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The Cause is at the Source

By kpluseiswise | August 17, 2023August 8, 2023 by kpluseiswise

Knowledge + Experience = Wisdom 138 One of the most influential papers from my former career described the ‘River Continuum Concept’. Though quite basic, this paper revolutionized how we thought about streams and rivers. Specifically how freshwater systems changed from their springs where they began to the oceans into which they drained. This paper introduced me to systems thinking and changed how I think about the world and nearly everything in it. Generally, systems are comprised…

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Making Room for Discomfort Leads to Growth

By kpluseiswise | August 10, 2023August 8, 2023 by kpluseiswise

Episode 137 Do you ever think about your comfort zone? You know, the thing that keeps you doing the same things over and over. And helps you stay calm, minimize anxiety, and do the things you need to do. I think of the comfort zone as being like a cocoon that surrounds our bodies. When we get into situations where we are uncomfortable, scared, or unfamiliar we start to experience negative emotions. Sometimes we’re afraid.…

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Using Common Sense to Win at Life

By kpluseiswise | August 3, 2023July 31, 2023 by kpluseiswise

Do you remember common sense? That people just kinda know stuff. What’s right and what’s wrong. Do you remember Common Sense? The document by Thomas Paine that was a precursor to the Bill of Rights and the Constitution? The first thing is something we think everybody we agree with has, and everybody we disagree with doesn’t have. The second thing basically said government is a necessary evil. This episode is about the first thing, and…

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What Freedom Means to Me

By kpluseiswise | July 13, 2023July 11, 2023 by kpluseiswise

The fourth of July makes me ashamed. I’m ashamed of myself because I can’t seem to match the patriotism that surrounds me. In the USA, people get almost spiritual about their fireworks, hot dogs, and freedom worship. Behind all of this, for me, is a whole lot of weirdness. The whole Independence thing is fine. We fled a plutocratic government to have the ‘freedom’ to worship any god we wanted only to find ourselves in…

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Growing Smaller is a Worthy Goal

By kpluseiswise | July 6, 2023July 4, 2023 by kpluseiswise

I used to own a brewery. In our rural location and with our small customer pool, we struggled to be profitable. My partners and I disagreed about how to best approach profitability. One had an MBA and swore by the neo-capitalist, Econ 101 approach to maximizing revenues. Following this popular approach, we were unable to generate returns on the money we threw at advertising, marketing, and solicitation. Though I was the introverted partner, I eventually mustered…

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Systems Thinking ( KEW Episode 122)

By kpluseiswise | April 27, 2023April 25, 2023 by kpluseiswise

While this is not a definitive treatise on Systems Thinking, I wanted to talk a bit about this topic as it is relevant to many of my posts. People tell me that out-of-the-box thinking is atypical. Most people seem to think of the world in simplified, or at least minimized relationships. For example, you might think your job sucks. When thinking about how to change that or do something about it, you might think about…

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The Flow-Based Neo Pseudo-Scientific Method Approach (Flow-Based Inquiry – KEW Episode 105)

By kpluseiswise | December 29, 2022November 13, 2023 by kpluseiswise

The KEW Acid Tests ask how Nature can inform the big questions humans ask. “Why are we here?”, “Who am I?”, and “What is our purpose” have puzzled humans for years – perhaps millennia. In the past 4,000 years or so, we have employed philosophy, religion, and science as mechanisms to ask and answer these big questions. While we certainly have learned a lot, the questions are too big to have definitive answers. I don’t…

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KEW The Acid Test: The Problem and The Questions (Episode 104)

By kpluseiswise | December 22, 2022December 21, 2022 by kpluseiswise

What is the question!!!???? Say you are studying the effectiveness of a vaccine against some pathogen. What is the question? Too many times we get wrapped up in the specifics. The details. The minutia. We forget WHY we are doing this in the first place. In this case, I would say the question is, does this vaccine help reduce the problems associated with said pathogen? Maybe you’re interested in climate change. So you gather a…

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Preview KEW Episode 76: Why Am I?

By kpluseiswise | December 15, 2021 by kpluseiswise

Some folks may think this is a silly question. But if you’re reading this you probably think it’s a great question. First, thanks for coming! Second, I ask this question fairly literally as a means of transitioning along the pathway that is The Are vs Should Problem. For the last 25 (twenty-five!) Episodes I have followed my thoughts about the struggle between the person we ARE and the person we feel like we SHOULD BE.…

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FLASHBACK! KEW Episode 54: The Bully and Your DNA (Part 1)

By kpluseiswise | November 22, 2021 by kpluseiswise

In this flashback Episode I separated the two main elements from the Are vs Should Problem. The Bully is the ‘Shoulds’, those voices in your head telling you to do things a certain way, follow a specific path, or make a decision that jibes with an influential element in your life. In Part 2, I talk about the ‘are’ which I argue is inherent in our DNA. The idea of ‘shoulds’ is pretty common in…