Hey now. Every village has its idiots. We just happen to have a lot of them.

Russia has spent the last 500 years bouncing around between malevolent autocrats. Hell, Kruschev was one of the more “sane” heads of state for which he was rewarded by being forced into “retirement.”

The only way there will be a regime change is if the current regime is burned to the ground and then there’s no guarantee that what comes next will be better. I’m not even sure what will happen when Putin finally kicks the bucket which will likely open a massive power vacuum.

There’s a need for change but it would be naive to think that the path to it would be painless. It won’t.

It doesn’t necessarily matter that you make poor decisions. That’s all of us. At some point. It matters that you take ownership of it and don’t pawn it off on somebody else. And, that you make things right when necessary. Competence is important but integrity is way more important.

It’s an incredible paradox isn’t it? Someone up the ladder sees you getting results and they decide they want more of that. Then, when you try to show them what it takes to get more of “that”, they look at you like you have two heads. In my case I got sick of being told I needed to constantly micro-manage my people. I told my boss something to the effect of, “we pay grown-ass adults to do their job like adults. If you think I can’t walk away for two seconds and trust that they’re still going to be doing their job when I’m gone, then you need to fire them and hire someone who will.”

He turned white as a ghost. He knew damn well I was right, he just didn’t want to have to tell his boss (the Chief Micromanagement Officer) that. Good leadership isn’t that complicated. Empower people to do their job and feel like they own it and they will do it a hell of a lot better than if you’re standing over their shoulder all the time.

I was in management before I moved to engineering full time. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed my team and watching them grow and develop their skills. I also learned a lot about things that I wouldn’t have been exposed to otherwise.

The key role of a good leader is to remove “log jams” and then get out of the way. But I was log-jammed out. An incredibly toxic workplace has a way of doing that. I fought hard for my employees. They deserved that. They had my respect and they earned it. If I had to go back and fight for them again, I would. But man, it’s been nice to get away from all that for the past few years.

So this is me a couple weeks ago when my boss tells me he wants me to take over as one of the team leads and on the outside I’m like, “Thanks for the opportunity! I appreciate the vote of confidence.” And on the inside I’m like, “…please no.”

In the words of a former Fox News talking head, “Fuck it! We’ll do it live!”.

Only way it could be better is if they threw “AI” in there somewhere.

There are multiple moving violations.

“People are saying.”

Somewhere in the Kremlin there’s got to be at least one person who goes home at night and thinks to themselves, “WTF kind of Mickey Mouse operation have I dedicated my life’s work to? Is this really my legacy? Are they going to tell my grandchildren, ‘Dedushka served his country by drafting many menacing yet ultimately hollow threats while the world collectively rolled their eyes.’?”

My local grocery chain is a lot better quality than Walmart in some respects. But, the price tag is usually much steeper. Thank God for Aldi’s.
I like to support the little guy when possible but when it makes your monthly grocery bill $1,200 instead of $900, that’s a tough pill to swallow. That $300 wouldn’t necessarily break the bank for me but it’s a lot of money to a lot of people.

This is also a big reason that many Americans have poor nutrition. Processed junk food is cheaper than healthy food. Presenting better lifestyle or diet “choices” is an illusion when you have to have money to make those choices.

So you could say the Australian government Arthur Andersoned the report.

The $1,400 it cost me to buy a 5x10 utility trailer was money well spent. It has easily paid for itself over the years. I sold my last pickup years ago. If I need to use the trailer, it takes 5 minutes to hook it up. Having space to store it and a legit need for it are key factors here as well.

It’s like all the Bond villains took over the world.

There are plenty of reasons to criticize Microsoft but I don’t think this is one of them. First, Windows Defender is quite good as far as antivirus software goes. If you ever had to do desktop support in the days when Norton, McAfee, and AVG reigned supreme, then you know what I’m talking about.

Second, one of the biggest challenges for an OS vendor is backwards compatibility. Especially since Windows dominates the enterprise space and has for the last 25+ years. Big corporations can get really cranky about their legacy applications from 1998 that are still basically holding the entire org together. While it’s short sighted to not be proactive about keeping your technology current, it’s also a reality that many businesses simply aren’t proactive.

Windows definitely has its flaws but it has come a long way in terms of both security and reliability over the years.

My wife and I have been watching “Ballers” and thing I’ve been trying to figure out the whole time is, who the hell walks around Miami all day in a suit?

Maintaining an empire is hard work. You gotta pick a random little country to kick the shit out of once in a while or else the other little countries start getting ideas. /s

At this point I think we’re more like the railroad ties that Superman is bulldosing through.

“The love of money is the root of all kinds of enshitification.” --Jesus Christ (Probably)

One downside of being a lizard: there’s always the risk that while you’re enjoying your nice nap in the sun, a bird of prey is barreling down on you with the speed and precision of a fighter jet and you won’t even know it until you’ve been violently jerked awake. Just in time to realize that you are completely fucked.

So, you know, it’s a tradeoff. No student loans, or really any responsibilities, but also dramatically higher risk of sudden violent death.