Living and learning about life, environmentalism, technology, travel, food & the arts… during the climate crisis. Believer in an ecological renaissance. Articles pre-december 2019 before my ecological awakening. To be updated.
The best thing I can do for our Earth is to take care of myself and others.
Feed myself fresh seasonal local food that invests in the soil versus stripping it. That employs those in my community, who then reinvest back. Do not spend hours researching, buying, organizing things… just to get rid of them and buy more. These things were extracted from the earth and rarely can be returned to it. Leave them be. Nor should I work extra hours at a job that does not fuel my soul just to afford these things. I must understand that I cannot afford to continue buying, disposing and working myself into a grave. There are limits to this all.
Instead, I must spend time with my family and the nature I want to protect. Bathe in their beauty. Bathe in my beauty. Nourish my brain. Learn from nature and elevate my awareness as to the effects of my actions. No matter how painful, this is how I grow. Hold businesses and governments accountable for their actions. Uplift my fellow human, with no judgement, as breaking from the system is often a privilege. And like all changes, this is done slowly and in accordance to our own history and needs.
I must mind my garden. We protect the things we cherish. So let me cherish myself. And grace when I falter. Break this illusion that I can just continue to “prosper” at the behest of what is feeding me. I am eating my own tail. I seek freedom through knowing the limits. And rejoicing in what I have and its many lives. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. But where is it all going? Let me cycle it back into the Earth, so the Earth may cycle it back to us all.
Happy Earth day! Today marks 50 years since its origin. Keep on fighting and loving! Thank you to those who came before us. 💚 Sheila
NOTE: I wrote this for a writing competition hosted by USI. It was originally posted June 2017 on this blog. I have left the content the same except removing one dead link.
I wanted to reshare this as more and more I see this article coming true. Are you a New Worker? Please share in the comments your experience with this “new breed.”
It is clear that a new type of developer has emerged, as described in Github’s Paul Saint John’s 2016 USI talk, but what truly inspired me is his hint that this new breed is also sprouting up in other domains. And that this rebirth was made possible thanks to the very platforms and applications created by the New Developer.
What is this New Developer… err…. Worker?
My view of the anatomy of the New Worker.
The New Worker thrives in a self-feeding cycle starting with a drive to innovate and differentiate, but no longer is this conception done in a vacuum. As Paul Saint John describes for the New Developer:
Learn > Code > Work Together (wash, rinse, and repeat)
Replace “code” with “create content” and you have the New Worker. Continuous learning and social collaboration is key to their success, often harnessing the power of the internet community.
But where to find these creatures?
Here are just a few of the many examples of these New Workers outside of the development domain:
While opening up clinical data so that the global community can work on it is still very taboo, there have been some initiatives which have already improved patient treatment. Such as a contest from the New England Journal of Medicine concerning blood pressure that was won by a team at Clalit Research Institute in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Communities of medical professionals are forming for those who want to share their expertise, find fellow trailblazers and create partnerships to navigate a world bogged down by bureaucracy. One of these communities is Health Innovators, which has gained 1,600 members since its founding three years ago.
Two student animators got the attention and job offers from Disney and Pixar despite no professional experience due to their animated short The Present shared at festivals and on Vimeo.
DOTA which started as an open free mod created by a fan for WarCraft III now has over 10 million players as of 2015. This first mod was improved by several community members before becoming a sponsored game.
As for a personal example, as an Agile and organizational coach, I am starting to see more and more Agilists open up their tools for free use and feedback, such as Ajiro and Funretrospectives.com. John Saint Paul’s USI talk inspired me to continue to push forward and give my knowledge openly, even enable others to do “my job,” (much like the new developer who creates applications for others to create applications) as I am certain it will only open new opportunities and promote innovations in my field.
One final correction
So, I would suggest one minor change to John Saint Paul’s last slide, to expand it to fit the New Worker:
Those who enable the creation of content, whether by contributing or creating the space to do so, have the power. Numbered are the days of silos and CVs because the worker of the future needs to be part of a community to ensure their success.
Much like the communities initially pioneered or literally constructed by the New Developer.
I’m excited to announce, my short essay “Molded” was included in MindSpark Research International‘s quarterly, Spark Sesh (Spring 2019). Enjoy some inspiration on how we are all connected despite our diversity.
The topic is Defining Moments. In my essay, I discuss several of mine, especially the failures.
