YOU CAN'T MAKE ME FLY

Translated from my Norwegian blog, 

where it was a response to an article on user engagement

called "How can I make you fly"

YOU CAN'T MAKE ME FLY

You research makeflying with genuine user engagement.

But have you thought about what you do when you makefly?

You staple onto people mass produced wings, onesizefitsall, with a willpowerdriven rubber band engine. Strong enough to flutter them out of your sight.

Some are OK with that, and that's OK.

Others lie broken on the ground some distance away - do you see them? Do you hear them, when they say that the wings did not fit? That the rubber band broke?

When you evidencebasedresearch makeflying, what do you look for? Do you only see what you do, what other makeflyers do? Do you only hear the people who were helped?

Do you seek out everyone you madefly, and do you listen, with your mind and your guts, to what they have to say? Setting aside your rating scales and check boxes for later?

Do you seek out the ones who were helped, after six months, one year, two years, ten years, to check the elasticity of their willpower rubber band?

YOU CAN'T MAKE ME FLY

You can't make me anything, and from me you do not get user engagement. I don't use. I don't engage. I steer. I have chosen to live as an autonomous entity.

YOU CAN'T MAKE ME FLY

I have no need for makeflying. I need to fly. Can you give me what I need?

I need help from people who can fly, fly with their own wings, wings that they were born with. People who can show me that it is possible, people who know how it is done.

If you make evidencebased, mass produced, willpowerdriven onesizewings, I need you to get out of my way. Do not dismiss my wings because they are not evidencebased, do not clip my wings because you know that they are abnormal, do not set snares to prove that my wings do not work. And above all ... do not expect user engagement. 

I do not use. 

I steer. 

I do not engage. 

I am and do.

YOU CAN SUPPORT MY TRUST IN THE WINGS I WAS BORN WITH

I need to trust my ability to fly, I need to trust my wings, I need to know that I am able to own my life and steer it myself.

I need people to be with me in finding out what harmed my wings, be with me in finding out what I can do to fix them, and I need to own the repair work, also when I cannot do it alone.

I need room to test my wings, I need to let them grow in a safe and peaceful place. I need pride, admiration and acknowledgement when I flap my wings, test them. 

I NEED AIR UNDER MY WINGS

And most of all I need you to show
that you know
that air is not something you can give me.

Air just is.

Related post: Richard Feynman on "Cargo Cult Science"