Monthly Archives: December 2007

sunny people verses angry people, lovers verses haters

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People get very passionate about their causes, their religion, their business. People are awesome that way.

Some passionate people are “sunny” and others are “angry”. Not surprisingly, I’ve always gravitated toward those who are sunny.

There are sunny Republicans (Schwarzenegger) and angry Republicans (DeLay). There are sunny religious leaders (Rick Warren) and angry ones (Farrakhan). There are sunny technology blogs (TechCrunch) and angry ones (gossip blogs).

And while more optimists are sunny and more pessimists are angry, there ARE plenty of angry optimists and sunny pessimists. But sunny people are far more pleasant to be around. They may be just as passionate, just as intense, but they usually have a deeper love of humanity.

Sunny people are lovers. They enjoy the success of others … in fact, they celebrate others’ successes. They trust others. Innocent until proven guilty. People in Silicon Valley tend to lovers.

Angry people are haters. They can’t stand the success of others and want to bring those people down. They’re jealous of innovation and attention that isn’t directed to them. They’re suspicious that everyone is trying to screw them over and take them for a ride. Guilty until proven innocent. A lot of people in New York and L.A. are really angry.

Great American leaders are generally sunny. Great Russian leaders are generally angry.

Roosevelt (both of them), Reagan, Kennedy, Eisenhower, and Clinton were sunny. Nixon and Johnson were angry. (Ford, Carter, and the Bushes are not entirely sunny nor angry). Mike Huckabee has ridden up in the polls because he is sunny while Sam Brownback (both with similar ideology) faltered because he wasn’t perceived as a lover. John Kerrey was angry in 2004 (which is, my theory, why he lost when he should have won). John Edwards is an interesting candidate – he can be a lover and a hater both in the same day (and sometimes in the same debate).

If you’re liberal, you are angry if you hate George W. Bush but you are sunny if you hate the war in Iraq. If you are conservative, you are angry if you hate Hilary Clinton but you are sunny if you hate her plan to raise taxes. Demonizing people – whether it be the President of the U.S. or an ethnic group is what haters do. Lovers debate ideas.

Are sunny people more successful that angry people? Not sure. They are certainly happier. Angry people have a real sad life.

If you have a choice, be a lover, not a hater.

book: Applebee’s America

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Link: Amazon.com: Applebee’s America: How Successful Political, Business, and Religious Leaders Connect with the New American Community: Books: Ron Fournier,Douglas B. Sosnik,Matthew J. Dowd.

this is a good book about microtargeting.    worth reading — especially if you are interested in the most innovative technology in the 2004 election (and sure to be widely used in 2008).

book: Blind Side — by Michael Lewis

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Blind Side — by Michael Lewis

This is the tale about football but also about overcoming obstacles and an inspiring story of Michael Oher — currently the left tackle at Ole Miss and likely future first-round NFL first-round draft pick. Michael Lewis is also the author of Moneyball, Liar’s Poker, and the New New Thing — he continues to be one of my favorite authors (my other two favorites are Malcolm Gladwell and Niall Ferguson).

I highly recommend this book.

why isn’t there more counterfeit cash?

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Why aren’t their more counterfeit organizations? According to the Secret Service, only 0.02% of all bills circulating in the U.S. are counterfeit (though they claim that about 70% of U.S. bills circulating in Russia might be counterfeit). My question: what doesn’t this happen more often?

Just a small number of counterfeit bills could absolutely undermine the U.S. economy. Some rogue countries like North Korea supposedly have factories that churn our counterfeit dollars. How come so few come to market?

We have people successfully smuggling drugs into this country – why can’t they smuggle in cash?

First, let’s look at the manufacturing problem. Manufacturing good fakes (especially of the new bills) is extremely difficult. But a country like north korea (which can make nuclear weapons) surely can develop the technology to create good fakes. And these fakes don’t have to be perfect – they just have to fool most of the people most of the time.

Second, let’s tackle the distribution problem. This is probably the reason why fake bills are not as prevalent in our society. But it isn’t that insurmountable. You’d think a sophisticated intelligence network like north korea, al Qaeda, or the Medellin Cartel could make a deal with a U.S. distribution partner.

So why aren’t their hundreds of billions of new dollars flowing into the U.S. every year? Maybe the only reason is that they are too bulky. A brick or 20 dollar bills is worth a heck of a lot less than a brick of cocaine. But that doesn’t seem insurmountable either.

I hope there are other reasons why counterfeiting isn’t rampant. I look forward to any comments.

TV is the next chocolate cake

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There is an increasing band of people who have eschewed television in their homes. I know dozens of these brave souls. But these people don’t abhor TV … on the contrary, they are enchanted and addicted to it. TV, for them, is heroin … just a little taste might lead to an overdose.

This Television Anonymous tribe often has cut their cable wire and donated their TV to an unsuspected sap. I’m one of these unfortunate people. Put me in front of a TV and I’m absolutely mesmerized. I cannot do anything else except watch it … my self-control goes out the door.

So just like the person on a diet who would never store a big chocolate cake in her fridge, we television addicts get rid of our drug entirely.

There are times when we still get sucked in. like when YouTube first came out and videos of dogs on skateboards where still entertaining. But luckily, those days are long-gone and the number of cool videos to noise ratio on YouTube has rapidly disintegrated.

And occasionally, we get trapped in hotel rooms blaring 16 different HBO channels and end up staying up all night watching reruns of Entourage.

But those occasional lapses remind us to keep up our resolve … and as our television is burning we actually go to bed on time, read a book, and occasionally even forget the theme music to the A-Team.