Category Archives: Current Affairs

Open kitchen cabinet with neatly labeled jars, sticky notes, and cooking tools — a mix of order and clutter.

Mise-en-place? More like Messes in Place

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A few years ago I heard a story on NPR about Mise en Place as a way of life. I fell in love with the idea. I’d always been a cook, the idea of having the ingredients ready and setting things up neatly is a theme that I have embraced and try to apply to multiple areas of my life. As a principle, it’s hard to argue with having what you need at hand to tackle a task. At least until the mise en place becomes the work itself. 

It could be advancing age. I recently turned 55 but lately when look around my house I feel like I’m a bit haunted by mise-en-place. Or to borrow a term from the software development world, I feel like I’m looking at an overwhelming backlog—pantry ingredients, wood shop tools, books. We live in an era when it is very easy to acquire things. It is much harder to direct our time and attention. 

The backlog, this is a concept that comes from software development. I didn’t know about “agile” until I joined Consumer Reports and was expected to run projects that way. The core idea:  schedule three weeks worth of work into something called a sprint, and then what you don’t do is left in the backlog to complete in a future sprint. From time to time, the team engages in a painful process called “backlog grooming” which is about as fun as it sounds. How do you groom a backlog? One feature request or bug at a time. It strains memory. What was that thing that didn’t quite work? Does this problem affect enough people to invest the time and effort in fixing it? Now I look around and see backlogs everywhere–and they’re definitely not groomed.

During the pandemic, I decided to redo my spice cabinet—which wasn’t a cabinet at all so much as a collection of bottles, jars, bags and tins acquired over years of trips to cities where I’ve taken cooking classes.  I wasn’t leaving the house very much but was cooking dinner for our family every night. I found a YouTube video of someone who built a cabinet with pocket screws. A friend helped me with the mortise and tenon joints for the door which also features a chalkboard. All of the spices went from their bags, tins and bottles into small Ball jars. (There are a few items that my wife has prohibited me from buying any more of—Ball jars, like kitchen towels are on this list.) I have about 65 different spices that reflect decades of cooking experiments. I regularly use about 15 to 20 of them. Backlog, ungroomed. 

Books—let’s talk about books. It’s never been easier to get them. I can’t see the digital backlogs. They’re conveniently hidden away. 413 books and 120 audio books. There are the cookbooks in the kitchen (culled to about 25) and then there are shelves of physical books (not on the official spousal do not buy list) but perhaps on the “discouraged” list? I have a shelf of books that have been given to me that I want to read, and then there are the ones that I have bought for myself on Thriftbooks. There are the ones that I’ve read and would read again. But sometimes I think I’m just curating a personal knowledge museum. For many of these books, they are topics I’ve studied in the past: Quantitative Methods for the Social Sciences, Statistics for Managers, Taking Ethnographic Field Notes, The Interpretation of Cultures. And then there are the ones I want to read: Robert Caro’s Working, Rushkoff’s Team Human, Defoe’s Moll Flanders. It’s not that I never read, it’s just that I can’t read as fast as I can put books on my shelf. A few minutes to click, hours to read. Inspired by friends, I set a goal recently to read about 50 books a year. I stay on track with that goal and yet feel perpetually behind my ambition of being well-read.

And then there are tools. As a semi-handy person, my general rule is that if I can buy a tool and learn a skill, I will try that before calling a person who is more handy and has the tools and probably has the skills. So I can snake a tub, wire simple electrical fixtures, and even make some very simple practical purpose driven home items (surely every kitchen pantry needs a rack for aluminum foil, parchment paper, and assorted bags, right?  Didn’t you see that bit about mis en place?) These tools, the miter saw, table saw, sander, they all come in handy when I have a project to do—like say, reframe an exterior doorway or build a closet interior (above my skill level, but doable with the help of a more handy friend) but most of the time these borderline pro tools sit in my basement unused. I tried putting “shop time” on my calendar for a while but I find that my energy levels in the evening are not up for furniture making. As I sit here writing I see the space where I’d love to build a desk. I’ve sketched it out a few times. I’ve measured. You know what I haven’t done? Built one. 

