Context Is Critical
December 13, 2019
Daily Pnut’s Tim’s favorite word is context. Context could just be a fancy word for curiosity. But operating without context is in Tim’s perspective one of the biggest sins because it is careless. Context provides meaning. Context provides clarity. Context provides the ability to understand a situation. Context is asking for history in order to understand a situation and how to act.
My second favorite word is followup. Context provides one situational awareness. But intelligence is no good without being acted upon. And work creates more work and work doesn’t get done until it is followed-up because nothing happens the first time. And the only way to ensure an act is completed is by rigorous followup. Followup is a less fancy and less serious way of saying “duty.” And the concept of duty is drilled into cadets at West Point. In fact West Point’s motto leads with duty and then is followed by honor and country.
My third favorite word is feedback. The only way to gauge the efficacy of one’s context and actions is by getting feedback and providing feedback. If I had to distill Stanford’s business school into one word it would be “feedback.” People love giving feedback at the GSB. But feedback isn’t helpful without the context of the relationship. And feedback is useless without followup.
Context is essentially the first three aspects of the OODA loop. Context is observe, orient, and decide. Followup is act. And feedback is what enables one to iteratively improve on the next OODA loop.
These are essentially the elements of my personal operating system. The context here is that I’m trying to share some insights I’ve learned over the past few years. And I’m hoping that this reflection is of interest. Lastly, I’d appreciate any feedback as to if this Pnut Gallery resonated with you or if it’s mumbo-jumbo or just boring and bad.
Secondly, exit polls from the United Kingdom: Election results 2019: Boris Johnson returns to power with big majority (BBC) and Brexit: Boris Johnson to act swiftly in bringing deal back to MPs (Guardian)
Lastly, we are sending a copy of this month’s Atlantic issue to Rob R. who teaches a high school civics course. And also to Suzann L. and Julie G.
“Reality is not a function of the event as event, but of the relationship of that event to past, and future, events.” – Robert Penn Warren
“Write to be understood, speak to be heard, read to grow.” – Lawrence Clark Powell
Our Diets Will Determine the World’s Future
Scientists across the globe have stated that if climate change is to be combatted effectively, the world must reach “peak meat” by 2030. A letter signed by fifty experts of the field stated that in order to reduce the effects of climate change in the future, we must remove massive amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere. The most effective method of doing so would be to move away from current livestock farming methods and to transition agriculture to optimized, plant-based systems.
The scientists called for the agricultural sector to “diversify food production” by replacing animals with foods that have a low impact on the environment, such as grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.The scientists also recommended that grazing land which is no longer suitable to grow plants should be repurposed by restoring native vegetation, which act as a “carbon sinks” – areas and things which absorb more carbon than they produce.
In order to avoid irreversible climate change, CO2 emissions must not exceed 420 billion tonnes before the end of this century, and approximately 720 billion tonnes of CO2 must be removed from the atmosphere to limit global warming to the “safe limit” of 1.5 degree Celsius a year. Despite scientists’ repeated warnings, however, little has been done in the past few years by governments and top officials. If something is not done soon, it may spell the end for more than just our daily intake of meal.
MD VS JD
- Clad in their finest formal attire, hundreds of lawyers pillaged and destroyed equipment at the Lahore cardiology hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan on Wednesday. Riot police were forced to use tear gas canisters, water cannons and batons to disperse the intruders, who had planned the raid on the Punjab Institute of Cardiology as revenge for an attack lead by doctors and staff of the hospital in November.
- Local news media reported that a lawyer had visited the hospital, where his relative was being treated, in late November, and demanded preferential treatment, which escalated into a violent exchange leaving three lawyers injured. Following the initial incident, lawyers carried out a strike and staged a protest demonstration against the police for failing to arrest the doctors involved in the November incident, and on Wednesday took matters into their own hands.
- Officials have reported that three patients died amid the chaos and over 80 lawyers were arrested during the two-hour melee at the hospital on Wednesday. Paramilitary troops have been deployed at important government buildings in Lahore, the provincial capital, to quell further unrest. This incident follows a recurring trend seen in courtrooms and clashes with police forces by lawyers in Pakistan over the past few years. (NYT, $)
From America With (Maybe Too Much) Love
- Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan has been confirmed as the new United States ambassador to Russia after a majority 70-22 Senate vote was confirmed on Thursday. Mr. Sullivan will be replacing Jon Huntsman at the helm of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. Jon Huntsman had announced he would be stepping down from the position in August, and is currently in the running to become governor of Utah, a position he had held a decade ago.
- Sullivan’s coronation comes at a tense time in U.S.-Russia relations that have been damaged by Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and marred by disagreements over Ukraine, Syria and Venezuela. Despite finding a majority vote, many Democrats who had voted against him cited concerns about his judgement and handling in the recent Yovanovitch dismissal case. The Senate is expected to vote on the nomination of Steven Biegun to replace Sullivan as Pompeo’s top deputy. (NBC News)
A DeVostating Blow To Borrowers
- Following the publishing of internal memos that showed Education Secretary Betsy DeVos overruling her department’s findings that student loan borrowers deserve full relief from their loans, she was heavily questioned by the House Democrats.
- More than 200,000 borrowers argue that their colleges lied to them about the job market and potential transferability of their credits. The students argue that they were defrauded and that the Education Department should relieve them of their loans while DeVos believes they should be offered partial relief.
- On Thursday, Betsy DeVos was intensely questioned by House Democrats over her overruling. Democrats took the chance to hurl insults at DeVos with Florida Democrat Frederica Wilson claiming that DeVos was “out to destroy public education.”
- In her rebuttal to the questioning, DeVos presented her plan for partial relief stating that she would provide “fair relief to all borrowers who actually have been harmed.” The relief would be based on their income and the ability to show that they were “financially harmed.” (NPR)
Additional USA News
- House Judiciary Committee Delays Votes On 2 Articles Of Impeachment Until Friday (NPR)
- “She Definitely Has Control Of Everything”: Inside Nancy Pelosi’s 3D Impeachment Chess Game (Vanity Fair)
- ‘We Were Blindsided’: Families Of Extremists Form Group To Fight Hate (NPR)
- Thousands of ‘penis fish’ appear on California beach: Fat innkeeper worms typically burrow under the sand but recent storms have swept away layers, leaving them exposed (Guardian)
- German Telecom Company Chooses Huawei To Start 5G Network Project (NPR)
- Is stress good or bad? It’s actually both: A 100-year-old ‘law’ suggests stress can be both an intellectual and physical performance enhancer – but only up to a point. So how can you find the sweet spot? (BBC)
- Katrina Karkazis: ‘You can’t use testosterone levels to divide people into male or female’ – The cultural anthropologist on why our view of testosterone as the male sex hormone skews both science and society (Guardian)