Wonderosity

It’s looking like a geeky week. First I watch the iphone 2.0 drama unfold (not much drama, more let down really…gotta wait 3 weeks for the really good stuff.)

Then last night (Tuesday) for ‘Tertullia’ (a Seattle guy’s group I’ve been a part of for a couple years now) Buzz brought in Scoble for ‘the Scoble show’. Here’s a Qik video that Robert took during that evening, I’m in a blue shirt and ask a question about Qik.

Though most of the content of the evening was a rehash of things I was already aware of, it was good to see how the rest of the group reacted to Scoble’s view on the meaning of the media shift. It was also great to meet him face to face and see that he really does seem to be a nice guy who is having genuine fun following his geeky passion.Though I’d love to hear more details about where he thinks technology should have its limits, I got him to twitter back to me the day before an answer to my tweet “@scobleizer I’m curious. Seems like you are constantly wired. Do you have any personal/family boundaries for unplugging? What are they?” To which he answered:

Then for this weekend, I’m hoping to make it to thingamajiggr (part of Ignite Seattle) for some good innovative geeky fun. Finally, I’ll be attending the first Barcamp Seattle for more geeking out loud. Below is my pathable profile for the event (Pathable is a cool Seattle company that connects people using metadata, then provides physical name tags with valuable info for the live event.)

Then its a father’s day at the in-laws for a ‘tech-sabbath’ rest

It’s funny, well, sad actually: I really used to love blogging and podcasting. I enjoyed the creative act, the experiments I conducted, the excitement of being heard by others, and the pleasure of getting feedback on my thoughts and creations. Then something happened. Certain factors crept in and killed the joy. And now I’m wondering out loud what they are for me:

• By far the main culprit: When I started doing ’social media stuff’ professionally, my fear of ‘looking unprofessional’ increased dramatically -the inner censor (”Grammar!”, “Stupid, unoriginal idea”, etc) got loud.
• The #2 reason is that somewhere I lost my soul, my passion, my freedom to express myself honestly. Partly this is just practical –life got busy and took on priorities. But the other reasons, having to do with deeper issues of spirituality and idenitity, are things I need to deal wi th.
• After leaving my last job, and starting two different businesses, life got really busy. But I don’t really believe that’s true as I spend plenty of time ‘consuming’ others’ media.
• Comparing myself to other bloggers and podcasters, which I now consume more of, contributes to that #1 issue big time
• For podcasting, production time can be a bitch.
• Endless experimenting with and indecision between various tools and platforms.

I could list more (what about you?), but I think those are the main reasons and its time to change. So, to all those inner and outer critics: screw you, perfection and people pleasing is not what social media is about.

I just gotta be me, like it or not, buy it or not, ‘digg me’ or not.

Twitter in Business Week today. Article and my response here: http://tinyurl.com/69u3l3

Follow LeifHansen on twitter.

I recently made this list and posted it on my wall to remind me of things that really Spark life for me.
What about you?

1. Personal daily experimental living/learning
2. Playing improv games with a group of people
3. Playing Soccer, Racquet sports and Ultimate Frisbee
4. Stimulating, respectful, deep conversations, especially with my wife and close friends
5. Thinking of new ideas, possibilities
6. Having ‘spiritual experiences’ (sense of transcendence, gratefulness, connectedness, being loved by the Source, stillness, etc)
7. Improvised singing and jamming
8. Being totally goofy and/or laughing long and hard with friends
9. Finding and playing/testing out the newest and latest technologies
10. Snuggling with my wife and daughter
11. Leaning from and playing with my wife and daughter
12. Asking and being asked good, challenging, thought-provoking questions
13. Seeing/understanding how things fit together, and then sharing/presenting that information
14. Imagining/talking/reading/projecting/planning about the future
15. Walking in, exploring and communing with nature
16. Reading, hearing, watching a good story (thus book, play, movie, storyteller, etc)
17. Experiencing other’s artistic creativity, particularly when its really innovative
18. Being creative myself (writing a song, story or paper; creating a beneficial social site or podcast, etc)
19. Accomplishing things that have a dramatic and wide reaching effect for changing things for the good
20. Working with, or even just being a part of, almost any group
21. I love challenging, provoking, encouraging and motivating people
22. Gathering with a group of friends for a tasty meal and some wine
23. Organizing, creating order from chaos (once I’m actually DOING it, not before)
24. Traveling to new places, with either a total focus or a total non-focus

The Background

I love remembering that I can live differently, do normal routines differently, experiment/play with my ‘everyday life’. I know that part of this is out of a fear of being ‘normal’ or boring, but it is also genuinely from a passion and excitement about exploring, experiencing new things, seeing things differently, etc. Throughout the years I’ve been known to tweak my life (go blind or mute an entire day while at college; try to only think hopeful/optimistic thoughts; etc.).

