I think we all believe that. 😉

I live out in that big red blob and our power was out for like 5 hours, which wasn’t bad. There were a couple of downed trees, which made it difficult to get around. It is windy here every year. People who didn’t grow up here (like 75% of residents) seem shocked every October.

WHY?!? She was the best positioned anyone could have been AND STILL LOST. Running again would be a terrible use of everyone’s time.

That is excellent news! I have friends impacted by T1 and being able to pay for insulin is a regular part of their life planning. I hope it eases things for people in CA a bit.

Love it - that feels very do-able these days. I’ll be out there in my political attire and holding a sign. Hope others are able to make it too!!

[Edit: the economic challenges were in part] from the inefficiency of having full employment. I know this isn’t the USSR, but there is a fascinating Netflix documentary called A Perfect Crime about the assassination of Detlev Karsten Rohwedder, a West German politician who oversaw the Treuhand agency. The Treuhand was responsible for converting over 8,500 state-owned companies in the former East Germany into private businesses. Most of it focuses on his death, obviously. But I found the economic aspect truly informative. Thousands of people lost their jobs because they produced inferior products too slowly to compete outside East Germany - and there wasn’t enough economic power in the East alone to support it (there are one off examples of companies that bucked this trend, but they are the exception). Not any one individual’s fault - but it demonstrates the challenges of the system - and a good use case for informing our own economic designs.

While there were many reasons for the fall of the Soviet Union, their economy was one of them. I’m not sure it is a great model.

I believe some tech companies have neuro diversity hiring programs, if you haven’t stumbled across those yet. The jobs don’t demand less, but they have a setup to be more supportive of the candidates.

Yeah, typo. It was like 4am. 🤷

We keep costs low by doing an evening paid training “try before you buy” model - so we can see how people work and they can see how the job is with relatively low commitment. Our work culture isn’t for everyone, so we want them to try it out without disrupting too much. We bring on people who are trained, like the job and ready to generate revenue. All staff are paired with a mentor and manager so they learn how to produce client-ready work.

We only promote managers that can do both technical work and people manage. In companies past, this will scale to about 300 people in our line of work. It helps that we only promote from within.

I do work lots, but I am an owner, so that seems fair. I work from home and with family, so I’m able to double up some of my work life balance. But we have also automated pretty much all business operations, so realistically it is 1-2 hours per week. Training at night is a pain in the ass, but again I’m m an owner and this seems fair to me.

I’m the owner of a small business, so I am deeply familiar with this equation. The way we solve it is to “look for talent where no one else is looking” (actually strategy), then train the shit out of and mentor them (informal strategy). My managers are expected to be better than and train the staff to do their work - from technical skills to knowing what good looks like. Then as staff move into management they are expected to pay it forward. Is it a lot of work? Yes - but it’s also how you don’t end up with a knowledge gap at the top.

Edit: I hold myself to this same standard, which makes it easier to expect it if others.

It’s because they put the bean counters in charge. Boeing is a screaming example of why you don’t do that. It’s sad to see that software company move away from innovation and creative problem solving.

Managers should be engaged and skilled enough to do any direct team member’s work in their absence or train any person in the role. Their team should be used to scale the capacity and capabilities. If this isn’t being done, the business model is broken and eventually will cause issues - perhaps that’s what you are experiencing.

Totally. Good managers should be engaged enough with their team’s work that they understand the team’s input and be capable of covering for one of them if they are out.

I can tell you why the “kids coming out of college and younger people, minorities, are having a hard time finding jobs.”

Climbs onto soapbox

Leadership at most businesses have decided it is easier to hire experienced workers rather than grow and develop the next generation workforce. I hear things from leaders like “I don’t have time to train anyone new.” It’s lazy, fucked up, and wrong. AND ensures that we as a society will have a generational skill gap problem.

Utilities have one of the most glaring examples - the impending loss of irreplaceable institutional knowledge and critical skills as large numbers of workers retire, which could have been prevented with programs to bring in and develop early-in-career team members.

AI exasperates that problem because you need both an expert in how to setup and manage the Agents/supporting tools, and an expert who can review/adjust what is s coming out of the AI machine. They need to be the same person because you have to know the job well to effectively design the AI Agents for it. People entering the workforce are at an extreme disadvantage without a training, mentorship and ongoing support. Also in 2 decades the economy will be at risk without a workforce that has been properly skilled. If you think we are living Idiocracy now… just wait.

My general opinion of business leadership is not high, but this situation really exposes the depth of their laziness and lack of forethought. If you own or lead a business, now is the time to figure out how to hire and rapidly up skill incoming team members. Young people are generally hard working, loyal, and bring a valuable fresh perspective - if you put a n the elbow grease to help them develop.

You can totally deep fry at home with a Fry Daddy. My experience is that no food is worse deep fried and some foods are substantially better. Saltines? Not worse. Bacon? A bit better.

What doesn’t he just get a “WE’VE LEARNED NOTHING” tattoo on his forehead?

I personally find the thinking on this is too rigid. I get putting boundaries in place so people are not abused. But it isn’t a moral failure of a person if they don’t fit into this box. I work a ton, but it is from home, with family, and supported by a stay at home husband. It isn’t right for everyone, and people should be protected from this if it isn’t right for them - but there isn’t anything wrong with it. Likewise, my maternity leave was 8 weeks, because I was ready to work and my work situation allowed for it. The American system is absolutely misogynistic, but the fundamental problem underneath both issues that we have managed to get ourselves into an economic situation that requires a two income household or to work a crazy amount.

Work-life balance is super subjective (what works well for one person may be debilitating for another) - and using it to make weird jokes like this is probably alienating for many in their audience. Poor choice all around.

I am definitely getting a shirt that says “The only letters I need to know are U, S, and A.” That’s hilarious.