Rothacker Reviews

Standing out in a Sea of Sameness

Congratulations! You are a graduating member of the high school class of 2010. You are now starting your freshman year of college. You think about your friends, brothers and sisters who graduated college and are out there trying to make a go of it in today's job market - for about one millisecond. You can't worry about that now, you got more important things to do.

If you were to ask your sister if she could go back and start college all over, would she do anything different? Okay, I know, you wouldn't ask her. You got more important things to do... But just humor me, let's pretend, okay?  Hey, it's not like I'm asking you to go and ask your mom or anything :-)

Hey! You know what? I got an idea! Let's ask some of Penelope's friends. Penelope is one cool girl who has amazing insight into today's workplace. I met her a couple of years ago but I've been following her for a decade or so, since she was a columnist for Business 2.0, a magazine that is no longer. Today, Penelope is Chief Evangelist and Co-Founder of Brazen Careerist.

Anyhow, one of the things that I've discovered at Brazen Careerist is that it is packed with twenty and thirty-something year-olds who care about their family, friends, associates, themselves and the world they live in today. They want more out of their life and career, and they're trying like all get out to get it. By the way, I'm going to also ask some friends of friends, so it's likley we might get folks who do not belong to Brazen Careerist (NOTE to you guys! Check out Brazen Careerist!!). Let's ask my friends:

Knowing what you do about today's job market; if you could go back and start college all over again, what would you do different?

I started up a Facebook page titled Standing out in a Sea of Sameness to carry on a discussion there. If you'd rather answer over there that's cool. Standing out in a Sea of Sameness @ Facebook.

How to be Alone

From filmmaker Andrea Dorfman, artist Tanya Davis writes and performs this...

These two lines leapt out at me:

"...if you're happy in you head then solitude is blessed, alone is ok."

"...if you have an art that needs a practice, stop neglecting it."

Are you neglecting your art today?

Why do you want to be like Mike?

 

Do you remember this Gatorade commercial? Everyone, and I mean everone wanted to be like Mike. Granny in the wheelchair, in the nursing home, in her room - holding the imaginary basketball above her head as she glided toward the wastebasket. Wham with the right hand!! (thanks Joe!)Or the planet's entire white man population who would die for just an eighth of Michael's vertical jump. Or Bobby, who lived on the playground dreaming for a way out of the ghetto; if I could just be like Mike!

Michael Jordan or Madonna are extreme examples...off the chart athletic ability and or talent combined with money, lots of money. But I bet there are other people who you would like to be. Maybe it's Wes, the cowboy who tends cattle over at the Circle K or maybe Emma who has her own craft business or maybe Tommy the forty-something year old dude who's still playing weekend gigs down at the blues joint or maybe it's Chester, the meticulously dressed finance manager who works in the big glass building downtown. And I bet there are some bloggers out there who have something you think you want.

What is it about these folks that makes you want to be in their shoes? Or perhaps it's the shoes you are in now. Danny, the cat who picks your garbage up, the one with the big ole smile - always, Danny's job looks pretty good when your own job is knee deep in alligators and your legs are bleeding. Either way there are aspects of their lives and their jobs that have you drooling.

Why?

Maybe it's just me, but I'm thinking we aren't going to see the commercial - if I could be like Lebron. Whachu think my Cleveland friends?

Passionate Employees

If you get a chance, watch the Smithsonian Channel TV show: Concorde: Flying Supersonic.

Of particular interest to this little boy, past the magic of flying supersonic, is the passion, heart and emotion displayed by those employees who were involved with the Concorde. Actually, when looked at through the employees eyes, this is a very sad story (and even if you don't, it's darn sad). When you see people crying because the company and job they love so much is no longer, you know that they've been part of something very special.

If you're an employer and wish to cultivate this cult-like attitude, a good place to start is with the exclusiveness of your product or service. When the Concorde flew, was there anything like it in the world? Is there anything in the world like a Harley Davidson motorcycle? Is there anything in the world like Apple?

