Working the System: Learning to Take the Mechanical Perspective

From a systems/mechanical standpoint, consider these questions:

1. Why is finding personal freedom and power so difficult? What is the most common reason for failing to get what one wants?
2. Politics. The impending issues of health care legislation and cap-and-trade: How can one judge their impact from a non-ideological standpoint?
3. What’s best, more government or less government?
4. Management: IQ testing? Drug testing? What really motivates staff? How can turnover be reduced? What is the single largest cause of problems in staff management?
5. How can one make work production super-efficient and self-generating, to the point where one has a life?
6. What should be expected from a service or product vendor? What does the client expect?
7. At home and with the neighbor, is there a simple path to avoiding interpersonal relationship conflict?
8. Parenting: What is the simple, effective way to parent? (Yes, there really is a simple and effective methodology.)
9. Health: What are the simple mechanics of high energy, power, resilience, a streamlined body and an alert mind?
10. Woodstock. I was there, 40 years ago August 15^th. What was it really like and what are the lessons for today?

Good questions, yes? In upcoming blogs we’ll go after them with the Work the System approach. My single goal will be to illustrate the Systems way of thinking; to demonstrate this outside-and-slightly-elevated way of approaching things and thus, for you, cultivate the “getting it” epiphany that I describe in my book, Work the System: The Simple Mecahnics of Making More and Working Less.

Controversal subjects? Until now, I’ve followed the common path of first-time authors, keeping my social and political comments/observations to a minimum. Must preserve that fan base! But, it’s never felt right so here’s notice that I’m dropping the PC/neutral routine, focusing less on theory, and pointing out real-world Work the System solutions. Will I lose fans/readers? Yes, some. But it’s my guess that most of my readers will remember that my comments don’t come from a particular ideological or judgmental position.  And for those concerned with a particular post, consider stepping back, dropping the menu-driven ideology and looking hard at the cold-blooded mechanics of the issue, remembering that my illustrations have one purpose: To demonstrate a new way of looking at things.

The origin of my various positions is MECHANICAL and therefore my observations and commentary will confound some people — especially those who spend their lives dealing with endless streams of problems rather than working on the systems that create those problems. Do you know anyone like that?

My politics? Think Penn and Teller. I’m not a Republican or a Democrat, probably more of a Libertarian, but have fallen into the official non-category of Independent. Do I have a beef with anyone in particular? Yes, politicians who BS, complicate and obfuscate – and, yes, they come from both major parties. So, don’t hem me in or tread on me, and don’t do that to yourself.

The mechanics of life are simple and our lives are better if unencumbered by unfounded superstition, peer-group ideology, snub-nosed political ranting, or blind faith. Life makes more sense and feels better when moment-to-moment we carefully observe the incredible individual mechanisms of the world: Everything from the watch on the wrist, to the tree in the yard, to the cars on the road, to the businesses we operate, to the nation-states that hold things together, to the universe that engulfs us all. In seeing things this way (without ignoring the problem-systems) we find personal freedom as we marvel at the confounding power that propels the systems of our lives.

It’s the seething, festering, in-the-head emotional stuff  that drags us down, so let’s get out of our heads and look dispassionately at the mechanics that comprise our worlds.

I’m burying this here at the end of the post: For a free pdf copy of my book, Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less, go to my website, find the special book promotion window, and enter the pass-word “dispassionate.” Feel free to pass this post on to your friends. This opportunity ends Wednesday, August 12th at 6PM EST.

 -sam