Hey, It’s just a couple of months since the last post here.
I use this substack is to bring together all the stuff I do. And after bouncing around a load of ideas and drawing connections between them I’ve figured out a vehicle that connects them all.
I can integrate a lot of the content into a fairly simple idea.
Don’t be a dick.
The rest of this months post will be about how I’m planning to do that. If you’d like to help out there are links to how to do that too.
Onwards.
Don’t be a Dick.
News! I’ve released the first part of the ‘Don’t be a Dick’ book. On Teachable… hang tight, I’ll explain why.
The theory in the book is exactly the same as the stuff I’ve been drawing and tweeting about.
It feels like I’ve been researching content for this for years, and now I’ve realised and I’m putting it all together. So if the stuff I tweet is interesting, you might like this too.
With Teachable you can see drawings, videos and text. You can easily leave feedback and comments. Don’t be a Dick might emerge as a paid course before it’s a book too.
It’s an experiment, but I think it could work. Right now it’s free to sign up, you’ll just need a Teachable account.
I think the bandwidth for information in both directions on teachable is huge. I’ll be adding more drawings and videos, as I remind myself they work better than text.
You can sign up now for free, and I’ll add all the parts of the course as I write them. You’ll need a teachable account to sign up. Anyone joining at this point and helping with feedback* will get access to anything that becomes paid for. So, smash the link below, as the YouTubers say.
https://schoolofus.teachable.com/courses
*The sort of feedback I’d like is at the end.
About Don’t be a Dick
If you’re like me, you know a feeling where you’ve said or done something that you regret - that you’d like to go back and change. Stupid suggestive questions, barely concealed dislike and contempt, scoring points off people who just need a break, misreading intentions, the list goes on. What you say can contain all sorts of baggage you may not be aware of. Everything starts with the first thought in your head. And then the second one, before you say of do anything.
Doing and saying things can you feel like a dick. And it’s hard to build back bridges lost to dickery.
It doesn't have to happen. You can ask honest questions without including a load of your baggage by introducing your ideas in questions. You can step out of judgement and find out what’s going on without putting your foot in it. It’s OK to not know and you can find stuff out without assumptions. Everyone else is unlikely to be an idiot.
You can know when you need to listen, when it’s best to shut the fuck up, and when is a good time to give feedback (hint - almost never).
Mike, talk about the metaphors in the Don’t be a Dick book…
The overall plan for ‘Don’t be a dick’ is
start where you are, use what you have and do what you can
so you can be less of a dick, more of the time.
I’ve got some metaphors that will run through the course, providing a kind of backbone* to the work. Metaphors are good as they explain the kind of thing that is going on.
Let me know if they work for you - and just as importantly if they don’t and there are negative aspects to the metaphors that I might not have thought of. I’ve got time to cook up new metaphors if theses don’t work.
The ”Don’t be a dick”plan
If we’d like to be less of dick it’s probably going to take some work. It’s a lot like getting physically fit by going to they gym to workout.
Here’s how.
You can’t put off getting fit until you’re a bit fitter.
Where you are is where you start. You start where you are with what you have.
It’s ok, and probably necessary to fake it till you make it. Try and get it right until you end up getting it right.
Keep reminding yourself to do stuff, until doing stuff needs no reminder.
Physical exercise is something you need to do yourself. You can’t ask someone to do some push ups for you. You can’t do some glute exercises hoping someone else is going to get better glutes.
You might inspire them. but you can’t do it for them.
Like going to the gym, being less of a dick can feel stupid and unnatural. Like if your gym clothes don’t fit right and you think everyone is looking.
Having gym buddies is a good motivator. Gym buddies can motivate you to get to the gym, check your form, makes sure you’re safe using the heavy weights. Don’t be a dick buddies are similar,
While I’m creating DBAD*, I’ll be having ‘
Office Hours
’ where people can drop in to talk about stuff.
So we’re going down the gym. But what are we there for?
We’d like to be less of a dick, more of the time. To do that we can build an alternative operating system for our brain. We can change the program we’re running when needed.
If you’ll excuse the computer metaphor this is what we’ll be getting down the gym.
We’ll get a choice of operating systems for ourselves. Maybe the ‘Don’t be a dick’ operating system doesn't need to be running the whole time., but we’re exercising our muscles to figure out when it’s required and how to use it.
With our new Operating Systems we get:
Crash Resistance and Recovery
Know what a crash looks and feels like
And what to do
Question Filtering
Ask questions with less judgements and ulterior motives baked in.
External Meaning Checking
Separate evidence available to all, from stuff that’s ‘made up’ by you
Perspective Changes
What perspectives might there be?
Feedback Software
How to find out if feedback is required
Responsibility Containers for your stuff and keeping out of others stuff
Separate the things you’re responsible for from everything else
Data Dictionary for looking up stuff
Things happen fast. Know what to look for, and what it could mean
You only notice things you’re looking for. Get names for more stuff.
I’m putting all the theory stuff to a section called ‘The Library’. If the theory is for you, you’ll find it in the library. The ‘Don’t be a dick’ Operating System is open source, and the library is where you’ll find everything that it’s built on. Huge thanks to everyone for creating and sharing their work that I’ve used.
You can find the course on Teachable. I’m looking for some people to join and test the course and provide feedback.
Join here https://schoolofus.teachable.com/courses
Feedback
This course is a work in progress and I'm involving potential readers as soon as possible.
I'm sharing the content as I produce it so I can get feedback to make the best content I can.
At the moment there is a course introduction and overview, and the beginnings of the the background theory section in the library section at the end.
There are a some potential section headings. Do these sound interesting? What appears to be missing?
That was a lot of words, thanks for getting to the end. Find the details on teachable at https://schoolofus.teachable.com/courses/
That’s all for now!