It’s exam frenzy season here. Three subjects in three days, plus one more further exam the week after. Looking forward to regular posting on here again soon.
Author Archives: Warren Beardall
PhD researcher. Psychology, project and risk management, critical controls, conflict and reframing governance. Life learner, career and academic returner, mental health survival story.
Home Alone
Festive thanks – offline for a few days
Heartfelt thanks to everyone subscribing to my blog. Wishing you all the best of holiday breaks. And best wishes to friends old and new for supporting, sharing, engaging to make distances not so far in lockdown. And my wider network for all manner of project and psychological challenge.
Christmas Day 2021 is day 652 of lockdown for my wife and I. Second Christmas spent away from family. Most keenly felt on this family day. Dare we hope next year will be more the norm of old?
A social media black-out is my plan for a few days now. Sharing our Noel with our wildlife friends. Blogging returning in the New Year.
See you all in 2022…
Is distraction good for you?
Distraction as an action, not a reaction
I am constantly distracted, when I want to be. My early years school reports concluded it was a trait to tame. But these days it is quite intentional. Or at least with my adult brain, I kid myself the same. Because we are each distracted whether we like to be or not.
As I continue to stretch my understanding of projects, and of people, and the paradigms that connect them both, so the distractions constantly bombard my mind. Not that I am unusual. It is the natural tendency of all of us. Part of our innate complexity, the brain’s counterpoint, constantly optioneering. It is only the awareness of this fact that we get to change.
We can train a warrior-like discipline. Learn to control urges and withstand pain. But there is more to this than will-power, at least if we want to be more than just a summation of sub-routines to repeat and engrain.
This is what we can do when meditating. We are taking interest in distraction. Even if that interest is just intending means to not be distracted. Or, we may be learning to positions ourselves behind distraction, sitting along-side it, or taking perspective from it. We may simply be learning to confront it, or finds ways to calm it. Both ancient practices and modern science are informing us we need to spend as much time outwardly focused as we do inwardly aware.
This is also what we do when we communicate. We invite, or attempt to initiate, distraction. We are presenting new perspective to another. We are receiving new perspective from another. We may be sharing or discovering new perspectives with each other. Meditating is one example of an active means of understanding this. Communication is an active way of doing much the same beyond our individual minds.
A distraction reaction, in action
By way of example of this in practice, I offer an observation I wrote in passing in a post on LinkedIn today. At the time, I had been reviewing some documents for work. On my mind were preparations for exams for my MSc in January. Yet my eyes and hands conspired to click onto LinkedIn. Subconsciously, my brain was asking for a dopamine hit to feed the addiction that now claims us all. So this was itself a distraction from the tasks upon my desk.
This is most pertinent to those who say yes too much. It’s important to find yourself doing so, and consider why. If being helpful is your curse, consider what you are not able to do because of all you have agreed to do. Crucially, check if the things you cannot now do are actually more important. Even more importantly, be honest with yourself and challenge your answer. Because behind all of this may be fear of that bigger thing. The more important thing. The thing that is harder to say yes to, maybe closer to your goal. Being busy serving others without clarity of why this is your best path, may be taking a heavy long-term toll.
Chances are the one thing someone has asked you to do that challenges you the most, is the one thing you find reason to say no to.
Saying no more often is step two. Step one is saying yes to those rarer opportunities that you doubt you can do, and that people less regularly request.
Step three is finding your own yes. Then its other people that think twice about saying no, to you.
My observations on LinkedIn 22 Dec 2021
This was my response to a poll on LinkedIn, asking “are you a “YES” person? How often do you say NO?”
It was only from responding to this post, and then returning to a specific query I was fielding, that brought both items together. The recurring project problem I was looking at was one part feeling obliged to say “yes” to even more formal reporting, when their better perspective could be offered by doing more, and reporting less. Which therefore required them to find constructive ways of saying “no”.