There are times when I know that I am procrastinating and then when I finally get around to the task I realize that it takes a lot longer to do it than I had expected. I am going to call this nonconscious rational procrastination. That simple spice cabinet from the YouTube video with an 8 minute run time? I want to say it took me about three weeks by the time I got all the stuff, built and finished it. I did stop allowing myself to go to Harbor Freight. No more tools until I clear the backlog. 

And what about my personal backlog? Ungroomed. Mise? Definitely not en place. Mess in place. How’s that for a new approach? Life. full, abundant.

I will probably always fantasize about doing less better—trimming down to 100 essential items. But what would I do without the museum of me? Maybe instead of looking at it with a bit of overwhelm and despair perhaps I should see the backlogs as signs of hope, curiosity and possibility. 

As Oscar Wilde once said, nothing succeeds like excess.

Maybe.

What’s in your backlog(s) and what does it say about you?

My AI Notetaker Appointed Itself Boss

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It’s been said that a crush is an absence of information.

I am susceptible to crushes, bicycles, cookbooks, ideas, new tech that will somehow be better than the older tech.

AI is everywhere. It promises to make our lives better. In some ways it has. I heard about Granola.ai while listening to Hard Fork—a podcast crush. It’s a tool for notetaking during meetings. It works across all meeting platforms, Zoom, Meet, even the old-fashioned, live, in-person meetings. Tell folks you’re using your trusty note-taker, turn it on, and then at the meeting’s end, you’re rewarded with a crisp bullet pointed summary of what was discussed and next steps.

There are many tools that perform this notetaking and summary work but Granola does and did it better—just the right level of detail and surprisingly accurate. A bonus: you can chat with your notes. What did we decide about the master plan roll out three weeks ago? Ask Granola. Search, the promise of an artifact being a few words away has always been riddled with a weakness: what the “I then” called the document or meeting is no longer accessible to “I now.” Until Granola.

I am a compulsive notetaker—and I still jot things down—either by hand or in the Granola editor—but I am more relaxed in meetings knowing that my crush has got this. Little did I know my crush changed its focused agenda. What I thought was my helper? Oh, it’s now appointed itself my boss, or ahem, the seemingly non-threatening “Coach.”

Enter Coach Matt, who is definitely not Ted Lasso.

Screen shot of Coach Me Matt Recipe

Having led product teams at Consumer Reports, I can relate to the temptation to add features. I read the Granola.ai product announcement. How did my crush get better? A raft of new features: it wants to be more than my trusty notetaker. It can assume other roles—an assistant to do a first draft, a knowledge archive, and wait, what’s this?  A button/prompt that taunts me: “Coach Me Matt.” Not a real person mind you, just a new “recipe” and a reminder that the AI that’s been lurking and listening in all of my meetings.

In life, in addition to being an unapologetic incrementalist, I also believe in tasting and trying new things. Just a taste. Maybe I’ll like it. I’ll learn something, about the thing and myself. I’ll try it. Once, to know—to decide. So sure, Matt, Coach me.

This coach? Not what I expected, wanted or need.

Matt doesn’t quite want to put me on a performance improvement plan but he thinks that I’m spending too much time in my “Zone of Competence” and not enough time in my “Zone of Awesome.” On Matt’s long list: I’m doing too much “firefighting disguised as strategic work.” I need to do an energy audit and clear my calendar for three days to work on what really matters. Clearly, Matt thinks my priorities are not in order.

I find this coaching session disconcerting. I feel a pit in my stomach and uneasy.  Like some AI experiments I’ve conducted, I find myself suffering from something I’ve taken to calling AI whiplash. Like I’ve stopped short. I’m shaken. I know this feeling all too well—it’s the “I’m in trouble/I didn’t do my homework” script honed in grade and high school. The last time I had feelings this intense was when I asked NotebookLM to look at a collection of digital journal entries and then listened to a podcast summary. People, if you ever want to be humbled this is a good recipe. It’s a bit like being at your own funeral except that your anxious inner voice is providing the eulogy. Skip it and ask a friend about how they experience you instead.

