Psychology

Only Dreams Of Wealth Are Permitted

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s Tumblr, and Pillowfort.  Find out more at my newsletter, and all my social media at my linktr.ee)

I saw this reddit post making the round, and I felt it. Kindly allow me less of a rant about leadership and projects and creativity to some feelings. Ok there WILL be some Project Management.

There are many things wrong in the world, and I pretty much rant on a lot of them (then usually mention Project Management). But I FELT this post hard. There’s lots of grifts and scams in America today, but there’s not nearly enough effort into fixing things.

I grew up in a place that still had depression era public works. I currently work in medical technology which is about solving problems as otherwise people die. It’s hard to imagine not solving problems, but then again that’s kind of the problem.

I think a lot of people just can’t imagine a better world and the way to get there.

In Project Management terms, we don’t have a charter to deliver or a plan to get there because we can’t dream it up. We are surrounded by wonders of technology and architecture, of history and providence, but we are impoverished in imagination. We can’t see a way forward and maybe not even a place to go.

Sure our media sells us “good” futures in the form of endless Star Trek series and assorted other stories – but these are also marketed to us, to appeal. The media will also sell us bad futures about dystopias and apocalypses, but those are also marketed. What’s not there is a road to the good future or a road out of or to avoid the bad future. We’re sold images without much solidity because it’s all about selling.

It’s all Product.

Our politics is the same way – and caught in the same loop. I dug up some satire from the early 80s and I’m seeing the same things being mocked four decades ago. We’re still doing the same bigotries and suicidal ideas and still satirizing them. It’s just like media, but let’s be honest, politics became theater decades ago as well, and everyone’s still repeating the bullshit. Real, big dreams seem to not be there, just the same nightmares and empty promises.

So what escape do you have? Well our media soaked culture will sell you grifts and personalities, so why not try to be like them? Invest in Crypto, become an influencer, whatever some rich figure currently bragging on your monitor is doing. We can’t imagine a better future, but folks can sell you the image of a richer you.

Being richer is the one thing you’re still able to imagine. Which is hilarious considering the small likelihood we will be rich.

I think we get caught in repetitive cultural cycles due to our media-political culture. T Here’s nothing to imagine, it’s all the same, and there’s just the promise of grift. It’s just we’ve gotten to the point where it’s hard to imagine hard-nosed, hands-on work to improve the world because it’s all images. It’s Society of the Spectacle, but the Spectacle includes people online screaming about mood-altering chemicals sprayed during wildfires that occurred due to global warming.

And of course me, the Project Manager, is constantly screaming inside just like all my fellows. What are the goals? The plan? Come on people!

Even though I can imagine a better future and a way to get there, it can be frustrating. So let me close by sharing a few things that helped me.

  • I’ve been just reading more. This leads to thinking. What I do watch more and more of modern nonfiction are specialists, experienced people, and indie creators and news.
  • I’ve been reading older texts on philosophy and history, seeing the world differently. It helps you imagine – and helps you see what’s been the same for centuries or aeons.
  • Getting hands-on locally with disaster prep. Just taking a CERT course was an incredible eye-opener to how the world works. Studying disaster prep made me appreciate work in California that goes back over a century in flood prevention.
  • Actual activism of any kind. Donate. Phone call. Do the disaster prep I mentioned. Get involved in anything that gets results. It’ll help you imagine what you want and how to get there.
  • Read up on other cultures and times. There’s a wealth of knowledge of how people have lived and imagined over the years. Even if some things seem out of date or antiquated, there’s plenty of insight. Seeing how people lived differently helps you imagine living differently.
  • Select your media. I’m not saying avoid trash – just know when you select your junk food. Trust me, I can’t judge, a friend has got me watching TWO Isekai deconstruction comedies.
  • Work with people. Talking to others can get you out of your imagination bubble.
  • WORK to imagine better. Write it down. Do a story. Let yourself practice dreaming.

No one is going to sell us a better future or a way forward. We have to make it together.

Steven Savage

Well Yes, They Lie

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s Tumblr, and Pillowfort.  Find out more at my newsletter, and all my social media at my linktr.ee)

I’m trying to figure out why people are surprised that other people, especially powerful people, lie.

Yes, of course I’m inspired by the whole thing where people are surprised Trump suddenly backs H1B visas, or at least sounds like he does. I mean why are people surprised that politicians are lying and how do they ignore previous disappointments? People are also surprised that businesses lie to them even after buying a bunch of terrible projects. Don’t even start me on movies, where lying about quality has become an art form while the films aren’t art but so much a sad cry from help from marketing.

