Bring the outside in

I'm not much of an interior designer. And I'm not much of a botanist or garden either.

But I do really like the Arabica coffee pot plant sitting on my desk.

It makes a difference.

Firstly, it looks nice. It has nice glossy leaves, they're a nice deep green, and it sits in a white pot with a kind of broad ripple texture.

Secondly, it grows. Week to week, I can see the steady growth of new leaves. I can see the new green shoots, and the older brown branches (they're really twigs). The earlier leaves are small, but some of the new ones are much bigger, at least three times as long.

Thirdly, it responds. As I said, I'm not much of a gardener. So I forget to water it. And it tells me I've been negligent by becoming extremely limp and generally looking sad. And when I pour a cup of of water into it, it's back in shape by the end of the day.

Fourthly (if that's a word), it reminds me of the economics and people involved in bringing me my morning cup of coffee.

My coffee plant is a reminder of outside world. It's a world that is beautiful, both natural and created. It's a world that is constantly changing, constantly in flux, ever shifting. It's a world that is relational, that requires input from me, and who I can affect with both my action and inaction. And it's a world filled with other people, people who have dreams, families, work, favourite drinks and places they live.

We all live somewhere different. But all our different somewhere's are on the one same planet. So lets appreciate the beauty, flow with change, choose our actions wisely, and empower each other.

Trial and Error v2.0 is called Action/Reflection

How often do we pause to take stock at the completion of a project? To reflect on the process, the people and product. To search for lessons to learn. And then embed those lessons in the next project.

How often do we change?

Making time to identify, solve and implement opportunities for continual, incremental improvement is critical if we want to try and keep pace with the world. And it's even more critical if we're seeking to make a difference, to deliver something new, to do something better than the status quo. To do more than meet spec, we need to challenge and improve the specification itself.

This is not a case of trial and error. We do this by design. We do this on purpose. We do this because we know we've never nailed it. Because there's always more to learn.

Trying is necessary, because otherwise we'll just talk. 

But reflection is necessary, because otherwise we're wasting our try.

Push Pause Part VI - The Reality Reference Check

I've pushed pause on the usual blog posts to make space to reflect on some questions. This post is the final in the series, Part VI.

If you want to make a difference in the world, or feel like you're not sure what to do with your vocational life, you might like to look back at the questions and ponder your own answers.

Rawa.

What's in your hands?

And is it enough?

It is possible? Has anyone with my resources every pulled off anything like this?

Firstly, what are my resources?

• Engineering degree.
• Professional experience in a high-performing consulting firm.
• A small amount of cash.
• Confidence/Optimism.
• Insatiable appetite for learning.
• Supportive community and family.
• Varied reading/research.

An incomplete and inaccurate list, to be sure.

But what is clear is that my most valuable resource is time, because time is finite, and scarce.

And there's a highly competitive market for my time.

Who else has been in a similar situation?

I really don't know! 

So here's some takeaways

1. Do some research to find out what people with similar resources to me have done. Find out their stories.
2. Do a resource map to look at what I have available and how they overlap and connect.

Push Pause Part V - Is it important?

I've pushed pause on the usual blog posts to make space to reflect on some questions over the next week or so. This post is Part IV of VI.

If you want to make a difference in the world, or feel like you're not sure what to do with your vocational life, you might like to follow along and answer these questions for yourself. 

Whaihua.

No pain, no gain, or so the saying goes.

But our energies and efforts are a finite resource.

So we have to wonder: It is even worth it?

It’s easy to say that making the world a better place is worthwhile. But it’s harder to say whether the current project is worth it.

So lets get back to property, just for a bit.

Does an attempt to do property differently, to buck the system, to rebuild property ownership, development, and design justify the risk and effort I’m prepared to put in?

tl;dr: Probably.

Here's why:

1. There is a significant wealth gap in New Zealand. A large amount of the nation’s wealth is held in property. Inequality is a national issue, and the majority of us are on the right side of the property/wealth equation. A shift in how property works may be a piece of the solution to the problem of our national inequality.
2. We have a massive mental health issue in New Zealand. Call it a crises, call it an epidemic, what it means is that more of us are affected by poor mental health. It might impact us personally, our family, or our workplace. Security of accommodation, a scarcity mindset and lack of social connection apply downward pressure on the health of people. All these things are tied to property.
3. We are all seeking community. The most inclusive community is one that is not defined by demography, interest, or social status, but by geography. Neighbourhoods are the places where everyone can belong, because we all live somewhere. Therefore how we live together in our neighbourhoods is important. Not to mention addressing the issue that some people don’t have a place to call home at all.
4. Communities are built around people who commit, who stay, who provide stability for those who come and go. They know the stories, they hold the vision, they remain when others leave. The more people like this we have, the stronger our communities will be. And the more support these people have on a day-to-day, week-to-week, year-to-year practical on-the-ground basis, the better. Staying requires a place to stay in that can adapt, change, sustain and grow.
5. Our relationship with the planet needs to change. And that starts at home, with how we relate to the dirt we live on.

