Curious Insights

Posted by: curiousinsights | February 8, 2008

Introduction

Introduction

We don’t talk about purpose enough. So let’s start: what’s yours? If you want to answer, my email address is jsnorris |at| gmail |dot| com. I’m James by the way.

My story is a bit unorthodox. I’m a slave to my two primary drives–curiosity and altruism–so I’m constantly learning or creating value for others. I’ve been an entrepreneur since first grade and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. I’ve also been a change agent in training for over a decade. Ultimately, I want to be a strategic philanthropist that scales social innovations and social enterprises.

I’ve been fortunate enough to do some fun things in life so far:

Helped with building a 100,000 sq ft for-profit museum/theme park hybrid before the recession put us on hold
Created the infrastructure for a social innovation hub in Austin, Texas
Established 14 other organizations (my first at 15)
Learned from 19 jobs and internships (my first at 14)
Experimented with 6 microbusinesses (my first at 6)
Graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with 3 majors, 4 minors, and 2 programs

It’s been an interesting ride… And if you’re curious, each of the aforementioned numbers has a story behind it that I’m happy to share. Numbers always have context.

I consider myself a budding change agent, social entrepreneur, social psychologist, philosopher, ethicist, scientist, and strategist. I definitely have the polymath virus, which means I immerse myself in both breadth and depth. I currently base out of Singapore and Austin, Texas and am looking for my next job. If you want to know more, please feel free to email me.

Below is a word cloud of my personal philosophy document, courtesy wordle.net.

Personal Philosophy Word Cloud

And just for fun I’m trying to spread something I call “Emoticon Binary” whereby you write messages in emoticons through binary code (i.e., 0′s and 1′s). In this “language” the smiley emoticon :) replaces the 1 and the frowney emoticon :( replaces the 0 used in binary.

Here’s the full process: (1) Write your message in the language of your choice. (2) Translate the message into binary using a translator like: http://home2.paulschou.net/tools/xlate/. (3) Translate the binary code into emoticons by using the “replace all” feature of most word processors. (4) Done.

See below for the Emoticon Binary “Rosetta Scroll”. Again, this is just for fun! There’s no real point to it. =)

My social networking profiles, from most to least frequently used.

Facebook
LinkedIn
Meetup
CouchSurfing
Yelp
MySpace
Digg
Twitter
Gaia
TED
Kiva
B1G1 Village
Changemakers
Change
UnLtdWorld
Bootstrap Network
Google Profile

Here are a few of the organizations I’ve created or helped create. If they’re a fit for you, please join!

American Red Cross of Central Texas Youth Council: the informal Youth Council serves as the backbone for all youth activities in our region. Youth Council coordinates and mentors the high school and college clubs, plans and executes the Annual Leadership Development Retreat, and handles all other youth-related initiatives.
Austin Adventuring Group: my informal group of friends that has interesting outdoor and city-based adventures roughly once a month. Our hit list to date: cliff jumping, camping, backpacking, hiking, caving, paintball, swimming, tubing, meteor hunting, ice cream bonanzas, amusement parks, festivals (including our self-made TEDfests), and a few unique Austin sites. We’re always looking for more “interesting” people to come out with us, as well as new ideas for adventures.
Austin Personal Development Group: a group for those deeply interested in personal development/self-improvement. This group serves as a consistent and focused forum for explicitly working on all areas of personal development (e.g., health, productivity, happiness, fulfillment, creativity).
Austin Social Innovation Hub: an incubating platform for individuals and enterprises creating innovative solutions to social problems.
Kerr High School Alumni Association: a group that coordinates several initiatives at Kerr that connect alumni together, as well as engage them with current students.
Mastermind Groups: I have a group in Houston and one in Austin, both with about seven people.
Project Polymath: a social enterprise creating a new type of interdisciplinary university dedicated to the universal pursuit of knowledge and the development of students’ full potential as thinkers, doers, and leaders.

My resource kits. Each kit generally has only highly turnkey (i.e., ready to use immediately) content, with a special focus on templates. “Useful files” usually means budgets, forms, policies, databases, flyers, slide shows, salient articles, digestible research, etc.

Please email me if you have questions, comments, suggestions, revisions, and/or additions. I’d like to know how many people use these.

Alternative Spring Break Resource Kit: 50 useful files for creating and managing an “Alternative Break” service-learning program. Request kit by emailing me.
American Red Cross Club Resource Kit: 450+ useful files for creating and managing a high school or college club. Latest version added: 8/13/08.
American Red Cross Mass CPR Training Resource Kit: 100+ useful files for creating and executing a Mass CPR Training. Includes an itemized task list for every sub-team (there are ~250 individual tasks required to execute a Mass CPR Training). Request kit by emailing me.
American Red Cross Leadership Development Conference Resource Kit: 50+ useful files for creating and executing an LDC. Request kit by emailing me.
Incoming UT Austin Student Resource Kit: 50 useful files for incoming (and existing) undergraduate students at the University of Texas at Austin. Some material is dated, but much is still useful. Latest version added: 6/4/05.
Student Organization Resource Kit: Up to 500 useful files for student organization leaders starting and operating organizations. Focus on team building material. Request kit by emailing me.
Personal Development Resource Kit: 90+ useful files for helping with all areas of your personal development. Latest version added: 9/17/09.