July 2019

Move over for pedestrians

Coming from the Midwest, running in the Pacific Northwest has always been a frustrating experience. Running in Seattle, I’m always amazed at how lockstep the entire population is in not budging an inch in their cars when passing me when I’m running. There are no sidewalks where I run, so if I want to stay on the road, I have very little room to work with that isn’t into the driving lane. Yet I’m constantly amazed at how every driver who passes refuses to give me an inch. They all stay in their lane. I was reminded of this…

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Marvel reflects reality, sadly…

Word on the street is that Marvel Studios is seeking a transgender actress to play a role in the Marvel Universe, making Marvel more reflective of society. They’re not reflective in that transgender people will finally get represented. They’re reflective in that they feel some obligation to pander to a small group of people who often don’t identify as people, but a subset of people. (The way being white is a subset of people, just to be clear.) What I wonder is where the pandering truly lies: Is it Marvel singling out a small minority to illustrate how inclusive…

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The sweet irony of racism

Over the weekend, I looked at the news and saw this: My first reaction wasn’t to automatically assume President Trump let fire a racist tweet. My first reaction was what everyone’s should be: to read the tweets and see what they really said. So I looked and found this: He didn’t mention race. But every news outlet did. Every single news site I saw, CNN, Salon, Vox, New York Magazine, MSNBC, etc. referred either to a “racist tweet,” or Elijah Cummings as a “black Congressman.” But why stop at “black Congressman.” Why not add “tall,” or “bald,” or “68-year-old?”…

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Socialism cures global warming. Does capitalism cure global cooling?

We’re told that we need Socialism to solve climate change. The temperature is heating up, and our resource-abusing capitalist society is to blame. We need to give power to the government so we can manage our productivity. And we’ll all need to make sacrifices. No Hummers. Fewer squares of toilet paper. No hairspray. Electric cars. Etc. But what happens if we over-correct? I mean, we’re going to do all of those things because we know it’ll work. So there’s a fair chance we’ll over-correct and go too far. What if we make it too cold? It seems to me,…

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The death of the greatest hits record?

The way music is enjoyed now, individual songs heard on Spotify or downloaded from iTunes, is much different than it used to be. I just received an email today announcing the release of Spoon’s greatest hits album: Everything Hits At Once. I’d never even thought of it before, but I couldn’t believe someone has released a greatest hits album. Very few people are going to the record store anymore to browse new albums, and even fewer would pick up a greatest hits album. Not when it’s so easy to just hear the songs you know and like. Who’s even…

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Confrontation: the real, and rare, key to great management

LinkedIn is full of little pithy sayings about how to be a great manager. With the sheer volume of people posting little tips about the importance of appreciating employees, empowering employees, being a good listener, etc., you’d think there are great managers all over the place. Unfortunately, based on my own experience in more than 10 companies, and years of listening to others talk about their managers, great managers seem to be much more of a rarity. And however much people talk about how they want to be treated, there is really one core reason why there’s only a…

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It’s not racism, it’s culturalism

The charge of “racism” has been a liberal defense when losing an argument for years. Nothing new there. And the Republican Marketing Department, the worst marketing organization in the history of marketing, always rolls over and hopes it will go away. Nothing new there, either. But President Trump, a “Republican” (kind of), is doing something different and going on offense. He’s pointing out something I’ve been saying for years: Blaming anything on racism is just lazy thinking. At this point, racism is rare and hard to come by. We’ve simply just gotten too far away from it. Around 50…

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How to win the 2020 election

It would appear President Trump is going to be the only one running for President on the Republican ticket. And that leaves just under 20 Democrat candidates to oppose him. Just under 20 Democrat candidates who are trying to make their mark and stand out from the rest of the field. Well, consider this an open letter to the one of them who takes my advice. What would make them stand out, give them an issue we could all get behind, and possibly win the election? Calling for a completely new House of Representatives and 33 new Senators. A…

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Write a shorter book

Who said that all books have to be at least 300 pages? In a time when people are bombarded with tiny bits of information through Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook, it should be more important than ever to keep important ideas concise. Yet somehow, whether fiction or nonfiction, book writers, editors, and publishers seem hell bent on making books too long. And if you do spend the time reading, say, business books, it just becomes one example after another, and after another, proving the same point over and over again. If the idea is that important, cut it down,…

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The cannabis overcorrection

It wasn’t that long ago that sentencing for marijuana possession or selling was disproportionate to the crime. That’s a bit of an arbitrary statement on it’s own, but the sentencing was along the lines of robbery or illegal firearms possession. In an attempt to get the punishment more in line with the crime, pro-marijuana organizations and lobbyists successfully got marijuana legalization initiatives on ballots across the country, and nearly half of our states have legalized the drug. Now, in states like Washington, you can’t walk more than a block without either seeing a cannabis shop or a billboard for…

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