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Dr. Lance Strate: Success and IFD Disease
Dr. Lance Strate is a professor of communication and media studies at Fordham University in New York City. He is the author of several books, including the recently published Media Ecology: An Approach to Understanding the Human Condition, and the poetry collection, Thunder at Darwin Station. He is the president of the New York Society for General Semantics, and a trustee of the Institute of General Semantics. He is the founder and past president of the Media Ecology Association, and editor of its journal, Explorations in Media Ecology. He also serves as president of Congregation Adas Emuno, a Reform synagogue in Leonia, New Jersey. He holds an honorary appointment as “Chair Professor” (a rank equivalent to distinguished professor) at Henan University in Kaifeng, China, and held the Harron Family Chair in Communication at Villanova for the 2015-2016 school year.
Podcast Time Stamps
[5:51] – Dr. Strate tells what Media Ecology is all about and explains General Semantics.
[7:48] – Lance describes how General Semantics can help us in thinking about words and how we use them in our lives.
[10:03] – Dr. Strate describes how General Sematics can help us when thinking about success.
[11:00] – Lance talks about IFD disease: Idealization, frustration and demoralization. A process that occurs when we use our words as high level abstractions instead of more specifically.
[17:13] – How operational definitions can help to prevent IDF disease. Operational definitions prevent us from idealizing any given term or goal in our lives.
[18:42] – How General Semantics is an attempt to take scientific method and generalize it to human relations.
[21:26] – Lance talks about his own personal “operational definition” of success. Specifically about looking at accomplishments and completing tasks as realistic expectations instead of idealized abstractions.
[24:00] – How pride and status are related to success and accomplishment. For Lance, it’s more about “going with the flow” and following the path that rose up before him.
[25:30] – There is also a component about being realistic about what you are able to achieve.
[26:22] – How Lance finds the motivation to write as extensively as he does – it’s about committing to things and leveraging his sense of obligation to deliver on what he promises someone.
Resources and Places to Connect with Lance:
Blog: http://lancestrate.blogspot.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lancestrate
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LanceStrate
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lancestrate/
Lance’s Books:
Media Ecology: An Approach to Understanding the Human Condition (Understanding Media Ecology)
Echoes And Reflections: On Media Ecology As a Field of Study
Top learning moments
- Much of success is related to your definition of success. From a General Semantics perspective this has to do with creating an “operational definition” that allows you to pursue something that isn’t a generalization or abstraction.
- IFD disease – the idea of having “idealistic” expectations that will never come to pass turns into frustration and demoralization. If you find yourself frustrated or demoralized, ask yourself if you aren’t pursuing some idealistic end and then think about how you can make that more realistic and practical.
- Committing to doing something leverages the psychological power of obligation. When we commit to something, we have a stronger tendency to accomplish it because other people expect it of us. So, to accomplish more, it may be helpful to say “yes” rather than “no” when someone asks us to do something outside of our comfort zone.
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