Grizzly Pear – Page 65 – written snapshots

GRIZZLY PEAR

written snapshots

OPM.19 (notes on) Enter Sandman, Drumeo and Larnell Lewis, 2021

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(notes on) Enter Sandman, Drumeo and Larnell Lewis, 2021

This is an impressive display of craft. Drummer Darnell Lewis has never listened to “Enter Sandman”, so he listens to it once and then plays it. No problem.

His active listening during his first listen is a masterful example of analysis on the fly.

Watching this video brings back fond memories of starting a new project when I was in private practice. The air was filled with possibilities as we were briefed on the program. This excitement would be viscerally manifested during field verification of a building for a renovation project.

When entering a structure for the first time, the senses would kick into overdrive. The building had much to say, but we didn’t know what was critical, so everything mattered. With such stakes, my perception was on high alert. These moments of crossing a strange threshold were among my favorite as a practicing architect.

Though less tangible, the excitement of starting a new project also applies to my work as an Owner PM. Any project is a function of invisible forces – state and local regulations and constrained by industry conditions, budget, and schedule.

Beyond the hard constraints, the OPM is the leader of a new temporary team. My most important task at the start of the project is to grasp and develop the network of relationships within the user group and project team.

No project is truly new, it is always set within an intricate context. Our first job is to sit down and actively listen before we pick up sticks to make a ruckus.

~

A Question

What are the moments that make you excited in the course of a project?

Hit reply and let’s chat!

~

A Links

My daughter recently took a liking to Linus and Lucy, so it has been playing on loop throughout the past week. Looking up the Vince Guaraldi on Wikipedia, this paragraph jumped out. I envy folks who have settled comfortably into their niche.

His desire to continually perform at small, local clubs was not due to financial necessity but because he wanted it like that. The monumental success garnered from his Peanuts work resulted in lucrative offers coming in from all over the U.S., all of which he declined. “Once the Peanuts music became famous, Vince could have gone out and done a whole lot more,” Mendelson said. “But he was very provincial; he loved San Francisco, and he liked hanging out and playing at the local clubs. He never branched out from there; he never really wanted to. He’d get offers, but he’d tell me, ‘I just want to do this; I’m having a good time, and I’m satisfied with it’.”

… and a photo.

Olive Thomas, Bain News Service, ca. 1915 and ca. 1920

~

Thanks for reading the OPM letter! I’d love to have a conversation if you have any feedback. I hope you found some prompts to stretch your craft and relationships as a curious Owner PM. See you next week!

Stay humble, be kind, and keep experimenting!
Justus Pang, RA

15 November 2021
My Politics Generally

I wrote the first draft of this post a year ago, the morning after Biden had finally taken the lead in the electoral college a week after the election was held. The race wasn’t yet called by the media companies, but it had become clear that we were gonna get a new president.

I’ve been wanting to write a post about my politics in a general fashion, so this seems as good a time as any.

I believe in constitutional democracy. Rule of the majority, constrained to protect the rights of the minority. But beyond that, I’m not a philosopher. Generally, I’m pretty pragmatic. I just want competent, efficient government.

I went from being a conservative in high school to being politically apathetic in college, to joining the Democratic Party in in the early 2000’s after the twin disasters of the Second Iraq War and Hurricane Katrina. I haven’t left that party, though I fear that I’ve become a raging moderate as the rest of the world has polarized to their comfortable extremes.

I am still sympathetic to the trope that less government is better government. However I diverge with many folks who espouse such a view, because I believe government has a legitimate role in society, and I am willing to pay a little extra for more a well run government.

Beyond competence, I believe in the twin goals in our pledge of allegiance: Justice and Liberty for all.

And when our leaders fail, I hold hope in our democratic process. This system of government gives us a voice every couple years so we can enact a course correction.

This is why it has been particularly distressing to watch one party morph into an embrace of authoritarianism over the past four years. Their continued defense of January 6th has been terrifying. To a lesser extent, I have also been dismayed about vocal extremists of the left and their stifling influence of upon our (non-elected) cultural institutions.

Government is a balancing act. Too much one way or the other is a certain path to disaster.

Let’s hope we rediscover our equilibrium.

Interestingly, this past year has been a marked continuing evolution towards becoming a hardened centrist. I’ve become increasingly concerned with the excesses of the vocal left, and I’ve become amenable to the idea of lessening the the power of the Federal government in favor of the States. Things are so heated, I’m hoping that giving States more autonomy may defang the viciousness of national politics.

