Author Topic: Life's Lessons  (Read 1137 times)

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Mac

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Re: Life's Lessons
« Reply #30 on: January 07, 2014, 10:12:51 am »
Now a lot of comments just dismiss this because they say it's to generalizing. I don't think anywhere does the author support or deny this article. It's one of those things where you just can't please everybody.

I found it fascinating and IMO, a strong case.

How baby boomers screwed their kids — and created millennial impatience

Quote
“This Be the Verse”

They **** you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were **** up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.

Philip Larkin’s 1971 poem paints a bit of a dreary picture of parenting. But, sadly, there is some truth in it. The period of Destructive Abundance in which we are currently living is due in large part to the good intentions of our parents and their parents before them.

The Greatest Generation, raised during the Great Depression and wartime rationing, wanted to ensure that their children did not suffer or miss out on their youth as they did. This is good. This is what all parents want — for their children to avoid their hardships and prosper. And so that’s how the Boomers were raised — to believe that they shouldn’t have to go without. Which, as a philosophy, is perfectly fine and reasonable. But given the size of the generation and the abundance of resources that surrounded them, the philosophy got a little distorted. When you consider the rising wealth and affluence of their childhood, combined (for good reasons) with a cynicism toward government in the 1970s, followed by the boom years of the 1980s and 1990s, it’s easy to see how the Boomers earned their reputation as the Me Generation. Me before We.

Putting the protection of ideas and wealth before the sharing of them is now standard. A New Jersey-based accountant told me that he sees a clear difference between his older clients and his younger ones. “My older clients want to work within the confines of the tax code to do what is fair,” he explained. “They are willing to simply pay the tax they owe. The next generation spends lots of time looking to exploit every loophole and nuance in the tax code to reduce their responsibility to as little as possible.”

When the Boomers started having children of their own, they raised their children to be skeptical of those in charge. “Don’t let people get things from you if they aren’t willing to compensate you for it,” goes the thinking. “Don’t let anything stand in the way of what you want.” Again, all reasonable philosophies if the circumstances today were the same as the 1960s and 1970s. But they aren’t. And so a few good ideas got a little twisted for the Boomers’ kids.

Generations X and Y were taught to believe they could get whatever they want. Gen X, growing up before the Internet, interpreted that lesson as putting your head down and getting to work. An overlooked and forgotten generation, Gen Xers didn’t really rebel against anything or stand for much in their youth. Sure there was the Cold War, but it was the nicer, gentler version of the Cold War that existed in the 1960s and 1970s. Gen Xers didn’t grow up practicing drills at school in case of nuclear attack. Growing up in the 1980s was a good life. The 1990s and the new millennium saw even more boom years. Dot-com. E-commerce. E-mail. E-dating. Free overnight shipping. No waiting. Get it now!

Generation Y is said to have a sense of entitlement. Many employers complain of the demands their entry-level employees often make. But I, as one observer, do not believe it is a sense of entitlement. This generation wants to work hard and is willing to work hard. What we perceive as entitlement is, in fact, impatience. An impatience driven by two things: First is a gross misunderstanding that things like success, money or happiness come instantly. Even though our messages and books arrive the same day we want them, our careers and fulfillment do not.

The second element is more unsettling. It is a result of a horrible short circuit to their internal reward systems. These Gen Yers have grown up in a world in which huge scale is normal, money is valued over service and technology is used to manage relationships. The economic systems in which they have grown up, ones that prioritize numbers over people, are blindly accepted, as if that’s the way it has always been. If steps are not taken to overcome or mitigate the quantity of abstractions in their lives, in time they may be the biggest losers of their parents’ excess. And while Gen Yers may be more affected by this short-circuiting because they grew up only in this world, the fact is that none of us are immune.

The Distracted Generation

Imagine you are sitting on a plane flying at 35,000 feet and 525 miles per hour from New York to Seattle. It’s a calm flight. There’s no turbulence. It’s a clear day and the captain predicts that the whole flight will be a smooth one. Both the captain and the copilot are seasoned pilots with many, many years of experience, and the aircraft is equipped with the most modern avionics and warning systems. As required by the FAA, both pilots fly the airline’s simulator a few times a year to practice dealing with various emergencies. A hundred miles away, in a dark room in a building with no windows, sits an air traffic controller with ten years of experience looking down a scope monitoring all the air traffic in his assigned sector. Your flight is currently in his sector. Now imagine that the controller has his cell phone next to him. He is not allowed to make calls while he is on duty, but he can send and receive text messages or access his e-mail. Imagine that he can relay coordinates to a flight, check his messages, relay coordinates to another flight, check his phone again. Seems fair, right?

