News

Join us on Friday, April 30, as Dr. Matthew Croasmun of Yale University examines what “making a dent” might truly mean. RSVP here.

One of the most popular courses at Yale University is HUMS 411, “Life Worth Living.” Taught by Dr. Matthew Croasmun, the class outlines the values of different traditions and ideologies through foundational texts and guest lecturers. The goal is for students to develop skills in the life-long process of reflecting on, and discerning, the good life.

Dr. Croasmun says“What we’re trying to do is offer students an opportunity to think critically about the most important question of their lives across important and enduring lines of difference. That can only be good for them as individuals and as global citizens.”

As we all ponder what making a “dent in the universe” really means — and how we will achieve that end, it behooves all of us to deeply consider the fundamental question of what our pursuits will mean in the long run.

Dr. Croasmun will be joining us onstage at the 2021 Dent Conference in Santa Fe, NM to talk about how he equips students, educators, and the public for the lifelong process of discerning, articulating, and pursuing the good life by engaging the world’s philosophical and religious traditions.

Members and followers of the Dent community can catch a pre-conference interview on Zoom with Dr. Croasmun on Friday April 30, 2021 by registering here.

Matt Croasmun is Associate Research Scholar and Director of the Life Worth Living Program at the Yale Center for Faith and Culture and Lecturer of Divinity & Humanities at Yale University. He is the author of The Emergence of Sin: the Cosmic Tyrant in Romans (2017) and For the Life of the World: Theology that Makes a Difference (2019).

At Dent, we’ve begun to host our Happy Hour @ Home events over Discord, because it allows people to move between different channels as if they were rooms at a venue. It makes for better conversation — but Discord is still an unfamiliar tool to many of us. Here are a few basics on how to get connected.

Connecting to the Server

Discord, like Slack, is an app that allows you to connect to any number of servers that you create or are invited to.

In your event confirmation email, you should find an invitation link to the Dent Discord server. Once you’ve installed the Discord app on your computer or phone, you should be able to click the link in order to add yourself to the Dent server.

Once you connect, you should be looking at an interface a little bit like this:

In my case, I have several “servers” on the left, but you can see the “Dent” server is highlighted, and it shows the #general chat channel. On the right, I can see who from this server is currently online.

Connecting to Voice

Now that you’re connected to the server, you’ll need to join a Voice Channel in order to chat with others. You’ll see a list of available voice channels in the left sidebar. Think of these as different rooms or spaces at a party venue — you can see who’s in those rooms and you can click on any of them to join (or leave) the conversation whenever you’d like.

If I click on the Lobby, I’ll see that I have joined — like this:

Once you’re connected to a voice channel, you’ll also be able to see anyone who has turned on their video in the voice channel.

To turn on your own video, you can click the green “Video” button that you see in the lower lefthand of the interface.

Basic Troubleshooting

Down in the bottom left of the screen you’ll see your username and few icons, including a “gear” icon. If you click the gear icon, you’ll get to the settings screen. Pick Voice & Video settings from the list of settings:

From here, you can select an “input device” (that is the microphone you want to use) and an “output device” (the speakers or headphones where you’d like to be able to hear others). If they’re not working, try clicking the drop-down and selecting a different option:

You can also switch between microphone settings:

• Voice Activity
• Push to Talk

If you have it set to “voice activity,” Discord will automatically detect when you are speaking and transmit your voice. When you’re not talking, it will automatically mute your microphone.

If you’d prefer to manually control when your microphone is activated, you can set a key (or button on your mouse) to enable your microphone. Then you tap that button when you want to talk.

The last weeks have brought a deluge of articles on working from home. But many of these tips are targeted to new remote teams.

In contrast, Denter Everett Harper runs Truss as an entirely virtual company since its founding in 2012. Everett’s been deep in the trenches of remote work and has invaluable lessons to share. 

He joined us on Friday for our second Dent @ Home session—wherein he walked us through a “master class” on remote work. We’ve curated his wisdom into a series of articles forthcoming in the next few weeks. (And don’t miss Everett’s excellent“Distributed Playbook” linked at the bottom.)

---

Managing Company Culture in a Time of Change and Crisis

For most of us,  the shutdown has forced us to respond by working remotely immediately—rather than taking the time to intentionally set up systems. 

“If there are cultural practices that are broken, you’ll find out in a virtual environment.”

—CEO Everett Harper

“If there are cultural practices that are broken, Everett says, “You’ll find out in a virtual environment.” However, this can also be an enormous opportunity to fix those broken systems. 

It’s important to note though, that our relationship to remote work also depends on how much institutional power we have: Who makes policy? Who influences policy? Who is subject to policy? 

Be Realistic and Empathetic about the Effects of COVID-19

Everett says they’ve been offering this key message to their employees: “You’re going to lose productivity; it’s gonna be okay.” He stresses that during this period, priorities have to shift to caring for ourselves and our communities. 

However, Everett has learned that many find it challenging to set boundaries even when they are told to do so—especially as daily routines are shifting (i.e. less commuting, more helping kids E-learn). This messaging has to be repeated consistently and be backed up with infrastructure.

Create Space for Creative Discussions around COVID-19

After creating a COVID-19 Slack channel, the Truss team quickly discovered that since some areas had more access to resources (toilet paper, hand sanitizer, etc) than others, a few employees started offering to send things to each other. 

In response, Truss made it an official program: “Trussels helping Trussels.” Coordinated through a Slack channel, it became a Craigslist-like exchange of everything from gifts to basic necessities. And Truss covers the (negligible) cost of shipping. 