Alternative property ownership, development and design is a high-risk, high-reward project, to be sure. The only mitigation I’ve got it to start small, learn as we go, and move as fast as possible while taking others with me.

Push Pause Part IV - Put the work in

I've pushed pause on the usual blog posts to make space to reflect on some questions. This post is Part IV of VI.

If you want to make a difference in the world, or feel like you're not sure what to do with your vocational life, you might like to follow along and answer these questions for yourself.

Back to the mahi.

The work.

The effort.

Meaningful work requires effort. In seeking to make a change, we are attempting to bring something new into the world.

Creation requires effort. And sometimes, creating something takes our all.

Whakapau kaha.

How much work am I willing to do to bring something new into the world? What am I willing to give up, to tradeoff for the change I seek?

A non-negotiable for me is living an authentic lifestyle that is grounded in the same sentiment, attitude and values that drives the work I seek to do. Changing the way we live in the world means nothing if I am not working towards a different way of live myself. This is not only a matter of integrity, it is a key factor in grounding abstract, theoretical ideas of doing good, and actually doing something that does some good.

Proximity matters. Proximity to the people I seek to engage with matters. 

Change should be done with, and for, not to.

Another priority is family, But again, I am willing (and seeking) to relinquish traditional (modern) notions of what it looks like to be a family where it is in service of an authentic lifestyle and bringing about the change I seek to create. Shared living is a key part of this. As well as keeping expenses low, living with others enriches our family life, our personal relationships, and is a significant practical help with looking after children. All of this frees us, frees me to engage more fully in the meaningful life-work.

Shared living also brings it's strange security. My capacity for risk increases, because I know that I am grounded in a community that will support me. We strive together for a common purpose, with each of us on our own journey, carving our own path. 

I am willing to trade a successful, stable, lucrative career to pursue opportunities that align with purpose. I am willing to negotiate challenges in relationships as a result of how my choices are perceived. I am willing to stay at the table with people who disagree, in an effort to learn, understand and grow. I am willing to apologise when I am wrong. I am willing to be vulnerable. 

I think changing the world is as much about the things we're willing to put aside as the work we're willing to put in.

There is effort in personal change and sacrifice as well as productivity.

Push Pause Part III - Skin in the game

I've pushed pause on the usual blog posts to make space to reflect on some questions over the next week or so. This post is Part III of VI.

If you want to make a difference in the world, or feel like you're not sure what to do with your vocational life, you might like to follow along and answer these questions for yourself.

Turaru

Risk.

Life involves risk.

Change requires it.

If it were a sure thing, if there was zero risk, anyone could do it, and everyone who wanted to would.

So when we're looking at our lives, at the work we want to do, at who want to engage with, and at the change we want to see, what are we willing to put on the table?

How much risk? How much am I willing to put at stake to make the change I seek?

At the top level, the lifetime level, I'm essentially willing to stake my life on it. What could be more worthwhile to spend a life on? 

Lifetime given in service to others - 10/10, 100% risk.

On a project-by-project, item-by-item basis, it depends.

I guess, I'm forming together an approach to the work, the mahi, of my life that allows me to continue to give more to it. I reduce the risk of each step by developing some guidelines for how the work is done, that allows me to risk more on each project.

As the risk of failure reduces, I risk more of myself on it. Which means the impact of a failure is greater, but is less likely to happen.

And failure does not mean that a specific target isn't achieved. A key guidelines is that a project failure is not a failure of the work if there is something to learnt.

In summary: On a project with a high chance of being a waste of time, I will risk very little of myself, and spend my energies in other ways in pursuit of the life and world I seek to live in.

On a project with a high chance of being pulled off, of seeing change happen, I will risk much more of myself, and give more of my energies to seeing it happen.

Practically: The things of my life which are not (yet) aligned with the work I want to do, the change I wish to see and the people I seek to work with, are 100% up for grabs, when the opportunity presents itself.

Push Pause Part II - Who is this for?

I'm pushing pause on the usual blog posts to make space to reflect on some questions. This post is Part II of VI.