As plain as the nose is on my face, I am confident that the vast majority of us would not be very comfortable with this scenario. We would prefer that that air traffic controller check his e-mail or send his text messages during his breaks. I think we would all feel much better if access to the Internet and a personal cell phone were completely forbidden (which they are). Only because our lives are at stake do we see this example as stark. So if we take the life and death part away, why would we think that we can do our work, check our phones, write a paragraph, send a text, write another paragraph, send another text, without the same damage to our ability to concentrate? Generation Y thinks that, because they have grown up with all these technologies, they are better at multitasking. I would venture to argue they are not better at multitasking. What they are better at is being distracted.

According to a study at Northwestern University, the number of children and young people diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) shot up 66 percent between 2000 and 2010. Why the sudden and huge spike in a frontal lobe dysfunction over the course of a decade? The Centers for Disease Control defines those with ADHD as often having “trouble paying attention, controlling impulsive behaviors (may act without thinking about what the result will be), or being overly active.” I would submit that this huge spike is not simply because more people have ADHD than previous generations, though this could be true. Nor is it due to an increase in the number of parents having their children tested, though this could also be true. Though there are, of course, many genuine cases of ADHD, the sudden spike may be the result of something as simple as misdiagnosis. What I believe is likely happening, however, is that more young people are developing an addiction to distraction. An entire generation has become addicted to the dopamine-producing effects of text messages, e-mails and other online activities.

We know that sometimes our wires can get crossed and the wrong behaviors can be incentivized. Someone who finds the dopamine- and serotonin-releasing effects of alcohol as a teenager can become conditioned to look to alcohol to suppress emotional pain instead of learning to look to people for support. This can show up later in life as alcoholism. In this same way, the dopamine-releasing effects of the bing, buzz or flash of a cell phone feel good and create the desire and drive to repeat the behavior that produces that feeling. Even if we are in the middle of something, it feels good to check our phones immediately instead of waiting fifteen minutes to complete our original task. Once addicted, the craving is insatiable. When the phone dings while we are driving, we must look immediately to see who just sent us a text. When we are trying to get some work done, and our phones vibrate across the desk, we break concentration and have to look. If Boomers get their dopamine from goals oriented around “more” and “bigger,” then Gen Y is getting their dopamine from anything that satisfies “faster” or “now.” Cigarettes are out. Social media is in. It’s the drug of the twenty-first century. (At least people who smoke stand outside together.)

Like alcoholism or drug addiction, this new disease is making our youngest generation impatient at best, and, at worst, feel lonelier and more isolated than the generations before. Where alcohol replaced trusting relationships as a coping mechanism for teenagers who grew up to be alcoholics, so too are the positive affirmations we get from social media and the virtual relationships we maintain replacing real trusting relationships as coping mechanisms.

A side effect could be a generation that struggles to find happiness and fulfillment even more than the generations that preceded them. Though there is a desire to do good, their acculturated impatience means that few will commit time or effort to one thing long enough to see the effect of service — the thing we know gives a sense of fulfillment. In doing research for this book, I kept meeting amazing, wonderful, smart, driven and optimistic Gen Yers who were either disillusioned with their entry-level jobs or quitting to find a new job that will “allow me to make an impact in the world,” discounting the time and energy that is required to do it.

It’s like they are standing at the foot of a mountain looking at the effect they want to have or success they want to feel at the peak. There is nothing wrong with looking for a faster way to scale the mountain. If they want to take a helicopter or invent a climbing machine that gets them up there quicker, more power to them. What they seem to fail to notice, however, is the mountain.

