All in Random Stuff
Someone gave Joshua a zebra plant with some lucky Chinese coins in it. As del.icio.us flourished, so did the plant.
When he left for CA, he left the plant with USV and it continued to grow.
That is, until we gave him back his lucky coins... I really only wanted the plant and the lucky coins were meant for him.
I think its too late to ask for the coins back...
The other day, I went into Duane Reade to buy some deodorant.
There were two on the shelf of the brand I normally buy, in two different scents:
STORM FORCE and cool mountain misty flower breeze somethingorother fluffy cotton bunnies
Now, of course I bought STORM FORCE, because that's the way I want to smell... like the FORCE of a STORM. STORM FORCE-- Two words that imply power, but mean absolutely nothing when put together in that order.
I need this. I must have this. I want to walk down the street with a team of roofers behind me replacing shingles on rooftops. I don't want admirers... I want debris. FEMA should call me every morning after I put it on to see if everything is ok.
STORM FORCE
STORM FORCE
Because most of all, that's the way women want their men smelling, right?
Hmm... wait... I need to rethink this.
Maybe STORM FORCE wasn't the right move there.
Perhaps I should have gone with the misty cool fluffy mountain bunnies.
The Felds celebrated an anniversary (congrats) and Brad writes...
"We spent a lot of time talking about how satisfied we are with our respective existences on this planet"
How many people can honestly say they feel that way?
Remember Rick Ankiel? At 20 years old, he started Game 1 of the NLDS against the Braves in 2000.
He took a lead into the third, and then had a complete meltdown. He threw five wild pitches, walked four and that was about all she wrote for his whole career. Not only did he not have what it took to pitch in the playoffs, but his performance so shattered his confidence that he never succeeded again in the majors.
And conversely, look at Mariano Rivera and flash back to 1995. (I know... he plays for the bad guys... I'm just trying to make a point here.) Rivera was a starter when he first came up... made 10 starts actually... and finished the year with a 5.51 ERA. Nothing special by far. But all it took was 5 1/3 innings of shutout relief in the first round of the playoffs against Seattle to see that this was a guy who thrived when the game was on the line in a clutch situation.
Rivera had "it" and Ankiel didn't... and there was nothing up until those key series for each player that could have predicted their success. There wasn't a scouting report out there that could have told you enough about their mental makeup to clue you into whether they would wilt or shine in a tough spot.
And even if there was, its still a matter of what happens on the field. A lot of people show their character in different ways. How about John Rocker? Sure, he was mean, angry...etc... things you'd probably normally want in a closer... but he turned out to be a complete head case.
So, while velocity and control might be key measures of effectiveness to a scout, a lot of the times what is really predictive of success has nothing to do with a person's natural talent. That sometimes makes predicting success an exercise in character judgement more so than it does a job of looking at someone's historical track record. Should scouts be conducting character reference interviews? I wonder if they do at all.
What about as you are building a company? Particularly in venture, when you might be asking people to do things that no one has ever done before, a lot of times, you find yourself betting on character. This is made so much more important because of the size of the staffs you are adding to. If employee #5 is a bad hire, its a lot worse than a bad hire for #5000.
So what are the keys to checking someone's character out and also the rightness of fit with an organization? Certainly, you've got to sit them down and put them in front of as many people you know and trust as possible. That was certainly a key for me when I got hired. While Brad and Fred never bothered to check out my resume, because they saw my work first hand in my due diligence of their fund, they focused in on my references and the impressions I made on people in my office. I'm quite sure that my interview with Kerri, because I was going to be sitting right next to her, was probably just as important as whatever I had put on my resume, had they seen it.
I guess its a little bit like dating. You just don't know exactly if you're going to be a match, and no profile, quiz, etc. is going to prove compatability for you... sometimes you just have to take a chance on someone you get a good feeling from... someone you wouldn't mind facing a little bit of the unknown with.
Link: Gothamist: Critical Mass Clashes with Police Again.
New Yorkers, probably more than any other kind of people, are really good at making issues out of things that shouldn't be issues. The combined mental and emotional effort that has gone in to these silly bike rides could be spent doing lots of other things that would make much greater impact on society. How about helping kids to read, spending time with the elderly, or feeding the homeless. If I was sick in a hospital bed, watching TV because I had no one to visit me, and I saw these people protesting their "right to bike in a big group", I'd be pissed. And then, I'd probably cry. So, next time one of these mass rides comes around, instead, why don't you think for a moment about how you can directly improve the life of one of your fellow human beings. Spending more time with your family counts, too. You should be ashamed of yourself if your best contribution to the good of society is causing traffic.
Link: tony morgan | one of the simply strategic guys: 10 Easy Ways to Know You're Not a Leader.
10 Easy Ways to Know You're Not a Leader
1. You're waiting on a bigger staff and more money to accomplish your vision.
2. You think you need to be in charge to have influence.
3. You're content.
4. You tend to foster division instead of generating a helpful dialogue.
5. You think you need to say something to be heard.
6. You find it easier to blame others for your circumstances than to take responsibility for solutions.
7. It's been some time since you said, "I messed up."
8. You're driven by the task instead of the relationships and the vision.
9. Your dreams are so small, people think they can be achieved.
10. No one is following you.
I'll add a few:
11) You can't/don't take the time to understand people who disagree with you.
12) You don't create other leaders.
13) You have to make every decision yourself.
I'm goofing around with my avatar, experimenting with text to speech and giving him a little more futuristic look. I've got him saying the first paragraph of the Sunscreen Song, which came out the year I graduated high school.
