Me, Myself, and this blog

Unowning Solidification

In continuing thoughts about my last two posts about a year of no new stuff and cutting ties to crap I’ve been trying to solidify what this actually looks like. If I’m actually going to do this for a year there needs to be a very clear distinction of what I’m doing and what I’m not doing. Saying “I’m not buying new stuff, except for this, and that, and..” leaves a lot of room for wavering which is good, but also not so good. I need to refine this to something that makes sense before the first of the year, and until then I’m going to be thinking out loud a lot hoping for feedback on some of the thoughts.

I think a good approach is think of it in positive – what *am* I going to do, rather than negative am I *not* going to do. I should also try to make it as short of a list as well, so it’s easy to remember. Maybe 3 rules?

Again, disclosure is that this doesn’t apply to food/consumables, nor is it an anti-capitalist thing, so spending money on experiences that don’t result in more possessions is fine, as are digital purchases (ebooks, mp3s, etc) – it’s about less stuff and clutter. Also it’s personal, so doesn’t apply to my young, growing child who needs new things a lot or my wife who is already better about not getting new stuff than I am. I’m also just not even considering work related things, again this is personal.

  1. Addition: Limit purchase of items to 12 new physical items. Only get one a month, so use it wisely. Do not accept physical items as gifts/schwag above this 12 item limit.
  2. Substitution: If something wears out or breaks, first option is repair it. If repair isn’t possible or reasonable, and replacement is needed (sometimes it won’t be) 2 similar items must be gotten rid of to bring in a new one that doesn’t count against the 12 new item limit. No upgrades just for the sake of upgrades.
  3. Subtraction: Actively go through stuff and get rid of things on a regular basis. Document this with blog posts at the very least once a week. Stuff can be given to friends, sold, donated or thrown out, but not traded for other things. Aim to get rid of one item a day (or 5 a week).

Is that too open ended? Too restrictive? I think it’s reasonable, but I might be forgetting something. I know I can travel with nothing but a carry on bag for weeks on end and never feel like I’m missing stuff, so there’s not really a reason I need a full closet and boxes of stuff in the garage and things under my bed and blah blah. I have excess things right now, so I’d like to consciously reduce that excess over the next 12 months.

Progression through unowning

A few years ago I was singing all kinds of minimialist anthems and preaching the gospel of less stuff on a regular basis. Since then I’ve had a kid, traveled a little less and moved into a bigger house. I was able to get rid of my storage space in that process but the result is much of that stuff is around here and I’m feeling the clutter again. I recently realized that I have so many t-shirts that if they are all clean at once they don’t fit in my t-shirt drawer.

This is no good.

So for the past few weeks I’ve been thinking of a plan of attack. And now I think I have one.

I’m not buying any stuff in 2012.

That’s a over simplified soundbite of course, but it’s to make a point. There are obvious exceptions, and clarifications that need to be made. I didn’t say I’m not buying “anything” nor did I say I’m not spending money, I said I’m not buying stuff.

Food, rent, bills, consumables, responsibilities, travel, experiences – these things are not included.

If something breaks and needs to be replaced, that doesn’t count.

If the iPhone 5 comes out, that doesn’t count.

My new place has a lot of wall space and I’ve been really happy to hang up a bunch of my art collection that I haven’t been able to for a while, so I reserve the right to go to art openings, and if so inspired and budget allows – support the arts buy buying some art.

No matter how much I try to convince myself otherwise, there’s a high likelihood that I’ll buy an 11″ macbook air in the next 12 months. Call this a preempted slip up.

I really really really really need a nice 35mm lens for my leica, if I find a deal I’ll likely jump on it.

I’ve got a growing kid who needs new stuff all the time, so purchases for him don’t count.

Objects that I need or am using for work (like Safecast radiation monitors and things) don’t count.

There may be some others, but really that’s my plan.

In addition to limiting the intake, I need to get rid of things. And I want to document that too. I was thinking I should do something weekly, but I don’t know if I can really pull that off. I can do monthly for sure, but maybe I should aim for a post on the 1st and 15th of each month documenting what I’ve gotten rid of, and how well I’ve been able to stick to not getting new things.

I expect to slip up from time to time. I’m impulsive and obsessive about objects so that may get the better of me from time to time, but I’m going to try and I’ll be honest about how well I do so in the long run you’ll be my judge.

12 months is a long time, but I think that’s what it’s got to be if it’s going to actually make an impact in my life. It can’t be just a one off yard sale get rid of things and then forget it tomorrow kind of deal. So we’ll see. Anyone want to try it with me?

Writing about reading about writing

WTF?

I used to write every single day in some form or another. Often times it would be blog posts, and often times several of them. But

and I haven’t been doing it so much recently, but I miss it and have been trying to think of how to motivate myself to write and publish things on a regular basis. This got me thinking about *where* exactly to do that.

Read More

Slowgoing here in blogland

Very sorry for the almost total lack of posting here in the last few months. I’ve previously written about a project I’ve been working on in Japan which we are now calling Safecast and that has been hogging an insane amount of my time. In addition to that my son is almost a year and a half old now so he’s a total handful. That said, I haven’t been offline, I just haven’t been posting here. Where have I been?

– Twitter: As usual this is the place I spent most time online and update most frequently
– Tumblr: I’m using this more and more, though it’s still largely a collection of things I find elsewhere
– Safecast Blog: This is the main place for updates about Safecast
– Safecast.jp Blog: This is a side site focusing on our actions in Japan, though will soon be rolled into the main blog.

I’m going to make an effort to write more again here soon, as I just realized I hadn’t been, even though it’s been months. Sorry about that.

