Small People.
Small people try to get time with medium people who try to get time with bigger people.
Small people want access to medium people to use them to get access to bigger people.
Or at least so the small people can say ‘I was with so-and-so..’.
Of course, small people would be better off striving to be bigger people.
Not in Front of Grandma.
Duplicitous people work twice as hard.
They must maintain their authentic self, and the image they present to the world.
(We all do this, to varying degrees, remembering our parents’ exhorting us to be mindful of ‘time and a place’. ‘Not in front of Grandma!))
Credit where it’s due to the duplicitous.
Most Stupidity.
Most stupidity - of word or deed - is best left responded to with a grunt or eye-roll at most - but otherwise ignored.
To do more is to draw attention to and breathe life into what would otherwise wither and die from neglect.
The problem is if the stupidity is repeated, ignored, repeated, ignored - then it will more likely gain more stupid followers.
Fools who seek the attention of the bored, idle, and media that comes from leaping about in the fringes and extremes.
Left unaddressed, eventually someone will form a ‘community’ or acronym or political party to advance the stupidity.
Personality.
The bad boss thinks they’re the boss because of their superior personality.
The bad boss thinks that bossing is about imposing their personality on others for their betterment.
The bad boss thinks that self-reflection is for others who haven’t developed a superior personality.
Consequences.
You should be able to explain the reasonably foreseeable consequences of your decisions before you make them.
Even the ‘unconscious’ decisions.
The ‘unconscious’ decisions are often the most damaging to you and others.
The ‘unconscious’ decisions are only ‘unconscious’ because you’ve never had to explain their consequences.
That unexplained temper or prejudice are because you’ve never had to explain it’s because you’re afraid.
A Series of Dishonesties.
One dishonesty leads to another and another and another.
Until there is a consequence that makes no sense and is disproportionate in its size and harm to what immediately preceded it.
Because it is made with the combined energy and momentum of a series of dishonesties.
There’s no Right.
There’s no right - only degrees of Wrong.
Every decision is wrong.
The aim is to be more Right than wrong.
Declaring that something was ‘right’ is like rounding up a fraction to a round number.
With every wrong - we learn more about how to be Right.
It follows that the more we’re wrong - the more we learn how to be Right.
Compounding.
Your boss hires your skills.
Introduces you to someone with different skills.
You combine skills.
Go away with new skills.
Bring those skills to others.
Compounding.
Language as Rank Slides.
‘Some locations have been inundated by an ingress of floodwater.’ - Official.
If the majority of the audience listening to the official was asked to define ‘inundated’ and ‘egress’, they may struggle.
Language such as ‘inundated’ and ‘ingress’ commonly deployed by bureaucrats is not intended to communicate a picture.
It’s intended to let us know that someone cleverer and more experienced than us who causally uses such language does so because they have experience in inundations of water ingressing and both are part of their everyday conversations.
Language can be like rank slides the epaulettes indicating seniority.
That’s Just the Way Life Goes.
Interviewer: One of the themes that runs throughout the book is that John was creating some truly beautiful and visionary music at the same time as he was being abusive and damaging to people around him. How did you balance those two competing forces, particularly when some of your interviewees tell completely different stories about the same event?
Graeme Thomson: That’s often the case, and when I started writing biographies, that used to trouble me quite a lot, that people’s versions of events could be so conflicting. I worry about it less now, because that’s just the way life goes. And in a way it’s not my job to tie it up in a neat bow. I think you just present what you believe is the truth of the matter to the reader, and then you try to get out of the way of it.
Our duty is to present what we believe is the truth, and allow others to make of it what they will.
Art v Design.
“Art begins with an idea; design with a task” - German Court ruling on trademark violation.
Talk Produces.
“Their talk produced action.” - Winston Churchill meets Albert Einstein in 1933.
Talk.
Action.
The Passenger View.
The airline passengers texted their loved ones goodbye from 33,000 feet, believing they were about to crash and die.
From their seats in the cabin, the ‘erratic’ descent felt to them like that.
Meanwhile, the crew conducted the abnormal control behaviour procedure, disconnected the autopilot, descended the aircraft and diverted to the closest airport for an overweight landing.
Engineers replaced the elevator servo motor.
Often the opinions from the back seats are never the reality at the front.
Going Nowhere.
A rowing eight sits on the river.
Oars dipped in the current.
Each oarsman gently stroking the water while the coach speaks to them from the speed boat alongside.
Enough effort to keep them from drifting downstream or moving upstream.
Enough effort to go nowhere.
Like so many workers in so many organisations.
Bearing.
In the military, you hear the term ‘bearing’, usually paired with ‘dress’, as in ‘dress and bearing’.
A soldier with good posture, alert, aligned with her fellow soldiers when formed up in ranks, who marches in sync with them, is said to have good ‘bearing’.
‘Bearing’ is one’s orientation to the world around us.
‘Situational awareness’ is a related term, and a person with good bearing usually has good situational awareness.
Words matter.
Know When You’ve Got the Ball.
If you’ve got the ball, then you’re the decision maker. - Basketball coach
If you’ve got the ball, it’s your decision what to do next.
You can take advice from the bench, or those around you.
But it’s your decision.
Know when you’ve got the ball.
