The Man Behind The Curtain

Using a 'networked self' to plan and assess your work, life, and passions.

I read an intriguing post by Doug Neill, An Unlikely Pair: The Network Self and the Gantt Chart, where he was inspired to diagram his life using two sorts of charts: a ‘networked self’ and a Gantt chart.

He got part of the idea from Tara McMullin, who offered a 'networked self’ diagram in her book, What Works. She, in turn, borrowed the idea from philosopher Kathleen Wallace. Here’s Tara’s, and then Doug’s:

Tara McMullin’s

Doug Neill’s

Doug explains the positives of this sort of diagram:

• It helps you to not overweight a single identity as you think about how your life is going right now – even if one identity feels stagnant, others might be going great.

• It encourages you to make connections that you might have otherwise missed between your different identities.

• It opens up the door for you to lean into a newer or neglected identity that you’d like to prioritize in the coming months.

As the title of this post suggests, sharing diagrams about your work and passions also pulls the person out from behind the curtain, so others can discern your aims and edges.

Doug found that a connection of his, simply referred to as Julie, had created a Gantt chart with one line for each of her networked identities:

Julie’s Networked Self and Gantt chart

I, in turn was inspired to do something similar, however, I opted for a Starburst chart in lieu of a Gantt.

Here’s my networked self, implemented as an Obsidian canvas:

I left out a lot of secondary aspects of my networked self. For example, I have a steady regime of walking at least 7,500 steps a day, and cook frequently, but I don’t include that here. The chart highlights elements that I think of as primary to my relationship to my world: my loves, passions, and work.

The starburst version — created in Microsoft Excel, since Mac’s Numbers won’t create that sort of chart — weights the various aspects based on a prototypical month of 30 days.

My networked self is dominated by writing, community activism, advising companies, and immediate family.

Writing — As you can see, workfutures.io, my newsletter dedicated to ‘The economics and ecology of work, in a time of accelerating uncertainty in our lives, society, and business’, takes up the largest single tranche of my time and focus. My intention going forward is to focus in three broad areas:

• First, putting ‘the future of work’ (a wildly overused but generally not well defined expression) into the context of workfuture.io’s tagline, specifically focused on the economics of work and its integration into society, politics, and institutions.

• Second, I want to help others to ‘see the way’, by which I mean sharing my perceptions and reasoning about what forces are involved in work, ranging from science (like psychology, behavioral economics, and anthropology), to politics (like unionization, worker’s rights, and antitrust), and the challenges and possibilities of technologies for work (like AI, and communication and coordination tools).

• Last of all, ‘futures thinking’: I want to provide theory and tools for thinking into the future, with work as a principal target.

I also write elsewhere, like workings.co — this newsletter — which is dedicated primarily to chronicling my research and practice with tools for thought, especially Obsidian. I am a regular contributor to a local newspaper in my region — The Highlands Current — and I write elsewhere, such as Reworked, and I’ve written for various companies over the recent years, like Cisco, Microsoft, IBM, Dell, and Sunsama. I write poetry (and have had some published), and I’ve written some songs, as well. My intention is continue that, going forward.

Advisor — I have a long history advising companies, principally tech companies and has worked with dozens over the past decades: Google, Microsoft, IBM, and many start-ups like Freshbooks, Sunsama, and Bit.ly. My plan is to work with one or two per year, no more.

Community Activist — I’m quite involved in my community, especially the city of Beacon New York, where I currently serve on the zoning board of appeals. I was chairman of the Main Street Access Committee for several years, proving community planning and feedback regarding the area around Beacon’s major attraction and asset: Main Street. I’ve served on other committees and organizations in Beacon. I write a newsletter focused on Beacon — beaconstreets.com — but only infrequently, these days.

Family — I’m a dad of three sons — Keenan, Conrad, and Blake — and quite involved with them. I’m also a husband to Sarah, although perhaps I am a more involved father than husband, these days. But after 40 years of marriage, husbanding just comes easier, I guess.

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I suggest that the (minimal) time taken to gin up these sort of charts will be well spent, especially if you share them. Why not let others see the gears and cogs whirring inside, perhaps shedding light on our aspirations and myriad connections to the world?

And, first and foremost, this simple diagramming exercise allows us to take a look in the mirror, and assess the commitments we want to make to our passions.