Monthly Archives: April 2011

A Vendetta Against Neckties

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Amedeo Modigliani [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsI have never liked neckties. They are uncomfortable, untimely to dress and useless accessories to otherwise utilitarian garb. I can appreciate style, but the necktie is impractical. Seriously, what’s the point? Scarves make sense to me. And while not fashionable, so do bibs. But not neckties. Not anymore.

The necktie, originally called a “cravat,” was first popularized by Croatian mercenaries in the 1630s (part of my ancestry). Unpopular lore suggests these garments were used by the warriors to wipe clean their bloodied swords and flaunted as trophies of valor. The bloodier the cravat, the greater the man. While other European militias struck uniform accessories from their budgets, the Croatians struck enemies with their killer fashion sense. Bloody or not, the Croatian warriors built a reputation throughout the Western world and their linen trademark caught the attention of aristocracy. Before long, King Louis XIV embraced the necktie and the rest is history.

The modern necktie is nothing more than a corporate leash and a masturbatory symbol for power and wealth. If the world’s men spent less time tying knots at their gullets and more time changing the world, we could have flying cars by now.

Loosen your tie and share this with your boss.

Organizing Your Music Library

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In the digital age, we are saturated with music. It’s amazing to me that people aren’t more overwhelmed by it. I have 12,297 songs (nearly 700 hours of music, 56.2 GB) in my library, 82% of which I haven’t listened to yet. That does not include some 1,200 tracks that haven’t been added to my library yet. Almost all of my music comes from recommendations and shares by friends. Without some sense of order, I may never be able to listen to it all. But I’m going to try.

To keep things straight, I use the 5-star rating system integrated into the major audio players (I use both Windows Media Player and iTunes to manage my library). Inspired in part by the way friend Greg Stanwood rates movies, I assign each star a qualitative value. To get a 5-star rating, a track must:

Star 1:  Demonstrate strong musical talent
Star 2:  Be recorded and mixed well
Star 3:  Have a captivating arc and appropriate duration
Star 4:  Survive repeat listening
Star 5:  Evoke a notable emotional reaction

Conveniently enough, the result of awarding these stars to tracks informs me how to handle them in the future (I delete tracks that get zero stars):

1 Star:  Never again!
2 Stars:  Not terrible, but no thanks.
3 Stars:  Average, sweet enough to keep at hand.
4 Stars:  Listen again!
5 Stars:  Love and keep forever.

Only tracks that get four or five stars (636 and 265 tracks respectively so far) make it to my iPod or car stereo. With this level of organization, you can bet I have a pretty awesome party mix.

In hopes of discovering new music, I am methodically working my way down the entire library song list to listen to everything I own. Over time, I will share some of my data and ratings with you. Pulling the metadata into excel, I have already discovered my favorite music year so far was apparently 2003!

The Easiest Thing You Can Do to Spread Joy

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President Lincoln said, “Folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” Now, I know everyone isn’t an optimist. We all have bad days. But there is one thing you can do to make a difference, to change it up, and warm the day…

Smile 🙂

You’ve got a face. Use it! A smile can brighten a person’s day. Everyone wants to be happy, so help them out. They will probably return the favor.

Find it within to muster a real, heartwarming smile. If you can’t find a reason to smile, force yourself to smile anyway. The other person may be able to return the favor with a genuine one instead. Like a yawn, a real smile is contagious. One smile becomes two, two becomes more. Happiness abounds!

Spread the joy. Start with a smile.

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Change

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Simple. I accepted that change is inherent and inevitable.

Things will always evolve around us, without our control. You can either go with the flow or fight it. If you want things to stay the same, you will have to adapt – change your tactics to put up a better fight. Go with the flow or adapt. Either way, you change.

Accept change and you may even learn to embrace it. Stop worrying and love change.

The Key to Success

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Degrees? Funds? Ideas? Street smart? Experience? Politics? Connections?

No. Not even close.

Your heart is the key to success. Passion is the fuel that sustains hard work, manifests talent and ties relationships. If you love what you do and love the people around you, you will succeed. If you don’t, you probably won’t – at least not in the manner you personally define success.

Film Friday: The Mercenary Model

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Like recruiting a band of freedom fighters, a company can commission a handful of different filmmakers to generate original content for a single narrative or non-narrative campaign unified by theme, message, dialogue or genre. By recruiting several auteurs to produce independent work, the company reduces brand risk by investing in multiple creative visions to satisfy one campaign. Odds are much higher that at least one of the dissimilar campaign videos will be successful online.  As an added bonus, mercenary campaigns serve as strong breeding pools for discovering fresh directorial talent.

