I read like an alcoholic drinks. 

I’ve got books hidden around in various places. I am never far from a story. I fear running out. I plan ahead to make sure I am stocked up. I don’t want to hit rock bottom and have to resort to newspapers or magazines. I also do not like to re-read books. I want new stuff.  

I am ravenous for new ideas presented well. I am greedy for a thick juicy slab of characters, plot and prose. 

Someone said that reading is the most efficient way to get knowledge. There is so much straight up information in books. The how-to, the what happened, the facts or rules that must be referenced are so well kept in books. 

And then there are the worlds I can enter. An author strings words together that create a universe for me to inhabit. I can enter the mind of a psychotic person, or an animal or even –as in the case of Flatland—a single dimensional dot. 

Every adventure imaginable from the comfort of my own home. 

But that’s not all!  

Each piece of writing is a time capsule. Authors are capturing viewpoints of a particular moment. When I wonder how people at a certain time regarded things, and a book tells me. I can tell what types of people were admired, and who disappointed. 

When a book is ready widely enough, it actually changes the culture after it is published. I recently reviewed Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a book that dramatically changed American beliefs and resolve about the evils of slavery. Even as the book itself captured the viewpoints of Americans, it changed them. 

What power in the written word! I cannot get enough of them. 

And yeah, I want to talk about what I’m reading. I think it’s fascinating. I’d love it if my conversation partner has read the book too, but it’s not required. 

But there is a strange block of shame. People feel ashamed that they are not readers and put themselves in the penalty box. It’s okay! I’ll tell you about it and you can learn enough from me for us to talk about it. 

Sometimes people will talk with me. Sometimes they won’t. 
 
But I’m still enjoying my books. In fact, I have created a YouTube Channel to talk about the books I’m reading. You can go there to find out what I’ve been reading. If you want to talk to me about the books I’ve read I would love to hear what you think. 

You can respond hit reply to this newsletter to discuss. 

A big part of my job as project manager is to make plans. People need a plan to get things done. When I make a plan, the best thing in the world is to be able to predict what will be happening in the next little bit.

That’s what a plan is: I will do this, and this will be the result.

Plans are like science- they love to be sure and stable. Reliably executeable.

But the world changes under us. We use what information we know, and then we find out more. Then, as more people find out more even bigger changes happen.

I remember the plans that we made for COVID a year ago, back when it was still called the Coronavirus. I took steps and made concessions. And then I found out more and did things differently.

It was only a year ago but it seems very distant now. I had such limited information, and plans were made and remade on a very frequent basis.

The reality is, things are always changing. But I can’t help but make plans.

I’m a kid with a set of blocks. I will stack them, build them with delight and then they get knocked down.

They are always knocked down.

Plans are what I do, and yet I also know no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy.

The blocks crash. They always crash.

It’s sad when they are knocked down. But the happiest kids start making a new stack immediately.

I’m not always the happiest kid.

But it helps to remember that the blocks are all still there. I can build again, and this time it will be magnificent. Until it falls again, but I don’t have to think about that yet.

Something new is ready to be created, and I can’t wait to get started.

Since she’s doing school at home, Veronica has learned something very grownup: computers can be wrong. Mostly, they have been wrong in ways that count against her. Last year she learned the heartbreak of submitting an assignment and it did not

In fact

Send.

The world is a little less reliable now that she knows this.

While walking the dog, I asked her:

Which would you rather have:

To learn something, and have the knowledge, but not get the credit

OR

To get the credit but not have the knowledge

The TV series Suits starts with the main character making his living by cheating for hire on the bar exam. He knows it, but has been expelled for cheating. But he gets a job as a lawyer by further faking a graduation.

The show is filled with tension about who and when will find him out.

But I wasn’t worried about whether he can do the work.

I felt pretty sure he was going to get caught, but not that he wouldn’t have the knowledge.

Is some knowledge easily acquired on the job? Can you fake It until you make it?

Veronica had another view. She said, “Mommy, I know what you would say, but there are social consequences to getting bad grades.”

Her concern was that should would lose social standing by not having good grades.

Sometimes knowing something is less important than people thinking you know. This is probably reliably true in 6^th grade.

My husband says that’s all fine and good but if it’s on the line—like knowing how to fly a helicopter—faking it will not serve.

We have created standards that the interweaving systems of our society rely on. There are construction standards that require the wall to be able to support 5 times the weight of whatever is fastened to it. That leaves enough margin for error to be reliable. Our certified doctors and plumbers have to have a broad range of skills to be certified.

It depends, I think. I find great joy in learning even if it is not for credit. And yet, the social standing and the recognition are valuable and worth fighting for. Most of the time.