WebWord

The dungeon is aware and awake,
with monsters; Four heroes work
together, yet apart, as our puppets
Human masters push them: gold
Fire and magic, magic and fire

hack-n-slash!
The thrust of change,
The plunk of coins
MCMLXXXV

The dungeon gives,
but not as much as it takes
Invisible and invulnerable, yet
Death still finds, hunts, kills: drains

mountain, castle, forest, and pyramid
red, blue, green, and yellow
Warrior, Valkyrie, Archer, and Wizard

Now you must know this quest:
Don’t shoot food!
I’ve not seen such bravery!
Your life force is running out…

hack-n-slash!
The thrust of change,
The plunk of coins
MCMLXXXV

“But what would happen if interest rates suddenly weren’t so benign, or if foreign governments, corporations and individuals stopped investing so heavily in America? Some analysts fear such actions could trigger doomsday scenarios in which the bills come due and Americans can’t pay, with devastating consequences for the entire economy.”

Good overview of debt in the U.S.

Read the article…

Yesterday I saw a woman with white wall, butched hair. She was a large mammal with tight pants and a white tee shirt, complete with rolled up sleeves. She had the look of a tough punk in 1953. She was showing off her guns. Her distinguishing feature was so simple. On the most fleshy part of her upper shoulder, she brandished a tattoo. It was nothing less than the McDonald’s logo — the Golden Arches — on top of an American flag. Yes, I’ve seen America.

You can make money in three ways: (1) you make it (you are an employee; you work), (2) someone else makes it for you (you are an employer), and (3) what you own generates money (assets). Being self-employed can be thrown into the employer category, if necessary. I suppose you could add things like gifts and inheritance too. However, I’m not going to count those things because they are too random.

If this assessment is true, and your goal is to work less but still have more money, the trick is to pile your effort (and money) make into the right categories. You should try to be an employer or acquire assets. I can’t make it much more simple than this. You either need to have other people working from you, or you need to own stuff that makes money while you sleep. You need to drive your own destiny.

Many people do not understand these fundamentals. Still others understand the situation but they are either afraid of money or they are too afraid of risk. The tradeoff is to work for someone else.

But, is working for another person or organization “playing it safe” or is that a fantasy? It depends largely on who you work for and how financially strong they are. If your employer is in the dumps, you are in the dumps, or you could be. Putting this another way, as risk increases for your employer, risk is increasing for you. If you haven’t thought of things this way, you should.

I’ll end this by saying again that there are only three ways to make money. Most people choose the path of least resistance, lowest risk, and lowest return. That’s fine if you have a strong employer and you aren’t looking for true financial independence. But, if you want to shoot for the stars, you need to own your own company, or you need to build up your assets to generate wealth. You probably need to do both.

Action plan: First, learn more about being self-employed and starting your own company. Second, start learning more about assets and accumulating wealth. Need some reading recommendations? Check out Million Dollar Consulting, Automatic Wealth, or maybe Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

Ford and GM are in trouble. There are many issues but let’s tackle quality for a minute. Most people still think that American vehicles break down and rust out, especially compared to Asian vehicles. However, there is evidence that American vehicles have greatly improved in recent years, even earning top marks from J.D. Power and Associates.

If you were an image consultant, particularly focused on quality, what would you
do?

One of my favorite words is obsfuscation. I don’t use it very often but that doesn’t matter, I still like it a lot. It is one of the only words that is an example of itself. It is especially fun when I am trying to be really clear about something but I still end up with obsfuscation. It is pesky yet lovable, like a naughty pet.

Fear of money? Are you kidding? Not at all. Read on if you think I’m crazy.

How well do you understand money? How well do you understand how money flows in and out of your life? Can you directly link your financial health to how you feel? Who taught you to balance your checkbook? Do you know how to pick a good mutual fund? Do you understand financial risk? Are your assets diversified? Is debt ever a good thing?

I’m asking these questions because I am constantly astounded about how little people understand money. Many people live paycheck to paycheck. Many people complain about money. Many people are on the brink of bankruptcy. Many people are looking to win the lottery.

The truth is that most people simply don’t understand how money works. They don’t understand what money is. Money is critical to people, yet they don’t know much about it.

Why?

You don’t really learn about money in school. If you are lucky, you learn about it at home or from your friends. However, if you don’t have a good teacher, you can be in big trouble. Even if you learn on your own, you’ll never really know if you are seeing the entire picture.

You might turn over your money to a financial advisor. But, do you understand what the financial advisor is really doing? Do you know how to pick a good advisor? Are financial advisors working in your best interest? How do you know?

Money seems so simple, but maybe it isn’t. Maybe that cash in your pocket means something different than what you think it does.

Here’s the radical point: Most people are afraid of money. They have fear about how to get it and how to keep it. They have fear about how to handle it when they do have it. They even have fear about how to spend it. They have fear of losing it. Sadly, most people don’t seem to feel good about money.

If you have a minute, talk about how you learned about money. Did your parents throw you a clue? Also, talk a little bit about how you feel financially. That is, do you have a simple way to match your financial situation to how you feel? Do you know from month to month if things are getting better or worse? Do you fear money? Do you know why you fear money?

I don’t write as well as I would like. In part, it is because I don’t fully grasp how to use the tools available to me. For example, I don’t deeply and fully understand how to use quotation marks. I can limp along but I’m not a true expert.

