Dave Pollard's environmental philosophy, creative works, business papers and essays.
In search of a better way to live and make a living, and a better understanding of how the world really works.

	July 8, 2007

Sunday Open Thread -- July 8, 2007 Our stress responses What I'm thinking about, and planning on writing (and podcasting) about soon: Leadership: I don't have a very high opinion of self-professed leaders and so-called leadership programs. But we still live in a society where there seems to be almost a co-dependence between followers ("tell me what to do and how to do it") and leaders whose self-esteem is based on the subservience and adulation of others. How can we free them both from their addiction? The Long-Term Cost of Stress:  Our natural stress-responses are fight-or-flight adrenal responses, and as suited as they were to gatherer-hunter culture, they are maladapted to modern forms of (mostly psychological) stress, and to the chronic, relentless stresses that most of us face. I think this damages us from a very young age, and probably accounts for most modern chronic physical and psychological illnesses. Vignettes: Coming up soon, vignettes #4 and #5. Blog-Hosted Conversations: Plan is for 30-minute conversations, once a week, on the subject of identifying and acquiring the essential skills and relationships we need to be models of a better way to live, and what those models might look like. I've recorded some practice podcasts, readings of my own works just to try out the new medium, but I'm not happy with them. I'm also unhappy with the quality of recent Skype calls -- too many dropped calls, lost sentences and strange audio artifacts to make a pleasant listening experience. Need to find a better way. Still working on this.  Open Thread Question: If you're really happy at work, why? Is it because you're doing what you love? Because you're doing what you're good at? Because you're working with people you love? Or because you're appreciated? How important is each of these four factors? 9:13:06 PM  trackback []  comment []

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