mike-puddingtime-org-svf0ua.txt (9162B)
1 [1] ←Home [2]Archive [3]Tags [4]About 2 3 Daily notes for 2023-07-17 4 5 Jul 17, 2023 · 1447 words · 7 minute read 6 Table of Contents 7 8 • [5]Notes on conflict 9 • [6]The INT650 10 11 Notes on conflict [7]🔗 12 13 When my master and I were walking in the rain, he would say, “Do not walk 14 so fast, the rain is everywhere.” 15 —Shunryu Suzuki 16 17 For a very long time — too much of my life — I thought conflict was a sign that 18 there was a problem. I didn’t like disagreeing with people about much of 19 anything. I’m using “conflict” in a broad sense: Over resources, points of 20 view, vision, beliefs, tastes. 21 22 Over time I shifted on the matter a little, but when I look back on it I 23 realize I wasn’t really evolving my attitude toward conflict, I was just 24 evolving my response to its existence, while still believing that being in a 25 state of conflict is a problem. I just got better at keeping my blood pressure 26 low and gritting through it. I think I was looking at conflict as a thing that 27 you have to acknowledge exists, but that you need to get through as quickly as 28 possible, because it’s a bad place to be. 29 30 That attitude created some problems: 31 32 • When you’re bad at being in conflict, you’re at a disadvantage with people 33 who are good at it and mean you harm; and you’re annoying people who are 34 good at it and mean you no harm. 35 • When you look at conflict as a thing to grit through and end quickly it’s 36 hard to maintain your integrity. (See above: The people who don’t want 37 what’s best for you (or the business, or the world, or etc.) understand 38 this, and the ones who are really good at it and a little indifferent 39 toward what’s best for you are counting on you to do all the work to get 40 out of conflict.) 41 • When you’d rather do anything than admit that you’re in a state of 42 conflict, you will eventually do something about your problem that is less 43 skillful for having waited than if you’d admitted it to yourself (and 44 whoever you’re in conflict with) sooner. Or, as one of my past managers put 45 it to me, “don’t be that guy who hockey-sticks.” (I nodded then kind of 46 hockey-sticked.) 47 • When you’re bad at being in conflict, and you’re willing to be set aside 48 your integrity or do other things to get out of it quickly, you’ll 49 eventually get tired of “losing” and figure out ways to “win” that cause 50 others to see you as, at best, baffling and frustrating, and at worst 51 Machiavellian and treacherous. 52 53 That, anyhow, is a rough categorization of my many hundreds of mishandlings of 54 conflict. Maybe the most interesting thing to me about all those mishandlings 55 is that over time I managed to convince myself that failing to be in conflict 56 well was a sign of virtue. Moral sophistication. “Taking the high road.” “Not 57 worth the stress.” “Learning how to play the game.” “Protecting the team.” 58 59 Over the past few years, I’ve changed on the matter: On balance, I definitely 60 don’t think its existence is a sign there’s a problem. It’s just a sign that 61 there’s a conflict. 62 63 I still feel a little cautious about conflict when I don’t know the person I’m 64 in conflict with very well. Caution is useful, because people who are bad at 65 being in conflict but mean well — people who are “good eggs” — can still sort 66 of mess things up, because if I have to bet on whether someone hates “losing” 67 or just grinning and bearing it more, my money is on them hating losing more. 68 When things get to a place where it feels existential to them, even good eggs 69 can act sort of rotten. So you have to take time and attend to the interaction 70 so they can be in conflict and feel safe about it. 71 72 I still think I have a responsibility to introduce the existence of conflict 73 with kindness, or receive the news that I’ve entered into a state of conflict 74 in a manner that invites a full airing. “Relaxed and possibly delighted 75 curiosity,” I suppose I’d call it, rather than a furrowing of the brow and 76 assurances that I want to restore harmony at once. Because I don’t want to 77 restore harmony at once. I want to understand why we want different things, 78 then figure out how we can both behave with integrity while we sort that out. 79 80 The INT650 [8]🔗 81 82 [f4d4087a00284d89b3cedd2720a3b117] 83 84 I finally quit waffling on what to do with the Royal Enfield Himalayan. I took 85 it up to [9]Sabatino Moto in St. Johns and traded it in for another Royal 86 Enfield: An INT650 (“Interceptor” everywhere else in the world, but not in 87 North America where Honda owns the rights to the name.) 88 89 It’s a pretty night and day difference. The