Épisodes

  • Life in These United States

    Life in These United States
    May 8 2025
    SHOW NOTES: •There was once a Readers Digest staple by this name, still available in summaries. •Here's mine. Keep in mind, when you critique someone who happens to be black, it's 'de rigueur' to announce, "I'm not a racist." Well, I'm announcing to you that I'm not a Trump supporter (and I'm also not a racist). •Years ago we thought about selling our home. Every realtor who showed me "comparable's" I turned away, because there was no comparable's to this home. It's a lifestyle, not a house. You judge it on that basis, not the neighbors. •People outside the US, especially in Europe, think that the US is simply like a European country, but much larger. (A client of mine in the EU, to whom I mentioned that Lichtenstein was the only European country I haven't visited, said, "Lichtenstein is in Europe?") •Trump is targeting some areas that need improvement, but where he should be using a scalpel he's using a flamethrower. •We cannot allow unregulated, illegal immigrants into the US. (Does an "undocumented immigrant" make a rioter an "undocumented shopper?") We cannot accommodate Latin America on our welfare system. •Dismantling the hundreds of millions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of organizations, and tens of thousands of people from the divisive DEI is productive. •Punishing—providing consequences—for universities which tolerate and even foster anti-Semitism and harm to Jewish students is an important consequence. "Hitler should have finished the job" is repugnant in moronic. •Taking the graft and waste out of social security and Medicare isn't ending it, it's saving money. (Do you know that billions were lost through corruption and criminality during Covid PPP payouts?) •It's interesting that when the US pulls out of an international aid group, the group usually has to close down, because no one else is supporting it sufficiently or intends to take over for us. •It's pretty clear a great many people seem to hate us in the US, and want us to fail, and enjoy using profanity hiding behind the internet to question our intelligence and wish us all the worst. •That's because they're envious of our freedoms, economy, and opportunities. It is self-hate directed outward. No country that declared neutrality in WWII should have any citizens voicing any critique of any country that fought they tyranny and oppression that threatened and killed so many. •There are no "comparable's" to the US, anywhere. If you want us to fail, give it your best shot, but you're on the wrong side of history and the future. •And some day, sooner or later, you're going to come around looking for our help again. You always do.
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    6 min
  • Once A Cheat

    Once A Cheat
    May 1 2025
    Show Notes: I knew kids in high school and college who cheated. They stole exams or looked at other people's answers or had someone else take tests for them. (Ironically, grammar school was far more honest!) My daughter had a friend whom she abandoned because of her chronic cheating and requests to help her out. She even cheated at sports unless the officials caught her. When you're successful, of course, you don't stop, and she tried cheating in college and got herself tossed out. I'd bet she's in a blue collar job today and stealing from her employer. People asked me to help them cheat and even offered money to me to write a paper or sit in such a way where they could see my answers. I never acquiesced, and there were two quite simple reasons. First, it makes it harder for all the honest kids to stand out, and second, I really don't want someone doing my taxes, or selling my house, or operating on an abscess who cheated to get to those positions. I remember a guy called in by auto shops who would "prove" that the car you wanted to trade in had been in an accident and repaired, hence lowering it's value. I assume he was one of the cheaters who was now making it his life's work. A doctor and bank board member cheated when he sold his house to us in Summit, New Jersey, by removing the lighting that would have shown a rusting furnace, then paying off the inspection guy to overlook it. So I turned down his bank for my loan. Chronic cheating is a disease, a personality disorder. Like smoking or certain drugs, which can addict you, cheating can dominate your life because, unfortunately, the more you get away with it, the more you think you're great at it, and the more you do it—until ultimately caught, sooner or later. You know all those college deans and politicians who, inexplicably, had lies on their current resumes and were cashiered? They had gotten away with it for so long that they began to believe it was the truth. "Yes, I went to Oxford, and yes, I was awarded a Silver Star." You know this Senator, Bob Menendez, convicted of fraud and political corruption (along with his wife). He pleaded for leniency in front of the judge and then walked a few yards over to the press and complained how unfair the judge was. I knew him when he was elected as a "reform" mayor at 20 in Union City, New Jersey. He exhibited then and since the same behaviors that have thrown him into jail now. The more powerful the person, the larger the lies.
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    5 min
  • The Great Social Media Quality Dilution

