Brady Helps

How long has it been since someone cared enough about you to ask you a really generous question?The kind of question that makes you question it all.How long since you were really bothered about something important and real?Who has the ability to take your spirit out of you? What was your work like a decade ago?What are you really here to do?I’m reading Fahrenheit 451 now. Some people see the book as a commentary on censorship — it is. In addition, I see the book as a gigantic question: Why are you so afraid to ask the questions that challenge everything? How long has it been since you’ve showed us the best of yourself?Leaders: The best thing you can do to spark change is ask your team generous questions. They crave it.

Rondo is a musical structure. You’ve heard one before. Think of your favorite pop song. Let’s call the Chorus “A”. Each verse of the song will have a different letter, B, C, D, and so on. A rondo works like this:A - Chorus B - Verse 1 A - ChorusC - Verse 2 A - Chorus D - Verse 3Life is like a rondo. In between different verses there are main themes, “A”, that return. The trick is to make each return of “A” better than the last.

Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five was on a list of books to be banned from a school district years ago. Kurt wrote a letter to the school board, and the last paragraph caught my attention:If you and your board are now determined to show that you in fact have wisdom and maturity when you exercise your powers over the education of your young, then you should acknowledge that it was a rotten lesson you taught young people in a free society when you denounced and then burned books— books you hadn’t even read. — SourceThere are culture wars of all kinds going on now. Contrarians, like Vonnegut, are put on "culture trial” and get canceled, banned, or burned. Like. Vonnegut, I wonder if those who cancel, ban, and burn truly understand the ideas of those they seek to silence.

4 people got knifed in a home the other day — a tragedy. The youngest person was 18; the oldest, 34. A few blocks at the same time anti-violence demonstrators encouraged people to lead with love.Scientists estimate there are 200 billion galaxies in the known universe. We live on one planet within one solar system within 1 of 200 billion galaxies. We are small relative to the bi picture.It’s tempting to ask yourself, what’s the point of it all, what does this all mean, why bother trying to make change happen. Despair is easy. What’s difficult is being willing to laugh at it. I laughed when I read the story of domestic violence occurring blocks away from the anti-domestic violence protestors. I do not find the violence funny, and I believe in the work of the demonstrators. I find it funny that in spite of how small we are, we allow our issues to become so big that we are moved to hurt another person. I find the absurd and surreal funny. When we are such a small life form, why do we allow our issues to consume the universe that is our mind?

In the face of potential defeat and demise, dogged persistence often wins the day.“Our foolish naive persistence defied what many thought impossible — what I had thought was impossible.” Natasha Lance Rogoff reflecting on the moment when Ulitsa Sezam (Russian Sesame Street) aired the first time. If you read Natasha’s book, Muppets in Moscow, you’ll see that Natasha and her team persisted through assassinations, bankruptcy, corruption, strikes, and fierce protectionism to get the first season broadcasted. The program aired until 2010 when it no longer received support from the television networks.

AI could, and likely has, written a 12 bar blues. It can do it because a 12 bar blues always follows the same pattern — it’s like an algorithm. A writer’s kids wanted more video game time. The kids asked ChatGPT to write a letter to their dad advocating for more video game time. The kids also asked ChatGPT to write the letter in the style of their dad. The author noticed that the letter felt eerily like something he would write. AI could do that because this author is consistent — like the blues.I do not believe that AI will replace us as humans. However, I do believe there’s a world where AI could replace our work. If we do not want our work replaced, then we must not become too consistent. We must be willing to change up the routine, try new ideas out, and embrace our inner contrarian. We can’t become the blues.Jazz musicians have a way of reinventing the blues. A change here, a substitution there. Let’s be more like jazz musicians — embracing life’s possibilities and trying new things.

There is an idea that humans make every attempt to classify what they see as a threat or as safe. To do that, the human puts what they observe into a box. I reject the box… though I know it exists.To the people who try to classify me, I prefer to be a threat to them. I make every attempt to classify me difficult. Why? Because as I my dad once said, “you’re not hispanic, you’re not brown, you’re just David.” I am just David. To the best of my knowledge, there is no box for “they are just themselves.”

I think I need total silence to work and ship my ideas. I think I need to be inspired to write.I think I need to be an authority.I know that all that doesn’t matter.I know that I need to sit my butt down and write.I know that my commitment to you matters more than my ego.I know that the work I meant to do is work that challenges us to think and act as our best selves.I think I should get back to work.

Start with the big idea.Add in your supporting ideas. Then winnow away everything that doesn’t matter.Keep the scraps.

Creators typically make things they think their audiences will love. Creators would do better if focused on answering the question Who is this work for? Is the work for the audience? Is it for the students? Is it for customer? Is it for my kid? Is it for me?