by Lane Wallace
on August 6, 2009
I spent the last few days hiking and kayaking in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, far away from cell phone or Internet coverage. And it reminded me, once again, how important disconnecting from everything is every once in a while. I shouldn’t really need reminding of that fact, at this point in my life. But it’s easy to forget, in the habit of connected life, how much slower life passes, how much more musical and peaceful the world appears, and how restorative a space of time away from human-made noise can be.
Humans are social herd animals, and our community connections have always been our salvation. But social and productive work contacts and tasks also require energy. It may not seem that way, when we’re “in the fray.” But in our overly-connected, instant-response world, solitude and silence have become, if not endangered species, then at least far more rare and precious commodities. Take away the ringing phone and the electronic devices and messages and requests for responses, and it becomes far easier to focus just on the moment you’re in; the current in the river, the sound of the birch trees swaying in the breeze, the thunder of the waterfall just around the corner.
I don’t have scientific data to back this up (although I may now go looking for it!) but I suspect, reflecting on the past few days, that while we developed the ability to multi-task to help our survival (or at least the survival of our species’ young), humans are at their happiest and most peaceful when we can focus on one task at a time. There is a wholeness, an immersion, and a sense of completion that comes from that focus that I never feel when juggling four tasks or demands in the air at once.
Which may at least explain part of the motivation of Roz Savage, a woman who is currently rowing across the Pacific, solo. Not sailing—ROWING. [click to continue…]
by Mike Singer
on August 3, 2009
You may have wondered why “No Map” is part of the name of this Web site. After all, how successful can any entrepreneur or physical adventurer be without a plan?
We think of maps as things we use for guidance, but they’re also things we create. We can’t “know” reality, so instead, we create maps, or models, of our worlds. After a while the use of our maps becomes so habitual that we’re not really aware of the maps at all.
This is a good thing, in some ways. It saves us time and conscious thought. But when it comes to making changes in our lives, or to innovating, it seems like following the familiar routes plotted on our mental maps may not be as useful.
Along these lines, ponder the observation that fuels the premise of A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder:
“Almost every practical exploration of how we can improve our lives, businesses, and societies suggests ways to be either more ordered or differently ordered. Being disordered—and not just less centrally or hierarchically ordered—rarely comes up for consideration.”
Authors Eric Abrahamson and David Freedman then go on to do just that: to consider the benefits of being disordered. Their book is a fascinating read, and their conclusions resonate with this idea of freeing yourself from your maps. Why? Because some disorder, Abrahamson and Freedman explain, leads to better solutions. [click to continue…]
by Emily Branham
on July 28, 2009
People often ask me how and why I got drawn into documenting the life and trials of the extraordinary drag performer, BeBe Zahara Benet. Maybe it’s not completely obvious, but to me it’s pretty simple. It’s because I identify with him on so many levels.
We’re both 6’5″ in flats, we both were raised in Western Africa—oh wait, no—none of that’s true. I’m 5’6″ on a good day, was born and raised in suburban Minnesota, and will never look as good in a dress as BeBe does. But regardless of physical differences, cultural roots, and some specifics of our chosen occupations, I find myself continuously relating to my friend BeBe’s creative and professional journey in a very meaningful way—as would many individuals who set out on one of life’s less conventional paths.
The impetus to start shooting a documentary about drag initially came from a place of fascination. [click to continue…]
by Steve Wallace
on July 24, 2009
Emotionalism is often seen as a shortcoming in human behavior, and rightfully so. I try to be even-keeled when negotiating business transactions and try to maintain the long view when dealing with disputes with vendors and the like. And through the years, that approach has helped me survive all sorts of challenges. But it would be incorrect to say that I’m not emotional—to the contrary. I still get excited by the smallest moments … like the time I was in line at my local grocery and a young women in the next aisle, with biking shorts, a Livestrong wristband and a Dave Mathews t-shirt breathlessly placed just two items on the conveyor belt: a quart of fresh strawberries and a tin of our hot chocolate mix. A short story in the checkout lane; I wanted to jump the aisle, hug her, thank her and find out how the story was going to end.
The life of an entrepreneur can be an emotional roller-coaster—and it ought to be. [click to continue…]
by Lane Wallace
on July 19, 2009
Forty years ago, three humans set out from planet Earth in a tiny capsule and headed for the moon. And 40 years ago tomorrow, two of them landed on its surface, got out of their spacecraft, and walked around a bit. To say it was an adventure would be akin to saying that the Himalayan Mountains are pretty tall hills.
Last Friday, I wrote about the quest for the moon, and some of the lesser-known challenges the NASA crews faced in trying to fulfill that quest, for The Atlantic Monthly. But no other venture I can think of epitomizes the notion of “No Map. No Guide. No Limits.” so well as that extraordinary exploratory feat. So I’m reprinting my Atlantic post here, in honor of the occasion. (The actual moon landing anniversary is tomorrow, but I’m posting this today because NASA is streaming a real-time replay of the Apollo 11 audio recording, even as you read this. So if you want to hear the actual voice transmissions between the Eagle, Tranquility Base, and Mission Control in Houston … and hear Neil Armstrong say “The Eagle has landed,” or “one small step for man …” see the link at the end of this post.)
