Connection Paradigm

We just finished the second draft of the book!

We just finished the second draft of The Usual Error! It took us about a month and a half. We ended up not just editing for flow, tone, style, and grammar, as we had originally planned; we made major revisions. The book is far smoother, far more consistent, and far more readable than it was in the first draft. It’s AWESOME!

For the third revision, this weekend we’re going to print out two copies and sit at Austin Java all day, reading it, marking it up with red pens, and reading it out loud to each other.

For the fourth revision, we’ll send copies to all our friends and fans who are interested, and they can mark up the copies with their edits, revisions, and comments. We’ll merge them into the master copy.

For the fifth revision, we’ll send it to a professional editor.

For the sixth and final revision, we’ll go back to Austin Java with the red pens again and make a final pass before publishing.

We’re so excited!!!

Apologies for the post barrage

Hi there!

For those of you following the Connection Paradigm and Usual Error Project feeds, apologies for the string of additional entries! The Usual Error Project website is getting a massive face lift, and henceforth we’ll be hosting both blogs at Connection Paradigm — so we moved the Usual
Error archives to their new home: the Usual Error Project category at Connection Paradigm! That’s all dealt with now, though, so it won’t happen again. Thanks for bearing with us!

This is what happens when you’re close to the treasure.

Megan M. writes an awesome and inspirational post about manifestation, pushing through the dip, and being a remarkable nonconformist. An excerpt:

Making decision after decision based on fearlessness, instead of familiarity and safety, can be draining. But I feel like this universe is buckling around us. I feel that if, instead of running away, I push harder… Maybe it will crumble. Maybe it will fall away and I will find myself smack in the middle of a new universe.

What can I raise from the ashes of the old one?

These are our opportunities to prove what kind of people we are, to know something about ourselves. Do we do the safe thing? The familiar thing? Or do we behave like a player character and be the hero in our own story?

So many people are content to be NPCs.

How to live an interesting life

Seth Godin posted today about what watching less TV means for the world. This post is about what it means for you.

People sometimes say to me, “Wow, your life is so interesting!” Sometimes they say it in kind of a fearful sort of way, but sometimes they say it in kind of an envious way, as if they find their life boring and would love to have a more interesting life. So here it is, folks, How To Live An Interesting Life, in one not-as-hard-as-you-might-think step.

That’s not so bad, right? You don’t even have to do anything, you just have to stop doing a few things. Like watching TV. Maybe playing video games. Maybe spending so much time at parties or social events. Whatever you feel is “sucking up your time” and making your life uninteresting — it may be totally different for you than for someone else. Just stop doing it.

You will get bored. You will feel antsy. You will get jittery and want to go back to doing the things you just stopped doing. (Notice how this is like withdrawal from an addiction?) But if you stay the course, you will come out the other side. You will get so bored that you will find something interesting to do. This is our default state, but we have so many distractions that it’s hard for us to get back to our natural baseline. Eliminating all the distractions will help you regain your default state of having an interesting life.

I’ve found that it helps to make a small number of large decisions rather than a large number of small decisions. It’s like choosing not to buy junk food once a week during grocery shopping time instead of choosing not to eat junk food every hour during potential snacky time. I’m talking about medium-to-large decisions like not owning a TV, or not signing up for cable. Not buying a game I know I’d get addicted to. Setting up a calendar with certain times reserved for certain things, and sticking to the schedule. Consolidate your willpower.

Notice I said to stop doing “uninteresting” things, not “boring” things. TV isn’t boring; it’s specifically designed to not be. But on a higher level, on a life level, it is incredibly uninteresting. Take stock of all those things in your life that you feel are uninteresting, and just stop doing them. That’s all it takes. The rest will take care of itself — or rather, you will take care of it, because it will help you find and express the true inner amazingness that is inside you.

Good luck to all who wish it! (:

Boom! Studios shares their backlist for free

BOOM! Studios is choosing a connection paradigm business style by releasing several items from their backlist for free. Instead of trying to keep control over their intellectual property, they’re sharing it for free with their fans and potential fans.

The titles they’re offering include Ninja Tales, Zombie Tales, Hero Squared, 2 Guns, Shmobots and Cthulhu Tales.

“This is a great way to get the word out about BOOM! titles,” said Chip Mosher in a press release. “When people come to the site for free comics, they’ll be able to take a look at the other quality books we’re putting out. The interface ties all the parts of our website - the store, current titles, free stuff - into one beautiful package. New fans who might be stopping by for cool zombie or Cthulhu content can get turned on to what BOOM!’s doing across the board and check out the print editions in local comic book shops or at Amazon.com and mass market bookstores via our distribution deal with Perseus Books. We expect that people who aren’t BOOM! fans will discover our series and titles and be excited to own print copies.”

