The Rev. Lauren Larkin joins Dr. Thomas Whitley and The Rev. Sam Harrelson in a discussion of how hermeneutics and worldviews affect our theologies and what sort of spaces we try to build.
Special Guest: Lauren R.E. Larkin.
Links:
Blog
Working Through Fears
Whether you’re starting your own business or non-profit or trying to make an existing one feasible as a “job,” the fear that you encounter at 4am as you do the week’s invoicing and receipts in your head can be staggering. I know, I’ve definitely been there in the low tides of “working for yourself.”
Our mind tries to trick us into being more cautious and avoiding the risk associated with such endeavors (often for good reasons). But if you can step outside of your own mind and observe the fears associated with “starting up,” you can make powerful realizations about your own abilities and potential.
Good read:
We can limit and hold ourselves back with our beliefs. In my case, I really believed I would be judged for what I was doing. For a while, I operated almost entirely on referrals. While I did excellent work, I didn’t have an active lead generation plan in place because that would mean showing up on social media and letting my friends and family know what I was up to. I convinced myself that people would make fun of me and my business, and I allowed that fear to hold me back to the point that while I was home for Thanksgiving last year, I even considered taking a family friend’s advice to leave Bali and “get a real job.”
Thank goodness I found a way to work through my fears and stick to my guns! There will always be haters, but at the end of the day, the people who matter will support you: between my social media and email list, I now have over 10,000 business owners following my work.
via How This 23-Year-Old Makes Six Figures From Her Online Business – And Helps Others Do The Same
Changing Conceptions of Work
NPR reported today: “Full-time employees have become the last resort. Companies will do anything to hire part-time, short-term, or contract positions.” In addition: “More and more people who are full-time employees need second jobs or side gigs in order to make ends meet.” Our world is not the same as it has been. The changing dynamics of the economy and the changing idea of what it means to work is changing young professionals.
via Why this Labor Day is Different – Merianna Neely Harrelson
Not to mention the imminent and radical shift coming to industries (particularly in the service area) from automation, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and advanced robotics.
AI Assistants and Important Meetings
That’s a worry I’ve heard before. Whether you’re a job seeker meeting a recruiter, an account manager calling a customer, or a novice getting coffee with an industry veteran, handing off communications to an assistant might give you pause. You might worry that you’ll blow the opportunity, come off impersonal or worse, arrogant.
via How to use an AI assistant for important meetings – x.ai
I’ve been using Amy as my personal assistant to schedule meetings and add things to my calendar for a little over a year now. Amy is an “artificial intelligence powered assistant” that you act with as you would a person. The advantage is that Amy does all of the time-consuming email back-and-forths that come along with scheduling meetings.
There are a number of companies coming out with similar AI powered assistants, but x.ai has been my preference (I do test out others to keep up with things).
I schedule lots of meetings with clients, potential clients, boards, and colleagues (and podcasts), so anything that frees up my time while coming across with the same genuineness and kindness that I normally try to convey via email is a winner.
Over the past year, I’ve learned a good deal about how to deal with Amy as well as how to introduce or include Amy into an email thread with people who have no clue what AI is or why this personal assistant is not a real human being. I’m sure that will continue, but as a culture we are on an upward slope of awareness about AI (whether that’s because of interactions with Alexa and Siri or news stories) and the concept of having a personal assistant that is powered by AI won’t be such a novelty in a few short years.
I’ve not had anyone comment about my pretentiousness of having a personal assistant or tell me that they were annoyed or inconvenienced by the experience of working with Amy. So maybe we’re getting over our preconceptions about the role of personal assistants in a post-Siri world.
For now, I’m continually using Amy to power meetings and enjoy the experience of doing so!
Can Non-Profits Benefit from LinkedIn?
One of my favorite clients had this question on our weekly call this morning.
I excitedly said “YES!” which feels a little odd. Going back through my blog archives here, you’ll see lots of instances over the last 10 years where I’ve written that LinkedIn “sucks” is “terrible” and “should not be used.”
However, LinkedIn can be a fabulous tool for groups and nonprofits looking to make an impact within a certain influencer group. I offered a couple of different thoughts on how to do that in our call this morning, but the highlights are that you should be posting updates and your posts should be “mobile-first” (short, narrative, and text). Secondly, use their native video feature to share QUICK and focused updates via mobile video, especially if you’re doing outreach or looking to connect with parties in your community.
