A Goofy Foot in Mouth

The hills are alive, with the sound of …Griswald    – Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

I am a huge fan of John Gorka.  He is a pretty good musician, but an exceptional song writer and singer.  His voice is amazing.  Turns out that Gorka’s on-stage schtick is almost identical to Tommy Smothers, which isn’t as funny as the crowd thinks, but I listen for the music, not the jokes.  By sheer luck, I happened to be reading the Derry paper on Friday morning and saw that he was playing that night at Tupelo.  If you haven’t been there, it’s an awesome venue.  Old converted barn, maybe 250 seats, great acoustics, intimate setting.  The best part, and another reason I love NH…it’s BYOB.  So I picked up a ticket.

I got to talking with a couple next to me during intermission.  They had seen him before and asked how I got turned onto the music.  Here’s where the story gets a little…nerdy.  I used to listen to a podcast called Home Theater Geeks.  During one episode the MC, Scott Wilkinson, interviewed Mark Waldrep, the founder of AIX Records.  During the interview, Waldrep had talked endlessly about a recent HD recording session with Gorka.  And that’s how I learned of this semi-famous folk singer from New Jersey.

Waldrep is a pioneer in recording music in high def, which is categorized as anything above 96 kHz/24-bit which is the DVD-Audio multi-channel (>= 5.1) standard that came out in 2000 after the success of DVD-Video.  That quality is also achieved on Bluray disks for the audio component and why Bluray movies sound so awesome at home.  To put this in perspective, your old school CD records only 2 channels (left and right, aka “stereo”) at 44 kHz/16-bit.  Trust me, anyone could DEFINITELY hear the difference.

This got me to thinking about why audio quality today has taken such a back seat to convenience.  The codec that chops even more of the CD quality music to fit on your iPod, kills the sound.  You lose a ton of the high and low.  And yet kids are buying $200 Beats headphones and listening on their phones walking down the street.  I can only assume because the devices have a label with “Dr Dre” on it.  That is crazy.  It’s the very definition of “putting lipstick on a pig.”

Don’t get me wrong, I love the convenience of thousands of songs on a phone/iPod and being able to stream lossy compressed audio over internet sources.  But there are times when I want to sit in a comfy chair surrounded by really good speakers cranked really loud, sipping a glass of whiskey or scotch, my eyes closed and actually enjoy the sound of the music.  There is so much great music out there, I don’t know why no one wants to buy equipment to actually enjoy it.  Yes convenience is great, but for me it is also about the experience of the music itself, not just music as part of some multi-tasking effort when focused on something else.

Try it sometime.  You might be surprised.  Maybe if Julie Andrews had been recorded in HD, I would be so enamored that I wouldn’t have Chevy Chase stuck in my head.

Whenever things start going bad in a program, typically there is a big strategic meeting (usually offsite) and we talk about the future and all of the big strategic things that need to change.  But I have never heard of any big strategic meeting that didn’t have at least a 30 minute session of looking for “low hanging fruit.”  It’s the stuff that is easy to do, the no-brainers, easy wins.  When all you do is send lawyers to Washington, they don’t see anything as easy, so they never even look for low hanging fruit.

I have respect for people in any generation that are suspect of technology.  They fear the unknown.  But sometimes you need a smack in the butt and told to get your ass in gear.  The image above is from a story on Ignites (Financial Times).  Some retiree has multiple DC retirement plans all recordkept by TIAA and is insisting that he not only continue to receive paper statements, but that he wants his paper statements his way.  So what does he do?  He sues.

Hey Congress, this is low hanging fruit.  This guy is insisting that his plan is being over burdened with mailing costs because his 15 separate statements are mailed in separate envelopes instead of all combined into one.  He estimates that if there are 1 million other people like him with 15 separate DC plans, all on the TIAA platform, that the total net cost is $60m.  Sounds like a great idea, let’s break it down.

