Democracy

I’m not really a believer in democracy because democracy gets you America and I don’t want to be America. The founders wanted a strong, balanced form of democracy and today what you get is terrible, unaccountable government that can’t get anything done.

Given my druthers I’d elect a benevolent dictator – one man or woman who gets control for 10 years with no ability to unelect them short of revolution. Or something like that. I want good government, I don’t need honest government.

That’s why I don’t care when Gordon Campbell lies to us and implements the HST just a couple months after saying that he wouldn’t do it – the HST is good government, not honest government so I’m for it.

It’s really no different than how Steve Jobs runs Apple. He is a benevolent dictator – he does what he wants. You get one option with Steve and while it may be one option, it’ll be one hell of an option.

I want my government the same way.

Working your ass off

My intern had her exit interview with me today as tomorrow is her last day and I asked her what her plans were and I asked her how big she was dreaming and she said she wants to be making 6 figures by the time she’s 40 which is a not unreasonable dream.

I told her if that’s what she wanted that she should be prepared to work her ass off between now and the time she turns 30 (she’s 23) and that she has to be willing to do some shitty jobs in order to figure out what she’s good at. I know a few folks who make 6 figures and all of them worked really hard before they turned 30, some of them still work their asses off. There are other ways to do well for yourself financially but working hard is the most obvious way with the highest rate of success (versus starting your own business or becoming a drug dealer).

I chose 30 because I’ve found that’s more or less when people hit a wall, lights start going off in people’s head that say, “Fuck this shit, I want a life”. My light went off when I was 31 and ever since I’ve chosen work that doesn’t exceed 50 hours a week and where I’m not at someone’s beck and call 24/7. I’ve had a couple hard charging friends who turned it down at 31 as well and others who wish they could have turned it down at 30 or so.

Can you make it by being slow and steady? Maybe but it’s less likely that you’ll make it and if one of your goals is to have made it at 40 then you gotta work your ass off in your early years when you don’t have kids and you aren’t in the mood for settling down.

On the flip side if you choose not to work your ass off and you aren’t rocking a big salary then you shouldn’t complain about how you aren’t getting paid enough which is a complaint I hear way too often.

2012 Hyundai Elantra Unveiled in Korea

2012 Hyundai Elantra Unveiled in Korea.

A very nice looking car. The girls are not bad either.

BBC News – EU moves to ease curbs on flights

BBC News – EU moves to ease curbs on flights.

The airliners seem to be okay to fly but the fighter plane with its tighter tolerances is not – the engine suffered damage. The articles also leave out the fact that these jet engines are rated by their makers for zero ash operation.

While we may be acting with excessive caution I also think the airline CEOs are attempting to jettison safety in order to stop losing money.

(I’m stuck in Dusseldorf right now)

Lexington: Sex and the single black woman | The Economist

Lexington: Sex and the single black woman | The Economist.

I wonder how this is playing out in places like India and China where the imbalance is the other way and males are already the ones that do more preening.

Travel

My trip involves 7 different flights on 4 different airlines (none of them with the airline I booked with) and this is how I’m doing so far:

1) Victoria to Calgary: 25 mins late, plane was stuck at another airport.

2) Calgary to Newark NJ: 1:30 late, plane was stuck at another airport.

3) Newark to Hamburg: 30 mins late, plane was stuck on runway.

4) Hamburg to Dusseldorf: 15 mins late, luggage fails to make it onto plane. The luggage arrives at the hotel about 7 hours later.

5) Dusseldorf to London: Flight cancelled. Rescheduled for Monday, odds are that it will be cancelled as well.

6) London to Vancouver: This happens Tuesday and it’s looking likely that it will be cancelled or I will miss it because I can’t get to London.

7) Vancouver to Victoria: Ah, fuck it.

Languages

All the staff at the hotel I’m in speak some English, most of them speak it quite fluently despite it being a 2nd language for them. If I had to make a list of languages I’d like my kids to speak in priority it would be:

1. English. It’s the world’s language – in any first world country (and even some non-first world) you’ll usually be able to find someone to communicate with in English. It’s become the default 2nd language for most countries now.

2. Mandarin. China’s the next superpower and you can’t live on the West coast and expect to not to run into people who speak Mandarin.

3. Cantonese. It’s my mother tongue so a must for the kids.

4. French. You can find French in a lot of tourist stops and French girls sound really hot. Canada is also part French so if working for the Feds is part of the plan then this is a must.

5. Japanese. Japan’s pretty insular so it’s one of the places where finding people who speak English can be a bit hard.

What’s your list?

I’m in Germany

Dusseldorf to be exact. I was in New York over the weekend.

New York is very cool – I got to see Midtown where all the action is and also Brooklyn and both were very interesting although neither were places I’d want to live in. Still worth visiting at some point though.

Why is baseballs best pitcher also the hardest worker in – 04.05.10 – SI Vault

Why is baseballs best pitcher also the hardest worker in – 04.05.10 – SI Vault.

I love Roy Halladay. I hope he wins a World Series ring this year.

Use me.

One of my regrets is that I never had a career mentor – someone with 10-20 years of business experience that I could go to who would help me understand how to handle things better. With some mentorship, I figure I’d be 3-4 years ahead of where I am now – possibly a director level role and with a more substantial list of accomplishments to boot. It’s my own fault, I should have looked for one.

Now the tables have turned and I’m the one with 10 years experience in a multitude of fields interviewing young university students for internships. I’m the one with millions of dollars of projects deployed and my fingerprints on a lot of other projects so when I tell HR that I’ll send the decline letters and I even tell the declined candidates to keep in touch then the proper action from these people are to thank me for my time and ask if I would be available to chat with them for 30 minutes (I like strong Americanos).

The person who thanks me for my time gets to move up my list. The one who asks for my time moves up even further. And the next time I need to hire a permanent person I will remember them. If you use my time wisely and I may even recommend you to a colleague.

I am a windbag but I’m a useful windbag when you’re resume only says things like “Waiter” or “Clerk”.