In the fall of 1972, when David Galenson was a senior economics major at Harvard, he took what he describes as a “gut” course in 17th-century Dutch art. On the first day of class, the professor displayed a stunning image of a Renaissance Madonna and child. “Pablo Picasso did this copy of a Raphael drawing when he was 17 years old,” the professor told the students. “What have you people done lately?” It’s a question we all ask ourselves. What have we done lately? It rattles us each birthday. It surfaces whenever an upstart twentysomething pens a game-changing novel or a 30-year-old tech entrepreneur becomes a billionaire. The question nagged at Galenson for years. In graduate school, he watched brash colleagues write dissertations that earned them quick acclaim and instant tenure, while he sat in the library meticulously tabulating 17th- and 18th-century indentured-servitude records. He eventually found a spot on the University of Chicago’s Nobelist-studded economics faculty, but not as a big-name theorist. He was a colonial economic historian – a utility infielder on a team of Hall of Famers.

Now, however, Galenson might have done something at last, something that could provide hope for legions of late bloomers everywhere. Beavering away in his sunny second-floor office on campus, he has scoured the records of art auctions, counted entries in poetry anthologies, tallied images in art history textbooks – and then sliced and diced the numbers with his econometric ginsu knife. Applying the fiercely analytic, quantitative tools of modern economics, he has reverse engineered ingenuity to reveal the source code of the creative mind.

What he has found is that genius – whether in art or architecture or even business – is not the sole province of 17-year-old Picassos and 22-year-old Andreessens. Instead, it comes in two very different forms, embodied by two very different types of people. “Conceptual innovators,” as Galenson calls them, make bold, dramatic leaps in their disciplines. They do their breakthrough work when they are young. Think Edvard Munch, Herman Melville, and Orson Welles. They make the rest of us feel like also-rans. Then there’s a second character type, someone who’s just as significant but trudging by comparison. Galenson calls this group “experimental innovators.” Geniuses like Auguste Rodin, Mark Twain, and Alfred Hitchcock proceed by a lifetime of trial and error and thus do their important work much later in their careers. Galenson maintains that this duality – conceptualists are from Mars, experimentalists are from Venus – is the core of the creative process. And it applies to virtually every field of intellectual endeavor, from painters and poets to economists.

After a decade of number crunching, Galenson, at the not-so-tender age of 55, has fashioned something audacious and controversial: a unified field theory of creativity. Not bad for a middle-aged guy. What have you done lately?

This is the start of a new movement, the "Do No Harm!" movement.

We seem to be living in a world that is getting meaner every day. Too many of us are only out for ourselves, and we are either oblivious of the harm we cause or we ignore the harm we cause. Could it be because no one taught us otherwise?

Could it be because no one ever asked us to "Do No Harm"?

If we look at just about any endeavor our species has engaged in, it would seem we are unaware of the harm we do to others, or we intentionally do harm for our own gain, and sadly in some cases for our own pleasure and enjoyment.

Since we haven't been taught otherwise we see no harm in doing harm. We cause harm and shrug it off. We cause harm and laugh about it. We cause harm and brag about it.

Worse, our children bear witness to our actions and never learn to do no harm. Above all else we must teach our children, by example and instruction, this simple philosophy of life.

If we are to become a more evolved species we must begin to make better choices and treat each other with more respect, and that includes the other creatures who share this planet and this planet we call home.

We believe that the first and most basic moral law is, "Do no harm!" Why? Because we can feel pain and suffering, we can imagine the pain and suffering of others. Because we can imagine the pain and suffering of others, we can act accordingly.

What does "Do no harm" mean? For some it means arbitrary restrictions of action (not to strike or kill), speech (not to lie or insult), and thought. But what it ultimately means is thoughtful consideration. Do no harm simply means to consider how our actions may affect the world we all share, to be compassionate in our dealings with all creatures, and not to despoil our planet.

Doctors are asked to first do no harm, why not lawyers, businessmen, religious leaders and politicians? Why not us? Why not now?

If we cannot do good and leave this world a better place for being here, the very least we can do is to attempt to do no harm, and leave it no worse than as we found it.

It sounds like a simple idea, because it is a simple idea, but it just may be effective over the long run. Will "Do No Harm" solve all the problems in our world? Perhaps not, but this is an effort to decrease the nastiness in the world and to increase the kindness.

We hope that "Do No Harm" becomes that little voice that guides our actions.

And we hope you will join the movement and pass on the message "Do No Harm." Place it on your web site or use it to sign your e-mails in place of "Yours" or "Regards."

It is not necessary to link to this web page or even to mention the source of the message. This is surely a case where the message is far more important than the messengers. All we ask is that you practice do no harm and take every opportunity to pass the words "Do No Harm" on to others.

If you wish to include this essay, or the link to the "Do No Harm" web page, that's fine, or if you wish to change the wording or write your own, that's equally fine. But if this movement is to succeed, and if we are ever to change our world for the better, we simply must pass the "Do No Harm" message on.