No way are there 1m people with 15 plans on TIAA.  Wikipedia’s entry says they managed 3.9M participants in total a few years ago.  So 25% of baby boomer teachers that historically worked their entire careers with very few employers have 15 plans and are all insisting on paper statements?  I can’t imagine that one.  But I’ll cave to the fact that maybe there is $10m in waste on paper statements.  The dev project to fix the combining of all that information, plus the QA, UAT and rollout planning would cost $2m.  I know that sounds insane, but that’s just how these things go.  Trust me.  So is a 5 year payback on something that is a a downward trend anyway (receiving paper) worth it?

You already missed the point.  And so did Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D. NY. UCLA, admitted to Bar in 1991) when she blindly forwarded his letter to the DoL, thus triggering this mess.

See the problem isn’t in just fixing this whiner’s request, it’s the need to fix the system.  And Senators have that ability.  They can fix this mess by mandating that all participants switch to email confirms (zero cost) within x years.  Included in that should be some money for local communities to run tech training for these people so they aren’t scared of the future.  That has multiple benefits.  If the problem is high cost, then fix the problem, which includes the myriad ERISA-based ambulance-chasing lawyers filing class-action lawsuits every 5 minutes.

Washington needs people who know how to see and fix problems.  It’s not hard to do.  Watch any news program, pick up any publication.  The ideas for low hanging fruit are everywhere.  At least fix the easy stuff and build trust to get at the hard stuff.  Now if you excuse me, I am going to file a lawsuit against all the knuckleheads out there who insist on the paper phonebook that keeps landing on my doorstep (soaking wet) every year.  And there is some more low hanging fruit.

The other day I listened to some commentary from David Brooks about Trump.  He has been predicting a downfall for over 6 months.  I’ve been writing that Trump is disgusting for a while now.  For some reason, everyone thought he would implode and now it is too late.  No one ever formed an argument against his irresponsible antics.  He embarrasses the office of the President.  He is a disgrace to the country.  If it comes to it, I will vote for Hillary.

But I wanted to focus on why this happened and I am pretty sure I know why.  Gerrymandered districts have been making the country more extreme and partisan for a while now.  But the Iraq war and George Bush started a new phenomena.  Obama’s election took it one step further.  ‘Hatred’ for a politician seems to have gotten to a level that make it impossible to simultaneously disagree with a person, and yet formulate a solution to a problem through policy.   I think Obama is completely unqualified for office.  But I have seen interviews and I think he is a good man even though some people were misguided enough to put him in the White House.  Regardless, I still want the office to do its job.  John Kasich, Newt Gingrich and the ’94 Republican revolution class, enacted the Contract with America in 100 days.  It doesn’t even matter what the 10 ideas were, they were ideas!!!  They disagreed with Clinton, but they actually passed bills, there was positive action.  Seeing government actually working for the people inspired confidence that coupled with Windows 95, built our modern economy.

And here is where the problem began.  The Tea Party came in with so much hatred for TARP, ObamaCare, bailouts and all the rest of the liberal agenda that it decided to stop everything.  Say no and only no.  A disagreement on philosophy resulted in complete lack of action.  62 Repeals of ObamaCare and not one, not even one bill passed to try to chisel away at making it a decent law.  Cross boarder state competition?  Nope.  Tort reform?  Nuh uh.  Means testing?  Of course not.  A majority in both houses and not one positive idea passed.  Fear of a Tea Party revolt from a bunch of crybaby freshman crippled government.  In 1994, Kasich talked about entitlement reform, imagine what the budget would look like today if we had done it 20 years ago.

All this “no” and “one term president” and “repeal ObamaCare” frustrated Americans so much that 40% of Republicans just want someone that can get things done.  For some insane reason they think Trump can fill that role.  The 30% that still want to do nothing vote for Cruz and the other 30% realize that we need action, but Trump is an idiot- so we splinter.

What does that blowhard master of intellect offer us for action?  On healthcare – He “won’t let people die in the streets”.  Who is dying in the streets?  If you go to a hospital the Hippocratic oath mandates that you receive care.  In a hospital.  The single most expensive delivery vehicle for health care.  So he of course wants people to go to hospitals instead of dying in the streets.  Great solution to runaway costs, do what is even more expensive.  He wants to treat our vets better.  Come home from your service and the Donald has your back.  But while you are in the field, be sure to ‘bomb the hell out of ‘ women and children and families and then waterboard and “go beyond that” with torture.  I’m sure that is a great way for a soldier to want to serve their country.  Honor Duty Country.  Yup.  But thanks Trump, you definitely treat the military better.