There’s a great list of other ideas here from Social Media Examiner that I found while doing some research:
Keep it short. No one wants to read walls of text. Also, on LinkedIn mobile, a See More link appears on text updates longer than five lines. On the desktop version, your post is cut off after only three lines. With these limits in mind, if you use a storytelling approach, put a compelling hook in the first line to encourage people to read the whole post.
via How to Improve Your LinkedIn Engagement : Social Media Examiner
The Way the Stems Meet the Curves
Technically, this is an absolutely fantastic update. They have taken the blunt shapes of the old letters and improved on all of them to create a beautiful wordmark. At small sizes the change is almost imperceptible but at larger sizes the change is a feast. If the way the stems meet the curves on the bottom of each letter doesn’t give you heart palpitations then you might be in the wrong industry. That is really masterful. Dork-swooning aside, every letter is better — better designed and better suited for every size and screen possible. Play a little game of Spot the Difference and you’ll appreciate what I mean. The wider opening of the “Y”, the rounder sides of the “o” and “e”, the contrast in thicks and thins. So good. Also, the kerning couldn’t be better.
via Brand New: New Logo for YouTube done In-house
Details. And kerning.
Don’t be boring or cheap with your logo or wordmark.
Facebook Page Reach Has Declined 20% in 2017
Facebook isn’t the newspaper where “if you post it, they will see it.” This takes a little bit of shift in how we view concepts such as “spam” and “bugging” but algorithms don’t work like our chronological brains.
What to do if you’re a small business, church or non-profit with a small number of Facebook Page likes but looking to grow? Post video. Post often. Don’t assume that because you post something on your Facebook Page (not your personal one) that all of your followers or audience will see it.
What’s more likely is actually another News Feed update introduced in June 2016, which put increased emphasis on content posted by friends and family over Page posts. Facebook’s always looking to get people sharing more personal updates, and those updates generate more engagement, which keeps people on platform longer, while also providing Facebook with more data to fuel their ad targeting.
via New Study Finds Facebook Page Reach has Declined 20% in 2017 | Social Media Today
Updating Your Pacemaker
This won’t be the last time we see headlines like “465,000 Pacemakers Need a Firmware Update” as more of our medical lives become intertwined with technology. However, technology is the human exploration of advancing our own tools, so there’s good with the bad.
But for those of you who don’t like to upgrade your mobile phones, you might want to start learning to love software and firmware patches and updates. Security threats are a real risk whether it’s your Facebook account, your bank account… or your heart.
The devices must be given a firmware update to protect them against a set of critical vulnerabilities, first reported by MedSec, which could drain pacemaker battery life, allow attackers to change programmed settings, or even change the beats and rhythm of the device.
On Tuesday, the FDA issued a security advisory, warning that the pacemakers must be recalled — and as they are embedded within the chests of their users, this requires a home visit or trip to the hospital to have the software patch applied.
via FDA issues recall of 465,000 St. Jude pacemakers to patch security holes | ZDNet
Episode 119: The Greek is Good
Dr. Thomas Whitley and Rev. Sam Harrelson are joined by David Ray Allen to discuss football schedules and the third round of the Bible Bracket Challenge to determine which book is the "best" book in the Bible and which book is the "Michigan" book in the Bible.
Special Guest: David Ray Allen Jr..
Sponsored By:
- Sam Harrelson Consulting: Get a free estimate for your church or nonprofit’s website redesign or social media campaign from the experts at Sam Harrelson Consulting this summer. Promo Code: Hermeneutics
Links:
- Thinking Religion Bible Bracket Challenge – Challonge
- Amazon.com: Love Between Women: Early Christian Responses to Female Homoeroticism (The Chicago Series on Sexuality, History, and Society) (9780226075921): Bernadette J. Brooten: Books
- Florida State vs. Alabama – Game Summary – September 2, 2017 – ESPN
Iris Hospital Alert App
Once installed, Iris automatically detects you in a hospital. After remaining there for 10 minutes, Iris reaches out to confirm if you’re okay or not via a push notification. If everything’s okay, perfect, just hit the the button to confirm and Iris will go into the background again. If you’re not ok and Iris doesn’t get a confirmation from you, the emergency contacts you chose upon sign up will be informed via text message. Iris will also present your personal health card on the lock screen of your iPhone so ER staff can access your important health and personal data including your name, health status, spoken language, daily medication, and more. ER staff is also be provided your emergency contact”s information and will be able to reach out themselves if they haven’t heard from your contacts already.
via Say hello to Iris, your modern day emergency alert – Iris App – Medium
I love apps like this that utilize the most seemingly mundane features of our constant carry smartphones to achieve good.