This “see it and get it” generation has an awareness of where they are standing and they know where they want to get to; what they can’t seem to understand is the journey, the very time-consuming journey. They seem flummoxed when told that things take time. They are happy to give lots of short bursts of energy and effort to things, but commitment and grit come harder. Giving a lot of one’s self to a small number of things seems to have been replaced by giving a little bit of one’s self to a large number of things. This tendency is exemplified by the way many Gen Yers respond to various social causes. They rallied to share the Kony video with their friends. Many posted pictures of themselves in hoodies to support Trayvon Martin. They texted donations to tsunami relief organizations. There is an intense excitement to do good, to help, to support. Yet after the dopamine hit is felt, it’s on to the next. Without giving any significant amount of time or energy, a generation comfortable with abstraction has confused real commitment with symbolic gestures.

One brand that offers young, fashionable do-gooders the opportunity to do good without actually doing anything is 1:Face. Customers can buy a watch in the color that represents the cause of their choice, for example, white to stamp out hunger or pink to stamp out breast cancer. According to the 1:Face Web site, an unspecified portion of profits go to related charities. The problem is, ask the watch wearer what good they’re doing and they will likely tell you they are helping “to raise awareness.” That’s the Gen Y catchall. There is so much talk about awareness or “driving the conversation” that we’ve failed to notice that talk doesn’t solve problems; the investment of time and energy by real human beings does. Justifying such campaigns by saying they put pressure on others to do things only supports my argument that we seem less inclined to offer our own time and energy to do what needs to be done, insisting, rather, that others do it for us. It also reveals a limitation of the Internet. An amazing vehicle for spreading information, the Web is great for making people aware of the plight of others, but it is quite limited in its ability to alleviate that plight. The plight of others is not a technology problem; it’s a human one. And only humans can solve human problems.

As money replaced the expense of time and energy, now brands that offer people the chance to do good by not actually doing anything replace service. Neither fulfills the human need to do real, hard work for the benefit of others. Neither fulfills the sacrifice requirements for serotonin or oxytocin. The dopamine drive for instant gratification, at best, means we, as individuals, keep “giving” to various causes without ever feeling any sense of belonging or lasting fulfillment. At worst, however, feelings of loneliness and isolation can lead to dangerous antisocial behavior.

The Dire Scenario

Disappointed and disillusioned, Baby Boomers are killing themselves in greater numbers than ever before. According to a 2013 study by the Centers for Disease Control, suicide rates among Baby Boomers rose nearly 30 percent during the past decade, making suicide one of the leading causes of death in that age group, behind only cancer and heart disease. The biggest jump in suicides was among men in their fifties — this age group experienced a whopping 50 percent increase. With the increase of suicides among Boomers, more people now die of suicide than from car accidents.

Unless we do something, my fear is that it is going to get worse. The problem is that in twenty to thirty years, when our youngest generation grows up and takes charge of government and business, its members will have grown up using Facebook, prescription drugs or online support groups as their primary coping mechanisms rather than relying on real support groups: biological bonds of friendship and loving relationships. I predict we will see a rise in depression, prescription drug abuse, suicide and other anti-social behaviors.

In 1960, the number of notable school shootings was one. In the 1980s there were 27. The 1990s saw 58 school shootings, and from 2000 until 2012 there were 102 school shootings. This may seem crazy, but that’s an increase of more than 10,000 percent in just over fifty years. More than 70 percent of the shooters in all the shootings since 2000 were born after 1980, and a disturbingly high number were around the age of fourteen or fifteen. Though some had diagnosed mental disorders, all felt lonely, outcast and disassociated from their schools, communities or families. In almost every case, these young murderers were either victims of bullying themselves or felt ostracized because of their social awkwardness or history of family troubles.

Sick gazelles are pushed to the edge of the herd, pushed out of the Circle of Safety, so the lions might eat the weaker ones instead of the stronger ones. Our primitive mammal brain leads us to the same conclusion. When we feel like we are outside a Circle of Safety, with no sense of belonging and no sense that others love and care for us, we feel out of control, abandoned and left for dead. And when we feel that isolated, we become desperate.

