’s the best time to put a new activity into your routine. (Also, a habit needs a trigger, and “I just got out of bed” is a pretty solid one)
I set up a “motivation station” right next to my bed. It had…
everything I needed to start my run (so I could roll out of bed and not scramble for stuff in the dark)
You can use this pattern “trigger + motivation + preparation” for pretty much any new habit. Also, most habits take about 2 months to stick, so don’t give up!
Catch you on the flipside in 2015, when we’ll start getting happier!
Welcome back to the 2015 Happiness Project. How was your Deviate for a Day? Let me know in the comments. Today is Step 2, and hopefully it’ll be fun and very enlightening. All you need to do for this step is take an online survey that’s going to change your life.
In my last post, I mentioned The Time Paradox. The thrust of the book is that there are 5* major dimensions of looking at time. 3 are healthy and 2 are unhealthy:
Past Negative: dwelling on how things in the past went wrong, and how you could have done things differently.
Past Positive: fondly recalling wonderful memories of the past, and keeping family traditions alive.
Present Fatalism: the feeling that nothing you do matters because your life is determined by fate, not by your personal choices.
Present Hedonism: stopping to smell the roses, getting together with friends, being impulsive. Despite the name, this one’s actually healthy to have in the right dosage.
I’m doing something different instead of traditional New Year’s Resolutions this year. I just read two amazing books about Happiness: “Stumbling on Happiness” and “The Time Paradox.”
The former has more to say about the crazy quirks of our brains that make happiness so elusive, but it was really the latter book that got me thinking about a concrete plan to improve my happiness. I guess you could say that my New Year’s Resolution is “be happier”, and the following is a plan to make it happen. I call it
The 2015 Happiness Project
From now until the end of December, there’s a bit of prep and homework (it’s fun!), and then in 2015, we’ll spend the year focusing on activities that are proven to make us happier (these are backed by science, and they might surprise you!)
Step 1: Deviate for a Day
(This comes from The Time Paradox)
What makes you happy will change, and you’ll need to change with it. This is a fun and effective exercise that encourages you to embrace change.
Here’s how it works: first make a list of the important aspects of your self-image. Consider your abilities, appearance, and personality. Your task, for one day, is to violate one important aspect of your self-image. If you take pride in your appearance, jump out of bed and go straight to work. If you never swear, throw a few fucking four-letter words into your vernacular. If you’re an atheist, carry around a Bible. Etc.
Once you’ve done this for one day, you can go back to your old ways, but the liberating feeling might stay with you and who knows, maybe you’ll like the new weird You better. Either way, you’ll realize that change is possible, even extreme changes.
My Deviate for a Day:
I take pride in my no-nonsense wardrobe and style, so on Friday, I’m going to take meticulous care in grooming and go to work in my nicest suit and tie. Maybe I’ll post a photo.
Let me know in the comments how you plan to “deviate for a day.” Have fun, and be happy!
Artistic leaders inspire by influencing perceptions. They help us see, hear, taste, smell and touch new things or the same things in new ways. You can find these leaders creating new designs, new art, and the like. These people generally have no interest in ruling or guiding. They are all about inspiration.
Scientific leaders guide and inspire by influencing knowledge with their thinking and ideas. You can find them creating new technologies, doing research and writing, teaching and the like. Their ideas tend to be well thought-through, supported by data and analysis, and logical. These people develop structure and frameworks that guide others.
Interpersonal leaders can be found ruling, guiding and inspiring at the head of their interpersonal cohort whether it’s a team, organization, or political entity. They come in all shapes and sizes, and influence behaviors in different ways. The common dimension across interpersonal leaders is that they are leading other people.
Leaders influence the perceptions, knowledge, and behaviors of those around them. And they’re not mutually exclusive. Think of these three not as positions on a basketball team, but more as stats for a Dungeons & Dragons player. How much of each do you have? What type(s) are needed for the current situation? More importantly, what type(s) are needed for the future situation, as you see it playing out?
Welcome MMM readers! We held a 2nd Camp Mustache in 2015 and plan to do it again in 2016! Leave a comment here if you’re interested in getting in on the pre-sale for our next Camp Mustache.
Camp Mustache went swimmingly. It was exactly how I envisioned it: interesting people sharing wisdom and generally having fun while getting into a small amount of mischief.
And here’s an amazing poem written by another attendee:
T’was two days before the first day of June Spendthrifts powered through traffic on this afternoon In anticipation for a weekend of fun Just south of Seattle… there were rumors of sun
The group was diverse in geography: Alaska, Florida, and Washington DC Arizona, Canada, and Las Vegas Oh, and a few from the Pacific Northwest
Some single, some couples, and some families From recent blog readers to Mustachian groupies We all convened for this camping trip To meet Mr. Money and glean a free tip
After dinner in circles we played a few games Yelling non-existent sports and guessing last names. For dessert we roasted marshmallows for smores As the night grew chilly in the outdoors
Conversations varied as we were warmed by the fire Financial calculations and countdown to retire. Women discussed tiny houses and riches forlorn As men listened in pleasure to this frugality porn
The next day began with a group hike Followed by breakout sessions to choose if you like: Homebrew, bikes, and urban homesteading Creative suggestions to reduce your spending Budget, save, finance a plan Concerning real estate notes–RebelSpy’s your man
New credit cards, Brett began to unravel with these funny points the world you can travel. We learned Carla derived great satisfaction From minimum spend with faux cash transactions
Nighttime fell and entertainment resumed Wine in a box by some was consumed As were small squares of chocolate infused With fun legal herbs as some were amused
The final morning, before we would go Gathered a last time for a group photo. These fancy people as it so happens Were okay sharing bunks in the same cabins
Though we started off the weekend as strangers In common we’re all time vs. money exchangers Likeminded souls in quest to be free On the financial path via Badassity
A special shout out to [the other organizers] and Joe And to Pete who’s attendance was so apropos To the understated volunteers who helped run this bash – Thanks for great memories at 2014 Camp Mustache
I changed the poem a bit since it mentioned people by their real names…
We’re already thinking about next year’s event. Some folks jokingly said we should have it in Leavenworth and call it Das Mustachen-Kampen
Foundry in the Forest 