The Jackdaw Journal

Building A Strategy

Sun, 09 Mar 2025 20:34:01 -0800

In a 2012 interview with Amazon Founder & CEO Jeff Bezos and CTO Werner Vogels, Bezos Says that when designing a strategy, we should be asking what’s not going to change. The number one question he gets asked is, “What will the next five to ten years look like?” But he believes it is the wrong question. His thoughts on what won’t change:

I very frequently get the question: “What’s gonna change in the next 10 years?” And that is an interesting question. It’s a very common one. I almost never get the question: “What’s not going to change in the next 10 years?” And I submit to you that the second question is actually the more important of the two because you can build a business strategy around the things that are stable in time.

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Writing Your Story

Wed, 05 Feb 2025 20:17:26 -0800

If you woke up today with the opportunity to add another page to the story of your life, then you owe it to yourself to create the most beautiful story you can imagine. Whatever that is. However that looks to you. Let the ink spill onto the blank page and fill the empty lines with the magic you thought was out there but was really inside you this whole time. Write a story of hope and redemption. Of strength and perseverance. Of falling apart and having the courage to pick up the broken pieces and put yourself back together again. Write about how you intimately know grief and heartbreak because you had the courage to love with your whole heart, even when you had no guarantees that you'd receive the same love in return. Let the ink smear across the page from all the moments you laughed so hard that your tears left a permanent mark on the unwritten pages of your future. And let the spaces between words be quiet pauses of appreciation. Deep breaths and spiritual resets. Gratitude for a life fully lived. If you woke up today with the opportunity to add another page to the story of your life, then you owe it to yourself to write the story of how you lived it fully. Messy and afraid but hopeful and brave. Heart open. Vision clear. Always looking towards the sun.

From This Is How You Find Your Way by Zanna Keithley

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How Creativity Works

Fri, 18 Oct 2024 07:17:01 -0800

Creativity is the culmination of everything you know and experience. Old things presented in a new way. If you want to be creative, fill your life with dots you can connect together.

Bob Dylan made this point in his 2015 MusiCares Person of Year speech, honoring his music.

I’m glad for my songs to be honored like this. But you know, they didn’t get here by themselves. It’s been a long road and it’s taken a lot of doing.

These songs didn’t come out of thin air. I didn’t just make them up out of whole cloth. Contrary to what Lou Levy said, there was a precedent. It all came out of traditional music: traditional folk music, traditional rock ‘n’ roll and traditional big-band swing orchestra music.

For three or four years, all I listened to were folk standards. I went to sleep singing folk songs. I sang them everywhere, clubs, parties, bars, coffeehouses, fields, festivals. And I met other singers along the way who did the same thing and we just learned songs from each other. I could learn one song and sing it next in an hour if I’d heard it just once.

If you sang “John Henry” as many times as me — “John Henry was a steel-driving man / Died with a hammer in his hand / John Henry said a man ain’t nothin’ but a man / Before I let that steam drill drive me down / I’ll die with that hammer in my hand.”

If you had sung that song as many times as I did, you’d have written “How many roads must a man walk down?” too.

I sang a lot of “come all you” songs. There’s plenty of them. There’s way too many to be counted. “Come along boys and listen to my tale / Tell you of my trouble on the old Chisholm Trail.” Or, “Come all ye good people, listen while I tell / the fate of Floyd Collins a lad we all know well / The fate of Floyd Collins, a lad we all know well.”

“Come all ye fair and tender ladies / Take warning how you court your men / They’re like a star on a summer morning / They first appear and then they’re gone again.” “If you’ll gather ’round, people / A story I will tell / ‘Bout Pretty Boy Floyd, an outlaw / Oklahoma knew him well.”

If you sung all these “come all ye” songs all the time, you’d be writing, “Come gather ’round people where ever you roam, admit that the waters around you have grown / Accept that soon you’ll be drenched to the bone / If your time to you is worth saving / And you better start swimming or you’ll sink like a stone / The times they are a-changing.”

You’d have written them too. There’s nothing secret about it. You just do it subliminally and unconsciously, because that’s all enough, and that’s all I sang. That was all that was dear to me. They were the only kinds of songs that made sense.

You can read the full transcript of his speech on the American Songwriter website.

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No Regrets

Tue, 15 Oct 2024 22:30:08 -0800

You can’t change the past, but the future holds possibilities. Our choices shape our lives, and although you can’t change the past, the future is full of possibilities. Japanese writer Toshikazu Kawaguchi makes a case for not leaving things until later in his book Before the Coffee Gets Cold:

Don’t leave anything for later.
Later, the coffee gets cold.
Later, you lose interest.
Later, the day turns into night.
Later, people grow up.
Later, people grow old.
Later, life goes by.
Later, you regret not doing something…
When you had the chance.

