Gladwell, Stop the Fake Infomercials
On my run, I listened to the latest Revisionist History episode, Laundry Done Right. The topic was interesting, and I learned a few things. Wash cold with non-eco laundry pods. There is no need to rinse your dishes before you put them into the dishwashers, nor do you need to fill them up to be eco smart.
However, just like the Waemo episode, something is off. I got increasingly more irate as I heard you go all gushy about the virtues of the Proctor & Gamble products. I was thinking: he must have been paid for this. A mile further into my run: Did I miss the “this is a paid advertisement, Pushin Industries does not endorse the content of this program.”
Luckily, I didn’t want to interrupt my run to fetch my phone and change podcasts or I would have missed the important disclosure at the final end that you were not paid by P&G. Please lead with that and repeat it often throughout this obvious love affair of Tide and Cascade.
What happened? You used to bring us and interesting topic, provide us different viewpoints, leading us to the conclusion that things aren’t as you thought they were. Revisionist History! Swish.
Telling us that you washed clothes warm and that the marketing pitch from P&G to wash cold when you use their newly formulated Tide for cold washes, is true, is hardly revisionist.
The take away from your Waemo love affair podcast should have been: don’t go on autopilot, even when you are a podcast god.
August 13, 2021
Don’t Be a Destructor
Kara Swisher is sans her favorite professor this month. Therefore she is inviting guest co-hosts.
This week she was joined by George Conway. George Conway is an interesting fellow. During the Trump reelection, I could find myself in a number of the viewpoints of his Lincoln Project. Yet, I realize George Conway is very much a conservative.
In this Pivot episode, George Conway summarizes Trump perfectly:
“I think he can ruin somebody.” … “His power is the power of destruction. He doesn’t create anything, he destroys. That’s the nature of how he exerts power in the Republican power, is the threat of destruction.”
That summarizes what a leader should and should not be. It is all too easy to destroy. Leading, whether in the office or in public service, requires you to take a risk to build something. Not everything will work. Not everything will be successful. But all the things are about building a better product, better society, better community. If you define your job as destructor-in-chief, you are not a leader.
Michael Lewis captured it best in his book “The Fifth Risk”. Early into the Trump administration, NPR’s headline A Portrait Of A Government Led By The Uninterested got it wrong. This wasn’t an uninterested bunch. This was a bunch which showed up with sledge hammers, ready to destroy willy nilly.
Take for example, the story about NOAA. NOAA and the National Weather Service are serious folks, 11,000 in all, supported by a fleet of satellites and buoys. The agency focuses on gathering lots of scientific climate data. The agency operates in obscurity — in fact, it’s forbidden by law from promoting itself or the accuracy of its forecasts.
Because it provided data demonstrating that climate change was real, it had to be destroyed. Climate data had to be removed from government websites.
Trump appointed AccuWeather CEO Barry Myers. AccuWeather takes the free government data and resells it to companies. To the uninterested and uneducated, the AccuWeather CEO seems like a good choice. Why do we need to employ 11,000 when we have a private company who can provide the weather data. Yet, without the serious scientists of NOAA, AccuWeather would not exist.
The impact of destroying NOAA is much bigger than an iPhone app predicting the weather. The US and the world aviation industry depends on NOAA. The shipping industry depends on NOAA. Farmers depend on NOAA.
Don’t be a destructor. Be like Bob the Builder!
August 7, 2021
Writing Apps
I read this week’s Medium post by MG Siegler on Writing Apps. I share his continuous search and exploration of good writing applications. However there are a few things we disagree on.
When I make my list of must and nice to haves of a good writing application, it boils down to:
Must Have
- A simple and open text format, with minimal formating. I settled on Markdown (or some of its flavors). The inline URLs don’t bother me. On a rare occasion I wish I had more formatting control. However, I value the focus on the content over the formatting distraction.
- I own my files. No fancy database absorbing and organizing my files. Allow me to use the right editor for the job. And therefore, don’t hide the files. Sometimes I write using iAWriter, sometimes I want to experiment with a different editor, like Obsidian. Therefore, all I want to do is point the editor to the files. I keep my files in Dropbox. If I wanted strict revision control, I could use git or GitHub to host the files.
- Exportability. Make it easy to convert the Markdown files to Google Docs, or to a Medium post. IAWriter does this well for a Medium post, and it has some nice built-in formats to export to PDF. The conversion to other formats is a little more tricky. Pandoc can help but is not easy to use, and not available on my iPad.
Nice to Have
- Integration with writing tools like HemmingWay and Grammarly.
