Why Chimpwithcans?

I’m sure I chose my website name, “Chimpwithcans”, for a reason. I just can’t think of it right now! Let’s try and figure it out.

Chimps are like us. We are like chimps. We evolved differently from similar ancestors, but our primal make-up (and behaviour) is little different. For example, chimps not only laugh like us, but also smile in silence; they are gourmands, they play, they are aware of the fact that they think and can distinguish between fair and unfair, as well as cultivating friendship.

Despite these similarities, the juxtaposition of a chimp with headphones on is intriguing to me. Can you imagine the infusion of culture, technology and art into the chimps brain through those cans? I like to imagine what the chimpanzee is listening to.

Music appeals to something very base and deep within our human psyches, and sometimes I fantasise that given a couple thousand years of evolution a chimp might get music the same way we do. Imagine how much better we would understand primates if we could dance with them?

Chimpwithcans (and the glorious artwork by Mr Aveling) is therefore about stripping away the complications of our culture and busy lives, and simply letting the music in to our primal core. It hints at imagination, curiosity and submission to the power of music in the ears. It’s how I see myself when i hear a good song.

One for you, 19 for me.

Some lines from songs stick with us. They are memorable and well structured. But, most lines are not. Most lines from most songs fall by the wayside of our memories and attentions.

This is true of all work and creations of course. 99% of our efforts are ‘works in progress’ or sub-standard. There are only a few instances (if we are consistent and hard working) when we strike lightening, gold and rainbows with our work.

It makes sense then to live for those moments, and to hope for them. But also to come to terms with the hard work it takes to get there.

Social Media and Distraction

Life catches up with you. Like a night out stumbling from one bar to another, social media can have no purpose and damage your life if you don’t pay attention. Facebook updates for giggles and laughs is not a long term strategy unless you are a comedian. Chasing likes and shares, while measurable, will not get you anywhere meaningful. It will distract you from making something useful and interesting.

I have gone through peaks and troughs with social media – After becoming disgusted with my online self, I purged all my accounts …and now slowly I am trying again with more purpose. Now I have reached some sort of balance with the following social/web presence to manage:

a personal Facebook profile
a personal Instagram profile
a Chimpwithcans Instagram profile (public – see link)
a Chimpwithcans Facebook page (public feed of this blog and Instagram – see link)
a Chimpwithcans Twitter profile (public feed of this blog – see link)
this blog (public)

Less distraction, more creativity, more intentionality (big word no?).

Autonomy and excitement

I started to draw something for my daughter for her to colour in. I thought that if I helped her with the outline she would like it and the end product, the picture, would be better when we finished. I was wrong. She got frustrated and what she really needed was guidance and encouragement, not a controlling figure.

Hanging out with children can teach us many lessons. This one is huge. Generating excitement and autonomy is WAY more valuable and productive than dictating.

I saw the error of my ways probably a step too late. I gave her the pencil and cheered her on for half of the picture. The messy, 3 year old half of the picture is a thousand times more charming than my interrupted first half of the picture.

Generating excitement is a massive skill worth practicing.

Real life vs. the internal conversations

Maybe it’s to do with my personality type, but I act out scenarios in my head a lot. My imagination then impacts on real life. I convince myself that everyone else has played out the same scenario in THEIR heads. I convince myself that I don’t need to explain anything because they already know!

Of course the probability of two minds being in sync is tiny and this can lead to misunderstandings.

The cure to all this is scary in its simplicity. Talk out loud to people, and ask hard questions even if you think you already know the answer.

Dreaming to doing

I couldn’t sleep last night because of an idea. A business idea. The idea created adrenaline in my body which fueled my heart and my brain which developed the idea further which created more adrenaline! No sleep, but an idea nonetheless.

I have let a lot of ideas go by the wayside. This one I will try and develop though. That’s the hard part. An idea is easy to come up with. Making it work is a lot harder.

Robot

His doubts started with his changing values. Take a look at the things he holds most dear. The opinions, the causes, the risks and the opportunities. He noticed they were not as permanent or as important as he once thought. He found out they are interchangeable. Take out one strongly held belief and swap it, like a battery or a computer chip, for the complete opposite belief. Life goes on.

In fact he is becoming convinced that he is a programmable robot, more than an organic, free, human being. He looks down at his own arms. Is there blood under this skin? Is there a mechanical, robot-arm like Arnie in the Terminator movies? And blood doesn’t count as proof of life. What is “blood” anyways? Liquid full of little micro-robots delivering chemical loads and hormones around his body to keep the robot system in balance.

What would a robot do?

Goals

We’re all told to set goals. Humans are wired to strive for stuff, more-so even than we are for achieving stuff. Once a goal is achieved it’s great for a day or so, then it’s business as usual and a hunt for the next goal. I tried to wrack my brain for some goals I might have:

1 night
1 week
2 months
4 years

Those are the timespans linked with any significant goals I can think of in my life at the moment.

So my big question is: What happens 4 years from now? In the meantime, lots to do 🙂

Happy weekend.

Focus snuck up on me

Today was a good day in a good week. But I’m only realizing now after supper. Strikes me that it often goes that way.

When you are busy, focused and enjoying yourself, almost by definition you stop noticing time pass and stop analyzing what you are doing.

Only looking back now am I surprised at a good patch.

Here’s hoping for more blind, ignorant, closed off, unthinking good patches 😉

They don’t teach you calendars at school

Or maybe it was just that I wasn’t listening – either way, I think this should change.

Who doesn’t know how to keep a calendar? This sounds ridiculous, but it has taken me about 10 years to understand how to use and trust my computer’s calendar. At school, timetables were dished out at the beginning of term, pinned up on walls and referred to by everyone else around me. I could always ask my parents, teachers, friends what was coming up and what was due. I could remember a lot (well, enough) of what was important without needing a reference. The net result is that I never developed the skills to keep my own time. I have never trusted my computer calendars until very recently.

When you start using a calendar though, they build upon themselves. The more you use them, the more dependent you are on them, and then the more you will trust and use them again. You are invested, and that makes the whole system work. In this way calendars are a great example for projects in general. If you want to get a project started, then just start. The mental buy-in is what matters. The same thing seems to apply to relationships, exercise, blogging, working a job, keeping healthy.

That is what no school ever taught me – the importance of mentally buying into a concept, and that you can train yourself to do it in order to get something done.

Seems to me, this mental trick in and of itself is one of the most useful things in the world.