I really don’t understand the rabid attachment she has to staying in the race. There is something really wrong about her pursuit against the math, regardless of how close it is.

Politics is a competition, a game. The fundamental games are classic athletics, good old sports. How can sports help us understand the insanity of Hillary’s pursuits?

In other sports, there is no sense that “this runner is more likely to beat the Kenyans so we’ll pick her for the Olympics instead of the fastest runner at the trials.”

In other sports, you can lose by one-hundredth of a second. You are still the loser.

In other sports, only sociopaths will destroy the team in an attempt to secure their own vanity or indulge their bad habits (think gambling against your own team mates.)

In other sports, you can challenge the rules during the off-season; once the game starts the rules in play are the ones that are followed. You can’t seat delegates when your opponent was not even on the ballot.

In other sports, the referees sometimes make bad calls. But their judgment stands. Otherwise there would be chaos. The people have voted; stop trying to get the super delegates liquored up to support you.

In other sports, you can sometimes win by throwing your opponent under the bus, but it is not an honorable win and you are not likely to repeat this sort of “success” because you won based on chicanery not on strength and core skill.

In my experience, men are much better at grokking these rules of sport, perhaps because they have more experience but perhaps also because their braun is easier to establish without question. Women tend to use a combination of strength and manipulation to get ahead. They make up all these side-arguments and excuses. It weakens their case in my opinion.

Hillary, be a good sport and quit. You’re hurting your team. And a win, should you miraculously and manipulatively get it, will have little honor.

I had a dream last night in which I was in a car with other adults going to a very adult event like a classical music concert. For some reason, we stopped near a school. There was a boy in the car in front of us who was hit in the head with a hard baseball.

He slumped over the wheel. No one seemed to even notice, but me. I got out of the car and went over to him. He was not alert, so I asked him, “Are you OK? Please say something if you can hear me.” He said “My back really hurts.”

I tried to yell at the other people in my party, asking them to go in the school and get help. Everyone ignored me. For some reason, I did not think to call 911 myself. I was upset that no one else was helping.

At first, I thought this was a young boy, say 9-10 years old. But if he were driving the car, that would make him 16 at least.

I have these beliefs that appear relevant to this dream:

• We are all safe and the dramas being played out here are the ones we want to play, on some level, however unconscious of that we may be.
• Adults are capable of managing themselves. I am not responsible for taking care of another adult. After all, I cannot possibly know what each person’s soul is up to.
• By the age of 10 or so, a person is capable of surviving on their own. It may not be easy, but it is doable.
• I am free to offer my help when I want. No one else is required to take it or have to offer their help in the same situation.
• Offering help can be construed as an interruption or even invasion of someone else’s space. For all I know, they wanted to see how far they could suffer or they were just on the verge of figuring it out themselves, or any other number of possibilities.

I am reminded of how incensed I am when religious crusaders come to my door, thinking I am the equivalent of the boy in the car — needing to be rescued away from whatever into the arms of Jesus.

And yet, I truly enjoy helping. So I have learned to adopt a mantra, “Make ‘em beg” whereby I don’t impose myself but rather wait for others to ask for help. Yes, this is tricky because for many, asking for help is such a hot button for their neuroses. (Think men and travel directions.)

It is also tricky for me in business because I often want to help our clients understand things better or know about options to help them grow their business. Some really appreciate this, and say that is why they like having us as vendors. Others do not. Or they do, but only if it is free to them. So figuring this out in the business relationships seems to take a little bit of time.

The question I am pondering today is how to keep weaning myself from intrusive helping while still being available to help when it is mutually wanted? I realize that even I am not always in the mood to help either.

And I am also creating more ideas for “Beach Walks with Rox” videos. I like talking, I do go to the beach every morning and attempt to commune with my soul. I imagine that others might be interested in that too. A perfect aspect of a video podcast is that I can just do it, without targeting or involving anyone else (except my beloved camera man Shane). It is a completely “opt-in” situation for whomever want to watch the shows.

Just like those adults in my dream. None of them were interested in responding to my pleas to help the boy. That is independent of the fact that I did want to offer help.

1. Maybe I don’t have to knee-jerk respond every time I see someone in perceived “trouble.” I could wait for them to ask.
2. If I do decide I want to offer help, that is my deal, and no one else’s.