Currently, I do almost all my writing in iAWriter and Day One. My files are stored on Dropbox. That’s pretty simple and straightforward.
Recently Experiments
I’ve looked at Ulysses, but was turned away at the door when they served me a 2 week try out and then pay. I am not giving you my credit card without kicking the tires first.
Obsidian looked complicated with all their plug-ins. All I want to do is write. On iOS or iPadOS, you are hit in the face with a number of obstacles: how to set up iCloud, lack of Dropbox support, and most importantly, I don’t have access to the files from outside of Obsidian.
Bear is popular. Yet, you don’t have access to the files, and given by the number of hits I get on my Medium post about posting to Medium, it is still an issue.
I’ve tried a few Markdown apps as well, although none as simple and clean as iAWriter.
August 6, 2021
He Forgot the Flux Capacitor
Tonight I watched the three part Netflix documentary on John Delorean’s life. Little did I know about the troubled rise and fall of Delorean. To me, Delorean means Back to the Future, and Back to the Future is the flux capacitor and the Delorean.
Watching the documentary, I recognize the fake-it-till-you-make-it attitude of the scrappy entrepeneur.
I am talking to several investors.
We are getting the money.
We got 30,000 firm order already.
It must have all looked familiar to Elon Musk. Tesla came oh so close to shutting down the production line in the midst of the model 3 development,
I also recognized the scammy embezzling entrepreneur, a la Elisabeth Holmes.
Somewhere through the last episode I was expecting the ultimate Back to the Future reference: “By now, John surely wished he could have set the Delorean to go back to 1955.”
August 3, 2021
When It Comes to the Olympics, I Am a Traditionalist
I am not a fanatic when it comes to the Olympic Games. There is always a smell of corruption and global politics surrounding the games. The selection process for the next hosting city isn’t your typical wining and dining. There is so much at stake that it becomes a lobbyist wet dream. That’s only the beginning. Construction projects of this scale and timeline come with lots of sticky fingers and sadly plenty of Greek tragedy.
Olympic Games also provide a stage for a good geo-political tussle. I can still remember when the Russian team boycotted the LA games in response to the American team sitting out the Moscow games.
And then there is state-organized doping, from the East German women team with mustaches to the recent Winter Olympics in Sochi, as depicted in the surprising documentary Icarus.
The Olympic Games are hardly about the sport.
And yet, I do watch some of it: from the opening ceremony, the 100m sprint, to the sob stories overcoming adversity to get there on NBC. There is something about watching the best of the best compete.
Let’s stick the traditional Olympic sports: track and field, swimming, wrestling, sailing, and even archery. Can we all agree to stop the experiments with skateboarding. They are not an Olympic sport. I even question equestrian as being a true Olympic sport, unless we start randomly assigning horses to riders. Stick to the basics and the sports who don’t normally get the attention they deserve. Skip basketball, soccer and even cycling. The Greeks didn’t have bicycles, did they?
July 24, 2021
Tokyo 2020
Some will say there are better things to do on a Friday evening than to watch six hours of Olympic road cycling. I beg to differ and enjoyed ever bit of it, including the long lead up to the Mikuni pass.
A lot had been said before and during the Tour de France about last night’s race. I had ignored most of it, and didn’t realize how tough the final climb would be.
I was disappointed Greg Van Avermaet shot his cartouche way too early in the race. That didn’t help anyone but the competition. Also Remco’s attack was too early, and left Wout without a possible helper in the final 30km.
Thus, it became everybody against Wout. He was strong, very strong. Yet, so was Richard Carapaz. He took full advantage of the situation and is the deserved winner of the gold medal.
In a nutshell,
- Richard, the sensei, strong and clever, deserved the gold.
- Wout, the lion, strong and who fought hard and gave it all. Silver, with a hint of gold.
- Tadej, the yellow-jersey wearing mountain goat with a surprising end sprint. Bronze.
- Remco, a mere pussycat, who lacked a punch, and was no factor.
- Mauri, the dancer, swinging up the mountain.
- Jan Tratnik, the beast, who was incredible and relentless closing the gap on the early group.
July 24, 2021
Tony
I have always been an Anthony Bourdain fan. He was on my short list of people I wish I could hang out with for an evening or a weekend.
I was also curious to his method of working as a travel and culinary writer and documentary maker.
I will definitely look for the Roadrunner documentary about his life.