Go build that wall, cuz Trump knows how to build stuff.  Right, he builds the most expensive apartment high rises and casinos.  Stuff that has zero price elasticity, yeah you are the guy I want spending my money.  Oh sorry, good thing the Mexicans are going to pay for that wall.  See how that deal goes for you.  Oh yeah and you go on negotiating better trade deals.  Because we definitely don’t want cheap oversees labor to keep the price of flat screen TVs, cars and cell phones low.  We want to pay top dollar for all that stuff, just like your apartment tenants, because you sure do understand that market.  And speaking of markets, they love it when you say you will be “unpredictable”  Definitely.  Stability is so stupid when you have a ton of cash.

So thank you Tea party.  You proved that doing nothing is a viable strategy to make Obama 100% ineffective since the ACA.  You won that battle.  And you convinced people that since you would do nothing in Washington, that NO politicians can.  Which leaves only violent narcissistic billionaire racists who objectify women and immigrants as the only people that are even capable of governing.  Yeah yeah that’s it.  Give us the angry guy over there with no ideas who hates everything.  Because hate is an awesome political strategy, isn’t it?  We hate Obama.  We hate Hillary.  And that guy makes fun of her and he has the best zingers.  Hire the orange skinned raccoon who says the same sentence over and over again, he hates what I hate.

When I was in college, a mentor taught me a lot about the world of business. He taught me subtleties like how to make your boss look good, how to lead people to the action you want them to take and how to read a person by the watch they wear. The latter of course turned into a shared affinity for watches. I remember one time, he was giving me tips about wearing a suit, tricks for keeping the collar stiff, your jacket pressed, etc. This was before my 3 year stint as a road warrior; those lessons were invaluable for packing a suitcase. It was wisdom that only years of experience could impart.

As with all things, mentors give us lessons that we never really understand until much later in life. He was probably about my age when I got this tidbit, but it has stuck with me for 25 years.  We talked about how when you wear a suit, there is an unwritten rule that you really need to be at a certain level, you need to command a level of stature, before you can acceptably wear a handkerchief in the lapel pocket.  He told me, “You aren’t there yet, but you’ll know when.”

My entire career I have felt that I was at that level, and I always used this as an internal barometer/metaphor for my career.  I always argued with myself that I just hadn’t been given the opportunity to exercise it.  Turns out that I really wasn’t there.  Over the past few years, now I know.  It’s the ability to walk into a situation and know how to take charge or be respectful when someone else is and be part of the team.  How to see opportunities for triangulation.  It’s knowing that if there is a subject in my wheelhouse, I don’t need to prep to present the idea.  One of my favorite Steve Jobs quotes is “People who know what they’re talking about, don’t need Powerpoint.”  It’s so true.  I work best when I am listening to the audience and giving relevant answers to pointed challenging questions, using context, career experience and humor to bridge a gap.  When I am asked to follow a script, it inevitably goes worse.  When you are confident that you can stand at the front of any room, then you are there.

Over the past few weeks I did Peak Pitch, a ‘marketing’ trip to NC, crafted multiple solutions to business and design problems and have worked to reformulate our entire delivery model.  I highly doubt that anyone working with me would would question my abilities for what I do.  People don’t believe I can do other things, but that is a different story. 🙂

I finally understand, and now I know.  Too bad I never wear a suit anymore.

I have written about Justice Scalia here and here in different contexts.  I am not going to talk about his jurisprudence or personality or anything like that.  We all mourn his loss and the effect it will have on the court.  But what strikes me as interesting and inspiring through the ongoing political debate and retrospectives on his life, was Scalia’s notion of  originalism.  The idea is that you interpret the constitution as it was originally written.  We should view it in the context of the Founders as they wrote a spectacular document that broke from centuries of tyranny and oppression at the hand of dictators and monarchs, sometimes with self-declared divine powers.  The thing is, we have no perspective to really view institutional tyranny, so as we view questions of legality, we have to trust the framers that they had more important life experience in this case, than we do now.  We have no idea how to make a decision in the shadow of tyranny, so we trust a bunch of guys and the way they viewed the world 240 years ago, because in this respect, they are smarter than us.  Think about that for a second.

