#13 - Aren't We All Characters?

Good at Politics; Do They Expect Magic?; Theme Park Characters

Hello, my friends,

Thank you for rappelling into my weekly mind forest once again. While I have your attention, I’m going to give you a quick sumo update: It’s the second week of the tournament, which ends on Sunday and as always, it’s an exciting one! As predicted last week, Kiribayama got his 10 wins and will almost certainly be promoted to the second-highest Ozeki rank to stand alongside one of my favorites, Takakeisho (disparagingly dubbed Taka-hamster or “beach ball” by haters, though to me he’s more a confident bullfrog). Takakeisho needs one more win to maintain his rank and I think he’ll get it in the next three days despite injuries that prevent him from carrying out his concussive pushing attack. The Yokozuna Terunofuji still leads the pack despite one loss, though the immense bandages on his knees send retirement vibes. As an intermediary between the meat of the newsletter and my sumo intro, here’s kimarite (winning technique) hypebeast and Michael’s favorite, Ura, beating the “Flying Monkey” Tobizaru by zubuneri (head pivot throw), a technique that hasn’t been seen in the top division for 25 years (you can hear the gyōji (referee) urging the wrestlers on throughout the match):

Good at Politics

I recently came across an article called “Why I Fired Myself” by a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) who describes why he left his company. Citing office politics as one of the reasons. He wrote,

The worst thing about politics is that you just need to hire one person who is “good at it,” and it spreads like a virus.

It’s true that for many people, including talented and intensely logical engineers, the political frame in leadership situations is one of the most difficult to grok. Yet, when I read this short article the quotes around “good at it” stood out to me — there’s an ironic whiff about them, of course. After all, they had to fire a whole department in order excise the malignant political cancer from the company! That’s not “good” politics.

I’m a simple man, so my idea of politics is working with people to get things done. Of course, many people primarily equate politics with backroom deals, dishonest interactions, blackmail, and their ilk. So what is good politics? Ideally, it’s a mix of communication strategy and tactics employed to achieve some ethically-sound grand purpose in which the less savory means are outweighed by noble ends. Skilled politician may not be well-liked by their enemies, but they should be respected for their cunning and creativity. I’m guessing that wasn’t the case in the article.

AI-generated image of two politicians arguing. Interestingly, they have no mouths which makes me wonder if Agent Smith has been here. Credit: https://stablediffusionweb.com

Do They Expect Magic?

For the past few years, I’ve been producing near-weekly virtual events for a workforce development program I run for my library. Following those programs is Question & Answer session with our hundred-or-so attendees. I love the Q & A, but I don’t always understand it. Actually, there has emerged a class of questions that I find frustrating and puzzling. Informally to myself, I call them “magic” questions:

After an hour of in-depth lecture specifically on returning to work following an employment gap, people ask how to address the gap with their specific, but also very common situations: Raising kids, taking care of the sick, temporary retirement. Literally, this was the whole presentation! But they’re not satisfied, they seem to want exact wording for cover letters and interviews that will always work, or an assurance that employers won’t frown on the gap.

Or recently we had a program on tips for older job seekers and a few people asked questions that amounted to: “I’ve tried all these tips, and have been searching for a while with no luck, what else can I do?” I attempted to frame these question in ways that the presenter could actually answer in a useful way, but it’s a stretch because realistically, what can you advise someone who’s already tried everything?

Networking is also often a thorny issue during Q & As. Job coaches love to talk about the “hidden job market”, “the strength of weak links”, and “informational interviews”. We’ve done many programs where presenters have given step-by-step suggestions for how to activate or build a network. But we still get (non-)questions like: “I’m shy, what do I do?”, “I don’t have a network," “My friends and family can’t help me in my industry.”

Sometimes I feel like throwing my hands up and hollering, “Do you think there’s some secret advice that will change everything? What do you really expect the presenter to tell you?” It often comes down to that job searches are difficult and uncomfortable. Most people hate the process. And unfortunately, there’s no magic:

• If you’re too shy to take the steps to develop your professional connections, then you won’t have any.

• If can’t get your resume worked out despite the myriad free resources on exactly how to do it, then it won’t get written.

• If you’ve put in 300 applications in the past year and have only gotten called in twice for interviews, there’s a near-certain probability that your resume, cover letter, or skillset are missing something.

I feel bad for people that ask “magic” questions because they’re searching for something that doesn’t exist. It’s like the guy who came to the reference desk at the Lancaster Library when I worked there over a decade ago and asked about how he could make money without doing any work. Realistically, I told him, you’d have to start somewhere, and took him over to the books on how to get multiple streams of income. I think my answer involved too much work because he didn’t check anything out. *shrug* What can you do?

An AI-generated image using the prompt: “magician dancing on a tight-role in the style of marc chagall”. Friends, I am concerned about the mental health of this AI. I think it may be working too hard.

Theme Park Characters

Four is the perfect age to visit Disneyland for the first time. Thanks to the generosity of my in-laws, Michael has gone to the happiest place on earth three times in the past two months. At his age, the castle is gigantic, the rides are enthralling, and the characters, oh the characters! On his first trip to Disneyland, Michael saw Mickey just before Main Street and ran headlong to him, giving him a big hug with a gigantic smile on his face. No one had to tell him how to interact with these giant mascots, he just knew!

Over these three trips, we have photo after photo of Michael posing with and hugging various characters and I’m not even sure he knows who some of them are! (I don’t know who some of them are!) His reactions were everything. It’s what innocent and free-spirited joy looks like. Lest you need a reminder, here it is:

Michael and friends

p.s. - I found out today that I was not selected for the job I wrote about in #9. I’m (very) disappointed, but I’ll survive.