Frankly, I’ve also lost interest in what whackadoodle policies might be instituted thousands of miles away; if someone out there doesn’t like it, let them fight it or leave. Maybe my next upgrade in my political evolution will be avoiding the news altogether. After all, the whole point of living in a representative republic is to be free from politics outside of the elections held every even numbered year.

11 November 2021
The Bulwark, Charlie Sykes et al, 2018

I used to go to Huffpo for my regular political web-hackery but their shrill alarmism wore thin after a while. I tried various news sites, but during the 2020 presidential cycle I settled upon the Bulwark.

I suspect I have more disagreements than similarities with the folks on that site, but they have earned one thing more dear than almost any site out there.

Trust.

In a world where many Never-Trumpers heeded the tribal call of their party, these folks have held firm. I might not agree with many of their policy preferences, but they are honest and they have the courage of their convictions.

The other thing that is quite appealing about their site is the conservative belief on American exceptionalism. I’m not fully bought into the thought, but I have to admit its appeal. It is alluring to think that my own country is somehow special in spite our multitude of faults.

We’ll see where it goes. I presume we will transition from friends to foes during the administration of the new guy…but at least these folks have earned my respect.

I wish we didn’t need four years of chaos to separate the wheat from the chaff within our punditry class, but I might as well take the silver linings that I can find.

Over the year after the election, I’ve found myself following the Dispatch slightly more – I enjoy the cerebral musings of Jonah Goldberg and David French over the continued alarmism of the Bulwark (even if it is justified given the festering fallout from January 6th). Either way, I’ve been slowly weaning myself off the news, it’s all too much so I might as well give my attention to things I can control (or at least respond to in a meaningful fashion).

10 November 2021
OPM.18 (Holiday Season)

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(Holiday Season)

We officially entered the holidays a couple of weeks ago, when we observed Nevada Day on the last Friday of October. We’ll be having an official day off every other week culminating in President’s Day in February.

These holidays are a reminder of the basic tradeoff that one chooses as a government employee. One forgoes the financial profits of climbing the corporate ladder for a saner working environment.

In today’s hustle culture, settling for a good job may be considered a mark of shame. But work is ultimately a business decision, and joining the government is a trade forgoing upside for limited volatility. It’s not just financial boom or busts; it’s also the heavy hours that are often commanded of employees in private practice.

I was able to take this deal because my parents chose to live frugally and pay for our college educations. This Christmas present has been a continual gift to me and my sister, letting us pursue the lifestyles that best fit our needs.

Outside of the cold calculus of hours-to-dollars, there is something nice about spending a career serving the public. Admittedly, the State compensates me nicely, so leaving the private sector was not as a difficult decision as it might be for other professions.

So I count my blessings. One is lucky to find a job that pays well in exchange for reasonable demands, suits one’s personality, and works towards a greater good.

And of course, dear reader, in this time of Thanksgiving – many thanks again for reading!

Take care and be safe during the festivities.

~

A Question

What has brought you joy in your career?

Hit reply and let’s chat!

~

A Link

Another insightful post from Seth Godin about dreams. He differentiates between strategic and tactical dreams, and he discusses how they need to be analyzed differently.

… and a photo.

Veterans of the 1914 Mons battle in France marching on Anzac Day, Brisbane, Queensland, ca. 1954

~

Thanks for reading the OPM letter! I’d love to have a conversation if you have any feedback. I hope you found some prompts to stretch your craft and relationships as a curious Owner PM. See you next week!

Stay humble, be kind, and keep experimenting!
Justus Pang, RA

08 November 2021
Halloween Costumes, 2021

We’re still staying home from the pandemic, but the girl still wanted to make a costume for Halloween.

She was so excited about the idea, she took the initiative by sketching her rabbit costume. Once there was a plan, we just had to execute.

We started with the mask. It took a few iterations to get it right, but we eventually landed on a template that fit her well.

Yes, these masks are basic. A piece of paper with punched holes for the eyes, nose, and mouth, using a headband of folded paper. All held together with staples and tape.

It would have been a lot faster to buy something more sophisticated, but once you make something yourself, it’s truly yours.

The boy saw his sister’s mask and wanted his own. Turns out their faces are close enough in size, so I used her mask as a template (sans ears) and we shortly had the Monkey King running around the house.

