R.I.P. Don Grady, aka Robbie Douglas
Satan on Rodney King
Rodney King’s fiancee was not invited to his funeral?! This is too much! I’m still dealing with the shock of learning that he had a swimming pool.
I saw Al Campanis this morning and he said to me, “I hate to say I told you so . . .”
Two of the Strangest Mental Disorders Ever
Cotard’s Syndrome – The patient believes he is dead.
Capgras Syndrome – The patient believes that a friend, spouse, parent, or other close family member has been replaced by an identical-looking impostor.
The second one reminds me of the old Steven Wright joke: “Last night somebody broke into my apartment and replaced everything with exact duplicates … When I pointed it out to my roommate, he said, ‘Do I know you?'”
More Fun at Border Crossings
“Where are you folks from?” the border agent asks.
“Irvine, California.”
“How long were you in Canada?”
“About half a day.”
“Why such a short stay?”
“We’re staying in Seattle for a few days and just came up for a visit.”
“How do you like this cold weather?”
“No big deal. I grew up in cold weather.”
My son makes a sputtering noise in the back seat.
“Is he okay?” the agent asks.
“Well, unfortunately he’s got irreversible brain damage to his frontal lobes. We still love him though.”
“Is anyone in the car carrying $10,000 or more in cash?”
“American dollars or Canadian?”
“American.”
“I wish.”
“Is that a yes or a no, sir?”
“Sorry. No.”
After we pass through the border check, the boy says in a mocking tone, “‘I grew up in cold weather.’ In La Mirada.”
“La Mirada is subject to extreme temperature fluctations,” I reply. “Much more so than Irvine.”
A Timeless Message
He that goeth about to persuade a multitude that they are not so well off as they ought to be, shall never want attentive and favorable hearers.
Customer Discovery and Customer Validation
Ask yourself these questions:
- Do these users in your user stories exist and have you ever spoken to them?
- How are these features helping your customers achieve their goals?
- Are these benefits based on any quantitative or qualitative data?
In America, Anyone Can Be President … Uh, Not So Fast There, Mr. Antichrist
While more than nine in 10 Americans would vote for a presidential candidate who is black, a woman, Catholic, Hispanic, or Jewish, significantly smaller percentages would vote for one who is an atheist (54%) or Muslim (58%). Americans’ willingness to vote for a Mormon (80%) or gay or lesbian (68%) candidate falls between these two extremes.
I fear that I won’t live to see a gay atheist in the Oval Office.
In other findings, far more Americans are open to voting for a black presidential candidate (96%) than for a Mormon (80%). Blacks also poll higher than women (95%), Catholics (94%) and Jews (91%), although those percentages are within the margin of sampling error.
Happy Summer Solstice!
Hi everybody! It’s me, Lightning!
Happy Solstice!
Wait — what?! It was yesterday?
Well . . . Happy Belated Solstice!
— Lightning 
Frenchies
Source: google.com.au via Mara on Pinterest
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Fun at border crossings: Have one person in the car hold their breath and pretend to be dead. See if the attendant asks any questions.
— Paul Epps (@paulepps) June 18, 2012
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ShortList Magazine: The 50 Coolest Book Covers Ever
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Jessica Hagy: The Six Enemies of Greatness (and Happiness)
The First Follower
Now, if you notice that the first follower is actually an underestimated form of leadership in itself. It takes guts to stand out like that. The first follower is what transforms a lone nut into a leader.
If you really care about starting a movement, have the courage to follow and show others how to follow. And when you find a lone nut doing something great, have the guts to be the first one to stand up and join in.
Another Guy Who Didn’t Get the Memo on the American Dream
Kennedy Odede grew up in Kibera, a slum in Kenya where more than one million people live in an area the size of New York City’s Central Park without sewage systems, roads, or access to basic health care and education.
And on Sunday, May 27th, he stood proudly before his graduating class with honors, and gave the commencement address. He became the first person from Africa’s largest slum to graduate from an American University.
Sounds like another guy who didn’t get the memo that America is “no longer the land of opportunity” and “the ‘American dream’ is a myth.”
The Person Who Says It Can’t Be Done Is Interrupted By The Person Doing It
In his latest book, The Price of Inequality, Columbia Professor and Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz examines the causes of income inequality and offers some remedies. In between, he reaches some startling conclusions, including that America is “no longer the land of opportunity” and “the ‘American dream’ is a myth.”
“If there is anybody at all who has a dream, then they can definitely make it happen,” she told WBTV. “There are no excuses. It depends on you and no one else.”
The second link above goes to a story about Dawn Loggins, an 18-year-old girl from Lawndale, NC, who, after her mother and stepfather left the state without her and she was dropped by her grandmother at a local homeless shelter, “just made a decision that I was not going to end up like my parents.” She did well enough in high school to be accepted at Harvard University.
I’m not a Nobel laureate but I can tell you that income correlates to things like education, skills and motivation. If you’re concerned about the inequality of your income, take the time you spend keeping up with fantasy football and reality television and invest it in learning and maintaining marketable skills, and see if your income doesn’t go up.
If you’re complaining about income inequality, and you have any idea who was voted off any reality television program in the last week, you need to pipe down and reexamine your priorities. Watch your programs if you want to, but keep in mind that you’re competing in the job market with people who are more serious than you are.
Girl Walk // All Day
This is delightful . . .
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/30293264]
This Is How the World Always Changes
Getting engaged in changing things is quite straightforward. If we have an idea, we step forward and serve. Instead of being overwhelmed and withdrawing, we act.
No grand actions are required; we just need to begin speaking up about what we care about. We don’t need to spend a lot of time planning or getting senior leaders involved; we don’t have to wait for official support. We just need to get started — for whatever issue or person we care about.
This is how the world always changes. Everyday people not waiting for someone else to fix things or come to their rescue, but simply stepping forward, working together, figuring out how to make things better.
Now it’s our turn.
Following Directions
I see the history of management as an effort to perfect the instructions that you hope someone will follow this time — even though they have never followed directions in their whole life.
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Harvard Business Review: Customers Don’t Want More Features