If you wish to send us your own thoughts or comments, with your permission, we will add them to this web page.


Sometimes, all you really need to do is ask:

Do No Harm!

c.c.keiser & clyde grossman

June 1, 2006

One employee passed me with a smile on his face and exclaimed, "All you guys have GOT to get together for a photo, because no one is ever going to believe this!" Another came up to me and said, "Let me guess, you're waiting on your friend? Good answer." I guess at that point he had heard that answer more than a few times.

The reaction from the employees was pretty typical as far as our missions go. The lower level employees laughed and got a kick out of it while the managers and security guards freaked out. Some employees speculated that we were a cult, or maybe protesters. One employee tried to get a date out of the incident, informing one agent, "Tell that girl in the computer section that 'Mike says hi.'" Another employee after being told to go get some merchandise from the back, declared, "You should ask one of these other 50 people to do it!"

Security guards and managers started talking to each other frantically on their walkie-talkies and headsets. "Thomas Crown Affair! Thomas Crown Affair!," one employee shouted. They were worried that were using our fake uniforms to stage some type of elaborate heist. "I want every available employee out on the floor RIGHT NOW!"

The Imaginary foundation was established in Geneva in 1973 as an experimental "think-tank" for new ideas. Created by an eclectic group of free thinkers, the foundation’s research spans all creative endeavors and assigns as its goal; the wish to eliminate set conventions in favor of the humorous, the abstract and the visionary

In his vision for the Imaginary Foundation, the Director knew that the human mind has more than one mode, that indeed it has an "ecology" of being. He knew that imagination, intuition, inspiration are basic to psyche. . . . A philosophy of research began to form: imagination as fundamental to all learning; artistic making as a model of integrating vision, materials, structure, and imagery.

"What makes true vision is the poetry of life and the richness of nature"

The Foundation's basis has been a strong sense of community, free inquiry, creativity, and the experimental spirit. Over the years the Foundation has generated a critical mass of creative people in many different fields, for whom it's been a catalyst for experimentation and innovation.

"The Imaginary Foundation is a crazy and magical place, and the electricity of it's members seems to make for a wonderfully charged atmosphere, so that sometimes before sessions one becomes excited and a little anxious, as though a thunderstorm were sweeping in."

Le Parkour (also called Parkour, PK, l'art du déplacement, free-running) is a physical discipline of French origin. It is an art form of human movement, focusing on uninterrupted, efficient forward motion over, under, around and through obstacles (both man-made and natural) in one's environment. Such movement may come in the form of running, jumping, climbing and other more complex techniques. The goal of practicing le parkour is to be able to adapt one's movement to any given scenario so that any obstacle can be overcome with the human body's abilities.

According to founder David Belle, the "spirit" of parkour is guided in part by the notions of "escape" and "reach"; that is, the idea of using physical agility and quick thinking to get out of difficult situations, and to be able to go anywhere that one desires. However, fluidity and beauty are also important considerations; for example, cofounder Sébastien Foucan speaks of being "fluid like water," a frequently used metaphor for the smooth passage of barriers through the use of parkour. Similarly, experienced traceur (practicioner of parkour) Jerome Ben Aoues explains in the documentary Jump London that:

The most important element is the harmony between you and the obstacle; the movement has to be elegant ….If you manage to pass over the fence elegantly - that's beautiful, rather than saying ‘I jumped the lot.’ What's the point in that?

To some people (particularly non-practitioners), parkour is an extreme sport, to others a discipline more comparable to martial arts. Some consider it a combination of the two, recognising similarities between parkour and the stunts and techniques of Hong Kong martial arts star Jackie Chan, whose fight and chase scenes take place in industrial or urban environments. Still others see it as an art form akin to dance: a way to encapsulate human movement in its most beautiful form. Parkour is often connected with the idea of freedom, in the form of the ability to overcome aspects of one's surroundings that tend to confine - for example, railings, staircases, or walls. The practice of parkour requires considerable physical and mental dedication, and many adherents describe it as a "way of life."

The climate centres around the world, which are the equivalent of the pathology lab of a hospital, have reported the Earth's physical condition, and the climate specialists see it as seriously ill, and soon to pass into a morbid fever that may last as long as 100,000 years. I have to tell you, as members of the Earth's family and an intimate part of it, that you and especially civilisation are in grave danger.

Our planet has kept itself healthy and fit for life, just like an animal does, for most of the more than three billion years of its existence. It was ill luck that we started polluting at a time when the sun is too hot for comfort. We have given Gaia a fever and soon her condition will worsen to a state like a coma. She has been there before and recovered, but it took more than 100,000 years. We are responsible and will suffer the consequences: as the century progresses, the temperature will rise 8 degrees centigrade in temperate regions and 5 degrees in the tropics.

Much of the tropical land mass will become scrub and desert, and will no longer serve for regulation; this adds to the 40 per cent of the Earth's surface we have depleted to feed ourselves.