I’ve fantasized about the idea of doing a daily ‘life hack’ or ‘daily quest’ that I share with others. Well, instead of doing what I usually do, which is to state some grand plan/commitment and then gradually giving up or forgetting about it, I’ve decided to commit to doing this –but to do it intermittently. One thing I’ve found is that, while it is usually fun and I learn a ton, it’s harder than I thought (I’m already experiencing left-handed mouse use fatigue).

The Plan:

1. Decide on the day’s real-life hack (name subject to change). I’ll probably keep an idealist somewhere, so if you have one, please feel free to share it in the comments or email me.
2. Write a short blog post here at Wonderosity in the Spark Life / Everyday Living category (possibly with an Eyejot Intro)
3. Live it out, play the game.

Today’s Real-Life Hack:
I’m going to switch use of my primary hand (right) to my left hand. Why? Primarily, like usual, I’m just curious (hey, this is the wonderosity blog). I’ve also heard research that this can be good for the ol’ noggin, get the other side of my brain activated more. We’ll see…please join me if you feel so inclined and able to do so.

Tomorrow is International ShutDown Day and, as many of you know, this is not an insignificant topic to me. I’m excited to see that the concept of dethroning technology’s dominant role in our life, even for one day, is getting so much attention. The stated purpose of the Canadian organization who is sponsoring this event is:

“The idea of Shutdown Day project is simple — just shutdown your
computer for one whole day of the year and involve yourself in some
other activities: outdoors, nature, sports, fun stuff with friends and
family — whatever, just to remind yourself that there still exists a
world outside your monitor screen.”

Because this is falling on a Saturday, and my normal ’shut down day’ (my tech sabbath) is on Sunday, I’m going to go the whole weekend as low tech as possible. This is still really hard for me and I know that the One Ring, I mean my iPhone, is going to be itchy in my pocket.

I have so many conflicted feelings right now as I write, that the only way to get them out is a quick brainstorm (I also really need to get to bed, but wanted to say something before this weekend.) I’m feeling:

• Excitement that people are thinking more and more about these things, and taking steps like this day, taking our Soul Tech workshops, or joining efforts like Ariel’s 52 Nights Unplugged (though I haven’t seen a blog from her about this for quite some time now -is she still unplugging one night a week?)
• Feeling stupid for feeling jealous that I’m not getting as much attention/press I’ve gotten in pasts months for our Soul Tech workshop (which, if you didn’t know, was featured in many national and international papers, and then eventually on the Today Show -see the link before for more info including a video from NBC.)
• Feeling guilty that I still struggle with this issue so much
• Feeling concerned that people don’t really ‘get’ how serious this issue of increasing technocentricity is and could become
• Feeling anxious to finish my book on this topic
• Feeling, well, its time for bed…

Good luck to those of you doing it, and hope it turns into more of a habit.

I hope you enjoy this fun, power-packed interview by the wonderful ladies (Wendy Garrett and Sandy Jorgensen) over at a new Talkshoe.com show called “Conscious Living“. While we (mostly me, caffeinated ) talked about many things, we focused on:

• How Soul Tech received so much press and what the workshop is about
• The various projects and businesses I’m involved in
• My soon-to-launch www.SparkSocialMedia.com site
• The pros and cons of technology/Social Media and where I think things may be heading

To those of you visiting wonderosity from this show, you can follow this link to receive the free eworkbook we talked about.  And you can follow this link if you are interested in seeing how you can use social media (blogs, podcasts, social networking sites, etc) to enhance your business, organization or other passion project.

Thanks Wendy & Sandy!

-Leif

Well, I’m almost ready to let this site go public. There are a number of important additions I need to take care of (as mentioned in the forum), but I think that the Spark Social Media site will be ready to launch within a few days.

Our site will be featuring:
A collection of social media tutorial videos
Relevant and hot news from our collection of aggregated social media blogs
Meet other members and participate in the forums
Join specific social media groups
Learn from a growing Social Media Wiki/Glossary
Social Media Snapshots and Spark Event Photos

And just for the record, my goals for this site are:

1. To generate more business for Spark Social Media and its partners
2. To become a destination where both Social media virgins and intermediates can learn and grow their business, organization or other project.
3. To be a place where I can gather information and learn from others as well

Look forward to seeing you there!

