Tag: rich harris

Zen: A westerner’s struggle

Posted by Rich Harris – April 2, 2013

47-buddhism-rich-harris-zen-christianity

I grew up in a very stereotypical conservative Christian household, immersed in fundamentalist republican thought, where my all-or-nothing personality tendencies were fused with a narrow minded version of a right-wing agenda. I was told to view everything and everyone under one very specific scope. There was little room for change or acceptance of those different than me, my family, or our family’s like-minded social circle.

The internal conflict I was feeling from my upbringing versus how I felt about people however plagued me for years. My nature was to care about and love everyone equally, but my upbringing encouraged judgement and harsh criticism of people, places, other spiritual paths, and cultures I literally knew nothing about. It created in me a very distorted view of the world and of everyone around me. I lived most of my adult life that way, spewing countless unsubstantiated opinions about topics I really knew nothing about.

It wasn’t until 9/11 that I started to realize, “Oh, we are all in this together, you know…..the humans.” It was the catalyst for one of the biggest paradigm shifts in my life. Something started to change in me. I realized how little I knew about world history, conflict and other cultures. I almost felt like I had to start over in my approach to everything. Spiritually, I now needed a new set of answers, more reference, a more expansive set of information with different points of view attached to it. I needed a new outlook that focused less on humanitarian fractures created by people’s differences and more on the potential unity cultivated by our similarities as a species.

In Buddhism, I found just that.

The quest for peace

Fast forward to 2008, during my divorce, I got a hold of a book called “Storms Can’t Hurt The Sky: A Buddhist Path Through Divorce.“ by Gabriel Cohen. As someone who brought only a history of the skewed version of Christianity to the table, I was skeptical about this book but I was in so much emotional pain at the time that I was grasping for any new answers that I hadn’t heard before, new ideas presented to me in a way that I could understand immediately. This was a very tall order given the thunderstorm of an emotional state I was in at the time.

I hesitated when first opening this book. I feared that my programmed instincts about right and wrong, everything I had been taught to believe, would be revealed to me as off the mark. I feared that my spiritual background was all just a smeared farce built on a foundation of personal insecurities and a prescribed path full of side effects, passed on to me by my loving, well-intentioned, yet incredibly insecure parental units (God bless them). I worried this book would reveal how clueless I actually was.

I opened up the book…..chapter 1, page 1, sentence 1….I was hooked.

I was blown away by how simple Buddhist principles and ideals were. I still believed in God, very much so, but there wasn’t anything in this book that I could find fault with. In fact, if you strip away all the rhetoric that humans have attached to modern day Christianity, leaving only the good stuff – peace, love, forgiveness and living a life of service to others – at the core, you’ll find Buddhism in the same sandbox.

I started reading other books and learned a couple meditation techniques (which I still struggle with). I felt grateful for the new ideas and refreshing approaches to dealing with the bad and appreciating the good. More importantly I was learning how to appreciate the bad for what it really is — a moment of life experience that could teach me a great deal. I also realized after starting down this path, how much work there was to be done on the inside so that I could be more effective for others on the outside moving forward. Now I had some new tools in my toolbox.

Buddhism is hard

I learned quickly that Buddhism is like Yoga…if you are unfamiliar with it, from the outside it might look like something anyone could do, but when you have to actually do it, the amount of focus, strength and endurance it takes can kick the crap out of you. Also like Yoga, the rewards are always 10 times better than you had anticipated and you always learn something new about yourself, making you much stronger and wiser the next time around.

Growing up I was always told, “pray and everything will be ok.” I learned that while that might be true in the space/time continuum sense (time heals all right?), many times I’d pray and it was NOT okay though! Sometimes it wouldn’t be ok for months. As a Christian trying hard to “be Christian,” where did that leave me? When praying didn’t yield a reasonably immediate result to fix a bad situation or ease the crappy feelings, what then? It felt like I had nowhere to go.

I still believe in the power of prayer. But now I also believe in the power of meditation for oneself. In my opinion, we aren’t all helpless, Godless heathens running around the planet like famished crack heads hoping to make St. Peter’s short list. As someone who loves and believes in Christ, I don’t subscribe to that. I believe those approaching God with that particular mindset are greatly minimizing the power of the same God they claim to praise.

Buddhism taught me that regardless of what religion you follow or faith you’ve chosen, simple principles that you can manage and work on yourself here on earth can empower you, making you a stronger soldier for whatever it is you believe, even if you are an atheist! It taught me that I don’t have to be helpless just because I’m struggling or that I need to deny certain emotions so I don’t offend or bother anyone. It taught me that I don’t need to maintain a certain lifestyle according to the social pressures of a local group of people so that I could justifiably show up on Sunday to meet them at their place of worship and consume their free coffee and donuts.

Most importantly, it taught me how to look at things like pain, loneliness, despair, stress and anxiety much more constructively without all the strings of guilt and shame attached to them….all the strings that I was unfortunately raised with as a Christian, not just by my parents but by Christian society.

The beauty of Buddhism for me, is that it didn’t have to replace my other beliefs, it only gave me an extra set of tools to strengthen them. There are many many flavors of Buddhism but for those considering checking it out for the first time, the book I mentioned above is honestly a great start for the newbie. After reading it, it was clear that this book was not just for people going through divorce, it was for anyone looking for thoughtful new insights and ideas on how to handle some of life’s biggest challenges.

Onward.

Serial monogamy and emotional addiction

Posted by Rich Harris – February 4, 2013

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Addiction

According to Wikipedia, the be all end all of the internet….

“Serial monogamy is described as a societal mating practice in which individuals engage in sequential monogamous pairings, or in terms of humans, when men or women marry another partner sequentially. However, one does not need to marry in order to be considered as practicing serial monogamy, as it can also be defined by multiple pair-bonding, or having had more than one mate.”

For me personally, serial monogamy is an emotional form of addiction, a compulsive behavior whose constructs steer the person affected by keeping them running on a hamster wheel of loneliness and needing others to feed a hunger that will never be satisfied. It’s a constantly revisited dead end road for the perpetually broken-hearted. In Buddhism terms this it would be referred to as desirous attachment. “Desirous attachment is a deluded mental factor that observes its contaminated object, regards it as a cause of happiness, and wishes for it” (source).

Abandonment

I’ve come a long way since I started counseling in my early 20s (I’m 38 now). But it wasn’t until my divorce in 2008 and another important/meaningful relationship of almost two years that ended late in 2012 that I realized it was time to face something I’ve avoided dealing with in full since I was a child. I believe this is why I got married so young and have struggled so hard at being single and happy since my divorce.

In the past 5-6 years I’ve been challenged by the issue of abandonment at a level that takes me to that horribly uncomfortable place where the last major fragments of my childhood fear, low self-esteem, co-dependency and an irrational state of loneliness are all hanging out together getting tanked at the bar at the Inn of Dysfunction, planning and scheming their next move on those of us afflicted by it.

Fear of abandonment is a very complex beast. It draws its energy from all of your insecurities and recharges itself like a car battery. The longer it’s running the stronger it gets. It stops you from letting go of the past. It distracts you from enjoying the present. It pounds coffin nails into the doors of personal growth and opportunity that would otherwise be your healthier, more centered and prosperous future.

To put it plainly, it sucks.

