True Self-assuredness

When you're a consultant you tend to move around a lot, see a lot of different companies, meet a lot of different people. Same for me.

One thing that always gets me, is this: No matter who you speak to, no matter which client you meet, every single one insists:

• their company is the most exciting environment this side of the Middle East
• the assignment they hired you for, is so unique, none of the traditional ways to handle it will work
• the project is always a 'speeding train' that you have to leap on to
• ...and it is so complex, difficult and important, you'd think we're curing cancer
• in fact, we don't even know why we hired you, because only, and The Rock means only, the best of the best of the best will be able to thrive here, let alone survive

I just shrug, nod, turn around and do my job.

Give Thanks - The Truths Are Here

http://www.lemondrop.com/2009/08/21/ponder-this-35-truisms-that-couldnt-be-more-true/

Thanks Lemondrop! Thanks Ruminations.com!

The End of Linkedin

I tend to keep up random statistics, and the one I'm taking note of now is the "number of new users in my network" on Linkedin... you know, MySpace for grown-ups. The number is supposed to mean how many people my linked contacts are connecting to, plus the people they are connecting to themselves.

Lately I've been getting more and more invites, yet the number of new users seems to be trending down. Which means that:

• people have stopped finding new people outside of the existing network
• everybody is actually already in the network
• nobody cares anymore

I think the latter seems to be the most probable. If everyone and his dog are on Linkedin, why bother? It's good to know what everybody's up to, but anything over 50 people, I'm gonna have trouble tracking. So good luck those guys and gals with 500+ connections, I'm sure you'll keep in touch.

Every once in a while people need to move. Change of scenery and all that. Smallworld would be better.

That was fast

BBC always has a knack for producing quality retrospectives for individuals, for events and for entire eras. Their recap series about the sixties, seventies, eighties and nineties are top notch, and always culturally relevant (albeit of course a bit UK centric). No wonder other countries, including Holland, followed suit with their own recap shows.

BBC is now showing a recap about the noughties (which has a nice double entendre sound to it), which is a nice little retread of the recent history... and scarily it just made me realize that the decade is at an end... I barely realized we were in it, and now we are just a couple of weeks removed from the next one.

It also means that we won't just have our regular, annual reviews this December, but we'll also be burdened with reviews of the last decade. See what you did since the start of the new century, heck, the Millennium.

So Bitch Is A Good Word Now?

I missed the note where you can call women like this, and not get slapped around for it. Apparently though Akon and David Guetta are doing it, and not even the weak cop-out bee-atch.

It's all about context I guess. A couple of years ago I did get slapped for it. Now she wants to get a slap... on the butt.

Father, Hero, Nuff Said

I have this slightly annoying trait of turning on hero mode whenever women around me start crying, getting overly excited, anxious; or something bad happens to them; or if they just need help... terribly. At that point I pretty much become my father, or more accurately, any father with daughters, fighting to keep them safe, trying to solve their problem or listening to their plight.

Why is this slightly annoying? Because it is FREAKIN' TIRING trying to solve every girl's problems. And I don't even get to see the upside, because I'm BLOODY SUPERMAN, which means I'm too freakin' noble to want any rewards in return. And there's not a lot girls need to do either to trigger this conduct. Just show a little cleavage, turn on the waterworks, or look a little bit like you're in despair, and there I go.

Of course, this is totally an invitation to seduce your way to my attention and my services.