This program connects employees, meets an already expressed need, and creates immense trust and empathy—all without requiring too much from any one person. 

Learn More

Everett has been kind enough to share Truss’ Distributed Playbook, where the Truss team goes into the nitty-gritty of their policies, while also discussing “how to build systems, an infrastructure, and a mindset to support your employees, culture, and customers for the long haul.” 

Check it out and put it to work at your organization. 

---

Virtual sessions like these are part of how we’re supporting this amazing community of scientists, entrepreneurs, technologists, artists, astronauts, and misfits. If you’re interested in viewing the recording of the full session, the Dent community might be a fit for you. You can apply for the Dent Passport here. 

Dent’s virtual sessions and events help our community break through the sense of isolation that tends to haunt people who do remarkable things. In addition to virtual sessions like these, Dent Passport members receive: 

• Free Access to a Stable of Business and Leadership Coaches
• Quarterly Dent Passport Book Club Subscription
• Weekly Dent @ Home sessions
• Community “Morning Routines” and “Fika Breaks” to connect with others. 
• Passport Community Directory and Facilitated Introductions
• More!

Dent has always been a forum for coming together as a community to better understand what goes into denting the universe. Fortunately, we are finding new ways to convene even as the world changes around us daily. 

On Friday, we launched our Dent @ Home series to hear a talk from Mark Stibitch, epidemiologist and CEO. 

We were excited about Mark Stibich’s keynote before this crisis, but now he might be uniquely positioned to help dent the universe back into shape. Mark Stibich, Ph.D is the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Xenex Disinfection Services which is manufacturing germ-zapping robots, which can be used to sterilize hospitals much more efficiently, effectively, and safely than humans. This invention could both be a key part of the solution to this crisis and a major improvement to our healthcare system. Mark is also a respected epidemiologist with high-level knowledge about the pandemic. We were so grateful to learn from him together. 

Mark was a fountain of information—particularly about primary sources where you can get the most up-to-date information about the virus. We’ve curated some notes and links below. 

Links and Notes from Epidemiologist Mark Stibitch

Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU)

• View total confirmed cases, active cases, and recovered cases
• See rankings of where there are the most cases
• Break down the data by country, state/province, or county. 

Ourworldindata.org: Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) – Statistics and Research

• Detailed data on severity, symptoms, healthcare capacity, fatality rates, and confirmed deaths. 

The Covid Tracking Project

• Most up to date information on testing

Covid19 Health Data

• Shows projected hospital resource use (broken down by state)

World Health Organization landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines

• Details about vaccines in development

Temperature, Humidity and Latitude Analysis to Predict Potential Spread and Seasonality for COVID-19

• How will warmer seasonal weather affect the virus? 

Video of Xenex’s Lightstrike disinfecting robot

Propublica: “Are Hospitals Near Me Ready for Coronavirus? Here Are Nine Different Scenarios.”

NIH: “New coronavirus stable for hours on surfaces”

CDC Print Resources

COVID-19 Clinical Trials

CDC Information for Clinicians on Therapeutic Options for COVID-19 Patients

CDC: “What You Need To Know About Handwashing”

Google Doodle: “Recognizing Ignaz Semmelweis and Handwashing”

---

---

Virtual sessions like these are part of how we’re supporting this amazing community of scientists, entrepreneurs, technologists, artists, astronauts, and misfits. If you’re interested in viewing the recording of the full session, the Dent community might be a fit for you. You can apply for the Dent Passport here. 

Dent’s virtual sessions and events help our community break through the sense of isolation that tends to haunt people who do remarkable things. In addition to virtual sessions like these, Dent Passport members receive: 

• Free Access to a Stable of Business and Leadership Coaches
• Quarterly Dent Passport Book Club Subscription
• Weekly Dent @ Home sessions
• Community “Morning Routines” and “Fika Breaks” to connect with others. 
• Passport Community Directory and Facilitated Introductions

One of our friends and long-time Denters, Everett Harper once said that Dent is unique because Denters are“generous with their curiosity.” In this spirit, we are so excited to announce that Matthew Croasmun and Evan Rosa from The Yale Center for Faith and Culture will be speaking at Dent 2020. They’ll be speaking about “Living a Life Worthy of Your Humanity” and bringing curiosity to life’s biggest questions. Apply for Dent now. 

• 

• 

Matthew Croasmun and Evan Rosa are taking a broad, humanistic, cross-cultural view of faith, culture, and the big questions.

Matthew runs a program for Yale Undergraduates called Life Worth Living, wherein students learn about—and interrogate their values—about what makes a good life. “The program I direct,” he says, “leads students into profound inter-religious encounters as they interact with visions of the good life from Buddhism to Islam to Utilitarianism to Nietzsche.” He makes a dent in the universe by helping “people ask and answer the big questions of life across important and enduring lines of difference.”

Evan works at the intersection of academic research and public engagement. His work includes founding and producing The Table, “an online journal and podcast exploring diverse Christian perspectives on life’s big questions.” On the introduction to his podcast, he says:

“My job will be to bring together wise voices, and learn with you, about topics like the meaning of love in today’s political context, how to be humble, what it means to be human in modern technological society, how to live through and respond to deep personal suffering, and so much more.”

These are the kinds of big questions we want you to bring to Dent 2020—so we can learn together with generosity, curiosity, and humility. Evan and Matthew will help lead us through the big questions; we can’t wait. Apply for Dent 2020 now.