So without further ado … my post: [click to continue…]
by Lane Wallace
on July 17, 2009
Here at No Map. No Guide. No Limits., we’re always looking for kindred spirits and fellow explorers of new roads and adventures. As well as any practical advice we can find to pass on to anyone who’s undertaking the challenge of charting a new, or self-directed, path.
A friend recently pointed me to a new Web site that fits that category. “What’s Next?”(www.whatsnext.com) is a site focused on providing information to people changing careers, or contemplating that kind of leap. Just launched by Jeremy Koch, who was the head of consumer marketing at Time, Inc. in the early 2000s, it offers various kinds of advice: from financial planning, to finding a life or career coach, to self-assessment guides to help sort through the myriad of career possibilities beyond the horizon. The format is a little busy, but if you’re looking for help in restructuring your career path, it’s worth checking out.
by Lane Wallace
on July 14, 2009
A little while back, we posted a piece about how women and men may differ in their approach to physical adventure and risk (and why men’s bicycles have that potentially hazardous high bar on them). But what about other risks? Is it really all chemical? And how much impact, over how many life fields, does our hard-wiring have?
This piece that ran in the New York Times last fall suggested that testosterone, and the way it plays out in cycles, might actually have contributed to the Wall Street bubble/burst collapse. A more in-depth look at the subject can be found on voxeu.org. (This piece looks at the role testosterone may have played in the crisis, but in context with other factors that influence both personal and group decision-making and behavior. )
But are hormones that influential in how we approach financial risk? Depends who you ask. This study, conducted by the University of Michigan, concluded that hormonal changes might affect how men and women act in competitive trading and bidding situations. [click to continue…]
by Lane Wallace
on July 10, 2009
There’s a fascinating controversy going on over at National Geographic Adventure magazine, related to a story they ran a couple of months ago about Everett Ruess—who was something of a wilderness-adventure equivalent of Amelia Earhart. Ruess was a 20-year-old wanderer, dreamer and poet who left conventional civilization to find beauty and solitude in the wilderness of the American Southwest … and in 1934, disappeared without a trace.
Over the years, Ruess, and the mystery of his disappearance, has developed a cult following very much like the one that is still hunting down hypothetical alternate endings for Amelia Earhart. He’s also become something of a folk hero. Seven books and two documentaries have been devoted to his story and the mystery of his disappearance, and there’s even an annual arts festival named for him in Escalante, Utah. For many people, he’s become an iconic, almost mythical, hero—the young man who eschewed the trappings of manufactured comfort for something more pure, more adventurous, and more true. And whose escape was so successful that we’ve never been able to find him. [click to continue…]
by Lane Wallace
on July 7, 2009
We talk, on this Web site, about taking leaps of faith to follow passions; about how changing course or charting your own course, while not always comfortable, can make a far more happy and fulfilling life path possible. We also talk about the challenges of that type of journey, and how most adventures, entrepreneurial ventures, and other worthy endeavors are generally tougher than we initially think they’re going to be. If you want to summit, you’ve got to really want the mountain, and be tough enough to stick with the climb.
So an article on CNN’s Web site yesterday about people discovering happier career paths after getting laid off, doesn’t come as a surprise to us. Nor does this article, from Sunday’s New York Times, about a start-up company with a really good idea that is still struggling, four years into the effort.
The points aren’t new. But the CNN article offers additional evidence on the positive value of trying something different—even if impetus for the change is involuntary. And the Times piece offers a bit of encouragement for anyone who’s trying to start something new and is finding the going rougher than they anticipated. Even good entrepreneurs, with really good ideas, struggle to find the sunlight.
But the common thread in both the articles, aside from the discomfort involved in the process of creation and change, points—once again—to why all that discomfort is worth it. [click to continue…]
by Lane Wallace
on July 3, 2009
Tomorrow is the 233rd anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Most of us Americans memorized the basic highlights of the Revolution by the 4th grade, if not before. And looking back with the neat certainty that hindsight provides, it can seem an almost inevitable progression of events. Scrappy revolutionaries beat the behemoth, too-slow-to-adapt British Army and Empire, and establish a new, successful nation dedicated to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Roll end credits.
It’s a story that should sound familiar to anyone who’s studied history. But it’s a story that should also sound familiar to anyone who’s studied new-technology entrepreneurism or radical change in any field. The large, established entity, complacent and slow to change (if it’s not broke, why fix it?) is upended by the outside upstart willing and able to be nimble, take risks, and improvise new approaches. Think IBM and Apple. Boeing and Airbus. Japanese electronics.
It’s a fitting analogy—and not only because of the results. Also because, like any innovative, self-funded start-up, the American experiment was fraught with uncertainty, set-backs, dark nights and thorny and complex challenges. No colony had ever successfully separated from its mother country before that time, so there was no map or model to follow, save the British Magna Carta (signed in 1215) and the English Bill of Rights, passed by the British Parliament in 1689. [click to continue…]