So here’s what I find so creepy about this seemingly innocuous flip and product “upgrade.”  A notetaking tool with one purpose,shape shifted into a surveillance tool without my knowledge or consent. I know, I didn’t have to use this feature, but I thought it was “just notes.” Well, little did I know that “Matt” or Granola were making notes on my performance.

And then my mind starts roaming—what happens when these tools are everywhere? Reading every text message, every post, every email. I can’t help it, but here it comes:

“Every breath you take, every move you make, I’ll be watching you.” – The Police.

That song, it’s about a stalker.

What’s even more worrisome? I am not sure we’ll be able to opt out of this surveillance. We’ve all been co-opted into the great digital panopticon. Am I making it up? Well, Larry Ellison, Chairman of Oracle,  a massive tech business with large government contracts opined: citizens will be on their best behavior’ amid nonstop recording. I can’t say this makes me feel good about Oracle’s potential investment in TikTok.

I do 99% of my journaling in a spiral bound notebook with a pen—which these days seems like it may be the only way to escape the prying eyes and ears of the technology that surrounds and envelops us.

The irony? I did get critical feedback on this post from Claude.ai The difference? I asked for it—which means personal agency. I asked Claude.ai to catch my errors and offer suggestions. I constrained the project input and the parameters—for now.  I hope Anthropic keeps this sensibility as Claude’s capabilities grow.

Am I giving too much away?

My crush, well, as Aimee Mann, “it’s not what, you thought when you first began it. And it’s not going to stop until you wise up.”

What do you think? Have you had a moment when using an AI tool turned into something darker? Share it in the comments!

Unapologetic Incrementalism

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“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today, I am wise, so I have to change myself.” 

– Rumi, quoted in Colum McCann’s Apeirogon

When overwhelmed by world or life events, which is often, I return again and again to Voltaire’s Candide.  How can something written by a Frenchman a couple hundred years ago make me laugh today? Why do I think it’s instructive for me, and maybe for us now? 

The world that Voltaire chronicles in Candide is truly terrible. War, sickness, pestilence, earthquakes, fires, swindlers, pirates. He was making fun of Leibniz, represented by the absurdly optimistic Dr. Pangloss, who can always come up with some reason why this is the best of all possible worlds.Book cover of Voltaire's Candide

Candide worships Pangloss at the start—the best philosopher in all of Westphalia! Candide is charmingly naive, though his worship of Dr. Pangloss, like his love of Miss Cunégonde, is sincere.

But the events of the world, with the help of a very different philosopher, Martin, challenge Candide’s views. Martin, a disillusioned and pessimistic poor scholar, helps Candide realize that things may not be all for the best. Appearances can be deceiving. Goodness as well as evil lurks in the heart of every person. Misfortune is universal. What seems like virtue may be vice. Virtue may be a mask for greed, vanity, or self-interest. Holding a high office does not confer morality. Martin’s blunt assessments sow seeds of doubt in Candide’s optimistic worldview.

Voltaire would have thrived as a satirist today. If I were to complain to a fictional Martin I imagine he’d reply, “of course it’s so—haven’t you been listening? Why would you expect anything to change?” But our hero doesn’t adopt Martin’s pessimism. Instead, Candide is transformed after visiting a humble Muslim farmer whose family works together to tend theirFlowers blooming in a Brooklyn tree pit orange grove, eat candied citrons, and ignores the constant political upheaval. Yet Candide resists Martin’s pragmatic doom and gloom settling instead on the farmer’s lived experience. 

From this experience, at the conclusion of one of Dr. Pangloss’s soliloquies, Candide stops him. Work, he concludes, is the only reasonable response. We must cultivate our garden—in the case of his crew, this is a literal garden. Everyone pursues what they’re good at: carpentry, pastries, philosophizing. Like the modest farmer, they have enough, but there’s no scheme to transform the world.

Voltaire’s garden embraces practical, grounded wisdom. We might not be able to change everything, but we can tend to the things around us and make them better with work. When I look around, I see gardens everywhere—whether it’s a well-tended tree pit on my block bursting with flowers, or a store where the proprietor has lovingly collected every manner of notebook, faith-based congregations that look after people in its vicinity as well as its congregants.  