The kids loved their masks. They spent all week running around as their alter egos.

This early victory led to further successes. We moved on to paper gloves and then paper shoes (I learned why moccasins have developed their distinctive shape).

None of the final results are spectacular. The costumes wouldn’t get any likes on social media, but we made something real, together. We weren’t just consumers; we were makers.

The world will constantly sell you on the satisfaction of owning excellence, the German sports car and the Swiss watch. But I’m starting to wonder if there is deeper satisfaction found in making something yourself, even if it’s mediocre.

04 November 2021
OPM.17 (notes on) Team of Teams, General Stanley McChrystal, Tantum Collins, David Silverman, Chris Fussell, 2015

I hope you enjoyed your Halloween and Nevada Day!

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(notes on) Team of Teams

This new world moves too quickly for top-down, optimized entities.

The twin narratives of this book are the rise of the hyper-efficient organizations (exemplified by the work of Fredrick Winslow Taylor) in the 20th century and the rise of the hyper-connected network (exemplified in the structure of Al Qaida) in the 21st century.

After Saddam was crushed in Iraq, the occupying forces were constantly harassed by the flexible amorphous cells of the terrorist organization. This underground operation was running laps around the awesome might of the great American military machine. General McCrystal’s task was to reverse this trend.

He accomplished this by “shared consciousness” and “empowered execution”. He merged the information silos in multiple organizations so that all the data was shared throughout the forces. He also delegated decision-making power as low as possible, allowing the staff who were most familiar with the situation to respond in an agile manner.

These twin endeavors ultimately turned the tide of the war. While history was being made, I had thought that the “surge” was merely an issue of applying more resources. I did not realize that the eventual defeat of Al Qaida was the result of better management techniques.

At first glance, it does not seem that the lessons in this book are immediately applicable to the much more methodical work of a government OPM.

However, timing is always an issue. Sooner is generally better than later, but our processes with multiple peer reviews tend to push the schedule longer. It’s a bit of a conundrum. Budgets for state buildings are tight. This one renovation may be the only project in this building for the next twenty years. With such timescales, losing a couple of months is worth the tradeoff of ensuring the design is dead on.

But still, the needs are immediate. It would be nice to move more quickly so we can better serve our users. This book makes me wonder if I should experiment further to speed up my projects. It also makes me question if our system of multiple checks is truly effective. Are we getting proper value for the delay? Each extra step incrementally improves the project, but at what hidden cost?

In all, this book is a good read. It is a compelling story of how a top-down behemoth adapted in response to the networked resilience of its opponent. Restructuring the team was the key to the endeavor, the nature of the organization is its strategy. As such, this book is a great case-study companion to Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s Anti-Fragile.

The other concept that intrigued me is the regular status update meetings that were instituted by General McChrystal. Along with transforming their main base into a large open office plan, his team started running a 2-hour meeting every day. All relevant parties could attend these meetings, and he touts it as his primary tool to achieve “shared consciousness”.

There is a prevailing trend in Tech to avoid such meetings. In that vein, I’ve been pondering how to minimize my OAC meetings. Maybe that is the wrong approach. Maybe I should be thinking about how to maximize the effectiveness of those meetings.

As OPM’s, we tend to think in a top-down fashion, after all, we are the “owners”. However, delegation (empowered execution) is the primary job of our work. Empowered execution is only effective when there is true coordination, so how does one create a shared consciousness between the multiple parties in our team?

~

A Question

How do you handle regular status meetings?

Hit reply and let’s chat!

~

A Link

As an employee of the State of Nevada, I’m contractually obligated to mention that October 31 is Nevada Day when we joined the Union. Unfortunately, we observe it on the last Friday of October, akin to celebrating Independence Day on the first Monday of July.

… and a photo.

Baby in Pumpkin, Gippsland Australia, John Flynn 1880-1951

~

Thanks for reading the OPM letter! I’d love to have a conversation if you have any feedback. I hope you found some prompts to stretch your craft and relationships as a curious Owner PM. See you next week!

Stay humble, be kind, and keep experimenting!
Justus Pang, RA

01 November 2021
2811 Days

Seven Years, Eight Years, and Twelve Days after she arrived, we finally slept in our own room.

There are a couple of caveats to this impressive streak. When the pandemic first settled in America, I was exiled to my in-law’s empty rental house so I’ve spent a good several months sleeping by lonesome. When the boy showed up, our daughter had to sleep in my mother-in-law’s bedroom while we stayed at the hospital. But of course, he was with us.

