🖋️ LongForm
Winning
In my health fight over the past four years, my oncologist 🔗Pepe Sasso had five rules that he laid on me at the very beginning and kept pushing me every time I saw him - including just a couple of weeks ago. One of two things that I maintain is ‘my secret’. 🔗 This is the other.
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Exercise
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Diet/Nutrition to Maintain a Healthy Weight
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Positive Mental Attitude (the sail of opportunity is always open)
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Pain Management
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Good Sleep and Good Sleep Patterns
Thank You
I particularly want to say ‘thank you Jax’. I know how much you did .. do .. for me. No doubt in my mind that without you, I wouldn’t be here, not just your support, but my ears, my voice, your questions, your knowledge - without you - I wouldn’t know half of this village to begin with so I couldn’t have even done what I did without you.
Two other big shout outs to Pepe Sasso, my Radiation Oncologist and Rowan Jones, his lead nurse at the hospital I was at.
The diagnosis was severe, and there was no time to return to the USA or UK and start the process over. Pepe and Rowan were instrumental in my treatment, especially when Jax was told by another doctor to ‘prepare for the worst’, that it was too late for surgery and maybe - just maybe - he might be able to ‘give me more time’. Pepe and Rowan’s dedication and care made a significant difference as did their knowledge and skill. Not only that but Rowan introduced me to Alien Weaponry .. a Maori Metal band (I know!),
All this to say. Thank you. I couldn’t - and therefore wouldn’t - have made it without you. Thank you for your contribution to my life. I am alive, and grateful for every moment. Your actions and support have made all the difference.
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All our friends who stepped in to help take the load off Jax … Scott, Ramsey, Steve, Bernadette, Lauren, Noah, Sarah, Arran, Nix, Tosh and and and …
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All the unsung heroes in doctors and nurses in clinics, hospitals, chemo, oncology and radiology, not forgetting the staff that work the multi various scanning machines that I have been passed through multiples of time and the ‘Spatial Physicists’. YES .. spatial physicists - the science behind this process is extraordinary.
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Herne Bay Pharmacy who went out of their way to deliver things to the house, ‘wrangled’ things we needed and just went went out of their way to help - not like a ‘store’ at all.
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I lost count of all the Labtest nurses who kept pulling blood out of me - only very occasionally did I even feel it.
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The people at Farros and their team that made sure that the food I could eat got to me.
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My ‘CBD’ Doctor - Jax found him, organized him and got the prescriptions. (CBD for medical use in New Zealand is allowed - but the process was new and definitely not well understood
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Nigel - my ‘hearing’ consultant
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Philip - my gastro consultant
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Osama - my chemo consultant
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My ‘swallow’ consultant
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Kath - my physical therapist
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The many Ambulance drivers
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Lovenish and his team of drivers
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Shashank - at Apex who personally delivered and swapped out our rental car at the house.
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All the local restaurants that delivered food.
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Other local establishments that gave Jax quiet haven and a space to breathe - outside of our flat, particularly Ben at Jervois Wine Bar and Annabelle’s
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Milly’s Kitchen in Ponsonby - you would be surprised at what they could get their hands on to help Jax.
And oh so many more …like the construction guys outside on the road who had large areas cordoned off - but let us park ‘behind their tape’, so I didn’t have too far to walk to the car … (this at a time when I didn’t dare walk down the hill to the park in case I didn’t have the strength to walk back up the hill to get home!)
Thank you all.
🎥 Father Figures, 2017 - ★★★★
An older movie that I hadn’t heard of with an awesome cast… I was nervous .. but decided if it was going to be bad, we could always switch it off. We got to the end .. Owen plays Owen, Ed plays Steve Carrell and the rest did a good job … stellar .. no .. but waaaay better than I expected which prolly explains the 4 stars.
Father Figures, 2017 - ★★★★
An older movie that I hadn’t heard of with an awesome cast… I was nervous .. but decided if it was going to be bad, we could always switch it off. We got to the end .. Owen plays Owen, Ed plays Steve Carrell and the rest did a good job … stellar .. no .. but waaaay better than I expected which prolly explains the 4 stars.
It All Makes Sense - until it doesn't. We are passed that point.
A few of today’s reads all came together this morning …
First up (which I am not even going to bother linking to) lead with something like … “how corporations can create emotional connections to their customers at ‘scale’.”