It sucks the life and times out of you and those around you. It distorts the meaningful relationships you do have and sabotages the ones you could’ve had down the road that might have been great.

Abandonment is commonplace for those who’s childhood environments were influenced by parents suffering from various addictive behavior (drugs, alcohol or other compulsions), co-dependency, and in my case, too many big changes without effective communication and nurturing during tough times. Pair all that up with my deep emotional/analytical brain and complex personality and you have a potential life of loneliness and emotional exhaustion, all of which are entirely in my own mind. The great news is that it’s effect on one’s life is completely changeable with a few tweaks and some hard work.

Reprogramming and resolve

There’s a very thin line between “living in the past” (emotional, conscious) and living by old behavioral patterns (instinctual, subconscious). Surrounded by a healthy circle of spiritual friends and a desire to be a strong centered role model for my sons, I’ve done a lot of work on myself over the last decade and a half in terms of forgiveness, letting go, converting anger and resentment into love, understanding and empathy for those that had hurt me in the past. Now it’s time to take it further.

There’s no magic bullet for stuff like this, no pill that can be swallowed where you wake up the next morning and you are a different person. It’s a process. As a friend once told me recently, it’s all about progress not perfection. With issues like this you need to take time to deprogram the patterns of the past and then reprogram who you are from the ground up, establishing a cleaner, healthier view of what it means to be in a relationship and why you should be in one in the first place (if at all). To be alone is not to be lonely……this is the TRUTH and a concept I’ve never known. At this point in my life I couldn’t be more excited to take this on, to feel what it’s like to wake up in the morning and only think about how killer my day is gonna be and not “who should I pursue for a potential relationship, friend or otherwise.”

They say the only way to cure a phobia is dive right into the problem head first and face it. I’ve realized I can’t change this stuff permanently for the better unless I’m actually in the problem environment: being single. You can’t work on an issue like this one unless force yourself to experience all of the pain and lack of comfort that comes with it. You gotta stop using the drug and get through withdrawal before you can be sober right? My first priority is to move through and reshape what it means to “just be” without a partner, to learn how to not have a partner without feeling abandoned and insecure. The process of teaching myself to not be in a relationship without it feeling like I’m about to fall off a cliff is new to me BUT I realize that state is not a real or tangible one. It’s all just in my head. Patterns from the past. Thankfully I have all the right tools, books, friends to help me be successful during this time.

Onward.

The personal approval process.

Posted by Rich Harris – May 21, 2012

We all do it. Whether you admit or not, we all seek some level of approval from others.

Working hard while hard at work

Whether we are competing with others, ourselves or our personal demons and insecurities. The thought of approval is something that motivates millions of people every day to make important decisions in their relationships, careers and how they choose to spend their time.

Have you ever sat down for 30 minutes and thought about what motivates you to strive for validation or affirmation (from yourself or others) for the things you have done? On the opposite side, have you thought about why you avoid affirmation or accepting credit for the good things you’ve accomplished?

I struggle with the downsides of both. I’m surrounded by friends and family that are also afflicted by the notion that third-party approval is a requirement for us to achieve contentment within ourselves. I was raised by a really smart, hard working father who came from a long line of blue-collar-minded “get it done, whatever it takes” men. It’s an old school culture of no complaints, or attaboys. You just take care of business. You push through and finish the job and that should be enough validation for you.

There is much to be said for tenacity and hard work. All the truly successful people we see and admire in the world got where they are because of it. I’m forever grateful for my work ethic and credit my father/grandfathers for perpetuating this. I couldn’t survive this life without it.

Strength in balance, strength in vulnerability

Like everything in life though, emotional moderation is key to survival and being at peace. The way that I was raised had the best intentions and yielded a hard working man in me. While I’m very thankful for the positives, it’s important that I continually remind myself that if I approach life 100% from this school of thought, there’s a chance I can fall into the trap of extremes where anyone that struggles around me should be considered annoying and lazy. Resentment can build. More importantly, it can render me incapable of acknowledging or “approving of” the struggles and challenges that I am experiencing while working through the normal trials and tribulations. This is a very poisonous set of patterns and makes it hard to be nurturing for others AND myself during those times in life when nurturing is most appropriate and necessary.

The resulting backlash of how I was raised created a person that has a hard time accepting compliments, accepting or asking for help, and in general, sharing important and personal information with really close trusted friends that are there for me when I’m down. “I don’t lean on ANYBODY” has always been my motto. That motto however is bullshit. It’s a stop-gap measure to band-aid the real issue of feeling uncomfortable with failure, being vulnerable to the rest of the world, and having allowed my self-worth to be affected by a sneaky little power couple called guilt and shame.

It’s important to remember the following:

1. If you give someone a compliment for their hard work, you aren’t perpetuating ‘being a wimp’ or emasculating them. You are motivating them to work harder to do their best for the right reasons. It takes a strong person to work really hard. However, it takes a much stronger person to be open and vulnerable and to encourage others to embrace failure and struggles that they sometimes might not be able to power through. We can’t win them all. Statistics tell us that we have to be cool with that. :-)

2. If someone gives you a compliment, say “thank you.” Simple. Right? Not always. If you do what I still struggle with from time to time and act uncomfortable and coy and avoid eye contact when someone says something nice to you, you are not being respectful of them and their extra effort to make you feel good. The real problem I realized was that there was shame attached to the approval process for me because my self-worth was associated with how well I hid my anxieties, frustrations, insecurities and fears – aka “how tough I was.”

3. It’s ok to say something is hard or difficult for you or others. Anyone not willing to acknowledge how difficult things are to others when queried is only putting that negative energy somewhere else to be processed and dealt with.

Remember that it’s ok to express distaste for a situation or a struggle that you are facing. It doesn’t make you a wimp or a slacker. It makes you a human.

The transition from Sci-fi to Sci-fact.

Posted by Rich Harris – December 20, 2011

I don’t know when these things will happen (probably not in my life time), what they will look like, or who will be involved, but all the pieces are now there technologically to achieve any of this. I don’t think the result of what I’m talking about will be like the Terminator movies, THX 1138 or Back to the Future II.

I do think however you’re going to see a world where we frown on excessive amounts of means to get to the desired end. We will get to the point where we cringe at the mere thought of having to factor in too much time and effort spent on the “how” versus the quality and experience of the end result.

With people generating so much content and data about themselves and thousands of algorithms across all types of network platforms and apps making use of human patterns, we make what used to be a futuristic movie idea into a reality. It’s happened before on smaller scales and it’ll continue to happen at an exponentially more rapid pace, year over year.

Down the road….

Personal profile data will be more valuable than we ever thought possible. It will redefine our entire economy, and political structure. It will dismantle and dilute thousands of years of regional cultural traditions across the globe in a fraction of the time it took for them to become what they are today. Over time, every new generation born into the data driven world will care less and less about their ethnicity and culture and more about being entertained and stimulated as quickly as possible with as little effort.

Personal profile data will be bought and sold at a level that far transcends anything any social network could have dreamed up. There will be large black and white markets for personal data that make organizations like Anonymous and Wikileaks look like little kids on a playground, digging around their lunch boxes for treats. The competition for ownership and control of personal data will be the new War on Drugs.