This triggered a thought from my past.  About 20 years ago I was called for jury duty.  I believe the case was in Sommerville.  The accused was charged with grand theft from a Home Depot.  As the jury listened to questioning and testimony, there were constant objections to certain lines of questioning.  We had no idea why, but by the end, all we really heard was that the defendant loaded up a shopping cart, walked it past the checkout machines, was confronted by a clerk, and then left the cart and walked out the door.  There was very little evidence of anything.

As we entered the deliberation room, the foreman reviewed the evidence, we talked a little and then voted.  Everyone voted guilty except me.  Over the next 15 minutes I led a discussion about the impact of the actual evidence.  I had wondered, did he just leave his wallet in his car?  Did he forget an appointment and had to rush out?  We eventually concluded that while everything pointed at theft, there actually was no real evidence that he was guilty, beyond a reasonable doubt.  We found him not-guilty.

After the verdict was read and the defendant released, the judge asked us to come back in his chamber to debreif.  He asked us point blank, why had we found him not-guilty.  Silence.  I piped up, ‘there was no real evidence against him. Every time the prosecutor tried to add something, there was an objection, sidebar, and it stopped.  There was no evidence.’  The judge understood.  Turned out that the prosecutor got the case that morning and since none of the evidence was ever disclosed to the defense, it was inadmissible.  What sucks, this kid had a rap sheet a mile long.

As much as his innocence may be a travesty, I am proud of the fact that I made it clear to the government that due process and the rule of law is more important to our judicial system than just getting the bad guy at whatever cost.  We all deserve that level of justice.  That is what originalism is about.  While short-cuts today seem ok, the Founders would have been purists.  They know that you actually can die of a thousand cuts.  You can’t evolve perspectives on how you enforce the laws.  Just ask people in 3rd world countries what life is like when justice is flexible.  When you have one original standard, it makes it clear how to stay true to it.

I’m reading a book by ex-SEAL commander Mark Divine called Unbeatable Mind.  It’s a self-help styled book about personal growth and mastery, chock full of techniques for leadership and how to make yourself a more effective person.

One section particularly struck a chord as I have been working a theory about political philosophy that emphasizes personal responsibility as a means to limited government. Coach Divine talks about sheep as a metaphor. A flock of sheep will be grazing in a field, going about their business as if nothing else in the world impacts their existence. Meanwhile, the wolves spend all their time trying to find ways to scheme their way onto the plateau to harm (aka eat) the sheep. Up above watching over the defenseless sheep is the sheepdog, who pounces on the wolves if they get too close or pose too serious a danger. They exist to protect the flock of sheep.

The sheep are ordinary citizens, the wolves are terrorists or general bad guys, and the sheepdogs are the military or other first-responders and righteous citizens.  Coach Divine’s SEALFit program is all about building people up to be the future sheepdogs.  Many participants are pre-SOF candidates or like me, just looking for a full mind/body philosophy to train me to be the best person and leader I can be.

There is a section on training to be “sheepdog strong” that really got me thinking about the general populace’s perspective on protection. Coach talks a lot about what sheepdogs need to do to be prepared to protect others and what it takes to have that level of commitment and focus on the task. But I question why the sheep don’t care about their own security?

I read a tweet the other day something like, “I know the biology of the frog we dissected at school but nothing about how a mortgage works”. It struck me as poignant that in many cases we really are teaching the wrong things to kids. And if we take this life-skills question one step further, why do we not teach personal awareness and security?

Many of the simple strategies for developing sheepdog awareness can be taught to anyone. And why not?  Sweeping your eyes around a restaurant, looking for the egress routes, identifying choke points and vulnerabilities, scanning for threats, being vigilant in crowded public places, etc.

These are all strategies that could be taught.  Taught to adults and to children. They could be ingrained at a younger age with the notion that protecting yourself and your fellow citizens is both a virtue and a responsibility.

