Faith Venture

The publicist sent an early copy of a book for me to review. Wisdom Factory: AI, Games, and the Education of a Modern Worker by Tim Dasey, Ph.D. He is an MIT professor (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) thinking about the future of work. I wrote an introduction to this book last week.

Considering the media hype about AI and Dasey’s background  working in AI, and that the book’s subtitle includes AI, you might think this is a book about AI. You would be wrong. This is yet another book about how we need to change the way we educate youth and adults for work in the modern world. Building on the derisive caricature of schools as industrial factories churning out kids who can follow instructions and learn details, he turns the word factory on its head and talks of “wisdom” factories.

This is a good book if you want a new view on some new techniques. However, seeing the need to teach wisdom is hardly new.

3,000 years ago a king in Palestine, the Kingdom of Israel, compiled wisdom sayings into a book along with his many insights into wisdom. Solomon was reputed to be the wisest man who ever lived. Yet, he was a terrible father. He burdened his people with taxes and work for his insatiable need to build more buildings. He took the sons into the army in order to expand his kingdom’s territory. He worshipped foreign gods.

The book of Proverbs is like a school, an education, in wisdom. It’s why I recommend reading a chapter a day every January (31 chapters/31 days) just as a reminder.

I think every course at every time in school should really be teaching thinking. In math, logical progression of ideas. In history, not only when, but why and what if. In grammar, how to express oneself clearly. In literature, what did the author mean, how are the characters related, what if the author explored a deeper emotion. Of course scientific thinking in science classes.

And yes, in the spiritual life. Not just memorizing Bible verses or writings of Aquinas or Augustine or Luther, but asking why is this there, what if they went a different way, how did this affect the people there at the time, how should this affect how I act and feel when I get up from the desk.

Read our Wisdom literature carefully. How much is about memorizing? How much is about how we act? Wisdom is at the intersection of spirit, experience, knowledge, reflection. And it should never stop growing in us.

I wrote about how little things matter Friday. Then I received my weekly newsletter from Vitaliy Katsenelson, CEO of an investment firm who also calls himself “student of life.” He wrote this:

Just remember, little things matter; on their own, you may not notice them, but they all add up. Walt Disney once said, “You can feel quality.” Quality is the result of doing all the little things well, and with heart and soul. 

I also receive a fitness newsletter five days a week. This morning they told of many responses they’ve seen over the several months since this newsletter began of people applying the 1% better approach. Just try for 1% better at something every day. Some people began the training with 15-lb. dumbells and are not at 30-lb. A little at a time. I encourage my granddaughter every time she posts just a little better time in her swim meets. At the end of this season, her times are remarkably better than at the beginning.

You think you cannot read something spiritual and meditate/pray every day for 30 minutes. But you start with five minutes you grab with early morning coffee. Soon, 30 minutes is nothing.

This reminds me of the folk song, The Garden Song.

Inch by inch, row by row

Gonna make this garden grow

Gonna mulch it deep and low

Gonna make it fertile ground

The Garden Song

Little things matter.

The small, almost incidental, decisions accumulate and lead to habits.

Teach yourself to be aware of little things you do, usually without thinking. Have you done them three days consecutively? Is it now a habit that will degrade your health–physical or spiritual?

Think of the little things.

Making your bed when you get up. That begins the day with discipline and you are rewarded with a freshly made bed at night.

Flossing after brushing your teeth.

Not absent-mindedly scrolling through social media.

Having a good book laid out ready to read when the moment happens.

A smile and greeting to everyone you meet.

The little things accumulate. When you reflect at the end of the day, you’ll be amazed at the good.

Yesterday was a travel day. I never had a chance to sit and think and type. I’ve long since given up trying to use a laptop in an airplane seat. Checked into the hotel and went to my first sessions at the software conference I’m attending.

Meanwhile, I finished a book on nutrition and overall health. You Can’t Screw This Up, by Adam Bornstein. Subtitle: Why Eating Takeout, Enjoying Dessert, and Taking the Stress Out of Dieting Leads to Weight Loss That Lasts.

I recommend the book. 

Bornstein offers guides to eating, but I think most apply to spiritual health as well as physical health.

1. Stay Nourished

2. Remain Sane

3. Avoid Guilt

These reminded me of Michael Pollen’s rules for eating:

Eat food (meaning real food, not ultra-processed)

Not too much

Mostly plants

Later, Bornstein offers these thoughts:

1. Stop trying to be perfect

2. Eat more satisfying foods

3. Eat fewer hunger-increasing foods (snack junk food)

4. Include foods you love

Try the ideas of not heaping guilt upon yourself, especially for not being perfect, which we’re not.

The ability to recover from something that distorts you. 

Many companies write to me about their new technologies or applications or also how well they are doing. A word has become one of the marketing terms du jour. Resilience.

They wish to convey that they are a resilient company producing resilient products that will make their customers, well, resilient.

So I thought, how does that apply to each of us? What does it mean for us to be resilient? How can this be acquired, if indeed, it is a quality that can be acquired?

My life has experienced many bumps. Events happened to distort me. Bend me. Cause stress and grief. Yet, I have (so far) recovered like a good foam mattress.

To recover implies that there is a good place to which to recover. Press on a piece of good, dense foam and release. It will recover to its original shape. 

We must have that firm, original shape to which to return. If we are too pliable, we will remain in the new shape. If we are too firm, we will break.

Just so in our spiritual and emotional lives. We must be able to absorb any shocks and yet have that inner strength to regain our shape. Too brittle, we break. Too soft and we just blow with the prevailing winds. That calls for a solid foundation in teaching, experience, and spiritual life.