When someone comes back to you after you’ve told them something that decidedly and obviously came through, there’s a perceived desire to say, “I told you so.” But that’s not really what we want to say. “I told you so,” says “I was right.” But aren’t you really trying to establish credibility to be a trusted source, going forward? When I tell someone something, or give them advice, and it turns out exactly as predicted, I’m not interested in rubbing their nose in it or making sure I get the credit I deserve. My motivation is to establish the…
Career risks worth taking
James May was the British presenter of a British show called “Toy Stories.” It was he who was behind the construction of a full size Lego house. (not a toy house, but a life-size, inhabitable house built entirely out of Legos… the entire series is definitely worth watching). It turns out that earlier in his career, he was fired from his writing position at Autocar magazine because of a design trick he pulled in the editing of a year-end review the magazine published. There were 41 spreads in all, and he decided to edit it so that if you read the…
Next time you have to confront someone, start with a haka (or, if only everyone in Seattle had a haka…)
A former colleague of mine is from New Zealand. She has a very thick accent (if you’re talking to her in the U.S.), and she’s got a lot of pride in her home. One day at work, she was watching a video of the All Blacks rugby team do their haka before the game. I’d never seen this before and had no idea what it was. The Haka is a traditional dance form of the Maori tribe in New Zealand. It is apparently a long-standing tradition of the All Blacks (New Zealand) rugby team to do a Haka toward the opposing…
Privacy and conservatism
Back in the days of routine attacks on the religious right, liberal politicians would often say that conservatives want to know what’s going on in your home. But the truth is that’s simply not the nature of conservatives. Conservatives usually want to be left alone and, in turn, want to leave others alone, as well. Conservatives have a strong sense of right and wrong. But believing in right and wrong is not the same as telling everyone how to live. Telling people how to live is creating restrictions on salt intake, trans fats, what we can eat, what we…
It sucks to be who?
I don’t ever think “it sucks to be you.” I don’t even know what that means. That line of thinking implies that my life is somehow better. I’m never, and have never been for want. The kind of person who could think that would have to be a pretty cold and vindictive person to not be able to empathize with something bad happening to someone else – even if you don’t like that person. Ironically, about the only person it may suck to be is the person who could generate the thought, “it sucks to be you.”
If we really have to tax a group of people…
In the 30+ years I’ve spent closely following politics, here’s a fresh idea that I can’t say I’ve ever heard before: raise taxes on the Baby Boomers. Our tax code is full of exceptions, loopholes, exemptions, etc. But I can’t say I’ve ever heard of an approach to taxation that punished generations (except for the entire code helping to punish future generations). But since the Baby Boomers created most of the current social and economic messes we enjoy today (along with pretty much everything else that’s wrong), why not let them pick up the tab? Since they’re the ones…
Evidence no longer matters
When you see cities like Seattle, Detroit, Baltimore, or San Francisco, and how much they’re falling apart, how can you not conclude that liberal (or socialist) policies don’t work. In each case, you have rampant homelessness, crime, poor, drugs, and a serious lack of standards or expectations upon the citizenry. But also, in each case, those cities have been run entirely by Democrats, liberals, socialists… whichever label you prefer. How can anyone conclude that conservatives or Republicans would be to blame. They haven’t been anywhere near those places for years. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting…
Beware of sleep injuries
One thing I’ve noticed about aging is that number of sleep injuries that occur during the night. These days, it’s not uncommon to awaken with a pulled hamstring or turned ankle. Just from sleeping. I’m not sure what happens during the night as you get older, but the dangers of sleeping become greater and greater as you get older. Perhaps it’s time to bring back waterbeds…
Identity politics marketing
Conservatives are routinely characterized as racist, bigoted, homophobic, sexists. Mostly because that’s what Democrat politicians and activists call them, and the media passes it on to the public. Conservatives, with the worst marketing department in the history of marketing, do a horrible job of addressing this or defending themselves. But if you understand conservatism, it makes perfect sense. Here’s an example: Members of the lesbian and gay community often call out conservatives as being homophobic. It gets hostile. It’s said with vitriol, and it’s very accusing. Every day conservatives go on about their day, as every day conservatives do,…
Open workspaces don’t work – that’s why we keep making them
Yesterday, I wrote about the growing use of noise cancelling headphones in the workplace, and how they’re serving to further isolate people from one another. In the workplace, this is happening due largely to open workspaces. Between all of the conversation, the mechanical keyboards with the incessant clicking and clacking, the sounds of people clinking bowls and plates as they eat, and other constant interruptions, it’s really difficult for most to produce their best work. It used to be that many people had offices, or at least high-wall cubes, so we had some sound blocking, and at least the…