Our goals for The Usual Error Project

1. Help people
2. Enjoy the journey
2½. ???
3. Profit!

The worst day ever / The best day ever

Yesterday, Kyeli and I spontaneously decided to make a road trip to Galveston Island for her birthday. It was

Kyeli and I were in the right-hand story, but we wanted to share both versions of the story as an exercise in positivity, to illustrate how easy it is to shift your perspective and thereby shift your reality. (: It really could have been the worst day ever if our heads were tilted in a different direction. I’m sure glad it turned out to be the best day ever, though. (;

Do one thing, and do it better than anyone.

I just read the text on the back of a box of popcorn, and was reminded of Seth Godin’s recent post.

From the popcorn box:

Orville was passionate about popcorn. He spent over 40 years developing the perfect popcorn until he found one that popped up with a 44:1 expansion ratio — bigger, lighter, and fluffier than any kernel the world had ever seen before. His personal motto was, “Do one thing, and do it better than anyone.” This personal commitment and high standards are what make Orville Redenbacher’s gourmet popping corn the favorite of so many families today.

From Seth’s post:

Is this what you set out to do? Is compromising everything going to get you to a place that was worth the journey? Wouldn’t it be smarter to just stop selling trains and do something else (lottery tickets, even) but do it really really well.

Synchronicities like this make me really happy. (:

passion is water, not fire

Motivation is really important. We do what we most want to do. Every choice that we make, we choose what we most want. Sometimes we will choose short-term wants over long-term wants, but it still bottoms out to what we most want. But we’re not slaves to our desires, because our desires are not caused by random cosmic rays that strike us in the brains — we have a lot of input into what we want.

A common misconception is that passion is rooted in fire, but that’s false. True passion is water, not fire. True passion nourishes us rather than consumes us. Fire passion is unsustainable — we only have so much of ourselves that we can consume until we burn out. But water passion is sustainable, because it nurtures us. It is the turning of a water wheel, steadily churning away as the momentum of the river flows past it and through it, pushing it ever gently forward.

That’s not to say there’s no place for fire. Fire is a powerful burst, and while burning, we can accomplish much. But instead of using my fire burst to grind the grain directly, I’d rather use that powerful burst to construct a very nice water mill. That way, I can be sustainable, avoid consuming myself, and get lots more grain ground in the end.

A lot of motivational speakers and books focus on self-discipline. “If you whip yourself into being your own efficient worker, you can be super effective!” And that seems to work for a lot of people. But I can’t help wondering if that’s the only way. I can’t help wondering if there’s a path to motivation that’s rooted not in fear, but in love. If there’s a path to effectiveness that’s rooted not in fire, but in water.

I think there is, and I think Kyeli and I are on it.

Honesty vs. Predictability (Intent vs. Outcome)

Many people place a high value on honesty. Today I want to talk about the value of predictability.

Imagine two people, Lying Lester and Honest Hal. Ask Lying Lester whether he likes pistachio ice cream and he may very well lie to you, saying “Yes, I like it very much.” Ask Honest Hal and he’ll also say “Yes, I like pistachio ice cream”, but then once you go out to the store and buy some from him, he’ll take a bite and then say “Sorry, I guess I was wrong, I don’t really like it after all.”

Honesty is great. Honesty is very important. Intent matters a lot. But predictability also matters a lot. Because what do we do with an honest answer? We act on it. We make conclusions based on it, we take it into consideration when making our plans. And if the answer we get is incorrect, our plans end up falling apart regardless of the original intent of the speaker.

It’s the “He means well” effect. Many people use “He (or she) means well” as an excuse for unacceptable behaviour. His intent is good, so forgive him, because the intent is more important than the outcome. What is this teaching? What is this reinforcing? It’s crazy to hope for behaviour A while rewarding behaviour B. People will enact behaviour B instead. (A classic example of this is hope that your employees will work hard but paying them for working long hours.) “He means well” is a perfectly fine reaction to the first few mistakes, but after that, it’s no longer a useful or compassionate reaction — you’re no longer doing anyone a favour. You’re just showing the person that their intent is what matters and that their results do not matter. And when intent becomes decoupled from results, it becomes meaningless and solipsistic.

Do you know anyone like Honest Hal? Do you know anyone who always tries to be honest, but often turns out to be wrong? Do you know anyone who always means well, but whose good intent never manages to affect their behaviour?