Learn how to channel your distractions
This is what we do in every moment of every day. We manage distraction, demands of attention, but in doing so we encourage a lateral connectivity. Each brain is wired slightly differently, nature makes this inevitably the way. We are the aggregation of our experience, and no two are therefore the same. The machinations of experiences creating happenstances that a more mechanised and optimised singular focus would not.
We also have much going on within the brain that is intentionally acting without our awareness. There is no conscious decision-making in temperature control or heart-beat, but nor is there is cognitive function of reading, or recoiling from something hot. We may not even need the brain at all to regulate the gut. We are however, a rarity of biological sets of processes to have some illusion of awareness at all. It is this awareness that enables each of us to compare. To be situationally aware. And by our abstraction of the real, both mull over internally but also externally share.
This is where much of the psychological, philosophical, and neuroscience debate still rages on. There is still plenty of room too for the debates of ethical, moral, theological, and physical. Objective, subjective, or existential.
For me, these are each fascinating discussions and debates. Some have been ebbing and flowing for 2,500 years. It is the cause of much of the distraction I now welcome every day. For it is this awareness of the perspectival, the conflicting, and the nuanced, that keeps me at my desk. Typing away.
Relate better to your distractions. Learn when to say “yes”, and when to say “no”. It is just part of the happenstance we may invite but not intend, in our human way.
Yule – 21st December
Welcoming the new light
As power is handed from old, onto the new Oak King. Or the ushering in a new season of light, as the pagans celebrate morning. Germanic tribes of old would celebrate the Hunt. Traditions that signify prudence towards a winter growing bold. Moving green into the house. Bundled grain hung from trees to feed animals in the cold. Traditions handing routine to ritual to protect all whilst looking toward the new year.
Tradition and custom that comes from the predictable nature of change. One factor amidst many that enabled human projects to thrive year upon year. With planning around seasons giving opportunity to settle and specialise.
It’s easy to think this is how it’s always been. To consider traditions antiquated, mystical, and strange. But all indications now are these days, which have lasted 10,000 years, may be coming towards their long predicted end. As CO2 increases so does the weather range. Climates warming, are climates in change. This is the decade – now two years in – we can make reparations, or choose not to make amends.
What will future versions of us make of the traditions we have commandeered? Will tradition itself be a mystery? Coveted, regretted, no longer valid guides to be adhered. Mother Earth, once the silent predictable friend, less known and now more feared.
Good law project
More news here than in the news
Quick blog to flag this project. A project that seems to be filling a gap in our visibility, addressing behaviours seemingly of importance to us all, and addressing questions of trust. {here}
Get used to the stare
When not looking is the problem
When a child tells a fib it is called out. If the denial continues so does the cross-examination. A behaviour unbecoming is observed. An event becomes a doubt. A little trust temporarily lost.
Visibility | behaviour | trust
This is the basic premise of v | b | t. The less trust we have in someone’s behaviour, the more information we wish to see.
Anyone following my blogs will see this used regularly. It helps me evaluate situations, appropriateness of controls, and direct questions at all level of authority when the level of visibility sought is not in keeping with range of possible behaviour and underlying trust.
Grab any headline in the news and give it a go. It’s surprisingly insightful what the imbalances really show. And disappointingly predictable as to where the easiest points of failure repeatedly go.
About Me
In psychology we are required to look beneath the mask. This blog series is attempting to unmask some hidden parts of projects to engender a more collaborative way.
Find my professional mask here:
49 not out
Birthday meeting today was strictly business
18th December
It was all by the rules. My 49th birthday celebrated in the same manner as the year before. Let them eat cake. Because, as we all know, celebrating is a luxury event that is less important than saving lives.
Just think:
- this time last year there was no party going on at No. 10 either.
- this time tomorrow England may have bettered my 49 not out
- this time next year England may be lifting the World Cup
Warning: some of these claims may be easier to believe than others…
Antibodies or wider immunity response?
