TIMELESS BEHAVIOR PRINCIPLES

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Don Whaley invented the “self-flipper.”  Dick Malott described this as a large rubber band worn loosely on the wrist to flick yourself every time you do some behavior you’re trying to change.  Whaley also invented a variable-time beeper to increase self-awareness. Randomly, the beeper would beep. If the wearer then immediately wrote down whatever they were thinking or doing, they would become more aware of their own cognitions and behavior. They might also learn more about themselves than they ever wanted to know.

Occupy Diversity: The Prologue

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Two days before a trip to the east coast early this fall, I got an email from my financial advisor.  He said, “There was a very good Goldman Sachs note available today, so we put some in your retirement account.”

“Goldman Sachs?!” I said.  “My son just asked if I wanted to go to New York City and Occupy Wall Street with him on one of the only two days I’ll see him at college while I’m out there.  Goldman Sachs?”

I told Jacob this story on the train into New York City that Saturday. Deciding to tell the rest of the story publicly was more difficult.

“Fear suppresses the truth.”  – Anonymous comment on live streaming channel, 10.08.11

9/11 Reflection

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Ten years ago almost to the moment, I went in to my son’s room to make sure he was up for school. He was 10 and had just started 5th grade. This meant he’d just started embracing pre-teen practices; for example, a clock radio set to the local Colorado station whose DJs provided a continual flow of crass jokes and innuendo into young people’s waking brains.

“You better get out of bed, sweetheart,” I said.  “You don’t want to be late.”

“Hey, Mom?  An airplane just crashed into the World Trade Center,” said Jacob.