If you want to make a difference in the world, or feel like you're not sure what to do with your vocational life, you might like to follow along and answer these questions for yourself.

He aha te mea nui o te ao
He tangata, he tangata, he tangata

We want good things for everyone. But we can't impact every person. We're finite beings, with finite time.

We have to choose who we focus on. Who we bias our energy towards. Who's interests we prioritise.

Who do I want to affect, and how do I want to impact them?

• Those who are overlooked, misunderstood, excluded and marginalised. Those who are seen as unlovely in society's eyes. I want them to be seen, to be understood, to experience belonging, to contribute, to love and be loved.
• I want to change myself. I want to unpick my unconscious biases, to be affected by the world around me, and to continue to understand what it means to love, and to practice loving.

Push Pause Part I - What is my work?

I'm pushing pause on the usual blog posts to make space to reflect on some questions over the next week or so. This post is Part I of VI.

If you want to make a difference in the world, or feel like you're not sure what to do with your vocational life, you might like to follow along and answer these questions for yourself.

Mahi

The work you do.

Not the job you have.

What is the work I want to do?

• Work that makes a change in the world. For good.
• Work that, when complete, leaves space for others to continue and grow the good work.
• Work that continues to grow and develop me. I thrive when I am learning.
• Work that draws together disparate ideas, skills, people, concepts etc that are usually seen as separate. Connection
• Work that leads to something new. The best projects are those that cannot be done, that produce something that hasn't been seen, that aren't sensible.
• Work of excellent quality, that continually improves. Substandard work devalues everyone.
• Work that is necessary. Work that leads to action, rather than producing an unnecessary part of a wasteful system.
• Work that values my unique contribution as a person more than my technical skills and knowledge. So that I can bring my background, interests, experiences and relational connections into the room.
• Work that aligns with my purpose in life: To make a positive and lasting change, especially for those for whom change is most urgently needed.
• Work that is centred around people. That views people as integrated elements of a global system that is ecological, economic, political, mystical, and fundamentally deeply relational.

Coffee, cost and rational passionate home design

Value is in the eye of the beholder and it seems that, these days, price is more reflective of value, than cost.

When we buy a coffee at a cafe, we're not buying a coffee, we're buying the experience of the coffee. The anticipating, ordering and drinking of the coffee, and the planning, thinking and enjoying the cafe.

So for the budget-conscious, the challenge is to replace this routine with an alternative that has equivalent value, at a lower price.

It's why bench-top coffee machines are a hit. It's why niche coffee-machines exist. It's what instant coffee advertisements try to sell.

Of course, it is a different experience. We can't replicate the cafe experience at home. What we're trying to do is replace it with a coffee-drinking experience of equivalent value.

If we can do this, we haven't lost anything, we've just saved money! It's a rational, passion-based approach to designing our experience, and spending our money.

We can apply the same logic to our approach property. Or at least, the budget-conscious among us need to!

Our questions is the same: How can we achieve the same result (realise the same value) in a building for a lower cost?

This might mean that our original idea (drinking a flat white in a cafe) needs to radically change (making an Aeropress at home). This is a question of design. It turns out, Architects can be very helpful with design. Especially when we don't know what we don't know.

It might mean that we spend time reflecting to distill the essence of what we value (e.g. the caffeine kick in the long black, or the velvety milk in the flat white) and realise we can still achieve the same outcome in a different way (e.g. instant coffee, or a bench-top coffee machine).

If we go on the journey, we might just find that the reason we want what we want, is because we value what others have. We go after what we know exists, and what we can get.

A value-based home might not look quite like every other home you see around. Unless of course, what you value is being like everyone else, at which point you're job is easy!

For the rest of us, there's some thinking to do.

Get to the midnight conversation

The best conversations seems to happen after midnight.

The craziest plans.

The most exciting dreams.

The moments of deep connection.

It's why we get together with old friends for a weekend, not a coffee. We get to the goodness, the stuff we really want to share, down the track a little way.

What's the after-midnight conversation piece where you live, the bit of your place you really want to share?

And how long does it take to get there and see it, experience it?

And how much effort has gone into the rest?

If your main thing is the kitchen, food, cooking, sharing and sitting down with a cup of tea/wine, what's with the preoccupation with the front lawn, and the roman columns at the entrance?

Spend your time (and money) in the places that matter. And share those places with other people.

Trim the candle wick (right)

An untrimmed candle wick makes for a whole lot of smoke. An over-trimmed wick is just a pain to light in the first place.

Whats your default position?

Do you tend to leave simple maintenance tasks too long to the point where you're effective, but cause collateral damage?

