Tourist or Traveler? Rick Steves on Travel as a Political Act

I heard this thought provoking interview today between Rick Steves the travel author and Bob Edwards. Steves talks about the difference between travel vs touring and being a tourist. He has learned so much about how the world and people work through his travels. I can't help but believe he would make an excellent ambassador in the bigger sense of the word.

One part that caught my attention was when he was in Iran and a cab driver shouts, Death to drivers." Rick Steves says to the interview I always thought it was death to Americans but the driver explained it's what we say here whenever we are frustrated with someone. Rick Steves explained to the interviewer how the media made "death to Americans" unnecessarily a battle cry because they didn't understand the people.

Steve's pointed out that Obama is highly regarded, not because of what he says but because he listens. For the first time in many years the brand of America has improved greatly especially in Europe. Since the Bush years he had learned it was better  to say that  he was from Seattle not the United States  because saying that he was from the US would begin a negative political conversation.

Though I discovered this interview long after it was held in 2009, it remains poignant and inspiring. It offers a map on how to be a traveler of the world, not a tourist who's taking... photos and cementing old ideas that keep the people of the world from being empathetic.

Pinterest - Pinning towards Dystopia - At What Point Does "Picked For You" or "Found In" Homogenize Thinking and Kill Creativity?

Do you use Pinterest? I do, I access it from my phone once or twice a day. I scroll to get Paleo ideas and I follow “Boards” where others have “pinned” artists and topics that appeal to me. Sometimes, I click on the "everything" feed of pins where I get a peek into what I think are all other users pinned interests.... it's a cultural arts study. Actually, this is where the black hole of time begins for me.... Who knew that people were making home offices out of sheds with sliding doors? I saw an etched moonshine bottle being used to hold corks people signed instead of a guest book at a wedding… it gave me an idea (completely different) about something we could do at an upcoming event at a winery for hospital executives. 

Last year, my friend invited me to participate in a private board to plan a wedding shower. Since it took a village spread across the country to plan it, the board offered a useful idea repository for food, centerpieces, invitations, games and place cards. I showed it to another friend who helped me find the centerpiece supplies – a picture was worth a thousand words – I’d still be trying to explain it.  I’m pleased too that I haven't seen much porn or inappropriate postings. Pinterest isn't Craigslist.

Pinterest is more like an Amazon or Google for visuals. Over the last few months, it’s evolved to be more sophisticated in its ability to select and push items under a heading "Picked for You". It’s apparent that behind the scenes they have built algorithms to make automated selections of things in themes I like. And, I’d say at least 85% of the time they are right.

If Pinterest was a man, I’d buy him.

This is amazing, annoying and distressing.  I get a rush of finding the stuff I like. I use Pinterest to get ideas not to have them fed to me. I liked the chaos of art, food, crafts barging in with different ideas, angles, media. Now however, someone who wrote a program is sending me things to discover. They are no longer my discoveries.

You know all the sci-fi dystopian futures that fill the shelves book lists on Barnes and Noble?  This feels like the early phase of innovation of non democracy. Most companies with a web presence are using a light version of this under the egis of automated marketing software with names such as Pardot, Marketo, HubSpot. The programs score levels of a prospective buyer’s interest in a product by how many actions that take to know more. Browsed the webpage- 1 point, clicked on a section- 2 points, spent 22 seconds on it -3 points. Bingo, they hit 6 points send them an article. They clicked on it- Ding! Ding! Ding! It’s the bobber with a bell announcing we have a live one on the line.

It appears that in the last few months Pinterest's pushes have increased. Now I am seeing "Found In" in my feeds. I have found instructions on Google to get rid of "Picked for You" but not "Found In." I'm guessing it's new and someone will post the anti-Foundin, and Pinterest will create another algorithm and so it will go. 

At this point, Amazon, we basically ignore, it’s so much apart of our shopping process. Google, I used twice in writing this and it offered up exactly the word (dystopia) I wanted. Since I search about writing frequently, what I wanted topped the list. Pinterest is just one more program/service going down the same path. The thing is, I am really afraid that in the wrong hands, offerings chosen for me may have a bias from the owner.

