Little Britches- Father and I Were Ranchers - Review

Ralph Moody was one of the last frontiersmen, with little to no formal education. As a life- long autodidact, he enrolled in a writing class at the age of 50 and was inspired to write, "Little Britches."

I'm glad he did!

The boys have read it, but this time around we read it out loud (hey, you are never too old for a Read- Aloud!). Boy-howdy, I love this book. It's a good old-fashioned, how the west was won read. There is excitement, adventure and real-life heroism involved, along with a whole lot of love and respect for the important things. The relationship between Little Britches and the Dad is central to the story, and the lessons Ralph learns at the side of his dying father are worth taking  note of. This is the kind of book that makes you laugh out-loud, get choked up, reminisce about grandparents and life when the world, or America at least, was young, and long for "simpler" times. Times when 8 year old boys learned how to stay atop bucking steeds, or ride for miles over open prairie to confess to the "local" sheriff that they came by a pheasant in a manner that might be illegal. It's a brilliant piece of Americana. A fine children's book- absolutely! A terrific historical read, full of wisdom and truth, for readers of all ages- total win!

"Any man who says the world owes him a living is dishonest. The same God that made you made this earth. And He planned it so that it would yield every single thing that the people on it need. But He was careful to plan it so that it would only yield up its wealth in exchange for the labor of man. Any man who tries to share in that wealth without contributing the work of his brain or his hands is dishonest."

"You know, a man's life is a lot like a boat. If he keeps his sail set right it doesn't make too much difference which way the wind blows or which way the current flows. If he knows where he wants to go and keeps his sail trimmed carefully he'll come into the right port. But if he forgets to watch his sail till the current catches him broadside he's pretty apt to smash up on the rocks."

http://i1297.photobucket.com/albums/ag30/Lisa_Nehring/siggywithflower_zps2ffa66ba.png @Golden Grasses 2008-2013. All photographs, artwork and text are the property of the owner unless otherwise stated. Don't miss a thing! Subscribe to Golden Grasses and get our articles right to your inbox!

I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together

I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together" by Carol Burnett is just as witty and funny as her television show. I was actually lol at one point reading it and the kids asked what I was reading.
" A book by Carol Burnett."
"Who?!"
"I'm so glad we had this time together..." and I sweetly sang them the song, complete with ear tug at the end (o.k. admittedly my voice cracked at the "and before ya know it"  part, but still.

They looked at me with their mouths hanging open. Not because I broke into song. I do that more often than you might think. But because I acted like the song should be somehow meaningful. And it was. To me.

See, we seriously need NetFlicks cause then I could bring old re-runs of The Carol Burnett show  into our home and we could all laugh together at the antics of Tim and Harvey and Eunice and Momma. That didnt' really work when I showed them old Steve Martin King Tut routines on YouTube but then that was 80's humor. They just stared at me as I lol with their mouths hanging open asking, "Why is this funny?!"
Carol's humor was more decidedly 70's. And honestly, I don't mind laughing last, or alone. So, yea, we need NetFlicks. I just haven't convinced Viking Man of the need yet. I think I should approach it from an educational pov, like, say, we could stream NOVA. Working out a strategy here....

It's a fun and satisfying read but a true blue funny lady who is just as warm in print as on the small screen.

Poppins Book Nook- Virtual Book Club for K-12th

I am excited to be starting a great book adventure for the 2014-2015 "school" year, I will be co-hosting Poppins Book Nook!

Here are the themes for the year.  Book reviews will be posted the last Monday of every month. 

Looking for great reads?

Check out the Poppins Book Nook Blogger Buddies! We'll be sharing books, activites, field trips- you name it. Book inspired learning, adventure and fun! 

