Post "the Davist Manifesto" in 10 parts.

It’s been a while since I read the manifesto. Shame on me. But I see today that I was going to reconcile the manifesto with Locke’s writings and the concept of the nation-state, and I have not done so.

Are you ready?

Locke is wrong.

The truth is that his philosophy is fundamentally flawed. It is based on an initial premise of Christianity (which makes it hard to justify to, say, a Muslim or Buddhist), and has as a central tenet the belief in God, and doesn’t leave any room for us atheists. But those are minor points; the concepts of Natural Law can in fact be held as “self evident” as Jefferson said. But the bigger problem is that the entire concept of government with the consent of the people is based on a pathological absence of humanity in the Americas in 1680. We know now that in 1491, the Americas were at least as populated as Europe, if not Asia.

Why does that matter? Well, in Locke’s view of Natural Law, you must submit to the rules of your society in order to receive the benefits of that society, such as, well, protection from being killed by invaders. If you don’t like the deal, you can leave. Give up title on your land, move to America, hike in 100 miles from civilization, and start your own farm. Or city. Or country for that matter. This results in the “implied consent” of the governed; if you haven’t left, you must like the rules.

Only in the modern world of 6 Billion people, we can’t just pick up and move and start over with “land of equal richness and value”. All the tables are taken, so to speak.

This may only matter to philosophers. But since this flawed system is the basis of every important nation-state on the planet, it’s kind of a big deal.

What does this mean? It means that we need a new concept of consensual government for a crowded planet. My first task is to go look for one. Surely I’m not the first person to figure this out. But ultimately I expect I will need to go back to the Iroquois Confederation for a model, but perhaps this has already been done. I can hope.

But that’s just one part of reconciliation. The other big problem I have with Locke is that he does not guarantee much in the way of inalienable rights. My list is better, but this, too should be compared to the Bills of Rights of other major democracies. Maybe there’s a government out there that’s more along the lines of the Davist Manifesto, after all…

Ok, so there are two places that have been identified as missing in the manifesto.

First, the reconciliation with Locke. It’s true that for me to disregard the utility of the nation state that has served as the centerpiece of humankind’s political organization for the past two hundred and fifty years (more or less), I need to explain why John Locke’s brilliant model of human dynamics broke down. I’ve got some material on this, but it’s not cogent enough to publish. A teaser: Locke’s “implicit consent” principle is now invalid.

Second, the tools. Are there any tools I can recommend for the time and task management part of this?

Well, the answer to the second part is easier, so here it is. Too late, I suppose for the holidays, but better late than never.

I use the Franklin-Covey day planner. Here’s the link for the “build your own planner” page at F-C.

For those not familiar with this tool, it’s just a paper planner (yes, there are electronic versions, but I’m old, so I get to keep using paper if I want to) with a task list and calendar on the left side, and a section for notes on the right. The page is marked with a compass in a plastic sleeve. One page, one day. Every morning, I sit down, set the bookmark to the new page, and copy into the calendar part whatever my appointments are for the day. Then I consider what time is left; that will be used for tasks. I figure 20 minutes per task. So say I have four hours of useful time, not consumed with appointments and kid-duty. That gives me time for 12 tasks.

Then, I look at the tasks that are already on my task list. If I have more than 12, I’m going to have a bad day. Usually, there are a lot less. Each one gets a letter. A’s are for tasks that must be done today or somebody will die, or the near equivalent. Very few get A’s. Anything that I “really should” do today gets a B. Things I want to do get a C.

Then, I look back at the previous page, and “plan forward” any tasks that didn’t get done yesterday. If I don’t have room on my calendar today, I plan them forward to tomorrow or the next day.