Life is a fleeting dance, a delicate balance of moments that unfold before us, never to return in quite the same way again. Regret is a bitter pill to swallow, a weight that bears down upon the soul with the burden of missed chances and unspoken words.

So, let us not leave anything for later. Let us seize the moments as they come, with hearts open and arms outstretched to embrace the possibilities that lie before us. For in the end, it is not the things we did that we regret, but the things we left undone, the words left unspoken, the dreams left unfulfilled.

Social entrepreneur and podcaster Raj Jana also reminds us that the time is now to act to create the life you want:

There is no rewind button or do-over on life. Time spent is forever lost – but that doesn’t mean today can’t be the start of something beautiful. True; the best time to start may have been 10 years ago, but the second-best time is now. So, grab the mic now and make a choice right now to squeeze everything you can out of this beautiful thing called life. Remember, you don’t have to finish where you started. Things don’t have to stay as they are because they’ve always been that way. You can make your own rules, choose your own path, and win big with whatever you want for your life. Live from your heart, create through the lens of love, and stay forever curious. Dance with every aspect of your being and allow every part of you to shine. Find your version of wholeness.”

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Happiness is a Decision

Fri, 11 Oct 2024 08:44:17 -0800

The 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud lady, who is fully dressed each morning by 8 am, with her hair fashionably coifed and makeup perfectly applied, even though she is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today.

After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready.

As she maneuvered her walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of her tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on her window.

“I love it,” she stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.

” Mrs. Jones, you haven’t seen the room...”

“That doesn’t have anything to do with it. Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time.”

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Encourage Other People

Mon, 02 Sep 2024 01:54:10 -0800

Inky Johnson was eight games away from playing in the NFL when tragedy struck. He played safety at the University of Tennessee and was projected to be a first-round NFL draft pick. But that dream evaporated. His football career ended in 2006 with an injury that permanently paralyzed his right arm. He reminds us that the things that happen in life are not designed to stop us but to grow us to serve others:

Anybody who has direct contact with people on a daily basis has an opportunity to change someone’s life. I won’t ever pass up an opportunity to be of encouragement to other people. Don’t ever pass up an opportunity to inspire someone. Don’t ever pass up an opportunity to empower someone. Don’t ever pass up an opportunity to show someone love because the thing about it — my wound — like you can see this. You can see my arm. My wound is visible. But there’s a lot of people in this room that are wounded. You can’t see it. It’s internal. So, the opportunities that we pass up to be a blessing to other people, we can save their life.

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It’s Only a Point

Thu, 22 Aug 2024 00:16:22 -0800

In professional tennis player Roger Federer’s 2024 Commencement Address at Dartmouth College, he explains that sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. But it’s only a point.

In tennis, perfection is impossible... In the 1,526 singles matches I played in my career, I won almost 80% of those matches... Now, I have a question for all of you... what percentage of the POINTS do you think I won in those matches?

Only 54%.

In other words, even top-ranked tennis players win barely more than half of the points they play.

When you lose every second point, on average, you learn not to dwell on every shot.

You teach yourself to think: OK, I double-faulted. It’s only a point.

OK, I came to the net and I got passed again. It’s only a point.

Even a great shot, an overhead backhand smash that ends up on ESPN’s Top Ten Plays: that, too, is just a point.

Here’s why I am telling you this.

When you’re playing a point, it is the most important thing in the world.

But when it’s behind you, it’s behind you. This mindset is really crucial, because it frees you to fully commit to the next point … and the next one after that … with intensity, clarity and focus.

The truth is, whatever game you play in life, sometimes you’re going to lose. A point, a match, a season, a job. It’s a roller coaster, with many ups and downs.

And it’s natural, when you’re down, to doubt yourself. To feel sorry for yourself.

And by the way, your opponents have self-doubt, too. Don’t ever forget that.

But negative energy is wasted energy.

You want to become a master at overcoming hard moments. That to me is the sign of a champion.

The best in the world are not the best because they win every point. It’s because they know they’ll lose—again and again—and have learned how to deal with it.

You accept it. Cry it out if you need to ... then force a smile.

You move on. Be relentless. Adapt and grow.

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The Importance of the Stoires We Tell Oursleves

Mon, 19 Aug 2024 20:42:39 -0800

In a Tim Ferris interview, Michael Lewis explains the importance of the stories we tell about ourselves because they shape who we become.

