Are We Almost There Yet, Daddy?

Once Upon a Time

Stories have beginnings, middles, endings.

Sequence: now this, now that. Like schedules.

First we do this. Then that. Linear Structure—

all together now. Love it or leave it.  Get R done.

Are we almost there yet, Daddy? All done!

Perfect. The liberal arts.

IDEAS

Something else. My old man told me people

are more important than ideas and he’s

right but I prefer ideas. They’re something

else.

The Crucible: Half Baked-to-Baked ratios

It takes a different kind of PILLAGE to raise

collaborative as opposed to individual

"genius": values radically different  and 

incommensurate to those of the "academy."

  Consider these diabolically opposed
          anti-SACS standards

  Consider these diabolically opposed
          anti-SACS standards

“Clarity is not a virtue. 

If everything you say is detailed
&  explicit,  you won’t give your collaborators
room to run.

Put ideas out there  that are half-baked, ideas

where you’re not even sure what it means  yet.

Put yourself in an environment that rewards failure.

Creativity is risky; successful creative people are
also the ones who fail the most often.

Creativity is inefficient. Don’t expect every idea
and every  project to pan out. Know when to cut
 your losses  and move on. 

Innovation  emerges from the bottom up,
unpredictably,  and it’s only after the innovation
has occurred that every  one realizes what’s happened.

Innovation can’t be planned; it can’t be predicted: it has to
be allowed  to emerge. Like successful improvisation.  

               (Keith Sawyer, Collaborative Genius).

Imagine an environment that could embrace the "hostile"
values  of  individual as well as collaborative "genius"
without doing injustice to either. It'd be like building an
ice cream parlor in hell with no damage  to hot or cold.
A good thing. 

Oh-schedules and scheduling too: very important. Divestment
issues: too. Climate change: no doubt. Deck chairs.
Housekeeping. vs the holes in the roof where when it's raining
it's too wet to fix and when the sun shines there's no problem.

xxxooo. Sam