• MASK REALITIES: “Despite the fact that randomized clinical trials had repeatedly shown little or no good at preventing viral spread, were generally ineffective, and senselessly harmful in classrooms, Federal & State officials did their best to suppress that fact and silence dissenters during the Covid pandemic… CDC terrified the public with worst-case scenarios based on computer models, then used unrealistic projections to claim unprecedented powers to experiment with untested strategies, ordering lockdowns without even pretending to weigh the hypothetical benefits against the tangible economic/ medical/ social costs, plus intangible costs in emotional hardship & lost liberty, along with two years of cruel and unnecessary education & social deprivations on children… Many people today who still believe the falsehood are engaging in what social psychologists call ‘effort justification’ – that once people endure the pain, they convince themselves that it must have been worthwhile even if the reward is worthless; i.e., not wanting to admit their sacrifices were in vain.” [NEW YORK POST – 5/5/22]
  • ‘MANAGEMENT’ IS ABOUT CONTROLLING YOUR TIME BOTH EFFICIENTLY AND EFFECTIVELY, by not wasting time on unimportant matters and staying focused on those that are. A few of the critical facilitators are: (1) Writing down priorities – a ‘To Do’ list – and updating several times daily; (2) Aligning meetings/ projects/ tasks with those priorities, and just say ‘no’ to non-immediate matters; (3) Removing interference from clutter on your desk; (4) Using Mute and Do Not Disturb options for sensible periods of time (e.g. 20 minutes) to avoid disruptions which really aren’t urgent; (5) “Reduce time you spend procrastinating; Break tasks down into bite-size pieces and set deadlines to both begin & complete important tasks; (6) Try to paper and electronic documents only once.”  Optimal time management involves personal techniques which fit your own workstyle & personality, but failure to plan & control guarantees failure to optimize productivity.  DCG presents courtesy ‘Lunch and Learn’ sessions in Time Management techniques to work teams.  [SMARTBRIEF – 5/9/22]
  • ALL SOCIAL MEDIA SERVICES HAVE SOME AMOUNT OF SPAM AND FAKE ACCOUNTS ON THEIR PLATFORMS, but as high as 35% of Twitter accounts may be ‘bots,’ according to a Carnegie Mellon study. Twitter acknowledges a 5% level, but its latest regulatory filing states that “our estimation may not accurately represent the actual number and could be higher…especially since internal testing of some 230 million daily active users excludes automated accounts because those do not view advertising…nor considers automation of accounts such as news aggregators that pass along articles about specific topics at set times every hour… Different types of bots (including basic promotional spam, nation-state accounts, amplifiers for commercial hire) are motivators for manipulating public opinion to pump up a celebrity or product’s standing…or as when Russian operatives from the ‘Internet Research Agency’ sowed disinformation about the U.S. 2016 election.” Relying on social media information is never a good idea.  [WASHIINGTON POST – 5/13/22]
  • THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK:

Coinbase, the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, issued its Q1 earnings report, reporting a $430M loss and that over $250 billion in both currencies and cryptocurrencies held on behalf of customer accounts, would become “unsecured creditors with no right to specific property – i.e., loss all their crypto – in event of bankruptcy proceedings.” The stock price has dropped 80% below its NASDAQ debut one year ago.  [FORTUNE – 5/11/22]

Latest Protest to “save the planet, save the cows,” involved a live-streamed ‘glue-in’ by a combined Climate/ PETA activist who superglued his hand to a Manhattan Starbucks counter, demanding that Starbucks use of non-vegan milk is “responsible for immense animal suffering, punishes kind & environmentally conscious customers for choosing plant milks, and is a major producer of greenhouse gases that contribute to the climate catastrophe.”  [CBS NEWS – 5/11/22]

And, according now to a U.K. Employment Judge Tribunal, “calling a man ‘bald’ counts as sexual harassment – an insult related to a ‘protected characteristic of sex’ in the workplace.”  [CNBC – 5/13/22]