Or do you ensure you're vigorously being busy and looking great, but struggle to get started on the real task at hand.

Competing for what?

At times, it feel like the property market is a competition. Rather than as system for meeting the fundamental human need for shelter.

Why are we all fighting each other?

A Good Home supports the Rhythms of life

Communities are made of people. And thriving communities have people with rhythms of Stillness, Reflection, Connection, and Giving.

Stillness

Irrespective of any religious or non-religious attitudes, meditative practices are beneficial for everyone.

A quiet space in our homes, or neighbourhood public spaces encourages us to practice.

Reflection

Increasing self-awareness through personal reflection is arguably the key to creating a diverse community by deconstructing our inherent biases, prejudices and negative habits and patterns of thought.

Proximity buys time that we can spend being, rather than doing.

Connection

Food is an anchor for fostering connection with each other.

Our kitchen tables, breakfast bars, bump spaces and front-yard BBQs bring us together.

Giving

Giving is good for us. For all of us. Maimonides postulated a hierarchy of charity. He theorised that the highest level of giving is where the gift ultimately enables the recipient to become self-sufficient, no longer in need of charity.

Hospitality is a simple gift that requires nothing of the recipient other than their presence, and can be given regardless of the financial position of the giver. Indeed, some of the most significant spaces of hospitality can be found in the homes of those with the lease significant wealth. 

The beauty of preparation and planning

There are few baseline fundamentals when it comes to making the world a better place. Here's a couple:

1. It works better when we work together.
2. You never know what is coming.

Planning and preparation are key to both of these.

Prepare together. Align your thinking. Uncover your strengths and weaknesses. Learn to communicate. Resolve conflict. Agree on principles.

And then when an unexpected decision-making moment arrives: Check in on each other, check alignment, check strength, and act decisively.

Crucial moments rarely allow time to think everything through. So have 80% of the conversation before the moment arrives. And develop the skills to nail the last 20%. 

Cover off the basics of the decision using pre-established principles, and discuss the details that arrive in the decisive moment.

* This is more about life than about property, but I suspect you could apply a similar logic to a house project.

You, me and Johari

The Johari window is a simple framework that helps describe our relationships. Within the relationship, everything falls into one of four quadrants (of the window)

1. Things about me that we both know.
2. Things about me that I know but don't share (so you don't know)
3. Things about me that you know but don't share (so I don't know)
4. Things about me that I don't know, and you don't see.

These four categories can be labelled as Open, Facade, Blindspots, and Hidden.

One philosophical approach to life using this framework is to propose that our life's work is to fully open our window. This requires sharing, listening to feedback, and reflecting/seeking expert input.

If we use this framework to consider our (my/your) relationship with the idea of property ownership, we arrive at four interested questions:

1. What things are obvious and out in the open for all to see?
2. What attitudes do we have that no-one know's about?
3. What do our decisions, choices and conversations say about what we value in property?
4. Are we aware of our unconscious attitudes and external influences that set up our natural biases?

Critique, questions and thoughts

Social media came through for me yesterday.

I came across this interesting thought piece which rapidly kicked my Friday morning brain up several gears. Thank you LinkedIn.

A few key takeaways and initial thoughts I'll be pondering over the weekend, and I'd suggest you might like to do so too:

Questions:

• What are the unintended consequences of our well-intentioned actions?
• What is our 'origin story'? How have we written the back story to our current state of being, and what does that story encourage in others?
• How can we avoid viewpoints that can be described as totally valid, totally short-term, and totally defeatist, a harsh, but fair critique in the article linked above.

Thoughts:

• Doing things differently, in a way that is better, for more people, more of the time, is hard. Strive to approach problems in a way that is valid (rigorous), long-term, and optimistic.

• Trying to define 'good' is futile, yet necessary and immensely valuable. We won't all agree, and when we do that's because we're missing something. Any definition will always be incomplete, and have exceptions. But the process of discussing, reflection, documenting a definition of good, and then reviewing that definition in the light of the outcomes and decisions that it drives, is healthy. Working definitions work well for getting work done, and then getting more work done better.

• Well constructed, articulated and respectful critique is a gift to us all.

*As a working definition of what good is when it comes to property, I've got a collection of thoughts on what makes a good home.

Bringing the moving pieces together

There's a lot pieces involved in building a house. A lot of different people, a range of skills, a multitude of issues. Finance and city planning. Carpenters and painters. Details deliverers and big-picture dreamers.

Doing property differently requires bringing together a lot of pieces. I'm hoping that when we all come together, we're less of a machine, and more of a creation.