Now I check and see if I can get all my A’s and B’s done, based on the time I have for the day. If I’ve got more tasks than time, I plan forward those C’s and B’s to tomorrow or the next day. But if I have extra space on my calendar, I’ll scan my “compass” (this is the center tab in my planner, but it is really just the actions list from my ledger that tells me what kinds of things I want to do to be a better husband/son/father/friend/engineer/business-owner, etc. From this list, I can pull tasks, 20 minutes at a time, onto my daily task list, until it’s full. Then I assign a number to the tasks, representing the order in which I intend to accomplish them.

That’s it! There’s lots of details and variants, but that’s the basic approach. By breaking things down into 20 minute increments, we can gradually make progress on our big projects, and get more done in our daily life in the process.

Do you have a better way to prioritize your day? Share it with us! Or if you have experience with the F-C planner, share that, too.

I wish you all a happy and efficient holiday season!

I’m checking this off as done.

Thanks, everyone, for all the feedback, commentary, and encouragement. I especially appreciate all the narrow-band emails and (smacker-burning) messages that gave such great personal validation and stories! You guys are great.

A bunch of people have asked so I’ll answer here:

1) no, I don’t mind if you want to post a link on your web-page, myspace, or other 43 Things thread. I’m flattered anyone wants to.

2) Yes, I’m considering publishing it, but need to figure out the best venue. If you have suggestions, please feel free to send them in. I can use all the advice I can get!

Dave

In the wonderful words of Natasha Bedingfield in her poem/song Unwritten

“Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten”

We each write the story of our lives. Who we are. What we do. What we don’t do. Every day is a new page, and every future page is blank as well. But once that page is written, we can’t go backwards. The future is all we have.

I’ve laid out a strategy that anyone can implement, to make a difference in the world and live a fulfilling and meaningful life. If you’re secure in some religion and know that all you need to do is what God tells you, then I am envious of your life’s simplicity. For me, and perhaps others of us without the luxury of a divine guidance, we need more structure to establish the rules without the religion. That is what I have done here.

I don’t intend to waste what’s left of my book. I intend to be the person I want to be, and give more than I take from everyone around me. I intend to change the world, one smile at a time, by staying organized and focused on what really matters to me, and the people around me.

What will you do with yours?

Thank you for your kind attention. Go in peace.

The rest is all tactics. But I find I get overwhelmed by all the things I want to remember not to forget to do some times. So here’s my solution for that. Keep two lists.

Put on the first list all the things you need to do over the long haul; 43Things works well for this, but a piece of cardboard or poster board works fine, too. I call this the “Master Task List”. This is the list of big things we are going to do with our life. Feed the poor, give more than we take at Cub Scouts or church or whatever. Put it somewhere you will see it every day. It is going to drive your life. Don’t be afraid to change it; it’s your list after all.

The second list is the “little tasks list”. It can go on scrap paper, or in a journal, or a planner. I use a Franklin Planner, but any format will do. But there are a couple of rules. First, only put on your little tasks list things you can get done by the end of the week at the longest. Other stuff can go on the Master Task List or back onto your actions sections of your ledger. But the little tasks list needs to be easily accomplished. Second, every task on the little task list needs to be able to be completed in about 20 minutes of focused time. Break things into more manageable chunks, and you’ll make more progress. Occasionally I break this rule, but I don’t recommend doing so until you’ve got your life under very good control.

Ok, so now that we have our two lists, let’s get to work. Now we want to prioritize the little tasks lists as follows: put an A next to anything that simply must be done this week or someone will die. Ok, not die, but it’s a pretty big deal. Those are the “must do’s” for the week. Use them sparingly. Put a B next to any tasks that you really, really want to do this week, and you’ll kick yourself around the block if you don’t. Then put C’s next to the things you’d like to do if you have the time. Next, assign a number next to each task, starting with the A’s and working until every task has a letter and a number. This is the order that you plan to do the tasks. Get the A’s done first, but don’t be afraid to throw some C’s in among the B’s; no one is going to die after all.

Now as you complete the tasks, check them off the list. As more space is made available, add more tasks from your master task list or your positive actions sections of your ledgers. If you can’t complete an item, put a dot next to it. If you’re not going to do it any more, put an X. When you finish tasks, check them off but don’t cross out or erase. You’ll get a lovely little endorphin rush every time to check something off.

