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Blog under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
Apr
4
(2007)
You’d never know it by looking out the window, but it feels like a whole bunch of changes are in the works this season. Personally, professionally, and more broadly. Some quick backstory – after co-unkeynoting at the BCEdOnline 2006 conference with Brian and Stephen, we wound up at a local pub to debrief and just hang out. It sounds corny, but that conversation became one of the cornerstones I keep coming back to when thinking about what I’m doing, and where I’m going. (oddly enough, Dave Matthews just came on my iPod with “Where are you going?” Man, how I love the uncanny psychic shuffle mode…)
It all comes back to a comment Stephen made, describing a realization he had during his hiatus. He said something along the lines of “I just think – is this thing that I’m doing right now – is this the most important thing I could be doing?” (actually, I don’t think he said it as a question, but that’s how I remember it, and it’s my memory so deal with it).
Is this the most important thing I could be doing? If not, what should I be doing instead? And what do I have to do to get to a point where I could be doing that?
So, obviously, the most important thing I can do is to be a good father. Everything else is secondary. Everything. But, part of being a good father is being able to provide a roof and some food. So that means that at least part of the time, the most important thing I can be doing is the Day Jobâ„¢ in whatever form that takes. So, slogging through seas of copy-and-paste, although soul-sucking and seemingly unimportant, is actually The Most Important Thing in that it keeps the Mac & Cheese flowing.
With the major priorities taken care of, I’ve been trying to apply ITTMITICBD? to lesser priorities, to projects, tasks, etc… That’s been less successful, but has started shaping how I think about things, even if it hasn’t had a visible impact on what I’m doing.
What are the Most Important Thingsâ„¢ from the perspective of my Day Jobâ„¢? Here’s where I likely differ from my Institution’s official stance (which will likely revolve around mundane things like “making money” and “maximizing efficiency” or some other dreck). I work in a university. A publicly funded research institution. The Most Important Thing I Could Be Doingâ„¢ is to work with individuals, inside the University community, and perhaps more importantly, outside of it, to ensure that people have access to what we’re doing here. This is a research university, and it shouldn’t be a privilege afforded only to those that can gain access to the hallowed halls. We should be bending over backwards to make sure everybody has access, in whatever form we’re able to provide.
So, I’m going to be focussing my energy on things like Creative Commons, Open Education Resources (not Learning Objects), personal publishing, remix culture, and things that empower individuals rather than Institutions. Which means I’ll likely be a pariah, but hopefully not a martyr on campus.
My ability to contribute to this has changed over the years. I can no longer kid myself that I can write code. I’m not a coder anymore. I can edit code. I can understand what’s going on, but I’m not a coder anymore, if I ever was. But, I think it may be more important for me to take up the mantle and just walk the walk. Showing how this stuff could work in a practical way. Writing. Presenting. Workshops. Acting as an agent of subversion, then hopefully of change. Helping to guide our clients toward more open practices where appropriate (and, no, not everything can be Open). I might even bite the bullet and finish off the Master’s degree, using it to let me write more about this stuff.
Of course, keeping the number 1 Most Important Thingâ„¢ in mind, I’ll have to do this in ways that don’t risk the day job, so waving a Che flag and marching across campus yelling “Vive la revolucion!” might not be in the cards. Baby steps…
This was a great post… I mean now that you mention it i realize that i’ve needed something like ITTMITICBD too for a long time, living like this, so enmeshed in the network, makes it easy to get distracted into a myriad of pursuits. Your new focus lends itself to a meeting of techs and educators that is going to be happening in Vancouver next week at the Commonwealth of Learning. We’d love if you could attend, it’s an open meeting. More here: http://www.wikieducator.org/Tectonic_shift_think_tank
brent.
D, these are important and almost contagious comments. I have been feeling a lot like this lately — changes everywhere (from my daily mindset to my long term goals) and they are all pointing me in a similar direction. When I step back and look at where I am and where I might be headed I can’t help but feel as though I am on the path to something good … I just have no idea what it is. I know it isn’t the career, job, whatever … with the birth of my second child this past Fall, my head has been spinning and the inner conflict raging. I am more confident than ever in who I am, but less and less confident about the exact path I am on. I am changing, the space I exist in is changing, and my priorities are changing.