Like most events in parenting, the kids had no idea this was a “big deal”.

The night before the momentous occasion, I was chatting with a friend who mentioned his kids (the same ages as ours) had started sleeping in the same room, without mom to lulling them to sleep.

The next morning, I proposed the idea to my kids. They enthusiastically agreed to the idea.

My daughter had previously talked a big game about sleeping in her own room but always reneged in the afternoon. This time she had a partner in crime, and this time they stuck.

We moved the beds in the afternoon, and I could see their excitement building up.

At bedtime, my wife offered to join them in the rearranged bedroom while they fell asleep.

No need.

The next evening, our boy decided to go to bed before his sister. Again, my wife offered to sit with him.

No need.

He fell asleep by himself. Twenty minutes later, our daughter did the same.

How quickly time flies! Every day moves ponderously; then the kids suddenly cross another threshold.

If I knew they would so quickly acclimate to their new normal, I would have savored our last couple of nights sharing a small bedroom.

But that was yesterday. Now I need to avoid missing everything else.

28 October 2021
OPM. 16 (Swerve to go Straight)

Autumn has finally hit Las Vegas, I think we’ll finally shut down the AC for the rest of the year.

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Swerve to go Straight

Nicholas Nassim Taleeb’s Anti-fragile recounted a story of a science demonstration with a vibrating table covered with bouncy balls. When the tabletop was activated at a purely regular rhythm, the balls would bounce around chaotically on their own. However, the balls would fall in sync after random noise was inserted into the vibration pattern.

I often think about this story while pulling my boy in the wagon. My in-law’s backyard has a tight side yard where it is easy to pull in. However, there isn’t any room to turn around, making it’s a challenge to push back out of it.

Like the science demonstration, I’ve found that adding a little swerve to the push gives me control over the direction of the wagon. Jamming the wagon straight requires a perfect line; any lean will compound into crashing with the fence or house. Adding a slight serpentine undulation allows me to fine-tune the trajectory as I push the wagon and avoid hitting the edges.

I suspect this lesson could also apply to the office. We live in a world of optimization and standard operating procedures. I have a hunch that we should occasionally mix it up, even if we think we’ve locked in a best practice. Little experiments will keep things fresh and explore the parameters that constrict us.

On paper, testing suboptimal processes is inefficient. Most of the time, we’ll rediscover that the tried and true is best. But occasionally, we’ll discover that a good process is keeping us from finding a better innovation.

~

A Question

What accepted wisdom should you challenge?

Hit reply and let’s chat!

~

A Link

One idea that haunts me is the concept of a Local Optimum. Is this solution truly the best? Or have we settled into something that is good relative in its immediate context? Have we artificially constrained ourselves to the settling into a least-worst solution? Is there a more optimal solution out there?

… and a photo.

Sail Wagon, Brooklyn, Bain News Service, ca. 1910-1915

~

Thanks for reading the OPM letter! I’d love to have a conversation if you have any feedback. I hope you found some prompts to stretch your craft and relationships as a curious Owner PM. See you next week!

Stay humble, be kind, and keep experimenting!
Justus Pang, RA

25 October 2021
I Ching Links

Like many other hobbies, I’ve cooled a bit on the I Ching. For a while, I consulted it once a week, but it’s been a while since I last visited the book. Like my bread baking, I will coast on the knowledge I picked up over my first couple of months of diligent practice. Or maybe like the Ukulele, I won’t visit much at all.

With the honeymoon phase long past, I won’t be finding many more internet resources for the I Ching, so this seemed the appropriate time to compile some key links.

Biroco – S. J. Marshall’s book reviews were a great introduction to the world of the I Ching in English. I also follow his method for interpreting the changing lines. A comprehensive site, though I suspect that some people might take issue with some of his harsher judgments of various translations. However, I picked up the Wilhelm/Baynes and Lynn translations due to his recommendations and have been pleased with both.

Hermetica – A lot of good resources, both weblinks and book reviews. He also shares his own translation of the book on this site. His page comparing a multitude of hexagram names is quite interesting to peruse.

Russell Cottrell – Another site with many reviews with a few virtual divination resources. He also explores a lot of other ideas, including a page comparing 44 translations of #3 and #36, and a nice pocket format I Ching based on the Richmond translation.