More importantly, as we watch the wolves and we see them strategizing against not only the sheep, but also the sheepdog, then we should recognize a need for change.  It is impossible to dedicate requisite numbers of sheepdogs to protect us against a crafty and more formidable pack of wolves. The liberal mentality that we can always rely on the sheepdog is a fallacy.  That world is gone. The sheep need to be their own sheepdog. This requires getting off their asses and taking it seriously.  Even if you can’t be a professional sheepdog, you can train to be sheepdog strong. You owe it to society, you owe it to yourself.

Back in 1998-99 I taught 2 for-credit classes at Northern Essex Community College.  I don’t remember all the details here, but most of it is clear.  The first course was a 1 credit Intro to Computers class and the second was a 3 credit Intro to MS Office class.  I enjoyed the act of teaching and even contemplated teaching full time as an adjunct for a while.  But those plans were quickly squashed, not by me, but the MTA.

The Massachusetts Teachers Association is one of the most powerful unions in the country and certainly in the Commonwealth.  I am not very versed on union shop rules yet I absolutely hate the notion of unions in general and remember wanting to strategize on eliminating them when I was in college.

As a condition of teaching as an adjunct, I had to pay union dues and if I elected not to join the union, I still pay “agency” fees.  The thinking is that I am still benefiting from the negotiating practices of the union.  While I fundamentally hate all of this, I could accept it.  My problem was with the fees themselves.

I didn’t earn much as an adjunct, maybe $1,100 per credit.  For me it was about the experience.  But I remember that the fees were outrageous.  I want to say that it was near $200 to pay these agency fees annually, no matter what you made.  I don’t remember working it all out but if I remember that if I worked full time as an adjunct I was paying 2% of my income for the union to negotiate my 3% annual raise.  That’s a 1% net increase or less than the rate of inflation.  Whatever the fee, I refused to pay it.

And so after the first semester I got a warning letter, and after the second semester I got a letter that I would not be allowed to teach again.  I was blacklisted.  I wrote letters back and even to the school newspaper, ‘we give them 2% to get 3% which means that our net raise is less than inflation?  The MTA is making us teachers lose money?’

California teachers to the rescue.  A group of teachers felt the same way about the obligation to pay agency fees and so they filed a lawsuit.  That case Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association was granted cert on June 30, 2015 and just last month on Jan 11, 2016 the Supreme Court heard oral arguments.  The question aims to resolve if Abood v Detroit Board of Education should be overturned.  Abood certifies the union shop clause at public colleges.

I listened to most of the oral arguments and have a feeling this will be a 6:3 vote against the petitioners, who lost in the lower courts because of the Abood precedent.  People complain about the Robert’s court because of warped commentary about a very select group of controversial cases, but overall this court takes stare decisis (legal precedent) very seriously.  So while I have hopes for legal vindication such that I can petition the MTA to restore my good name, I do not have much hope.  Stay tuned to the court, maybe they will overturn this insane government imposed bureaucracy and I could teach again in the Bay State.  Not sure which is scarier, my good name, or me teaching?

6/28/18 UPDATE:  Friedrichs ended 4:4 because of the death of Justice Scalia.  However, enter Janus v AFSCME.  Justice Kennedy in his final opinion, found that public sector unions could NOT force employees to pay union dues even if they were not members as this infringed on their 1st amendment rights because Unions engage in political activities supporting candidates and positions.  Hooyah SCOTUS!

I just finished reading Team of Teams by General Stanley McChrystal.  This is the best non-fiction and the best business book I have ever read.  If you manage people, you owe it to your staff to go read this book…NOW.