Photo credit - Smithsonian Channel

What Time Zone Are You In?

You're working at the computer. You find yourself in a zone. Well, at the time you don't, that comes later. But your attention is at attention, your mind is focused and your fingers are a flurry of delicate ballet strokes as they move about your keyboard without stepping on each other's toes.

What are you working on? Are you Tweeting, Facebooking, Googling...writing?

What motivates you to stay in this zone? Is it escape? Is it a desire to be of value to others? Is it a desire to produce art?

I hear so many writers talk about being blocked, as in writer's block. I wonder if one can minimize writer's block if they concentrate on those who they write for. I think if instead of thinking about what words to write, they think about how their words will help others, it just might help those words to flow.

What are you thinking about when you are in the zone and not thinking?

Photo credit - Ilco

Snooki Time

Snooki. Why is America fascinated with Snooki? Well, part of America anyhow. You either like Snooki or you don't. A lot of people don't. NY Time's columnist Cathy Horyn, explores what America's sees in Snooki here. It appears that Horyn is one of those folks who aren't too fond of Snooki. Hortense Smith of Jezebel offers a contrast here.

Davo, dude, have you lost your mind son? Snooki? You don't even watch reality shows.

I am fascinated with why at least part of America, is fascinated with Snooki. And I am watching the show to try and learn why.

While I have yet to get a handle on America, I find myself gravitating toward Snooki because she is different and funny.

Snooki is 4'9" tall. She wears her hair in a pouf and her body type is not typical of the tall, blond Hollywood stereotype.

As for funny, one of the show's scenes seems to have captured it so far. One of Snooki's housemates preps chicken with barbecue sauce to be cooked later. He then places the chicken on the top shelf in the refrigerator and says that he hopes someone else doesn't spill it. Of course Snooki opens the fridge and the chicken and bbq sauce plaster the floor. She scurries away in a cuss-laden state squeaking about how she's not going to clean it up and it's someone else's fault it spilled.

For a dad with kids in the same generation as Snooki, the show concerns me. A bunch of twenty-something kids hole up together in a house. Their exploits consist of drinking, clubbing, smoking, swearing, hooking up and railing on each other and those who they do not find attractive.

I'm willing to bet that if I had a Chris Brogan-type readership, I'd get a slew of comments from people railing on Snooki and Jersey Shores. I would ask however, before the brain-dead's and moronic's go flying, we try to understand why this show is so watched. This is the generation that will one day be guarding me in a nursing home. I really, really want to keep on top of stuff that makes them tick.

Jersey Shore

Photo: Troy Rizzo/Getty Images

How Bad do You Want to Work There?

I'm thinking about high school and college age students here...

I recently had a conversation with the store manager of a large grocery store. He told me that he gets about twenty-five job applications per week. He has visibility into these applications for one month and then they slip from his radar. One of the major things he looks for is availability. Is the person applying to work available to work?

Duh, dave. Why would someone apply to work and not be available?

Well, let's say that we have two high school students applying for a cashier position in the store. One student's extra curricular activities allow her to be available on Thursday between 4:00 and 6:00 p.m. and one weekend day per week. The other is available all weeknights and weekends. She will work her homework and study time around the job.

Which student do you suppose our manager friend will choose?

What about the time frame in which the manager has access to the resumes dave?

I would reapply each month. I would also try and figure out a way in which I could differentiate myself from the other applicants. I'd contact my parent's friends who shop in the store and ask them to write a very brief note of recommendation for me and identify themselves as a customer of the store. I'd then drop by the store, hand them to the store manager and let him know that I recently applied and would very much like to work there.

Photo Credit, 姒儿喵喵

What am I Missing?

As parents, we can clearly, ever so clearly, see when our children are going down the wrong pathways. Maybe they're hanging with the wrong crowd. Maybe they're experimenting with alcohol or drugs. Maybe they're letting themselves get in over their head in life. Or maybe their point of view is so narrow and skewered, reality slips from their grasp. Whatever it is, we can see it and we don full metal armor, mount the great white stallion and take our cause and issues to them.

