QS PRN

One more paper to complete before Winter Break. I've learned a lot this past semester, but it is time for a break.  

I have been going full speed with the doctoral program since May. I am tempted to say that I am burned out...but I am reminded of my high school soccer coach whose favorite reply to that was, "You were never on fire."

Maybe I prefer a slow burn. Back to that last paper, a dispositional reflection. Due Wednesday by midnight. 3-4 pages.

• Connects (a) the core literature from Leading Organizational Change and (b) your experiences within and outside of the course during the last eight weeks, with at least three specific dispositions listed in the Mindset of a Scholar-Researcher (Concordia University–Portland Office of Doctoral Studies, 2018) material.

• The essay should address the following questions:

How has your understanding or practice of the three dispositions changed with the new ethics knowledge and experiences you have developed in the course?
How do you envision these three dispositions applying to your future work as an ethical social scientist?

• Leadership is a team sport.  
  

• Most of us (men more so) tend to be overconfident.

• Memory is more often reconstruction rather than reproduction.

• Our conscious short term memory is confined to 5–7 things at once.

• Multitasking is subject to error.

• We sincerely believe things from the past that are simply not true; we provide explanations of the past or the present that put ourselves in a good light, and others less so.

• After a point, more information makes people less accurate than having less information (the overload problem).

• We don’t like to make mistakes but we dislike even more admitting them.

• Our best lies are ones that we firmly believe to be true.

• Confidence may be negatively related to accuracy and in any case is no predictor that you have something right.
  

• And worst of all, a lot of this occurs in our subconscious brain, so that ‘‘introspection alone will not help our vision, because it will simply confirm our self-justifying beliefs’’ (Tavris & Aronson, 2007, p. 44). 
  

Gather. Build. Protect.

✪ see the Dunning-Kruger Effect and Dunbar's Number

I've spent a lot of time organizing things lately. Organizing my to-do list. Organizing my research. Organizing my time. Organizing my workbench in the printshop (see below).

And, I've read quite a bit about organization strategies these last few weeks, as required for my doctoral program. Some of these books and scholarly articles are written by experts in the field. Organization Development in Schools and Colleges, for example, details strategies and approaches for organizing (or reorganizing) systems for change.  

For all the organization I have done in my personal life, I now have a deeper appreciation for it. There is satisfaction in building something, or restructuring something, and making it better. It becomes efficient, and efficiency is beautiful...efficiency is art. 

Some thoughts to ponder: 

• There is no magic, only context.  

• Help is the sunny side of control.
  

• The failure case of clever is asshole.
  

• Whatever you're not changing, you're choosing.  
  

• If everyone can have it, I don't want it.  
  

• It's not what you do. It's who you do it with.
  

• TED talks almost fool me into thinking I'm productive. [confirmed]

• You don't have to be first, just different...and better.
  

Currently entering Week 2 of Fall Semester, part 2. Organizing my notes, and realizing that I neglected to add my final Mindset of a Scholar Researcher paper from EDDC 716 (Creativity, Inquiry, and Innovation).

I am not adding all completed school work to this blog. Let's be honest—some of that writing is a bit dull. But, I wanted to chronicle my doctoral studies here and I wanted to have a creative outlet for all those mind-numbing reads and discussions. Besides, I told my Dad I'd host some things for him to read. At least I know I have one reader/follower on this blog. Thanks, Dad! 

I've added the final paper from EDDC 716 along with a few other projects to the Writing tab on this site. If you're curious about the curriculum and minutia of the coursework, check out the Reading tab & the wiki I use to track it all.

The writing samples posted to this site are in APA format but set in 12pt IBM Plex Serif instead of the required 12pt Times New Roman...because I think it looks much cleaner, especially on a screen.