All data will be part of a centralized system – search queries, geo-location/GPS patterns, content upload/download habits, emails, personal and professional online calendars, shopping/consumer trends – of every individual. Eventually it won’t be considered offensive or inappropriate because it’ll just be part of what we are and do and make and consume. Like my generation born into TV’s and automobiles, future generations will be born not knowing what a non-data, non-digital world looks like.

There will be human-esque robots with a Siri-like system built in that records voice patterns when spoken to by its owner. It will learn moods, inflection, etc. so it can make adjustments so that your day goes as smooth as possible.

Siri-like technology will be built into the work we do in certain industries and on a grand scale.

Neighborhoods full of track homes with built-in verbal command systems to run appliances, make coffee, order your groceries for delivery, turn lights/temp on or off, etc. will start popping up and the airwaves will be filled with real estate ads touting the latest generation of “innovation homes.” As a result industries will crumble and new ones will be born. For example, who would need to purchase light switches anymore or dimmers or all the other tactile stuff currently used in the home?

Corporate websites will look like digital ghost towns as they are replaced by branded feeds, mobile apps and channels into your home, transportation and places of employment.

Just like everything else, old generations will deem it ‘bad’ or a ‘loss’ or ‘scary’ or ‘forgetting what’s really important’. New generations will deem it ‘good’ and ‘normal’ and will perceive the older generations as ‘old folks who don’t get it’.

I don’t think any of this is bad or good, it just is.

Twenty Things I Learned at SXSW 2011

Posted by Rich Harris – March 18, 2011

What an exhausting and amazing experience SXSW was this year. I met Dave Grohl. I watched an inspiring and yet heartbreaking documentary on Fishbone. I met many new people, the good, the bad and the douchebag. If you’ve never been to SXSW, there is nothing like it. With music blasting out of every venue, new technology being introduced, and the number of human facets being displayed simultaneously in one city at once is astounding. One hour at SXSW is like 8 hours in real life. It just flies. Anyhow….I had to list some of my observations and experiences here otherwise I’ll never stop buzzing from it. Until next year…

Love it or hate it, here’s my list

  1. Lone Star beer, if consumed gradually over several days, changes your body chemistry, most likely permanently.
  2. Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters crew are some of the nicest guys on the planet. They also put on one of the best rock shows I’ve ever seen.
  3. Hoards of drunk women trying to look sexy walking through mass crowds on cracked streets and brick roads with spiked 6-inch heels is one of the funniest damn things I have ever seen.
  4. Tight V-neck shirts, tight black jeans, white belts and white patent leather boots with a haircut resembling Greg Brady in the late ’70′s is something I will never ever wear. I urge you to do the same. Mick Jagger and others made it look good …..back in ’72 where it belonged.
  5. Not all music industry vets are self-serving thieves and ass clowns. I met some real people and my bleak outlook on the music biz has been lifted slightly.
  6. Fishbone are the biggest, greatest and most uniquely influential band to never make it huge. Their documentary “Every Day Sunshine” is hard to swallow, yet a testament to how many hearts they’ve touched with their unrelenting individuality and talent. There will never be another Fishbone. Ever. They deserve a spot in the Rock’n'Roll Hall of Fame, hands down.
  7. Homeless people would rather have an iPad 2 than food.
  8. Rafael Saadiq’s backup band are some of the funkiest dudes I have ever met. Everything about their playing smells like some of the greatest peak moments in James Brown’s prime funk era.
  9. I’ve always hated hard cider but Strongbow Dry Cider from England was pretty damn good.
  10. Walking around wearing Chuck Taylors on pavement for 6 days straight when you are made out of 268 lbs of  pure pancakes and hot wings does not bode well on the feet, knees, hips, lower back, sanity, or the soul.
  11. Angelo from Fishbone is the snazziest dresser from Jupiter that I’ve ever had the pleasure to photograph or be in the presence of.
  12. There is such thing as shitty BBQ in Texas…. (street vendors)
  13. ATM fees ranging from $4-5 don’t hurt so bad when you are exhausted, parched, and hurting…..until you realize Austin’s desire to make your life ‘convenient’ at SXSW was really just legalized rape.
  14. No one can possibly see everything there is to see at SXSW and still live to tell the tale.
  15. Booth babes never get old.
  16. When an inebriated man dressed as Gumby wandering the streets has something to say, people listen.
  17. If you look like a conservative software engineer at SXSWi, it’s still ok to check out mobile app booths wearing green tights, a cape, and knee high Doc Martens.
  18. I’m glad it only happens once a year.
  19. Always pack 2 extra livers and a spare aorta.
  20. Being around that many people is still electrifying to me. Bands blasting out of every venue, great food and good friends remind me of the importance of being alive, sharing with others, and why I dig it so much.

Until next year.

Onward…..

Favorite Music of 2010: This List Goes to 11

Posted by Rich Harris – December 31, 2010

It’s been a long year with far more peaks than valleys…and thank goodness because 2009 was an asshole. My music choices always ride the wave along with me. Here’s a short list of albums that I’d default to on my iPod, or in iTunes while at work, that did something cool for me while I had them blasting in my ears at “11″.

Some of it is old, some new, but all of it resonated with me on some level that always brought me back for more and I recommend listening to any of these when you have an chance. Their place in this list does not reflect ‘better or worse’….it’s just a list ‘of’, yo.

“Crack The Skye” by Mastodon – These guys rank high in the ‘thinking man’s metal’ category. As a drummer I’m a little biased here but their drummer Brann Dailor is not just phenomenal technically, he does a great job upholding the epic journey that this record was meant to be. He has a way of being loud with finesse, being busy without overdoing it, and being interesting and innovative without sounding cocky. He plays for the sake of playing, and it shows on this record. The two epic tunes that I recommend are “The Czar: Usurper/Escape/Martyr/Spiral” and “The Last Baron.”

“These Four Walls” by We Were Promised Jetpacks – I was told about these guys by some random person on Twitter after posting something about Frightened Rabbit (another great band). These young lads from Scotland write some pretty catchy indie rock with an extremely present Scottish accent in their phrasing and singing. With lot of great lyrics, hooks and quirky yet palpable guitar parts and changes, I’d recommend these guys to anyone that listens to bands like Bloc Party, etc. The catchy tune on here for you radio hit listeners is definitely “Quiet Little Voices” but the ballad on this one that I really dig is “An Almighty Thud.”

“Pixel Revolt” by John Vanderslice - John has been a California/bay area staple for a long time, living (and owning his own recording studio Tiny Telephone) in San Francisco. He’s toured with bands like Death Cab for Cutie and others. He probably has the quirkiest indie rock sound out of all the music I currently own. A mix of electronic sound effects, old vintage instruments, great analog recording, and interesting song writing really make his stuff stand out. He’s great at telling stories in his songs and there’s no shortage of those on this record. My fav song on here is “Plymouth Rock.”

“Come Around Sundown” by Kings of Leon – These guys have always been hit or miss with me on their records. Some songs are really amazing and then all the others feel like filler or are just kinda boring. After the huge success of the previous record, this one they definitely went above and beyond, with big epic choruses and production. Even though their singer’s raspy voice can get to me after half a record, the song “Pyro” on this latest release is amazing. The video for it is really moving as well. This record, more than the others, is worth a full album purchase.