Virtual relationships can’t help solve this real problem. In fact, they could be making the situation worse. People who spend excessive time on Facebook frequently become depressed as they compare the perception of their lives with their perception of the lives of others. A 2013 study by social psychologists at the University of Michigan tracked the Facebook use of eighty-two young adults over a two-week period. At the start of the study they rated how satisfied they were with their lives. The researchers then checked in with the subjects every two hours, five times a day, to see how they were feeling about themselves and also how much time they were spending on Facebook. The more time they spent on Facebook since the last check-in, the worse they felt. And at the end of the two weeks, the subjects who had spent the most time overall on Facebook reported less satisfaction with their lives. “Rather than enhancing well-being, …” the study concluded, “interacting with Facebook may predict the opposite result for young adults — it may undermine it.”

So that’s where we stand. The Me Generation, addicted to performance, dismantled the controls that protect us from corporate abuses and stock market crashes. A Distracted Generation, living in a world of abstraction, thinks it has ADHD but more likely has a dopamine-fueled addiction to social media and cell phones. It would seem we have reached the abyss. So what are we to do?

The good news is, we are our own best hope.

Reprinted from “Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t” by Simon Sinek
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Mac

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Re: Life's Lessons
« Reply #31 on: March 04, 2014, 09:57:30 am »
I will be very interested in finding how this play's out. Normally I would say it's a no brainer and the child will lose, but a lot of posters are saying since it's in New Jersey, they have different laws.

Sad situation, but I hear overwhelmingly a brat looking for entitlement.

And what's up with the 'lawyer dad' not only supplying a place to live, but supporting and paying for the legal action?


New Jersey honor student sues parents for school fees after they cut her off at age 18


Rachel Canning, 18, claims her parents, Sean and Elizabeth Canning, threw her out of their Lincoln Park, N.J., home last year and stopped paying for her private high school, where she excelled as a cheerleader and lacrosse player. But Sean Canning says Rachel left voluntarily after she refused to abide by simple rules of the house.

Quote
An 18-year-old New Jersey honor student and cheerleader has been tossed from her parents’ Lincoln Park home, but demands that her mother and father continue to pay her private high school and impending college costs — as well as her mounting lawyer fees, according to her lawsuit.

Rachel Canning claims she’s been out of her parents’ home since her 18th birthday, Nov. 1, after her parents vowed to cut her off “from all support both financially and emotionally.”

 But Sean and Elizabeth Canning say their “spoiled” college-bound daughter doesn’t live by their house rules and left the home because she didn’t like the law of the land — overseen by her father, a former Lincoln Park police chief.

The Morris Catholic High School senior and lacrosse player instead has lived at the Rockaway, N.J., home of a classmate, whose father, John Inglesino, has foot the bill for the suit.

“My parents have rationalized their actions by blaming me for not following their rules,” Rachel said in her court papers, according to The Daily Record of Morristown, N.J. “They stopped paying my high school tuition to punish the school and me and have redirected my college fund, indicating their refusal to afford me an education as a punishment.”

More...

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Chiprocks1

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Re: Life's Lessons
« Reply #32 on: March 04, 2014, 07:53:59 pm »
I was going to post this in the What The F*ck thread...............
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Re: Life's Lessons
« Reply #33 on: March 05, 2014, 11:21:22 am »
I hear ya...

I think we need a "Dumbass" thread, because there is a ton of them.

Like Pfc. Tariqka Sheffey

I just chalk this up to being a very stupid person  :-[
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Re: Life's Lessons
« Reply #34 on: March 20, 2014, 09:37:24 am »
While this originated from a post about music, I think it applies to life in general... and I actually get what Patterson Hood is saying.

Some words of wisdom actually...

Ted Nugent Called ‘An Old A–hole’ by Drive-By Truckers Guitarist



Quote
Ted Nugent is a rock legend no matter which way you cut it, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s looked up to by the genre’s younger artists.

Take the Drive-By Truckers, for instance. Given the band’s southern rock roots (their 2001 double-album ‘Southern Rock Opera’ is about Lynyrd Skynyrd and frontman Patterson Hood’s father is Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section bassist David Hood), it might be easy to assume that the Truckers would sympathize with Nugent’s loudly expressed red-state views. But in a recent editorial written for Magnet, singer and guitarist Mike “Stroker Ace” Cooley used him as an example of the type of person nobody wants to be — specifically, an “old a–hole.”