A few quotes of hope if you score poorly on antibody tests. Documents links attached. Less likely to be relevant to the immunity-suppressed (like my wife) but some useful information here for others.
people with low levels of antibodies do still appear to be sufficiently protected, particularly against severe disease
Theconversation.com
There is wider immunity response:
Neutralising antibodies are an antibody that is responsible for defending cells from pathogens
[not to be confused with binding antibodies] …binding to a pathogen and alerting the immune system to its presence so white blood cells can be sent to destroy it.
News-medical.net
B-cells and T-cells…the adaptive immune system is slow and can take several days before two key cell types – B cells and T cells – are brought into play.
Once the adaptive immune system has vanquished the invader, a pool of long-lived memory T and B cells are made. These memory lymphocytes remain dormant until the next time they encounter the same pathogen. This time, though, they produce a much faster and stronger immune reaction.
Theconversation.com
We can hope that people with low levels of neutralising antibodies, even after a booster, will therefore be protected by these other immune defences remaining largely undiminished. This, though, is not a given, and we need further studies to measure real-life protection.
Theconversation.com
The article concludes, “levels of infection and disease attributable to omicron to allow rapid, rational public health decisions to be made. Research groups around the world are addressing all these areas and, in the near future, we can expect their reports to make the situation clearer.”
Qualification vs Experience PART 1
To own or apply knowledge
This is a LinkedIn favourite. Click-bait, guaranteed to provoke reaction. It is an ever-valid discussion to return to. In my consulting discussions the debate of demonstrating qualified staff or experience in role is equally divisive. But I have no doubt, experience counts.
PART 2 of this blog will perhaps revisit some past threads of discussion. For now however, I simply want to demonstrate what I think is really being asked. For me this is simply the difference between having and being.
I have blogged about having vs being before. Links will appear at the bottom of this post. Nothing here is new. Dave Snowden regularly speaks of people relying on form when it is process that counts. John Vervaeke runs regular YouTube dialogue presenting these differences as contributors to the meaning crisis.
From a knowledge perspective we can consider this as the difference between acquired and applied learning. In those terms it perhaps becomes self-evident what the difference between qualification and experience reflects. But I will elaborate for clarity.
This can be explained across the categories of visibility | behaviour | trust (v|b|t).
Qualifications v | b | t
visibility | b | t
High visibility. But only visibility of potential. Measurable as standardised evidence to demonstrate that a core knowledge has been achieved. Employers can advertise expectations in standardised language for all potential candidates to self-select against. It also presents benchmarks to aim toward. At the heart of the visibility is the question “is this particular example of human form able to contribute to our process?” In this regard the qualification presents an attribute – a speculative possibility.
v | behaviour | t
Them and us behaviour. This is having mode. Ownership. To have a degree certificate is to own a qualification. To be Associate or Fellow qualified in a professional capacity is to have achieved a demonstration of learning in your craft. This is to have. This is form. It is a material representation of attaining a learning from an institution. It is something that has been acquired. By the application of personal resources of time and money towards gaining something others have offered you as an exchange. The conclusion of which is a necessary demonstration that this acquisition has been successful. A confirmation is awarded based on a manner of pre-determined examination of your account or recall.
v | b | trust
Them and us, as credibility. Trust is inherently placed in the hands of a third-party. These are institutions of learning, academically or otherwise accredited. It thereby increases distance between candidate and employer; prospective service provider and customer. At scale this is organisational accreditation or licence to operate. But such certifications are also an enabler of the defensive decision-maker. Lowering the necessary skill-base of the assessor; reducing decision parameters; optimising short-lists. This trust is assumed. It is therefore fragile, rigid to the framework it reflects, standardised, and potentially subject to abuse.
Experience v | b | t
visibility | b | t
High visibility. Measurable in years, or reputation, or demonstrable by tangible success. Success measurable by metrics of application not acquisition.
v | behaviour | t
Applied know-how is able to be demonstrated. Learning whilst doing and understanding of contextual application in action and deeds. Contextually relevant is therefore more detailed in explanation and demonstration. It can command more respect simply because it is the being part of the process, not simply representing the potential to be.
v | b | trust
A closer approximation of fit to role is possible. It requires a greater ability to share a trust. A trust can be built based upon shared understanding of process. Abstraction by both parties (e.g. employer and employee) who can better empathise with the other, having better modelling in mind of what the process they share as intentions, requires of the other.