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom ~ 3 Dinosaurs ~ To the Moon and Back ~ Planet Smarty Pants ~ Farm Fresh Adventures ~ Growing in God's Grace ~ Chestnut Grove Academy ~ Faith and Good Works ~ Learning and Growing the Piwi Way ~ The Usual Mayhem~ Preschool Powol Packets ~ Monsters Ed Homeschool Academy ~Adventures in Mommydom ~ Teach Beside Me ~ Life with Moore Babies ~ Kathy's Cluttered Mind ~ Are We There Yet? ~ Our Crafts N Things ~ Hopkins Homeschool ~ ABC Creative Learning ~ Joy Focused Learning ~ P is for Preschooler ~ Laugh and Learn ~ A Mommy's Adventures ~ Inspiring 2 New Hampshire Children ~ World for Learning ~ The Kennedy Adventures ~ Ever After in the Woods ~ Golden Grasses ~ Our Simple Kinda Life ~ A glimpse of our life ~ Journey to Excellence ~ Happy Little Homemaker ~ Little Homeschool Blessings ~Simplicity Breeds Happiness ~ Raventhreads ~ Water on the Floor ~ Learning Fundamentals ~ Tots and Me ~ As We Walk Along The Road ~ Stir the Wonder ~ For This Season ~ Where Imagination Grows ~ Lextin Academy ~The Canadian Homeschooler ~ School Time Snippets ~ Peakle Pie ~ Mom's Heart ~ A Moment in our World ~Every Bed of Roses ~ Finchnwren ~ At Home Where Life Happens ~ Suncoast Momma ~ The Library Adventure~ Embracing Destiny ~ Day by Day in our World ~ Our Homeschool Studio ~ A "Peace" of Mind ~ Thou Shall Not Whine ~ SAHM I am ~ eLeMeNo-P Kids

@Golden Grasses 2008-2013. All photographs, artwork and text are the property of the owner unless otherwise stated. Don't miss a thing! Subscribe to Golden Grasses and get our articles right to your inbox!

New Things

*1*

Got Football?

You'll be finding me Standing with some greats this week-end!

Happy Superbowl to those of you who care!

 *2*

This was a week of new things. I am blasted from it all but it's a happy dance kind of blasted. The kind of happy that is summed up by Stewart in Kate and Leopold when he tells Kate, "Something big has happened. Something that justifies my very existence." Well, maybe not that big, but it's a good, happy, wonderful thing. I'll tell ya all about it soon.

*3*
Tea or Coffee?
I'll take both, please!

 There's still time to sign up for my awesome Organo Gold give-away!
Hop around and check out the other great java give-aways going on!

Reviews and/or give-aways coming up:
Learn Math Fast

College Books

Lila Rose

Mango Languages

and more...

*4*

This week concluded the 3rd Annual Virtual Curriculum Fair. Four weeks of terrific curriculum brought to you by 28 veteran homeschooling bloggers.

Week 1: Language Arts
Week 2: How to Teach Math, Logic and Patterns
Week 3: World Exploration: Social and Physical Sciences

Week 4: The Arts

And mark your calendars because I am co-hosting a week-long FB party
The Homeschool Mother's Soiree!
February 12 at 9:00pm until February 19 at 12:00am in EST -lots of great chat, amazing give-aways and more!

*5*

So, school? We've kind of taken an early winter break, since I can only do so many things at once and I'm already at 140%. Did I mention blasted, yet? So, the kids read and read and read some more and read again. And played legos and with Flower's new playmobile, courtesy of her 11th birthday, and her astute ability to shop on Amazon, and studied a foreign language and played MineCraft and did Perplexors and bugged Feeche to death. All good things.

*6*

Humanities Majors rock. 

You knew that, right?  

*7*

My phone grew up. I loved my little notsosmart phone in it's sweet little pink protective case but new things this week included a bigger, better smarter phone, encased in Israeli flag blue. The camera on it rocks and I've actually figured out how to answer it, text from it, photoshop a picture I just snapped and more. It was smarter than me for a few days, but I think I'm back on top of the intelligence curve. Pshew.

How was your week?

@Golden Grasses 2008-2013. All photographs, artwork and text are the property of the owner unless otherwise stated. Don't miss a thing! Subscribe to Golden Grasses and get our articles right to your inbox!

At Home in Dogwood Mudhole- TOS Review

Franklin Sanders from At Home in Dogwood Mudhole is the author of The Moneychanger Newsletter and has recently released his first in a series of three; At Home in Dogwood Mudhole, Volume One: Nothing That Eats. Sanders recounts the move he and his wife, children and grandchildren make as they go from city-dwellers to country homesteaders, recounting good eats, dawgs, re-enactments, family, faith and farming. This is, ultimately, the story of  a family that went back to the land, lived to tell about it and now want to tell you about it with humor, panache and the location and phone numbers of good restaurants along the way.

