The future of the Packers?

The first question from Ask Vic today is what came to mind immediately for me in the aftermath:

Ray from Clark, NJ
All in or blow it up?
Let's think on it a little bit.

 There's wisdom in that Vic.

Future for those called the Sedition Caucus? The language is extreme...

...but so is support for undermining our democracy:

Fifteen Wisconsin legislators signed a Jan. 5 letter calling on Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify the 2020 presidential election results. The letter amplified the lies and conspiracy theories that were advanced by Trump and the rioters he incited as they sought to block the certification of Electoral College votes from states such as Wisconsin that had backed Joe Biden for president.

The Wisconsin legislators who signed the letter were state Reps. Janel Brandtjen, R-Menomonee Falls; Rob Brooks, R-Saukville; Rick Gundrum, R-Slinger, Cody Horlacher, R-Mukwonago; Dan Knodl, R-Germantown; Gae Magnafici, R-Dresser; Dave Murphy, R-Greenville; Jeff Mursau, R-Crivitz; Timothy Ramthun, R-Campbellsport; Joe Sanfelippo, R-New Berlin; Michael Schraa, R-Oshkosh; Shae Sortwell, R-Two Rivers; Jeremy Thiesfeldt, R-Fond du Lac; Chuck Wichgers, R-Muskego. State Sen. André Jacque, R-De Pere, also signed on to the letter, according to the Wisconsin Examiner.

Personally, I don't doubt these folks believe there were irregularities but where we seem to disagree in that the they were big enough to make any difference in the outcome. When someone wants to believe something so badly, it becomes a distortion field. Everyone has experienced this.

Contrast this behavior with the prior election where foreign interference with the information flowing to and through the body politic seems to be unquestioned by those in the know. Once the votes were counted, were there dozens of lawsuits and political maneuverings? (By the way, can we please think about some proportional responses to anything provable the Russian government and/or oligarchs may have done in the past four years now?)

It's going to be interesting to see how this all plays out. This president values cooperation among elected but also party building and, therefore, partisan organizing. He's going to reach out where he can to cooperate. Will the old guard Republicans engage or will it be more decisiveness? There are more liberals in our country than republicans, they just don't vote every election. Beware waking up the presidential cycle majority to the fact that there are other elections with consequences.

Is the Spotify Podcast Strategy Paying Off?

 

I didn't even realize Spotify was really a big player until they signed an exclusive licensing deal with Joe Rogan, the biggest podcaster of all time.

CNBC points out the pivot to podcast content doesn't seem to be paying off.

On Light and Health

 

 

How to optimize light for health | Dan Pardi | TEDxMarin

Cah leee fohrrrr nya

 

The writing, the production values, the emotional impact... 

I don't disagree but I immediately wonder what's he running for now? 

I heard Gov. Newsome was threatened with a recall? Will Arnold again win the CA governorship in a recall as he did with Gray Davis?

Leadership, Ownership, and Agility

At work I got nominated for a committee I didn't want to serve on, whose focus is promoting methods described with stupid cutesy marketing terms, and ended up inexplicably and involuntarily drafted in to a leadership role. The methods my organization settled on doing are called SCRUM and SAFe. But these are just methods, the ultimate goal here is an empowered Agile mindset. 

Related to this is the concept of "management 3.0" and predecessors. I think that people want to do a good job and give customers what will help them. While we're being told by leaders to transform by following these Agile processes, I'm not sure that all leaders understand that for this to work they will have to surrender some control.

I'm listening to this audio book called Extreme Ownership by a couple of Navy SEALs. It talks about leadership and an cultivating an ownership mindset. It talks about pushing decision making down and instituting decentralized command. 

Agility, Management 3.0, extreme ownership-- aren't these all pretty much difference facets of the same thing?

Writing About The Future as a Goal Exercise

In three to five years, what do you want your life to look like? What do you want to achieve with this class/degree/training? What do you want your epitaph to say/what do you want to be able to remember on your death bed? There are countless variations of this exercise that have shown up in my life again and again.

I often listen to a wide range of podcasts and in the last few days I have again tripped over this exercise again most recently on a Jordan Peterson episode of Theo Von and before that Debbie Millman's first appearance on Tim Ferris. The stunning Last Lecture by Randy Pausch comes to mind too.

Thinking back, I can only identify one time I have really done this and it was accidental. As a kid I knew without a doubt I'd end up programming computers for a living. Full stop, that was going to be my lifes work. Looking back I wasn't even that good at it but I saw amazing possibilities. The other times I remember being faced with this was in classes, the intro questions. "What do you want out of this class?" type questions. My stock answer is brief, "An A."

If I have ever done this exercise as an adult I don't remember it. Change is the only constant in life. The last comprehensive, whole life goal list I remember setting had one thing on it and I was single digits in age. It seems everything since has been tactical. Degree or not? Kids or not? Move or not? To make a play on Doctor Pausch's, "Achieving Your Childhood Deams", maybe it's time to think about my middle age dreams.