Ramblings

Legacy hires

I actively discouraged my children from working at the company(s) where I had worked.

That was based on having worked with dozens of coworkers who followed their dad into the factory.

With very few exceptions, most of them were bitter and angry. "Dad" had given them a map-to-the-top and that is not where the ended up.

Lay aside the fact that only one person can be at the very top. The fact remained that there were far more "High Potentials" in any department than there were openings.

I have little doubt that most of my co-workers would have been far happier and fulfilled if they had NOT followed in their father's footsteps, even if their career trajectory had been two or three levels below where they ended up. 

Disclosure: I was never a "High Potential".

I would rather have my kids find their own path and know that their successes and failures were totally their own. That is how learning happens.

I am baffled that Biden, Pelosi, Kerry, Clinton feel compelled to bring their children into the family business.

I guess the difference is that my ego serves God, my family and me in that order. The others, I suspect the order is inverted: Ego serves itself first, then "self", family and Party.

Interruptions

According to news sources on the internet, Trump was interrupted by the moderator at last night's debate 31 versus the Biden being interrupted twice. 

I hold out little hope that the undecided will notice.

It calls to mind a short video clip an instructor showed us decades ago. It showed a woman interrupting a man.

The instructor told us to summarize the video we saw.

Then she showed us the video a second time, stopping it just before the interruption.

The man interrupted the woman and the woman did not stop talking in deference to the man. It was crystal-clear when the instructor pointed it out.

So it is with Trump. The press interrupt him and Trump refuses to accept the Dominance play. Due to deep-seated values and conditioning, the Liberals and undecided see it at Trump being rude.

Weeds

 

I have been engaging in an internet discussion with one of my internet friends regarding the loss of flying-insect biomass.

Estimates vary. Some claim there is no solid evidence of fewer bugs but anybody who drove in the mid-West in the '60s will call BS on that. Others contend that a number between 75%-to-90% reduction is probably defensible.

Numerous causes have been suggested but there are few, natural experiments A-B-A are available to untangle the mystery.

One major player is likely to be loss of 40 acre fields. A grid of 40 acre fields separated by 20' fence rows loses 3% of the land-area to fence rows. As farms consolidate due to economic pressures, farmers bulldoze the fence rows. The motive is not to regain the 3% of land but to reduce the labor and facilitate the use of larger, more efficient equipment.

A quick census of some of the species growing in my pasture

 

Another potential player involves mowed lawns. A well manicured lawn typically hosts relatively few species of plants. Pastures and fence rows typically have much higher diversity.