Huh?  What are you doing Jeffrey!?  Is that salt you just added to your coffee?  Well, that’s one way to start a conversation.  Having overheard that salt will take away the bitterness, he just had to experiment…and it worked!…which prompted all sorts of hypotheses.   We have a lot of science lovers here at WORK and theories were batted around the table (what’s your guess?) until someone just had to look it up.  Of course, Google knows all about this and apparently salt really does prevent the bitterness from reaching our taste buds even though it’s not enough (8-10 grains) to taste. Try it!

Okay, so we found a new way to use salt.  What other discoveries did we make over our salted coffee Tuesday morning?  One reoccurring theme was how ideas evolve around new technology.  When motion pictures were first invented, they would simply film a play.  Sounds ridiculous now, but it took time to realize that so much more could be done and gradually a whole new industry was built.  In fact, I have to wonder if at the time they feared that more jobs would be lost than created and I imagine an uproar in the theater community as the need for nightly productions could be replace with a single filming.

coWORKer Iain Crabb, co-founder of Lionrock Recovery describes how internet based counseling started as video conferencing, basically a virtual version of the traditional support group, not unlike those early motion pictures.  Now his company, an online rehab program that provides substance abuse and addiction treatment, is finding ways to exploit new technology to create programs unique to the digital world.  Added benefits, like an increased sense of safety and privacy, and added features like goals embedded into a structured schedule with real time accountability can suddenly create a rich record with a few simple clicks in a manner previously impossible.

As Director of The Mattamayūra Institute, coWORKer Cristina Star Ryan brings the ancient practice of yoga into modern western life.  Any small steps to a more mindful life are welcome- even Zen alarm clocks and Bikram classes.  She’s not a purist, she’s a pragmatist- which can be a great way to foster the evolution of ideas and actually get things done.  Her desire to blend the traditional wisdom of yoga with contemporary university style learning might not be ‘pure’ but it is a realistic way to allow more people to venture deeper into their practice without having to abandon their life to live in an ashram- because, let’s face it, many of us want enlightenment but not many of us can desert our careers, our children, our student loans, to find it. 

So I’m trying hard here to bring this all back to salted coffee just ‘cause I like the sound of it.   Perhaps it’s the leap of faith, the willingness to experiment, the venturing to the edge and stepping just a tiny bit outside the box.  Not so much as to be radical, although that can work sometimes too, but with the more realistic goal of starting with something known and then letting curiosity guide baby steps into an open and undetermined future…yeah, that’s just like salt in your coffee.

Written by Natasha Juliana.  Curious about Coffee Social?  Join us Tuesdays at 10 AM.