MarkFord.net
The open-for-inspection half-way home for my writing…
“The Persecution and Assassination of Donald J. Trump, Part 1”
The S&P hit a record high last Monday, Oct. 28. But as Bill Bonner explains in this essay, if you measure the S&P’s total corporate earnings in real terms of gold, the stock market is creating half the wealth it was created 20 years ago. That bodes trouble ahead.
Little Girl and Baby Gorilla Become Friends
Just One Thing: Are You a Grower or a Tender?
Take This 10-Question Quiz and Find Out
If you want your business to run smoothly, manage it well. Tend to the details. Think in terms of people, protocols, and production.
If you want your business to grow, forget about all that. Put someone in charge of it who is capable of creating growth.
Growers are rare birds. It’s quite possible that – other than you – your business doesn’t have a single grower in its employ.
Or maybe it has one or two, but they are not being given the liberty they need to do what only they can do. In that case, their superpowers are negated.
It’s also possible that you are not a grower – that once you were but now you are a tender.
Here’s a quick test to find out. Take it yourself, give it to someone else, or take it on behalf of someone you supervise.
Management Personality Test: 10 Questions Based on the Common Impulses and Characteristics of Growers
venerate (verb)
To venerate (VEN-uh-rate) is to revere; to regard with great respect. As I used it today: “With respect to your career, what’s more important: being admired for your character… or venerated for your success?
“To lead people, one needs to generate trust and respect. To boss people, one needs to generate only fear.” – Michael Masterson
If you like visiting art museums, you should know about Google Arts & Culture, a surprisingly little-known website that, among other things, offers digital tours of many of the greatest art museums of the world.
Several years ago, K and I spent some time in Holland – and one of the highlights for me was looking at the masterpieces at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. It was an immensely enjoyable and edifying afternoon.
Imagine seeing the major works of Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Bruegel, Frans Hals. Not to mention the modernists: Vincent van Gogh, Karel Appel, Willem de Kooning, and Piet Mondrian.
You don’t have to travel to Amsterdam to visit the Rijksmuseum. Nor do you have to travel to Madrid to visit the Prado. Or to NYC to visit the Met.
When you are in the mood, go to Google Arts & Culture.
For the link to the Rijksmuseum, click here.
“Uber Is Going to Zero and Their VC Backers Know It”
In a previous post, I wrote about the possible demise of Uber. In this essay on Medium.com, Matt Ward presents a similar view, comparing the deep “moat” AirBnB has against its competition with the shallow “puddle” that surrounds Uber.
The important lesson here is the idea I mentioned in my essay: User-built networks – like AirBnB – get more valuable (and less vulnerable to competition) as they grow because they provide customers with more of what they want: reach. But company-built networks like Uber have no advantage over upstarts because, as Ward points out, they are essentially in a marketplace of local commerce catering to customers that have no loyalty.
An email from MN:
Dear Mark,
I’m writing today to thank you again for your continuing and far-reaching impact on my life. Your guidance has proven invaluable time and again in more ways than I ever could have imagined….
Running a business is perhaps old hat to you, but not all of it has come naturally to me…. The principles you laid out in Ready, Fire, Aim [LINKTO BOOK] helped me get started doing things that scared me before I felt ready – which is a good thing because I started two and a half years ago and I still don’t feel ready! And thanks to your advice in Seven Years to Seven Figures, [LINK TO BOOK] I’m looking at launching a totally different product to create another source of income for myself.
Even though I’m not quite at $100 million, or really even in the ballpark yet, there is no question that I am much further along thanks to you…. And for that I will be forever grateful…. But more than anything, I just wanted to say thank you for doing more for me than you probably realized to help me follow slowly but surely in your footsteps.
A fascinating short documentary on how the Panama Canal works and how critical it is to the global economy…
An Extremely Stupid Essay About Language
The latest from the language police: We are no longer allowed to say “committed suicide.”
Dictonary.com has published many insanely dumb essays proscribing language before, but this has to be one of the dumbest. The title: “What Are the Right Words to Use When Talking About Suicide.”
To save you some pain, I’ve highlighted the most ridiculous sentences:
According to the Centers for Disease Control, in 2016 suicide became the second leading cause of death for Americans ages 10–34 and the fourth leading cause for those 35–54
This issue has been highlighted by the suicide deaths of several high-profile people in recent years, like designer Kate Spade, chef Anthony Bourdain, and musician Chester Bennington.
When someone dies by suicide, it’s typical to hear the phrase committed suicide. Recently, though, that expression has come under fire for victim-blaming and reinforcing the stigma surrounding mental illness…
Suicide is the “intentional taking of one’s own life.” Evidenced in the mid-1600s, suicide is formed from the Latin sui, “of oneself,” and –cide, a combining form meaning “killing,” seen in other such words as homicide or insecticide.
Because suicide is usually seen as a deliberate act, many feel that it’s logical to describe it as something a person commits (i.e., “does, performs, perpetrates”). The issue, though, is that when we use the word commit to describe suicide, it implies that a choice was made in the same way that one might choose to commit a crime or a sin. However, those who die by suicide usually do not feel as though they have a choice.
Many who die by suicide struggle with mental illness, such as depression and anxiety. Others may be victims of trauma or facing major life stressors – such as physical or sexual abuse, homelessness, legal problems, loss of a loved one, persecution, and rejection – that make them feel as though suicide is the only way to stop their suffering. Describing someone as having committed suicide makes it sound like they perpetrated a crime on themselves, when, in reality, they were a victim.
Nonetheless, committed remains the main term used by most people and the media to describe the act of suicide. When the father of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victim died in an apparent suicide in March 2019, it was widely reported that he “committed suicide.” Similar language was used when two students who survived the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting died in March. This is in spite of the fact that an alliance of prominent mental health and media organizations advise journalists against the phrase committed suicide when reporting on suicide deaths….
The recommended terminology to use when discussing suicide is died by suicide, according to Dr. Daniel J. Reidenberg, the executive director of Suicide Awareness Voices of Education.Suicide is often stigmatized a being a choice or selfish act, and saying that someone “committed suicide” can reinforce those ideas. Neutral phrasing strips away some of the blame and shame that is too often associated with these losses.
This is important not only for changing the way people talk about mental health, but also for encouraging those suffering from suicidal ideation – or thinking about, considering, or planning suicide – to be more open with their struggles and seek help. Research shows that mental health stigma indeed can play a major role in preventing people from seeking treatment.
Changing our language may not seem significant, but the way we discuss suicide and mental health issues matters more than ever. A study published in April 2019 showed that the suicide rate in boys aged 10–17 jumped significantly in the month after the 2017 debut of Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why, a show which not only frequently discusses suicide but also depicts a teen dying by suicide.
Moreover, US veterans are 22 percent more likely than non-veterans to die by suicide, over 40 percent of non-binary youth self-report that they have attempted suicide, and suicide rates are rising for many other groups across the US too.
It is essential to reach out to those who are at risk and advocate for better treatment options and increased access to mental healthcare. It is also important to do everything we can to replace the stigma surrounding suicide with a culture – and language – of honesty and support.
Replacing committed suicide to died by suicide is a small change that can have a big impact.
And if all this is not enough to have you thinking of committing suicide, the article began with a trigger warning:
Warning: This article deals with the sensitive topic of suicide. If you (or someone you know) need support, call the toll-free, 24/7 National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. You can also text HOME to 741741 for free, which offers 24/7 support from the Crisis Text Line.
For an antidote to this sort of craziness, I recommend The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt.
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