“Wrath” by Lamb of God – I embrace the fact that at the core, I will always be a metalhead. This record reminds me why every time. Pardon the additional drum bias here but Chris Adler is one of the most solid, creative, and aggressive sounding metal drummers out there. What really makes this record for me is the combo of Chris’ drumming and their single-note guitar riffs on the lower strings that are just plain pissed off. These guys got all the groove, aggression and riffery that Slipknot has but without the sonic chaos element. This record is straight up amazing.

“Death to The Pixies” by The Pixies – I have to admit that I’m a late bloomer to these guys. I know that Frank Black and crew are one of the original gangsters of their sound/genre and it didn’t even really click with me until a friend put them on a mix CD and had me watch Fight Club again. After listening to “Where is my Mind?” about 800 times I finally bought this record and ended up really digging almost every song, start to finish.

“Sigh No More” by Mumford & Sons – I just got into this other Scottish group over the last month or so and I listen to this record at least 5-6 times a week. Their sound is kind of a raucous/folky sound with great vocal harmonies and an organic punk rock vibe on a couple tunes. They make great use of the banjo on some of the bigger choruses. I heard they’re amazing live and I can’t wait to catch a show.

“On Approach” by Everest – A friend of mine sent me the video for their tune “Let Go” and I was hooked. The drummer did the vocals and still maintained a solid groove which is tough. He’s got a great voice and his vocal tone is similar to the guy from Train but with a way looser feel. Lots of really thoughtful songwriting on this record.

“Renegades” by Rage Against The Machine – I’ve been a huge RATM fan since their self-titled came out but more for the grooves and riffs than the politics. Brad, Tim and Tom hold down the biggest riffs between them that I’ve ever seen from a trio of musicians. Their grooves bounce 50,000 fans at the same time at any live show with no tricks or extra touring guitarists added into the mix. This record is them doing a bunch of covers. Normally I shy away from that type of thing but I have to say their choice of covers on this one is excellent. The one particular song on this album that kicked me in the head the hardest was their cover of Cypress Hill’s “How I Could Just Kill A Man.” If you have ANY sense of groove, the chorus in this version of that song will blow your mind.

“The Ortolan” by The Deadly Syndrome – These guys were up-sold to me on Pandora with their song “I Hope I Become A Ghost”. They definitely fall into the folk/indie category and do a great job mixing in piano, quirky acoustic guitar parts and groove.

“Slowhole to China” by Clutch - I’ve never heard a hard rock band like Clutch. They take the best of the blues, funk, hard guitar rock, a few martians from outer space, and then deep fry them in the back of a rusty 1970′s pick up truck somewhere in the south. This record, containing a bunch of rare and unreleased tracks, is one of the most groove-oriented hard rock albums I’ve heard in a long time. If you listen the title track “Slowhole to China” and allow the heavy Zeppelin-esque riff set in after the intial intro, you will not be dissappointed. Your head will start moving and you’ll want to punch stuff. I can’t get enough of Clutch.

Onward.

Prop 19: The New California [a theoretical jaunt]

Posted by Rich Harris – October 28, 2010

I don’t have any answers, but I have lots of questions and an imagination.

I was born and raised in this state. I’m not offended by the responsible use of alcohol or marijuana. But man, let’s face it….it’s a seriously crazy and interesting time right now in California. With people publicly smoking weed in the stands in San Francisco during this year’s World Series while state authority figures look the other way. Fans are practically smoking alongside the players themselves…..With voting just around the corner and Proposition 19 on the ballot, I wasn’t just pondering how publicly stoned  the general population might soon become (which may or may not even be the case), but I’ve been more pondering the effects on our economic and social culture and how it will be affected by the legalization/decriminalization of the substance here in this state. We have spent decades building industries, advertising, brands, lifestyles, the way we cook and serve food, and everyday purchasing decisions around alcohol consumption. We did the same with cigarettes and now are spending millions trying to get people to quit smoking and stop feeding the ultimate poster child for greed and gluttony that is Phillip-Morris. The ramifications, both short and long-term, of Prop 19 passing, are interesting to conceptualize and I think ripple much wider and deeper than most are really considering.

I’ll outline a few thoughts, guesses and speculations below. My disclaimer here is that I’m not suggesting you vote yes OR no. That’s up to you. This post isn’t so much about my opinion on the matter as much as it is just envisioning what a state I lived in my whole life would look like in a culture that has legalized pot layered into it’s everyday. I’ve been contemplating recently, all the little facets and details of American culture that might be affected by true legalization. For the sake of apropos word choice, it’s a trip.

Let’s assume that we live in a ‘Prop 19 passed’ world where the Feds don’t do anything, plead the fifth with a refusal to publicly condemn or embrace what California is trying to do, so they can sit back and observe and let us run our own experimental petrie dish, opening it up for US corporations to exploit California’s new mind-altering landscape, firing on all bong-shaped cylinders….. What might the ‘New California‘ look like? Take everything you’ve seen, done, experienced online and off, in the media, the workplace, on TV in a bar or restaurant, that had alcohol in the picture and replace every drink with a pipe or joint in hand. Replace every beer pitcher with a hookah. Now tie industries, commercialism, sex appeal, peer pressure, news feeds, social media content, discussions, stock prices of companies, retail merchandise, signs in airplanes, episodes of COPS, SNL sketches, and more….to the fact that it’s now legal and a functional integrated layer of our social lives. It might drastically change the nature of our decompression time at home or on vacation if you replace beer and cocktails with it. Think about all the industry and employment and job types this would affect, alter, destroy and create. Will beer bottle manufacturing facilities slowly be nudged aside to make room for smoke accessory manufacturing and assembly lines? How will crime and the ebb and flow of human statistics be altered month over month when it comes to prison time, car accidents, drug use, productivity at work and in school? Will teaching methods change? What kinds of things, good and bad, would happen to California and it’s residents if we could just stroll into Jim Bob’s Grog Shop to pick up a pack of marijuana cigs and 8 bags of Cool Ranch (instead of the normal 1 or 2)?

In my opinion the legalization of this could completely reshape our commercial economy as we know it and open thousands of minds while simultaneously closing thousands of others. I have a bunch of questions about what that would look like for us California residents. I hope those of you that live here are at least thinking about it too before you hit the voting booth.

What about tourism? “Welcome to California, the Golden State of the harvest….grapes, citrus and buds oh my.” Wine-tasting won’t be the only popular road trip into the Napa Valley. Will Disneyland start selling hemp-woven Mickey Mouse ears to the kiddies in an effort to be more ‘green’ while poppa picks up a sno-cone and a skunk-infused churro from cart #14 in Frontier Land? Those slightly campy state-funded commercials with The Terminator and The Shriver (Maria) about ‘coming to California to visit or live‘ might have a different zing to them.

What about family gatherings and the mix of older generations and newer generations under the same roof? Will grampa be outside drinking a beer or Scotch or glass of wine while his 22 year old grandson smokes a bowl while they catch up on life? How would that look and would it play out smoothly or would it introduce a new struggle within family structures, belief systems, and generational gaps? If it’s legal, a drinking man of an older generation that was raised on the media plague of ‘reefer madness’ SHOULD technically be able to embrace a pot-smoking man of a newer generation because no law is broken, right? But would that old man be able to change the goggles that he has used to view the world and his family & friends for so many decades to new more updated ones so that he can still feel comfortable chatting it up with his pot-smoking grandsons at the next BBQ? When there’s a function or gathering that is heavily religious but includes alcohol consumption – i.e. wedding, etc. – will people only be offended by the pot smoke break guy and not the cigarette smoke break guy?

