Category: Links and Quotes Page 16 of 25

Shared from elsewhere.

“When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.”

And things started making a little more sense to me. All this anger we see from people screaming “All Lives Matter” in response to black protesters at rallies. All this anger we see from people insisting that their “religious freedom” is being infringed because a gay couple wants to get married. All these people angry about immigrants, angry about Muslims, angry about “Happy Holidays,” angry about not being able to say bigoted things without being called a bigot…

They all basically boil down to people who have grown accustomed to walking straight at other folks, and expecting them to move. So when “those people” in their path don’t move — when those people start wondering, “Why am I always moving out of this guy’s way?”; when those people start asking themselves, “What if I didn’t move? What if I just kept walking too?”; when those people start believing that they have every bit as much right to that aisle as anyone else — it can seem like their rights are being taken away.

Every issue has two sides. It’s important to understand and acknowledge where the other side is coming from if you hope to ever bridge the gap.

Outside Perspective

By Carl

On January 16, 2016

In Links and Quotes

An outside perspective is always helpful.

I recently read Meeting in the Middle: Learning from a Luddite and it hit on something I often consider. The author is a digital native and comfortable with computers and the internet. Her husband is not.

A Luddite is someone who is actively opposed to new technology. That’s what my husband was.

She spent time online surfing and checking stats. He detested the world computers had made. But this is not a story of how her husband was wrong and eventually saw the light.

I became a little jealous: after all, his digital footprint was virtually non-existent while mine was a cluttered mess.

So she deleted. Vine. LinkedIn. Facebook served as a reminder of how much junk she had shard in the past. Something I’ve become reminded of as Facebook shows me the stupid pictures or signs or silly products I shared years ago.

There is a balance to find in your life. It’s not going to be the same for everyone. But it’s there. The trick is to find it.

I find a line between computers and mobile devices works for me. When I’m on a computer, I’m working. I’m writing or editing. I’m at work answering calls and fixing problems.

And when I’m mobile. I’m playing. I’m chatting with friends. I’m reading my favorite writers in blog or book or newsletter. But most often I’m listening.

Podcasts. Audiobooks. Music. There’s always something in my ears. I compose a complete soundtrack to my life. And that works for me.

If you’re feeling lost or off-balance I have some advice. Consider an outside perspective.

It’s hard to see your life clearly when you’re living it. I’ve fallen deeply in love with someone who made me a worse person. But I couldn’t see it. I was stuck in my life. I tried to make it work or change. I ignored my friends who told me how unhappy I was and how the relationship was terrible. But I didn’t listen.

Until it ends. And looking back, I can’t believe how miserable I was. I couldn’t believe what I had done to myself for so long.

Another prime example of considering an outside perspective is starting a new job.

I started a new job and went from working primarily alone to being part of an established team. Before, I made up everything as I went along and I had no one to consult. My word was law.

Now, I’m working in an established system with pre-defined habits. There’s the way we have always done it. Which is not always the best way. It made me smile last week when my team lead turned to me and said, if you see places we can improve information or processes, tell us about it.

I have fresh eyes. I don’t know how things are supposed to be done and I can bring that beginner’s mind to the team.

It’s valuable to look outside yourself and your normal. You can’t see the problems when you’re inside of it. But from the outside, the issues are crystal clear.

Michael Jackson was almost Jar Jar Binks

By Carl

On January 15, 2016

In Links and Quotes

Today I Learned:
1. Michael Jackson wanted to be Jar Jar Binks but George Lucas wanted to do the work with CG instead of prosthetics.
2. Jar Jar as Lian Neeson’s character from Taken would be terrifying.

The video is episode three from a series called These Are The Actors You’re Looking For where Jamie Strangroom tracks down actors who played lesser Star Wars rolls.