If you have not yet seen this TED talk video by stroke-surviving neurologist Jill Taylor, please please please treat yourself to 18 minutes of pure inspiration and then, like me, you’ll want to pass it on to everyone you know.  I’m tempted to tempt you more by telling you what its about, but would rather just let you be surprised…

Tags: TEDTalks, JillTaylor, Wonderosity, LeifHansen, Neorology, Schitzophrenia, Spirituality, Connectedness, Unity, Brain

A number of blog readers, podcast listeners and other friends have been wondering why I’ve been so quiet lately. The main reason is simply that a lot has been going on in my life and every time I imagine blogging or doing a podcast, I feel overwhelmed from how ‘behind the updates’ I am. And then another ’something’ (challenging or blessing) comes up in life and the overwhelmed feeling increases. So, in case more ’somethings’ come up and I end up crushed, blissed out or stretched thin, I thought I’d start out with updating you on the main sad news. Next post will be on the main good news happening in my life…which there is plenty of as well.

About three weeks ago (February 24th, 2008) my father, Jorgen Hansen, passed away (Santa Barbara Independent obituary). Though it was a sad surprise, it wasn’t too much of a shock due to the fact that he was close to 86 and did have some arrhythmic heart issues. I had last talked to him the week before when the Today Show aired the piece about our Soul Tech workshop. I think (in his funny way) he was proud about this (perhaps a little jealous or skeptic in that I don’t think he ever received the kind of accolade that he would have wanted, or that he deserved), but I’m not sure. He often shared that ‘true art/artist’ rarely, if ever, received a fair reward in the world.

Another reason I wasn’t devastated was that I received a wonderful gift the night before I found out the news. I woke in the morning with the memory of two dreams that felt so vivid and important I immediately went upstairs and wrote them down. I hadn’t written down dreams with this feeling of…hmmm…’importance’ in years. I don’t want to share the details publicly, but I’ll just say that upon reflection after the news, they were clearly gifts from my dad and/or God and/or ‘the universe’. A needed boost to my wavering faith (of late) that life truly ‘goes on’ after death…

My dad and I had an odd relationship –distant (geographically and due to being separated from him at 3) and yet very close (in that we could still connect intimately, and more so in later years as I learned to accept him for who he was.) There is so much more so to say, but its a little odd to share in this space. I will say though that I’ve recently learned much more about him, about his brilliant side as a teacher and mentor, through his students and through other friends and family that I’d never met.

Ironically (for those who know about my ’skep-tech’ side) this getting to know him has mostly happened through the social site I created on Ning. At ‘Room 23′ people have shared their personal stories, pictures, paintings and videos from my dad’s life and classes. Check out the site to learn more about this amazing, though at times mind-bogglingly frustrating, man. I love you dad and will miss hearing your voice and seeing your face, until we meet on the other side.

Check out the new iphone usage stats at m:metrics (from 10,000 adults.)
And with the new iPhone SDK just released, the iphone will be eating an even bigger piece of the pie when all the cool new native apps are released.

I just read an engadget article referring to some interesting research about American anxiety over being unplugged.

“The study used research collected on almost 5,000 people over two years, and found that feelings of “disconnect anxiety” affected people of all ages, triggering sentiments like “dazed,” “disoriented,” “tense,” “inadequate” and even “panic.” Interestingly, however, the reasons for disconnect anxiety changed as subjects got older — teens and young adults worried about social communications being cut off, while older adults mostly fretted over work and safety issues.”

The shift in reasons for unplugged-anxiety seems obvious: As we grow up, our insecurities shift from being socially based to being based on work and health/safety. As I’ve talked about taking a break from cell phones with clients wanting to be more productive with technology, and workshop participants who are older (which is most of them), I almost always hear the concern “What if there is some family emergency?” Or the other side of the coin, “What if I‘m in an emergency situation?” This concern I’d say is the #1 reason given by people who really don’t want to use/carry a cell phone, but who sometimes still decide to carry one in their car…”just in case”.

These are good, hard questions raised by the ‘blessing’ of these kinds of technologies. And yet, to confirm the research, I doubt its what a teen is going to site as to their reason for being constantly plugged in. But maybe, to them, its just as -important.
If you wrestle with this issue and are interested in some coaching that can help you use your ‘tech time’ more productively, or in our ’soul tech’ workshops, then visit the Spark Northwest site. You can also join the ‘52 Nights Unplugged‘ site for some fun support in taking some time in your life to unplug, relax, get creative and focus on the more ‘enlivening’ aspects of life.