What about the social ramifications both online and off for adults and teens? Will the nature of photos, videos, Facebook statuses and Tweets start to take a different shape and if they do, what would that look like? I wonder if, because everyone posts a picture of everything they are excited about on Facebook – food, alcohol, parties, kids, events, travel, art… – we’ll now see thousands of pictures of someone’s new purple stash they just picked up. Will this content make or break connections with people emotionally and shift the nature of Facebook’s effect on how we’ve all started connecting with each other. Will it destroy friendships or create new ones? Will they have to add the ‘pot smoker’ option to dating site profiles?

My brain wormholes so deep into the different segments of our society in an effort to try and understand and speculate on the ramifications of a pot-legal state. What do you think about or envision to be a new reality if Prop 19 were to pass? Are you only focusing on the negative or the positive and why?

Onward.

The Self-Authorization of Our Own Digital Cloning

Posted by Rich Harris – September 9, 2010

After the launch of Facebook Places, and seeing it show up as part of my most used social app, Facebook, I was reminded of something that is becoming increasingly important for us to realize and remember. We are witnessing the early stages of the ultimate convergence of sociology, human behavior, and billions of data packets sailing over millions of miles of network cables. Like it or not, Facebook is bigger in concept and theory than Mark “The Zuckster” Zuckerberg could ever understand, bigger than the ‘original internet’ ever had a shot at being, now that data is finally able to be humanized.

One almost humorous observation I’ve made is that the same people who complain or are fearful of this are the same ones that are also contributing to it, whether they realize it, like it, hate it, or not. Every time you update your status about what you had for dinner, your struggles as a parent, how much you like your job, when you last went to Disneyland and how fun it was, etc. –  algorithms collect, organize and attempt to construct a ‘virtual you’ over time period that can be stored in a multitude of ways, deconstructed by ad agencies and reconstructed as needed to serve you content that they hope will be as close to your heart strings as possible. Because you have provided the data about yourself from your own brain and fingertips, this content statistically has a higher and higher percent chance of resonating with you as time goes on after they measure your continued responses. As we continue to voluntarily provide more insight into our likes, dislikes and fears. We are constructing a virtual version or copy of humanity in the form of patterns that fill up a multitude of databases. Unless you are in high-tech, this happens without the majority of us even realizing it because we are distracted by our own emotions and the day to day stresses of life and onslaught of news feeds that now pour in from every direction. We also aren’t taught to think about the web that way.

I’m sure I sound like a whack job (and to some extent I am) but a simpler way to describe it is this (I’m sure most of you have seen this before): When you see a new animated movie come out like Avatar, their goal is to as accurately as possible, recreate realistic human physical motion and movement so that the characters look as authentic as possible and are believable. In a production studio, they do so by making the actors wear a body suit covered in sensors that connect up to a computer program. They then have the actor do certain movements for the movie to support various scenes, etc. While they are moving around, the sensors are recording these movements and it creates a 3D image of those movements on the screen, completing a virtual version of that person and their physical/movement characteristics. The social monopolization of the web is doing the exact same thing except it’s with human behavior on a global scale. By creating an account on a social network or site so that we can willingly populate it with content from our daily lives and true selves, we have officially authorized the creation of digital clones of us as a species by companies so that it can be utilized for business and science.

Fortunately, computers aren’t capable of creating emotion via chemicals and hormones by the nanosecond like we are so ‘rise of the machines’ ain’t happening anytime soon….but hey, it’s fascinating shit.

Onward.

Second Harvest Food Bank Gets Social

Posted by Rich Harris – June 25, 2010

Second Harvest Food Bank has been around since 1972 and has raised 125 million pounds of food since it began it’s mission. Today, it’s one of the largest charities combating hunger in the continental United States. SHFB for years has always built their network and team members from the ground up, by word of mouth. In this day and age, the tools available for non-profits like SHFB, can build that following 50 times as fast. Sites & tools like Facebook and Twitter are both amazing environments for fostering awareness for charities and spreading the good word of helping others quickly and virally. In Santa Cruz, CA, local business man of 25+ years Danny Keith has recently accepted a spot working for SHFB, providing guidance and a strategy for utilizing today’s social media communication channels to spread the word.

47Project: So who are you and what do you do for Second Harvest Food Bank?

DK: My name is Danny Keith, I founded Grind Out Hunger with Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Cruz County and I am most recently the Development Officer for Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Cruz County.

47Project: How are you using social media to help the SHFB raise awareness?

DK: In my day job the realization of becoming the voice for your brands so your community can drive your message and support or alter it based on how they see your brand. I applied these same principals when I launched http://www.grindouthunger.org and I found that the laws of social apply universally across all aspects. After an extremely successful year with Grind Out Hunger in 2009 and the subsequent traditional and social media it received, I then begin to analyze the existence of of TheFoodBank.org’s website and realized it needed a voice. They already had started a Facebook Fan Page and were using YouTube, Twitter and Vimeo moderately. I came in and syndicated all to cross pollinate each other and create a circle of social. We then branded and begin to implement the push, while bringing the social items directly to the front page of the website. At this point the creation of a WordPress Multi-User platform to set the stage for Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Cruz County to become their own media channel through http://www.thefoodbank.org all while tying in the social activity to tell the story.

47Project: Has it been a challenge trying get online communities to follow SH F B and it’s initiatives? If so, why do you think?

DK: Actually it has been well received, and honestly taken off virally allot quicker than some of my for profit ventures. Non-profits in general are doing such great things at a frequency that creates the need for social even more. Non-profits really are their own best media outlet.

47Project: What have been some of your biggest social media successes so far?

DK: With Second Harvest Food Bank it was the rapid acquisition of fans through our Facebook Fan Page http://www.facebook.com/secondharvestsantacruz from 300 users to over 1000 within 5 weeks.

47Project: What is the end result you are hoping for after all is said and done?

DK: To tell the story loud and proud…Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Cruz County has been on the forefront in the non-profit sector distributing half of its monthly distribution as fresh fruits and vegetables (one of the few food banks in the Nation to lay such claim) while also working with agencies to simplify the processes to get help within the community (On staff WIC and Food Stamp agents help with the process) and educating the recipients of the food around the importance of nutrition. All while servicing over 180 different food distribution agencies within Santa Cruz County. Alarmingly allot of this great work was under exposed mainly due to lack of a social channel to promote it to the community that it services.  Raising money is aˇlways the focus at Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Cruz County, the “ask” is happening differently now. What used to be a mail in donation or a face to face has become electronic, anonymous and instant. My goal is to increase the micro ask (individuals donating $1 to $10) electronically to support the expanding need Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Cruz County is experiencing.

47Project: Are there any SHFB events or announcements you’d like to mention?

DK: Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Cruz County has divided its year in two. 1st half of year is scheduled Food For Children and then second half of the year is Holiday Food Drive. I would just implore people to take a moment and reflect on the hardships others are experiencing, especially around food insecurity. Please donate if you can whether it be food, money or your time…it all makes a difference.