I will condense to a super-abbreviated summary here.  In 2003-4 Al Qaeda started rapidly ramping up terrorist activities inside Iraq.  General McChrystal took over a special Task Force charged with fighting back and enabling the new Iraqi government and military to provide peace for the country.  While US soldiers won each battle, they quickly found that they couldn’t respond with the swiftness of the Al Qaeda insurgency and they lost ground almost as soon as it was taken.  They were constantly in a very slow reaction mode.  The general and his staff began to realize that the command and control hierarchical nature of the military was not able to adapt as quickly as al-Zarqawi’s lose network of terrorists.  So the General’s senior staff took about an unprecedented flattening of his team to adapt to the insurgent threat.  Some notable achievements:

1. Every single day over 7000 people across the world were connected in real time on a video conference call to share every bit of information they learned.  This was a mandatory 90 minute meeting that was later identified as the foundational component of what they called “Shared Consciousness”.  Rather than information following the chain of command, it went to everyone immediately.  You don’t know what other people need to know or what they have to contribute to a topic, so share it all.  Including highly classified intelligence.
2. When the task force started operations, the general would approve all missions and like all military structures, planning and approvals would flow up and down the chain of command.  These often took so long that by the time the mission was executed, the opportunity had passed. This was replaced with what he calls “Empowered Execution”.  Leadership sets broad guardrails and objectives, you trust your team to make choices that follow those guidelines.  In 2003 the Task Force was running appr. 20 missions a month, by 2005 they were conducting over 300 a month, almost none approved by McChrystal, Pentagon, or any local brass.
3. Leadership’s responsibility is to instill the notion of “Resilience Thinking” in your team.  Like the SEALs, don’t train for the mission, you train for situations.  Because you never know what situations will present themselves on a mission, be ready for anything.  Be resilient in the face of adversity.

There is a ton of great historical perspective on how the US evolved into a state of efficiency management practices that have largely proven ineffective in a complex networked world.  Complex is different from complicated.  Complex reflects the notion that we are so interconnected that it is impossible to predict a series of events because too many variables impact a result.  Classic butterfly effect.  So unlike the way management used to try to plan for complicated scenarios, they are now ineffective.  Complicated reflects the notion that you can role play and assign probabilities to all potential eventualities.  This hasn’t worked since the 80’s, you need people that can be resilient and act on their own.

I have long struggled with defining my own management philosophy wherein I have felt that much of the costly overhead of an organization (HR, Finance, Purchasing) and all of the governance (policies and procedures) needed for each is a waste.  I would set guidelines for my team and let them perform those support functions for themselves coupled with technology.  In addition, I have no respect for organizational egos that are hellbent on protecting turf.  I think Holocracy takes the reaction to these norms a small step too far.  Yet I respect what Zappos is doing to directly enable their associates.  I also admire the way Return Path’s Matt Blumberg shares information openly with his entire org.  And I love the way some startups like Moz post their financial activities openly to all employees.  Everyone should be invested in the mission.   I have come to believe that Empowered Execution when your Resilient team has a sense of Shared Consiousness coupled with a mission statement and set of guiding principles, is exactly how I want people to operate.  Question: Boss, can I spend money to buy this software package?  Answer: Our goal is a 10x return to our investors, does the purchase execute on that goal?

While I am a little ways off of bringing this management philiosophy to my own company, I developed a pitch to the leadership of my ‘day-job’ organization (+150 people) to follow a structure very similar to General McChrystal’s precepts.  I saw him speak to our company about a month ago (super-geek moment; I got to ask a direct question) and I have to assume that he did so in exchange for the opportunity to pitch a consulting gig to impart this philosophy to the Sr. Leadership.  I doubt anything will move on a larger scale, but I am excited at the possibility of proving it can work at the micro-level.

 [from my book] 

Back in June Taylor and I went to see some of the women’s World Cup games in Ottawa.  Added bonus was that there was a jazz festival running across the city at the same time.  In addition to 2 great games we got to see…

The Roots – My favorite.  Everyone should watch this set.  Amazing

Bria Skonberg Quintet – A lot of fun, old style jazz

Eric Boeren 4tet– Hard core musicians.  Bassist was amazing.  Drummer was intense

Harea Band – Fun and funky band.  Taylor’s favorite

Renee Rosnes Quartet – Relaxing show, xylophone was cool

War – Got there late, but we still got to see Low Rider and Why Can’t We Be Friends