 

The book contains four sections: Leaving Memphis Five Miles at a Time, Living in the Country Changes You, Learning Curve, and A Real Farm, with each section containing several "chapters." The book is 378 pages long with a lovely, glossy, 4 color cover. Also included are 25 photographs and maps, further creating the feeling that you are being invited in to a rousing good family reunion with Sanders and his extensive array of relatives and furry friends.

 

This book is comprised of a series of newsletters published by Sanders over the course of a several years. He talks about people and places that folks that readers of his newsletter might be familiar with, but readers of the book, because the scope is broader, might not be. This lends itself to the homey, conversational style of the book. Think James Herriot, Southern-style, recounting a series of real life vignettes.

 

Sanders weaves his faith throughout, "John Calvin said, 'Ignorance of the Providence of God is the cause of all impatience.' as he relates his challenges with clover growing in a chapter titled "Agrarian Worries." Speaking of failures and near misses with faith in something bigger than the immediate is really a hallmark of what this book is about. Sprinkled throughout you'll find scripture, quotes and poems. If you are a collector of good words, you'll appreciate the fact that Sanders is too.

 

Another major theme is Sanders politics; including Y2K preparation, money and, of course, the Civil War. I found the War conversations off-putting as he hammered the "Northern Aggression" one too many times for my taste, insisting that the Civil War had nothing to do with anything but economics. A bit beyond simplistic and I would have been fine letting it go if it wasn't re-played. I'm sure this had to do with Sanders involvement in historical re-enactments (which I am all for and love, including his descriptions of his family involvement in them) but to completely ignore the Emancipation Proclamation and the entire issue of slavery (which was partly, but not solely, an economic issue) colored my view of this book.

 

This book doesn't fit neatly into a genre per se;  it's not quite memoir, not quite biography, not quite how to, not quite devotional. Basically, what you'll find here is Sanders down home, corn-spun wisdom. I'll be sending a copy of this to my Gram for Christmas, who was born on a homested in the south and loves the thought of country farm life surrounded by family and critters. If you do too, add this to your list of "to be read."

 

 

At Home in Dogwood Mudhole

The cost for the book is $22.95 for the paperback.

 

 

   @Golden Grasses 2008-2013. All photographs, artwork and text are the property of the owner unless otherwise stated. Don't miss a thing! Subscribe to Golden Grasses and get our articles right to your inbox!

The Force - Review

I recently had the opportunity to review The Force, sequel to The Fourth Kingdom. Both books were written by Joyce and Alexandra Swann. Old Time homeschoolers might remember Joyce Swann as one of the first advocates for accelerated education (all of her 10 children graduated with Master's Degrees by age 16), and Alexandra Swann who, at age 16, wrote No Regrets, a memoir of her life as a homeschooler. These days the Swann's are busy blogging and writing children's books and novels, with over eight books to their credit so far. You can find out more about the Swann's and their books at their web-site: Frontier 2000. But be forewarned, you'll probably add a couple of titles to your to- be-read pile. The Planner is now on mine! Want to know more? Wendy has a terrific authors' interview on her site, check it out!

The Force takes an intriguing idea: namely the ability to clone, ramps it up a notch; the ability to clone humans controlled by an evil master-mind, and puts it on the international stage. Add in one clever detective, billionaire twins, and the re-emergence of yesteryear's film stars come-alive-again and you have a compelling story.

I read The Fourth Kingdom first and it clearly sets the stage for The Force. The Fourth Kingdom is a bit predictable, but a very enjoyable, fast and easy read. It's very much worth reading because it admirably sets the stage for The Force. Though both books are stand-alones, they are richer together.

So, what's to love about this book? The author's tackle cutting edge science. There are compelling bad guys. The good guys are willing to take risks, but struggle with facing the creepy bad guys alone in a dark alley (i.e. they are believable). The story involves international intrigue. And in a world that has gone global that's a whole lot of fun.

Why keep an eye out on this mother daughter writing team? Because their writing is getting better and better. The technically astute,  yet stiff voice from No Regrets is gone, the predictability from The Fourth Kingdom has evolved into reading that will keep you thinking long after you've put the book down and gone to bed. The authors are willing to tackle difficult subjects creatively without resorting to mere fantasy. And they are willing to allow their characters to struggle with issues of faith.  Which, as a person of faith who sometimes struggles, I appreciate.

