Category: Uncategorized

I am listening to a nonfiction writing course on Audible.com and one of the exercises is to write a short piece about mutineers.

The young man walked out on the sunny deck of the Providence. He felt his rate rise and hands twitch as he thought about his fellow conspirators in the cabins below. Looking up into the mist that surrounded the boat as it left the harbor at Marseilles, he rehearsed the secret handshake that would be the signal to take over the ship.… read more “Mutineers”

Below are my tricks for surviving a long flight:

1. Try to sleep as much as you can on the flight, but make sure you are well rested prior to boarding. Nothing is more miserable than being exhausted AND unable to sleep on a plane.
2. Bring tons of snacks and water.
3. Bring a kindle with a variety of books loaded – nonfiction for if you are feeling ambitious, fun fiction for when you just need to pass time.

… read more “Tricks for Surviving a Long Flight”

1. Don’t criticize, condemn, complain
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation
3. Arouse in the other person an eager want

1. Become genuinely interested in other people
2. Smile
3. Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language
4. Be a good listener, encourage others to talk about themselves
5. Talk in terms of the other person’s interests.
6. Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely.

I am thinking about writing a sci fi / fantasy novel. The core concept would revolve around a portal that characters can go through to have adventures and improve upon their skills. I wrote up a ton of notes yesterday, we’ll see if I do anything with it.

A fictional job applicant’s information conglomerated from my actual experiences with people over time (client’s employees and pre-skills test CT employees):

• “I get bored after six to nine months of work and quit every job I’ve had”.
• “The gap in my resume was six months I spent in a drunken stupor in my bedroom”.
• “I hate people and will drive out any team members you assign to work with me”.

… read more “The Honest Job Applicant”

I’ve been reading a very fascinating book, “Sapiens”, that has really helped me to think about things we humans take as absolutes in a new light. Concepts that we assume to be concrete real things… really just don’t exist except in our own imaginations. Everything from justice to money to laws to human rights to religion to politics are invented by human beings.… read more “There is no justice”

I am a little worn out on movies that glorify war, especially those that don’t really portray it accurately. No one stands up and runs around when they are under fire. You crawl from place to place.

I built a tool for giving my team ongoing feedback and launched it last week. What is my team’s reaction so far?

First, check out how it works:

A user can:

• Write in their feedback
• Select who should receive it
• Decide whether the feedback is positive or negative
• Decide if the feedback is small, medium or large

Lots of team members have been using it so far, here is a running log of the most recent feedback:

Seems to be quite helpful for people to share their thanks!… read more “Ongoing Feedback Tool”

“Mob mentality” is a powerful phenomenon sociologists have observed… a single human will seldom heckle another person or riot. However, throngs of sports fans will torch cars, protesters will storm government offices, and gangs will go to war over very small slights. Scientists have actually shown that your brain shuts off your sense of self during these times of collective endeavor.… read more “Permanent Mob Mentality”