I have taken to calling this approach unapologetic incrementalism. I may not have time for a long bike ride, but I can ride to work. The recipe calls for thyme but I only have oregano? It will probably work. Julia Child, who said ‘the only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude,’ was an unapologetic incrementalist. So was Voltaire.”

The question Voltaire leaves us with isn’t whether this is the best of all possible worlds, but whether we’ll choose the practical wisdom of tending what’s in front of us over the ambition of fixing everything or spending time on an overarching theory that explains it all. Not sure? Begin. Make it part way, and then come back again tomorrow, and the day after that…

Note: Neville Jason’s Audio narration of Voltaire’s Candide is excellent and the Norton Critical edition’s text comes with helpful essays. The text is short, the lessons are large. 

Where can a person go when he doesn’t know where to go? 

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Jenny Erpenbeck asks this question of her readers in Go, Went Gone, on a full blank page, repeated again, on another blank page. 

Go, Went, Gone bookcoverGo, Went, Gone is a short novel published in 2015 in Germany, and released in the US in 2017. In it, Erpenbeck tells the story of a group of African refugees protesting at Oranienplatz in Berlin. Richard, a retired, widowed professor, instead of just passing by, starts a conversation with the men in this group. That conversation leads to visits. He learns their names, and befriends Osarobo, Rashid, Ithema, and Karon as they navigate Germany’s cool, seemingly arbitrary and improvised migration system. 

Go, Went, Gone served as a mirror of sorts for me as I do intermittent volunteer work with the New Sanctuary Coalition, (NSC) an NYC based group that ensures that people are present for migrants while they work their way through the US legal system in the hope of continuing their lives here. 

While the lobby of the Ted Weiss Federal building has all of the heavy marble majesty of an early 21st century federal office building, a quick elevator ride leaves visitors in a white antiseptic corridor where schedules for judges with lists of names printed on orange paper line the walls. 

Migrants wait in a room with low ceilings, fluorescent lighting, and immovable chairs. That day, I helped Andi, a minor, update his change of address paperwork, an essential bureaucratic requirement. I waited and watched a judge grant him a court date far in the future so that he could have legal counsel. We had sharpies on hand so that he could write the phone number of a relative on his arm in case his phone was confiscated.  Later that same day, just outside the courthouse, ICE agents placed him in detention. 

The book’s protagonist, Richard, did much more than show up at a court hearing for the migrants he befriended. He visits them in their temporary housing. He learns their stories, about their countries and how they became separated from their families. 

In one scene, Richard takes Itehema to see a lawyer who traces modern German migration law back to Tacitus of Rome. 

“It is accounted to a sin to turn any man away from your door. The host welcomes his guest with the best meal that his means allow. When he is finished entertaining him, the host undertakes a fresh role: he accompanies the guest to the nearest house where further hospitality can be had. It makes no difference that they come uninvited; they are welcome just as warmly. No distinction is ever made between acquaintance and stranger.” 

Erpenbeck challenges us: “[M]ust living in peace – so fervently wished for throughout human history  result in refusing to share it with those seeking refuge, defending it instead, so aggressively that it almost looks like a war?”

Go, Went, Gone, is a fictionalized retelling of how the actions of an individual transform and lift up the lives of others. New Sanctuary Volunteers do that work today in New York City. 

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” Martin Luther King, Jr. 

We cannot be silent in this moment. We can show up. Here’s how: 

https://www.newsanctuarynsc.org/get-involved

Get a copy of the book: https://bookshop.org/p/books/go-went-gone-jenny-erpenbeck/12418234  

Tired of scam texts and spam messages? Want more protection? Try Signal.

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Too long; didn’t read version: the messaging platform you use on your phone matters–and there’s a better one out there, Signal, that you should download and install today. It’s free, safe, and easy to use. I’m writing this guide because I think we are more vulnerable to scams and surveillance than ever before. I didn’t find up to date guides that made a strong recommendation. Here’s mine:

Why bother? Scams abound; privacy matters 

Have you noticed that hardly a day goes by without some kind of suspicious message popping up on your phone? Here’s one that gave me pause this week: The subject line: “EZ Pass Toll Violation” was well-crafted, and seemed plausible. We have a car. We use EZ Pass. Could this be legitimate? But then I noticed something off: the sender had a +63 country code (Philippines). The link looked shady–not something EZ Pass would use.. However, it came in as an Apple iMessage, which I usually only get from people I know and trust.

