Genius+Power+Magic

The biggest social experiment of our time

Geoffrey Canada is the president of a nonprofit charitable organization based in Harlem called the Rheedlen Centers for Children and Families, and he has set out trying to improve the world, one poor child at a time.

"Harlem is one of the biggest social experiments of our time...none are as comprehensive as the Harlem Children's Zone, and none of them hold as much promise.'' ¹

The question: how to end poverty?

The answer to this question has been found, not in all the traditional answers thrown at it, but in the understanding of brain development.

"There are missing skills...how is it that these skills get formed?"  To reach almost every child living in every block - to make sure they all graduate high school and finish college, he has created an entire ecology of preparation.

"This structure challenges many assumptions about what is and isn't possible...that there is a solution to poverty." On brain development Canada summarizes "Singing, talking and reading...The more you introduce language to them, the more they grab it!" ²

Tough reports that a 1980s Kansas City pair of psychologists studied homes of those on welfare and those with professional jobs.  The the biggest difference found in the different homes was language. It turns out that the children in professional homes were introduced to 20 million more words in the first three years of their lives than the kids on welfare...and that this has huge effect on their verbal ability. It was stunning news that the most profound effect in determining later success wasn't money, it wasn't parental education or race - it was the sheer number of words your parents spoke to you as a child.

The Answer: "It was the sheer number of words hear by children in the first three years of life has a profound impact on their future", says Tough

As linguistic beings, who facilitate our survival by inventing language, this is not surprising. A WORD is itself an entire WORLD...a world that you can think or you can not. It is not understanding, but language that gives rise to new meanings, new viewpoints, new futures.

Many studies on talk, social theory and talk ecologies point to the same thing: we are the language we speak

The following phrases have all become part of our human vocabulary. You don't need a reference for them because they have found their way into your speaking. The ecology of language has found you.

One small step for man...
Where's the beef?
D'oh!
LOL

This linguistic virus has the power to infect you with worlds you have not yet dreamed.

As for the kids involved with Geoffrey Canada, Harlem is banking on it.

John Patterson

¹The Harlem Project by Paul Tough, New York Times 2004

²This American Life, 'Going Big' by Ira Glass and Paul Tough

© 2009 Influence Ecology
We assert that a fundamental instinct you embody as an adult is to live a healthy, happy and prosperous life and that you are a biological, linguistic, transactional being. Therefore the degree to which you are able to recognize and be responsible for the FACT that you are a biological, linguistic, transactional being determines the measure of your health, happiness and prosperity. We teach you how to exploit that FACT.

Who should you be listening to?

This depends on what you are trying to accomplish.

If you intend to satisfy your customers, listen carefully to their wants.
If you intend to stay ahead, listen to where the market is headed.
If you intend to out-perform, listen to those at the top.
If you intend to fit in, listen to everyone.
If you intend to produce common results, listen to lots of sincere mediocre performers.
If you intend to be happy, listen to advertising, television and movies?

You are likely aware that every marketing campaign is intended to get your dollars and perpetuates the desire for looking young, living for now and purchasing whatever you want, whenever you want (the baby boomer narrative).

That does not stop you from succumbing to it.

This narrative is not interested in making you painfully aware that all this borrows from your future - an account that is well overdrawn.  Spending money you don't have or going into debt to purchase what you can't afford borrows money from the future and leaves a pothole you will not avoid.

The market is not interested in having you ask the question: is that purchase going to add happiness or real value to my life? Or, what is this going to cost me in the future? The majority of the country lives well beyond its means, especially in consideration of savings, capital at work or retirement investments.

The average American has $8K in debt and less than $50K in savings. As you get older, your ability to earn more decreases. So...where is the cash coming from to keep you afloat well into your old age?

Right...you're screwed. You've always sensed it...and yes, it is true.

There is nothing wrong with advertising. In fact, if you are going to out-perform, you best understand it better than others.

If you are the target of it, understand that it feeds on robbing you of your future. 

What should I do? 

Stop pretending the marketing narrative is 'how life is'.  The commercials, television shows and motion pictures will perpetuate the fantasy that in the end it will all turn out, especially for a good, hardworking person like you. 

Your different, your special...right?