I work with some really smart people. A few of them are brilliant. However, many of these people, primarily geeks, are very poor writers. I’ve been shocked at how poorly they write. Their command of the written language is frightening. Then again, I almost always understand what they are saying. They communicate well but they don’t write well.

So, how important is good writing? If I can understand you properly do you really need to be able to write well? By the way, I understand that proper writing often yields better communication. Is there something more to the picture?

Structure. Format. Ordering. Why do these things matter? I think it boils down to the fact that humans generally like the comfort that regularity offers.

* Breaking tradition (smashing, violent!)
* Thinking outside the box (outside, cold, alone!)
* Breaking taboos; breaking free (smashing, violent!)
* Walking outside the lines (risky!)
* Changing paradigms (strange word; obsfucation!)
* Play by the rules (veiled threat, warning!)

Any time you do something new, there is risk. Any time you are different, there is risk. Any time you throw off the blanket of regularity life is less comfortable. It might be more exciting, but it is usually less comfortable.

This, my friend, is why risk is rewarded. Most people are afraid of change. They are afraid of risk. But, since change is difficult, it can pay off.

But there is more to the story. There is something subtle going on that I can’t quite explain. I’ve noticed that some things go together but they only go together in a certain order. I can’t seem to figure out why the order is the order, but it is there. Definitely. I’m sure you’ve seen these before:

* North vs. South
* Black and White
* Cream and Sugar
* Heads or Tails
* Bread and Butter

These “pairs” just look right. The order is correct. However, read the entries below:

* South vs. North
* White and Black
* Sugar and Cream
* Tails or Heads
* Butter and Bread

Admit it. These don’t feel right, do they. The words are fine but the normal order of the pairings are odd. They are wrong.

Why?

p.s. Sorry that I’ve not posted much recently. Very busy. Chicago, Washington, Montgomery (Alabama). Not sure when things will slow down.

Reference for the quotes: Let’s stop drugging kids

“This year, the Food and Drug Administration has mandated a black-box label on antidepressants warning of the potential for increased suicidal thoughts and behavior with children and adolescents.”

Aren’t antidepressants supposed to improve your mood? Does this mean that these medications are making people happy but violent? Can someone please solve this paradox?

“Not surprisingly, psychiatrists have never developed any physical test to detect depression or any mental illness, and all diagnosis is done based solely on symptoms. In other words, antidepressants and all other psychiatric medications are not in fact being prescribed to treat bona fide diseases.”

Response: There is No Spoon and there is No Usability? When does usability testing get at behavior (symptoms) and when does it get at bona fide issues? How do we know? More importantly, does this question matter at all if we are able to help users and improve ROI?

In my world the week starts on Monday.

Monday — Monday is a fine day. I’m fresh from the weekend. Even bad weekends make me fresh for Monday. When I start work on Monday, I often have plenty of fluff to plow through. That is, I can ease into the week by burning through emails, especially easy ones. If you are like me, you expect Mondays to be bad which doesn’t make them bad at all. In this way I accidentally manage my own expectations. I almost always expect Mondays to be terrible but when I actually experience Monday, it isn’t nearly that bad. Monday ain’t so bad.

Tuesday — What a nasty day! I never expect Tuesday to suck me into the pit, but it does. First of all, Tuesday is still very near the start of the week. It is the Monday I expected but it is a day later. Also, any work pushed from Monday piles up on Tuesday. For me, Tuesday is all about work and plowing through stacks of stuff. People around me expect stuff done on Tuesdays.

Wednesday — This is the middle of the week, obviously. Wednesdays go by quickly; I get a lot done; they are bland. If I want to really think about something, or if I want to socialize during the week with colleagues (not friends) then Wednesday is the day. Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle. Goodbye Wednesday.

Thursday — Like Tuesday, Thursday is a working day. Many people are getting ready for the weekend. The Friday Hype begins. People around me start to itch and grasp for the Weekend. On Thursdays I expect to have 1,000,000 meetings. I expect phone calls. Thursdays are better than Tuesdays — certainly — but they are still kind of rough most of the time. Tuesaday and Thursday; TNT.

Friday — Friday is normally a good day, but it is a false weekend day. Most folks work on Friday. So, it isn’t that Friday the day is great, it is that Friday the night is great. Most people lose sight of that. They think they like FriDAY but what they really like is FriNIGHT. Interestingly, since most people are busy thinking about the FriNIGHT and the weekend, I get a lot of work done. I can play my cards so that other folks leave me alone and I can kick booty. It is amazing how much you can get done on a FriAFTERNOON or FriNIGHT.

Saturday — The weekend has arrived for real. The entire day is mine, unless I choose otherwise. This isn’t always true, but generally Saturday is mine. Like most slugs, I often plan to have fun. My trick is having mild FriNIGHTS so that I am ready to blast off on Saturday. I’m ready. Saturday is mine.

Sunday — Although Monday is coming soon, Sunday can be a good day. In many ways, Sunday is like a weekday because you have to get prepared for the week. That’s fine. I generally prepare by being mildly social (family and friends, but not really colleagues). I also make sure that I eat good food on Sunday. I’m not entirely sure why I do this, but I try very hard to have yummy food.

(I’ll openly admit that this posting is an experiment. It is long and personal. It has little to do with usability. However, it was on my mind and I wanted to share. Enjoy it; ignore it. Share your thoughts, if you please.)

Dave Winer says — “But the cool thing about blogging (still) is that you can be yourself and not worry what other people think. That’s what you have to do all the time, every day, where ever you go. On your blog you get to say what you want.”

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.