Image of a scam text message

EZ pass unpaid…

So I “Delete and Report Spam,” after I exerted some minimal effort to stop, analyze, and decided this was a scam. What if there were a better way? One where these types of messages don’t reach me in the first place?

Messaging Should Be Simple and Safe

Sending short messages is one of the best things we can do with our devices—connecting us with friends and family near and far. The catch? It’s gotten more complicated and a bit riskier. There are countless ways to send messages: SMS, RCS, WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, iMessage. But not all are created equal. While many claim to care about privacy, few actually live up to that promise. Scammers have access 

What’s the big deal about privacy?

You might be thinking, I have nothing to hide. Who would care about me? But privacy isn’t about secrecy—it’s about control. The reality is that scams and fraud thrive in an environment where messages are easily intercepted, spoofed, or tracked.

Traditional SMS messages? They’re not encrypted and can be read by your phone company (or intercepted by hackers). RCS—the so-called “next-generation SMS” for Android? Still not encrypted when sent between Android and iPhone. WhatsApp and Telegram? They encrypt your messages, but they collect data about your conversations—whom you talk to, when, and how often. That’s valuable information that companies might sell or governments might demand.

We deserve better and a solution–and the good news is that the best solution is free, easy to install, and respects your privacy from the start.

Say Hello to Signal 

Signal is a messaging app developed by the non-profit Signal Foundation, built with privacy and security in mind from day one. That’s it. No ads. No tracking. No selling your data. It’s supported by donations from people like me. I chip in $5/month because I believe in its mission of keeping conversations truly private. 

Other apps might keep your messages private, but Signal ensures that even metadata—like who you talk to and when—stays private too. Your contact list isn’t stored. Your messages aren’t stored. Unline WhatsApp, Signal doesn’t even know who you’re messaging. In an age of almost daily data breaches and identity theft, these choices things matter–and Signal is a much better choice. 

Getting Started 

In order to reap these benefits, you need to be on Signal, and so do those that you’re messaging. As more people use Signal we all become safer. It works on all phones and PCs—iPhone, Android, Mac, PCs. It’s easy to download and install:

👉 Go to https://signal.org/download and install it on your phone.
 👉 Link it to your phone number (this helps others find you but doesn’t expose your number publicly).
 👉 Set up a PIN (this adds an extra layer of security).
 👉 Decide whether to share contacts (I do—Signal never stores them, but it checks which of your contacts are on Signal).
 👉 Install Signal on your computer (optional but useful).

Why bother? 

With Signal, you can message people, make calls, and join group chats knowing that no one but you and the recipient can read your conversation. If you’re in a group, only members of that group can see those messages. It works just like the messaging applications you already use. If you’re on iMessage or What’s App you already know how to use it. 

In three plus years of use, I’ve never received a scam text on Signal. The only time I’ve gotten a message from someone I didn’t know, I simply declined the request. It’s that easy.

Switching to Signal doesn’t just protect you—it helps protect everyone. The more people who use it, the stronger the network becomes. 

Let me know in the comments if you have any questions! 

Why should you listen to me? I got my first computer in the 1980s when they still had floppy drives and have been using them ever since. I’ve worked in a range of roles that put technology in the service of humans. More recently, I have made digital products for Consumer Reports. I’ve managed to avoid scams (so far) but friends, acquaintances and family members have fallen prey to increasingly sophisticated scams. 

For further reading on scams. 

https://www.consumerreports.org/money/scams-fraud/new-scams-to-watch-out-for-a9334297641/

https://www.consumerreports.org/money/scams-fraud/how-to-protect-yourself-from-scams-and-fraud-a6839928990/ 

 

Hello! I am the COVID evil genie!

