Wednesday Devotion
Framers and Polishers(1)
by Seth Godin
The framer asks the original question, roughs out the starting designs, provokes the new thing.
The polisher finds typos, smooths out the rough edges and helps avoid the silly or expensive error.
Both are important. Unpolished work is hardly worth doing.
Polishing is relentlessly reinforced in school and feels safe. Framing is fraught with risk and thus avoided by many. Too often, we spend our time on a little more polish, instead of investing in the breakthrough that a framer can bring.
Settle into a Posture that is comfortable for you to focus on yesterday, in your mind’s eye.
Remembering yesterday, for what are you grateful?
Remembering yesterday, for what are you not grateful?
Remembering yesterday, when did you feel most connected to God, to family, to your congregation?
Remembering yesterday, when did you feel most disconnected from God, from family, from your congregation?
Focusing on today, who needs you to remember them in prayer?
Focusing on today, who do you need to remember in prayer?
Close your time of remembering and focusing in a way that centers you for the day.
Emotionally Obsolete(2)
by Seth Godin
Innovations often succeed by creating obsolescence.
There’s functional obsolescenc
Functional obsolescence is almost always caused by interactivity–when files or cables or parts or languages don’t connect any longer, they become obsolete.
Far more common is emotional obsolescence. The rage you feel when an improved laptop is announced a week after you bought a new one is an example of this. Your old laptop does everything it used to do, of course, but one reason you bought it was to have the ‘best laptop’ and the launch of a newer model undoes that for you.
Modern architecture has made many existing office buildings emotionally obsolete, because they are no longer the trophies they used to be. A newfangled digital device for audiophiles doesn’t do anything to make old CD players functionally obsolete, but it certainly can shatter the illusion of sound perfection that a stereo lover who doesn’t own one may be experiencing.
Start by realizing that most people who buy a new innovation are not brand new to the market. They buy the new thing as a step up from an old thing. Most hockey equipment is sold to people who already play hockey.
It’s tempting to argue, logically and step by step, why your new product or service is better than the one that’s already on the market. It’s far more likely, though, that your story will resonate most with people who aren’t seeking functionality but instead were happy with the thing they had, but now, thanks to you, believe it has become obsolete. Our neophilia is a powerful desire, and buyer’s remorse is its flip-side.
Matthew 17:1-9 (NRSV)
Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone. As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”