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My ex-wife Amanda used to cut her own hair. But occasionally she’d have her hair done by a professional. She referred to this as having her hair cut by a “real person”? and she’d sometimes say things like: “I really like having my hair cut by a real person.”?

The term caught.

Years after Amanda and I separated, I started using the term “real person”? more broadly. In graduate school, for example, I referred to anyone who was done with school and had a “real”? job as a “real person.”?

But in my mind, being a “real person”? wasn’t just about having a respectable job, it was about . . .

The End of Stepping Stones

So many of us live “stepping stone lives.”? We spend the majority of our waking hours working for goals that are merely stepping stones to other goals. For example:

• We do well in high school so we can get into a good college.
• We do well in college so we can get hired by a good company (or get into a good graduate school).
• We do well at our jobs so we can get even better jobs and make more money.
• We join committees to pad our resumes or impress our bosses.

(Question: what would your life be like if you cut out all the stepping stones?)

So anyway, a few years ago I referred to anyone done with a formal education (who was working full-time) as “a real person.”?

In my mind . . .

• Real people get up between 5 and 7am and go to work on weekdays
• Real people have the weekends off
• Real people own property
• Real people are grown ups
• Real people aren’t what their former selves wanted to be when they grew up
• Real people are married (to other real people) and tend to have children
• Real people don’t get to take a lot of chances
• Real people do not take mini-retirements or engage in long-term travel
• Real people have separate home lives and work lives
• Real people’s daily realities are owned by institutions (their pay, how they spend their time, and what they think abut during their most productive hours are determined by their employers).
• Real people gain legitimacy from schools, institutions, monetary income, etc.

Real people, however, most definitely do not get to . . .

Photo by Fort Photo 
[Note: This post means a lot to me.  It discusses the future of The Growing Life, and of my life.  I’d be sincerely grateful for your thoughts.]

I was home-schooled/unschooled during the 1980s. My parents yanked me from school because I resisted classroom teaching. At a very young age, I somehow knew that the schooling process was bullshit. I knew that my school existed for 100 reasons other than enriching the minds of its students. I somehow knew that my school was there to – as much as anything else – create obedient members of society and slowly habituate students to accept arbitrary rules without question. I could somehow tell that my school was in place to discourage the trouble making that often comes when children start thinking for themselves.

My un-schooling made me somewhat sensitive to . . .

The Weight of Institutionalization

Cognitive diversity is at least as threatened as biodiversity on this planet.
-Ben Dunlap

The weight of institutionalization is the burden we feel when the majority of our productive hours are aligned with an institution’s interest rather than our own. One of the great tragedies of human existence is that so many of us toil for another person, who is in turn toiling for someone else, who is working for someone else’s interest. And on and on. There are entire corporate chains of command comprised of people working for someone else’s interest rather than their own. In far too many cases, there is no there, there.

The weight of institutionalization is perhaps the reason why U.S. workers change jobs roughly every 18 months. We’re searching for another school, another job, another church, or another degree program that will accept us, validate us, engage our unique talents, and give us creative flexibility. We often bounce around in search of institutional acceptance because we cannot accept ourselves.

While many are able to find occupations that are good fits for their lifestyles and talents, there are many people with odd and/or unique combinations of gifts and talents that may never obtain a well-fitting job.Unless they create it.

[Note: Bear with me here at the beginning.  The second half is better than the first].

Conventional wisdom says that a well-balanced meal contains all the major food groups. On the contrary, nutritional research indicates that nutritional balance just isn’t necessary during each meal. Balance among the food groups isn’t even necessary over the course of a day. In fact, nutritionists generally believe that while a diet might not be balanced with regards to a particular day, what’s important is that nutritional balance be achieved over the course of a week (or even two).

What does nutritional balance have to do with life balance?

Just as nutritionists have rethought nutritional balance, I’d like to propose that we start . . .

(Above: The Productivity Ninja playing game cube with the Productivity Zombie)

What’s all this nonsense about productivity ninjas? Seriously people.