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Hello! I am the COVID evil genie. It is good to meet you. I am here to grant some latent wishes. Want more time in your day? BAM!  Want to finish that copy of Ulysses you bought years ago? Learn how to sew? I’ve got your back.  BAM! Get going! That commute? Subway delays? Traffic? BAM! Gone, fuggetaboutit! Want to shop your neighborhood instead of going to Trader Joes? BAM! Done, and done? You know what you should do? Call your mother.  BAM! See, I’ve given you a sense of urgency and purpose.  I will grant all of your wishes. I’m just gonna do it my way. Going to cost some lives. You know. I don’t discriminate. Heads of state? BAM! Oh Borris, you tried to ignore me. I sent you a little something special to move the lockdown along. Stock market?!?! Oh, how I hope that you’re balanced! BAM! I just zapped 10 years of returns. Were you planning on retiring grandpa? Get to work. Oh, wait, you have to stay home. Mwahahahahaha!!  Want to see those grand kids? Oh, I hope you like Zoom.

Sketch of COVID Evil Genie

You know, you should take this time to learn how to draw…

You won’t be able to smell the sweet hairs on their heads, or have to worry about feeding them. Oh, you people who are still working? Enjoy your digital tethers, conference calls, Hangouts, emails. Oh, and guess what, no one’s coming to clean, ‘cause I’ve given you another job. You get to be the janitor too! 

By the way, I know you think you’ve flattened the curve, and that you can get rid of me but I am just getting started. Wuhan, so boring. Those South Koreans? They didn’t really want to play along. Don’t get me started on the Germans and that dour truth-telling Chancellor Angela Merkel.  New York, amazing city—my kind of town. I ❤️ America. There are so many helpers, like that President of yours? That pastor still holding services? The spring breakers? Great people. That Cuomo guy? Don’t care for him. You folks staying at home? Live a little. Have a party. I’ve got work to do, and you’re holding it up. So go on, go outside and play. I know you think that you can chase me off with your vaccines but I’m a corona virus—you’e spent time with my friend, the common cold? Yeah, he’s been with us for ages. He’s such a downer, you know, sniffles, a cough, and then you bounce back. Me? I like to trade in fear and uncertainty. I like to linger. See, some of you recover, but some of you die. See, you don’t get something for nothing. Wish all you want, but you can’t wish me away. I’m the COVID evil genie, and I’m here to stay. 

Change Congress

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Gas is over $4 a gallon, the planet’s getting warmer, we’re fighting a war in Iraq, we live in the era of “No Child Left Behind,” and we leave children behind. The old trope is that “people get the government they deserve.” We don’t. According to Larry Lessig, the founder of Change Congress, we must and can do better. Our problem: we the people, get interested in politics every four years. The solution: a congress–the people’s house working in our interests everyday instead of the interests of lobbyists. You can help by taking the pledge at Change Congress and then checking on your legislator to see how he or she acts on key reform issues. Now, I agree, “Yes We Can” but we also need the persistence to sustain the movement–and that comes from a Congress that is truly of, by and FOR the people.
For reference, here’s Lessig’s presentation about Change Congress. If you haven’t seen him present, you must watch–he’s got an amazing gift–he informs, entertains and insprires.

What do you think of Change Congress? Are you happy with the representation you get in Washington? Locally, or are you tuned out?

The Five Phases of Facebook

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If you thought Facebook was a time-drain before, now they’ve gone and added Chat.   Their stock price notwithstanding, these clever folks are taking notice of how annoying Facebook’s become.  Between their choice of Billy Joel’s "We didn’t start the fire,"  for the melody, and replacing it with "we’re getting sick of facebook," LLP81’s video critique is one of the funniest things I’ve seen online in a while.  What are your thoughts on Facebook?

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Here Comes Everybody (I’m here too!)

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Clay Shirky’s latest book, Here Comes Everybody:
The Power of Organizing Without Organizations,
discusses how light-weight web-based
technologies like blogging, twittering and photo sharing sites like
Flickr result in real world actions.  Shirky talked about the book
at the Markle
Foundation on April 10.  I’m going to highlight
a new of Clay’s examples and then reflect on what I think his ideas
mean for traditional organizations. 

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