Books abound these days, but good books, books that are well written, moral and intriguing, are as challenging to find as ever. The Swann's are definitely in the Good Book Zone! Do yourself a favor and buy The Force (along with The Fourth Kingdom) today.

 

You can purchase The Force directly from Frontier Media, and it is also available for $12.95 at Amazon, and for the Kindle for $4.99.

To celebrate the launch of The Force, you have the opportunity to sign up for a couple of amazing give-ways! Keeping reading....

We are excited to help Frontier 2000 Media celebrate the release of The Force by Alexandra and Joyce Swann with a super cool giveaway for book lovers! Two prizes will be awarded, one containing 11 awesome books and the other with five books. Total value of this giveaway is $185! Woohoo!

We would like to thank the following authors for their generous donations to these giveaways! Be sure to stop by their websites to say thank you!

William Struse
Tricia Goyer
Sarah Sundin 
Eisley Jacobs
Gwen Toliver
Carey Jane Clark

To enter the giveaway, use the Rafflecopter at the bottom of this post. Two winners will be selected and announced by noon ET on November 25, 2013. U.S. residents age 18 and older only please. Other Terms and Conditions can be found in the Rafflecopter.

Book Lover's Giveaway #1 ($120 value)

The Force by Alexandra and Joyce Swann

The Fourth Kingdom by Alexandra and Joyce Swann

The 13th Enumeration by William Struse

The 13th Prime by William Struse

Love Finds You in Glacier Bay Alaska by Tricia Goyer

On Distant Shores by Sarah Sundin

Dragons of the Deep by Eisley Jacobs

Blink of a Dragon by Eisley Jacobs

Born to be a Dragon by Eisley Jacobs

Seed Sowers by Gwen Toliver

After the Snow Falls by Carey Jane Clark 

Book Lover's Giveaway #2 ($65 value)

The Force by Alexandra and Joyce Swann

The Fourth Kingdom by Alexandra and Joyce Swann

The 13th Enumeration by William Struse

The 13th Prime by William Struse

Love Finds You in Glacier Bay Alaska by Tricia Goyer

a Rafflecopter giveaway

@Golden Grasses 2008-2013. All photographs, artwork and text are the property of the owner unless otherwise stated. Don't miss a thing! Subscribe to Golden Grasses and get our articles right to your inbox!

In the Thick of it All

*1*

We are really enjoying Mapping the World with Art in 4th-6th grade co-op class, picking up ideas from Global Art as we go. Each week we share a small craft/food/fun facts for the area of the world we are studying, then Feeche comes along and fills in every little crack with history info. Oh yeah, we draw a large, labeled map each week, too. Good times.
Mesopotamia- made clay tablets and wrote in hieroglyphs.
Greece- ate olives, learned longitude and latitude by drawing them on hard boiled eggs.
Italy- worked with Roman Numerals, ate pizza. Who knew the kids would beg for more numbers to puzzle through? We had to cut them short on the Roman Numeral work to get to the map work!

*2*

Blog Love

Tons of reviews (and give-aways!) coming up: The Homemakers Mentor, The Pilgrim's Story, God's World,  Bridgeway Academy (Marine Bio) and lots more...

And a Hop on Oct. 8: "Inspired Learning with Everyday Living." We've been doing lots of that- as long as "inspired" is loosely defined- kwim?
 

And for those that loved the 2-part "Dreams Unfulfilled-Reality Misunderstood" (Part I and Part II) there will be a follow-up on Monday. You won't want to miss it!
 

Latest reviews:

Homeschool Mom's Bible

The Presidential Game

*3*

 

Read Packing Light, loaner from Ruthariffic. Another "A Year of Living/Memoir" genre. Kind of a combination of exhortation to get rid of your baggage and a sociological study about the mind of Christian millenials. Vesterfelt (the author) is an advocate of "doing what you love, the money, and-life/God-kuddos-because-that's-actual-worship-will -follow" Having been there for the initial buzz of that mentality, I read it with a bit of btdtdw cynicism. Her opening was fantastic and some of her writing is profound. The thesis of the book was this: As long as you're a spectator, you're not a worshipper of God." Well, yeah, totally buy that, baby. Worth reading, and sorting as you go. And honestly, I love the "Year of Living" genre.