Online Clarity – A nice forum and good community around the I Ching. I’ll occasionally pop into Reddit as well, but prefer the homier feel of this site. I also enjoy Hilary’s email newsletter. She was recently interviewed on youtube which covers quite a bit of ground as an introduction.

Wikipedia Hexagrams – A concise location of hexagrams and English and Chinese names.

LiSe – I have not explored this site much, however many people have recommended her site. If I was to start exploring the I Ching again, this would be the next spot to dig into.

Fred Hatt is a New York artist who has made a good video of divination with yarrow sticks. It takes a while (a feature of this style of divination), but he chats his way through the process. He was also the guest on this great podcast episode which includes an audio demonstration of divination with coins.

Finally, I must close with this extended quote from Fred Hatt’s autobiographical blog post. It has nothing to do with the I Ching, but wish I was as comfortable with myself as Fred is with his path in life, “while I ignore this official Art World, it ignores me back.”

I rarely write about my own life here on Drawing Life. I avoid drama and so I imagine my life would be pretty boring to anyone not close to me. I devote much of my free time to drawing, photography, and other creative pursuits. While I show work and do events and performances fairly regularly, I’ve always maintained my art as an amateur practice. Of course the word “amateur” means lover, one who does something for the pure love of it. Since I work for a living, I don’t have to worry about creating work to please a market or to make it fit what some critics want to write about. I keep the work free, and I follow it wherever it leads me. To be honest, while I love a lot of living artists and their work, the international contemporary art scene as a whole, with its mega-wealthy collectors and ego-driven art stars, its combination of pretentious discourse and cheap gimmickry, bores me, and while I ignore this official Art World, it ignores me back. I’d rather treat my work as my own exploration of perception and practice. I do want to use it to communicate to a larger audience, but I’m actually more driven by the pleasure of sharing one on one, the special connection that develops between me and my models, the people I sketch portraits of and the people whose bodies I paint, the dancers and performers I collaborate with, and the fans of my work that visit my studio, sit with me on the floor and look through piles of drawings or photographs.
Fred Hatt

21 October 2021
OPM.15 (notes on) Anti-Fragile, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, 2012

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(notes on) Anti-Fragile

Taleb’s core premise is that we can’t predict the future, so we can only prepare in the present.

Pretty basic advice for an uncertain world. So what can we do?

His counterintuitive elaboration is to posit the idea of “anti-fragility”. Anti-fragile things are not merely robust – they don’t merely avoid failure under stress. Anti-fragile systems improve when they encounter variability. For example, our bodies get stronger when we practice a wide variety of exercise routines.

What an inspiring concept!

Anti-fragility provides a framework for developing improvements. As individuals, there isn’t a ton we can do to fix the big problems, but we aren’t completely powerless. Don’t obsess over massive single-shot wins. Focus on making lots of experiments. A bunch of little mistakes will come up with the occasional win. Transform one of those discoveries into a big victory.

He recommends that one starts with a life that maintains a baseline stability. With this solid foundation one is freed to take some risks that might become big wins. Avoid debt and live freely. Procrastinate thoughtfully – a default aggressive stance isn’t always best.

To nitpick, I admit that the book is a bit long and would have benefited from a sharper editor. But what the hell, it’s well worth your time. Taleb is a punk. He points out that the emperor has no clothes, and that our castle is a house of cards. I wish this book had been published while I was in grad school, I suspect my master’s thesis would have revolved around this concept.

As with all audio books, I started listening to it at 1.5x speed. Unlike most of them, I dropped it down to 1.0x speed almost immediately and listened to all 16 hours at the narrator’s natural pace. Highly recommended.

~

One Question

Where can you start experimenting? How are can you create the variability to make you become anti-fragile?

Hit reply and let’s chat!

~

One Link

Along with Anti-Fragile, I recommend checking out Simon Sinek’s book the Infinite Game. It hammers in the point that “winning” in life is being invited to “keep playing”, a critical concept that rhymes well with the themes of Anti-Fragile.

… and a photo.

“Dreamland” burned, Coney Island, Bain News Service, 27 May 1911

~

Thanks for reading the OPM letter! I’d love to have a conversation if you have any feedback. I hope you found some prompts to stretch your craft and relationships as a curious Owner PM. See you next week!

Stay humble, be kind, and keep experimenting!
Justus Pang, RA

18 October 2021