What the fucking what - do not even get me started. Do these people even think about what their words mean when they spew them out?
Anyway - onwards - and as so often happens Hugh over at Gaping Void says it the best …
🖇️ My highlights on the companion article
Meanwhile …
(Talking of ‘creating emotional connections at scale - one of those silent companies that you know the name of - but wonder what they do is Palantir (remember Cambridge Analytics - who paid the price?) .. yeah, Palantir was the ‘power behind the throne’ - who not only avoided paying the price - but have gone on from strength to strength.
Anyway, 🔗 over in Dana land .. he’s looking at the next 4 years - and pointing a very large finger at one 🖇️ Peter Thiel … you know the guy that really runs Palantir (all due respect to Karp), but to remind you who he really is …
The New Zealand Herald did quite a job on that topic - do take a read - eye opening - even if you think you know all about him. (Pro tip - if you have ‘reader mode’ - use it if you really want to read it.) .. and at the end…
According to building consent records, his Queenstown Plasma Screen holiday home last year suffered a serious fire, causing more than $500,000 in damage. Building consents for the repairs filed with the Queenstown Lakes District Council in May show Thiel took this opportunity to rebuild and repurpose a walk-in closet. Plans now describe this nook as a panic room.
.. a panic room. In Queenstown? .. and this is the guy who is quietly influencing the US Govt?
And then there is ‘Ted’s Take’ on the changing nature of communication.
Are we doomed?
I guess not until this happens …
(The New Yorker)
Love Is Not All - Edna St. Vincent Millay
Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink
Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain;
Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink
And rise and sink and rise and sink again;
Love can not fill the thickened lung with breath,
Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;
Yet many a man is making friends with death
Even as I speak, for lack of love alone.
It well may be that in a difficult hour,
Pinned down by pain and moaning for release,
Or nagged by want past resolution’s power,
I might be driven to sell your love for peace,
Or trade the memory of this night for food.
It well may be. I do not think I would.
Love is Not All by Edna St. Vincent Millay - Poems | Academy of American Poets
Intuit FAIL - And All Because Of A Failure To Communicate!
‘Storm in a teacup ‘or fallout not yet settled?
At the very least the story reflects poorly on Intuit’s head of communications who clearly doesn’t understand how communication works in 2024.
And yes I have listened to the whole podcast. The guy clearly doesn’t even understand journalism!
🔗📼 What we’ve got here is failure to communicate
🔗 Intuit’s PR Team Has Seemingly Never Heard of the Streisand Effect
Good post from John @Gruber today - and not wrong. But I think there’s more.
🔗 This is Rick Heineman’s LinkedIN Profile
- 1.144 followers on LinkedIN
- He seems to have NEVER posted - despite being at Intuit for 7 1/2 years
If you are ‘THE’ dude for communications at a place like Intuit - you should understand how social works. The data on his profile suggests he doesn’t. For all I know he might be a Rock Star over on TikTok - haven’t bothered to look - but for Intuit - surely this is a place to have a presence?
He wouldn’t even need to do it himself. He has ‘people’ for goodness sake.
All I know is that IF you are in corporate communications for any enterprise - you need to be at least socially aware. ideally ‘active’ - whatever that means. . If that company is B2C (and I think Intuit is) - then double down on this.
He got promoted just 6 months ago. Maybe he was trying to make a name for himself.
He clearly has.
📚 A Story
Not mine, but it was so lovely I wanted to drop it in here, so that as ‘link rot’ continues - I will at least have it here. Who knows, you might already know it, it seems to have been circulating the socials - so of course - I did a little bit of triangulation. It looks legit.
The Story
At 40, Franz Kafka (1883-1924), who never married and had no children, was walking through a park one day in Berlin when he met a girl who was crying because she had lost her favourite doll. She and Kafka searched for the doll unsuccessfully.
Kafka told her to meet him there the next day and they would come back to look for her.
The next day, when they had not yet found the doll, Kafka gave the girl a letter “written” by the doll saying
“please don’t cry. I took a trip to see the world. I will write to you about my adventures.”
Thus began a story which continued until the end of Kafka’s life.
During their meetings, Kafka read the letters of the doll carefully written with adventures and conversations that the girl found adorable.
Finally, Kafka brought back the doll (he bought one) that had returned to Berlin.
