speak spanish fluently
teach experimental social science classes
consult for a social movement that disrupts the consumer economy
open a vegetarian restaurant/cafe/bakery/juicebar/entertainment venue
get special forces tactical training and wilderness survival skills
build a cohousing/intentional community
play the harmonica and djembe simultaneously
launch a killer web startup
go to prison for a couple of years for righteous crimes
be an antiprenuer - decommodify the next great idea
consume copious quantities of the world's best drugs in my last years of life
find/create environments that help my children excel
feel enlightenment or its closest cousin more often
fix up a yacht to live on with a handful of close friends
create an edible landscape with aesthetic agriculture
write some great lyrics that make it into a pop song
push the boundaries of multimedia education
organize a new kind of union
become a local politician/representative
produce and raise multiracial dual citizen babies
Act in a decent movie
be a good police officer/guard
win an important public debate
build a super creative/efficient house
kill wild boar with a blade
climb 5.12
travel far by locomotion
give and receive therapy
save some wilderness
start a charter school
be a better nomad
The above is a 43 Things style listing of specific skills and experiences I desire to have. They're in no particular order. If you want to help me achieve these things or partner up with me along the way, let me know... oh jeez... I should just take the time and translate these to 43 things or its successor sometime.
In the time that I have been keeping such a list, I have noticed some trends that reveal significant shifts in my outlook on the world. The list keeps growing because whenever I encounter new experiences or information, I think of new ideas. A few things have dropped off and many others have been merged or refined. Admittedly, I have only accomplished a few of my original goals. Perhaps this is because I have shifted away from traditional goals that one can accomplish through well trodden behavioral or occupational paths. My goals were never about things that could be easily bought or attained with other pieces of paper, but over time, they have become even less conventional. Today, my emphasis is less on maximizing the diversity of my life experiences and more on experimenting with reconceptualizing existing social roles. I have the utmost respect for people who serially change jobs during their lifetime, but creating new organizations and institutions that change the nature of these jobs seems more interesting.
I am a sponge. I am more interested in sucking information out of such people than in following their path. I still believe that I can more effectively gain an understanding of the possibilities by reading diverse accounts and asking people tough questions of people with especially deep knowledge. Some folks hold experiential knowledge gained via long term participant observation to be paramount, but I have found otherwise. What I can learn in two years of doing a job, I can learn in two days of talking with and observing people who know such jobs well. Also, I have found that many jobs are quite similar in the fact that their institutions employ very similar managerial practices. Trying to change an institution from within is one of the most difficult things in the world. There is too much momentum and ingrained behavioral patterns working against any diversion in course. It is oftentimes easier to simply start up a more effective model from scratch and watch it effortlessly dissolve the old entity. We didn't see this happening as often in the industrial era because there was often too much invested in infrastructure, but in the information age, it is the preferred mode of succession.