I think the faster we can move away from all or nothing thinking, the faster the marketplace can be reshaped into a more equitable power relationship between buyers and sellers, and hence between the exchange of value. For me it’s not so much that free is more pure, and therefore better. It’s that free was a bold and rebellious statement against the propriety, bully, and rigid business prcatices of Microsoft et al. In time though, to be all or nothing, regardless if it is all free or all bloated profits, to me will just maintain a concentration of wealth. The power may be shifting, but if the money is still held by a relative few, then they will almost have a natural leg up in the marketplace.

I think the good news is that technology enables new careers, new relationships, along with new products and services, and it is starting to bring faster rewards to those who take the chance to do what they love and trust that the money will follow. I am pretty imaginative but I do not yet see a future where money holds no value or power. For now, most of us are still engaged in the process of trading products and services for a paycheck and vice versa.

As a Berkeley grad who has not abandoned all her youthful idealism, I love the possibilities that are being presented by and to the many budding entrepreneurs. Small businesses face cash flow issues on a daily basis. We can’t do everything for free, because we are not collecting a salary on the side to buy food and pay rent. We only get paid when we deliver something of value to our customers. With small companies, the line is much more blurred between the business and the individual. We are both, all day long. We cannot hide behind a large corporate structure and blame unpopular pricing or policies on some other department. If we are not successful, we can’t write paychecks to anyone, including ourselves.

The days of extreme concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few Bill Gateses, Michael Eisners, and Phil Knights, I see (slowly) coming to an end. There is no way that any of those men is 1 – 6 billion “times” smarter or more valuable than the rest of us. Technology is leveling the playing the field. The luck that was bestowed on a few – though often interpreted as genius – now is spreading around more.

I am grateful to all of the employed people who can write and contribute free code while at their regular jobs – a mini-subversion in itself. But to me it is not a sustainable model. I am more radical than that. I imagine the recirculation of Bill Gates’ $65 billion of accumulated wealth, and it blows my mind what we “foot soldiers on the street” could create with it!

And for any hard core capitalists who may be reading this, I do not mean redistribution by handout, but by fair compensation for a day’s work well done, a good idea contributed to the pool. One of Bill’s ideas or hours is just not that much more valuable than one of mine, and I don’t see why he should be paid so much more for one of his. I actually think he should be penalized at this point as his products have single-handedly stymied day-to-day business and created a huge opportunity for spyware, viruses, and worms! When will the marketplace appropriately adjust for that?

Blogs/people that inspired this post:

Citizen’s Media

Rejoice! The software is pure again!

Ryan Ozawa – an original web diarist

Mary Schmidt’s blog

Click here to leave a comment.

We have been working on a large site (1000 pp +) re-do for 3 years. We had design approval and were 85% completed about 12 months ago, when the client decided she didn’t like it.

So we started over.

Round 2: we had design approval. “Yes, much better.” Even more cool, in that 12 months, even new and more robust CMS software came available. Woohoo! Thanks for being cranky, round 1.

Then we spend the better part of 8-9 months developing the site. The client has been busy, over-worked, travelling, on holiday. Back on the job last week, she gets a sneak as we are putting the polishing touches on it. We are loving it. And our wonderful client?

“It looks like a CPA built it.” Uggh. Please don’t ask us to start over again. Please!

So I ranted. To my partner, not the client. Of course.

But it was designed by a hot young guy in Portland who does work for Nike, Intel, Spin, Hooked on Phonics!

But we employed the latest research on how users look for info on a web page.

But you asked for it to be very refined, minimal, elegant…so the content – the people you support – will be the attention-grabbers!

But but but. But we love this client. They have given us opportunities to develop something that is superb, that stands out, that looks different. They want the best – and isn’t that what we service providers dream about?

So we went back to the drawing board, and after a mere 3 days, came up with a subtle tweak to the concept. Damn if it doesn’t absolutely take the design over the top! Energetically, it adds that final “aha” to the visual experience. It’s true “feng shui” for web sites. (Don’t try to steal that. My friend and colleague Michael C has already written the book.)

I love you Ms. Client. Thank you for being cranky, even though you didn’t know how to fix what you thought was wrong. Your holding out for the best, has pushed us to delve deeper and the result is wonderful in our eyes. Thanks for being cranky, round 2.

I am almost looking forward to round 3. In the transition, I love cranky clients.

Common Sense:

Listen to the people who have first hand experience with something, before making costly (in terms of LIVES, money, etc) decisions.