What I’m working on – RDTN

UPDATE: RDTN has been rebranded as Safecast
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A few weeks ago my good friend Joi Ito added me an e-mail chain with a few guys in Portland at Uncorked Studios who had an idea for a website tracking and mapping radiation readings in Japan. It launched almost immediately and I mentioned it on BoingBoing because the guys seemed cool and I really liked every aspect of what they were doing. We started talking more, gradually pulling in another person here and there as the conversation ventured into territory unbeknownst to us but knownst to others. Before long emails stopped saying “you guys” and started saying “we” – completely unintentionally we’d formed a team and the project was fast becoming something much more than a simple mapping site.

David Ewald and Marcelino J. Alvarez from Uncorked have been our main points of contact, though I’m sure there are others there who have been helping out just as much. In addition to Joi and myself, we’ve managed to rope in Akiba, Pieter Franken, bunnie Huang, Aaron Huslage, Ray Ozzie and Dan Sythe, as well as a few others to the “team.” And yes, that is indeed on hell of a team. Two of the most exciting aspects of the team for me is how organically everyone came together, and how, while obviously some people are better and more focused on some aspect over another, by and large there is no compartmentalization – we’re all talking about everything together and constantly brainstorming. But as interesting as that might be, it’s really nothing next to the project itself.

So the problem is this: The vast majority of the radiation data that is out there comes from the pro or anti nuclear camps. By design, figures coming from groups that have a stake in those numbers being high or low aren’t very trustworthy. And even if they were trustworthy, they are all reported differently, sporadically and without good geolocations. For instance, giving radiation figures for Tokyo is fairly useless since radiation can increase or decrease dramatically essentially across the street. Or an hour later. And while there are more and more sensors in the hands of consumers, there isn’t a a central point where all that data is. Enter RDTN.org.

That is the site as it exists right this moment. The majority of the data on the site is from existing sources – MEXT, US EPA, Greenpeace, etc but there is also a mechanism for people to submit readings they’ve taken on their own. This is actually the most important part and the thing we’re focusing on the most. As you can see the data that is coming in right now is clumped in certain areas, however if we can get enough sensors out to people then we can fill in those gaps and present a much better picture of what is really happening right now. And if we can package up all that data into a format that makes sense and then make it available for anyone for any purpose, that could become a very powerful tool for people.

There’s a few phases to that clearly. We’ve got the website up right now. We’ve just launched a Kickstarter to help us raise the funds to buy about 600 geiger counters that we’ll be distributing around Japan over the next few months – though this will require people to report the readings back to us. Which is why we’re also in the process of designing our own device that will take readings and transmit those findings back to up automatically and much more frequently. This will be some pretty impressive data to look at, and assuming all goes well with Japan, well, that’s just the first step.

I’m really excited about this project because it really hits many of my interests square on. It takes power (data) out of the hands of a small set of privileged gate keepers and gives it to the people who actually need it. It does this free of charge which very directly has the potential to make the world a better place. I know that sounds lofty, but that’s kind of the point. You can’t really propose going over the heads of the collective atomic industry and think of it as a minor objective. In order for this to matter it has to be massive, and so that is the plan.

Later this week I’m heading to Tokyo for The New Context Conference which has shifted in focus since the recent earthquake to disasters, emergency and social media playing a big role after the fact. Many of the other RDTN team is traveling there as well and we’ll have one of the first planning sessions with several of us being in the same room (and timezone) rather than different countries connected by Skype. I expect much more awesome to come from this soon, so stay tuned.

Being yourself for fun and profit

True story: A few years ago I got a call from a potential client asking for some help with an event they were working on – an ongoing annual event that they wanted to have a better online face than previous years. I gave them the usual line about my “pick your brain fee” and they agreed to it. A week later I was in their office to chat and brainstorm a bit.

As was another guy they had called for the same reason.

This guy ran a web shop and was definitely “slick.” He had his pitches down pat and I caught myself agreeing with him and even letting him answer questions entirely. He had a team and an impressive list of clients. Dude had his act together for sure. He had a business card and everything. I was just a guy. Also, I’m not very slick. And this was making me very self conscious. His answers were slow and collected, when he spoke the room matched his speech cadence. I bounce around like a hyperactive kid on ice cream cake. This guy was all “The road map we will layout will start with X and lead to Y” and I was all “Oh! And then we can do this! OH! OH!! And then this!! And check this out!!” Then I’d realize what a jerk I sounded like and I’d shut up and the the professionals talk.

Everyone was nice and some great info was bounced around. The meeting ended with the other guy saying he’d have his team draft up a plan of action and would have it over to them this afternoon and they could get started right away. We all shook hands and I went home and went on a bike ride assuming that would be the last time I’d hear from them.

The next day they called and asked me to come in the following week to talk again. I was a little surprised but was happy to g back in. I was even more surprised when at the next meeting the other guy wasn’t invited. They asked me if I could help on the project, I told them my price and they agreed right away. I asked about the other guy?

“Not really what we were looking for”

“Really? He had a pretty slick pitch”

“Sure he did, but we weren’t looking for a slick pitch”

From time to time I find myself think I should be acting or talking or presenting different, more like how some other successful person does it. But when I think back, I’ve never worked with anyone or been involved with any project because I tried to be someone else. In fact, I’d say the times things go wrong is when I get insecure and try to do things how someone else would. When I embrace who I am and what I have to say and what I can do, things generally work really well.

There are lots of people out there trying to be someone else. I’m the only one that’s me.

I have to remind myself of that from time to time.