While most people who use that term to describe Nugent would probably do so for largely political reasons, Cooley’s talking more in terms of general attitude — the type of people who, as they get older, view pop culture with an increasing amount of suspicion, if not outright derision or anger. Reflecting on conversations he’s had with people his age (Cooley was born in 1966) about what he does for a living, he noted that the topic often turns to “my thoughts on the merits or lack of in today’s pop music.”

“Sometimes I think they want me to reassure them that they are not just turning into old a–holes,” mused Cooley. “Saying the same things old a–holes said about them and their music.”

Just in case you’re worried that this might describe you, Cooley went on to helpfully note, “In order to determine if you’re turning into an old a–hole, you have to accept the fact that the rate at which a society progresses can be measured by the rate at which its old a–holes die or accept their irrelevance.” In other words, “Why was your music all that anyway? If you’re thinking ‘because they played their own instruments,’ you may be becoming an old a–hole. Why? Ted Nugent plays an instrument. What is he? You guessed it.”

Admitting that he “was even young enough once to think [Nugent] had something meaningful to offer the world,” Cooley concluded with a few words of wisdom for anyone feeling old and/or superior to the younger generations coming up behind them: “Basically every generation deserves a chance to get it wrong! And if you think the one coming up is going to get it any more wrong than yours did; congratulations! You’re an old a–hole. Don’t be an old a–hole.”
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Mac

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Re: Life's Lessons
« Reply #35 on: April 08, 2014, 09:37:38 am »
People are stoopid!!!

Ya, I spelled it wrong.

Sometimes it's embarrassing to be associated with human beings.

Urban Cow Tipping


Quote
Small cars, big mystery.

San Francisco police are looking for the people who turned over four Smart cars in two neighborhoods Monday morning.

The the tiny, eco-friendly cars were found balanced on their headlights, rear bumpers or on their sides, with shattered windows and some body damage. All four were found between 1 a.m. and 9 a.m. in the Bernal Heights and Portola neighborhoods.

It is unclear whether the acts were a cow tipping-esque prank, a vindictive act or a statement about tech culture in San Francisco and the city's subsequent rise in the cost of living.

"It's hard to determine a motive without any suspects identified or in custody," police spokesman Gordon Shyy told the Associated Press.

Shyy says the bizarre acts are being taken seriously and the culprits could face felony vandalism charges.The police have an eyewitness and are looking for multiple people wearing black hooded sweatshirts who were around the area during the time of the incidents.

Overturning Smart cars gained notoriety in 2011 with the Facebook parody page Smart Car Tipping, where vandals and witnesses from as far as Toronto have documented the offbeat but destructive act.





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Chiprocks1

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Re: Life's Lessons
« Reply #36 on: April 08, 2014, 07:27:46 pm »
I really don't get the mindset of certain people and THIS would ever be something to condone.
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Re: Life's Lessons
« Reply #37 on: April 14, 2014, 06:46:19 am »
Though I am I a much better place now... these are still good words for when you  run across an ****

8 leadership lessons from a bad boss:

    Humility. Bad bosses bring out arrogance. You deserve better. But, every leader faces the crucible of unjust treatment. On the other side of mistreatment is humility or arrogance. Those who suffer well are humbled. Those who suffer poorly are hardened.

    Forgiveness. The way you treat others is about you not them. Weak leaders blame their poor behaviors on others. Forgiveness says, I’m not going to treat you with your offenses in mind.

    Adaptability. Leaders who can’t adapt are tyrants. Adapting to the strengths and weaknesses of those around you takes you further than pressuring everyone to be like you.

    Gratitude. Ungratefulness makes you ugly. Find and focus on points of gratitude. I’m not saying to be grateful for being yelled at.

    Conflict. The path to exceptional is paved with tough conversations. Few conversations are tougher than those with bad bosses. Keep humility, forgiveness, adaptability, and gratitude as your companions during tension.

    Resilience. Your bad boss may be reason enough to leave your organization. But, if you gut it out, resiliency is strengthened. Everything worth doing requires resilience.

    Networking. Let a bad boss motivate you to build strong relationships within and outside your organization. You may need them.

    Listening. Bad bosses are hard to listen to. If you can listen well when your boss sucks, you’re becoming a great listener.

    Perspective taking. Learn to see the world from their perspective.

