Dan Savage had some good advice a while back:

Your awkward/repulsive stage will pass. In the meantime, here’s what you need to do: worry less about getting your young teenage self laid and start thinking about getting your 18- or 20-year-old self laid. Join a gym and get yourself a body that girls will find irresistible, read—read books—so that you’ll have something to say to girls (the best way to make girls think you’re interesting is to actually be interesting), and get out of the house and do shit—political shit, sporty shit, arty shit—so that you’ll meet different kinds of girls in different kinds of settings and become comfortable talking with them.

It is much easier to talk to someone when you have something to talk about.

It kinda looks distressed. But also cute. I gotta get down to AU sometime soon…

Many democracies form coalitions between smaller parties to create a majority voting block - the US just does it before the election.

I think Eleanor Shellstrop captured it best:

Yeah, in America everyone DOES whatever they want, society DID break down, it’s terrible, and it’s great! You only look out for number one, scream at whoever disagrees with you, there are no bees because they all died, and if you need surgery you just beg for money on the Internet! It’s the perfect system!"

Laptop computer. I used to travel for work and got used to working without a keyboard and mouse, and sometimes working without a desk and chair (consulting is classy!).

I’m a parent and do not agree with this approach. Everyone should behave in public - and kids should practice so they can learn. At home, my kids get to behave like animals and we do things where they can behave like kids, like trampoline park, zoo, the arcade, etc. When we are out at places where the kids should behave, we bring them iPads and headphones so they are able to make it through the activity. But it is just rude to let your kid intrude and ruin a dinner, museum, movie, etc for others.

Whip It by Devo, which struck me as hilarious as a kid. And I hadn’t even seen the video!

Obviously three wolf moon.

Sure thing! Here are some other thoughts your survey brought to mind:

1. I think of business culture as the way people behave when a leader isn’t there giving direction. So, sota in line with your perspective. But unlike the culture of a country, I think a business’ culture is defined by behaviors (as opposed to beliefs).

2. In the last 40 years, public corporations have focused on profits and shareholder value. But I think it is a huge mistake to ignore the other groups the business impacts and influences, such as their customers, their employees and the community they are in. My perspective is that unless all of those things are looked after, the business will become terrible over time (Boeing is like a case study on this).

3. Not mentioned in your survey, but a pet peeve is the lack of development and mentorship of staff. Most teams could be so much stronger with the right support, oversight and development. But it requires a lot of elbow grease, which managers and leaders are unwilling to put in. To me, this is so wrong it boarders on unethical. But, at least in the US, it is pervasive across businesses.

I have so many thoughts stirred up by this survey. Here’s just 1: some companies don’t benefit from consultants because they are the unwilling or unable to implement their recommendations - not because the recommendatios are wrong. Honestly, most big companies hire consultants to blame their poor results on - and for that, consultants are totally worth the cost. Happy to share more if you would like - just message me.

Usually not at all. More recently, the polical influence on our economy is that impacting everything from hiring (we were gonna hire, but now we aren’t) to investing in the business (we think we need to store cash because a downturn is looming). Apparently it is difficult to improve an economy, but one can be wrecked in 45 days.

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Oooo, I should try that! I have been using KU, which I know isn’t awesome, but did allow romance authors to break the publishing model (fascinating story: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/romance-novels/). And there’s a part of me that wants to give the middle finger to publishers who took in a bunch of money from romance books to pay for books/authors that would never recoup their costs.

I read ebooks.

I’ve had good luck with acupuncture. In one extreme case it fixed my bell palsy months faster that the doctor said it would heal.

Dog poop in plastic baggies.

Why would we collect dog poop in a container that doesn’t decompose? Was it a religious thing? Did we expect to use it later?

The mystery remains!

I own a small business consulting firm that the serves tech and energy industries. Generally, pay is good in consulting. Owning a company can be risky financially - we’ve had good years and bad years.

I used to commute 1.5 hours each direction - it was exhausting and I hated it.

100% remote.

THANK GOD. I was trying to get more poop in my life.