The productivity industry’s use of ninja-ness to seem cool works about as well as this kid’s use of gang signs (see left) and rapper chains (see right) to try and seem hip.

Ninjas, rock stars, and computer hackers are cool (well, some of them) but productivity ninjas, productivity rockstars, and productivity hackers? Please.

But perhaps I’m being too harsh (I probably am). Perhaps there’s really a productivity ninja out there. I mean, everyone seems to be talking about him (or her). I’ve spent countless hours in the productivity blogosphere and people are name dropping this ninja left and right.

So maybe there is a ninja out there. If there is, no one seems to know much about him except that he’s really, really productive. Given this situation, I decided to do a little investigating and . . .

Here’s What I’ve Found About the Productivity Ninja

1. He “Rocks” the Computer with Keyboard Shortcuts

Throwing a ninja star is cool. But “rocking” the computer with keyboard shortcuts is about 100 times better. And what’s more productive than learning keyboard shortcuts? Not much. This ninja’s a definite badass.

2. He Might Be Bruce Lee

Photo by Weekly World News

[Note: This post is by no means intended as a rant against the Lifehack blog, which in my view represents a very healthy, holistic, and multifaceted take on the word Lifehack.]

In short, a hacker discovers what is normally hidden to the common man.
-Elf Qrin

If you’re tinkering around in the basement of life, seeing what works, and trying to figure things out, then . . .

You ARE Hacking Life

If you’re getting honest with yourself and trying to make positive changes, then you’re hacking life. It’s that simple. We are not machines with instructions manuals and when it comes to this organic & circuitous black box of a thing we call life, there are only hacks.

If you think for yourself and are trying to build a better life, then you’re hacking life, because the roadmap to a beautiful life isn’t outlined in our DNA and it can’t be discovered through brain scans or science. We’re all just a group of hackers trying to crack this messy, organic, and beautiful thing that is life, and sharing out what we’ve found along the way.

Even if you’re a religious person and believe you’ve found the roadmap or key to everything, you’re hopefully still questioning things and thinking for yourself.

So anyway, I LOVE life hacking. I love tinkering around in the garage of life, exploring the depths of this human experience, and trying to look for the hidden truths and solutions. I also love the DIY ethic, because as far as I’m concerned. . .

Technorati Tags: DIY, DIY philosophy, do It yourself, hacker philosophy, hacking life, life hacker philosophy, life hacks

Contrary to the smack-talking I’ve done about numbered list posts, I recently wrote one for Zen Habits.  It’s called Living the Prolific Life: A How-to Guide.  Haters should note that the article follows several of the rules delineated here.

That’s announcement #1.  Here are 4 more:

1. Kelly Rigby over at She-Power.com recently interviewed me.  The questions were thought-provoking, and a couple were difficult (I dodged at least one of them).  Anyway, Kelly’s one of my favorite blogger’s and I’d definitely recommend checking her out.
2. After reading The Alternative Productivity Manifesto, a good friend recommended that I submit it to ChangeThis.com.  A little investigation left me feeling very impressed with CT, and I ended up taking her advice.  If you enjoyed the Alt. Productivity Manifesto I’d be grateful for your vote (no login required).
3. This post has resulted in far more phone calls than I expected and I’m really sorry if I haven’t gotten back to you yet.  I’ll be returning all calls by the end of next week.
4. I’ve been compiling responses to two questions: (1) "what is productivity to you?" and (2) "what isn’t productivity."  Please email me at TheGrowingLife [at] Gmail [dot] Com (or post your thoughts in the comments) if you’d like to chime in on the discussion. Note: If you’re a blogger, please be sure to send me your blog’s URL so I can link back to you after responses have been complied.

Hope to see you back here tomorrow (I’ll be posting this site’s first video Anti-Hack).

For more enthralling housekeeping posts, consider subscribing to The Growing Life.

I’m on vacation during the first part of this week (posts will resume on Thursday) and have used my free time to talk to some of you.