For More Information:

Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Cruz on Facebook

GrindOutHunger.org

FeedingAmerica.org

Fatherhood

Posted by Rich Harris – June 20, 2010

I can’t think of a bigger honor for a man than that of the opportunity to be a father.

The honor of being a father is filled with the most extreme rewards and challenges. Before you are a parent and are in the stage of thinking about being one, you are concentrating on all the joys and trials that are written about in parenting magazines, books, and articles. You are juggling all the scenarios of love and strain that you’ve witnessed with other family members or close friends that have kids when you are visiting each other. You have a list of ideals you hold onto based on how you were raised and all the things you plan on instilling in your children, or not instilling in them.

When they enter the world though, something starts to happen that we fathers aren’t prepared for. It’s the biggest gift that my boys have given me thus far. It’s a gift that can’t be taught in a class, written in a book, or learned and prospered from by any other means than to actually experience it for yourself.

Raising my 3 boys has taught me what unconditional love really is. During my time as a father I’ve been not only blessed with the opportunity to raise my sons to be humble, respectful men, but also to have these 3 young people in my life that love me in a way that no one other than God could. That is something that continues to blow my mind, break down emotional struggles from my own childhood, and allow me the opportunity to reconstruct who I am as a man from the ground up, the opportunity to aspire to be at least close to what I know they are gonna be. No advice, counselor, good friend, or other family member could do that for me like my own sons have. For that I’m eternally grateful and humbled. I love you Simon, Ethan and Liam and look forward to a long life with you guys.

Happy Father’s Day to all you involved fathers, stepfathers, grandfathers and anyone else that has stepped up to the plate to take a father figure role in someone’s life. You have one of the most rewarding jobs on the planet. Your impact on future generations is huge.

Onward.

Humanize Your Business Or Fail

Posted by Rich Harris – June 16, 2010

The old school of thought, because historically consumers were so easily wow’d by bright colors and one-way marketing messages, is that the top priority of  your marketing efforts should revolve around your products or services, what they do, what it’s gonna cost them, and why you are the best choice over your competitors and their products or services……oh yeah, and how rad your logo is.

Because profitability for any business comes from human beings making the decision to invest in you or your company, I believe that the old school is now officially backwards and can almost be hurtful to your cause. In the last year or so, the concept unearthed, thanks in large part by the social aspect of the web, is that companies need to spend more time using their market research and user group studies to construct a strategy around presenting their offering as an integral part of someone’s life, rather than as a “great product or service at a great price.”  The “Hey look at me! Look at me!” syndrome that so many companies and business people fall into when they don’t know what else to do with their time and budgets and feel like nothing else was working, is no bueno.

Like It Or Not, Warm Fuzzies = Revenue

I’m not saying the quality of the products or services aren’t a priority. Hell, they have to be if they’re are to successfully become a part of someone’s life, solidifying their purchase decision to make that initial investment in their relationship with you, ensure customer loyalty and retention, and increase the frequency of word of mouth (now more valuable than ever). I’m just saying that assuming quality is already there, the next step is to make sure you are a part of your customer, not just someone they handed over money to for products or services.

If you want to know what I’m talking about, just watch Apple. Love them or hate them, Apple knows how to create the notion that their technology products are seamlessly already part of who you are as a person. The concept of the iPad, and the iPad itself, is a perfect example. It doesn’t matter if you are selling car insurance, lamp shades, financial advice or skateboards, make sure that the presentation layer of your marketing plan does the following:

  • Think about a meaningful situation or experience that is most common among your market segment.
  • Assess which vehicle (YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, blogs) they use most to consume information about your product/service type.
  • Storyboard a campaign that revolves around said meaningful situation/experience.
  • Keep your product (and even sometimes your brand in certain cases) as a background focus of your campaign, the whole time.

The above is how I would handle marketing/campaign methodology in this day and age. Catering to people’s emotions is nothing new in Marketing. Catering to segmented human emotion in a way where they can also interact with you and quickly, followed by easily doing business with you immediately, is new, thanks to the technology and tools. Pull your weight in the relationship with your customer and they’ll stick it out with you, even when your industry or company hit some rough spots.

Onward.

True Philanthropy

Posted by Rich Harris – June 11, 2010

Call it Karma. Call it energy. Call it fellowship. Call it being nice. Call it service. Whatever you call it, I believe that you get what you give in this life. I believe this as it is evident in the opportunities I’ve been given to help others. True philanthropy is not tied to a religion, specific society or culture. It’s not being a hippie living in a close-minded liberal soup of laziness and bullshit and denial. Giving does not have a party affiliation with any demographic or way of life.

Check Your Motivation

True philanthropy only comes from helping others for the sake of helping others, with no internal quest for personal credit, no expectation of social capital gain amongst your peers. I believe that the credit you “expect” to get for helping others is equal to the amount of credit you don’t deserve, on the mere premise that an expectation exists on your behalf.

If your philanthropic work brings you personal monetary gain, directly or intrinsically, and instead of said monetary gain being 100% passed onto another charitable cause or effort, then you have poisoned the well. I would go as far as saying that you are not truly aligned with the purity of “real” philanthropy.

Lastly, helping others out of guilt is not philanthropy as you are only helping to pacify and feed your own demons. This is still “taking.”

A great quote I heard in a very cheesy action movie once was, “A true philanthropist will never put themself in a position where they are taking or personally gaining from those around them.” [Paraphrased]

Little Efforts Make Big Waves

Every day, somewhere, sometime, somehow, there are miniscule opportunities to make a difference in someone’s life, which inturn makes a difference in the lives of others, almost immediately. Little opportunities like these can create a real chain reaction that, while you may never physically see the full result, I guarantee happens on some level, at some percentage. Whether it brightens up someone’s shitty weekday morning, taking that edge off of their workday, or pushes someone else back a few feet from the proverbial edge they may have been on after a slough of things that have gone wrong lately in their life, a menial and quick selfless act on your part can really help tip the scales in a positive direction.

Here are some of the types of things even the busiest people in the universe can carve out time for, supporting a positive paradigm shift in humanity:

1. Offer to buy a stranger a cup of coffee in the morning.

2. Ask or call someone you know randomly and ask them how they are doing and then just listen and validate what they are saying.

3. Anonymously donate $5 to a charity of your choice.

4. Volunteer one hour of your time at a retirement center, home or hospice enviroment and keep an elderly person company for a little bit. Those places are lonely and dismal and our country tends to treat seniors as an annoyance as opposed to respected elders in our communities. It’s a shame.

5. Sponsor a low income or disadvantaged family one holiday season. You’d be surprised what $5 in cheap or donated toys does for a child’s spirit when times are tough. That spirit is contagious enough to lighten even the darkest of households.

We Are All The Same (Still)

There is an energy that exudes from humans every day across the globe, an energy that is constantly trying to synergize and be compatible with itself so that we can all just “get along.” I think in some cases we’ve become so fearful and complacent with one another that our personal insecurities have gotten the best of us. This fear and complacence has gotten us to the point where only physical co-existence is becoming the new “getting along.” What a bummer.

I do believe though that there is more hope in small doses than we are ambitious enough to acknowledge, small things that we, over time, inadvertently take for granted thanks to a perpetually imbalanced “work culture” that drives us full speed on the road to nowhere.

