Avatar photoSteven Savage

Civic Geek: Whew, here we are!

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr)

Man I haven’t done one of these in awhile!  I’ve scheduled myself to do one a month though.  If you fell off this series, this is where I blog on civic geekery.

Let’s make this more of a catch up.

What am I doing?

  1. I am helping with a country political group.  I’ve been doing this for awhile, running social media.  Most of it is posting links and events, but it does keep people informed – and when elections are around they promise I’ll get busy.  A bit boring, but it keeps me in the midst of events and hard politics.
  2. I print a list weekly of what I want to call my reps on (boy are they gonna get an earful on the California Health Care bill).  Then I kinda do it.  That’s federal, state, AND local.  Bug them all people.
  3. As part of #1 and #2 I also keep on the news, having alerts for all my representatives.
  4. As part of #1 and #2 I follow the news through various forms – Twitter and a newsfeed – as well.
  5. I go to a regular monthly activism meetup that also has regular advice what to do.

I’ve not done as well as I wanted in late May and June, bluntly, as I’ve gotten real busy.  But the regular reminders I set up help and help me stay active.

The only thing I don’t feel is as connected as I’d like.  It’s probably as I’m comparing political involvement to, say, daily work or my professional associations.  So I’m always on the lookout for what more I can do.

A very, very important thing to do here is have that regular weekly plan.  I print it out and check it off every week.

Also don’t knock the power of the various sites that tell you what activism you can do like 5calls.  As you get active you learn ways to be a more engaged citizen.

And now a few findings

  1. When you call representatives, politeness goes a long way.  If they’ve disappointed you, feel free to be civil but with an edge.  I find representatives that are “gone rogue” respond to that.
  2. It really, really helps to meet with people.  I find the less I meet with people the less involved I feel.
  3. You have to keep trying out other groups and organizations to really know what’s going on.
  4. A lot of people do NOT know how government works – probably including you.
  5. I know a lot of people who were in military service, and as I talk to reps I see how many people just keep the country running.  When you see how many people are in the serivce, the government, security, etc. it can kind of make you feel inadequate.

(Oh and if you need some other creative boosts, check out my book on Creative Paths!)

– Steve

A Writer’s View: Plotting, Pantsing, And Agile

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr)

So this week I finished the plot outline of my book. I’ve been expanding it iteratively, from one-sentence summaries to full character profiles, based on the Snowflake method. The method itself works great with Agile – and brings up a very important point about writing.

Writing, it is said, is often divided into “pantsers” (seat-of-my-pants writers) and “plotters (organized writers like yours truly). As a plotter, I’d like to note that you do end up “pantsing” anyway, just on a finer-grained level. At some point in writing you can only plan so much before you have to write – it’s a matter of degree.

This truth can frustrate some plotters, because you can only define so much before there’s nothing left to do. Your ideas may be totally wrong, your plan may be horrible, your plot awful – but you won’t know until you start writing.

This is the same thing one faces in software, where Agile methods continue to hold more and more sway – you can only design so much before you have to write code to see if it works. It’s the same with writing.

So now that I have a plot, how will I confront my inevitable discovery of all my horrible mistakes?

First, I won’t be afraid. As I like to note, Eat Your Failure.

Secondly, I plan to do reviews:

  1. I will write a chapter at a time and share it with people for feedback.
  2. I will review my full plot outline every chapter completed to make notes and see what changed or what I want to modify or what I want to add.

I know my plot outline (all 8 pages in a spreadsheet) is only so good. But it’s good enough to get moving with an idea of where I’m going, and good enough to improve when I find mistakes or get new ideas. It also is stable enough that it probably won’t fall apart and deep enough it’s not shallow.

Two notes:

  1. I have trouble seeing how “pantsing” can work for complex stories, but perhaps I have something to learn there, no? Maybe I should “pants” a short story sometime.
  2. Based on my own experiences and what I’ve seen in the market you can in theory plot a novel pretty finely, and its very easy if you’re using tropes or taking a “light” approach. Not sure how good it’d be, but it seems doable.So what have you found?

(Oh and if you need some other creative boosts, check out my book on Creative Paths!)

– Steve

My Agile Life: Eat Failure, Not Your Peace Of Mind

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s LinkedIn, and Steve’s Tumblr)

(My continuing “Agile Life” column, where I use Scrum for a more balanced and productive life continues).

Doing Agile in my personal life taught me how to fail. You’d think at my age I’d have plenty of practice failing, but there’s always something to learn.

Ever obsess over a problem or mistake? Of course you have. We make mistakes then play with them in our heads over and over even while we fix them, berating ourselves as we do so. Even when the mistake is fixed, the self-flagellation may continue afterwards.

This is terrible for our peace of mind. Every minute spent in worry is a minute not spent doing something else. Worry can eat up so much time that we get less done – which only makes us worry more.

In business, we’re familiar with the equivalent of this worry; blame game and paralysis through analysis. A department or group becomes so locked up by blame-flinging and over-analyzing nothing gets done. Such a department is as trapped just like person locked in an endless cycle of self-loathing. In fact, I’d say it’s pretty much the same thing

In doing Agile for my personal life as well as work, I came up with the term “Eat Your Failure.” Agile methods use failure to fuel improvement. Failure’s not just part of the process – failure powers it. Failure is actually not bad (well, not entirely).

This has helped change my attitude towards failure in a very short time, and am finding it fear of it starts to diminish. I’m far more aware of when fear of failure or annoyance with it drains my time. I’m less upset with it because I take an “eat your failure approach.” By treating failure differently, I have much more peace of mind and get more done.

(Trust me, on the novel I’m working on, that’s such a change of pace I get lots of fear of failure.)

In large organizations, this “eat your failure” mindset is as important if not moreso. If I get obsessed with failure and don’t think in Agile methods, I can slam a beer or go to therapy. In an organization, bad attitudes towards failure can become part of culture and outlast the people there (and their supplies of beer and therapy). Worry can become institutionalized.

Taking a positive or at least progressive view of Failure doesn’t just bring efficiency. It brings peace of mind.

Of course in our lives or in our jobs, we have to make sure that’s part of our culture, be it just us or an entire company. It’s up to us to make that change and encourage the change in others.

But honestly, how many people or businesses would be much happier if they just said “Let’s live with failure and improve” over obsession and guilt and denial?

Yeah, we know the answer.

(By the way I do plenty of books for coaching people to improve in various areas, which may also help you out!)

– Steve