This week's written snapshots.
Petulant penguins peevishly pecked penitent pecans pleading penury.
A few weeks ago, I got into a conversation about zines and d.w. sent me a couple! I printed out the emails with the kids to make the books.
A single sheet of paper, a few folds, one cut, and voila! an eight page book.
The kids delayed dinner so they could color their new zines.
19 Aug 2023
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OPM.53 (notes on) A Sense of Style, Steven Pinker, 2015
I often write about the grand challenges aspects of this work — eliminating and preserving slack in the system, juggling budget and schedule, fostering a decisive culture, executing a careful process, developing relationships.
But in this world of digital communication, much of my time on the job is trying to write good. A well turned email can make a difference, and it’s amazing when a carefully crafted memo gets the needed response.
This book stands out from prescriptive manuals (like Strunk and White) because Pinker carefully explains the why behind the rules. This book’s strength is also reflection upon what I do as an OPM.
Yes we must follow our agency standards. And we all got personal preferences. But we’re at our best when we can explain the logic behind our decisions. It’s important for our team to know why, especially if the institutional logic results in weird choices.
At least that’s what I hope. Maybe I just bore my consultants to tears with extended explanations of bureaucratic esoterica.
That’s one of the perks and dangers of being a client — no one will tell you to shut up.
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Listening is not the best way to consume this book, but a little is better than none. There are diagrams and complex analyses that warrant a visual reading (either physical or electronic). But I haven’t bothered in the past couple of years, so I guess it’s not going to happen.
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Some Links
Live performances of electronic music sounds like a contradiction, but they have a spark that is sometimes missing from their albums. Here are a few examples.
I’ve haven’t gotten into his studio albums, but I often play Oupio’s concert at Red Rocks with the SYZYGY Orchestra when I’m cranking on work.
Admittedly Caravan Palace’s animated music video is wildly vivid, but there’s a great vibe in this live performance of Lone Digger.
I used to listen to Moon Safari album on a little blue MP3 player while walking to studio. This video of La Femme d’Argent in a recording studio materializes the music and the memories.
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Thanks for reading!
Justus Pang, RA
18 Aug 2023
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~600! (on Post)
It took three months between milestones this time.
This long interval reflects my shift from hanging out on Post to Substack Notes.
Post is a better feed experience — I love the variety.
But the newsletter integration at Substack is the “killer app” that kept my attention there. My major goal this year was to make a dent in the pile of old blog drafts and Substack is a better platform for that endeavor.
But things might be shifting, now that I’ve signed up for auto posting from the RSS feed. It effectively lets me schedule posts for Post and this place has always been a bit more interactive for me. (Until this week, it was essentially impossible hard to follow anyone on Substack Notes without Subscribing to their newsletter, so the circles there are small and extremely top heavy.)
It will be interesting to see how these Social Media Wars play out, even as I try to reduce my time on digital feeds (though I’ve recently discovered Pinterest as a great resource for visual inspiration). I’ve made a dent in my publishing backlog but it will take some effort to clear the decks and I want to spend more time sketching and reading books.
The internet is a tricky beast. In the past month I might have spent more time shopping for fountain pens than pushing any of those priorities. Perusing virtual shelves, watching youtube videos, and planning purchases are great hacks at making you believe you’ve done something while accomplishing nothing.
So I’ve made a resolution to stop shopping for the rest of the year. I’ve got a few toys in the mail and I bet that “necessities” will pop up to open my wallet. But no more discretionary browsing!
Here’s to another fresh start to an old year!
17 Aug 2023
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Running From or Running To?
When a project hits a snag – run to the problem (advice from my administrator at a partnering meeting with our contractor in 2019.)
I often say, problems don’t fix themselves, they only get worse over time.
Borrowing a phrase from Jocko Willink, Default Aggressive is the best way to tackle issues (though one of the choices is may be to actively choose to let things play out for a moment).
Remember the hidden costs of waiting for a perfectly confirmed answer. Colin Powell had the 40-70 rule. Don’t make a rash decision, but waiting for all the information can lead to a lost opportunity. (Of course Powell famously made a serious error in the yellow cake presentation, so the risks are also real.)
A leadership position frees you from long work, but you owe the team the risk of owning the hard work. (As soon as I write a blog post saying I’m over Seth Godin, I come right back to one of his key concepts).
17 Aug 2023
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A few hours later, an empty blue pouch showed up in the playroom.
He noticed a blue pouch in the medicine cabinet.
“hey! that’s our old blue bag.”
I grabbed it.
“what’s in the bag!?”
I giggled.
“what’s in it?“
I ran to the kitchen.
“They want to see what’s in the pouch!”
they gave chase!
“give us the bag!”
Mama calmly said,
“That’s daddy’s medicine, put the pouch away.”
they asked,
“what’s in the bag?”
“There’s nothing to see.”
(it’s why there’s only two of them)
䷒䷵
earth arrive
lake approach
spring award
16 Aug 2023
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foreword to Monkey King by Gene Luen Yang, (Julia Lovell Translation), 2021
When reading classic literature, I often stumble at the introduction and never make it to the text itself. So I have mixed feelings towards introductory materials.
However, Gene Luen Yang wrote an amazing foreword. It was concise but heartfelt. He spoke of himself, but captured a moment that included me.
He nailed the rootlessness that I sensed as an Asian kid growing up in America. My mom also read the Journey to the West to me and my sister. Monkey, Pigsy, and Sandy were integral parts parts of our childhood in a universe where they didn’t exist outside our home.
Unlike Gene, I never fell in love with comic books. I never thought I had a favorite superhero, until I realized I did all along. This ridiculous monkey had settled deep into my psyche and never left.
Like us, Sun Wukong was an outsider navigating a strange land. I never had his brashness, but I wish I did! (If I ever get a tattoo it would be 齊天大聖 , Great Sage Heaven’s Equal)
One of the best introductions I’ve ever read. But I’m biased since Gene wrote it just for me.
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I drafted this note two years ago, before reading the book. I will always be in debt to the Lovell abridgement because it lead me to read the full translation by Anthony C. Yu, which I prefer. The story is a classic but the experience is incomplete without the poetic interludes in the novel.
14 Aug 2023
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Thanks for reading!
Justus