The Rural Voice, 2019-03, Page 12 Winter is meeting season for a lot
of farmers. Sometimes you feel like
you’ve heard it all before, but you
want a day out to connect with other
farmers. Sometimes you signed up in
a moment of weakness and feel
obligated to go. Sometimes you just
want the lunch made by someone
else. And sometimes… there are
speakers listed that you just have to
hear!
That happened to me with Farm
Smart 2019 in Guelph. I was sitting
on the fence about whether to make
the commitment to drive to Guelph
on a cold January Saturday when
John Phipps’ talk on “Better
Worrying” caught my eye. I was so
appreciative that the organizers
thought to bring in someone from the
U.S. just for me!
As it turned out, they scheduled
another session at the same time with
a topic that causes a lot of my
worrying – dealing with grain drying
and storage – so I ended up missing
the “better worrying” talk. Later, I
was able to hear John’s excellent talk
on tools we need to navigate the
future. He argued that having better
tools is a more effective way to deal
with future uncertainty than trying to
predict what might happen. And
having better tools gives us more
confidence that we are well equipped
to deal with unknown challenges and
take on opportunities.
The first tool John discussed dealt
with better managing your mind and
your way of thinking. He suggested
that we each have about five good
decisions in us a day – so we should
ration those and make sure we are
spending our good decisions wisely.
For example, if you eat the same
thing for breakfast every day and
don’t have to waste a decision on
what to have – you have just saved
one decision for something more
important.
He also advised constantly
questioning your thinking and asking
yourself … what would it take to
prove me wrong or change my mind?
“Some of us have three dozen hills
that we are willing to die on. The
more hills you have, the more likely
you are to die,” John pointed out. A
better way is to have no more than
five or six main truths in your life –
be willing to defend those, but be
careful about what you’re willing to
get into a dispute about. Think about
what you’ve become so entrenched
about that you can’t even consider a
different perspective. Paraphrasing
Max Planck, “the truth never
triumphs – its opponents just die out.
Science advances one funeral at a
time.”
In line with this, John talked about
“information optimization”. I like
this one because our biggest
challenge some days is sorting
through the mountains of information
to find the one grain of truth. “Learn
some stats! You need to understand
big data – you cannot dispute it!” he
said. And of course, always look for
the source of information before you
accept it.
Another tip is to challenge our
confirmation bias – that is finding
answers that prove what we already
think. It usually isn’t hard to find
studies and people who agree with
our own way of thinking. But
consider the other side of the story –
when we challenge our own beliefs,
we learn.
Another of John’s tools deals with
history. While we can take some
lessons from the past, we must also
recognize that in some ways the
future will look very different from
what we’ve experienced and we have
to be prepared for that.
George Santayana said that “those
who can’t remember the past are
condemned to repeat it.” John
encouraged us to remember the
1980s – a decade that most remember
as being especially tough on farmers.
“Safety nets save” is one lesson John
reminds us of from that particular
decade. While your mind might jump
automatically to things such as
government programs typically
described as safety nets, John
encourages us to think differently
about the real safety nets in our lives.
John described the “friend effect –
the connections you have with other
people.” He described a study where
researchers took participants to a
remote area, encouraged them to take
a look at the hill right in front of
them and rate how difficult it will be
to climb it. The next week, the
experiment was repeated, only the
second time participants were
encouraged to bring a friend. The
responses showed that people
thought the hill would be 17 per cent
easier to climb with the friend there.
“The mere presence of a friend
standing next to you when you face
the greatest challenges of your life
made a difference. The longer the
friendship, the greater the effect. Old
friends – you can’t make them –
don’t lose old friends – they are what
save you,” he reminded us.
Researchers also found that when a
50-pound back-pack was strapped
on, the friend effect became even
bigger.
However, he cautioned that the
future will look a lot different than
the past in many ways. “Seventy per
cent of you will underestimate your
lifespan. One in seven will live
longer than you wish,” he said. And
technology is changing faster than
we realize. How long will it be
before we don’t even need someone
to drive the tractor or combine. What
will your job as farmers look like
then? Prepare yourself for this march
of technology.
Finally, John argues that good old
fashioned patience is a vital tool we
will need to navigate the future.
Things are getting better faster than a
lot of people think, but as a society,
we have less patience. It doesn’t
matter what the conditions are –
every day you have a choice. “You
can find a way to be happy.” ◊
8 The Rural Voice
We each have
about five
good decisions
a day
Kate farms,
hikes, canoes,
and plays
guitar in
Huron County.
Kate Procter