David Michael Bruno

The Economics of Our Bad Economy

This post almost fits into my series, Portraits of Our Economic Meltdown. It is not so much about a product or company, though.

Instead, I would like to encourage you to spend a bit of time listening to two presentations about the nature of our economy. I am a strong believer that understanding helps to change behavior. Both of these presentations will help you understand the nature of our American economy that has collapsed. Both will help you understand that the way we pursue economic well being is not sustainable. So if you're interested...

Dr. Paul Mills speaks at Capital Hill Baptist Church (Make it through the introduction of Dr. Mills, which I found kind of annoying. Dr. Mills is British, so you'll recognize him after he is introduced.) H/T Between Two Worlds

Umair Haque presentation at BRITE '09 (and consider reading Umair's blog, at the Harvard Business Publishing site, too)

Basically, the economy we've been running for quite some time is one in which the primary formula is: overly optimistic claims of economic growth have been built on top of unreal values. Both the inflated notions of growth and value have been driven by greed. The apparent success of this economic system has motivated those who have profited to devise ever-more deceptive ways of manufacturing optimistic growth numbers built on top of unreal values.

The house of cards has fallen. And it is quite possible they're on fire, too. Ashes, ashes is a very realistic outcome in another year or so. Granted, that does not sound like pleasant listening. Yet both presentations find areas for hopefulness. I especially like Dr. Mills' presentation and his emphasis on our ability to be responsible in our personal lives.

New Thing - 100 Thing Challenge Update

I am now at 97 things total. Today on the way home from work, I dropped by the Apple store and bought a microphone. According to my seven year old daughter, the microphone should not count as a thing, because it is not technically mine. The reason "we" (Leanne and I) bought it is because we are going to start podcasting. We've wanted to for a while. And now we've made a commitment that has included purchasing some technology in support of our plans.

The "Schooled In Marriage" podcast will probably first appear in the summer some time. Right now we are working on some test runs, ironing out kinks and format and our own radio personalities.

More soon...

Guilty as Tweeted

The timing of Nicholas Carr's short post about The fickle Twitterer was apropos in my online life. No, I will not be abandoning Twitter, at least, not any time soon. Carr's thoughts on Twitter merely coincided with some Twitter interaction I had recently. Here's what happened.

A person whom I highly respect, a professional with a lot of talent and business creativity, pointed out that Twitter is a great place to get to know the "real" person you are following. Really? I questioned. Well, turns out he has been able to develop some "amazing relationships" on Twitter. Really? I thought.

To be fair, he clarified that Twitter has allowed him access to executives who would normally be off limits. So "amazing relationships" probably means something closer to "actual contact of some sort."

I got to thinking. Back in the day when I used to be a Recruiter for a living, it took a lot of balls to pick up the phone and call a high-powered executive. First of all, she or he didn't want to talk to me. Second of all, she or he wasn't going to answer the phone. Third of all, if for some reason she or he did get on the phone, it was going to be uncomfortable. Every now-again, though, I got the chance to run into an executive I wanted to connect with at some function or at a restaurant where I was having lunch with someone else. In those times, we were both a bit more human. As long as I didn't push the "I'm working and want a chance to talk to you" boundaries, things went well. The untouchable executive could observe (assuming I did my part) me being a competent and likable person. Down the road, as work opportunities called, I might stand a better chance of connecting.

Twitter, it seems to me, has made the whole process of gaining access to people who normally avoid contact with most everyone, a little bit easier. But I'm not convinced that easier is always better.

I have this rule in my life, which I sometimes follow and more often fail to implement very well in my day-day routine. Call it Dave's Rule of Commonality. It goes like this: I listen to myself out of the corner of my ears and watch myself out of the corner of my eyes; if I hear or see myself doing something that sounds common, I question myself. Should I be sounding or looking like that? If the answer is "yes" - well then I move on. But if the answer is "maybe not" - then I try to get myself to pause and ask, "Why?"

In the online Web 2.0, social, viral, texted, status-crazy world, common is the quickest way to...

You thought I was going to say something like "irrelevance" or "stagnation." But I didn't say any of those things. What I want to say is that getting too comfortable with the common ideas and practices fosters a lack of discernment and creativity. I can find anywhere from 5 to 100 tips from social networking experts on how to use Twitter to revolutionize my life and career. But you know? You know what has revolutionized my life and career?

Sometimes, way back when, an executive actually answered the phone. She or he was not ticked off to talk to me. In fact, so long as I respected the time and circumstances, she or he gave the impression of being glad to talk to me. 140 characters to stay in touch with lesser mortals hardly seems revolutionary to me.

I am not saying that Twitter and other social networking tools are worthless. Actually I'm trying to say (once again) more than I can say in a blog post. More soon...

Amazing Music Video

Coldplay - Life In Technicolor II from Rury Gonzalez on Vimeo.

I'm not a huge music fan. Some people know every song from every band and, I expect, every video ever recorded. What do I know? This is a really really funny video. Probably the best music video I've ever seen.

HT: Cory (are you blogging anymore?)

100 Thing Challenge - Purchases I'm Considering

With all my recent talk about how the 100 Thing Challenge is making me austere, I figured I should also point out how the needs and desires of consumerism remain present in my life. This could be boring, but figured I'd admit it. Some things on my consumer-mind include:

I "need" new running/hiking shoes. Leanne gives me a hard time, every time I mention this. But the truth of the matter is that, despite being sort of lazy these days and growing something of a mid-life belly and having only done one of the hoped for nine adventures of 2009, my trail shoes are starting to come undone. I could use new ones. REI just gave moi a 20% off coupon, so it could be time to act on this "need."

I "want" new work shoes. My general-purpose brown work shoes are kind of showing their age. I'm not sure they were the best in the first place. This is sort of a "pressure" purchase. The truth of the matter is that other people notice things like shoes. Frankly, despite what snoots and traditionalists think, I'm Southern California to the core, and if wearing flip flops to work does not hinder anything but uppity notions of proper attire, I say, "Who cares?" I have known a lot -- a lot -- of people who dress right, but don't work right. Look good. Work bad. Oh, well. Not sure what to do on this one. I might keep my eyes open for a nice pair of brown shoes to replace my current pair.

I "want" to subscribe to the U2.com website. It's $50 a year and will allow me to listen to all their music, refreshing my lyric memory in anticipation of the concert I'll be attending later this year. This also fits into my personal (I know that I am completely at odds with the entire world here) opinion about music, namely, that we really don't have any right to own it. I'm not saying that we should pay significant amounts of money per song played. But let's face it, a hundred years ago we all paid every time we heard our favorite concerts, live. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that this purchase would not be a "thing." It wouldn't even fit into that fuzzy category of buying and downloading a digital thing on iTunes. So I'm giving it consideration.

I "want" and maybe "need" some replacement clothes. I could use some replacement button-down work shirts. It would do well for me to replace one of my pairs of jeans, which are all thrashed. And I kind of want a sweatshirt. Mostly, I could use a couple of new shirts to replace old grubby ones.

I'm trying to think if there is anything else that I need or want. Today I was tempted to buy an unnecessary item for the first time in a while. After running out of .7mm mechanical pencil lead, I went to the store to buy refills and they were all out. Unbelievable! But they did have 1mm pencil lead, which was nearly irresistible. I hate skinny leaded mechanical pencils. So I almost looked for a new 1mm mechanical pencil, but fought off the temptation. (Yes, I'm both laughing at myself and embarrassed to admit that this was the big temptation of my day. Martin Luther would scold me.)

Please encourage me with stories of consumer desires that don't make me seem so lame...