Just in Case it Matters to You
Weekly Report 17-12
- INFLEXIBLE COLLEAGUES CAN POLARIZE TEAMWORK AND INNOVATION. “Co-workers exactitude can make others anxious, slow down work processes and discourage initiative. “While they often do an excellent job of establishing systems and compliance, bringing considerable efficiency to an organization, there is a fine line between rigor and rigidity…which can stifle creativity and leave others feeling hamstrung in their jobs.” Some strategies for navigating around inflexibility are: (1) Don’t battle head on; invite conversation to help understand their position; (2) Determine their concerns about change and validate their right to an opinion. “Sometimes once fear is understood and acknowledged (re: status, control, stress, etc), that’s all they need”; (3) “Drip feed the idea of Change” to assuage their concerns; (4) Explain and demonstrate the urgency and importance of Change; (5) Most important: “pick your battles. Inflexible people can be dogmatic, insensitive, egotistical, automatically defensive, and rude in dismissing others’ ideas. But don’t take it personally- that’s just their psychological makeup.” [IN THE BLACK.COM – Mar 10, 17]
- “MOST OF WHAT KIDS LEARN AT SCHOOL WILL PROBABLY BE IRRELEVANT BY THE TIME THEY ARE 40,” and the likelihood that computer algorithms will take over nearly half of current American jobs within two decades is very high: over 90% for cashiers, chefs, waiters, paralegals, tour guides & sports referees; over 80% for bus drivers, construction laborers, security guards & bakers; over 70% for bartenders, carpenters, archivists & lifeguards. “It’s becoming easier to replace humans with computer algorithms… since 99% of human qualities and abilities are simply redundant for the performance of most modern jobs… The traditional model of a learning period followed by a period of working is becoming obsolete – the only way for humans to stay in the game will be to keep learning throughout their lives and to reinvent themselves repeatedly, which many, if not most, humans will be unable to do.” [ http://idea.ted.com/the-rise-of-the-uselesss-class ]
- MEANWHILE, KIDS 15 – 24 NOW SPEND 15% LESS TIME ‘SOCIALIZING’ ON WEEKENDS & HOLIDAYS than a decade ago, while usage of mobile phones and computers is up 40%. And up to a third of men in their 20s without a college education – “a cohort of people in the most consequential years of their working lives” – report that they hadn’t worked in a year with 75% of their leisure time spent on video games. The problem is that when other important consumer-goods (like houses, medical care, furniture and food) become desirable as years pass, their absence of contacts, experience and skills will likely limit ‘gamers’ opportunity “to build the lives they come to realize they want… , Still, while a life spent buried in video games, scraping by on meager pay from irregular work or dependent on others, might seem empty and sad, whether it is emptier and sadder than one spent buried in finance, during long hours at the office while neglecting other aspects of life, is a matter of perspective.” [ECONOMIST 1843 – Apr/May 17]
- QUANTUM MECHANICS – A THEORY OF BEHAVIOR AT THE ATOMIC LEVEL – IS NOW LIKELY ONLY “FIVE YEARS FROM COMMERCIAL EXPLOITABILITY, powering mainstream innovation with applications in nearly every existing industry, and the potential to spark entirely new ones… QM has replaced the century-old notion of a clockwork, deterministic universe with a reality that deals in probabilities rather than certainties – one where the very act of measurement affects what is being measured… relating to how the world actually works versus how we see it.” Strategic investment is being funded from governments, blue-chip firms and startups now that “remaining challenges are mostly engineering ones, rather than scientific… and what’s most exciting about QM is its as yet untapped potential.” [THE ECONOMIST – Mar 11, 17]
- THE PROLIFERATION OF ‘FAKE NEWS’ MAKES IT TOUGH TO STAY INFORMED. “Fake headlines fool Americans 75% of the time, based on analyses of the most-shared false versus most-shared true stories… Why is this? The way we’re wired… Our minds quickly memorize info we learn, independent of its validity or source. And if we later discover that it’s false, this does not necessarily override the story. People will still repeat that information and use it.” One proactive way to help organize memory, is to separate fact from fiction, and make it less likely to fall victim to fake data by “thinking critically and compartmentalizing questionable info into a ‘not true’ mental category… especially if there’s anything that makes you think it might not be relevant for the real world.” But real concerns about the consequences of Fake News are mounting. [NORTHWESTERN MAGAZINE – Spring 17]
- THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK: In Beverly Hills and Malibu, the level of ‘passive’ household income (from Interest, Dividends, Rents, etc.) exceeds $100,000 yearly – more than the average earned income of other families in the state and the nation.
An interesting perspective: “The Left’s hysteria about Russia isn’t just an attempt to delegitimize Trump. It’s the usual Christophobic fifth column rooting for the Islamization of the West.” http://humanevents.com/2017/03/15/lets-make-russia-our-sister-country/
Enough is Enough. “A Word to the European Criminal Migrants” (far from politically correct): http://www.patcondell.net/a-word-to-the-criminal-migrant/