I encourage everyone to randomly and anonymously do something nice for one or more people every once in awhile. It’s easy, cheap, and will start to change you from the inside in a way that, if you aren’t used to it, will surprise you, shock you, make you uncomfortable if you aren’t used to feeling vulnerable, and will possibly break you down in a constructive way emotionally that only a few people have been strong enough to accept and experience….and those that have, see the world differently than most of us.

Onward.

Like A Population of Over-Stimulated Newborns

Posted by Rich Harris – June 10, 2010

Recently, a friend of mine, Bill Pennington (@blazing_b on Twitter) shared an amazing reminder of an article called “The No. 1 Habit of Highly Creative People.” I really got to thinking a lot about this, and all the really creative people I know that have been successful in flourishing within the confines of their right-brain (the more complex, amorphous and sometimes torrential, side of our intellect – my opinion of course).

Our Culture

The average American adult spends 8 1/2 hours a day staring into screens. We have gotten down on our knees and ripped the faucet off the water main of information with mouths and hands wide open. By majority, we are a culture of people in a constant state of waiting for the next thing to do, the next thing to react to, to eat, to drink, to socialize, to attend, to take care of, to engage on whatever level enough to prompt us to feel like we know what we’re supposed to do next while we are awake. I truly believe it’s NOT human nature that we are control freaks with how much idle time we allow. I believe we are taught by our environment how to, and why we should limit our solitude, deviate from it, stay misinformed on how to leverage it for personal growth. We do this out of fear. To us I think deep down we know that solitude is the ultimate place of vulnerability, where we are forced to face the truth, ourselves, with no distraction, and it’s uncomfortable.

I think our full tilt culture lacks balance in a way that creates more unnecessary stress, turmoil, and bad decision-making than we give it credit for. We are feeding our brains a TON of info without allowing them enough time to process what we’re taking in, apply it to our psyche the way it’s meant to be physiologically and emotionally applied, and then purge the excess “noise” from our short-term memories so that we can move onto the next thing.

Our Brains

The Similarity Between Mental & Physical Process

The average American eats about 1,800 pounds of food per year, or about five pounds per day.

Our brains are the digestive systems of information. Our actual digestive systems are a process, a series of required steps to do their job correctly, only beneficial if all steps are allowed to happen. Just like when we consume food and beverages, we chew it, swallow it, digest it – methodically processing and getting all required nutrients where possible and then disposing of the unnecessary.

Now if, relatively speaking of course, we ate 100 times the amount of food we normally do, for one day (500 pounds vs. 5 pounds), but only allowing our bodies to only process and dispose of it at the same frequency we do on an average day when we ate only 5 pounds of food, what would happen? Would our body adjust and allow more throughput to accomodate the massive increase in regular input (food)? Would our stomach eventually learn to produce a 100 times more acid to break down food faster? Would our intestines eventually adjust, able to work 100 times harder to absorb nutrients? Would our bodies eventually be able exploit and take advantage of 100 times the intake of vitamins from those nutrients? Would we be able to eventually expel 100 times more waste after processing? I know that’s a little graphic but you get my point.

My Answer: Hell NO it wouldn’t.

Our bodies would shut down. Heart attacks, strokes, bursting organs, and aneurisms would dominate the mortality charts of the U.S. Department of Health within 48 hours. The reason for this is that our bodies are designed for a certain amount of input within a range, a range whose boundaries guarantee the survival of our species. It is to this point, I believe that our brains have their own set of limitations as well when it comes to input. The Information Age has really put humanity’s processing power to the test. [I went into more detail on my opinion about this test in this post.]

Our Capacity for Input, The Natural Limitations

SMS, Facebook, IM, Email, RSS, Breaking News from 100 sources at within seconds via web, smartphone, and now iPads and other tablet computers, is now becoming a normal way of life. To boot, that is all information that blasts us in the side of the skull OUTSIDE the face-to-face part of our daily lives (raising children, having significant others, working in an office with other professionals, talking to friends, doing dishes and laundry, et al.).

I do believe that we’ve been able to adjust quite well to the amount of information now instantly available via computer and phone. But I still think that we have limits that we are inadvertently overlooking. The implementation of boundaries supporting these limitations is our responsibility and is only possible with balance.

Solitude & Balance

The sister post to the one about Creativity on ZenHabits.net was called “The Lost Art of Solitude.“ What an amazing post this was. And until I applied it to my life over the last year or so, I had no idea how important this was for our daily existence.

I’m a single dad with 3 sons that I have half the week. I have a challenging and busy (sometimes more than full time) corporate job that I spend at least 45-50 hours a week on, sometimes more depending on what’s going on, and I’m in a band (95% fun, 5% work). Whether it’s fun or work, it’s all activity, input requiring a response or some tending to from me.

When I started carving out one day a week for solitude, it was a dramatic visceral experience at first. I equate it with me freeing up a traffic jam of information, a gridlock made of of millions of cars filled with frustrated drivers and passengers waiting to get through to reach their final destination. When I allowed myself to be alone for a day, letting some of these proverbial cars through, I was not only able to start processing what I had experienced during the week, I was also freeing up issues and thoughts, good and bad, in my brain that had been buried for a LONG time, issues that were long overdue for some TLC.

I found that the most significant shifts in development as a person, both personally and professionally, happen when I’m alone, giving myself some time to process life’s input. I end up more inspired, more grounded, more clear-headed, more patient, and more thoughtful in everything I do, even if I just give myself one day, or even one evening a week.

I highly recommend to anyone that they schedule some time for themselves if they don’t already. I don’t believe people should always be alone and not socialize. Just make sure to balance them. The better you balance socializing and solitude, the more you’ll get out of both.

Onward.

[image borrowed humbly from distractible.org]

Social Media: The Agriculture & Farming Industry

Posted by Rich Harris – June 2, 2010

Jeff Fowle (@JeffFowle on Twitter) and I met at a Twitter conference in Seattle back in early March of this year. He’s a mellow dude and one of the nicest guys I’ve met in a long time. He’s a farmer, Agvocate, family man and a social media guy. After chatting with him in Seattle, I was interested in knowing more about how an industry as organic as his could proliferate an era as digital as the current one. Jeff has been instrumental in doing just that.

I think his bio says it all: “Jeff Fowle is a third generation family farmer and rancher from Etna, California. He and his wife Erin and son Kyle raise registered Angus cattle, Percheron draft horses, warmbloods, alfalfa and alfalfa-grass hay and grain as a rotation. They also start and train horses for riding, jumping, and driving. Their family run ranch has incorporated many environmentally beneficial and water efficient technologies and management strategies.”

NOTE: Jeff was also the Twitterer of the week on last week’s episode of The Quick’n'Dirty Podcast. You can listen to the episode or read the recap.

Here’s the quick interview we did over email.

So who are you and what do you do?

I’m a 4th generation rancher & farmer, raising the 5th. We raise Angus and Hereford cattle, Percheron Draft horses, Warmbloods, Thoroughbreds, Quarterhorses, alfalfa hay, wheat & pasture.

Jeff, you and I met at 140tc in Seattle and your good friend Ray Prock (@RayLinDairy on Twitter) was explaining to me some of the complexities of farming. I had no idea. Do you get the sense that most consumers don’t know much about where their food comes from and how it got onto their dinner table?

Over 90% of Americans are at least 2 generations removed from the farm or ranch. This generational gap presents a situation where the average person no longer understands what is involved in order to get that food to their table, let alone a clear idea of where it came from.

