Navigating a Whackadoodle World: Guidepost Fourteen, or The Power of Indirect Effort
Past and present links to our episodes on Guidepost Fourteen: The Power of Indirect Effort
“You see glum today,” she observed from over her math book.
“Don’t change the subject,” I warned her. “You still keep messing up your Order of Operations.
“But I want to know why you’re so glum.”
“I’m glum because just before you arrived for our tutoring session, I has a Facebook direct message conversation with someone I admire, and whom I had somehow indirectly hurt because of a public comment I made questioning one of her posts. What you have misinterpreted as glum, is just me being thoughtful. It is me reminding myself to be more careful.”
“Your comment indirectly hurt her?”
“It certainly changed how she felt about me,” I nodded. “And it certainly changed how I feel about public Facebook comments.”
“How so?”
“It’s made me realize that Facebook is like a giant party where the whole world is invited. At an actual in-the-flesh party, I would never stand up in the middle of the room, and yell, ‘Hey everyone, can you see the problem in this guy’s thinking?’ No, I would never do that. But on Facebook it’s easy. You send a quick public comment at midnight that points out an inaccuracy, and you wake up the next morning to find that you have indirectly hurt someone.”
“Why do I think that this is really about Guidepost Fourteen: The Power of Indirect Effort?”
“Maybe because it is,” I said. “Nearly everything we do impacts others indirectly. I think we need to remember that.”
Navigating a Whackadoodle World: Episode Fourteen
My student sent me an email three days before before our scheduled session asking if she could be the one to lead our discussion on the Power of Indirect Effort. Since it meant that I would have less to prepare, I was happy to email back, "Sure:-)." Besides, I was kind of curious to see how she would tackle the task.
Navigating a Whackadoodle World: Episode 28, or What to do when you come to the end of a story.
“Why did you call your last rule Indirect Effort when it’s really about understanding things in their context?”
“I believe that I answered that question in my second book when I decided to ask myself the same question. In fact, I believe that the character speaking for Indirect Effort yelled at me for naming her wrong, claiming that I only included her because thirteen is an unlucky number, and I needed one more rule to finish my book to make it a lucky fourteen. Turns out, she was one of my most important rules.”
For those of you who have already read the above episodes, here is a link to our newest episode on the Power of Indirect Effort.
Navigating a Whackadoodle World: Episode 43, or Someday we must all leave the nest if we want to fly.
“Have I mentioned that I will be in dorm housing next semester?” she asked me quietly. “That sounds exciting,” I told her. “Does this mean I am losing a student, or will we go back to my tutoring you online like we did during the pandemic?"...
“Now we remind people that if they know someone who could use the guideposts, they can share this post with a friend,” she reminded me over her shoulder.
“And,” she continued without stopping. “I think we should repost our first epilogue to remind people why we keep cycling through the same rules. Plus, I love the whole thing where you call it a bold and arduous project for navigating life."
“I bow to your will,” I said with a small bow.
Navigating a Whackadoodle World: An Epilogue
"What do we tackle next?" I parroted back, rapping my knuckles on the table. "I should have thought that would be. We must imitate Ben Franklin's 'bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection.'"