Warmly,
Leif

One of my favorite outcomes from the Soul Tech workshop is that one of the participants, Ariel Meadows (a Tech Savvy Microsoft Employee,  Author, and insightful blogger) decided to commit to one night a week of no ’screen technology’ (except snapping a few digital pictures to record her process.) She’s documenting her experiences on her blog under the tag (and registered domain name) “52NightsUnplugged“.    

I’d mentioned in the workshop, during a point of practical steps one may choose to take, that my family has been trying to keep a ‘low tech sabbath’ on Sundays (off and on for about three years now) and I’d like to think that perhaps that was part of her inspiration.  Regardless of the source of her inspiration, I think its very cool and courageous that she’s going for it!  Even more inspirational is the fact that she’s been getting responses from her readers deciding that they too want to give it a go.  In addition, the Today Show (who chose to profile Ariel during the workshop) is flying her out for the upcoming February 19th show to talk live about how ‘52 Nights’ has been going.  Go Ariel, spread the gospel of ’soul tech’, of sustainable technological practices… or whatever one wants to call it. 

It’s not about abandoning technology.  It’s not about smashing the machines.  It’s about dethroning technocentrism.  It’s about not getting to the end of your life and thinking “Crap. I wish I hadn’t spent 25 of my years staring at screens.” (Take the natl avg of 4.5 hrs of TV a day, add movies, video games, cell phones, PDAs, etc and thats a low guestimate for a 75 year life…and who knows what new technology will be tempting us in the future.  Beware the ring Frodo.) 

Soul Tech, or Sustainable Tech, is about recognizing and acting on the fact that there are more wonder-full, mysterious, creative, real, adventurous, fulfilling ways to experience and express our humanity than just staring at screens and tapping mice.  I want to live life deeply and I’m sure you do too. 

The Seattle ‘Soul Tech’ workshop (”Living a passionately productive life amidst a tech-stressed world”) was a great success. You can see some of the pictures below, or here at the Humanity 2.0 site (a social site for those who have attended or who are interested in related topics.)

While it was a little strange to have the Today Show crew swinging camera’s around our faces, I am impressed that we (Jay, myself and all the participants) all seemed to eventually get used to it. Was it an appropriate use of technology…well, if it spreads the message, then I think yes.

So, I received an email from the producer yesterday that said our workshop would air on February 20th. How they will take what was probably 5-6 hours of footage and whittle it down to 2-3 minutes while maintaining the heart of things is a little beyond me. My hope though is that, besides a potential increase in business, it will also increase national awareness and dialogue about these increasingly important issues: How is technology effecting our daily lives for the better and for the worse? How can we become more intentional and conscious of our use in a way that maintains the best parts of being human?

Find more photos like this on Humanity 2.0

I wish I had known about ImprovEverywhere earlier in my life, as I’ve been doing somewhat related ‘public spontaneous events’ by myself and with friends for over a decade now.  Joining a broader community would have been supportive and fun (it can get a little scary or lonely at times)… but hey, no point whining about what can now change!  I ’ve just found out that they’ve recently started a BOOMING Ning social site, which includes local groups getting organized for lively local chaos.  To get a taste of ImprovEverywhere’s ‘art’, the below video is probably my favorite ‘mission’ by the NY group yet….over 200 ’secret agents’ spontaneiously freezing in the NY subway.  Brilliant!  It seems that most of their events are just for fun, though I’m not sure.  Personally, I’d like to add some more ‘meaningful purpose’ to the events I’m a part of, but hey, maybe the deepest message one can say is “Have fun”.  (Like the bumper sticker: “Maybe the Hokey-Pokey IS what its all about!”)Enjoy! 

If you haven’t played the game (or had the experience) of “Passage” yet, download it now (Mac, PC or Linux) and see what you think.  The game/experience takes 5 minutes and I thought it was a fascinating and artistic way to express much of what life’s ‘about’. I won’t say much more, but will let it be a surprise.  Kudos to Buzz for telling me about this.  After you’ve played it once, I’d suggest reading the creator’s statement and then playing it again.

Tags: passage, passagegame, wonderosity, leifhansen, games, computergames, life

Thanks to Nancy White at Full Circle, for this insightful article … 

“We need to restore mystery to education, to allow a creative and healthy balance between being ‘plugged’ where we explore the technology of knowledge as symbolized in our computers and machines with being ‘unplugged’ by exploring creativity in community where the tools are simple and embodied in our voices, our dancing, our acting and our play.” 