Curiously, aerosol pollution of the northern hemisphere reduces global warming by reflecting sunlight back to space. This "global dimming" is transient and could disappear in a few days like the smoke that it is, leaving us fully exposed to the heat of the global greenhouse. We are in a fool's climate, accidentally kept cool by smoke, and before this century is over billions of us will die and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable.

By failing to see that the Earth regulates its climate and composition, we have blundered into trying to do it ourselves, acting as if we were in charge. By doing this, we condemn ourselves to the worst form of slavery. If we chose to be the stewards of the Earth, then we are responsible for keeping the atmosphere, the ocean and the land surface right for life. A task we would soon find impossible - and something before we treated Gaia so badly, she had freely done for us.

To understand how impossible it is, think about how you would regulate your own temperature or the composition of your blood. Those with failing kidneys know the never-ending daily difficulty of adjusting water, salt and protein intake. The technological fix of dialysis helps, but is no replacement for living healthy kidneys.

"Kiva.org is the world’s first peer-to-peer, distributed microloan website. A great idea where PayPal meets Gates Foundation. The site allows you to lend a small amount of money, say $25, to needy microenterprises in developing countries. You receive repayment at the end of the loan period (normally 6-12 months) without interest. If they default on the loan, your loan becomes a donation – though none of the businesses have defaulted yet. A great low-risk, high-reward idea."

This bussiness is now using the loan money that they received from Kiva. They received loan money worth $500. They have bought 3 Bulls and 2 cows for their first sells in the cattle market in Tororo Town. I will keep you posted immediately after the firt sells is done. Thanks alot for supporting this bussiness with the loan monwy. These are the poorest of the poor people living in desparete stuation in the village. Yours Moses Onyango.

Conversation is different from talk

Talk in the past was about rising up the social scale. Etiquette - not what you thought. You had your place in society and that was it.

Conversation is a new thing. Conversation means who you keep company with. Not just the exchange of words - a social activity. When society was hierarchical we had one kind of conversation - now we need to invent a new kind of conversation. An exploration and self revelation. You each reveal things about what are important to you in your lives. You have admitted each other into private worlds and created links - you create shared experiences.

"To think in terms of building a sustainable village, like the Anasazi dwellings, we have to think of designing not a house, but a village. We can not longer afford to think in terms of single family dwellings, but think about what is good for the entire community. When one thinks of all the refugees throughout the world as well as the one's who became refugees through environmental disasters like what happened to New Orleans or the millions of homeless people in the United States, we need to think in terms of building villages within villages, an arcology for millions of people.

What I am visualizing is a mass exodus occurring from our dying civilization to a more evolved, holistic developmental pattern that allows us to have individual freedom along side of the responsibility of the collective. I'm seeing the labor force of the world turning around and moving in a new direction that brings us back in balance with nature by building a network of arcologies.

I'm excited with the idea of arcology as a center of culture, a place where arts are not on the side lines of civilization but are the life blood of the people. Such a vision gives the children of the world a future of human dignity, a future where they can enjoy the revival of now-threatened plant and animal species, and have the time and resources to pursue the adventures of the mind and heart, producing great art, advancing miraculous science, and living with the beauty of star light forever."

For those who don't know Infiltration, it's one of the most popular and well-regarded zines in the world. And for excellent reason: it's filled with great real-life adventure stories, homegrown yarns peculiarly native to our era. Instead of seeking excitement travelling abroad as I did, Jeff found it in his own city. He would knock off work at his day job and check on how the Sheppard Subway dig was going; pop by an interesting looking church he'd heard about at Yonge and Lawrence; see if there were any unlocked doors today at Union Station. It was part of his life and how he saw the world.

He referred to urban exploration as a "hobby," even when it grew to the point (take a look around infiltration.org to get a sense of the massive size) where it could have easily been called a movement. But in his modest and unassuming way, he managed to communicate and spread his mildly illicit desire to access all areas.

On the surface, Access All Areas is a well-written and thorough how-to guide for those new to the subculture, spiked with hilarious asides and tales of forbidden forays: but at its heart, it's Jeff Chapman passing on his love for an unusual pasttime in a way that manages to be fascinating yet responsible.

Bhutan, the king said, needed to ensure that prosperity was shared across society and that it was balanced against preserving cultural traditions, protecting the environment and maintaining a responsive government. The king, now 49, has been instituting policies aimed at accomplishing these goals.

Now Bhutan's example, while still a work in progress, is serving as a catalyst for far broader discussions of national well-being.

Around the world, a growing number of economists, social scientists, corporate leaders and bureaucrats are trying to develop measurements that take into account not just the flow of money but also access to health care, free time with family, conservation of natural resources and other noneconomic factors.

The goal, according to many involved in this effort, is in part to return to a richer definition of the word happiness, more like what the signers of the Declaration of Independence had in mind when they included "the pursuit of happiness" as an inalienable right equal to liberty and life itself.