Do the Koch’s or Fox news have a piece of Pinterest? Not that I particularly want to see it, but who made the decision that we don’t see porn? Should I be worried, should we all be worried about who is writing the algorithms and homogenizing our thinking?

Oh, and I probably wouldn't buy the man. I'd expect him  and his cows for free.

Military Innovation - Could the Catholic Church be Next?

Listen to this NPR Interview  with General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff to hear the content. Then listen again for the processes the military is using to define the current climate for  women and gays in the military and change the culture. The process is fascinating. 

In 2020, when the baby boomers’ boomlet no longer supplies baby boys to fight, and the technology of robotics and drones are not yet mature, the US military will still need grunts. Gays and girls are a new source of soldier. The military is implementing processes to understand the difference between climate and culture. They are using strategies used by innovation houses, inverting the paradigm, for example, to move from regulation, to letting in a crack of light to explain why, then shattering the barriers and asking, why not? I appreciate 
that there are people who want to defend our country and at this moment are not allowed to do so. I wish to God that they’d use that energy they focused on the military for a more uplifting objective, but that’s not their focus.  I oddly find myself appreciative that the military is changing and sees that society benefits when equal opportunity exists. 

If this institution can bend, could the Catholic church be next?

Cloud Atlas - Writing without a View to the Future

Introvert Mary speaks is what my friend Lonni called my writing after a recent posting. A high compliment, as I sharpen my focus and my pencil, so to speak, on expressing myself through a blog. She knows that I find people who know people I know in an elevator, network my chiropractor and hairdresser, facilitate webinars, give speeches, make campaign calls and other corporal works of extroversion. And, she knows every extrovert outpouring for me is like living in a klieg light, as a big font billboard that requires a sunlit, tiny font monitor to recharge and inform it.

Last night Alex and I saw Cloud Atlas. What a blast to see Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, Jim Sturgess, Jim Broadbent and my favorite, Doona Bae working their way through five and more characters. Much of the story hinged on writings… love letters, an incendiary report, a journal, a badly written book, a book turned into a screen play… each affected the next act and another generation. Each author wrote in hopes of a certain audience and an intended impact. None… none realized the true influence. How would the 1800s journal writer long dead know when he wrote, that his journal published, bought by a composer and torn in half to steady a table would motivate a suicide by someone staying in the home with a rickety table? We don’t know what our writing wreaks.

The more I write, the more I need to write. Concepts, phrases, opening lines, sentences and paragraphs float through my brain. I wish someone would invent a shower keyboard to capture thoughts, but the waste of water, and the increase in late work starts could severely limit my livelihood. When I discovered the voice recorder on my Android, my world got a little better. Thank you to the *Dictaphone people who paved the way. Just think, I am benefitting from a process improvement that allowed a boss to speak his correspondence so a secretary could type it at her own typing speed. That last sentence reeks of old school... what is correspondence today? What is a secretary? What is word per minute typing? Here I am looking for easier ways to convey my correspondence... not unlike a thread of influence in Cloud Atlas.

Lonni chastised me today for not putting notices on FaceBook that I posted a new blog. First, she complained, like a dutiful friend, that she now had sixty blog posts to read. Then she confessed she felt like a slug, guilty and angry at herself, that she should be writing. (I agree with her… she is a fabulous, down to the bone, writer. Or, as my mother, whose only swear was “damn” would say, quiturbitchin’. Get to it!) My blog posts aren’t, until this very moment, about telling people to write, but that’s what the last posting about aging, sorting and moving rendered.

Writing like much of art is a solitary act that requires an audience. As a writer, I may have a specific audience in mind… a person or a group. I could layer on top ambition for the writing to have influence, to sway, to cause change, so I seek opportunities for distribution of my writing through publishing, but I don't. Today, I’ll take the chastisement. For my blog, being followed is the highest compliment. I appreciate a “share”. A written comment makes my post a conversation and feeds Extrovert Mary, and  a “like” is something to be liked. Any response recharges Introvert Mary. 



*History of Dictaphone

All Time Favorite Innovations

• Words
• Aspirin
• Anti-biotic
• Music
• Radio
• TV
• Computer
• Sugar

And yours?