So when I was in college and working at Target in the “Sound and Photo,” department, I was, for a short period of time, a Fred. It can happy and when it does, being a Fred is like being a magician. You can change someone’s day or even their future with just a few simple… Continue Reading
Fred works at Barnes and Noble
I love books and bookstores. Growing up an only child there obviously wasn’t a sibling around so books became my closest companions. They were always available and never let me down. So naturally, I love bookstores. My local Barnes and Noble is my hangout and despite the electronic book phenomena, I firmly believe that bookstores… Continue Reading
There are no small parts, only small actors
I love the movie Rock of Ages. It’s an 80s film and I’m an 80s guy. The Broadway play of the same name was the first play on Broadway I’d ever seen. Although I played pee wee football and loved it, by the time high school came around I was too small for the team,… Continue Reading
The only thing we have to fear, is the courts ruling that we have something to fear!
Recently, a former airline employee won a $1.4 million judgment against Air Wisconsin Airlines for reporting him as a potential security risk. The Colorado Supreme Court denied Air Wisconsin immunity from the defamation lawsuit, which is now headed to the US Supreme Court. This will be a landmark decision as it may make people afraid to… Continue Reading
Fred’s Genuinely Care, Do You?
“That means your hard drive is failing,” said the Apple tech rep on the phone. “Do you have a backup hard drive you can connect?” Hearing that my MacBook hard drive failed, when I just started a week of training in New York, nearly sent me into an anxiety attack. For a trainer on the… Continue Reading
Everyone knows Fred
Until I read Mark Sanborn’s book “The Fred Factor,” I used to call this the Professionalism Assignment with my aviation job targeting students. I guess now I can change that name to the Fred Assignment. We all know Fred. Fred is the guy or girl who always seems to be going the extra mile. And… Continue Reading
Diversity is the way we make good decisions
How we make decisions is an argument between our rational and emotional brains. We should always at least entertain competing hypothesis (Lehrer 247) and continually remind ourselves of what we don’t know (Lehrer 247). General and former Secretary of State Colin Powell, in the first Gulf War used to tell his intelligence officers to first… Continue Reading
Let go of your conscious self and act on instinct
Have you ever had that situation in which you struggled with a problem and when you thought of the answer it was so obvious that you wondered why it took you so long? That’s essentially because your mind has been spending its time coming up with numerous, largely worthless solutions, before the eureka moment (Lehrer… Continue Reading
Why you should carry cash
If our dopamine is supposed to help us make good decisions, why do we continue to make bad decisions, like getting into debt, thinking irrationally, and pursuing the short term benefit, rather than seeing the long-term outcome? Because dopamine isn’t the only thing working inside our heads. Hey, ya like losing? Right. Me either. That’s… Continue Reading
Dope is my co-pilot
Dopamine. Turns out that little awesome molecule is an awesome indicator predictor of events and helps us make decisions (Lehrer 34-35). When our nuclear accumbens (NAcc) is stimulated (that’s a part of our brain that generates pleasurable feelings) it triggers a massive release of dopamine (Lehrer 34-35). Continuous stimulation of the NAcc renders us worthless,… Continue Reading