Do they say, "Jeepers Mom, I hadn't noticed I was doing that. Thanks so much for your knowledge, wisdom and pointing that out. I know you've been there yourself. I know you understand the perils of where I am heading. Time for me to stop and change things. Oh yeah, I sure do love you! Thanks!"

Sure they do. Right?

Riiiiiiiight.

Okay, quick right turn! Let's head down that road right over there, the one not so traveled upon, the one for want and wear.

As a fifty-something year old dude, I wonder what things I am missing. What is so right in front of my face that I can't see it? Or perhaps I can see it but do not want to deal with it. Are family and friends riding toward me on their white stallions? Am I listening? What am I missing?

Photo credit, 姒儿喵喵

A Neuron Barrage

"Neurons receive signals that either excite or inhibit. If a neuron gets enough excitatory signals from other neurons, it fires off its own signal. If it receives many inhibitory signals – it is less likely to fire."  -  Dr. Ellen Weber

Ellen, along with her fellow MITA partner Robyn McMaster, are my two favorite brain ladies. There aren't too many Ph.D.'s in the world who know how to talk human. Ellen and Robyn do. 

Rosemary had worked on our computers over the weekend, wiping hard drives, updating and re-installing programs of use.

Would you mind if we took a minute and traveled down this brick road? I promise we'll come right back. I've read Leo's book and it offers its own delightful mix of new neural pathways (for me, maybe you). I am going to postulate here that wiping your computer's hard drive is a pleasurable, minimalist thing to do!

Rosemary left the task of re-installing Picasa on my computer up to me. Sort of reminds me when I let go of the bikes and our girls rode on their own without training wheels. Well, to the surprise of the entire Rothacker household, I succeeded. In the process, I thought about the hundreds of pictures that I had had in Picasa and on my hard drive before it was cleaned...

So I fired up Picasa and it asks me if I would like it to search my computer for pictures. I guess it was going to import them. This is an example of most excellent user interface design!! Because I am such a simpleton, I never would have thought this possible. And without the prompt I never would have given it a second thought.

Of course with a clean hard drive there was nothing to import right? But the prompt was something like, "all of your computers."

Flashback to first grade: "David, fold your hands together and sit up straight! Now little man, can you please tell me what is on that external hard drive sitting on your desk?"

The little man had backed up his computer on the little external hard drive.

So I answered yes to Picasa and BAM!, all of my pictures are back on the newly installed program.

My neurons go crazy! It was magical. Although the depth of my elation reveals the extent of my computer illiteracy, I feel great!

If you'd like to go in search of your own new neural pathways, consider stopping off at Ellen and Robyn's depot today.

Rosemary & the BBQ Grill Handle

I hate to cook. I'd rather march around downtown Cleveland with a sign telling my hometown how much I love Lebron (the flip side of the sign reads: I love you too Art). If left to my own devices I'd only eat frozen food dinners. But now that I physically cannot work, Rosemary has been forced to go back to the cubicle farm. And I've been forced to cook.

The first day that Rosemary came home from work and ate something I made, my entire outlook on cooking changed. It had nothing to do with what I made. Buck up here, this could get a little sappy. It was about doing something for Rosemary. I had an entirely different feeling in the kitchen the next day. It actually felt good to cook.

Next, my compulsive behavior kicked in. I needed to feel more good. So I filed that thought away.

Not much time went by when the little guy who sits on my shoulder elbowed me in the ear and said, "dude! are you watching your wife? she almost set herself on fire!" Rosemary had preheated our barbecue grill and as she opened the top, her shirt drifted toward the grill and came close to catching fire.

So I made this for Ro:

 

Go here to see this tool in action.

I am beyond grateful to have been given the gift of first, the initial cooking experience and then the inspiration to do something to make Rosemary's life easier (and SAFER). 

Full disclosure: We met in 1974 and got married in 1977. 

It's never too late to open your mind to your life partner's needs and try to do stuff to make their life easier. And it sure feels good!