- RL on Thoughts on Future Projects: “I loved the Oxford study BOM and would love a comparable D and C version.” May 29, 07:19
- on Thoughts on Future Projects: “Since you are asking, those that most draw my interest to read are the 1830-1930 documents collection and a Rey L. Pratt biography. I guess that commits me to buy and read one of those if you create it. Was that the clever marketing purpose of this post, even if unrecognized by the author?” May 29, 07:17
- on Thoughts on Future Projects: “Two questions I use to help me: What can I write that no one else can? If the next project is the last thing I publish, what do I want it to be?” May 29, 04:53
- on Hymns Officially Rejected: “Thanks, Rebecca. Totally agree and appreciate you pointing that out!” May 28, 21:50
- on Hymns Officially Rejected: “Just a linguistic comment: “ helpmeet” is a terrible translation of the Hebrew two word phrase ‘ezer kenegedo.’ “Helpmeet” carries centuries of Christian implications of passive submissiveness : not at all how our Heavenly Mother should be depicted. Most women dislike the word. Perhaps you could find a more creative and powerful description of God.” May 28, 18:40
- on Hymns Officially Rejected: “I would be very open to posting more of the hymns and tunes that didn’t make the cut on Times and Seasons.” May 28, 08:54
- on Transportation Theory and Algorithmitizing Mission Assignments: “I took a language test in the mid-70s. It was administered at an Institute building and I recall it being entirely on paper. Rumor had it that it was based on Kurdish. The results of the test probably had little to do with my call to Germany. I already had enough German credits to qualify for a BA (but I identified German as my least favorite subject in school). Or maybe it was the fact that I was called to my Branch President’s mission (where five of us from the branch served at the same time) and the Branch President’s father was on the missionary committee.” May 28, 07:35
- on Transportation Theory and Algorithmitizing Mission Assignments: “I took a language aptitude test before my mission in 1978. It mostly involved following instructions and answering questions from a cassette tape. The inexperienced high councilman who administered the test messed up the starting and stopping of the tape, so that probably affected my score. Independent of that, I misunderstood some of the instructions. They gave me nonsense syllables representing a number system, and then asked me to write down numbers that were given to me orally. However, I didn’t realize I would be expected to remember the numbers because I thought it was just an explanation of the structure of the test, and they would give me other number names that I would need to remember. Now that I think about it, maybe it was part of the language-learning test to see if I could remember words without being specifically advised to learn them. After a little search on the web, I’m thinking it might have been the “Modern Language Aptitude Test.” I’m sure I scored very poorly, which may have been part of why I was called to an English-speaking mission. I didn’t have any particular wish to go on a foreign language mission anyway, but I was a bit irritated with both myself and the test administrator for having fumbled the ball.” May 27, 20:49
- on Transportation Theory and Algorithmitizing Mission Assignments: “I assume there has to be some administrative model used for staffing missions with some sort of optimization goal. ROI is likely coverts or activity in the field. I would guess the Church sociology department and the many leaders with business backgrounds have tried to look at the system and set something up. We are in a big data era, I’ve heard the Church has improved and adapted to online finding with drastic improvements in the past 5 years. Fun to think of business elders or APs assigned analytics support roles.” May 27, 15:50
- on Transportation Theory and Algorithmitizing Mission Assignments: “DaveW, I’d probably describe my mission a little higher on the inspiration spectrum, but never “only me, at this time and place, for this unique purpose”. A few interactions or situations felt cosmic, but I could have not gone, or gone elsewhere, or worked in some other way and still had such experiences. In my view, something can be utterly mundane and utterly miraculous/inspired at the same time. (Of course not all mundane things… many are just mundane, and many are destructive). So many times the meaningful impact doesn’t come from the predicted source (the talk, the formal lesson, etc.), but the brief conversation, the unplanned interaction, etc. And I don’t think those miraculous/inspired interactions are usually or necessarily the result of divine engineering, though they can be. Sometimes the difference can be *choosing* to see something as miraculous or inspired, and I don’t think this makes it any less authentic or powerful. The meaning that we make may be just as true as the meaning we receive. There’s a place for both. Maybe, upon further consideration, I would still not say “only me”, though I might say “specifically me, in this specific place, for this specific purpose”, but mostly as a description of experience, rather than a prescription of destiny. The power of a mission, or of service in general, is that it fosters one-to-one interactions where these “unanticipated” miracles can take place, all the more so because you are specifically talking to people about the big questions. I work in public education now, so I have a perhaps higher-than-average number of interactions with hundreds of youth and staff each day, in many instances thinking about big ideas. (Though again, the meaningful interactions are often not in the expected moments). I don’t presume what my impact may be (via mission or work or any service or any community), though I hope I have some, but I can think of lots of interactions that impact me. Sometimes as simple as a word choice or a double meaning in a casual conversation. As far as a journey or path of spiritual progress, they often boil down to a nudge or a point in the right direction. So I wouldn’t lament an algorithmic mission assignment for the mere fact of being algorithmic, but I would mourn the loss of the human-to-human interactions, even if many are mundane.” May 27, 12:33