John Patterson

© 2009 Influence Ecology
We assert that a fundamental instinct you embody as an adult is to live a healthy, happy and prosperous life and that you are a biological, linguistic, transactional being. Therefore the degree to which you are able to recognize and be responsible for the FACT that you are a biological, linguistic, transactional being determines the measure of your health, happiness and prosperity. We teach you how to exploit that FACT.

Everyday common sense transactions will continue to get you more of what you already have

People place a great deal of value in common sense. The problem with common sense is that it is common. It is based in the social economics and social ethics we all must learn to transact with others in order to survive. Those who don't learn common sense don't transact well and don't earn a standard living.

For those interested in above standard livings you must think beyond the common:

Everyday common sense transactions will continue to get you more of what you already have.
Everyday common sense does not provide marginal value to your customers.
Everyday common sense does not differentiate you enough to pull a better return.

It is likely that you stopped finding better ways to transact once you found a groove that worked for you.

For example, a childhood grocery store tantrum is simply a transaction that is so threatening to the parent that the child continues the behavior because it works.

I know adults who still throw tantrums to get what they want. This may be you, or you may have found that seduction works or sheer determination works. 

The point is that it is useful to notice you only have a few moves to make - and they may not be the most effective or the most appropriate to different targets.

Is that tantrum or seduction appropriate to your biological age? To your customer?

If not, what is?

John Patterson

© 2009 Influence Ecology
We assert that a fundamental instinct you embody as an adult is to live a healthy, happy and prosperous life and that you are a biological, linguistic, transactional being. Therefore the degree to which you are able to recognize and be responsible for the FACT that you are a biological, linguistic, transactional being determines the measure of your health, happiness and prosperity. We teach you how to exploit that FACT.

A gratitude virus

It is easy to see that you and I are shaped by the culture, era, geography, economics and ethics of the situation you live in.  The pull of the linguistic current is powerful and mighty - and not personal to you although you are certainly swept up in it.

This current is a mix of local and global linguistic ecologies that seem to have much more power than you. It would seem that you have to abide by the unspoken laws of the current; pretend that wisdom and cynicism are the same thing, be important by spreading drama, tragedy and gossip and complain to others that your situation is someone else's fault but your own.

Like everyday, these conversations will be spoken by millions of mouths.  It is not bad, it just is.

Today, there will also be millions of mouths that speak of gratitude, of love and of joy.

It would seem that the current has much more power than you - but you have something it doesn't: choice.

Today, infect the world with gratitude...because you can.

With love,

Happy Thanksgiving.

John Patterson

Language grabbed her

"How the world occurred to Helen Keller, once she learned language, shifted more dramatically than most of us can imagine. Notice that language wasn’t something she understood bit by bit as teacher taught her various signs. Language grabbed her, reshaping every part of her awareness in a moment of awakening." ¹

I remember learning the word 'ladder' in the first grade. A simple thing, but I had the experience of awe, the sudden simultaneous understanding of the existence of thousands of words I would discover or even invent...and the correlation between writing, word formation and speech.  I played with the word on my tongue, noticing its changing shape when mouthing 'L' or 'D'. I looked around the classroom at objects I could see but yet had no name for...and I knew they have names!

The adventure was about to begin.

Forty years later I find the same joy in the discovery or invention of new language; continuing to learn new linguistic distinctions that profoundly alter the shape and course of my experience of life and the ever-expanding range of possibilities within it.

It is not without effort.

Brain development drastically ceases in the early twenties and our biology seems satisfied that we have the linguistic tools needed for own individual survival.

What it takes to continue to educate myself requires something like an Intellectual Bench Press. My own biology yearns for rest. My intellect craves discovery. I press past my own biology for the expansion of intellect.

Living a prosperous life requires an education in the knowledge that separates the everyday understandings from the extraordinary.  Everyday commonsense knowledge is too abundant to hold scarce value. Everyday commonsense transactions will continue to get you more of what you already have.

Be a student and let new worlds grab you.

John Patterson

¹ H. Keller, My Religion, Doubleday 1929, 20-21

© 2009 Influence Ecology
We assert that a fundamental instinct you embody as an adult is to live a healthy, happy and prosperous life and that you are a biological, linguistic, transactional being. Therefore the degree to which you are able to recognize and be responsible for the FACT that you are a biological, linguistic, transactional being determines the measure of your health, happiness and prosperity. We teach you how to exploit that FACT.