At the end of the week, you’ll have a few B’s and C’s that you didn’t get to. No worries; put them on next weeks lists. You might want to bump up the priority if they slide more than two weeks; you put it on the list for a reason, after all.

That’s it. Just manage the flow, and keep the ledger up to date. Don’t be afraid to toss items off your little task list, because they don’t seem to be improving the ledger at all; you’ve changed the rules for your life, and some things you used to think were important aren’t any more. But make sure you tell the recipient he’s going to be disappointed. Just call up and say “Hey, Peter. I know I told you I was going to write you a 30 page article by next week for your project, but I’m afraid I can’t do it. After thinking about it, I realized that it’s going to take way more work on my part than I can give right now. I’m really sorry to let you down.” You may create a liability on your ledger, but you reclaimed some time, and you can probably make things right with Peter and the group another day when you’re not so backlogged. If you tell him soon enough, he can find another way to get that 30 page report done without you.

Some of you will say that this approach seems way too analytic, way to antiseptic for something as emotionally raw as how well we take care of each other in life. How do you put a number on helping my parents at the nursing home? I don’t know. Maybe it’s a stupid system. But for me, it beats the heck out of staring at the blank page of my journal every day and feeling guilty and not really knowing what I should be doing to live my life better.

If you’ve got a better way, post it! Maybe we all need a manifesto we can call our own.

Ok, so where are we? Parts 3, 4, and 5 give you the “big picture” goals, and a way to figure out steps to take to advance the works of mankind. Parts 6 and 7 give us a more approachable way to change our lives by re-defining our roles in our communities. But we haven’t gotten to brass tacks, yet. That’s what parts 8 an 9 are all about. Now that we know what to do, how do we do it?

I think the best way to approach this is with two tools;the list and the ledger. We can do them in any order, but let’s start with the ledger. And I don’t mean your corporate ledger, or your bank account ledger. I mean the ledger for your soul; the balance sheet for the business of your life.

We all keep score; most of us don’t write it down, however. Someone picks up the check at lunch; we pick up the next one. We help a friend out of a jam, so we know we can go to the same friend if we’re ever between a rock and a hard place, and they’re likely to help us out. What I propose is we write it down.

Here’s the format I recommend: Get a fresh exam notebook or some other book of that size and shape. Start by creating a page for each of the communities you have identified for yourself. You might want to skip a few pages between communities, to give yourself some room. Don’t forget your family groupings; I find it easiest to identify these more by my roles than my actual groups: Father, Son, Husband, Brother, In-law. That sort of thing. How you break it down is up to you, but be sure to have a page for each of the parts of your life that you want to balance.

For each page, draw a line across the bottom, about 2/3 of the way down, and then another line splitting the top section into two. The left top column is “liabilities”. The right top column is “assets”, and the bottom section is “actions” we’ll use this section later.

Now you just put down situations, standings, debts and debtors into the left and right sides of the ledger. Anything where you made a “withdrawal” from the emotional bank account of the group or community goes on the left. Any good things you did for the group go on the right. Don’t forget to note on the left side things that you have benefitted from, thanks to the other members of the group. Somebody is cubmaster; that takes a lot of work. It goes on the left side of the ledger. Someone does the news letter, the awards, etc. Also on that side is things you are obligated to do; pay for college, go to the recital, etc.

Next comes the hard part. Once you’ve jotted down all the things you can think of that go in the balance, you need to assign a weight to each one. How much benefit or liability? I like to use “will-power points”, which I got from MindTripper a while back. What’s it worth? To you, or to the others in the group. Keep it simple; 1-5 points will do fine.

Ok, so when that’s done, add the two sides up. How’d you do? If you’re like me, there’s a fair number of pages with more on the left side than the right. That’s where the bottom comes in.