A practical example of having or owning knowledge vs applying it
I conclude with a further example of the limited visibility that owned knowledge represents. This is day 643 of lockdown in Casa Beardall. Undoubtedly now my most intense era of knowledge acquisition. One MSc completed, and another underway. Owned knowledge by qualification. But my owned knowledge is accumulating by another metric – by the volume of literature I have acquired. This last 12 months, the calendar year of 2021, I have spent over £1,000 on books. I have accounted for them all. They are listed in the table below. I can claim to have read them all. I do claim to have read most. But all you can seek as validation is visibility e.g., evidence that I physically own them.
Some of these books have been heavy reading. Some almost impenetrable (Kant or more recently Heidegger). Some of the books are just a guide to others. The point is who is to know if I have read them, let alone understood them. But even if I sit an exam to demonstrate an understanding of them, it has no reflection on whether I can apply them to anything meaningful to you or anything worldly at all.
A book seems to me the perfect metaphor as a simplification of this debate. Anyone can own a book. Have this knowledge to hand. It is a literal form of knowledge. But to apply knowledge is to not have it to hand. It is to have it abstractly available in mind. And thereby find means to apply it to something new.
In the zoom age these displays are everywhere. Bookshelves strategically located behind camera shots. Mine included. The academic class more guilty than most. Other than perhaps politicians.
We can display all, but in the end it is application that counts. And experience is the easiest representation of that.
I will conclude the crassness with the following table. Hubris on show.
Having or Being | Form or Process | Acquired or Applied?
A list of books purchased in 2021. A gratuitous display. That demonstrates more of my commitment to charities vs publishers, than it does to how the content may be applied.
| £paid | Title | Ref# |
| £1,172.01 | Total | |
| £803.70 | Subtotal from Oxfam | |
| £36.84 | The goal | amazon |
| £29.99 | Historical Sociology and World History | o51**** |
| £27.07 | What is ancient philosophy? | amazon |
| £24.99 | Language and Social Relations | o50**** |
| £21.95 | Fool’s Gold | amazon |
| £21.38 | Becoming human | amazon |
| £20.00 | Jungian psychoanalysis: Working in the Spirit of Carl Jung | o38**** |
| £20.00 | Conjectures and Refutations by Karl Popper | o51**** |
| £20.00 | William James and the transatlantic conversation | o44**** |
| £19.99 | Social Psychology — 8th Edition | o65**** |
| £19.99 | Psychology and Alchemy | o38**** |
| £19.99 | History of Western Philosophy – Bertrand Russell | o51**** |
| £19.99 | what causes human behaviour – stars, selves or contingencies? | o61**** |
| £19.33 | Essays of Francis Bacon | amazon |
| £16.48 | Karl Jaspers : The origin and goal of history | amazon |
| £15.99 | Kants Critique of Practical Reason | o46**** |
| £15.00 | Representing and Intervening | o51**** |
| £15.00 | Short History Of The Communist Party Of The Soviet Union | o44**** |
| £15.00 | ETHIC of Benedict de Spinoza: Demonstrated in Geometrical Order | o44**** |
| £14.99 | Principles of Brain Dynamics Global State Interactions | o38**** |
| £14.99 | Summa Theologica – Volume 17: Psychology of Human Acts | o33**** |
| £14.99 | Existentialism and Humanism | o33**** |
| £14.99 | Leibniz: Nature and Freedom | o51**** |
| £14.99 | The Psychology of Politics | o61**** |
| £14.99 | The human use of human beings | o61**** |
| £14.99 | The Philosophy of David Hume | o45**** |
| £14.99 | The Freud Jung Letters | o50**** |
| £14.99 | Kant’s Critique of pure reason; translated by Norman Kemp Smith | o45**** |
