January 5, 2020
People: Kevin
people-first-stories
“Me? I’m from England … you’ve heard of the ‘Garden of England’?“
“I have - Kent right?”
“That’s the one - and every garden needs a compost heap - that’s the town I’m from, so my girlfriend and I sold everything we had, bought a couple of tickets and here we are.”
Kevin went on to tell me that he moved here because he had friends in the country and they spoke well of all they found. Recognizing that their options couldn’t be worse, they just did it. Where they work is thousands of miles from family and hundreds of miles from any of their ‘local’ friends but they’d both got jobs at the same place … so it was a ‘no brainer’, although he’d been working there twice as long as his girlfriend.
“She started today. Me? I started yesterday.”
Kevin and his girlfriend broke the chain of their ‘destiny’ and created their own opportunity. They don’t know how it will all work out … but if it doesn’t, they’ll just do it all again.
“No point in waiting for things to happen is there?”
You don’t stumble upon your heritage. It’s there, just waiting to be explored and shared.
Robbie Robertson
Travels Without Charley
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January 5, 2020
People: Jeffrey
people-first-stories
In a recent newsletter, I referenced a book; Everything I Know About Business I Learned from the Grateful Dead which unbeknownst to me was written by a friend of a friend. Turns out the two friends used to swap Grateful Dead stories and on reading my post this story came to mind. When I read the story, it seemed a perfect addition to my Travels Without Charley series - so please read on and enjoy the first ‘guest post’ in the series.
One favourite was about a concerned father and his 16 year old son.
The affluent, NorCal dad arrange to meet with a well-regarded psychiatrist and youth councillor regarding his son. The father was troubled and anxious that his son lacked motivation. He further arranged for the son to also meet with the same Doctor. After a few months, they all agreed to have a face-to-face sit down.
During the course of the intervention, the Doctor learned the son was a Deadhead. The Doctor apprised himself of what that meant, and the recent activities of the boy. The Doctor immediately concluded his diagnosis and recommendation.
During the three-way meeting in the Fall, the Doctor asked the dad if he knew what his son was doing for the last three summer months. The dad really didn’t know. The Doctor explained that his son, his only spawn, had recently travelled to 30 different cities, in nearly as many states, saw around 20 Grateful Dead shows, all with no money, no car, and no visible means of support. The Doctor quickly allayed any fatherly concerns about ‘motivation.’
Eventually, the dad became a Deadhead, went to shows with his son, all while his son graduated cum laude from Leland Stanford Junior University aka Stanford, in Palo Alto, the ancestral home of the Grateful Dead.
I use this vignette to rail on the emetic notion of managerialism. The fact is the Deadhead kid was exceptionally motivated. It was just a different type of motivation. It was foreign to the father. Eventually and fortuitously it was embraced. Unfortunately, this metacognition is sorely absent in most orgs.
John Maloney
Travels Without Charley
archive.pf.business
December 29, 2019
What Is A Gig?
As I was publishing this post from John Maloney, I thought I would look up the word gig … it makes for an interesting read.
A child’s pacifier or any object, as a cloth square, spoon, or the like, used as a toy; any object to which a small child is attached and with which he likes to play; any object treated by a child as a fetish; a gigi or ju-ju. Orig. Negro slave and Southern use. From “gigi,” the word is very well known to about 35% of the population, unheard of by the rest.
The rectum. From “gigi.” Used euphem. by some children, as part of their bathroom vocabulary, but not common to all children. Used by some male adults [taboo] as a euphem. for “ass” in such expressions as “up your gig.” 3 [taboo] The vagina. From “gigi.” Not common. Prob. Southern use.
A party, a good time; esp. an uninhibited party; occasionally but not often, an amorous session, necking party, or even a sexual orgy between a man and a woman. c1915 [1954]: “Cornet players used to pawn their instruments when there was a lull in funerals, parades, dances, gigs and picnics.” L. Armstrong, Satchmo, My Life in New Orleans, 100. 1958: “Life is a Many Splendored Gig,” a song title.
A jam session ; a jazz party or gathering of jazz musicians or enthusiasts. Orig. swing use. 1920 [1954]: “Kid Ory had some of the finest gigs, especially for the rich white folk.” L. Armstrong, Satchmo, My Life in New Orleans, 141.
An engagement or job for a jazz musician or musicians, esp. for a one-night engagement. 1950: “If I ask you to go out on a gig, it’s thirty-five or forty dollars for that night.” A. Lomax, Mr. Jelly Roll, 204. 1954: “On a gig, or one night stand.” L. Armstrong, Satchmo, My Life in New Orleans, 221.
Something, as a jazz arrangement, that is satisfying or seems perfect. Orig. swing use.
An unfavorable report; a demerit; a reprimand. Army and some student use since c1940. The relations, if, any, between a child’s pacifier or fetish, the rectum and vagina, a party, a sex orgy, jazz music, a pronged fork, and a reprimand are most interesting, and lie in the field of psychology rather than of etymology.
