Author Archives: ljgale

Papa John Peyton

Professional athletes are part-time athletes.  Their other job is to be paid endorsers.  Clothing, pain relievers, and food.

Since professional athletes are rational, they will accept money to endorse products that increase their net worth.  Even if it means endorsing products that are detrimental to society.

But if there is a stigma about endorsing products that are detrimental to society, perhaps the more prudent financial decision will be to endorse products that are more beneficial to society.

Looks like one stigma, professional athletes endorsing junk food, may be ready to drive social change.  Or at the very least, make endorsing junk food a poor financial decision for professional athletes.

Reputation is precious.  Threatening it, and the ability for a rich athlete to get more rich, is powerful.

I cannot wait to see Lebron dropping McDonalds.  Peyton dropping Papa Johns.  Serena dropping Gatorade.

And for the record, this grassroots-awareness-resulting-in-stigma-for-celebtrity-endorsers thing transcends junk food.  How can we use it more?

Broygus airline cop

Need to negotiate?  Try “good cop / bad cop.”

Bad cop holds the position and is insensitive.  Good cop brings compromise and is understanding.

Airlines have to play “good cop / bad cop” all the time.  Delayed flights, changed gates, bag restrictions — they do it all day.

Yet, most airlines don’t fully understand the game.  They’re correct in not letting passengers interact with the “bad cop.”  But isn’t “good cop” supposed to be your friend?

Fake work pain

Fake work is exhausting.  Pretend to be busy.  Pretend to be engaged.  Pretend to be annoyed, maybe.

But for all the effort it takes to do the fake work charade, shouldn’t there be a better way to get through the crappy 9-5?

An online class.  A blog you’re writing for.  An event you’re planning.

That stuff is less effort than fake work.  And certainly less exhausting, right?

What do you like here?

Restaurant servers have all the answers.  What’s in it?  What does it come with?  What does it pair well with?

The best question to ask a server, however, is not factual.  It’s their opinion.

“What do you like here?”

Get their opinion.  Lower their guard.  Start a conversation.

It’s usually fun.  And, since it’s not merely the server regurgitating what they memorized during training, it usually uncovers the best stuff on the menu.

Pop-in ideas

Ideas pop-in all the time.  The concern about pop-in ideas is not, “Is it good?”  Nor is it, “Will it work?”

The concern about pop-in ideas is, “Will I forget?”

So why not write ’em down?  95% chance you’ll never act upon that wonderful pop-in idea.  But there’s a 100% chance you won’t worry about forgetting it.

Do you have your player’s card?

Daily stats.  Looking at your daily stats is so tempting.

What does the scale say this morning?  How many clicks are we at so far?  How close am I to a triple-double?

Looking at daily stats is like going to the casino.  Fun, maybe.  But it depends on how the cards are falling.

What’s certain about daily trips to the casino?  It will eat away at your soul.

Who’s motivation is it anyway?

How could they?  What could possibly motivate them to act like that?  Happens to everyone.

Being asked to take on a new role at work?  What’s motivating them to ask for the switch?

Being treated poorly at the airport?  What’s motivating them to do this to me?

Being offered free services that normally aren’t free?  What’s their motivation?

Well, who cares about their motivation?  It shouldn’t motivate your decision, reaction, or appreciation.  Right?

[UPDATE] Who’s is embarrassingly spelled wrong.  It should be whose. Thanks, @ERGreenberg.  Sorry, Ms Ocar and Mrs Peterson.   I’m leaving it.

Cruising altitude

What do you do every morning on autopilot?  Drive to work?  Your morning shower routine?  A 30 minute run?

Having to figure these things out every morning would be exhausting.  New route to work every day?  Getting cleaned up in a different order every day?  Changing the duration and path for your run every day?

Exhausting.

Same thing with making breakfast.

Figure out 1 breakfast to make.  Turn on autopilot.  And basically, go back to sleep.

Just like the real pilots.

Knowledge, power, names

Looks can be deceiving.  And so can names.

Burger King’s new fries, Satisfries, are deceiving.  So they’re low fat, apparently.  But what if you knew they should be called “Chemicalfries?”

Starbuck’s Pumpkin Spice Latte is deceiving.  It should probably be called Pumpkin Syrup Latte. All these years, I thought it was just the pumpkin spice giving it flavor.  Now I make this #PSL instead.

Facebook is deceiving.  Once I really understood its power to be an anxiety-inducing false reality, I used it a lot less.

Yes, knowledge about a name can be restrictive.  And challenging.  Especially when it means avoiding fries, PSL’s, and Facebook.

But isn’t knowledge power?