Hey Boss, You Don’t Want Your Employees to Meditate

Talk about using a latitudional sledgehammer to crush a gnat

“My dear friend,  You are not his most humble servant. ... Almanac: Dr. Johnson on cant

“My dear friend, clear your mind of cant. You may talk as other people do. You may say to a man, ‘Sir, I am your most humble servant.’ You are not his most humble servant. You may say, ‘These are sad times; it is a melancholy thing to be reserved to such times.’ You don’t mind the times. You tell a man, ‘I am sorry you had such bad weather the last day of your journey, and were so much wet.’ You don’t care six-pence whether he was wet or dry. You may talk in this manner; it is a mode of talking in Society: but don’t think foolishly.”
~ James Boswell, Life of Johnson who knew why officers lick up and kick down 

“There is nothing quite like the drama and suspense of a penalty shootout. The player tasked with taking the penalty can thunder the ball home or smash it against the crossbar, or even sky it completely over the bar. Nothing will bring housewives out of the kitchen or shush the pub into complete silence quite like the theatre of the penalty shootout, no matter who’s playing. No one can be apathetic about the penalty shootout
It’s as if for just those few seconds a player’s soul is laid bare for the entire world to see. The camera pans in and we can clearly see the hesitancy and heroics, the expectation and exultation, the self-doubt or self-glorification, the uncertainty and relief ….. or disappointment.
Nothing matches the thrill!” 
― Karl Wiggins, Gunpowder Soup

Developing Real Kulcha 

Behavioral scientists say mindfulness is great for employees, but not their bosses who need maximum productivity.

↩︎ The New York Times Hey Boss, You Don’t Want Your Employees to Meditate 

Why Martin Parkinson wants a second generation of behavioural economics
The head of the Australian Public Service today called on public servants to embrace randomised control trials.
 

Plagued By Politeness?

This sort of thing is everywhere. Children and adults will often say “no offence” before or after saying something crushingly offensive, or introduce a nasty remark with a phrase along the lines of “I wouldn’t want you to think I’m nasty, but…” Politicians sometimes say “with respect” to interviewers before making clear their contempt for the question. There’s nothing new about rhetorical devices that let you have your cake and eat it—“not to mention the weather” gives speakers the chance both to mention that blasted weather and to leave it out. But the subgenre of such remarks that tries to dictate in advance how its targets might categorise it, and by extension the character of whoever might be saying it, does seem to be a recent and peculiar development. … Read More

Could Multiple Latitude Personality Disorder Explain Life, the Universe and Everything? Scientific American

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich resigns over relationship with employee The Verge

Here’s The Wild Email Exchange Between Tesla’s Alleged ‘Saboteur’ And Elon Musk Jalopnik 

Noam Chomsky on Fascism, Showmanship and Democrats' Hypocrisy in the Trump Era

World-renowned linguist and public intellectual Noam Chomsky analyzes some of the latest developments in Trumpistan and their consequences for democracy and world order.

Warning – NSFW! Via The 100 Greatest YouTube Videos of All Time, Ranked - Thrillist – “Like most unicorns, YouTube isn’t perfect. Its comment sections are famously noxious, its algorithms proliferate conspiracy theorists, its filters fail to protect kids’ feeds, and its ad-revenue-sharing model props up problematic vloggers. But it also has hydraulic press videos. And lo-fi hip-hop beats to study/relax to. And a dude lip-syncing TGIF theme songs while sitting on the toilet. For better or for worse, YouTube is the ultimate time-waster, the place you go when you literally have to watch the Howard Dean scream right now and the place you remain an hour later after the rabbit hole you descended eventually spat you out on an ’80s video dating montage. Sometimes, if enough people deem a particular video undeniably watchable all at once, it becomes a phenomenon with the cultural cache to demand that you take notice and catalog it as a historical event. That’s what caught us: When does a YouTube video turn from merely a YouTube video into a great YouTube video? And which great YouTube videos over the years are the greatest?

How many people do you need to push a belief from the fringe into the mainstream? Twenty-five percent of society.

↩︎ Futurism 

Former MPs and public servants facing greater scrutiny under foreign interference legislation

Former Cabinet ministers, ministers, staffers and senior public servants should face greater scrutiny for their lobbying activities once they leave office, according ...