The days between Christmas and New Year’s bring up lots of feelings. The wheels are off, so to speak, as the work year winds down and I become introspective about my birthday. Here’s an exploration of some of the thoughts on my mind as of late.
The Viral Nature of Neuroses and Virtues
Richard Dawkins coined the term ‘meme’ in his 1976 book, The Selfish Gene. As Wikipedia sums it up nicely, a meme is simply “a self-replicating unit of transmission”. I’ve often wondered “where does this feeling come from?” at different points in my life.
Through this lens, emotions, ideas, and beliefs are like genes in that they are transmissible: passed down from person to person, family to family -- generation to generation. Someone or something put them in each of us and they inform the way we are able to cope with all kinds of situations in the world around us.
Looking back on how I’ve viewed my life at different points in time, it’s interesting to observe how I’ve felt was colored by how people behaved around me at home, at school, and work. How was my parents’ youth different from mine? Did they become their parents? Am I becoming my parents? It’s not hard to reflect on my origins and say, “Oh, so that’s where that paranoia/fear comes from!” I imagine that I am not the first person to feel this way.
Just as the negative can be passed along, so too can the positive such as virtues of persistence, compassion, patience (yeah, right) and entrepreneurship. These are the things I want to pass on to my children. They inspire me to try harder to be a calm, stable role model for theme. I want to provide them with a legacy of self-control.
I have been toying around with a model for how individuals and groups behave based on these notions and the best I can come up with is the illustration below. I have no training in sociology (apart from a class in grad school), so I am sure there are more well-thought out frameworks than these below.
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When You’re a Kid, You Have Nothing But Disposable Time
As a kid, I loved to play. Computers and video games were my catnip. I would play them all day if I could. How many hours and days did I spend playing games, escaping reality (or using my imagination), and considering the possible? I hated math as a kid, especially in high school but as a career data-driven marketer I've come to love it. As I look at a lot of forecasting and trends every day, I thought I would apply the same tools retrospectively to my perceptions of time from childhood to adulthood.
Through childhood and into my early adulthood I had "big plans" to write a novel, be an award-winning journalist, play in a rock band, do groundbreaking scientific work in genetics, become a successful record producer, become poet laureate of the United States, etc., etc. While I did write and self-publish a novel, Human Resources in 2005, I didn't really get around to the other things. In many areas, my interests changed, but mostly I just ran out of time to pursue them as other things became more important to me.
The below is a model of how I've seen my "discretionary time" decrease over the years with key milestones highlighted. I imagine each person could track their own time metrics with interesting results. The y-axis represents hours per week.
With these things said, I have no regrets about my life. My decisions and mistakes all helped to form the individual I am today, an individual I am content to call "me". And while the spirit waxes nostalgic and gloomy at times, I am proud of the life I am building with my family today and look forward to what the future brings.
Reading this now, may you have a blessed new year ahead of you. Have a great 2014!
The Viral Nature of Neuroses and Virtues
Richard Dawkins coined the term ‘meme’ in his 1976 book, The Selfish Gene. As Wikipedia sums it up nicely, a meme is simply “a self-replicating unit of transmission”. I’ve often wondered “where does this feeling come from?” at different points in my life.
Through this lens, emotions, ideas, and beliefs are like genes in that they are transmissible: passed down from person to person, family to family -- generation to generation. Someone or something put them in each of us and they inform the way we are able to cope with all kinds of situations in the world around us.
Looking back on how I’ve viewed my life at different points in time, it’s interesting to observe how I’ve felt was colored by how people behaved around me at home, at school, and work. How was my parents’ youth different from mine? Did they become their parents? Am I becoming my parents? It’s not hard to reflect on my origins and say, “Oh, so that’s where that paranoia/fear comes from!” I imagine that I am not the first person to feel this way.
Just as the negative can be passed along, so too can the positive such as virtues of persistence, compassion, patience (yeah, right) and entrepreneurship. These are the things I want to pass on to my children. They inspire me to try harder to be a calm, stable role model for theme. I want to provide them with a legacy of self-control.
I have been toying around with a model for how individuals and groups behave based on these notions and the best I can come up with is the illustration below. I have no training in sociology (apart from a class in grad school), so I am sure there are more well-thought out frameworks than these below.
.JPG)
When You’re a Kid, You Have Nothing But Disposable Time
As a kid, I loved to play. Computers and video games were my catnip. I would play them all day if I could. How many hours and days did I spend playing games, escaping reality (or using my imagination), and considering the possible? I hated math as a kid, especially in high school but as a career data-driven marketer I've come to love it. As I look at a lot of forecasting and trends every day, I thought I would apply the same tools retrospectively to my perceptions of time from childhood to adulthood.
Through childhood and into my early adulthood I had "big plans" to write a novel, be an award-winning journalist, play in a rock band, do groundbreaking scientific work in genetics, become a successful record producer, become poet laureate of the United States, etc., etc. While I did write and self-publish a novel, Human Resources in 2005, I didn't really get around to the other things. In many areas, my interests changed, but mostly I just ran out of time to pursue them as other things became more important to me.
The below is a model of how I've seen my "discretionary time" decrease over the years with key milestones highlighted. I imagine each person could track their own time metrics with interesting results. The y-axis represents hours per week.
With these things said, I have no regrets about my life. My decisions and mistakes all helped to form the individual I am today, an individual I am content to call "me". And while the spirit waxes nostalgic and gloomy at times, I am proud of the life I am building with my family today and look forward to what the future brings.
Reading this now, may you have a blessed new year ahead of you. Have a great 2014!
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