compartments undone

I've mentioned E.F. Schumacher's Small is Beautiful on a number of occasions throughout TOA's history - once in a 2017 reading review, and again in a 2018 post. The latter may seem superfluous on first glance, but since I didn't mention intermediate technologies in 2017, I suppose it was only a matter of time before I rectified the omission. Intermediate technology has a certain "official" definition in the context of development economics, but I've managed to distort it over the years into terms I can use within the context of my own life - I now think of it as the achievable short-term target within the process of reaching a larger long-term goal. A recent example came around this time last year when I became interested in doing pistol squats, which is a strength training exercise that resembles a full squat on one leg. I came across a blunt insight while researching the movement - if you can't do a full squat while using both legs, it's simply impossible to do it on one leg; I forgot all about the pistols and turned my attention toward the full squat.

The pandemic must have forced me out of this habit of reframing larger problems in terms of smaller, achievable targets because I was caught-off guard last week by an innocent question - how should hospice volunteers respond when they are uncomfortable with a new resident? The question lingered in the air for a few moments, threatening to become its own example, but I soon realized the problem with the premise - it reminded me of the way I first thought about pistol squats. I think the biggest issue for a hospice volunteer is thinking about the role as some version of life that happens entirely apart from everything else, like trying to support all of your weight on one leg before you can do so on two. It becomes yet another moment where we divide ourselves, leaving our accumulated experience and wisdom at the door; I think compartmentalizing is healthy, but only in brief spells, and always with the intent to reunify as quickly as possible.

One way to think about a challenging situation, like the first few shifts in a new volunteer role, is to frame it like an athlete approaches the game, the student approaches the exam, or the artist approaches the performance; the problems that arise on the big occasion should then inform the rest of your life, which is like training, studying, or rehearsing before the next shift - if you learn on your first assignment that you can't cook, you go home and cultivate those culinary skills in your kitchen. It's all about understanding the big target - becoming a great volunteer - and thinking about it in steps that give us a plan for the day. This is the feedback process, this is the performance improvement approach, this is the commitment to growth and personal development that eludes us when we compartmentalize for too long, which makes it impossible for the volunteer to understand the razor-thin margins between the shift and the rest of his or her life.

life changing books: small is beautiful

Just a quick note before we start today, reader - this is a book I read after I started this blog and thus I've already written about it once before. Here is the link to the official 'reading review' from around this time last year for those interested.

Thanks for reading,

Tim

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Today's post is about a single idea I found particularly powerful when I first read Small Is Beautiful at the end of 2014. This idea was about 'intermediate technologies'. In short, these refer to any tools, ideas, or techniques that must be introduced to bring a person, community, or country from today's state to a more technologically advanced future.

One way I immediately applied this thinking was to the way I started eating vegetables. When I arrived in college, it is fair to state that I had never voluntarily chosen to eat a vegetable. Now, I hadn't actively chosen against it, either - up until then, I never made any decisions about food. If vegetables were served, I would eat them. If not, I ate whatever else was served.

In college, I finally 'opted in' to vegetables. I started by making salads at the buffet-style main dining hall. Like anyone else, I used dressing to make the food more tolerable. Over time, I became accustomed to eating vegetables through these salads.

After college, I made a subtle transition. I read about how salad dressings tend to concentrate calories to an extent that might neutralize the health benefits of the vegetables. Salsa was a better option given its lower caloric density. Since I liked salsa more than dressing anyway, this proved to be an easy switch.

I experimented a little bit over the next few years with other dressing substitutes. Hummus was a good one, ketchup was not. Sliced or crumbled cheese combined with nuts was a good substitute, as well (but did introduce their own set of health questions).

One day, I realized that I didn't want to put anything on the vegetables. I just ate them as they were - raw, steamed, baked, or sir-fried, depending on the exact item. My taste buds did not need the added taste anymore to tolerate the vegetables.

I think this is the best example I have to-date of the 'intermediate technology' in action. My original nutrition state (no vegetables) transitioned to an ideal one (just vegetables). To get there did not require a major boost in willpower - I just lathered on the extra sauces and dips I liked while I waited patiently for my taste buds to grow up.

The way Small Is Beautiful describes intermediate technologies is from the development economics perspective. The main idea is that the future does not arrive tomorrow. Rather, small steps must be taken at the right time to bring people up to speed without losing anyone along the way. These steps - such as transitional job skills programs or anti-corruption measures - are the intermediate steps required to get from today to tomorrow. They don't solve problems on their own and they won't stick around once everyone agrees the problems have been resolved. Rather, they are the ferries that get us from one side of the water to the other.

Footnotes / a brief burst of nostalgia...

0. I could easily still be on the cal-zone diet...

I think if I had tried to change my eating patterns in one fell swoop, I inevitably would have reverted to comfortable and established pre-college eating patterns. Forcing me to eat vegetables when I wasn't already doing so would have been a doomed errand. But for whatever reason, I managed to shepherd myself along and made the right adjustments along the way. Eventually, I reached the original goal without even realizing I had arrived - it was like waking up in the backseat as the car turned into the driveway at the end of a long road trip.