He has also interviewed Boba Fett (Jeremy Bulloch) and Greedo (Paul Blake)

Savings is security

By Carl

On January 11, 2016

In Links and Quotes

How do you take a $35,000 investment and turn it into nearly $800,000,000 in sales? You pay your employees. You pay them twice the national average and you keep paying them to be the best.

Container Store founder and CEO Kip Tindell explains that the secret to the company’s high wages is what he calls “the 1=3 rule,” meaning that one great employee will be as productive as three employees who are merely good.

As a result, Tindell feels he gets ahead by receiving three times the productivity of an average worker at only two times the cost.

Everybody wins!

“They win, you save money, the customers win, and all the employees win because they get to work with someone great.”

He also has a plan to keep those great people by continuing to pay them well through raises.

Tindell then keeps these “great people” by giving them annual raises up to 8% of their salaries, based on their performance.

Not one-time bonuses, but real raises. This investment in the employee by the company tells the employee their company really cares about them and wants them to stay and be happy there.

Many people don’t love their jobs, but they’ll work hard if they feel the company is investing in them as much as they invest in the company.

“Everybody loves to say that it’s not all about pay,” he explains. “But pay is more important than most people realize, particularly if you’re trying to attract and keep really great people.”

It’s all about the money. Every time I’ve changed jobs, even jobs I loved, it was for considerably more money.

Money opens doors. Money is the great enabler. It allows me to save for retirement, afford insurance, and contribute to my savings account.

What I Learned From Pro-Gun Twitter

By Carl

On January 7, 2016

In Links and Quotes

When I wrote about President Obama’s Executive Order about guns I specifically wasn’t trying to change anyone’s mind. There’s a reason for this. I am not trying to strip my opponents of their identities. Guns are their identities.

Jenny Trout posted a single tweet. My child is more important than your gun.

The replies are what you expect. Threats against her. Threats if she tries to come and take their guns. Fear. Yes, she picked the replies but what she posted was indicative of what happens when anyone says something even remotely about guns control online. Remember, this started with her saying my child is more important than your gun. She’s not coming to take them away. It’s not a pro-gun-control message. It’s a mother’s statement that her child is precious.

But she hits upon some truths I think we overlook when trying to have a debate about guns in this country.

The pro-gun right has one weapon, and that is fear. If they can’t make you fear “terrorists”, they’ll try to make you fear “thugs”. If they can’t make you fear “thugs”, they’ll jump to the hypothetical rape of your pretty white daughter. If they can’t make you afraid at all, they’ll become violently afraid of you. Then they’ll kill you, and say it was in self-defense because you tried to take their guns. Self-defense, because their guns are their selves. That’s why they’re panicking; if the government legislates their guns away, they’re legislating these peoples’ identities away.

For a group who uses fear as its main tactic, fear is at the heart of the issue. They see gun control as an attack on their guns which they view as part of their identity. Their guns are their selves. That’s why the government is so scary. It’s threatening to remove part of their identities. How do you even begin a discussion that starts with wanting to remove part of someone’s identity?

Update

Richard makes a great point. We need to deal with The Anger before we deal with The Gun.

The Anger is in all of us. The Anger manifests itself differently in each person, to different degrees. The Anger can be eased, it can be released safely, but it never goes away. You have to be taught how to deal with The Anger, but few people ever learn on their own. Fewer still know how to teach it. Instead, we try to sublimate The Anger, hide it, pretend it doesn’t exist. But it doesn’t go away. Without a way to acknowledge The Anger, to release it in a safe way, The Anger explodes, increasingly in a hail of gunfire.

The Anger feeds on the Fear. The result is a much darker version of Monty Python’s Spanish Inquisition sketch.

Carl T. Holscher fights for the customers.

Category: Links and Quotes Page 16 of 25

‘When You’re Accustomed to Privilege, Equality Feels Like Oppression’

“When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.”

Outside Perspective

Michael Jackson was almost Jar Jar Binks

Savings is security

Everybody wins!

What I Learned From Pro-Gun Twitter