| £14.99 | Will Hutton – Them and Us – Signed First Edition | o44**** |
| £14.99 | Newman on the Psychology of Faith in the Individual [1928] | o44**** |
| £14.99 | An Introduction to Cognitive Behaviour Therapy: Second Edition | o44**** |
| £14.99 | Joseph Campell’s selected letters 1927-1987 | amazon |
| £14.50 | Josepeh Campbell’s hero with a thousand faces | amazon |
| £14.02 | Joseph Campbell’s pathways to bliss | amazon |
| £13.99 | Being and time | o44**** |
| £13.66 | Your Leadership Legacy : becoming the leader you were meant to be | amazon |
| £13.62 | Tales from two sides of the brain | amazon |
| £12.99 | Megaprojects and Risk: An Anatomy of Ambition | o46**** |
| £12.99 | 1177 BCE : the year civisation collapsed | amazon |
| £12.95 | Explaining the Brain | o44**** |
| £12.15 | Bandit Capitalism : Carillion | amazon |
| £12.00 | Complex/Archetype/Symbol in the Psychology of C.G. Jung | o33**** |
| £11.99 | Imitatio Christi | o46**** |
| £11.98 | The goal of philosophy | amazon |
| £11.94 | Flow | amazon |
| £11.63 | The conciousness instinct | amazon |
| £10.99 | Freedom and belief | o38**** |
| £10.99 | The Essential James Hillman: A blue fire | o44**** |
| £10.00 | The Problems of Philosophy | o33**** |
| £10.00 | The Self and Its Brain: An Argument for Interactionism | o51**** |
| £10.00 | Statistics for psychology | o44**** |
| £10.00 | Vygotsky’s Psychology | o44**** |
| £9.99 | Analyzing Social Science Data | o65**** |
| £9.99 | Ego & Archetype | o38**** |
| £9.99 | Coleridge’s Works – Aids to Reflection – published in 1890 | o51**** |
| £8.99 | Buddhismwithout belief : a contemporary guide to awakening | amazon |
| £8.96 | Applying AI to Project Management | amazon |
| £8.75 | How the Project Management Office can use AI to imporve the bottom line | amazon |
| £8.44 | Gods in Everyman : a new psychology of man’s lives and loves | amazon |
| £8.15 | Risk Savvy | amazon |
| £8.00 | The structure of scientific revolutions | o46**** |
| £8.00 | Routledge philosophy guidebook to Kant and the Critique of pure reason | o44**** |
| £7.99 | The Story of Civilization. Rousseau and Revolution 10. The Protestant North | o46**** |
| £7.99 | Chomsky’s Reflection on Language | o46**** |
| £7.99 | The Conscious Mind In Search of a Fundamental Theory | o38**** |
| £7.99 | The Poetical Works of Shelley | o45**** |
| £7.99 | The desert fathers :sayings of the early christian monks | amazon |
| £7.78 | Who’s in Charge? | amazon |
| £7.50 | Mind and cosmos | o51**** |
| £7.49 | The Vision of Judgment and Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage Cantos III & IV | o51**** |
| £7.49 | Existential Analysis 11.2,12.1 & 13.1 | o50**** |
| £7.19 | The Human Side of Managing Technological Innovation | o46**** |
| £7.01 | Mindfulness | amazon |
| £7.00 | Time – Rhythm and Repose | o38**** |
| £7.00 | The House at Pooh Corner | o33**** |
| £7.00 | Radical priorities | o44**** |
| £7.00 | Mapping The Mind | o44**** |
| £6.99 | Linked | o65**** |
| £6.99 | Foundations of Euclidean and Non-Euclidean Geometry | o46**** |
| £6.99 | The Neurotic Personality of Our Time | o46**** |
| £6.99 | An Essay concerning Human Understanding | o45**** |
| £6.99 | Early Christian writing : the apostellic fathers | amazon |
| £6.71 | Will Durant’s The Story of Philosophy | amazon |
| £5.99 | The Shakespeare Classics: The Taming Of A Shrew | o33**** |
| £5.99 | Critique of the Power of Judgment (2008) | o51**** |
| £5.97 | Critical chain | amazon |
| £5.00 | Mapping the Mind | o51**** |
| £4.99 | Social Psychology: A Study of Human Interaction (1965) | o65**** |
| £4.99 | Two treatises of government | o46**** |
| £4.99 | Rousseau’s Political Writings | o45**** |
| £4.99 | An enquiry concerning human understanding | o45**** |
| £4.99 | Freedom Evolves, Daniel C. Dennett, Penguin Paperback | o44**** |
| £4.99 | Workplace counselling | o44**** |