When pitting filmmakers against each other, it is much easier to negotiate competitive production budgets. Depending on the complexity of the campaign and nature of material, a brand could easily generate five pieces of content for the going price of one 30-second industry commercial. If your filmmakers are chosen through film school or a public competition online, you can offer as little as $1,000 budgets to each. Run productions concurrently and you can collect all of that content very quickly.

Coca-Cola has been doing this for 13 years through their Refreshing Filmmaker Awards. As another legitimate example, Philips commissioned RSA (Ridley Scott Associates filmmaker group) to shoot five short films using the same dialogue to promote their Ambilight Cinema Television. Five different directors produced radically different content and drove strong traffic to the brand.  Carl Erik Rinsch’s film, “The Gift,” even sparked a studio bidding war.

As with crowdsourcing, trusting outsiders to produce video content could potentially compromise your company image. Thankfully, you are in control of your own brand – do not release the videos if they fail to satisfy your needs. Either way, it’s worth the experiment. Young, ambitious filmmakers like 5 Second Films could bring a lot to your campaign if you award them the freedom to do so.

Cross a Busy Street

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Risk is a lot like crossing a busy street. You can go out of your way to find an intersection OR you can wait patiently for traffic to free up and seize your opportunity. In life, you can accomplish your goal by the book the slow way OR you can study your surroundings before making a direct move. In either case, there is a level of patience involved – leaping into risks unstudied can be suicide. The crosswalk or textbook may be safer, but they add time to your journey and do not force you to genuinely appreciate the physics around you. Crossing the street or accepting a challenge may end in failure, but you could save a lot of time and have much more to learn by doing.

Sometimes, the crosswalk may be the most direct route – embrace it. Other times, you may need to cross a six lane highway while racing the clock or a competitor. Only you can decide whether the time saved and lessons learned are worth it.

I am not advocating for jaywalking or breaking laws. But I do encourage you to seriously consider a more direct path. Put down the book and get dirty.

A Case For Sharing Salary Numbers With Peers

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How much are you worth? How much money do you deserve to make? The only official frame of reference for that question is minimum wage. And I’m pretty sure you’re worth more than that.

But how much more? The average person is not comfortable discussing income with others. And some companies require employees to keep salaries confidential, for fear they might expect more, do less or leave for better. But why not hold our bosses accountable? We should share our numbers – at the very least with peers of the same age and industry – to frame how well we are being compensated for our work.

Getting paid more than peers? Great, appreciate your job more. Getting paid less? If you think you deserve the difference, knowing your friends make more should boost your confidence to ask for a raise or better negotiate future offers.

Aside from union stipulations, Hollywood is all over the map with compensation. Talented harder-working people can make as little as $100 per day while entitled fools make $5,000 per day filling the same position. And you wonder why Hollywood is wrought with ego?

Know where you fit. Earn what you deserve.

9 Ingredients That Make Scrambled Eggs More Interesting

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Most people do not eat breakfast in the morning, which is silly for three reasons:

  1. It’s important – we desperately need protein in the morning to kickstart our day.
  2. It’s inexpensive – a two egg and spinach salad meal could cost you as little as $0.32.
  3. It’s easy – limited gear, fast cooking times, light cleanup, no skills required.

Scrambled eggs are easiest of all.  Whip eggs and other stuff together in a bowl, toss in a greased (with light butter or macadamia nut oil) skillet on medium-low temperature, cook until firm, and eat.

That said, scrambled eggs can get a little boring. I recommend a mix and match of any six of the following to mix it up to taste in the morning:

  • Sliced lunch meat (my favorite is pastrami, but there’s other better ones for you)
  • Chopped garlic (only a little)
  • Tabasco Sauce
  • Chili powder (if you want more of a kick)
  • Garlic Salt
  • Ground Pepper
  • Paprika
  • Splash of honey (if you want it to be a little sweeter)
  • Splash of milk

For another approach to a quick healthy breakfast, check out Tim Ferriss’s 3-Minute “Slow-Carb” Breakfast.

What else do you put in your eggs in the morning?

The Difference Between You and Us

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Anthropologist Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

There is no such thing as a one man show. No single individual can truly bring about change or an impact on his or her own. One may be able to initiate alone, but it takes at least two to see things through. It requires resources, time and talent beyond our personal scope to really make a difference in this world.

Get over it. Stop focusing on what you can do. Focus on what we can do together. Find your place in the talent pool, surround yourself with disparate skill sets, and venture out to do good together. There is no “i” in “team.”