JumpStart Play-Doh Day (9/16/24)

QUOTE:  The past, like the future, is indefinite and exists only as a spectrum of possibilities. (Stephen Hawking)

MESSAGE:  It’s good to have your crew/posse/PLC so you can (hopefully) get honest feedback on things, like the time I was testing chocolate cake recipes, trying to find the best one. I dished out slices of the one I thought was the clear winner to my people and received various reviews:

ANDREW:  “Delicious!”
MARK:  “Rich chocolate, but the aftertaste is too sweet.”
ETHAN:  “Nice, flavorful cake, with the moisture being a little to the left of center between too dry and too soggy.

​As I thought about those responses, I realized that each of my buddies approached the act of rating and evaluating a cake from different standpoints.

Andrew thought in absolutes.  The cake was either good or bad, and that was enough.  It’s a clear and concise way of thinking, but perhaps can lead to snap judgments?

Mark approached his cake evaluation with a more dualistic perspective - in order for something to exist, the opposite also had to exist.  Maybe they didn’t co-exist, but they each were possible.  I suppose it’s a good way of highlighting differences, but I wonder if focusing on the extremes leads to missing overlap?

Ethan sees things in life as a spectrum, where aspects of the cake could be anywhere between dry and soggy or salty and sweet. It seems like this attitude allows for an acknowledgement of life’s diversity but may make decision making difficult.

THIS WEEK, TRY THIS: As you come across tasks that require evaluation and/or decision making (and there are a TON in teaching!), consider how you view the world.  What about your work buddy or your partner?

DAD JOKE:  What do you call an acid with an attitude?  A mean o' acid