A fishing spear; a pronged fork as used for catching fish, frogs, and the like.
etc …. they forgot this one:
A gig, also called chair or chaise, is a light, a two-wheeled sprung cart pulled by one horse.
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December 12, 2019
neve
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hidden.in.plain.sight
November 20, 2019
The Gig Economy is Dopey
a-gig
The following post comes courtesy of John T. Maloney, who sent me an email reply to one of my newsletters and it just was too good not to share. Thankyou John. Nicely delivered.
The ‘gig economy’ is dopey. Always had a problem w/the term.
For me, a gig is a trident tip spear used for gigging. Period.
A Trident Tip
A Trident Tipped Gig
Growing up in rural and coastal Connecticut, from April to November, gigging was a principal pastime. We’d go after anything gigable, but mostly bullfrogs and flounder. It was very effective.
Imagine it was quite unpleasant for the gigged fauna. (Not unlike the ‘gig economy.’) Most of the catch made it to the table. We could gig in the Winter, by simply cutting a hole in the ice, chumming and waiting. It was cold and not as fun.
Once moving to California, the prospect of gigging New England Style was not really available. However, gigging with a modest technological change, was even better than gigging in ponds and estuaries on the East Coast.
Supposedly the Hawaiians invented the ‘Hawaiian Sling’. It’s a gig with a piece of surgical tube attached. It is wicked effective.
From Santa Barbara to Mendocino got to gig/sling a lot. The best was the halibut at the beach at the entrance to Diablo Canyon in SLO at night. Wow. Could fill my freezer with one clean shot. (Later learned it was a key halibut spawning area, thus frowned upon.) It was fun and delicious while it lasted.
Gigging is a good metaphor for the gig economy. Just make sure you are on the right end of the gig. Avoid the King Neptune of Gigging, Dara Khosrowshahi.
Neptune and Amphitrite in the storm
Have to say … of gigging as described by John I know nought, but totally with him on the Dara reference and that is another story about why a gig is no solution.
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November 20, 2019
Careful Where You Publish Your Work
The-Scream
Doc Searls, Godfather of The VRM/Me2B Movement observed recently that he writes on 4 (what amount to) personal blogs … which made me feel a lot better about myself. In that same post he wrote;
Bigger than all four of those blogs is Linux Journal, where I wrote a great deal, including what amounted to blog posts on its website, for 25 years. That ended when Linux Journal ceased business in August. Also, as of today the entire site, with all its archives, is offline, erasing a third to a half of what I’ve written online so far.
Doc Searls
Think about that …. a third to a half of what you have written online is suddenly not available. And you wonder why I write articles like this.
The Scream ….
It’s a cautionary tale because Doc (who’s final position at Linux Journal was Editor in Chief) might reasonably have expected that whoever owned Linux Journal wouldn’t suddenly remove it from public view.
Rule Number One : When it comes to your IP trust no one. Keep your articles and writing in a place that you have access to and control.
Rule Number Two : There is no Rule Number Two.
On a side note, but keeping the theme of Doc … he recently published the links to the last three posts on the VRM Blog. They are good reads.
People are the real edge
We’re not data. We’re digital. Let’s research that.
What law might clear the way for VRM development?
Value
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November 14, 2019
Good As Hell
The weekend’s nearly here! Here’s a little something to make the middle of the week easier to get through: Good As Hell by Lizzo
The video is fantastic as well:
🎧
🎵
archive.justgoodmusic
November 5, 2019
The Gig Is Up
Counting both noun and verb forms, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) lists and defines thirteen separate ‘gigs’.
‘A flighty, giddy girl’ was where it all started and then ‘spin’, ‘whirl’, ‘whirligig’, ‘fool’, giggle and ‘joke’ are all in one way or associated with the word. Even when you get up to the 18th century where it meant ‘light one-horse carriage’, its origin might be ..
perhaps based on the ‘bouncing, whirling’ sense of the earlier ‘gig’.
Until recently, most of us would primarily have associated ‘gig’ with the music industry and even today young struggling bands are delighted (initially) to get their ‘first gig’. In this sense, we have two possible origins;
- ‘a gambling bet’ (possibly from the use of a spinning wheel in some original ‘gig’ game), which then was generalized to mean ‘a business undertaking’ and then applied to a musical performance.
- the musical engagement sense to the original ‘spinning’ meaning of the word, perhaps influenced by the Old French ‘gigue’, meaning ‘dance’. which also gave us ‘jig’.
The word in this context dates back to 1926 … and this makes for a good little read if you want a more thorough and entertaining overview of the myriad meanings and learn where some of this research came from.
But when did the gig we know today come from?
That dates just back to 2009. And to me it continues to honor the light, flighty, gaming/gambling origins of the word. So let's stop using it and call it what it is. Exploitation? Slavery? After all they shoot horses, don’t they?
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