Is it me, or are all of the personal online account security questions we’re answering, in the name of further account security and protection, actually just providing even more detailed, personal information to the hackers who inevitably break into and steal our account information? It seems like now people will know my mother’s maiden name, my first concert, my first car, my third grade teacher, my shoe size, my pet’s name, etc. That information makes it much easier to pose as me than just the surface information. Seems like the intent to make things more secure is just going…
How did the death of the Polish joke slip by unnoticed?
I recently watched Bob Einstein’s last appearance on Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee with my teenage daughter. In it, he tells a Polish joke about three men – an Irish man, an Italian man, and a Polish man – who are all going to the electric chair. When Einstein refers to the Polish man, he uses the derogatory word for a Polish person, “Polack.” As I was listening to the joke, which I thought was very funny, I looked at my daughter, through my own laughter, and realized she wasn’t laughing. When I asked her why, she…
At a stoplight, you only have one job
If you’re at a stoplight, you only have one job: make sure the person behind you gets through. Stay focused, and think of the people behind you. When the light changes, go, and go quickly. When the car in front of you starts moving, go. The goal should be to get you and the person behind you through the light. If that happens, you’ve done your job. To meander through is to think only of yourself and be in the way of the person behind you. Be courteous. All of the time.
Hard and fast rules: #34
Never trust someone who wears their watch on the inside of their wrist. It’s a sure sign they’re up to something…
Diversity, but from who’s perspective?
One of the popular trends in management these days is giving the entire staff a personality test so we can understand what kind of people they are. Then managers are to learn how to speak to each individual in a way that resonates best with their varying personality types. One manager learning countless different ways to say the same thing to X number of employees. At the same time, companies are racing to see who can create the largest “diversity and inclusion” department in the their industry, so they can publicize their “commitment to diversity” and attract the employees…
Is the U.S. worth fighting for?
There’s an idea growing in the United States that our founding was illegitimate. The idea goes that we were established by evil white men who selfishly built this country for their own gain, on the backs of slaves imported from Africa. And because of that slavery, everything that has been built, and the traditions that have evolved are born of sin and need to be eradicated. Basically, whether they know they are saying this or not, their idea is we need to wipe the slate clean and start over. And doing that will make us pure because they believe,…
You can lead a software engineer to water…
I recently visited a former colleague at his work place. There, they have a true love for technology and take pride in the technologically advanced and cutting edge nature of their workforce and workplace. They scour the world and find the most advanced tech for nearly every aspect of the business. And so it was when I was asked if I wanted anything to drink. He was proud to show of their Scanomat drink selection system. Scanomat is a Danish company that has developed an app-controlled coffee machine. The way it works is there’s a server under the counter,…
Gays get woke – a Pride month summary
Another Pride month is in the books, and I think America did a great job showing gays how much we love them. We love them even more than the straight people. We certainly love them more than black people. It’s possible we love gays even more than women. But, unfortunately, there’s no metrics for measuring who we love the most. If only we had a dashboard… Our national, identity politics depend on us figuring this out. Until then, I think we may have crossed the line of gay love. We had it just right, until that exploitative Taylor Swift…
The fault line
Walking down the sidewalk this morning, I overheard a construction worker speaking on the phone and telling the person on the other end that it isn’t going to be his fault when the furniture doesn’t arrive on time. I imagine with construction, where there are so many different companies with so many different employees doing such wildly different tasks, that the phrase, “It’s not my fault,” is heard quite a bit. Is it human nature to work, first, to avoid fault? Do we just approach work this way naturally? Or is it the management we’ve experienced who think in…