American Diary readers may continue to be astonished to learn that cyberliving, virtuality & interlinking is only practised in a small part of the UK. For financial institutions & the City this is a given. Among the populace, even the relatively techy, web-life is not well established at all. So, the next steps for DGM's online & organic growth (if the metaphor is permitted) necessarily draws on our cousins & family in the US.
Within 18 months the realigning of forces underway within DGM and its Team members will be publicly visible. I have no doubt that our experiences are paralleled in the lives of our listening community. At the moment, there is a proliferation of alternatives & possibilities. How exactly might we implement the changes we know are about to take place? My own approach is this:
1. What do I have to do today, to keep today moving?
2. what do I have to do today, to allow the future to unfold?
3. What do I have to do today, to lighten the hold of history on this moment?
In practice, the key is in the power of decision. Taking / making a decision is surely one of the most powerful gifts conferred on us in the Creation. A decision shapes the Creation, or perhaps more accurately, the Creating. The Creation is not made, after all, it is being made: the process is ongoing & continuing.
The effect of taking a decision is miraculous: small, everyday decisions are as remarkable as large, global decisions - even though their repercussions may appear to be local. So today, if I take one small decision regarding the future of the company or my life, everyone within my circle of professional acquaintance has an alternative future which comes online. Their choices also affect DGM & myself. Clearly, our lives are becoming more complex.
Not surprisingly, the management of complexity became a dedicated subject of study in the mainstream during the 1980s. Earlier, Mr. Bennett addressed the problems of proliferating complexity in Systematics. In cybernetics, so did Ross Ashby & Stafford Beer (who continues to do so in his latest work). Diary visitors will be able to mention their own favourite authors in this field.
In front of a massive download of information, the accelerating download, and the accelerating rate of acceleration of download, how do we do anything at all? To help me in my day-to-day, I bring to mind the prime Guitar Craft principles:
Honour necessity (the Rule of Quality);
Honour sufficiency (the Rule of Quantity).
On these two hang all the law and the profits. Then:
The necessary is possible.
The optional is expensive.
The arbitrary is unlikely.
Discard the superfluous.
Once a decision is made, life becomes simpler. Although a network of possibilities comes to life, a whole raft of other alternatives fall away. A decision which addresses the necessary, rather than the optional, brings online only necessary possibilities. And these we can deal with, providing we are on our feet, alert & engaged.
Now, I'm off to look at an alternative future.
Now, I'm back from looking at the alternative future. I shall make telephone calls and hope to intersect with what it offers.
An e-letter from Dan Kirkdorffer awaiting me expresses his disappointment in the paucity of responses to the DGM Web Reviews page. Are there so few potential reviewers out there? The most interesting, informative & helpful parts of Elephant Talk (for me) were the Gig Reviews. These are commentaries / responses on the work / working / playing as it unfolds in the moment/s, by members of the listening community. (Speculative commentary on personalities is not of much use unless based on creative insight).
So, why not make Dan a happy boy and respond to this bold initiative on the DGM site?
16.14 An excerpt of yesterday's fax from the totally superb T-Lev: "...I think you've made the right call - it's time for a `King Crimson' to record and tour, regardless of which of us can do it".
18.25 Telephone calls are made; part of our future intersectioning is now online & engaged.
"Act from principle.
Move from intention."