The bottom part is for the list of things you could do to even the score, or at least move it closer in the right direction. Don’t worry about individual members of a group for now; if Greg has been picking up most of the checks for the writer’s club, you don’t need to pay him back or anything; you just might want to pick up a check or two in the future, however.

That’s it. Add assets and liabilities as they arise. Write down positive actions as you think of them. Go wild if you want or keep it very simple. But now that you have the ledger, you can start determining if you are a “giver” or a “taker”. You can also start feeling pride in giving more than you get back. And THAT is what it’s all about, anyway.

Ok, so if we are each a completely special, unique member of a species of 6.7 Billion Homo Sapiens Sapiens, how do we figure out what role to play, and what communities to participate in as positive members? This is, I think, the hard part. How do we define who we are? Once we have that, we can figure out the why and the how.

Well, let’s begin at the fundamental level. We are an organism within our species which is the consequence of our genes. That set of genes provides us with a unique set of strengths and weaknesses, and our “fitness” as a member of our species is determined by those strengths and weaknesses and is expressed through our ability to have offspring which are, all things being equal, more likely to have offspring. This is the very first level of who we are; we are the sons and daughters of our parents, and the fathers and mothers of our children. For those of us who have elected not to have children, fear not; there’s plenty of definition to go around. But for those of us with children, our first, most defining aspect of ourselves, is of course as a parent. We know this because we love our children so much that we will do anything to keep them safe, fed, and give them every advantage possible in life. No one told us to do this; it is instinct. That is because our children are the vector for survival of our particular combination of genes. Therefore if you have chosen to be a parent, then you should be a parent first, before everything else. (Remember, this is MY manifesto; you can write your own if you don’t like mine.) Look for your strengths in your children, and cultivate them to their fullest.

Presuming our kids are safe, fed, and getting the best possible education and developing their own personal strengths as much as possible, what should we do next? Well, we need to a) consider our groups, our communities as selection elements, and b) consider what we are good at. So take some time to define what groups you are participating in, and where your strengths lie. Are your strengths being used by your groups to make the groups more successful? If not, why not?

Are you really good at accounting? Then why aren’t you keeping the books at your church, or book club, or bike-racing team? A good writer? Publish the newsletter. Good with computers? create the website. Use your strengths to help your groups, and you will be giving more than you take, almost by definition.

But here it gets a little squishy, since we can choose what groups we wish to be a part of to a great extent. Which comes first? In my mind, we first should think about what we are good at, compared to all the other people we know or know of. Some times you need to look at what comes naturally to you, whether you do it frequently or not. You may be good at things and not really know it. Experiment a little, and see what clicks. You just might surprise yourself with hidden talent.

Once we know what we are good at, we want to join a group with will best cultivate and leverage that skill. A talented writer, however well trained or not, should find a group of writers to associate with. A great singer should join a band. If you can make a living and provide for your kids while doing what you are good at, you’ve hit pay-dirt. But if you can’t, don’t be discouraged; first pay the bills and feed the kids, and with whatever time is left over, cultivate that hidden strength. Then look for groups that can benefit from it.

This is a long process, and it will also change as we age, but defining who we are, by what our strengths are and what comes naturally to us, is the first step in understanding how to get the most benefit from our existence on this earth.

Until 50 years ago, we all lived in villages; small groups of 20 to 200, in a town, or neighborhood, or city block. Those were the people with whom we shared our time, our space, our success, our lives. But in the 21st century, the concept of community is obscured by sub-groups, interests, telecommunication, style, and 100 other differentiators which cause a huge scramble of the sense of community. Am I a bowler, or a catholic? An engineer or a townie, or a parent of a grade school child? The answer, of course, is all of these things, and none of them. But there is hope.

I have a 43T “community”. There are 20-30 people with whom I correspond, to whom I subscribe, or who subscribe to me. It is a community of 20-30 people, but it is a community defined for one person only; each member of my 43T community has a dozen more people in their own community that I have never “met”, and vice versa. But I still have a community, nonetheless. So do you.

