Signs of the Times

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

One great place to put your heightened awareness¹ to good use is to stay on the lookout for good signs … "signs that make you go hmmmm". Before there were smartphones, I always carried a small camera on bike rides, because at 15mph, you can notice far more than at 45mph. And now in the smartphone era I've got my phone configured for pretty instantaneous snapping (on Android: double tap power button, then use either volume button to snap the photo).

I wanted to share a collection of signs that capture where we are as a society, covering the spectrum from 👏applause-worthy to 🤦face-palm-worthy.

The Good

These are the signs that show how we are moving in the right direction as a society.

Adding Value

I love concept artists that add creativity to everyday items. I saw this on a trip to Napa with my wife, and then on the next trip down that road, I snapped a photo of it. This ended up inspiring the site image I use for uplevel pro. A stop sign graphic is most commonly used in a negative way. So I love how "& think" turns it into a positive, celebrating the value of taking a pause to reflect and process.

Hidden Danger

I was biking through a part of our town where the new light rail had started operating. As I was approaching the surface crossing, the train lights started flashing. I stopped and watched a train approaching from the left. Then I saw another sign appear below the red flashing lights: "Another Train Coming." I looked to my right and saw a second train heading towards this crossing as well. "Genius," I said out loud.

This sign is a great short circuiting of our very natural tunnel vision that accompanies our fight or flight instinct. We hear the bells. We look and we see the train. We've now spotted the danger and we stay focused on that to make sure we are a safe distance away from it. But while we are focusing on that, we are losing touch with the rest of our environment. Tunnel vision prevents us from spotting other dangers.

I keep a picture of this sign by my bike hanging in the garage. Every time I'm out on my bike, there are inevitably fight or flight moments. And the more that I can be mindful of "another danger coming", the less likely I am to hyper focus and miss other valuable cues. Where have you missed another train coming?