Plogging

Plogging—from the Swedish plocka upp (pick up)—is the simple combo of picking up litter while out jogging.

Litter in our environment is all our responsibility, and I’m still surprised by how much impact a small effort can make on tidying up a place.

Plogging gives the multiple gratification of making your local area nicer and helping out Nature while getting a decent workout and some fresh air to boot.

Maybe combine it with these other jogging sketchplanations:

Fartlek
London running kit
Clingfilm your keys
Run further, or, heck, swimrun for the adventurous
or There is no away

Published 16 Feb 2019

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Whose job is it?

Enough molehillls make a mountain quote from Seth Godin, showing how a book can be made up from a little writing or sketch a day, or a trash heap is made from small pieces of litter.

Enough molehills make a mountain

Hanlon's Razor

The tragedy of the commons

There’s an old short story called “Whose job is it?” that goes like this: This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was asked to do it. Everybody was sure Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it but Nobody realised that Everybody wouldn't do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done. It used to be up on the wall in my secondary school many years ago. Its message of taking ownership and responsibility and not assuming others will do what you don’t want to do has stuck with me ever since. It’s rather like the famous advice to be the change you wish to see happen. Litter doesn’t clean itself up. Broken things don’t fix themselves. It might be up to you. (see the Bystander effect) The story seems to be a condensed version of a longer piece by Charles Osgood called "The Responsibility Poem," though I couldn't find an original source anywhere. Also see: For want of a nail, the story spine, the Accountability Ladder, RACI…There’s an old short story called “Whose job is it?” that goes like this: This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was asked to do it. Everybody was sure Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it but Nobody realised that Everybody wouldn't do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done. It used to be up on the wall in my secondary school many years ago. Its message of taking ownership and responsibility and not assuming others will do what you don’t want to do has stuck with me ever since. It’s rather like the famous advice to be the change you wish to see happen. Litter doesn’t clean itself up. Broken things don’t fix themselves. It might be up to you. (see the Bystander effect) The story seems to be a condensed version of a longer piece by Charles Osgood called "The Responsibility Poem," though I couldn't find an original source anywhere. Also see: For want of a nail, the story spine, the Accountability Ladder, RACI

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