Check Your Logo Against AI
Logo Rank is an AI system that understands logo design. It’s trained on a million+ logo images to give you tips and ideas. It can also be used to see if your designer took inspiration from stock icons.
via Logo Rank – Check your logo design with deep learning
Little more “machine learning” than “AI” but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. Still, this is a pretty handy tool I’ll be using to convince a few clients that their logo might need an update.
Don’t get me started on church logos, btw…
“Still discovering new things”
On board each Voyager is a golden record — and record player — that is built to last one billion years or more and contains key information about humanity and life on planet Earth, in case of an alien encounter.
The sounds include the calls of humpback whales, the Chuck Berry song “Johnny B. Goode,” Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, a Japanese shakuhachi (a type of flute), a Pygmy girls’ initiation song, and greetings in 55 languages.
Being Creative
Why does creativity generally tend to decline as we age? One reason may be that as we grow older, we know more. That’s mostly an advantage, of course. But it also may lead us to ignore evidence that contradicts what we already think. We become too set in our ways to change.
What Happens to Creativity As We Age? – New York Times
Creativity is something I often think about as I get older. Even David Bowie did the same on his shrinking album “Low” (my favorite, by the way) at the apex of his ongoing fights with identity, depression, and addiction:
Don’t you wonder sometimes about Sound and Vision? Pale blinds drawn all day, nothing to do, nothing to say… I will sit right down, waiting for the gift of Sound and Vision. And I will sing, waiting for the gift of sound and vision. Drifting into my solitude, over my head.
It’s comforting, in a way, to realize that even Bowie had crippling moments of doubt about his ability to channel his inner voices and creativity, right?
The Times article above hits on something that causes me much consternation throughout the day whether I’m interacting with my children or I’m solving a problem for a client (or trying to hook up a new Chromecast to our home network but having issues like I did at midnight last night). I often wonder, as I encounter problems or things to be solved, if it takes me “longer” to solve problems that would have come with easy solutions just a few years ago. I wonder if I’m being too cautious with client solutions because of what I know and the experience I have.
I wonder if I’ve lost the “sound and vision” of creativity that made me who I was when I was younger.
Have I lost it? Or, is “it” still there buried under experience and accumulated knowledge and necessary caution?
Where is / are the line / lines between being creative and being responsible?
I imagine those are definitely common old-man questions that many people share if they are being completely honest with themselves.
I was often frustrated with John Lennon and Paul McCartney as a teen (even more so with Kurt Cobain who killed himself at the height of what I thought was his period of creativity). I loved the Beatles and knew every lyric and melody and bass lick by heart by the time I went off to College. But why did they stop with Abbey Road, whose B-Side is arguably one of their most creative endeavors. How could they explode from “Love Me Do” into “Strawberry Fields Forever” in just five years and then the White Album and the audacious Magical Mystery Tour and Let It Be and Abbey Road and then break up the band? McCartney and Lennon would go on to solo projects and bands like Wings but they could never outshine what they accomplished in their 20’s in The Beatles.
Are we all doomed to similar fates? Do our complex internal algorithms of choices and perceived responsibilities and knowledge push that creative spark into a corner to be locked up while we go about the business of doing “adult stuff”?
As I watch my almost 10 year old and 7 year old and 21 month old children learn to function and operate as unique individuals in the world, I’m often sensitive to the notion that I’m here as a guide but not a dictator. Parenthood makes you obsess over details like the radius of a hotdog section and the weight limits of a swim float to the point that it’s easy to miss the every day mystery of a child realizing a new concept, especially when they can’t fully communicate with language yet.
Our monkey brains are fantastic specimens that have pushed us to conquer the world and build iPhones. We haven’t solved climate change and cancer and hunger yet, but I imagine we will. What we won’t conquer is our own insecurities, especially as we age. That’s on display in our current President, for instance. It’s something I’ve encountered all of my life when dealing with teachers, professors, pastors, bosses and clients… “Woah woah woah! Slow down there, Sam. We can’t move too fast on this. Just step back and let’s let time be a part of this process.”
There’s comfort and security in owning the time table of a process. But perhaps that’s where creativity dies.
I need to be more creative with my professional work. I need to be more creative with my children. I need to be more creative with my partner. I need to be more creative within my own palace of the mind … you get the point.
I don’t care what Thomas says…
… it’s a good show 🙂
Can’t believe we’ve done 118 of these… but here’s my podcast with Thomas that was published today:
Dr. Thomas Whitley and Rev. Sam Harrelson discuss the uncomfortableness of whataboutism and its interplay with American Christianity and continue the Bible Bracket Challenge semifinals.
Follow along with the Bible Bracket Challenge here.