What is the most common misconception about the farming industry and those that work in it?

I think the most common misconception is that “farmers don’t care.” Main stream media carries a few negative stories and assumption by the public is that “all of ag” is like that. Reality is that farmers & ranchers are great stewards of the land and livestock. It is in our best interest to keep the land healthy & productive for future generations and diverse wildlife. Also, livestock that is low stress & happy is healthier and produces more consistently.

How are you using social media to help the farming industry? Educational? Marketing?

I’m using SM for several purposes.

  1. To reach out to people who have questions about where their food comes from & how it is produced.
  2. Address mis-information being spread by those opposing agriculture.
  3. Learn what the perceptions are by the public.
  4. Learn from fellow producers across the country.
  5. Market my own products.

Has it been a challenge trying get the farming community to learn, use, and embrace tools like Twitter and Facebook?

The biggest challenge is overcoming the technology issues. Many farmers & ranchers are still on dial-up which makes most SM applications a challenge.  For those who do have access, its a matter of building confidence & helping them realize that there are folks who are interested in their story and learning how, what and why they do what they do.

What is Agvocacy and what is it about?

Agvocacy is simply the act of promoting agriculture. I believe that we need all types of production in order to meet the future needs of the people. Conventional, organic, natural, farmers markets all will play an important role in continuing to provide safe, wholesome and healthy food for future generations.

What kinds of changes have you seen in the farming industry’s communication culture since you started your social media push?

The biggest learning curve has been in relating to people. Due to mis-information and incorrect assumptions, many people have formed opinions about what we do. We must first listen to their concerns and understand why they believe what they do. Once we understand their perspective we can then discuss their questions rationally and eliminate or at least reduce the likelihood of a confrontation occurring. It is paramount to remain professional and civil in all conversations. Farmers and ranchers have become very cautious and almost numb to attacks, so this is a sign of progress, being able to engage with the public, share the story and have mutual respect.

Any events or announcements you’d like to mention?

The AgChat Foundation will be having some announcements of upcoming events in the next couple of weeks. They will be announced on Twitter, Facebook & also on our website agchat.org.



Leech Marketing: Stop The Algorithmic Madness

Posted by Rich Harris – May 31, 2010

Like most social media peeps, I sit around all day and watch Twitter as a part of my job. I watch several keyword/phrase streams like everyone else, to keep my thumb on the pulse of the business, various industries, market segments and influencers. Lately I’ve been surprised (and a little dissappointed) to see what some of the fairly notable and medium to large companies have been doing, some of which are publicly traded. I’ve covered this and similar observations in a recent rant “Twitter Auto-DM’s: Perpetuating Our Inner Lemming?” which more of a Twitter-specific bitchfest but still lends itself to a bigger issue I’m seeing that is not platform, industry, or era-specific. I don’t think this issue will ever really go away because there will always be a layer of misguided marketers and businesses doing things that are just lame, hoping to capitalize on customers that haven’t been trained to think for themselves as consumers (yet).

In this world there are three types of people:

  1. Givers
  2. Takers
  3. Those that know the importance of balancing being both.

In business it’s no different.

What is Leech Marketing?

In the social media/web world, to me leech marketing is basically the effort behind leveraging search algorithms to make quick money from uninformed customers with no concern for the real long-tail value of one’s business or industry. The unfortunate effect of this behavior is that it brings down the social capital value of those businesses that are doing social the right way for the right reasons. So to explain what the hell I’m really talking about here, these are a few (of many) leech methods, sucking the value out of social media by muddying the waters of our intended target audiences.

Irrelevant Hashtagging

This definitely can make trying to do business on Twitter (the right way) more time consuming as you watch keyword/phrase streams, trying to follow current market segment-specific conversations as well as unearthing new potential markets. People are hashtagging business-related tweets by top ten Twitter trending topics rather than relevancy to one’s target audience in an effort expose a ‘conversation’ to new randoms, more shotgunning.

Unfortunately (and statistically) your ROI will not only suck, but you are actually hurting other businesses that aren’t even in your space. This will NOT give you a competitive edge and additionally makes you (personal brand) or your company look desperate and clueless. You want to be the company that looks like you are smarter and wiser than everyone else, that you’ve risen above it all, focusing on what’s really important. Here’s what I’m talking about.

Examples:

Say you want to sell your Canon point-and-shoot camera on Craigslist……

  • Good: “Selling my point-and-shoot camera. DM me if interested. LINKTOCRAIGSLISTPOST #photography #pointandshoot #photographer #forsale”
  • Bad: “Selling my point-and-shoot camera. DM me if interested. LINKTOCRAIGSLISTPOST #socialmedia #justinbieber #oilspill”

Irrelevant Categorizing/Tagging of Blog Posts is Clutter

Similar to tweet construction, categorizing/tagging blog posts is an art. It’s probably safe to say that since search engines give preference to blogs, I believe that category/tag spam and it’s content irrelevance is responsible for probably a surprising percentage of lost business, wasted bandwidth, wasted time, and overall confusion for customers.

I understand that one way to help proliferate or unearth new customers and markets is to tag posts with keywords/phrases with ‘somewhat relevant’ tags. I think that’s all smart and good, but tagging anything “Justin Bieber” alongside anything other than what’s relevant is what I’m against.

Let’s take the same concept, selling a used Canon point-and-shoot camera on Craigslist, except this time, you write a blog post about it with info about the camera and then linking to your Craigslist entry.

Examples:

  • Good Tagging: “For sale, camera, canon, point and shoot, photography, photographer, used camera, craigslist, beginner camera”
  • Bad Tagging: “canon, camera, photography, oil spill, bp gas, justin bieber, lost, social media”

Above I’m not saying it’s “bad” because it won’t work, however I am saying that you are creating more clutter for the rest of us and hurting online business flow by doing it. This method of tagging reduces the value of search and other social media tools for the business and personal web experience.

Search rankings don’t mean squat without a real conversion that supports the business objective(s).

“Mannequin” Blog Posts, Keyword-Based Post Aggregators – Automated or Manual

A “mannequin” blog post basically consists of the first paragraph or so of an original post, plus the link to the source so you can link back to it. I’m not opposed to this at all as long as the mannequin’d post is relevant to your business/brand and if it only makes up a fairly miniscule portion of your content. Those that have set up websites that in a scripted fashion crawl every blog post with a certain brand name, product type, specific industry keywords/phrases, then in a scripted fashion duplicate the post, creating a blog post and publishing it, is not only wrong for search/business clutter reasons, it’s also one of the many ways the companies sell their soul if that website or process is a documented part of their business plan. It’s weak and not a good foundation for your brand….my opinion of course.

Blind Following, Friending, Liking, Retweeting

Doing any of the above without researching the person/website first to make sure it’s relevant and has intrinsic value to your business and it’s objectives is just dumb. Plain and simple.

Common Sense

On the web, especially nowadays, people and content are data points, data points whose connection and strength lies solely in their relevance. The less relevant, the less valuable. The less valuable, the bigger the reason you shouldn’t do it, but you already know that. :-) Here’s a few other good articles on this stuff. Some old, some new.

How not to use Twitter: HabitatUK as a case study
Why Hashtag Hijacking Is Bad for Everyone
Onward.