(Warning: this post discusses the upcoming US Presidential election.) Our identities mean we identify with many possible different tribes. By tribe, I mean a particular affinity group. I have professional tribes, such as software people, managers, and consultants. Personally, I have my family tribe and my position in that tribe. I also have social tribes, […]
How Much of a Hold Do Your Various Tribes Have on You? Read More »
How often do you notice inconsistencies? We are human, so we are all inconsistent at times. But the more often I see these inconsistencies, the more they confuse me or make little sense to me. In fact, they confuse me so much, that this is my fourth attempt to write this post. Sigh. I suspect
What Confuses You or Makes Little or No Sense to You? Read More »
This is the October 2024 Create an Adaptable Life Newsletter, from Johanna Rothman. The Unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this email. I stopped posting on X/Twitter back in 2023. I didn’t like what Musk was doing on the site, so I downloaded my activity and left my profile there. The profile had links
How Often Do You Change How You Act Based on New Information? Read More »
Rejection is a fact of life. We don’t get the jobs we want. Or the date with someone who seems attractive. Plenty of magazine editors reject my short stories, even when the editor says, “I liked it. It just doesn’t fit.” Those rejections feel personal—and they are in matters of the heart. But more often,
How Do Rejections Affect Your Ability to Be Resilient and Adapt? Read More »
This is the September 2024 Create an Adaptable Life Newsletter, from Johanna Rothman. The Unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this email. When I went to college, I referred to my female friends as “women.” My mother laughed at that, saying we were still girls. I asked her, “When do male people become men?
How Do the Names We Call Each Other Matter? Read More »
Mark and I just returned from a week-long trip to Switzerland and Germany to explore some of my family’s origins. We had a great—and exhausting—time. I learned a ton, not just about my family’s past, but about designing for the entire experience, and how my perseverance interacts with my learning. Design for the Entire Experience
How Can You Integrate What You Learned from Traveling to a New Place? Read More »
In the agile community, we have the idea of “Yesterday’s Weather.” That means that what happened yesterday is roughly what will happen today and maybe tomorrow. (We expect small or no Foreign Elements. See Where Are You In Your Changes? for more details about the Satir Change Model.) As assumptions go, that’s reasonable for progress. However,
What Would It Take for Us to Embrace Continual Change? Read More »
We moved into this house ten years ago, so Things Are Breaking. Our garage door sounded sick a couple of months ago, but I’ve learned to wait until the spring breaks before fixing it. The Last Responsible Moment for fixing occurs after the spring breaks. (Very few garage door people will replace the spring before
When Do We Realize the Last Responsible Moment Whooshed By? Read More »
An amazing thing occurred in the recent French elections. After the first round of voting, the third-place centrist-left candidates dropped out and asked “their” voters to support the other centrist-left candidate. That’s how the center-left overwhelmed the far-right candidates. Yes, the third-place people stayed committed to their principles but did not stay attached to their positions.
How Can We Be Committed to Principles, But Not Attached to Positions? Read More »
My twenty-year-old pillow died several years ago. Instead of supporting my neck, my head just plunked down. That led to back pain and insomnia. I needed to sleep. The manufacturer is out of business and there was no straight replacement. That’s when I started to experiment. I bought many pillows. The image on the left
How Can We Realize the Experiment is Over and It’s Time to Clean Up? Read More »