How do you solve problems? Few think through their processes. Problems become the bicycle wheel of life, going through the same cycle. Sometimes, you get lucky. Many times, too much time, too much money, and too much brainpower gets exhausted. Let me introduce you to a problem, one prevalent in the work-from-home residue of COVID-19. It is a problem suffered by many. [...]
It seemed that I would have more time to read during the isolation of COVID-19. But life got full of online work and the start of a daily broadcast on Facebook. My routines completely flipped upside down. I did read or listen to some books. Here’s the list. Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen by Dan Heath I pre-ordered [...]
We’ve heard the phrase, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” Plato, the ancient Greek philosopher, wrote those words in his Republic. They are correct, but I would like to suggest a corollary. On March 13, 2020, life lurched to a full stop. It felt like going 60 mph and shifting into reverse. You can imagine what that is like in an automobile. [...]
How do you solve a problem you unknown and unseen? That’s the premise of Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen, a new book by Dan Heath. Dan and his brother Chip have written several books. They cover topics such as change, decision-making, and making moments monumental. They leak with practical applications. Several of their processes have changed my basic [...]
“What do I plan to do once authorities lift the shelter-in-place order?” That’s what I ponder now. I find my flights of fancy ever-changing. I start with what I used to do. I would like to leisurely go to a grocery store again and find what I need. I want to sit down at a restaurant of my choice to eat [...]
In this COVID-19 situation, people ask the same question? When. When will the virus be gone? When will our lives return to normal? Will I still have a job? Are restaurants and small businesses going to survive? All are questions longing for certainty. People like certainty. We want to know food is available. They turn to the weatherman on the TV, [...]
Reputations grow around accomplishments. For one man, his reputation is for a single line, which he never spoke. “Dr. Livingstone, I presume.” Henry Morton Stanley led an expedition up the Congo River in 1887. It was his third expedition. It became a disaster. Left alone, his men brutalized the Africans. Those they used for labor they let die from poison food and [...]
When COVID-19 (or as it was called then coronavirus) started rippling the news, I did not sound serious. After all, all media makes money by scaring people to death. I soon grew weary of breathless news anchors prophesying Armageddon. (I always thought that was the realm of end-times evangelicals.) But then, it did start getting serious. Doctors I knew and trusted seemed [...]
Washington Irving told the fictional tale of a man who goes to sleep and wakes up in a whole new world. We have much in common with Rip Van Winkle. When you woke up, the world had changed. It wasn't because of some novel technological discovery. Instead, it is something fundamental to human existence: an ugly virus called COVID-19. No one could [...]
They are everywhere. The multi-room units pop up squeezed between properties and on vacant lots. They are not apartments, but storage facilities. In America, there are more than 48,000 storage facilities. Their popularity comes from a thirst for more. Two out of three American households with garages also have a storage unit. It has become a particular problem for Baby-Boomers, those people [...]