Our read aloud is The Bronze Bow. It's a must read for all your kids. Excellent Ancient History, compelling story and more of the amazing wordsmithery you can expect from Elizabeth George Speare.

Also read Adam and Eve after the Pill: Paradoxes of the Sexual Revolution, by Eberstadt. Excellent writing by an intellectual sociologist.This book is challenging on a number of different levels. Be prepared to put your thinking hat on, 'cause without it, you won't get very far. A must read. I'll be writing more about this one, but it deserves it's own post.

Flower finished Diary of a Real Payne (total love-super cute-  review to follow) and is now immersed in Little Women. Cub finished another Bethlehem Book- not sure which one but if you are looking for living history, check out their catalog!

*4*

 I'm having Flower and Cub go through the Super Star Student DVD. Flower- who has gifts of administration ("Can I organize that for you?") loves it, Cub, who doesn't, does not. We have the old version, it's cheesy, and over dramatized, but full of good information.
Marine Biology, Saxon and Learn Math Fast, FLL, Time for Learning, IXL, Vocab and Spelling, lots of reading and lots of long walks, drinking in the gorgeous fall weather on the Prairie. Seeing tons of baby snappers on our walks.

*5*

The basement is put back together (finally) from our major floor-re-do. We have trim cut and up but need to do more detail cutting so it's just leaning against the wall right now. It still looks amazing and adds a whole separate living room area along with expansive floor space for extensive Lego and Play mobile set-ups.

*6*

Anyone else ever feel like this?

find it here

*7*

 What went right in your life this week? Talk to me.

@Golden Grasses 2008-2013. All photographs, artwork and text are the property of the owner unless otherwise stated. Don't miss a thing! Subscribe to Golden Grasses and get our articles right to your inbox!

Byzantium

If you are looking to soak in good words this summer, consider reading Byzantium by Stephen Lawhead. I loved Lawhead's retelling of the Rhi Bran y Hud  (Robin Hood) so much that Feeche gave me Byzantium for Christmas a couple of years back. But the text was small and every time I started it, I just couldn't overcome the eye strain. Drama camp found me book free for the week and a few pages into it and I didn't notice the font size.

A delightful romp through Medieval history as only Lawhead can dish it. The readers follows the life of a Brother Aidan as he makes pilgrimage to, of all places, Byzantium, to deliver the beautiful book of Kells to the emporer. Along the way, he and his little band of brothers have one grand adventure after another, culminating in a crisis of faith and purpose for the good Bro. He is confronted with intrigue, betrayal and faith masquerading as politics; Sheiks, torture, Sea Wolves and more.

What made this such a good read? Lawhead is not only a imitable historian, but a master of description and characterization. There were no simplistic people or places in this book. The author covers a lot of territory but does justice to time and places in a way that helps the reader to understand the complexity of life in 900 A.D. This is a book about journey; journey to a place in time, but also a journey of faith, and what owning a faith of meaning costs and ultimately means. A beautiful book (and at over 800 pages, my chunkster for the year)- highly recommended. 

Summer Schedule begins Now

*1*

The Terrible Tragedy of the Healthy Eater.

This. The dairy free, gluten free, corn, soy, tomato, sugar free venture continues. We've had a couple of big wins like black bean chocolate cake, cabbage salad, date-nut bars and "Beanitos" with Empanade. Other than that flax seed, kale and coconut oil figure heavily on each week's shopping list.

*2*

*3*

Speaking of which, this week's lit love.

Cub: The Lord of the Rings 1-3, right after he blew through "Narnia" again.
Flower: Lilly Lapp (review to follow- love these books!)

Me: The Divine Conspiracy. Hands down the best book on Christianity and a  life of faith, outside of the Bible I've ever read. Challenging, deep, beautiful and expansive.
All Together we finished Victory at the Walls- the story of O.T. figure Nehemiah, Cup bearer to King Artaxerxes. A beautifully rendered account of the ancient world and the love of the Jewish people for their homeland.
The Midwife's Apprentice. Another oldie but goodie. I love how Beetle's sense of self unfolds and how she enables others to grow and develop along the way.

