Wet Noses, Burnout, and the Corporate Fun

One more heartbeat in the house, and a few more hot takes on grit, kids, change, and Alexa can eat a bag of Ds.

Post #20 babaaaaaay! A little late, but hey, changing days keeps it lively, right? So, we added another heartbeat (because we're gluttons for punishment?). As if five humans and two cats weren’t enough, we decided to add a 70-pound slab of fur, drool, and confusion to the household. We adopted a dog.

Just really leaning into the full American suburban bingo card: house full of kids, shedding animals, rogue popcorn EVERYWHERE (why do we keep buying this stuff?), and a pet that has no idea why the cat hates him (or maybe that they even exist - they've been hiding since we got him).

Is it loud and chaotic? Absolutely, but it's not a whole lot different than before except now I have wet schnoz waking me up instead of a kid Kramering into our bedroom every morning.

Ok, here’s what’s been rolling around in my brain while a go down a rabbit-hole of robot vacuum comparisons to clean up all the hair tumbleweeds (hairbleweeds?):

Stop Obsessing Over Weaknesses

There’s a quote floating around (sometimes credited to Deepak Chopra, but I don’t feel like looking it up who said nor actually get the real verbiage):

If your daughter is great at tennis and sucks at math, don’t get her a math tutor. Get her a tennis coach.

We tend to focus on the things we don't do well and try to level the "bad" skills up, instead of focusing on what people do well and putting them in situations where they can excel and specialize. Why is your is your backend dev doing UI work? Why are you forcing your kid to play play learn Piano if they don't like it and want to kick balls instead?

Let people shine where they shine and don’t dim the light trying to fix what was never their strength in the first place.

Grit is Good… Until It’s Stupid

When you're five miles offshore paddling through whitecaps, quitting isn’t an option. You can’t bail. No one's towing you in. All you can do is focus on the stroke and keep going.

You eat the pain. You take waves to the face. You shut up and paddle.

Work can be like that. Sometimes you need to stop grinding and ask why the hell you're doing it. You aren't offshore with no way home; you're grinding through a project that was terribly spec'd with an impossible deadline.

Grit is admirable. But if you’re just stubbornly paddling toward burnout because you started this thing and feel like you have to finish it, maybe stop. However, if the only way back is to keep grinding, then keep on grinding (but try to think of other ways out).

Corporate “Fun”

Two-hour “holiday parties” with sad hors d'oeuvre trays from Costco and awkward conversations in a break room do not count as fun.

It's not fun; it's work with finger foods.

If you want people to feel appreciated, give them a real break. Take them offsite and provide some options. Don't force karaoke, but maybe provide it as an option. Don't force rock climbing either, but maybe look for a venue with multiple options. Can't do that? Maybe help the team put together an event instead of you thinking you know what they like. Some folks want to drink. Some folks want to hike. Some just want to go home and not talk to anyone.

“Fun” shouldn’t feel like a performance review in disguise.

Humans Will Make a Sport Out of Anything

Chop wood for a living? LUMBERJACK SPORTS!

Bet your friends that you can hit this rock with a stick into a hole 50 yards a way? GOLF!

Want to play volleyball and swim? WATER POLO!

If it exists, we will time it, score it, compete over it, and crown a winner.

That competitive spirit always comes out, and eventually we organize it and watchg it on ESPN8 (The Ocho).

Your Kids Are Watching (always)

They are tiny, weird representations of ourselves. If you're glued to your phone, they will be too. If you're screaming at traffic, so will they. If you’re stoked about something like paddling (do I talk about this too much?), painting, or building robots in your garage, they’ll notice, and probably have an interest in it too.

Mine have never stepped foot in a canoe, but they’re already asking when they can practice with me. Not because I forced it, but because they see how much I love it.

Be the kind of person you want your kid to be.

You Can’t Have Progress Without Change

That doesn’t mean all change is good, but avoiding change because it’s uncomfortable, new, and scary? That’s a losing strategy.

A friend told me his coworkers are flat-out refusing to touch AI tools. Not because they’ve tried them and decided they suck. They just don't trust it and refuse to try.

While your competitors are writing proposals, building prototypes, and drafting contracts in 15 minutes, you're still manually formatting a spreadsheet.

Skepticism is healthy and necessary. Willful ignorance? That’s just shooting yourself in the foot and blaming the world for your limp.

Smart Speakers Are Dumb as Hell

Ahh the melodious sounds of a child yelling at Alexa like it owes them money. It didn’t understand their mumbled demand to play the Mario Kart Rainbow Road Theme in Farts at 7:12 AM? Must be because they weren’t loud enough.

Solution: scream louder. Obviously.

Still not working? Scream angrily. Now that’s effective communication.

I’m just over here sipping coffee, trying to escape to an alternate reality, and wondering why I don't just throw these damn things out.

Podcast Rec: We’re Here to Help

Huge thanks to Alan and Erin for introducing me to We’re Here to Help.

Now I’m laughing so hard I look (more) deranged at red lights. It's funny, witty, and sometimes unexpectedly thoughtful. It has my favorite type of humor: unexpected! I hate it when it when the jokes are so obvious and lined up you know what's going to be said before they even get to the punch line. This isn't that. Give it three episodes. If you don’t like it, I’ll... refund... you?

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That’s it for this week’s brain dump. Go build on someone’s strengths, listen to a podcast, and maybe, just maybe, stop grinding (or keep grinding if it's appropriate).

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to clean up after a dog I apparently voluntarily brought into my house. Living the motha fuckin' dream...

See you next week. Probably not the same time time, but same place!