There’s an interesting read over at Hugh MacLeod’s blog about the blogging A-list being dead. It’s interesting to me in that it’s one of those conversations that distracts people from the real stories of their lives. Similarly to most conversations and entertainment and systems in our day to day, the goal is to keep you passive, distracted, and far away from the prize. This, to me, was the real story being told by the first Matrix movie, by the way.
In Seth Godin’s The Dip, he talks about systems that are set up to cull the best from the average, about how many of our constructs in life seem innocuous, but that they’re screens for determining who really has what it takes to succeed. It’s there, but you have to look for it.
One personal experience I had with seeing some of the edges of the Matrix came from reading Winning by Jack Welch. Before that point, I felt strongly that everyone at a company mattered, and that we all had a strong value for that company. Not true. The people who do the best for that company have a strong value for that company. Everyone else might do better elsewhere. There are plenty of great people out there in the wrong job.
Once I understood this, several things made sense about little aspects of my job. Have you caught yourself saying, “I have no idea why we’re not doing _____. It just seems so obvious.” There’s usually a reason, and the reason doesn’t follow the linear thinking of “what’s best for the customer” or “what’s best for the company as a whole.”
For instance, the reason we’re seeing reports of air travel passengers enduring 7 hours on the tarmac is that there are several systems in place to keep passengers controlled during travel. When they work appropriately, everyone benefits, because anarchy and air flight don’t do well together. But when they misfire, we have people sitting idly in their default job positions and default passenger-on-plane positions because that’s what we do.
It Comes Down to Action
The difference between reading something like my declare your independence post and actually DOING SOMETHING about it is vast. The reason we love action movies is because we feel emotions and adrenalin that substitute for us actually doing something physical and rewarding. The conversation mentioned above about the “death of the A-list blogger” is an “inside baseball” conversation that throws energy at an internal squabble instead of keeping our eyes focused on the prize of doing meaningful things with our personal media.
If you learn one thing in life, it’s that all is not as it seems, and that there are countless distractions built into your daily life to take your mind off several aspects of the environment around you. I just did it now, this very minute. My 17 month old son wanted to eat his mother’s glasses. I brought him a Weeble instead, something to distract him from his original goal. Same thing happens to you daily.
Break out of the Matrix
First, think in terms of incentives. Always. Ask the question: “What’s the incentive that drives this person?” Or this interaction. Or this organization. Then ask yourself the smaller incentives that drive the same thing. If you don’t understand what I mean, think in terms of “what’s in it for him?” It’s not a perfect explanation, but it’ll do. For instance, the incentive that drives you to pay your taxes is that fines and potential prison terms aren’t as attractive as enduring the headache of filling out that paperwork. Your incentive to show up on time at work is that it gives your boss one less thing to complain about with regards to your performance.
Second, pay even closer attention to the systems that drive your daily interactions, built by others and built by yourselves. Some of your habits are there to reinforce the systems that others have put in place. Why do we all watch popular TV shows? Because it keeps us passive and weak and unfocused on larger issues. Why do some of us sneak off to the Internet and feel smarter for making that choice, only to Twitter and shop and surf porn, and do whatever? Because we think we’ve slipped away from the Matrix of TV, and now feel safe in the Matrix of the Internet.
Examine your life and ask yourself repeatedly whether YOU are making decisions, or whether you’re following along with an unseen script? Make choices. Take actions. Go against the grain, and see how the Matrix becomes more and more obvious to you.
Or not.
Have you sensed this, though? Does this make any sense to you whatsoever? Your comments are appreciated.
Photo credit, smedlipotsky made a screen capture of a Warner Brother’s film. Am I impinging WB by posting smed’s work?