Watched a presentation earlier that was coached as career guidance for transgender people (from a transgender rights org) but which is definitely more broadly applicable.
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Watched a presentation earlier that was coached as career guidance for transgender people (from a transgender rights org) but which is definitely more broadly applicable.
In it the presenter talked about working through the stages individually of:
1. Dream
2. Design
3. Decide
4. Act
5. ReflectThis is similar to other framings I'm used to, but he made an interesting observation:
People get stuck in a loop between dream and act: they dream, leap into action, it fails, and back to dream.
1/
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This works, in our career-focused example, as follows:
The person dreams about getting a raise for a long time. Finally they work themselves up, open the door to the bosses office, and demand a raise.
They don't get it.
So they go back to their desk disillusioned and go back to dreaming about a raise.
2/
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This combines with something else that he pointed out:
People mistake _dramatic_ action for _effective_ action.
Being careful to highlight that there's a time and a place for dramatic action, but that dramatic does not automatically imply effective.
We glorify the dramatic action while we're stuck in this loop between dreaming and acting, leading to big symbolic acts.
Those have a time and a place, but are they the _right_ strategy in the moment?
It depends.
3/
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The parallels with activism, organizing, and community building could not be clearer.
We see it in open source: a glorification of "getting things out" and "do-ocracy" at the expense of asking if we are even doing the right thing or what externalities may exist. The people who go "oh just jump in and contribute your idea!" (ignoring everything that goes into that) are actively encouraging this mindset.
That was a very interesting insight and made me glad I attended.
4/4
