Reading the book Anathem by Neal Stephenson has got me once again thinking about the many different worlds that we each live in. I have briefly mentioned this in a previous post, however now is a good time to expand on some of those ideas as well as to pull together what that means in terms of some of the other aspects of friendship and mental models that I have talked about.
Philosophical
When Friends Go Bad
I had a sudden revelation today that my blog entry On Friends was missing an important facet – not everyone that gets ‘close to you’ is a friend!
Reading The Thoughts Of Others
Clearly something that should never be attempted – BUT – something we do all the time. I don’t expect we are very good at it either, so perhaps it would be better to find alternatives. In every relationship – personal or business or whatever – we often find ourselves in the position of trying to figure out what the other person is thinking.
Mein Weltanschauung
Although a few of my previous posts have hinted at this subject I think that now that I have got the initial burst of activity on the blog out of the way it is time to make a clearer statement of where my thoughts are coming from and, therefore, put some context on to the content of the blog.
Of course, in keeping with the overall theme of the blog I should stress that this is work in progress and “feeding my ignorance” remains the main aim – trying to identify the context for this is important, but it does not mean that the context is fixed. As my learning increases, so the context may shift.
World 2.1 – Part 2
The advent of what is collectively known as social networking requires a rethink of how we relate to and communicate with other people both inside our businesses and in day to day life. This post is focussed on the former, but the lessons can be carried across with a significant degree of validity.
On Seeing (Inventing?) Patterns
It is a well known fact that we humans have a built in propensity to identify patterns where none exist; to see causal linkages that are, at best, tenuous; to attribute to skill something that was the result of good luck; and to imply intention where none was meant.
Listen – Don’t Talk
As well as providing space for some of my own thinking, my intention is to use this blog to store links to other writing and writers that help me. This morning I was directed to this blog from LinkedIn. How true that our first reaction when told of someone else’s worries/concerns is to share our own experience (and therefore talk) rather than share their experience (and therefore listen).
A Hidden Agenda Paradox
Following on from the need to understand that others have their own worldview that will be difficult for any of us to get inside it is necessary to spend just a short time looking at things from the other way round.
Inspirational Writing
There is no doubt that if this blog goes the same way as the one that I have previously published privately then a significant number of the posts will result from the discovery of a really apt quote or article that resonates with my own views. This post is one such and is inspired by words from Viktor Frankl.
On Friends
A few things have triggered me to think about friends recently – yes, I know I always will be thinking about friends, but I mean here thinking about the ‘concept’ of friends rather than the people themselves!