    The Great Social Media Quality Dilution
    Apr 24 2025
    Show Notes: •Quality diminishes as numbers increase. •As everyone joins in, fewer and fewer real authorities. •A guy doesn't publish directly, but is "presented" by others so you can't block his inanities. If you click on his site, there is a ridiculous training program hawked with absurd promises. He's a hustler. I block the people "presenting" him. •All those people with 17 "rules" for great leadership and charts for making decisions have never been a great leader or decision maker. If they were, why would they post this nonsense publicly. Can you see a leader with a chart or list in his pocket consulting it in the boardroom? •The there are the 'ad hominem' attacks, very popular on Facebook, where a person with an IQ 80 points lower than yours say simply, "That's a dumb question" or "You're clueless." •About 90% of the stuff that shows up on my X feed, which I don't want and never requested, is anti-Trump, often with ridiculous claim, false statistics, and posted by third parties but representing some random Democratic office holder. Have you ever considered that it's you and a terrible strategy and candidate, and not "them"? •Unscientific survey: Rabid Democrats are far more profane and obscene than Rabid Republicans. (I think profanity is the resort of the non-intellectual.) •There ARE some intellectual discussions on LinkedIn about politics, the environment, education, and so on. But they are usually interrupted and often ended by some wise ass who barges in with inanity. •One of my model train groups had to be ended because of political hostility (a train car had Trump written on the side). •There are also "cultists," for example with battleships of all things. •And then on Facebook, all the soft porn with usually Asian women in five-inch Laboutins and perfect legs. (Or so I'm told.)
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    7 min
  • Panic

    Panic
    Apr 17 2025
    SHOW NOTES: The threshold of rational behavior and values overcome by opposing normative pressures. The rioter's justification. The battlefield. The social media and "influencers." People who have low self-esteem and seek bias confirmation and approval. Fear begets fear, panic begets panic. The "drug" of the "magic bullet." Handholds when you're confused—they may be even more dangerous. Example: Are you trading or investing? Example: Have you looked at best case/worse case? Example: Have you considered probability and seriousness? The case of the quite successful "big lady." What's the empirical evidence and observed behavior? A friend is a friend, not an expert. The three kinds of empathy.
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    8 min
  • How to Make Sure You Lose Business

    How to Make Sure You Lose Business
    Apr 4 2025
    You can't deal with Hardly Relevant or Losing and Dying. You must be paid at least a deposit in advance. You must have "non-cancellable" under terms and conditions. You have to deal with a legitimate buyer. (I'm a buyer, I just don't have the budget.) The difference between budget and money. Don't argue over small matters and fall into the legal trap. Meet whomever is a stakeholder, especially in small businesses. Conceptual agreement ends with pouring concrete. Don't sacrifice and compromise personal issues. Don't give off "deal vibes". Always give options with value based fees. Always set DTA. Discuss outcomes not "deliverables". Create value with the buyer (that's how to increase fees). Never do a "pilot". Never do pro-bono for a for-profit. Never give a lower fee to sample your work. Do your homework. Act like a peer of the buyer.
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    10 min
  • What's Wrong with Nonprofits

    What's Wrong with Nonprofits
    Mar 29 2025
    While it's true that nonprofits often fail for lack of funding, there are reasons that they don't achieve funding or that they use it incorrectly and/or inappropriately. Here's my experience from eight boards, including chairing two of them: The boards are weak. They are made up of "names" who would seem to be significant, but who provide very little in terms of governance skills, strategic viewpoint, or even attendance. The executive director/CEO remains too long. The "shelf life" of these leaders is about seven years. After that, they stop serving the institution and the institution starts serving them. They create a tyrannical "fiefdom." No skin in the game. There must be a "give or get" minimum financial contribution from the board. They can't just play with "other people's money," and many granting foundations insist on such investment as a must for grants. They are not run as businesses. There is a budget to meet, strategic goals to achieve, the mission to be accomplished. They often approve budgets with illusory revenue sources, for example. They aren't professionally run. Just because you're a "volunteer" doesn't mean you have an excuse to be unprofessional. You need to meet accountabilities, show up, and do your job. Donors are not sufficiently romanced. Donors need to be "triaged" so that the highest donors receive the most recognition. One theater, in a fit of "woke" madness, actually put donors in alphabetical order in their playbill, so that no one knew who gave $5 or $50,000. That's just dumb marketing. They exhaust funds and credit lines with no idea of how to repay. Debit kills the arts in particular. There's no room to take risks or to contract for expensive rights. Politics overwhelm the value. It was just pointed out that every member of the board of National Public Radio, accused of being far too liberal and unfair in its reporting, is a Democrat. That wasn't an accident, and they're using public tax money. They default to tactics on the board, not strategy. Instead of talking about what to create to attract more patrons or donors, they discuss what meal to serve at the next fundraiser. Every organization is a business. You need customers/clients/members/audience/contributors. You need leadership and board members who know how to run a business and meet goals and financial requirements. Oh yeah: And you need term limits to remain contemporary and effective.
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    7 min
  • The Perils of Uncertainty

