Diz It?

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Oh Hell Yeah!

Work Smart, Play Hard

It was always my motto to work hard, long hours, and enjoy the nightlife afterward. Too bad it doesn't really work. It's not very productive and everybody thinks you're an idiot.

So this is my new motto. Steal it.

Guidelines For A Working Relationship

If you are in a political party or a board or a committee with me, please understand the following guidelines:

1. Never publish something on behalf of the team without somebody from the team reading it first.
2. Remember that what you say and what you do, reflects on the team and is associated with the team.
3. Do not make team decisions on your own, unless the team has clearly mandated you so.
4. Handle disagreements between team members within the team or in private; certainly not in public.
5. Do not contradict another team member in public, even when he is clearly wrong.
6. When talking about the team, always name another member and a positive team achievement.
7. A team wins together. A team loses together. There are no partial or moral victories. Individual success is determined within the team itself.
8. Backstabbing is grounds for immediate dismissal from the team.

Now. If you follow these guidelines, I'm sure we'll get along fine.

Exception To The Rule

I'm pretty sure I can get away with applying the 80-20 rule, or the 83-percent rule here, but I'm actually aware of proper scientific studies about where people think they rank in terms of for example intelligence, beauty, sex and so on.

I do know that when I ask my junior staff members where they rank their performance against their peers, no one says that they rank below average. For some that's confidence, and for some it is legitimately so, but we cannot ALL be above-average. Same with ugliness, or sexual prowess and several other traits.

It is in the nature of man to believe that the exception to the rule applies to himself. Also it is his nature to be insulted when the exception does not apply. People are quick to delude themselves that they are special. And in some small local way people are. However it goes wrong when an individual translates this into a larger scale, and expects that it still applies. That's when people get into politics.

Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results

Fun fact: people tend to stick to their guns when things go awry. If you miss a deadline, just work more hours. (and burnout) If your car is too slow, drive faster. (and spin out) If you keep losing on the race track, just keep on betting on the next race. (and go broke)

This is based on the assumption that people get better with experience, or that luck - so to speak - evens out over time. This is a delusion. Sometimes people stay as dumb as they are, no matter how much time and effort they spend. And good or bad luck is not quantifiable, so there's nothing to even out in the first place. If you haven't won a big lottery prize now, the next ticket you buy is just as unlikely to win you one, as the last one.

Sometimes a radical change is necessary to make progress, maybe augmented with some creativity. If you always miss deadlines in your plan, use a different model of planning; if your car is too slow, use the train; and stop betting on horses, go play fantasy football.