Not Applied:

The people who avoided war for themselves are rather quick to engage others in it.

Here is a list of people and their military service:

Democrats

Al Gore: enlisted Aug. 1969; sent to Vietnam Jan. 1971; army journalist 20th Engineer Brigade

Bill Clinton: Did not serve. Student deferments. Entered draft but received 311

Bill McBride: Candidate for Fla. Governor; Marine in Vietnam; Bronze Star with Combat V

Bob Kerrey: Lt. j.g. Navy 1966-69; Medal of Honor, Vietnam

Charles Rangel: Staff Sgt., Army 1948-52; Bronze Star, Korea

Chuck Robb: Vietnam

Daniel Inouye: Army 1943-’47; Medal of Honor, WWII

David Bonior: Staff Sgt., Air Force 1968-72

Fritz Hollings: Army officer in WWII; Bronze Star, 7 campaign ribbons

George McGovern: Silver Star & DFC during WWII

Gray Davis: Army Captain in Vietnam, Bronze Star

Howell Heflin: Silver Star

Jack Reed: Army Ranger, 1971-1979; Captain, Army Reserve 1979-91

Jimmy Carter: Seven years, U.S. Navy

John Glenn: WWII and Korea; six DFCs, Air Medal with 18 Clusters

John Kerry: Lt., Navy 1966-70; Silver Star, Bronze Star with Combat V, Purple Hearts

Leonard Boswell: Lt. Col., Army 1956-76; Vietnam, DFCs, Bronze Stars, Soldier’s Medal

Max Cleland: Captain, Army 1965-68; Silver Star & Bronze Star, Vietnam

Mike Thompson: Staff sergeant, 173rd Airborne, Purple Heart

Pete Peterson: Air Force Captain, POW. Purple Heart, Silver Star, Legion of Merit

Pete Stark: Air Force 1955-57

Richard Gephardt: Air National Guard, 1965-71

Ted Kennedy: Army, 1951-1953

Tom Daschle: 1st Lt., Air Force SAC 1969-72

Tom Harkin: Lt., Navy, 1962-67; Naval Reserve, 1968-74.

Tom Lantos: Served in Hungarian underground in WWII. Saved by Raoul Wallenberg

Walter Mondale: Army 1951-1953

Republicans

Arnold Schwarzenegger: AWOL from Austrian army base

Bill Frist: did not serve

Bob Dole: an honorable veteran

Colin Powell: Long career in military management

Dennis Hastert: did not serve

Dick Cheney: did not serve; Several deferments, the last by marriage

Donald Rumsfeld: U.S. Navy, 1954-57, as aviator and flight instructor

Douglas Feith: did not serve

Eliot Abrams: did not serve

George H.W. Bush: Pilot in WWII. Shot down by the Japanese

George Pataki: did not serve

George W. Bush: failed to complete six-year National Guard obligation; failed to show up for required medical exam so grounded from flying

Gerald Ford: Navy, WWII

Heather Wilson: Air Force 1978-1989

Jack Kemp: did not serve: “Bad knee,” but continued in NFL for 8 years

JC Watts: did not serve

Jeb Bush: did not serve

John Ashcroft: did not serve. Seven deferments to teach business

John Engler: did not serve

John McCain: Silver Star, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross

Karl Rove: did not serve

Newt Gingrich: did not serve

Paul Wolfowitz: did not serve

Richard Perle: did not serve

Ronald Reagan: due to poor eyesight, served in a non-combat role making movies

Rudy Giuliani: did not serve

Saxby Chambliss: did not serve: “Bad knee.” (attacked Cleland’s patriotism)

Tom Delay: did not serve

Tom Ridge: Bronze Star for Valor in Vietnam

Trent Lott: did not serve

Pundits & Others

Antonin Scalia: did not serve

Bill Bennett: did not serve

Bill Kristol: did not serve

Bill O’Reilly: did not serve

Clarence Thomas: did not serve

George Will: did not serve

Kenneth Starr: did not serve

Michael Savage: did not serve

Pat Buchanan: did not serve

Paul Gigot: did not serve

Ralph Reed: did not serve

Rush Limbaugh: did not serve 4-F with a pilonidal cyst

Ted Nugent: did not serve

I don’t know if the description for Mr. Limbaugh is accurate or a joke, but it sure is an interesting coincidence! Snopes says it is true.

back to top ↑