    Calmness. Calmness reflects strength.

Every leadership quality or behavior I listed is profoundly connected to humility. Let your bad boss propel you toward humility.
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Chiprocks1

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Re: Life's Lessons
« Reply #38 on: April 15, 2014, 08:41:29 am »
It's always handy to have a constant reminder because as good as our intentions are, old habits creep up on us and second nature has a tendency to take over. Good post.
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Re: Life's Lessons
« Reply #39 on: April 21, 2014, 07:14:53 pm »
Father/son go out as Boston Marathon legends

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvD7dZSKjeI&list=PLp2e7UfInEgmB-5r4rtQOEsq-H-mNmQhk&index=60

Very moving touching story about a bond between father and son. Moved me to tears and I'm not one to cry.
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Michael Scott To Meredith: "You've slept with so many men, your starting to look like one. BOOM! Roasted! Go here.

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Re: Life's Lessons
« Reply #40 on: April 22, 2014, 06:21:56 am »
I see their story every year. Love it. Should be more stories and examples of love, endurance and loyalty like this.

PS: Hell, I'll cry at a good Charmin commercial. It's OK, doesn't make you less of a man.  :)
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Re: Life's Lessons
« Reply #41 on: April 23, 2014, 06:18:29 am »
This is more 'business' lessons, but there are many life lessons weaved in.

A Dozen Things I’ve Learned about Business from Bill Gates

1. “Business isn’t that complicated” and “Take sales, take costs, and try to get this big positive number at the bottom.”  Many people make a living trying to make “business” sufficiently complex that you feel the need to pay for their services. Their business is to make business complex, when it is actually simple.

 

2. “Of my mental cycles, I devote maybe ten percent to business thinking.” and [John Malone] and I are damn similar.  He worked at Bell Labs and understands both business and technology.” It is not enough to understand just business or the just product or service. Successful entrepreneurs/CEOs understand both in a deep way.  Great entrepreneurs/CEOs spend way more time on the product/service offering than business strategy, structure and operations. There are many ways to succeed but successful entrepreneurs/CEOs are seldom one dimensional. Having said that, entrepreneurs/CEOs which have success which persist over time do typically have a well-defined idea of the limits to their own competence.

 

3. “Being a visionary is trivial.  Being a CEO is hard." All you have to do to be a visionary is to give the old ‘MIPS to the moon’ speech — everything will be everywhere, everything will be converged.  Everybody knows that.  Which is different from being the CEO of a company and seeing where the profits are.”  Poseur CEOs are often eventually exposed but not always. Some CEOs look skillful and are surfing on the work done by people who were in that position before they arrived. CEOs who have created their company from scratch and it lasts over the years have proven their skill.  Visionary CEO can often be attached to companies which generate revenue but never significant profits.

 

4. “Unless you’re running scared all the time, you’re gone.” Moats (sustainable competitive advantage) don’t last unless you are constantly working to reinforce them since they inevitably atrophy. If you don’t yet have a moat, you are even more exposed to competitors. The technology business is unique in that demand side economies of scale can result in nonlinear changes. In a technology business in particular,  you can get run over by a mistake you made five years before.

 

5. “Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana.” Intellectual property can be used to create a moat but it has a limited shelf life. If you are not investing constantly to renew your intellectual property, without a moat from some other source you are dead.  Better yet, invest constantly in creating new intellectual property to replace what will inevitably expire.

 

6. “Supply is the killer of value." That’s why the computer industry is such a strange industry.  We’re dealing with amazing increases in supply.” and “If you look at an industry where you have such a rapid increase in supply, usually that’s pretty bad, like when radial tires were invented, people didn’t start driving their cars a lot more, and so it means the need for production capacity went way down, and things got all messed up.  The tire industry is still messed up.”  Bill’s view on this is the inverse of the George Gilder thesis during the dot com years. Sometimes disruption caused by an increase in supply only benefits consumers and producers end up with nothing. Whether something is “disruptive” is orthogonal to whether it may be a direct source of profit for the producer. Disruption shifts value creation opportunities creating potential opportunities which may or may not benefit producers of a good or service.