The same is true in “real life”. We each commune with small groups of people with shared interests, properties, beliefs, situations, or geography. That’s ok, though; we just need to open up our definition of community, and allow for millions of inter-twined communities, each unique to the person participating in it. Not a community of one, but many communities of many.

So in our quest to give back more than we take, we must define the groups in which we live, between the microcosm of our family and the macrocosm of a species 6.7 Billion strong. What are our communities?

If you write a list of all the roles you play in life (father, manager, engineer, amateur writer, Christian) you can define a community (family, company, professional society, writers club, or church) within which we are filling that role. Thus, just write down the roles by which you define yourself, identify the associated group, and consider the balance between ourselves, and the group? Do we give more than we take?

Smile at people as you walk home. Let the guy go in front of you at the bank. Listen to your peers, and consider your co-workers opinions, when making a decision at work. Put extra money in the collection plate. Give more cheers than you get, and write messages for everyone who cheered you. Pay it forward, emotionally, and think about the balance of our lives in every community. Be a giver, not a taker, and you will feel more self worth, as well as being a more welcome member of your communities in the 21st century.

So why am I documenting this manifesto? For no reason other than to help me understand my reason for living, and to provide a guide that I can use, and perhaps that others might be able to use also.

Some times I feel so insignificant, so unempowered, that I can’t imagine why I should go on. There are 6.7 Billion other people, after all. What’s one more?

Well, I am unique. We all are. Startlingly unique, in fact. Consider that we each have 46 chromosomes, with 500 genes on each, on average. Now if I’ve got this right, each is made up of an average of about 7,000 different chemical base-pair variations, called SNP’s. If the genetic diversity of humanity is 80% at the SNP level, that means there are 5 to the 158 millionth power of different combinations possible. For all practical purposes, we can never repeat a genetic pattern. Each life is truly, utterly unique.

Add to that the fact that your consciousness has been molded by the response of your 23,000 genes to the environments and experiences that you have encountered in your life, and you see that we each have an undeniably distinct, different possibility to contribute to humanity. We are each potentially perfect for something. The perfect photograph. The perfectly turned phrase. Just the right response, to help a friend. Or start a revolution. Or even change the world.

The challenge that each of us has, is to determine how we fit into the fabric of human existence. So try this on for size. What if each of us made a list of all the ways we are distinctly special. Then considered the list of the works of humanity, and found ONE or TWO ways to contribute, based on our own, personal strength. That gives us a direction; a way to contribute, and be a change agent for the world. One step each day is all it takes, and before long, you’ll be leading the way for others.

So, for example, what is the reason for me, “old dave”? Well, I’m pretty smart, and I fancy myself a decent writer. I know a lot about optics. I’ve got enough money that a few donations wouldn’t be a hardship.

Lets think first of some donations. I could help out with food, shelter, and clothing in under-developed countries. I’m not a fan of Oxfam, UNICEF, or some of the other mega-charities; they feel too impersonal, and get plenty of money through taxes and UN dues, in my opinion, anyway. But micro-loans could be interesting. www.kiva.org is a micro-loan consolidator that has a good reputation, but before I start donating, I’ll do some more research. I can’t afford to give much right now, as I am still saving for college for three kids, and need to plan for retirement, but a little here and there won’t kill us, and might really help others. Ok, so micro-loans it is, at least for now.

What else? Protection of our habitat looks important to me, and anyone can pick up trash. So I’ll start cleaning up trash, and researching land-fill use. Try to consume less.

Ok, what else? How about advancing the body of knowledge? I can find gaps in the blogosphere, or in product reviews, and restaurants, and whatnot, and practice my writing skills by contributing articles. Maybe I should start my own blog.

Ok, what else? Education seems something a smart-guy writer should do. I know about optics, so I’ll teach that. I can create short-courses to give at optics conferences about, well, something. I’ve been doing Optical Engineering for 25 years; maybe there is something useful I could teach to people who just graduated college.

