I discovered the three words process only last year from Chris Brogan. It worked nicely for 2019, so I repeated the exercise for 2020. Since publishing the three words in my annual new year newsletter, a number of people have asked questions;
where did the idea come from?
what are the rules?
can you tell me more about the process?
is it ok to have four words?
etc etc
So first – not my idea. I got it from Chris Brogan – but I don’t think he started it. To fill in some gaps – this is what Chris has to say.
Question : In the past, you consulted with folks at large companies, such as Walmart, and came away not so convinced of their actual ability to pursue sustainability. If we’re looking to create a better version of capitalism, what do you think should be done with publicly traded companies?
Over here I share a lot of Gaping Void’s work. Hugh Macleod more often than not nails it. But this one needed a comment.
if it’s not a job, you are not an artist.
Boom! That’s the way it works, for anyone in the innovation or creative business. History decides what is ‘art’, history decides what is ‘important’ …
Meanwhile, you’re just doing your job, you’re just showing up, trying to be a pro, you’re just trying to be a grownup, you’re just trying to get paid.
Hugh Mcleod – Gaping Void
Whilst I don’t disagree that ‘history’ decides what is important – Hugh of all people knows that ‘history’ is not neutral. An example would be that ‘History’ for the longest time did not recognize art that came from (say) Africa, because we ‘superior’ Westerners were writing off thousands and thousands of years of ‘art’ – because it didn’t fit into our Western sensibilities and so classified the art into Natural History Museums.
In a recent newsletter, I referenced a book; Everything I Know About Business I Learned from the Grateful Dead which unbeknownst to me was written by a friend of a friend. Turns out the two friends used to swap Grateful Dead stories and on reading my post this story came to mind. When I read the story, it seemed a perfect addition to my Travels Without Charley series – so please read on and enjoy the first ‘guest post’ in the series.
One favourite was about a concerned father and his 16 year old son.
“Me? I’m from England … you’ve heard of the ‘Garden of England’?“
“I have – Kent right?”
“That’s the one – and every garden needs a compost heap – that’s the town I’m from, so my girlfriend and I sold everything we had, bought a couple of tickets and here we are.”
The following post comes courtesy of John T. Maloney, who sent me an email reply to one of my newsletters and it just was too good not to share. Thankyou John. Nicely delivered.
The ‘gig economy’ is dopey. Always had a problem w/the term.
For me, a gig is a trident tip spear used for gigging. Period.
A Trident Tip
A Trident Tipped Gig
Growing up in rural and coastal Connecticut, from April to November, gigging was a principal pastime. We’d go after anything gigable, but mostly bullfrogs and flounder. It was very effective.
Doc Searls, Godfather of The VRM/Me2B Movement observed recently that he writes on 4 (what amount to) personal blogs … which made me feel a lot better about myself. In that same post he wrote;
Bigger than all four of those blogs is Linux Journal, where I wrote a great deal, including what amounted to blog posts on its website, for 25 years. That ended when Linux Journal ceased business in August. Also, as of today the entire site, with all its archives, is offline, erasing a third to a half of what I’ve written online so far.
Doc Searls
Think about that …. a third to a half of what you have written online is suddenly not available. And you wonder why I write articles like this.
It’s a cautionary tale because Doc (who’s final position at Linux Journal was Editor in Chief) might reasonably have expected that whoever owned Linux Journal wouldn’t suddenly remove it from public view.
Rule Number One : When it comes to your IP trust no one. Keep your articles and writing in a place that you have access to and control.
Rule Number Two : There is no Rule Number Two.
On a side note, but keeping the theme of Doc … he recently published the links to the last three posts on the VRM Blog. They are good reads.
It’s a little bit different from the usual People First themes – but as I have said before, sometimes you just can’t separate politics from business. Well worth a listen/watch.
Counting both noun and verb forms, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) lists and defines thirteen separate ‘gigs’.
‘A flighty, giddy girl’ was where it all started and then ‘spin’, ‘whirl’, ‘whirligig’, ‘fool’, giggle and ‘joke’ are all in one way or associated with the word. Even when you get up to the 18th century where it meant ‘light one-horse carriage’, its origin might be ..
perhaps based on the ‘bouncing, whirling’ sense of the earlier ‘gig’.