 

7. “Word of mouth is the primary thing in our business.  And advertising is there to spur word-of-mouth, to get people really talking about ‘the latest thing.’” Acquiring customers in a cost effective way is the essence of business.  Customers you acquire “organically” are more valuable since they do not leave as often and usually generate more revenue.

 

8. “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” There is no end to how much products and services can improve. Dysfunction inside any company is best measured relative to its competitors.  There is no perfect company without some dysfunction under the decks and that creates opportunities. 

 

9. “It is fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” and “There are many lessons about the dangers of success, and Henry [Ford] is one of them.” Failure is an opportunity to learn. The more you learn in life the more you learn that there is even more you don’t know and that some things are unknowable.  What you may attribute to success may be luck and vice versa.  Success in one domain does not equate to success in all domains.  Success  may cause you to succumb to “man with a hammer syndrome (everything looks like a nail).”


 

10. “Perseverance has been characteristic of our great success.” Going up against great competitors requires resilience and a thick skin. Steve Ballmer famously put it this way: “It doesn’t matter if we bang our head and fail. We keep right on banging and banging and banging and banging and banging.”

 

11. “If you look at us from a financial point of view we are wizards, but we have made many products that have faded.”  It is magnitude of correctness not frequency of correctness that matters most. Babe Ruth struck out a lot, but that strike out record was vastly outstripped by his successes. Great entrepreneurs and CEOs think in terms of expected value.

 

12. “I spend a lot of time reading.” The best way to accelerate learning (which often comes from understanding the mistakes and successes of others) is to read widely and *a lot.* Learning from the mistakes of others scales far better than making those mistakes on your own.
« Last Edit: April 23, 2014, 06:20:16 am by Mac »
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Chiprocks1

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Re: Life's Lessons
« Reply #42 on: May 15, 2014, 10:52:28 am »

This short "film" has been in the news a lot the past few days and for good reason. It speaks VOLUMES of how we as a society have become immune to Homeless people in general. To prove that point, they have family members dressed up and situated as 'Homeless" and then have their significant others walk pass them not knowing they are in fact their own family members. Eyes well up every time I see their reaction to finding out they they had completely ignored their own flesh and blood without really thinking about who they were walking past.
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Mac

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Re: Life's Lessons
« Reply #43 on: May 15, 2014, 01:03:33 pm »
That is mind blowing. I can't imagine being like that. Ignoring my surroundings like that.
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Mac

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Re: Life's Lessons
« Reply #44 on: May 22, 2014, 07:16:07 am »
I like the man's work, not so much the man... but I do agree with him here...

‘I’m from a different generation’: Don Henley tears into fans who text, take pictures, even stand up at Eagles concerts

Quote
As Don Henley continues on what has been a well-received, but apparently endless, hits-packed reunion tour with the Eagles, he’s developed a laundry list of audience behaviors that get under his skin.

That includes, but is not limited to, fans who stand up, fans who text, fans who take too many pictures and fans who post raw concert videos to YouTube.

It’s a wonder he can keep up with the words to “Hotel California,” you know?

As the Eagles prepare for a tour in Australia, he sat down with News.com.au, to discuss.

About keeping your seat: “People who start standing up in the beginning when we’re doing ballads are a great annoyance to us and to the people behind them. We have our security people gently tell them to sit down. You pay for your seat, sit in it.”

About videography: “Videoing a concert with a phone is a violation of our copyright,” he said. “Google owns YouTube. They don’t need any more free content.” (Warning: Henley takes this copyright stuff very, very seriously, too. Just ask Okkervil or Frank Ocean.)

Of course, even Henley understands that phones and using your phone are here to stay. “I don’t think there’s any going back now,” he adds. “People feel so entitled to being able to use their gadgets and post things on the web. I’m from a different generation. I don’t understand it. It’s not a very pure experience. It takes away from the immediacy of the live performance. If we’re just going to watch TV, we can stay home and do that.”

Oh, and about texting?: “We don’t like people texting during the show unless it’s an emergency.” About pictures: “We feel everybody who bought a ticket has a right to enjoy the show undisturbed with a view that is unobstructed.”

The reason for all of this get-off-my-lawn-style crankiness, by the way? “This could be our last time around,” Henley says. “We want people to be in the moment with us and experience the concert through their eyeballs, and not a tiny square on a phone.”
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