Looking At Conspiracy Theories From Inside Someone Else’s Foil Hat
Walking a mile in someone else’s shoes, they say, is the best way to understand them. Last week, I donned a foil hat and took to Twitter. I wasn’t out to understand conspiracy theorists – I was sarcastically mocking them. But now I do better understand how the fringes are drawn to conspiracy theories. In […]
Books of 2019
Happy New Year, and new decade! I started last year with many ambitious goals, and I failed most of them. I intended to read at least 36 books in 2019 and only completed 14, oh well. For those interested these are the books I read over 2019: Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass […]
A Christmas Carol Is Propaganda To Keep The Poor Happy
The story of a man whose last name is synonymous with miserly and his dealings with three Christmas specters is iconic. The best-known work of Charles Dickens must be A Christmas Carol — immortalized in Felt by the Muppets, with homages in seemingly every sitcom ever on TV. All who know the story, see the […]
Is Everyone You Disagree With An Evil Idiot?
Everything you believe is correct, and everyone who disagrees is a moron. This is the new reality, and I will affirm your beliefs without knowing them because this is not an individual affirmation; it’s a mantra used by all points of view. Did the biologist hurt your feelings? Well, they’re an idiot, and if you […]
Snake Oil Sales Dominant Social Media
Snake oil sales dominate social media to the extent that burns my eyes. Instagram booty models want me to buy a useless detox tea, and if you call out a guru selling the word salad to success, they will flag your YouTube video for copyright infringement. All while the MD’s of Twitter, are either cringing […]
Online Gurus Are Beyond Parody
I used to make videos mocking the folks you see in ads on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc. selling you some form of info product. I had to stop, because, while standing in front of a U-Haul place and talking about the haters who will claim I the great, “Dutch Ovens” don’t own all these trucks, […]
Is Link Building A Waste Of Time In 2020?
“Link building is a waste of time for SEO” – At least, that is the claim made by an “SEO expert” on LinkedIn. But is link building a waste of time for better search ranking in 2020? Absolutely not. When Google started, they set themselves apart from other search engines by using off-site factors to […]
How-To Course Market Saturation Index
People often love simple correlation metrics, in part because (aside from post hoc fallacies, like more ice cream means more murder), correlation can be an easy indicator of a broader trend. My favorite correlation metric example is the Hot Waitress Index, so dubbed by Hugo Lindgren in an article for New York Magazine. Lindgren’s point, […]
Partner Or Employee With Extra Steps?
This morning I saw a post by Paul O’Brien titled “A VC is asking 6% for acting as an advisor…” – My first thought, that is some b******t – O’Brien agreed. His post is well worth reading, and it lead me down another thought pathway. When you give out a lot of equity, you are […]
Why I Stopped Calling Myself A Consultant
When someone asked what my job was, I used to tell them I was a “Consultant”. This was an accurate title. I worked with companies, largely on digital marketing, video, and product planning. I’ve stopped using the title, however, and should have given it up sooner. A few years ago, a client told me I […]
Why I Don’t Sign NDAs, Mostly
As a general rule, I don’t sign NDAs; meaning non-disclosure agreements, because as a general rule, NDAs are BS, meaning b******t. Here’s the thing, NDAs serve a narrow function. Enforcing confidentiality when no other legal structure would require it. It’s why you don’t need Lawyers or medical personnel to sign an NDA. You also don’t […]
10% Happier, Book Review
I want to call this book “life-changing”, but I’m not going to because reading it didn’t change my life. What I’m trying to say is, the book has the capacity to be life-changing. If someone handed me this book five years ago, for example, I think it would have changed my life. The problem is, […]