Anything else? Well, yes, actually. The $100. laptop project. Seems like a great idea, and it will give others the greatest gift I myself have received; the gift of the internet, and 43Things, and the cyber-community to which I now belong.

And one more thing; I will write something beautiful. Something that needs to be written, and that only I can write. And I will post my creative work on the internet from now on, no matter how much self-doubt I’m plagued with; it might just be good. It might be beautiful, even if it is imperfect. It might be just the thing that someone needs to read, to change their own life, and make humanity better in another, totally unique, way.

“What is the meaning of life?” is an imperfectly posed problem. The real question people have been asking themselves and each other for millenia is “what is the meaning of MY life?” Or to phrase it in a more manageable way, “What should I do, as an individual, so that I will feel that my life has meaning and purpose?” I surf 43T and see thousands of other people wrestling with this problem. In my case, and many others, it takes the form “I have what I want. Why aren’t I happy?” We can amuse ourselves with games and toys and TV shows and entertainment, and still feel empty an incomplete at the end of every day. I believe I have the answer. At least it works for me.

Instead of pursuing happiness, what if we pursued instead a feeling of self-worth? That isn’t to say we can’t amuse ourselves; actually some amount of play and relaxation and self-nurturing is healthy, and gives us more energy and strength in our struggle for self-worth. But ultimately, when we are feeling empowered and motivated to “do something meaningful”, we are feeling a desire to contribute to our group in a positive way. So how do we increase our feeling of self-worth? By being “positive”.

I believe that we feel better about ourselves when we are contributing more to our social groups than we are taking away from them. Or to put it more succinctly, “to give more than we take in our family, our community, and in the community of humanity.” You can choose any currency you like, or even more than one, but if you are contributing more emotional energy, money, and hard work, and you receive appreciation for it, then you feel better about yourself. If we have children, we nurture them, teach, save for college, and keep them fed and clothed and safe, and that gives us a feeling of self-worth. Sure we complain about it, but we keep doing it because it gives us value.

But it isn’t all about family. We are all in groups, all the time. We have clubs, teams, associations, churches, towns, and even tasks on 43 Things, which give us opportunities to feel a sense of belonging in a group or community. Every one of them is another opportunity to be a “positive” person, and give more than you take, and thus feel better about yourself. I’ll write more on this later in Part 6: communities of our lives, but for now just take it as another opportunity to give your life more meaning, every time you go to a meeting of your church or town council.

But the big daddy of them all is the community of humanity. We are all members of the human race, and we all participate in that largest of groups. Increasingly, we can feel like a member of that group of 6.7 Billion people, and more so every day. Some of our members are in trouble, and some are quite well off, but it’s all one big species after all. For the most part, if you are reading this, you are on the well off side of that equation. Which means you should be giving back more, and feeling that much better about life. But how do you decide what to do, and how much to do? This is the new challenge for the 21st century. How do we, as members of the human community, spend our time/money/energy to give more that we take?

I believe the answer is to contribute to the works of humanity. The closer our actions are aligned with the higher tasks of humanity, the more self-worth we will feel. Why? Because we know spiritually and intuitively what was a species we should be doing to improve our “fitness”, our ability to survive and prosper. Feed the people. Build shelters for the homeless. Clean up the environment. End the cycles of poverty. Cure the sick. Teach the children to read and write. Give every village in every nation on earth access to all the collected works, knowledge and information our species has to offer. Do these things, and you will feel better. It’s really that simple. The more you directly contribute to these works, the better you will feel about your life.

Does this mean we should all quit our jobs and go work for a non-profit developing underwater colonies for the handicapped? Hardly. Our first obligation is to our family, and to our children. But if we want to feel like we have lived a good life, then we need to find ways to align our actions with the works of humanity, even it if means sacrificing a little comfort in the process. The balance is up to each of us to determine on our own. I know I have a lot, and my family lives well, and so I can, and indeed I will, do more. You should, too.