    The Perils of Uncertainty
    Mar 21 2025
    Uncertainty leads to poor choices. People seek certainty at the cost of their well-being. We have been "certain" about such horrors as eugenics and such trivialities as not swimming for an hour after eating. We've had brutal endings to cults, in Waco, in Jonestown, because conmen had convinced followers that they had certainty. We have polarization today because opposing politics or values cause adherent to be "certain" about their position and hold those who disagree as inferior. There are people taking invalid behavioral tests to dismiss others as having weak or defective profiles, and they are certain that they are superior to them. I remember when so many people had their feet burned trodding over hot coals that more EMTs had to be called. I guess their motivation wasn't sufficient—they were uncertain. BOTH science and religion try to create certainty around the mysteries of the universe, as if we could understand the unfathomable. (What do we mean there was "nothing" and then there was "something" which then "exploded"...??) In this age we need to live with and thrive on uncertainty. Solid companies such as GE suddenly crumble. Upsets in sports abound. We have gone from "global warming" to "climate change" to try to correct prior uncertainties. Can you be "certain" that your kids aren't using drugs or that your elected officials aren't stealing? I'm not calling for continual cynicism, but I am suggesting we have to live with uncertainty and be resilient and agile enough to deal with the failure of the "certain." These two astronauts who went to the space station for a week and nearly stayed for a lifetime are good examples of dealing with uncertainty. Of course, they have "the right stuff."
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    4 min
  • Wealth Misplaced?

    Wealth Misplaced?
    Mar 12 2025
    I'm a capitalist. Socialism and the rest simply favor the few at the top, from Lenin to Hitler to Castro. Yet we do have too high a level of poverty. In the face of this we are paying athletes tens of millions a year and hundreds of millions in contracts. Connor McGregor makes $180 million annually, Lionel Messi $130 million. Juan Soto, a good hitting but poor fielding right fielder has signed a $765 million contract with the New York Mets, which is about $60 million a year, more than a million dollars a week, and that's not counting endorsements, commercials, and other extra-curricular activities. Entertainers make a fortune: Dwayne Johnson (the Rock) $88 million, Ryan Reynolds $100 million, Kevin Hart $100 million, Tom Cruise often $100 per picture. I don't doubt their talent, but I do question the proportions. I've never believed that if you build one less aircraft carrier you could improve every school. Government doesn't use "pockets" of money. But I do suspect that most athletes and entertainers, proportionally, do not contribute to charities or their communities in greater percentages than average. The same, of course, applies to business executives. Elon Musk (Tesla): His compensation reached $1.403 billion in 2023. Alexander Karp (Palantir Technologies): He earned $1.099 billion in 2023. Hock E. Tan (Broadcom): He received $767 million in 2023. Brian Armstrong (Coinbase Global): He earned $680 million in 2023. I understand that these people bring fans into the athletic venues, into theaters and streaming services, and produce products and services that are needed. But unless you've founded a company, as did Fred Smith with FedEx, Steve Jobs with Apple, or Bill Gates with Microsoft, do you deserve $500 million when someone could lead it well for $50 million (or even $5 million)? And then again, Harvard, of the huge tuition of about $60,000 per semester, also has an endowment of $53 billion. That is not an error or misprint. Perhaps it's unfair to "blame" these people in any way, and the system has created a vibrant middle class over the years. As many of you do, I pay a large amount in taxes and I am highly philanthropic. But what of money to create an equal and high quality educational system? Or to create equal and high quality medical care for all citizens? There is something wrong here. I believe that none of us has the right to consume wealth or happiness without producing wealth and happiness for others. That's not socialism, not capitalism, that's humanity.
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    5 min