I discovered  (and, as you can see…um, I mean hear, have implemented) on a friend’s great blog (Full Circle Associates) a powerful new service that turns the text of anybody’s blog into an audio podcast and then even adds that feed to iTunes.  Why is that so cool?  Well, I don’t know about you, but I have much more free time while on the move (driving, exercising, etc) and listening to my iPhone than time where I can read blogs in front of a screen.  Besides, listening and driving is a lot more enjoyable and safer than trying to read it off my iphone  Anyway, you can check it out by pressing one of the play buttons on each blog entry, and you can subscribe to my blog’s audio feed by clicking on the ‘Odiogo’ button in the upper left column of this page.  Have fun and let me know what you think!  Set yourself up with one by heading over here. 

Part II

Part I

Modernity’s Myth

In order to understand the relevance of Tolkien’s story to us today, and in order to better understand how technology has taken such a prominent place in our society, we will now need to examine another myth, a myth which wants us to take it a little more ‘literally’.  I call it a myth because every worldview is part system and part story:  They are systems because they try to show how the various dimensions of reality are related;  they are stories because they try to make sense of human history using language that is inescapably associated with a socio-historical context, and because they make choices that can never be severed from subjective value judgments.  

We have a choice of what myths, what visions we will use to help us understand the physical world.  We do not have a choice of understanding it without using any myths or visions at all.  Again, we have a real choice between becoming aware of these myths and ignoring them.  If we ignore them, we travel blindly inside myths and visions which are largely provided by other people.  This makes it much harder to know where we are going.

The myth we will now be examining is the worldview produced by unrestrained scientific inquiry and assertions –a way of defining the universe that, when taken in its extreme form, reduces the universe to merely quantifiable material substances.  This worldview has taken on various nuances and labels, yet I will be using the term ‘scientific reductionism’ to describe it.  Scientific reductionism is the belief that all that exists is ultimately reducible to rationally explicable, mathematically quantifiable materials and laws that can best be discovered and exploited through the scientific method of apprehending reality.  While I will not recount here the history of how this worldview came to be so prevalent and so radically misappropriated, its primary point of origin was the Enlightenment’s placing of reason above all other sources of truth. 

Wendell Berry, critiquing one of the most recent and comprehensive attempts to promote this radically materialist worldview, O.N. Wilson’s Consilience, notes in his poignantly titled book Life is a Miracle: An essay against modern superstition that

Our daily lives are a daily mockery of our scientific pretensions.  We are learning to know precisely the location of our genes, but significant numbers of us don’t know the whereabouts of our children.  Science does not seem to be lighting the way; we seem rather to be leapfrogging into the dark along a series of scientific solutions, which become problems, which call for further solutions, which science is always eager to supply, and which it sometimes cannot supply.

A glance at any newspaper (or out most windows) confirms this image of leapfrogging in the dark –drugs that turn out to have devastating side effects; factories that destroy the environment;  machines that end up diminishing or creating barriers between relationships; social ‘programs’ that end up dehumanizing people; technologies that promise to bring happiness but only bring temporary entertainment –these and many other examples confirm Berry’s image.  We are dramatically confronted by the many problems caused by our previous ‘solutions’, and yet oddly enough more and more scientific ‘miracles’ are advertised, believed in, sold, and all too thoughtlessly consumed.  It’s as though we are addicted to technological ‘fixes’ and yet in denial of this addiction and its destructive consequences.

Yet without recognizing these consequences and without admitting the limits of this scientific myth, we have brought about serious problems; problems which may mean a temporary freedom for science, but which actually result in great loss of freedom for the world.  Berry puts it so:

Our present idea of freedom in science is too often reducible to thoughtlessness of consequence…In both science and art there is a principled resistance to any suggestion that the specialist, within his or her work, might be subject or subordinate to anything.  And so the freedom of the originators and exploiters has become, in effect, the abduction and imprisonment of all the rest of us.  Adam was the first, but not the last, to choose for the whole human race. 

Freedom was never meant be mean the ‘freedom’ to do whatever one desires; it comes when the boundaries and limits drawn by love are respected.  Our choices have consequences, and as we have seen, many of the choices of the scientific-political-technological powers-that-be have resulted in a great loss of freedom for many.

A further problem with this myth is that by reducing the known universe to mere lawfully determined, quantifiable material, we abandon any meaningf