Friends,
A super busy week that literally started with a bang and ended with a shutdown the caused most of the free world’s computers to be taken out, not by a cyber attack, but by a cybersecurity company issuing a bad software update.
Crazy crazy times we live in……
For some very weird reason (perhaps it was the release of Beverly Hills Cop 4 on Netflix), I was reminded of this event now 41 years ago….if you are of a certain age you might remember where you were when you learned this:
Okay, jokes aside, if you were like me and have a Windows based, corporate issued computer, you spent most of the day on Friday rebooting your machine and staring at a blue screen with error messages and scrambling for alternative ways to get stuff done.
If you had no trouble, you either work entirely in a Mac operating system or you discovered that your company has no business relationship with Crowdstrike….
What fascinates me with all of this: because we now live in a world of constant news/hype cycles, the speed in which these waves of events and surrounding buzz both build and then dissipate is crazy fast.
Anyone remember the Baltimore bridge collapsing a few months ago?
How about school shootings? Did you know there have been at least 35 school shootings in the United States so far this year. Nine were on college campuses, and 26 were on K-12 school grounds. The incidents left 17 people dead and at least 39 other victims injured.
Did you realize that Dr. Ruth, Richard Simmons, Shannen Doherty and Bob Newhart all passed away this past week?
Even today, over 4400 flights were cancelled worldwide — the most in one day since the 9/11 attacks.
By Monday, no doubt we’ll be talking about something else.
When we only had 3 network TV channels, local AM/FM radio stations and a few local newspapers to connect you to the outside world, it was easily to be consumed by this type of news for days or even weeks.
But today, with nearly infinite options for us to stimulate our brains and get our information, there just is no room for it. The void gets filled, by your choice or by someone else’s, almost instantly….and yet the Hawk Tuah girl will probably still be getting followers and appearance gigs.
Funny how that works, right?
One thing I think it should all tell us — the 💩 in your life that you think is big, daunting and noticeable, really is not all that big in the grand scheme of things. It is big to you, but it is a small blip on the collective radar.
People move on, life goes on, and the world looks up from it’s phone for a moment, it shrugs, it goes back to what it was doing, and the world continues to turn….
Crazy crazy times we live in, Friends, indeed.
XOXO
Dave
And now a few things to make you smarter…
There are many reasons for why salaries vary between countries: economic development, cost of living, labor laws, and a variety of other factors. Because of these variables, it can be difficult to gauge the general level of income around the world.
With this in mind, check out this visualization of the average annual salaries of 30 OECD countries, adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP). This means that the values listed have taken into account the differences in cost of living and inflation between countries.
A new job, apartment or relationship can all come with a sheen of excitement. But that luster fades after a while. And everything seems a bit duller. Here’s a reminder on how to get the spark back into your everyday life when things seem to get stuck.
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This year marks the 30-year anniversary of the grill officially known as the George Foreman Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grilling Machine. After a slow start, it became an indelible part of ‘90s consumer culture and the world’s most popular product for cooking hamburgers, hot dogs, salmon, and just about everything else (Oprah Winfrey preferred it for bacon). In 2000, QVC claimed it sold more Foreman grills than any other small kitchen appliance, and today Amazon says it sells over 6000 units a month. For the record, yes, I currently own one, use it regularly and yes, it is spectacular.