Chris Botti – After about 10 minutes we walked out.  So boring

Last week I saw the Roots again at the House of Blues in Boston.  When I bought the tickets I was so excited to see them again.  I was actually disappointed.  The set list was very similar, including the covers.  Which included a fun version of Sweet Child of Mine.  What really impressed me the most at the jazz festival was that the musicians acted like musicians.  Real artists.  You could see them playing off each other and riffing on things that were obviously improvised.  But the Boston show, with much more expensive tickets, was over-produced and plastic.  It just wasn’t the same.  They brought in some idiot “Justin” kid to rip on some all LCD beat box electronica thing.   He just pushed buttons to play micro tracks of samples. Boring.  And then they had some guest singer who was trying to be a combination of Jamiroquai and Prince.  He sucked so bad that everyone around us was complaining and he killed the whole room for 10 minutes.  No one was dancing.

I learned an important lesson at this second show. Venue matters.  The jazz festival brought out the best in the musicians as they must have been inspired by all the talent surrounding them throughout the city.  But when you sell tickets to kids that have no interest in the music, the performers play down to the crowd.  It’s sad, but I can’t help think it’s true.

We hear about sports teams playing to their level of competition all the time.  And you wonder about the motivation and rationale for such action.  When you see that this mentality can exist in other life-genres, it makes you wonder about how often we do it ourselves. I know I have.  It certainly is the reason that successful people want to surround themselves with top talent.  It further reminds me that for others to perform at their best, I’ve got to do my part to surround them with inspiration as well.  At some point, I will create a ‘venue’ of my own.  I will do my best to inspire those that work with me in that quest.

I’ve watched Admiral McRaven’s UT speech a dozen times, I’ve made the girls watch it and I have recommended it to others.  I am a huge fan of commencement speeches.  Some reflect thoughts on policy, others on the future, and some are just flat out inspirational.  I use them as tools to remind me why I do what I do, to stay the course and push myself harder.

I now have a new inspirational video.  But only in so far as it is a reminder of what I should have been doing for the last 25 years.  Special thanks to Jim C for posting a link to our graduation video.  HHS class of 1990, what a trip.

Haverhill High School Class of 1990 Graduation

Observations

• It’s hard to remember a time when the obnoxiousness of our administrators calling out students as “learning disabled” and feigning praise on the top students, was acceptable
• nevraC windbreaker scholarship – I totally forgot about this one!
• Hair:  Girls=big, guys=mullets… even under the cap
• MassHole Accents – OMG do you all still talk that way?  Sure hope not
• Delivery of speeches – I remember being coached this way.   Jerky.  No flow.  Awful.
• Naivety in the speeches, too funny.  We were so young
• Danika D…so sad.  Steve B…surreal to see him on film

Our 25th reunion just happened over the T-Day break.  I went to Haley’s NHH&TA banquet and so I missed the festivities. 

 Thoughts on 25 years:

• So many goals not achieved
• Career = Spectacular failure
• Other massive failures
• I still can’t believe how fresh high school is in my mind
• So little of what I thought and predicted for myself, ever came to be.  But instead I did numerous other things that I never thought would come to define who I am.  Extremely special thanks to family and friends for pushing me into areas that were instinctively uncomfortable
• 43 used to seem so old to me, but I still feel pretty young and I’m in better shape now than 1990
• As I type this, I have a 16 year old soccer player, a 13 year old equestrian, I am the only one who really craves skiing anymore and Tailgating has become a way of life (to the dismay of many)
• Writing is my biggest talent and I read more than most of my peers… MoynaBitch and Fitzy would shit themselves
• They remade Point Break
• The first version of my current product idea came to me in an OM class in 1992.  See “procrastination”
• I remember thinking that the Internet was stupid and Amazon was dumb for selling books
• I draw pictures for a living, and they are of computer systems instead of houses
• New cars are not that exciting to me anymore and I rarely opened the hood of any car I have bought in the past 15 years

I’m sure there are other oddities about the last 25 years that would utterly astonish the 18 year old version of me.  I wonder how many of my classmates feel the same way.  I wonder if any of us actually stuck to our plans circa 1990.  Did Laurie, Jen, Mr. Wrenn or Dr. Fowler-Finn inspire anyone?