I’m looking at YOU, Kraven. How do you mess up “sexy chest-revealing badass hunter”?

Anyway, it seems we can complain but we keep believing the lies. I mean look how people are talking Jimmy Carter being decent like we’re surprised someone is. But then we go ahead and believe some salesman or politician who lies to our faces as it’s the right lie.

And look, I get some people lie, even good ones, especially politicians. Some folks have to keep secrets even if they’re usually terrible about. Politicians and marketers have to put some polish on some potential turds. People are gonna get lie-adjacent, and yeah we get that.

But how do we keep being surprised that people lie to us blatantly when they’ve kept doing it? Especially when they’re politicians and big companies who you’d think we wouldn’t trust, considering our constant cultural elements of “don’t trust these things.”

I think it’s because cynicism also begets faith. Which also sounds like a dynamite alt-metal album title

Anyway by aging fantasies of music aside, think about what happens when you get real cynical about people. You don’t trust anyone. You’re not sure who to count on. Mistrust is hard even when it’s warranted. It’s wearing.

So you also want to trust someone. Cynicism can, in some ways, generate trust because you want someone to help you solve the problem. When you’ve got a big enemy, you want a big friend to help you.

Mistrust breeds trust.

Of course people know this. Ever notice how a lot of conspiracy theorists afraid “of the system” also sound pretty authoritarian? They want to fight The Conspiracy by establishing something that sounds just as bad when you think about it – they just promise you’ll be on top. People trust them because so much mistrust gets sown – or they come with it.

If you ever follow any podcast about conspiracy theorists you’ll quickly see how they’re often absolutely, blatantly lying. It honestly gets tiring, and I follow these things since it’s kind of relevant to my job in IT and medicine where lots of conspiracy theories get pointed.

Ultimately we need to know how to form trust appropriately – with communities. Know who you can trust, know what real trust feels like. That lets you also evaluate other relationships, especially more distant ones like with politicians and media figures. In time they might be worth trust, but you need some real trust to avoid the trust/cynicism fluctuation – and to get together to push politicians and leaders who need some pressuring.

You ever hear people rant about how we lack community? Well, I’m leaning to believe the ranters as I get older. If we form real relationships it may help us detect ones people are using to manipulate us. A little more trust might just breed effective mistrust as we have something to believe in and something to protect.

But at least for now maybe we can be a little more suspicions – even of ourselves.

Steven Savage

Yes, We Need Bureaucrats

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s Tumblr, and Pillowfort.  Find out more at my newsletter, and all my social media at my linktr.ee)

One thing I hear a lot is “we don’t need bureaucrats.” Now I’ve certainly been frustrated by bureaucracy – what do you think inspired this column – but I also know it’s needed. The problem is not bureaucracy, but it’s how we approach it.

Any complex system – a government, school, play, hospital, etc. is going to have things that need to get done. Orders and record-keeping, tracking and validating, all those everyday things that are important. There are also standards to be followed, and when it comes to say FDA validation or security assessments, you want to get those important – but often boring – things done.

Such things need bureaucracy and bureaucrats. Someone has to pay attention, shuffle the papers, fill out the checkboxes, and triple-check the forms that triple-ensure something isn’t going to kill you. Not everyone can do that – and I say this as someone who is sort of a bureaucrat, a Project Manager.

A bureaucrat provides, however abstract, a moral authority in a complex, boring, and specific situation. As much as you may not want to Do The Paperwork, the paperwork has a point as does the person doing it. Someone is responsible, if kind of abstract from it.

The thing is when we pay attention to bureaucracy, people usually see two things:

First, people see these bureaucratic processes but don’t understand them. Because they don’t understand them they think they’re useless, or pointless, or a burden. Bureaucracy, much like IT setups, often has to be turned off before people notice they need it. In fact, many people’s frustration with bureaucracy comes when it breaks because they didn’t notice it.

Secondly, people don’t think about improving bureaucracy or realize people are trying to make it more effective. Trust me, bureaucrats do ask how to make things run better, but that takes time, needs support, and may not be obvious. Just recently, as of this writing, I found out how one person I knew had completely overhauled an entire validation process, and I hadn’t known even though I worked with them for a year.

We don’t see how much good bureaucracy does or how it improves. When a process fanatic like me misses it, yeah, we all do.

Steven Savage