Trickle-down leadership, YouTube rabbit holes, and fuckin’ genetics

The unholy trifecta of work culture, algorithmic brainwashing, and my kid’s genetic plot twist.

My wife says I just steal all my bits from our conversations. I'm sorry! <Ron Howard voice> He wasn’t </>

This week, I’ve been thinking about how leadership culture trickles down (for better or worse), how social media algorithms slowly(?) radicalize us into thinking binarily, and how nothing makes me feel older than what my kids find funny. Oh, and I’ve been drowning in doctor’s appointments, so let’s talk about that, too.

Trickle-down Culture Is Real

The way leadership behaves sets the tone for an entire company. A leader who sends emails at 2 AM and brags about grinding 80-hour weeks? That shit rolls downhill, and before you know it, everyone is burnt out and afraid to take a vacation. Leaders typically hire people they like, who hire people they like, and so on. So if the top is a mess, guess what happens down the chain?

Backup Cameras Aren’t A Challenge

I swear, ever since backup cameras became standard, people have been getting way too comfortable parking millimeters from my bumper. Just because your car tells you when you’re about to hit something doesn’t mean you should park 1mm (oo metric) off my car! I'm so tired of having to do 50 point turns to get my car out when you could have left another foot or so between us (small city life?)

I Need a Word for Falling Into the Algorithm Void

You ever watch one video on a niche topic, and suddenly the algorithm is like, “Oh, you must only want this forever”? Whether it’s ‘alternative wellness,’ politics, or consumerism, these deep dives start as curiosity and end with people becoming insufferable know-it-alls. Someone give me a name for this phenomenon. “falling down the algo-hole”? “drinking the media-aid”?

Having a Leader on Paper But Not in Reality Is Worse Than No Leader at All

A bad leader isn’t just ineffective, they actively get in the way of other, natural leaders to flourish. Flat orgs work sometimes because bad leadership prevents self-organization. Having no leader forces people to step up. But having a leader who contributes nothing but meetings and roadblocks? That’s the worst of all worlds.

Don't trim the fat

Getting rid of all the nuances that make us human is boring and makes for a shittier experience. Like your YouTube feed and how you can't seem to find anything new to watch (or it's just radicalizing you into some weird person). I call this "Corporate Fun"; when we've sterilized everything into what we think is the 'perfect' experience, but truly humans need variety and discovery that may be completely unrelated to what their typical behaviors are.

Nothing Makes Me Feel Older Than My Kids’ Sense of Humor

Exhibit A: Baked a hamster into my muffin.

Watch this and tell me what the hell is happening.

When I see what Gen Alpha thinks is funny, I get why every generation before us thought their kids were broken. Turns out, Socrates was bitching about these damn kids over 2,000 years ago:

"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers”

It’s a rite of passage to be confused as hell by what the next generation enjoys. It feels like such a win to get them to like something from my own past. Also a double edged sword because this is on repeat and one of my kids blurts out “taste the biscuit” randomly (is he broken?).

The Tech Industry Moves Too Damn Fast

Whenever I work with a company that isn’t deeply embedded in tech, I have to remind myself to calm the fuck down. Not everyone needs to respond to messages in 15.8 seconds. The push for instant replies is ridiculous, and honestly? It’s refreshing to work with industries that still operate at a normal pace. Try this: Only check messages a few times a day. If someone really needs you, they’ll figure out how to get a hold of you (sadly).

Going to end this one on a more personal matter... Fuckin’ Genetics, Man

I’ve been buried in doctor’s appointments lately. I figure if I’m going to push people to be transparent and vulnerable, I should probably share a bit myself, so here we go.

I’ve been chasing down a few things for myself (updates once I have something concrete), but what’s really been occupying space in my brainball lately is that we finally got some answers for one of my kids. And, perhaps immediately going against what I just said about transparency, I'm hesitant to share too much, because that’s his life to share, not mine (also, I hate when people use their kids for likes).

Here’s a little backstory: We’ve spent the last ten years in and out of clinics, hospitals, and doctor’s offices trying to figure out what’s behind some physical and mental differences we’ve seen. And now, we finally have a conclusion: he has a slight genetic mutation on his X chromosome (testing for this specific change only recently became available).

Honestly, it’s a lot to process. We finally have an answer after so many years. And looking at it now, all the physical signs of this mutation were right there, we just didn’t know what to look for. It’s like that point in a movie where all the hints and clues were sitting in front of your stupid face the whole time, and then they finally tie it together in a neat little bow.

Genetics, man. Wild.

---

Alright, that’s enough ranting for one week. I changed the formatting a bit, and feel like these bits were a little longer than normal… Got thoughts? Got a name for the algorithm brainwashing effect? Just here to tell me I’m old for not getting hamster muffins? Drop a comment.

Toodles,

—Trevor

P.S.: Curious about my consulting work? I help build people-first workplaces that actually function. More here: //TREVORFRY.TECH.