I could not help but notice the effect on people of the stories they told about themselves. If you listen to people, if you just sit and listen, you’ll find that there are patterns in the way they talk about themselves. There’s the kind of person who is always the victim in any story that they tell. Always on the receiving end of some injustice. They’re the person who’s always kind of the hero of every story they tell. The smart person, they delivered the clever put down there. There are lots of versions of this, and you’ve got to be very careful about how you tell these stories because it starts to become you, that you are in the way you craft your narrative, kind of crafting your character. And so I did at some point decide, “I am going to adopt self-consciously as my narrative, that I’m the happiest person anybody knows.”

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The Courage to Be Disliked

Sun, 11 Aug 2024 19:16:47 -0800

Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga's book The Courage to Be Disliked offers a way of looking at life and a guide to intentional living.

Your life is not something that someone gives you, but something you choose yourself, and you are the one who decides how you live.
One needs to think not "What will this person give me?" but, rather, "What can I give to this person?" That is commitment to the community.
Admitting mistakes, conveying words of apology, and stepping down from power struggle - none of these things is defeat. The pursuit of superiority is not something that is carried out through competition with other people.
Life is a series of moments: It is a series of moments called "now." We can live only in the here and now. Our lives exist only in moments. The world is simple, and life is too. One just needs to live each moment earnestly.

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On Prayer

Wed, 28 Jun 2023 19:26:38 -0800

A small town had historically been dry, but then a local businessman decided to build a tavern. A group of Christians from a local church were concerned and held an all-night prayer meeting to ask God to intervene. It just so happened that shortly after, lightning struck the bar and burned it to the ground.

The owner of the bar sued the church, claiming prayers of the congregation were responsible, but the church hired a lawyer to argue in court that the prayers were not responsible for the lightning and the fire. The presiding judge, after his initial review of the case, stated that “no matter how this case comes out, one thing is clear: The tavern owner believes in prayer, and the Christians do not.”

W. Somerset Maugham on mistaking obscurity for profundity

Sat, 10 Jun 2023 17:53:27 -0800

“I HAVE NEVER had much patience with the writers who claim from the reader an effort to understand their meaning. You have only to go to the great philosophers to see that it is possible to express with lucidity the most subtle reflections. You may find it difficult to understand the thought of Hume, and if you have no philosophical training its implications will doubtless escape you; but no one with any education at all can fail to understand exactly what the meaning of each sentence is. There are two sorts of obscurity that you find in writers. One is due to negligence and the other to willfulness. People often write obscurely because they have never taken the trouble to learn to write clearly.

“Another cause of obscurity is that the writer is himself not quite sure of his meaning. He has a vague impression of what he wants to say, but has not, either from lack of mental power or from laziness, exactly formulated it in his mind and it is natural enough that he should not find a precise expression for a confused idea. This is due largely to the fact that many writers think, not before, but as they write. The pen originates the thought. The disadvantage of this, and indeed it is a danger against which the author must be always on his guard, is that there is a sort of magic in the written word. The idea acquires substance by taking on a visible nature, and then stands in the way of its own clarification. But this sort of obscurity merges very easily into the willful. Some writers who do not think clearly are inclined to suppose that their thoughts have a significance greater than at first sight appears. It is flattering to believe that they are too profound to be expressed so clearly that all who run may read, and very naturally it does not occur to such writers that the fault is with their own minds which have not the faculty of precise reflection. Here again the magic of the written word obtains. It is very easy to persuade oneself that a phrase that one does not quite understand may mean a great deal more than one realizes. From this there is only a little way to go to fall into the habit of setting down one’s impressions in all their original vagueness. Fools can always be found to discover a hidden sense in them.”

From The Summing Up

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How Wolves Change Rivers

Fri, 28 Feb 2014 16:26:29 -0800

When wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in the United States after being absent nearly 70 years, the most remarkable “trophic cascade” occurred. A trophic cascade is an ecological phenomenon triggered by the addition or removal of top predators – in this case the wolf -- creating reciprocal changes in the relative populations of predator and prey. It often results in dramatic changes in ecosystem structure. This short video provides a facinating look at that process. We are truly connected.

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Do You Travel?

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 04:41:42 -0800

Daniel Taylor in a review of David Farley’s Modernist Travel Writing, writes: "The essence of travel is putting yourself in a different place—and coming back changed. If you go somewhere and don't come back, you haven't traveled, you have simply moved. If you go and come back but are not changed, you haven't traveled, you have simply been a tourist. There is an element of pilgrimage (physical travel for a spiritual purpose) in all genuine travel, and the urge in human beings to do so is timeless.

