Ana gardens. I cook. It’s self-care.

Ana reminds me that for people whose primary job in life is to care for others, the care of the self is essential and often neglected.

That alone time – a time of one’s own, possibly in a room of one’s own – can be restorative.¹

Especially when it strengthens the bonds that allow for care to be more evenly distributed.

For example, I cook new things that often taste good. This began during the pandemic – can’t go out – but it has continued and is now a thing that gives me great pleasure to do because I can share the product, immediately, with a wide variety of people.

I feed them and they feel delight. Ana gardens. When we invite people to our backyard, their eyes are delighted.

That kind of social communication – sharing a thing of beauty, whether a feast for the mouth or the eyes – is the best of self-care.

Norbert

Last week, while walking our neighborhood (the dogs are a great excuse), we passed by a neighbor’s house that always thrills me with its perfectly half-van/half-truck utility vehicle parked in front.

To make a hybrid vehicle so clean is not only a mark of craft and attention to detail but also a clear sign that this person knows what they need and built the thing that does just that.

I expressed my admiration again and, much to our delight, the owner was on the porch, taking in the morning sun.

Norbert then told us his life’s story: born in Germany, a musician who then worked for the phone company before becoming interested in hydrology and then becoming a world-class engineer in water projects.

This led him to the moral of his story: humans failed to communicate effectively what needed to be done to preserve California’s water and its growth 30 years ago.

Per his account, the engineering was done, the companies were ready but it died in Sacramento. Egos, he said.

My readers will know that one of my few articles of faith is state power is best.

Why state power? In a liberal democracy, the highest form of human society, state power is a force multiplier for human progress; not only is the sum greater than its parts, those inputs are the best work we do: when we care for ourselves by helping others.

In any case, the project appears to have stalled because of problems in social communication.

And yet… as we walked away, Ana and I spoke of how effectively in just 20 minutes this man had transferred almost a lifetime’s worth of energy to us.

Inspiration is contagious. Energy is contagious, through speech.

(Inspire is from ‘breathe or blow into’ from in- ‘into’, like a God breathing into clay to give humans life. Or, in the beginning was the word. Etc!)

What then failed Norbert and his generation of builders?

how many of our problems are actually social communication problems?

One to one, Norbert clearly had mastered his message. Having worked in telephony, he probably understands innately the meaning of signal to noise: what is the most efficient way to communicate to the most people?

In his story, “Sacramento” became the place where the dreams of a dream team of domain experts died. Why?

Because the signal got lost in the noise.

Ultimately, governance is a signal management problem. It’s a truth-finding process that should result in the best ideas being green-lit and fast-tracked.

Instead, we got this:

How did we end up with a president so incurious and ignorant, surrounded by such pathetic yes-men, that he is about to trigger a global energy crisis?

Miscommunication.

Yes, the president, his vice-president, his billionaire sponsors are all degenerate liars.

Yes, the corporate media was too greedy to interrupt their stream of bullshit.

And what was the result? A nation full of low information voters.

What is a low-information voter? A high-noise-to-signal voter.

That’s it.

How did things get so bad?

Sure, we can draw a straight line between the 2007-2008 Writers Strike spawning The Apprentice and the 2010 Citizens United making it possible for billionaires to drown the signal with white (power) noise.

But I think the problem is deeper. Much deeper.

The smart people stopped being good at explaining themselves. That’s it.

It’s not more complicated.

We shouldn’t ever let it be that, ever again.

p.s.

It’s a fools’ game to make predictions but I suspect we’ll be a lot better at transferring energy in the 21st century. Or, we’ll all be dead.

It’s a binary; either/or.

p.p.s.

In an age of ubiquitous cell phone screens, is it efficient to transfer meaning with a pair of glasses that are information-rich screens?

That is one of the questions I have been trying to answer over the last 18 months.

I will say only this: when you watch an Apple Immersive Video, you are not a spectator, you are a witness.

That is a fundamentally different subject position and responsibility for the viewer.

Do most people want to be witnesses or spectators? Well, a little bit of column a and a little bit of column b.

When looking through glasses that become binoculars into another world, you are also in a room of your own.

That room is potentially as rich as the people wearing it.

Unblocking that value feels like an enormous opportunity to me still.

Imagine, for example, a world where computers can see what we see and help us make holistic sense of it in real time?

Bernie sure can.

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