*4*

Perspective.

*5*

School: Rosetta Stone, 1/4 mile Math, Horatius at the Bridge, reading.

Next week is Drama Camp- a whole lotta fun in the morning followed by picnics. My kids love it.

We are on summer schedule....

*6*

'Cause we are back to projectville: re-seeded and re-seeded and again re-seeded areas of the lawn that died last year. Started scraping the house, sorting the attic and thinning the toys. The doors and closets are trimmed out on the 2nd floor and now it's down to cutting the small pieces of trim and affixing the floorboards. Made of list of projects left, like staining doors and small areas of drywalling.

*7*

Brushes with Fame (it's the little things)

 

Amy Ephron (I hope it was her. Or it was someone posing as her. Either way, it made my day!) commented on my blog this week. Serious thrill. I only wish I'd said amazing and glowing things about her book. And it made me realize that I'd jotted off an impression without being clear.

I did actually like both her and Delia's books. But basically, I was cheat reading. I was supposed to be studying but I was reading for fun so there was the guilt factor. And I had to read super fast, in order to get back to studying. I already read super fast, so when I say I'm reading super fast, it's like warp-speed reading. I wanted to Looove the books, because that would have justified the cheat. So there you have my True Confession.



As it was, I did love the setting of One Sunday Morning. I love well done period pieces. I loathe period pieces that judge history from our perspective. And Amy did a great job of transporting us to the time and place of the Galbraith's (Cheaper by the Dozen and on my list of irl hero's). So, while the story was engaging and a sweet, fun read, the setting was the real star. A lovely snapshot of a time and place.

Big City Eyes was another fun, fast read. It's the love affair with NY that intrigues me, but the setting quickly moves from there. Howevah, the part of the book that was truly terrific was the inclusion of Lily's (the protagonist's) articles for the small town paper and folks reaction to it. Also, the inclusion of Klingon into any novel makes it better and is, truly, imho,  a stroke of genius.

I'll be reading more Ephron books in the future. I am totally fascinated by the family- 4 sisters, all successful writers. All witty and clever and down to earth. Love that.

And second brush with fame this week. Flower has been totally immersed in Bill Peet's autobiography. She jumped with JOY when she realized that one of her favorite artist's share the same birthday as her.

It's the little things, right?

Skills Trump Passion- Vocab List



Cool graphic



Vocabulary from So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love" by Cal Newport. See this post to find out what it's all about!

The Passion Hyposthesis: The key to occupational happiness is to figure out what you are passionate about and find a job that matches this passion.
"Be so good they can't ignore you" - what is needed to build a working life you love.
The craftsman mindset- an approach to your working life in which you focus on the value of what you are offering to the world.
The passion mindset - an apporach to your working life in which you focus on the value your job is offering you, ultimatly leads to chronic disatisfaction and daydreaming about better jobs
Career capital- a description of skills you have that are rare and valuable to the working world. This is the key currency for creating work you love.
The career capital theory of great work; get good at something rare and valuable and then cash in the career capital this generates to acquire the traits that define great jobs.

• the traits the define great work are rare and valueable
• supply and demand says that if you want these traits you need rare and valuable skills to offer in return.
• the craftsmans mindset with its relentless "so good you can't be ignored" is a strategy well suited for acquiring career capital.

The 10,000 hour rule- the idea that gaining excellent at performing a complex task requires a minimum of 10,000 hours (Gladwell)
Deliberate practice- the style of difficult practice required to continue to improve at a task. "actively designed, typically by a teacher, for the sole purpose of effectively improving specific aspects of an individuals performance." Requires you to stretch past where you are comfortable and then receive ruthless feedback on your performance. It's uncomfortable.
Career capital markers- winner take all and auction. In a winner take all there is only one type of career captial available and lots of different people competing for it.
In an auction market, there are many different types of career capital, and each person might generate their own unique collection of this capital.
Control- Having a say in what you do and how you do it
The first control trap-  control aquired without career capial is not sustainable
The 2nd control trap -when you have enough capital to gain control, you've become valuable enough to your current employer that they will try to prevent you from making the change.
Courage culture- the promotion of the idea that the only thing standing between you and a dream (job) is building the courage to step off the expected path.
The law of financial viability- will people pay for your career capital?
Mission - provides an answer to the question, " What should I do with my life?" a unifying career goal.
The adjacent possible -the next big ideas in any field are typically found right beyond the current cutting edge, in the adjacent space that contains the possible new combinations of existing ideas. Good career missions are always found in the adjacent possible. If you want to find a mission in your career, you first need to get to the cutting edge of your field.
Little bets-Innovative corporations and people "rather than believing they had to start with a big idea or plan...they make a methodical series of "little bets" about what might be a good direction, learning critical information from lots of little failures and from small but significant wins"
The law of remarkabilty- For a "mission- driven" project to suceed, it should be remarkable in 2 different ways:

