Success

I've been quiet for a while because I've been considering some complicated things while juggling fragments of reality. This particular entry was brought on by advocates of a certain technology in education being unable to prove that technology in education has had a positive impact on educational results.

In one line, this could all be read as educational institutions wondering who moved their cheese. I'm just showing my working.

The societal definition of success arguably changes from one generation to the next. If we ignored the previous generations definitions of success, we could say that the definition of success is democratic. Unfortunately, this is not necessarily so since bureaucracy in institutions has a tendency to mitigate change, and the processes of bureaucracy are built upon societal definitions of success - sometimes surviving many generations.

Historically, this is where revolutions take place - not necessarily the violent revolutions but the successful revolutions. The Industrial revolution. The agricultural revolution. And, if we look at the course of the last century, we might find ourselves living at the tail end of a Democratic revolution.

But when is the last time there was an Educational revolution? A true change in the definition of what academic success is?

While at first I thought that technology improving education was putting the cart before the horse these days, I did not acknowledge that technology may be useful in evolving our definition of success in education.

People act as if they will be judged by one work within a life. But we're judged by our body of works... or should be.

Running can be a form of procrastination. It can also be a form of survival.

Success is accidental. Be prepared.

The only thing that truly protects freedom is the will to have it - and that will can only be negotiated from a position of weakness.

Any place that serves roast beef sandwiches without horseradish does not make sandwiches.

We all live in our own projected sanitariums, some more complicated than others, growing as we age. When the projections become complex, we sometimes simplify so that we can move forward. It's what we miss when we simplify that marks our innocence.

A benign enemy is better than a dangerous friend. But making that choice between the two can make a dangerous enemy out of dangerous friend.

If we follow our history of society, we can see patterns in our advances. If we consider mankind, as a whole, to be a creature instead of a species, we might consider that the need for freedom, as a trait, permits adaptability and generalization - providing a broader chance for the creature to survive. The more freedom we have, the more potential we have to react in a way that permits our survival. More freedoms, more likely to survive.

Bureaucracy protects decision-makers from the results of their decisions. Imagine a non-lethal electrical shock administered to a decision-maker for every poor choice made. I can dream, can't I?

When something goes wrong, some people stick in that moment to find a solution to the problem that they can live with. This can take a very long time.

If I wanted to control the world, the first thing I would do would be to control all the information and decide who gets to see what. Sort of like the present copyright and patent systems do.

A few nights ago I sat with a millionaire in front of a house he had built for his son, and he told me his story. He had started off milking cows decades ago, to now own one of the most well known tyre (tire) empires in Trinidad and Tobago. All the magic and mysticism of success was laid bare in what he told me- and out of all that he shared, one part of the story stands out.

He found a piece of property in a very high traffic area, but it was swampland. He spent the money and filled it up so that he could build on it - something he did with cash he had built up over the years of selling tires. He was desperate for cash, trying to leverage what he had into what he had as a goal - a large tire shop in a high traffic area that, in time, would not only pay for itself but also pay for much more. He had to sell some property he had to get some cash, and he used that to start the building. No corners were cut, and because of that the foundation was solid but the cash was low.

Yesterday, juggling realities and schedules that are as inconsistent as the lives involved, I made it a point to get onto the land and do some spraying since we had some dry weather. The best time to spray weed killing concoctions is in the morning, but that was lost to two skipped schedules so I ended up doing it in the afternoon.

I stopped to say hi to one of my future neighbors. He told me that today was not a good day to work, that I should take the day off and rest. Rest. But I had accomplished nothing of great import last week, a victim of circumstance and - yes - schedules that I could not control and which no one else seemed interested in controlling. You waste half a day waiting on one person, half a day waiting on another, hours dealing with a drunken businessperson. Then you find yourself repeating yourself to people who, had they listened the first time instead of listening to themselves, would realize that there is nothing to talk about. The time goes in so many directions, leaving the soul seeking some accomplishment to feel the pulse of itself as it beats alone without time.

So it was important for me to accomplish something, be it something ever so simple as spraying some weedkiller to prepare for planting corn, or maintaining the trails by driving upon them, or simply being outside and thickening the callouses. And after I did my work, on the way back, my future neighbor stopped me and offered me a box of barbecue chicken, forcing me to stop and eat.