Himalayan is a mountain goat, and 90 the INT650 is … something a little prettier and a little less rough. I was 91 never going to ride the Himalayan the way it was meant to be ridden — fire 92 roads, gravel, dirt — and I didn’t have the patience for the very “work in 93 progress” attitude Royal Enfield took toward it. One thing you learn from all 94 the Himalayan videos on YouTube is that the people who love them best don’t 95 mind fiddling, tweaking, and wrenching. After reading hundreds of owners talk 96 about their experiences, I have come to realize I lost the factory QA lottery 97 on mine, and that engendered a lack of confidence in it that I never recovered 98 from. 99 100 Also turns out, I think, that I had a bad dealer: 101 102 The first RE dealer in the Portland area doesn’t really want to sell them, and 103 it really does not want to do anything other than the most basic service. I 104 think I’ve documented that elsewhere, so I won’t go into it more here, but I’ll 105 just offer the observation that RE’s strategy of linking up with Harley dealers 106 to build out its US distribution network did its customers no favors. 107 108 The folks at Sabatino, on the other hand, seem to have a genuine appreciation 109 for the bikes, that extends all the way to acknowledging that RE has some QA 110 challenges. Sabatino addresses that by doing their own QA when they uncrate a 111 new bike. And they’re willing to talk about the ups and downs of each model. My 112 head was briefly turned by another model, and I got a reasoned, balanced, 113 discussion of why maybe that one wouldn’t work for me. 114 115 They also offer test rides. I can name one dealership that grudgingly made me 116 sign a waiver and write a check for the full amount to test ride a Grom for 117 five laps around their parking lot, and they only did that because it was a 118 two-year-old model and they’d sold the newer one they promised me out from 119 under me. Sabatino made me do the waiver, share my insurance information, and 120 hand over my license, but then they tossed me the keys and told me they’d see 121 me when they saw me. 122 123 Anyhow, the test ride sold me. I’ve been through several configurations of 124 motorcycle and scooter since getting my motorcycle endorsement — maxiscoots, 125 normal scoots, mini-moto, cruiser, trail bike, dual-sport — and none of them 126 have been the thing I first imagined myself riding when I finally decided to 127 learn how to ride. Well, learn how to ride as an adult, anyhow. The twin 650 128 runs and sounds nice, the bike handles more comfortably than the Himalayan 129 despite there being 40 pounds more of it, and the super-simple analog speedo 130 and tach are just sort of pleasant. I ran it around St. Johns for a while, was 131 struck by how immediately comfortable it was (and how confident I felt on it), 132 and that was that. 133 134 Yesterday I took it on a ride out Foster Road toward Damascus. There’s a side 135 road I head out onto that eventually rejoins on the other side of Damascus, 136 close to a back road that joins the highway down to Estacada. So I headed out 137 past Estacada, to see how it did on a small back highway. There was a little 138 bit of buffeting — no fairings — but it ran and handled well. I felt more 139 confident on the little back roads coming back than I did heading out as I got 140 to know the bike better. I did decide to detract from its vintage purity a 141 little by ordering a Dart flyscreen when I got back: People say it helps clean 142 up the turbulence at highway speeds, and keeps the bugs off the pretty silver 143 cans. 144 145 Anyhow, glad I’ve got it in the driveway with so much of the riding season 146 left, and I can wholeheartedly recommend Sabatino Moto if you’re looking to buy 147 one for yourself. 148 149 [10]journal [11]conflict 150 [12] Created with Sketch. 151 © Copyright 2024 mph 152 Powered by [13]Hugo Theme By [14]nodejh 153 154 References: 155 156 [1] https://mike.puddingtime.org/ 157 [2] https://mike.puddingtime.org/posts 158 [3] https://mike.puddingtime.org/tags 159 [4] https://mike.puddingtime.org/about 160 [5] https://mike.puddingtime.org/posts/2023-07-17-daily-notes/#notes-on-conflict 161 [6] https://mike.puddingtime.org/posts/2023-07-17-daily-notes/#the-int650 162 [7] https://mike.puddingtime.org/posts/2023-07-17-daily-notes/#notes-on-conflict 163 [8] https://mike.puddingtime.org/posts/2023-07-17-daily-notes/#the-int650 164 [9] https://www.sabatinomoto.com/ 165 [10] https://mike.puddingtime.org/tags/journal 166 [11] https://mike.puddingtime.org/tags/conflict 167 [12] https://github.com/pdxmph 168 [13] http://www.gohugo.io/ 169 [14] https://github.com/nodejh/hugo-theme-mini