“It doesn’t look like my doll at all,” said the girl.
Kafka handed her another letter in which the doll wrote:
“my travels have changed me.”
The little girl hugged the new doll and brought the doll with her to her happy home.
A year later Kafka died.
Many years later, the now-adult girl found a letter inside the doll. In the tiny letter signed by Kafka it was written:
“Everything you love will probably be lost, but in the end, love will return in another way.”
Embrace change. It’s inevitable for growth. Together we can shift pain into wonder and love, but it is up to us to consciously and intentionally create that connection.
The First Mile is Owed, the Second is Bestowed
Not my words - but I do like them (one of my business connections down here in Aotearoa dropped them on LinkedIN this morning.)
The first mile is owed, the second is bestowed. The first is mandatory, the second is voluntary.
The first mile belongs to others. The extra mile belongs to you and you alone.
It is therefore always in the second mile where character, nobility and greatness lie.
I tried to source them - but nothing specific came up, though a version of them seems to be part of ‘Chick-fil-A’s’ service program. And - no attribution - other names that emerged in the research included Ayn Rand and Jordan Peterson.
Alrighty Then.
Disruption is not Destruction
🔗 Nice to see ‘Disrupt’ ‘growing’
… not by size - it has been a big show for a long time - but in terms of thinking.
To my mind the revolution that drives tech startups is disruption - yet too often the result is destruction. Sometimes directly, sometimes an unintended consequence. (I Need to Write That Post.)
Beyond that, the historical challenge is that disruption and destruction seem to get conflated - even at times used interchangeably. They are not the same thing.
In short ..
Disruption can be positive or negative, acting as a catalyst for change depending on how we view it.
Destruction is the act of causing irreparable damage or making something cease to exist.
But there’s more … that other word … ‘innovation’.
Innovation is too often associated with ‘disruption’ - but that is not actually the case, though ‘disruptive innovation’ does tend to grab the headlines for radically altering industries or ways of thinking, but not all progress has to come from upheaval.
In many cases, steady, incremental improvements can lead to significant advancements without the need to completely overhaul existing systems. Building on what already works, refining processes, or enhancing current technologies can be just as powerful.
Both disruption and gradual innovation play important roles in driving progress—it’s about choosing the right approach for the context and the goals at hand.
Nobody explains this better than Geoff Moore (of Crossing The Chasm fame), who wrote Zone To Win … His framework speaks volumes.
.. and worthy of another ‘reminder’ post sometime, (A Second Post I Need to Write.) but not the point of this post, which is that this all came to mind as I was looking at the headline speakers for Disrupt this year.
Delighted to see Mary Bara headlining. To be clear, I am no gear head / auto follower - but it seems to this casual observer that she has done a much better job at navigating the shark invested waters of the global automobile industry than her major competitors. The nay sayers will argue ‘lack of innovation’. They are wrong. It’s just that her focus has been on the right side of Geoff’s matrix. Not to say that she hasn’t also been pushing on the bottom left, just not always with great success and that is where all the noise is.
/ #TwoCents
🎥 Gunpowder Milkshake, 2021 - ★★
I dunno - I thought it might be fun - it was for a short while - another failure to communicate. Sorry - and no idea how it ended.
Gunpowder Milkshake, 2021 - ★★
I dunno - I thought it might be fun - it was for a short while - another failure to communicate. Sorry - and no idea how it ended.
🎥 The Marksman, 2021 - ★★
Liam doing what Liam does. I couldn’t be bothered to get to the end, so two stars is generous.
The Marksman, 2021 - ★★
Liam doing what Liam does. I couldn’t be bothered to get to the end, so two stars is generous.
Spatial Computing Has Another Contender - AND - They Are Not Called Meta.
Stumbled across this a week or so ago and it got me to thinking - remember the 🖇️ Vision Pro?
Still don’t have one - no plan to - no personal use case (desire is apparently not a use case … who knew?)
That said, there are bundles and bundles of Business Use cases.
Anyway, turns out that 🔗 Sightful are coming out with a solution to a specific use case early 2025.
Their glasses predates Zuck’s and I would argue stand to be adopted more because they are going to be focussed on what looks like a single use case … virtual screens in confined spaces.
Yes folks - Spatial Computing for the rest of us (though to be fair - no pricing that I can see - so may still be only for the wealthy.)