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Throughout my career in tech sales, I was exposed to new product launches, shifts in direction, mergers, acquisitions, restructurings, layoffs and other major changes in direction that were dictated from the C-level. Over the years, I learned that unless I had a direct alternative to affect the changes, my best approach was to take a…

There was a flash flood over the 4th of July weekend in Texas that killed 100+ people including 30 young children who were in summer camps. In the immediate aftermath politicians, government officials and pundits are pointing fingers at each other quickly assigning blame for the tragedy. I’ve been directly impacted by two hurricanes, one…

I haven’t been on a plane in 7 years. If my life goes as planned, I will never fly again. I despite everything about flying – the inconvenience, delays, abysmal customer service, late flights, cancellations, last minute problems, luggage issues, smells, sounds, people, TSA, add on fees and everything else. The only redeeming quality about…

Dan Gilbert is a psychologist and professor who is an expert affective forecasting. AF is a term he coined for “predicting how you would feel about a hypothetical event that occurs in the future”. This process applies to both positive and negative events. He’s studied how this applies to a person’s ability to predict what…

Four houses on my street recently sold. One was my 86 year old girlfriend’s home. Another was my 83 year old girlfriend’s home. The third and fourth are elderly neighbor’s whose moved into assisted living facilities. I knew all of these people from interactions during my dog walks and occasional chatting outside. Having lived in…

I realized the other day that I’m a prude. I don’t want to hear about anyone’s sex life. I especially don’t want to hear about someone else’s fantasy’s, turn-ons, problems or preferences. I don’t care if you’re straight, gay, or anything else on the “spectrum”. First, it is none of my business. Second, it’s not…

I wish I could claim that I invented this formula but I didn’t. Arthur Brooks said it on this podcast. He explained that most people focus their efforts on increasing “haves” through more work, more purchases and more consumption. Instead, Brooks argued that decreasing “wants” is the method to increase happiness. I agree since this…

I posted something in the GenX subReddit that went viral. Within 2 hours, it had more than 13,000 views and dozens of comments. By the next day it was over 250K views, 3600 upvotes and 300 comments. I’ve pasted the post below. It was a simple nostalgic memory I had that morning. I wondered if…

My wife was a natural listener and empathizer. Everyone knew it – even strangers who had never met her before would make eye contact and the next thing you knew, they were sharing deeply personal secrets, fears and stories. I used to tease her about it because it happened everywhere: at the grocery store, walking…

China’s strength, speed and ability to manufacturer products and infrastructure has been a frequent topic of discussion on many of the business and news podcast I listen to. Often the speaker will gloss over China’s dictatorship, government control of business, slavery/poverty wages, and dissent crushing tactics saying something like, “…although China is a dictatorship that…