| £4.84 | Plato : The Republic | amazon |
| £4.79 | Aquinas | o46**** |
| £3.99 | Understanding the Self-Ego Relationship in Clinical Practice | o51**** |
| £3.99 | Mind Watching: Why We Behave the Way We Do | o61**** |
| £3.99 | The Language Instinct: The New Science of Language and the Mind | o45**** |
| £3.99 | The village effect | o44**** |
| £3.00 | Oscar Wilde | o45**** |
| £2.99 | Real Confidence | o44**** |
| £2.99 | The emerald tablet of Hermes | amazon |
| £2.49 | The Science of Passionate Interests: … Tarde’s Economic Anthropology | o51**** |
| £2.49 | The measure of all things | o51**** |
About Me
In psychology we are required to look beneath the mask. This blog series is attempting to unmask some hidden parts of projects to engender a more collaborative way.
Find my professional mask here:
No early release
No antibodies detected
My immuno-suppressed wife gets to stay home some more – as therefore do I. In summary, vaccination is not assurance of immunity. And casa Beardall remains a lockdown zone – day 642
We can confirm that COVID-19 specific Antibodies against SARS-COV-2 – WERE NOT DETECTED.
Email we received today
The sample linked to C-602 was recorded as being NEGATIVE.
REF: ************
A negative result means that no antibodies were detected which specifically bind to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (original variant)
The news we had hoped not to receive. But news we had prepared ourselves for. This was after a third full vaccination. One month ago. Note we can only test for antibodies (not T-Cells).
1 in 10 people are estimated to be have no positive response!!!
The Omicron world moves on. Boosters seem more important than ever. If you have any trust in science to be reported factually then you should read the disclaimer that was offered with our news. Because this is reporting normal response – meaning you.
Here are reasons we were offered for no positive antibody response (which I think need to be updated for third dose and booster)
- It can occur if sampled too soon after a vaccine is given. (Sample no earlier than 2 weeks*, optimally >3 weeks sometimes longer).
- If a response to a vaccine is very poor.
- Only one vaccine was given, (NB An additional dose can significantly increase the outcome).
- The recipient is over 65.
- The patient is immunosuppressed.
- The patient had an underlying medical condition.
The email goes on to advise that not everyone produces spike antibodies in response to a vaccine or infection. The key statement though, I highlight in quotations below:
We know from efficacy studies conducted by the companies that manufacture the vaccines, that the vaccine will not be successful for around 1 in 10 people who receive both doses of the vaccine. Immunosuppressed individuals are usually excluded from efficacy data, as well as other vulnerable groups.
Test lab email information
The email concludes with a suggesting to retest regularly to confirm status. Which seems sound business advice when charging per test.
v | b | t
Get vaccinated. Get boosted. Don’t get complacent.
I think these observations are obvious but it is easy enough to consider your environment and make your own assessment of risk.
visibility | b | t
Be aware. Vaccination is lower risk, not risk free.
v | behaviour | t
Be vigilant and cautious. You have control of your own space, but have in mind the rest. Be aware of the basics. Be aware of those less aware, less considerate, or belligerently defiant. Mask wearing is the easiest means to determine attitude.
v | b | trust
Be responsible for your own actions and safety. Use visibility and behaviour to warrant trust afforded everyone else.
About Me
In psychology we are required to look beneath the mask. This blog series is attempting to unmask some hidden parts of projects to engender a more collaborative way.