Because Tony was an overly romantic man who spent his life chasing many dragons: heroin, booze, success, food, jiu-jitsu, love and even justice. And when the initial rush proved fleeting, he would move on. Or he would re-engineer his memory of things, as writers often tend to do. One childhood friend of Tony’s told me that his gift was that he could make everything sound more interesting than it actually was. - Sfgate
July 22, 2021
Tour de France 2021
I followed the tour primarily indirectly through podcasts from De Tribune and The Move, a bit of Villa Sporza and Vive Le Velo on Belgian TV, and via Twitter. I did end up watching another win by Wout Van Aert on the cobblestones of the Champs Elysees. Wow!
If I had to summarize this tour in a few sentences, it is that:
- Tadej is the boss. A young playful boss, but one in command and one we’ll see for many years. What a strong rider.
- Cav was the dream. The happy ending of a Hollywood movie. The hope for any older sportsman. A publicity gift from the gods for team DeCeunick-Quickstep.
- Wout is the star. Mont Ventoux, Time Trail and a sprint on the Champs Elysess. A better all-rounder doesn’t exist in the peloton right now.
- Matthieu was the shooting star. He came, dazzled, and went before it was over.
- Lots of kids in Slovenia will start racing their bikes. We will see another generation in about 10 years.
As I listened to the final Vive le Velo, I was flabbergasted about how little money these top sporters make. The prize money is a disgrace. Tadej receives a check of $500KEuros, which he has to split with his team. The estimation is about $30KEuros per rider for the winning team. However, most riders in other teams who made it to Paris only take home an extra $1500 Euros.
By comparison, the winner of Roland Garros receives $1.4M, not to be split. And the losers in the first round of the tournament still get $60KEuros. Roland Garros brings in about the same amount of revenue as the Tour.
This ain’t right.
July 18, 2021
Don’t trust the machine nor Facebook
Today, Biden amped up the rhetoric about COVID-19 misinformation and the role of Facebook.
The title of Kara Swisher’s opinion piece is right on.
Biden is wrong about the role the government should have in deciding what should and shouldn’t be shared on social media, or any media or who. That is, unless it is call for violence.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
On the other hand, he is right in calling out disinformation. The government has an important duty to educate and communicate truthfully. Especially in times of crisis. So give us the facts, give us the scientific data, and update us on changes thereof. And please don’t jap about alternative facts, nor start removing data from government websites when it doesn’t fit your politics.
By jumping from calling out the distributors of lies to censorship, Biden went too far.
As it happens, I have been reading and listening to The Data Dedective, by Tim Harford. On my run this evening, I listened to Rule Seven: demand transparency. The chapter could not have been more timely.
It starts by telling the story of Google Flu Trends (GFT) and how initially it was able to detect a flu outbreak before the CDC noticed it. However over time, the machine and algorithm lost its mojo and guiding quality. Big data and machine learning is really hard. Even it is for a noble cause as flu detection.
This is also why you definitely shouldn’t trust the recommendation algorithms from Facebook, or even the content shared on Facebook. There is no noble cause there, except Mark’s Bank of America account.
“a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes,”
July 16, 2021
Italy Beats England in the European Championship 2020
Few things are more daunting as entering the lion’s den to watch the final of the European Championship 2020, between England and Italy.
I was clearly rooting for Italy. After all they beat Belgium. And most of all they demonstrated beautiful attacking soccer. It was anti-Italian Italian football: attacking, dominating in the midfield and clinical in the defense.
Thus, here we were, entering the Britannia Arms in Cupertino, passing the many Saint-George Cross English flags to set up near in the left corner of the bar.
Youngsters with even a slight connection to England felt that standing for the national anthem was the right thing to do, while they pulled up the lyrics on their iPhones. Ha! The elders just braced themselves for a battle, as they poured another pint.
The chants varied from “Sweet Caroline”, “England, England” to “It’s coming home!” Home to what, I keep wondering. England never won a European championship, and their one Worldcup win was dubious at best.
Unfortunately, the game started with a master stroke from the English. 1-0. It changed the entire final. England never got into their game. And Italy was out of it until the second half.
In the second half, Italy started showing their true selves again. “Finally!”, as you could hear from the left corner of the bar. England never got into it. Where were Kane and Sterling?
I felt for the 2 Italian sitting at a table in Azzurri attire near the bar. They were the only ones brave enough to show the colors of the enemy.
The penalty series were fascinating: not because there were ever nerve racking penalties to decide the European champions, but because here we were in a British pub watching the penalties.
The ups and downs were tremendous: the save from Pickford, the misses from the British youngsters.
Italy wins!
The bar emptied in a heartbeat. The stranglers only had one complaint: “It was Southgate! We need to get rid of coach Southgate.”
July 11, 2021