"On the other hand, we have been reminded, by people as diverse as the medieval Cistercians (who discouraged pilgrimage) and Henry Thoreau (who said explore your inner spaces before exploring outer ones), that spiritual and intellectual quests are also a form of travel. The greatest discoveries, they argue, are not over the horizon, but within the soul and mind.

But why not both? Why not put both body and mind in motion and allow them to feed each other?"

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46 Reasons Why Your Body Needs Water Every Day

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 19:38:46 -0800

While reading Water: For Health, for Healing, for Life: You're Not Sick, You're Thirsty! by F. Batmanghelidj M.D., I came across this list of forty-six reasons why your body needs water every day. It certainly makes a case for drinking more water on a daily basis.

Without water, nothing lives.
Comparative shortage of water first suppresses and eventually kills some aspects of the body.
Water is the main source of energy - it is the “cash flow” of the body.
Water generates electrical and magnetic energy inside each and every cell of the body - it provides the power to live.
Water is the bonding adhesive in the architectural design of the cell structure.
Water prevents DNA damage and makes its repair mechanisms more efficient - less abnormal DNA is made.
Water increases greatly the efficiency of the immune system in the bone marrow, where the immune system is formed (all its mechanisms) - including its efficiency against cancer.
Water is the main solvent for all foods, vitamins, and minerals. It is used in the breakdown of food into smaller particles and their eventual metabolism and assimilation.
Water energizes food, and food particles are then able to supply the body with this energy during digestion. This is why food without water has absolutely no energy value for the body.
Water increases the body’s rate of absorption of essential substances in food.
Water is used to transport all substances inside the body.
Water increases the efficiency of red blood cells in collecting oxygen in the lungs.
When water reaches a cell, it brings the cell oxygen and takes the water gases to the lungs for disposal.
Water clears toxic waste from different parts of the body and takes it to the liver and kidneys for disposal.
Water is the main lubricant in the joint spaces and helps prevents arthritis and back pain.
Water is used in the spinal discs to make them "shock-absorbing water cushions."
Water is the best lubricating laxative and prevents constipation.
Water helps reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
Water prevents clogging of arteries in the heart and the brain.
Water is essential for the body’s cooling (sweat) and heating (electrical) systems.
Water give us power and electrical energy for all brain functions, most particularly thinking.
Water is directly needed for the efficient manufacture of all neurotransmitters, including serotonin.
Water is directly needed for the production of all hormones made by the brain, including melatonin.
Water can help prevent attention deficit disorder in children and adults.
Water increases efficiency at work; it expands your attention span.
Water is a better pick-me-up than any other beverage in the world - and it has no side effects.
Water helps reduce stress, anxiety, and depression.
Water restores normal sleep rhythms.
Water helps reduce fatigue - it gives us the energy of youth.
Water makes the skin smoother and helps decrease the effects of aging.
Water gives luster and shine to the eyes.
Water helps prevent glaucoma.
Water normalizes the blood-manufacturing systems in the bone marrow - it helps prevent leukemia and lymphoma.
Water is absolutely vital for making the immune system more efficient in different regions to fight infections and cancer cells where they are formed.
Water dilutes the blood and prevents it from clotting during circulation.
Water decreases premenstrual pains and hot flashes.
Water and heartbeats create the dilution and waves that keep things from sedimenting in the bloodstream.
The human body has no stored water to draw on during dehydration. This is why you must drink water regularly and throughout the day.
Dehydration prevents sex hormone production - one of the primary causes of impotence and loss of libido.
Drinking water separates the sensations of thirst and hunger.
To lose weight, water is the best way to go - drink water on time and lose weight without much dieting. Also, you will not eat excessively when you feel hungry but are in fact only thirsty for water.
Dehydration causes deposits of toxic sediments in the tissue spaces, joints, kidneys, liver, brain and skin. Water will clear these deposits.
Water reduces the incidence of morning sickness in pregnancy.
Water integrates mind and body functions. It increases ability to realize goals and purpose.
Water helps prevent the loss of memory as we age. It helps reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and Lou Gehrig's disease.
Water helps reverse addictive urges, including those for caffeine, alcohol and some drugs.

Rule of Thumb: On average, you need at least .5 ounces of water for every pound of body weight on a daily basis.

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Rebuilding Our Society

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:05:07 -0800

Here is a thought-provoking 9 minute video from Douglas Rushkoff, discussing the themes of his book Life Inc.. In it he makes the observation, "Most of us spend so much time working and consuming that we have very little time and energy left to anything that has to do with other people. By the time you’re done with work and buying and Costco and Wal-Mart, it’s all you can do to sit on the couch and watch a little television before you go to sleep. It’s really hard to muster the energy to get together with other people."

Life Inc. The Movie from Douglas Rushkoff on Vimeo.

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