May 1, 2023
Good morning! Will you be participating in No Mow May? A curious irony: Another large university in the United States announced it will no longer teach philosophy. Restaurants are now offering bread as a pricey menu item, the ubiquitous freebie might now come with a variety of spreads and a Wow! presentation.
Next up: Water
It would appear professional football (the U.S. variety) is poised to survive another year.There are zero data to support this conclusion, but you read it here first: No one truly loves brussels sprouts.
And what’s with the new variety on steroids — four, five, and six-times the traditional sizes?
- Is ChatGPT Dr. Frankenstein’s monster or something closer to Newton, Einstein, Curie, Beethoven, Picasso, and Christie all working together?
- Do you know all sixteen (16) of your great-great grandparents?
- Through no effort of my own, one of my siblings has breathed life into our GG ancestors who were born — as early as 1820, as late as 1856 — in Maine, Massachusetts, Ireland, England, New York, Ohio, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Missouri.
- Interestingly — and perhaps intuitively — almost all died in Minnesota (U.S.), though also in Montana, Kansas, Michigan, and Colorado.
- Among the readers of these Musings is a person who just told me he reads these words via artificial intelligence. (Thanks for reading — via any method. You are SO appreciated!)
- Just realized I’ve been forgetting to include this on my resume!
- For a short period of time during my college years I painted houses for a living.
- Well, not for a living, more like a pittance.
- Don’t know what prompted this memory, but I was once tricked into painting this huge three-story house, red trim and all (I think there were 50+ windows!), for maybe $100.
- Took me several weeks and gave me a traumatic sewing machine knee being thirty-five feet up in the air on a flimsy ladder reaching for that highest gable.
- “Work can’t love you back.” (Ned)
- Who do you suppose is behind the recent spin on promoting the benefits — and the joy — of lifelong work?
- Listen, or your tongue will keep you deaf. (Attributed to indigenous peoples)
- What is the greatest challenge facing organizations today?
- This might be self-serving, but we think it’s a lack of vision — which is then transformed into reality and sustained. (Bennis, Nanus)
- Without a vision the organization perishes… maybe not today, but eventually.
- Vision is at once inspirational, aspirational, and motivational; it drives innovation and is at the root of entrepreneurship, the lifeblood of our economy and society.
- Quiet Quitting is the term being used to describe what used to be called, working to contract.
- In essence it refers to someone who decides to perform at the minimum level of expectations, doing just enough to get by, to stay below the radar.
- It’s a wicked form of passive aggressiveness, when you think about it.
- It is sometimes chosen as a survival path for someone unhappy, depressed, unmotivated, or disillusioned.
- Spot these workers within your organization and make a plan to address what could become cancerous for your culture.
- Wisdom for CEOs: You’re never ready.
- When/ If you think you are, you fail to learn, you fail to listen, you fail to look for danger, you get complacent — and horror of horrors, you might become arrogant.
- What is the proper balance between confidence and humility? Find it.
- “If you don’t bring yourself to work every day refreshed and energized, it’s really hard to be great at what you do. (Hill, Huber, Etc., et al.)
- “If you get to a leadership role and you’re afraid to ask for help and afraid to say you don’t know something, my guess is you are walking on pretty thin ice.” (Hill, Huber, Etc., et al.)
- Joke o’ the Week: When you drive the back country roads you encounter many crows feasting on carrion and other forms of garbage.
- Why do you rarely, if ever, observe dead crows on the road, unwittingly sacrificing themselves as carrion for others?
- Answer: There is always at least one additional crow on nearby lookout — and when it spots an approaching vehicle, it shouts, Car! Car! Car!
