A Deviance Advantage - Breathing Space Blog

Below are some notes I gleaned from a book with an unusual perspective:

Deviance Advantage: How Fringe Ideas Create Mass Markets
by Mathews, Wenty, and Wacker (Crown Books)

* Over the past several  years deviance, not reasoning, began to drive the social and commercial agenda. The result? Things that we found pungent only yesterday we lionize today.

* Deviance migrates from the fringe to the social convention, rapidly creating markets, and changing the rules of the social and commercial game.

* The pace of change has picked up to the point where the functional distance between the fringe and social convention is all but disappeared.

* Markets form and dissolve in unanticipated places and in record rates. Yesterday's pariah is tomorrow's market darling, and what was once beyond the social pale is suddenly a hot commodity.

* The pace of deviant change is so intense and so relentless that we are beginning to witness compound deviance. The rules of the game keep changing before we have a chance to write them down.

Jeff's comments It all seems kind of sad, doesn't it? Deviance rules, whereas goodness, purity, and wholesomeness are on the fringe. I hope society, and the popular media in particular, wake up soon.

Times Have Changed! - Breathing Space Blog

In 1904:

* The average life expectancy is 47 years.

* 14% of homes have a bathtub.

* 8% of homes have a telephone.

* A three-minute call from Denver to New York cost $11.

* There are 8,000 cars in the U.S. and 144 miles of paved roads.

* The maximum speed limit in most cities is 10 miles per hour.

* With a 1.4 million residents, California is the 21st most populous state.

* Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee are each more heavily populated than California.

Okay, all the above seem archaic.  Would you trade it, however, for a slower simpler life?

2020: Technology Bill of Rights - Breathing Space Blog

The Independent Worker's Technology Bill of Rights established by Larry Rosen Ph.D. and Michelle Weil Ph.D. in their classic book Technostress is well worth perusing in 2020.

Technology, say the authors puts independent workers in the driver's seat, so to speak. But it can create such dependency that it may even lead to questioning one's own creativity and capabilities. To keep technology in it's proper perspective, declare your independence;

         The Independent Worker's Technology Bill of Rights

 1. I am the boss, not my technology.

 2. Technology is available to help me express my creativity.

 3. I decide when to use the tools technology provides.

 4. I have the right to choose what technology to use and what to put aside.

 5. I can use technology to stay connected, informed, and productive -- my way.

 6. Technology offers a world of information. I get to choose what information

 7. Technology will pose problems, but I will be prepared to handle them.

 8. Technology can work 24-hour days, but I can choose when to begin and
    when to stop working.

 9. Technology never needs to rest, but I do.

10. I can work successfully by enforcing my boundary needs.

Streamlining Your Life in the New Year - Breathing Space Blog

Mike Zimmerman, writing in Men's Health magazine offers some advice on streamlining your work and your life which:

* Use one email address for friends and family, another for shopping and spam.

* Use DVR recorders to make your own TV schedule.

* Check the news online. Skip watching TV news.

* Stop overworking.

* Stop over-packing, stop over-promising, stop overdoing everything.

* Discard junk mail immediately.

* Stop micromanaging.

No Alarm, No Adrenaline Rush - Breathing Space Blog

If you wake by alarm clock then, logically, you didn't get enough sleep. Receiving sufficient sleep for the night means that you arise on your own, without an artificial stimulant such as an alarm clock.

If you have trouble arising at a time you prefer, experiment with going to bed earlier to find that time in which you can comfortably arise without an alarm clock.

A benefit, to knowing that you've gotten enough sleep for the night because you've been able to arise on your own, is not to awake in an adrenaline rush. "Alarm" clocks and other devices are named as such because they are meant to alarm you. Is that the way you want to start each day? Being jolted out of your reverie and thrown into waking consciousness ready or not? How much different would your day be if you woke peacefully, naturally, completely on your own?

Alternate Your Large and Small Tasks - Breathing Space Blog

When it comes to working your to-do list, consider the value of alternating large and small tasks:

You are a competent professional, you consistently get a lot done, and you are adept at composing and executing the items on your to-do list. Yet, there is a simple technique that can help you be even more effective that you might not have ever considered.

This technique involves alternating both large and small tasks on your to-do list for the natural energy that engenders.

What's On Your Food? - Breathing Space Blog

What's On My Food? cites any pesticide residues associated with nearly 100 common supermarket foods and products. The app, free on iOS, is designed by a nonprofit agency that draws upon data from the U.S. Dept of Agriculture and highlights the possible health risk of each chemical.