Author: neil

The poor man always buys twice

That was a quote I’ve not heard before but I knew exactly what was meant when my colleague said it today. He mentioned it in the context of tools and workmanship that we were observing, and its outcome.

I have lived it myself multiple times when I couldn’t afford to buy better quality tools in the moment I needed them, bought what I could afford, which promptly either broke or last one use. Either the job did not get done (FAIL) or I had to buy better tools (which I still couldn’t afford but needed to get the job done).  I’m probably doing that without thinking about it so often too (worthy of self-examination for sure).

I don’t think it’s a deliberate, malicious intent of organisations to starve the people they employ of the tools and training and incentives to do the job well.  I witnessed the effects of small decisions ostensibly to processes efficient led to a situation that seems “complex” or “chaotic”, as referred to by the Cynefin framework.

My colleague said something else about the leadership that prompted the memory of a quote by Upton Sinclain:

it’s difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.

I took this photo on the trip

 

 

Last night we learnt that our little man has taken great advantage of his parents failure to abide by the ‘trust but verify‘ rule on a subject of academic importance.  Or said differently, he lied to us and got caught out, thanks to a report I decided to glance at.

The emotional roller-coaster that followed for everyone won’t be forgotten in a hurry. He’s been fantasizing about the opportunity it opens up for him – but not putting in the necessary work recently (to his credit, he has been diligent for months prior).  His mum was hurt that he took advantage of her trust. I was disappointed in that, and worse, my failure to verify his work.  In any case, my instant response was to say “You’ve proven to us that you don’t want to, and so you won’t be taking this test.”  That triggered waves of despair for everyone, and tears enough to fill a new ocean from him. He could see, feel and hear his parents’ disappointment.

My wife has been distraught about his lying and about the opportunity that he will lose in this instance. I have been rationalising all day about my momentary stance about him not taking the test, weighing it against the consequence of actually following through. The disappointment he will feel if/when he doesn’t get through won’t last long, but will he remember how his parents felt on this day?

Choices have consequences. For everyone.

 

The pair of Australian king parrots were frolicking in the backyard today; making good use of the gloomy weather keeping people indoors perhaps.
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After a night of tossing & turning, and waking up multiple times, today has been another challenging day of migraines, a cold and a general feeling of un-ease.  I struggled through resetting my daughter’s computer through the afternoon. A shower, and a little writing of a quote and doing some calligraphy exercises was all I could muster energy for this evening.  I can only imagine the challenge that people living on their own have when stuck with any illness.

I was keen and eager to record a song and submit it to our open mic session scheduled for this Thursday. I put it off to the last minute (of course!) and don’t have a chance now.

I walk, write, read, watch, ponder… anything to avoid being bored.

Yet sometimes, I have to make time for boredom.

Illness makes you take the time to do nothing.

Today has been mostly such a day.

My daughter and I spent a few hours today on digital housekeeping.  It was the best I could do, with a migraine taking over much of the day.

I’m listening to this cover by Gretchen Peters