• it must be compel people  who encounter it to remark about it to others
• it must be luanched in a venue that support such remarking.

 

The Passion Hyposthesis Turned on Its Head

So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love by Cal Newport.

The upshot of this straightforward and challenging book is simple: Garner skills that are valuable and income producing, become good enough at them they you can in fact, produce income with them, and then watch the passion for your work increase. This totally flies in the face of the "follow you passion and the money will follow" philosophy. In fact, that's the main apologetic of this book. Thomas is taking on the life-style designers, unschoolers and a host of others.

And I am loving it. I cut my educational teeth on the likes of John Holt, the Colfax's and Grace Llewellyn. And while they were talking about affording your kids the time and energy to build skills, cut out the extraneous carp of government school and give your kids a unique personalized education, unschoolers have morphed that philosophy into anything (including nothing) goes. I loathe that unschooling has come to mean what it has.

There has also been a bevy of articles on education in the WSJ and others that talk about the high cost of higher ed, how those with B.A.'s in Humanities are graduating with 10's of 1000's of $ worth of debt, without any, really, truly, marketable skills. They were following their passions. They didn't count the cost.

Part of what happened, imho, is that our educational system (regardless of whether you are government, private or homeshooled) has gotten long on interest and short on skills. Which is what I love about classical education. It's all about skill building, to the point of excellence. And in some ways, it flies in the face of the delight directed, passion hypothesis mentality. Not popular among the unschoolers, or a lot homeschoolers, of today. But, let's all get real. It's a global market, people, and folks without few skills and lots of entitlement issues are going to have a rough time of it.

Newport makes great points, "Compelling careers often have complex origins that reject the simple idea that all you have to do is follow your passion." Uh-huh. I love the story about Steve "Zen" Jobs at the beginning of the book. While Jobs seems to be advocating the passion hypothesis, he didn't actually follow it himself. Way to keep the proletariet's down.

Here's more, uh-huh, food for thought; "deliberate practice is often the opposite of enjoyable." I've gotten somewhat good at a few things. Not all of it's been fun. During the upward hill of the learning curve, it actually pretty much s8cked. We just don't want to acknowledge that amongst friends. We want learning to be easy, enjoyable and about having a good time. Dr. Dh has 3 earned grad degrees. Only one of them was really "fun" and the joy of that was diminished by the full time job of the other degrees, managing a family, and working at a break-neck pace while pursuing it all. That's what professionalism is...working your arse off to have specialized skills at something that might not be attainable to your average Joe. We seem to forget that. Well, I haven't and neither has Dr. Dh. I think we both still suffer a bit from educational, skill building and student loan battle fatigue.

More goodness- Be patient; Steve Martin explains his philosophy for learning to play the banjo: "I thought if I stayed with it , then one day I will have been playing for 40 years and anyone who sticks with something for forty years will be pretty good at it." Yeah, baby. Practice makes perfect. And focus does too- Martin redefines diligence so that's it's less about paying attention to your main pursuit and more about your willingness to ignore other pursuits that would distract you.

Career capital- you have to get good before you can expect good work. The entitlement ethic gives way, in the face of pragmatic real life, to a work ethic.

The law of financial viability- do what people are willing to pay for. Love this. The B.A. in Brit Lit who owes $100, 000 with somehow forgot this little nugget. Not that the cost of college isn't crazy. I get that. Believe me, I totally get that.

There's a lot more in Newport's book, including a whole list of vocab, which I've posted separately here.
But the bottom line:

Get skills, skills that are financially viable, get focused, be diligent-

and the passion will follow.