Episode 118: Better Than Ezra
Dr. Thomas Whitley and Rev. Sam Harrelson discuss the uncomfortableness of whataboutism and its interplay with American Christianity and continue the Bible Bracket Challenge semifinals.
Sponsored By:
- Sam Harrelson Consulting: Get a free estimate for your church or nonprofit’s website redesign or social media campaign from the experts at Sam Harrelson Consulting this summer. Promo Code: Hermeneutics
Links:
Can I Replace My Computer with an iPad?
Yes. Probably. I have many needs for a desktop computer in much the same way I drive a pickup truck. Do most people need a desktop computer or even a laptop … or a pickup truck? No.
The new iPads are amazing and iOS 11 is a game changer when it comes to getting things done with a “big iPhone”.
For seven years, I worked as an Expert, Store Trainer, and Worldwide Instructional Designer for Apple. So as you can imagine, I’ve had an innumerable amount of questions and conversations with customers and team members all over the world about tech. And one of the ones I heard most was, “Can an iPad really replace my laptop?” Most people you ask that question of, provide definitive, knee-jerk responses, like “absolutely” or “no way.” But the actual answer, like with most tech, is usually: “It depends.”
The $999 iPhone
I don’t think the price of the new iPhone 8 / Pro / X / Edition / whatever-its-called is going to put a damper on the demand:
Chief among the changes for the new iPhones: refreshed versions, including a premium model priced at around $999, according to people briefed on the product, who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Apple made room for a bigger screen on that model by reducing the size of the bezel — or the forehead and the chin — on the face of the device. Other new features include facial recognition for unlocking the device, along with the ability to charge it with magnetic induction, the people said.
via Dear iPhone: Here’s Why We’re Still Together After 10 Years – The New York Times
Facebook Nones, Snapchat, and Instagram
We’ve been hearing about the decline of Facebook’s popularity among younger users for years now. It looks like Instagram (owned by Facebook) and Snapchat are finally providing an avenue for “Facebook Nones”:
Facebook is losing appeal among teens and young adults which is contributing to generally slowing growth for the platform, according to the latest projections from research firm eMarketer.
At the same time alternative social apps Snapchat and (Facebook-owned) Instagram are seeing rising and double-digit growth in the same youth demographic — suggesting younger users are favoring newer and more visual communications platforms.
Teens favoring Snapchat and Instagram over Facebook, says eMarketer – TechCrunch
39
I wrote this back in 2008 as I was turning 30:
However, turning 30 still scares the hell out of me because I don’t want to loose my idealism which is tied so close to my own identity.
Today I turn 39. I feel like I’ve changed so much in the last 9 years. I feel like the world itself has changed so much in the last 9 years. But, I look back on my writings and notebooks from this period and realize that the core of me is still there. It’s developing but it feels and seems familiar.
Our conceptions of time and age and landmarks in our own personal histories remind me of the signposts of life that Merianna frequently talks and preaches about. We all like to erect little monuments of memory so that whenever we pass by the same spot, we’ll recollect either the joy or pain or astonishment or fear that marked that particular point in our journey.
We mark years by orbits of our planets around our solar system’s star. Yesterday, I was able to experience the totality of a solar eclipse in the backyard with my wife, our young son and two daughters. I couldn’t have predicted that in 2008. The 30’s have been a mix of the greatest of pains and the greatest of joys. Birth, death, divorce, marriage, moves, career change(s), personal realizations… all those experiences are signposts that I often revisit through reflections as in a mirror, dimly.
Whatever happens in the next 10 years before I turn 50 will also come as a surprise to me when I look back on the paths that were trodden and those not trodden. But future Sam who is reading this in 2027 and turning 49 with eyes that vainly crave the light, of the empty and useless years of the rest with me intertwined in the new signposts that I currently can’t see just yet, keep the question and the Answer close by. Let’s contribute a verse.
Out of the blackstar comes new creativity and new expressions of light and new ways of looking at the world. A perfect black to put distance between ourselves and our assumptions and then a perfect white to answer the question of whether we still belong in a previous existence.
Episode 117: Hey Jude
Dr. Thomas Whitley and Rev. Sam Harrelson discuss the benefit of doubting Trump's America, Evangelicals carrying water for Trump, whether Joshua is a good book to include in the Bible, and why Jude deserves some reconsideration.
Sponsored By:
- Sam Harrelson Consulting: Get a free estimate for your church or nonprofit’s website redesign or social media campaign from the experts at Sam Harrelson Consulting this summer. Promo Code: Hermeneutics
Links: