Recency Bias

With World Mental Health day on Oct 10th, I happened to listen to some really interesting episodes on depression and loneliness. The Simplify podcast (from Blinkist) talks with Johann Hari about his book Lost Connections ( book review ) I found a copy of this book and am starting on it now. Ezra Klein talks with Vivek Murthy the former Surgeon General of US about the epidemic of loneliness and what it means. https://megaphone.link/VMP6662924991 Emotions are not biologically hardwired into our brains but constructed by our minds. Superstar psychologist Lisa Barrett Feldman helps you rethink emotional reactions and how we need to sometimes dig deeper. I firmly believe that no one is a villain in their own story. We all have biases or perspectives that impact what we say and do. Luckily we're not bound by it, we can break through bad patterns or lenses. I think we can help others as well, but like everything worth doing - it takes work. The level of divisiveness we currentl...

watch : Patriot Act (netflix) with a great piece heading into the Canadian election called - The Two Sides of Canada. They took a hard look at the liberal's aspirational progressive talk with it's SNC-Lavalin stan-ing. They mentioned the ethics violation but not the whisper campaign against JWR.  They also called  him on his Paris targets while nationalizing a pipeline. #itsTheEconomyStupid. I consistently like this show but this hit close to home and timely with the election looming. Sadly regardless of this behaviour Jagmeet Singh of the NDP continues to struggle. The party fundraising and nomination process hasn't been great.  Jagmeet has handled himself admirably faced with a number of racially charged incidents. The NDP's adoption of the Green New Deal demonstrates their understanding of the serious nature. The status quo cannot continue. The see no evil, hear no evil approach to climate change and inequality need to change.  We have spent 30+ years trying the...

It's back to school kids! read : Good News about Bad Behaviour by Katherine Reynolds Lewis I randomly came across this book at the library and picked it up ironically. Soon afterwards I was hooked. The book speaks to the underlying cause of kids acting out. Sometimes it's bad modelling or connection with parents. Often it can be just low expectations yielding minimal output. The book advocates we relinquish control in ordrer to let our kids reach their potential and unlock their own sense of agency. One of my favourite lines is "By doing things for children that they're able to do, we are robbing them of feeling capable." I know for me doing things the kids are capable of is an expediency thing, but if they never learn. quick : We are ruining childhood - Kim Brooks likens childhood to one long internship  just to get into the middle class. Overscheduling, no free time let alone free play. The idea of safety-ism means parents are trying to eliminate any and a...

Continuous Refresh : NBA Free Agency had me fall off the social media wagon hard. Constant timeline refreshing, borderline obsessive. It came to an end when Kawhi signed with the LA Clippers. I've continued to fiend for a twitter fix. Social Media is the new smoking/standing/coffee etc. Kawhiiii: Nowadays if you build a quality basketball organization the stars will come to you. Unless they don't. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2844770-it-doesnt-matter-even-best-nba-franchises-cant-compete-with-superstar-whims Read : Thinking in Bets - This was a great read around better decision making. I love chess, but Annie Duke points out that chess is a game of complete information, everything is on the board. Life is more like poker where you have incomplete information and you must act  before you know everything.  Resulting is about judging the quality of your decision-making based on the result however there are many unknowns that affect the result. The key is to objectiv...

Doublethink Is Stronger Than Orwell Imagined. 1984 was the profound story of authoritarian control over everything even our thoughts. Today Orwell's dystopian vision is coming true but in self-imposed forms.   https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/07/1984-george-orwell/590638/ Not woke-washing it's Over-washing. Detergent companies need people to use more detergent. The environmental costs to this are enormous. Frankly going to back to university washing a shirt everytime you washed it felt over the top.  https://www.fastcompany.com/90359188/the-next-big-thing-in-fashion-not-washing-your-clothes   Woke-washing - when companies that have profitted to the detriment to humanity then try and a take a pittance as a gift to cultural institutions. These entities are lavished with praise as being good stewards of society. The forbidden fruit is to question the source of the philanthropy and whether it's acceptable to take 'dirty money'. The MET and oth...

#read Greg Popovich is one of the greatest basketball coaches of all time.  He's held in equally regard with sommeliers and restauranteurs as well. He is considered a master of creating a winning culture and maximizing the talent on his rosters. His team was written off again this year to miss the playoffs and they took the 4th best team in the association to seven games. A big part of that culture is the passion and  attention to detail he puts into meals with the team and staff. #podcast Big Tax feels that making it easier to fill out your taxes would make for less engaged citizens. A professor tested out the idea of pre-filling some tax data to see how people would feel. They loved it. However that could have adverse affects on the tax filing industry. The story of how he did it, how it seems like such a no-brainer and how it was ultimately squashed by regulation due to lobbying is quite the encapsulation of our politics. #listen Anderson.Paak is one of my favourite c...

Read: Winners Take All - The Elite Charade of Changing the World. @anandwrites This was a profound book for me. I consider myself progressive, which is at the heart of why I work in NPO sector.  This book however, does some root cause analysis on philanthropy and let's you see the matrix. This book takes on neo-liberalism, modern day "thought-leaders", contemporary capitalism and even TED talks With SNC-Lavalin in Canada and Democratic candidates popping up, I feel like my eyes have been opened but I feel more disillusioned about modern politics. Listen:  Did you Order the Code Red . A discussion on passwords, online security and a business' responsibility to it's customers. Quick Read:  The Gig Economy : A Race to the Bottom  What happens when we follow globalization and remote work to it's logical conclusion in unbridled capitalism? Exactly what you a expect.