•  IF THE CONGRESSIONAL MAJORITY SHIFTS DEMOCRATIC after this November election, up to 100 possible “investigations” are already being considered, based on those “already called for but unable to move forward due to current Republican opposition,” including probes into Trump family business revenues & tax returns, White House staff email practices, Puerto Rico hurricane response, illegal-entry family separations, and Advisor ethics violations. Essentially, most focus of the next Congress would be political turf wars versus conducting the business of government.  [THE HILL – Aug 26, 17]
  •  CYBERWISE, GOOD NEWS (SORTOF): RANSOMWARE ATTACKS ARE DOWN – over 25% in the first six-months this year compared with prior six-months. The BAD NEWS TRADEOFF: Hackers instead are now focusing on “the easy money that cryptocurrency offers” with crypto-jacking attacks in this same period up more than nine times those a year earlier by utilizing “file-less malware that siphons corporate machines’ compute power… The recent change in threat landscape mirrors what we’ve seen for years, as cybercriminals constantly shift their tools, tactics and procedures to improve infection rates.” But small businesses are still at meaningful risk and cybersecurity should remain a fundamental priority.  [DARKREADING.COM – Aug 30, 18]
  • “CRYPTOCURRENCIES HAVE FALLEN FAR SHORT OF THEIR AMBITIOUS GOALS established by techno-anarchists: an online version of cash, a way for people to transact without the possibility of interference from malicious governments or banks… Economists define a currency as something that can be at once a medium of exchange, a store of value and a unit of account. Cryptocurrencies satisfy none of those criteria… With few uses to anchor their value – as users must wrestle with complicated software and give up all consumer protections they are used to, while few vendors accept it and security is poor – there is little reason to think that such ‘currencies’ will remain more than an overcomplicated, untrustworthy casino.”  [THE ECONOMIST – Sep 1, 18]
  • TOP SKILLS THAT WORKERS WILL NEED BY 2020 are Critical Thinking, Creativity and Complex Problem Solving. According to Chief Strategy and HR executives surveyed at the World Economic Forum, over a third of skills which today are considered important in the workforce will have changed or disappeared – including Quality Control and Active Listening – as machines using massive data and artificial intelligence begin to make decisions for us. Critical Thinking, perhaps the most important, is about “solving problems by asking the right questions, generating hypotheses, deciding what information is needed, and then approaching problems objectively,” while maintaining skepticism that personal confirmation bias does not override the reality-basis for assumptions being made or missed. DCG offer decades of expertise and experienced perspective to help optimize these skills within the context of Strategic Planning. Let us help.  [FAST COMPANY – Aug 24, 18]
  • ODDS & ENDS ABOUT: JOBS – Some large employers of professionals (including Google, Apple, Ernst & Young) now no longer require college degrees, on the basis that “bright & conscientious people lacking financial or social capital to obtain a 4-year degree…can significantly expand the mobility that’s an American birthright”; JOBS & PETS – The latest employee fringe is working from home while ‘settling in’ new pets – ‘furternity’ leave and ‘pawternity’ leave if the new pet is a rescue dog;  PET SERVICES – Cloth diapers for chickens are now available to “the growing number of urban & suburban hipsters who keep fowls as pets or egg producers, but don’t want to deal with the birds’ poop;  BABIES –  Men who wear boxer-underwear had up to a third higher sperm count than those who wore ‘tighty-whities’ in a Harvard study analyzing the underwear of 650 guys attending a fertility clinic; EDUCATION – Some 20% of American K – 12 students study foreign language, versus 92% of European students who enroll in classes.  [THE WEEK – Sep 7, 18]
  •  “THE MOST CELEBRATED FORM OF GOVERNANCE KNOWN TO THE WORLD IS DEMOCRACY, a system of, by, and for the people. Because of this personal construct, democracy is susceptible to the same human frailties that afflict us all – greed, prejudice, hubris, intellectual dishonesty, and moral weakness. Government, therefore, is only as sound and effective as the people who are empowered to run it at any given time and its fundamental imperfection. Sometimes, driven by these flaws of the human condition, Democracy can be trifled with by those who hold the reins of power and, despite carefully devised checks and balances, individual positions misused in ways unseen by the public, with systems unduly influenced in defiance of both the law and conscience.” For an honest, incredibly articulate & easy to read perspective on today’s challenge to our entire system of democracy – for anyone with an honest desire to comprehend the fiasco which has consumed the vast majority of public discourse and generated unprecedented distrust among Americans – read THE RUSSIA HOAX by Gregg Jarrett.
  • THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK:  “Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional…”

       Some 47% of Millennials have at least one tattoo, compared with 13% of Baby Boomers, according to the Wall St. Journal.