Funny, as I type, Ben Folds randomly appeared with Brick in my ears … I think the things you are thinking about (and sharing with us all) are where many of us find ourselves as we start to approach the curve in the road. What lies ahead is more important now that we have come to grips with “the most important thing(s)” in our lives and it is both exciting and scary — and those two switch order on a minute to minute basis. I am glad to see my friends pausing and thinking about the common good, but I am also happy to see them stop and spend some time reflecting on their own common good.
Keep the insights coming and keep pushing. Your work is important — even if it isn’t the most important thing.
Reminds me of a primary book called The Important Book.
http://tinyurl.com/ys9ovn
Y’know, Doug Engelbart’s whole career started with the very question you raise. Works for me.
At the end of my conversation with Doug last year (which I’m still pinching myself about), he told me “now go change the world,” All sorts of ways to try to do that, and sometimes baby steps are the right and only steps–but it’s the direction that matters….
Inspiring post, D’Arcy. Thanks,
Well said! I’m in EXACTLY the same boat. It felt strange reading it knowing that I didn’t write it. I’ve been reading your blog for a while and enjoy the idea of a kindred spirit in the Great White North. I believe we may have chatted in 2L once, but don’t remember exactly. I’m very interested in reading where this leads you.
Cheers!
hmmm… interesting connection.. wasn’t Englebart’s big idea “augmented human intelligence”? I mean, everyone remembers the mouse, but it all started as a way to interconnect people and create/follow links through content to help us to understand things more readily. Sounds lie a proto-OpenContent concept to me!
and thanks everyone for the great comments! yet another blog post where I feel alone and/or adrift, only to be proven wrong on both counts largely thanks to this awesome online (and offline) community.
Of course, some people on campus read this post and casually mentioned to me in passing, things like “so, you hate your job, do you?” um… no… not what I said. Not where I was going with this…
Brian, I’m going to blatantly mimicking you, DJ Wiki.
I can no longer kid myself that I can write code. I’m not a coder anymore. I can edit code. I can understand what’s going on, but I’m not a coder anymore, if I ever was.
As I’ve been staring at a coding project lately (literally… just haven’t been able to actually force myself to code) this really echoes my sentiments.
All I can say is, “I love it!” Sorry to be prosaic, but it all sounds so right to me.
“Creative Commons, Open Education Resources (not Learning Objects), personal publishing, remix culture, and things that empower individuals rather than Institutions”
I look forward to seeing where this journey leads you – anything I can learn is something I can pass onto my own kids. My kids are enrolled in a distributive learning program here in BC.
@Chris – I’m pretty sure that what I’m feeling right now wouldn’t be described as “clarity” – but I’ve got a bit of a sense of what I’m thinking through, at least…
I’m really not sure where this train of thought will lead me, but it feels important enough to follow it, and to do it openly. Could be interesting, or not. Too early to tell.
Bravo D’Arcy.
Every day I receive an email from the Daily Om, some thoughtful words to meditate on. Today’s were – http://www.dailyom.com/articles/2007/7717.html – seemed kind of appropriate. “Whatever we imagine ourselves musing upon during our last breath will almost always be representative of what truly matters to us.”
This is valuable… thanks for posting it. Due to sickness and presentations and travel I’m still processing some of the conversations I had– and some of what I witnessed– at Northern Voice, the sum total of which add up to having feelings much like those you have eloquently shared.
A year ago this month I met with a friend and said I was going to see what happened professionally over the next year and then decide if I really wanted to be doing what I am doing. It has been a great year, and I have no desire to leave (like you, father-dom comes first and I won’t subject them to the hand-to-mouth living of trying to live off of writing poetry), but I feel a strong need to focus. In other words, what is important?
I hope to find the clarity you seem to have found!
“I’m going to be focusing my energy on things like Creative Commons, Open Education Resources (not Learning Objects), personal publishing, remix culture, and things that empower individuals rather than Institutions.”
– Praise [insert diety of choice here]!!!