a Conversation on Salary, the Market and Negotiation
Sitting across from me is a senior executive that I’ve known for a number of years. He sits with an arm over the chair next to him and talks about the challenges with the ongoing consolidation in his company. We talk about how much the market has changed in recent years.
When I started in executive search for the energy space, there were twice as many publicly traded companies whom I considered potential or active customers. Today, those same companies exist in brand only; bought, acquired or merged.
It was supposed to get easier as we got more senior and…
I wake.
My coffee cup and inbox are full.
The day begins.
I churn text.
Reply. Forward. Archive. Delete.
Each reply encourages another.
I find pace. I flow.
Yet, my box isn’t empty. Never empty.
Anxiety fades. The haze clears.
I’m exhausted yet content. So many today!
Coffee?
Then the meetings.
Important and draining.
The meetings, meetings and the meetings.
The day ends.
I could stop. I should stop.
I check. Again, it’s full.
Just a few. I could start.
For a better tomorrow, I could give of today.
And, tomorrow I’ll start again.
I’ve wanted to work on a project to compile a daily representative update of all the world’s news. This update would include a single article from a single publication in each of the world’s 195 countries. This post details my thinking about such a project. What it might cost and how it might work. It also documents why the project hasn’t gotten beyond ideation stage with my efforts alone.
Why?
I’m interested in the topic of representative information. The media/news we consume today is not representative of our world. A typical media channel will have a mix of local and international…
Forget antitrust. Regulate. Make tech work for us. Antitrust won’t work. Regulation will. Forcing tech monopolies to breakup won’t help consumers, encourage innovation or do anything other than enrich the shareholders, founders and investors who will get stock splits and free entry passes to more locked in profits in artificially diverse tech smaller-ish-monopolies.
Breaking up tech is a quick way to appear strong to the public while accomplishing little and making things worse for the average person. Instead, tech companies need to be regulated, forced to provide mobility and universal access to services like messaging, identity, authoring, ownership and storage. The burden and cost of building and maintaining this infrastructure paid for by tech.
We want tech companies to be big
Tech profits comes from the silos they have consolidated and maintain. Consumers benefit from those silos. We won’t get better value from hunting for our friends across 20 social media platforms or searching across multiple tools. …
I’ve wanted to write this since the birth of our first child. Now that we have welcomed our third and final child (factory is closed), I think it is time. I’m making it a work in progress page so I can add on as I remember things.
Don’t give uninvited advice to other parents
Since I’m not forcing you to read this article, I’ll argue that I’m not breaking this promise. Early on I realized that I didn’t like being lectured by other parents. It was often done in a talk-don’t-listen manner which was frustrating. Ever since, I’ve been reluctant to give other parents advice even when they ask directly. When forced, I will encourage them to adopt an trial-and-error / experimenting approach. Without replicating the whole context, it will be impossible/difficult to take anyone’s advice directly.
Decide your future
Agree with your partner (or yourself for singles) what kind of family you want and what kind…
Back in 2017, I was asked ‘does a world dominated by Africa, Asia, South America scare you?’. I found the question strange, but maybe I shouldn’t have. Turning the question around, I wonder ‘does a world dominated by America, Europe and China scare you?’
Looking at both options, neither looks especially good. And the issue isn’t actually the countries, it’s the underlying assumption that some country or set of countries has to dominate the world. I’d hope that in the future we have a more enlightened view and way.
In my answer, I wrote that I think a world dominated by Asia, South America and Africa will be a lot like the world today and more.
A lot of how we think about countries and geopolitics is shaped by the news we read which portrays the countries of the world as single-minded competitors out…
When people find out I’m from Singapore, they will sometimes ask how it feels to live in an authoritarian state. And I’ll reply that I think they are confusing me with an American.
I’m comfortable with our democracy ranking (for what little value such rankings hold) and that we are steadily moving up year by year.
Questions around democracy in Singapore often make reference to the index published by Country analysis EIU also on Wikipedia - Democracy Index.
Singapore is ranked in the 60s of those indexes which puts it in the upper 1/3 of the list. It seems to be worst hit by how EIU calculates Electorial process and pluralism. Given that Singapore has a dominate single-party that likely doesn’t sit well with the EIU evaluators.
The rankings don’t seem especially logical…
I’ve wanted to write about all the frustrating things I see that actually harm people. I’d thought of writing it about designing apps for older people, but I realized that it’s not just old people. These design failures are bad for everyone who hasn’t done it all before. I use humans to refer to people who aren’t ‘in the know’ about how the thing works.
Hidden menus
The features for a screen should be obvious on the screen. I shouldn’t need to go through so many menus and sub lists. If I’m dumb, I won’t understand why I can’t see the feature I want to use.
Assumed knowledge
Most apps, services, equipment assumes a level of understanding that the app is built on. Yet, most users of apps aren’t software developers and designers. But the people building those apps are.
Abstract Icons and Acronyms
New apps and Web Services are beautiful and confusing. Icons are often abstractions rather than universal signs. …
This is a work in progress list of all the things I learn while washing dishes about washing dishes.
Wipe first
Use napkins and toilet paper to wipe away leftover food, crumbs, oil before you start washing.
Water hand wash
Your hand is better than any sponge. While rinsing the dish rub it with your hand cleaning off all the oil and junk. Then use a sponge with soap to do a clean and rinse.
Keep a wet garbage bag handy
Put a small garbage bag behind the faucet or next to the sink. Wipe the dishes into this bag and clean the drain filter into this bag. Once full, double bag and tie closed.
Clean in order from least oily
Start with the cleanest dishes and work your way steadily towards more dirty dishes. …
Just like any other collectable, bitcoin’s main feature is that people want to collect it. The other things bitcoin can do are secondary; like an old comic. Collectors don’t buy the comic only to read it; they ascribe some value in having it — in collecting it.
We see many digital collectables marketplaces these days. You can collect bitcoin, thousands of other coins, digital property, digital art. There are collectables markets in old coins, Magic the Gathering Cards, magazines and cars. Logically, we should see similar markets appear within the digital space. Anything with a limited supply and more than one person interested in collecting it creates a market.
There are many things you could choose to use your bitcoins or crypto-collector-digital-coins for, but those are side-effects of the main purpose — collection.
Because bitcoin and other similar supply-limited digital products are collectables they will have limited…
Connor Clark-Lindh
Duct Tape
