Author Archives: David Truss

Profits and wages

It’s easy to see that capitalism is broken. Oil & gas, food, delivery, and online shopping companies have had record high profits shared with their shareholders in the past few years, while the workers in the same companies fight for a living wage. And the gaps get bigger. One thing not always recognized is that even when a ‘decent’ wage increase happens, it often benefits the wealthier employees more.

Here is a simple example of a company giving everyone a 7% wage increase. This is what it translates to:

  • A $25,000 a year employee gets an additional $1,750 before taxes.
  • A $40,000 a year employee gets an additional $2,800 before taxes.
  • A $75,000 a year employee gets an additional $5,250 before taxes.
  • A $150,000 a year employee gets an additional $10,500 before taxes.

The end result is that the gap gets bigger.

I believe that there is room in the world for social democracy. That we can lift the wages at the bottom without undermining a company. The only thing stopping this is the expectations of shareholders. Companies need to be beholden to their employees and customers first, and then shareholders.

I don’t see a workable way forward to fix the broken shareholder model, but it is undermining the balance between work and life in a free and democratic society. Surely the well-being of a company’s employees has to matter more than lining shareholder pockets… because it seems to be more and more of an either/or scenario, and the shareholders seem to be winning.

Superconductors and aliens

What a crazy bit of news out the last couple days! Ambient temperature and pressure superconductors could change the world and so too could the admission that we are not alone in the universe. Both of these are things that deserve scrutiny and further evidence. That said, what an exciting time to be alive.

Room temperature superconductivity has been a physics Nobel Prize waiting to happen. So much of the energy we use is lost in transmission. Furthermore, this invention will make nuclear fusion containable, without significant cost and dangers of a breach because superconductors used for plasma containment won’t need to sustain unbelievably cold temperatures next to an extremely hot process. In other words, energy is about to get a lot easier to produce and share.

As for aliens, I think there is enough evidence to say that there are flying vehicles that do things human-made vehicles can’t. Whether aliens are in these vehicles or if they are run remotely (they pull some high g-force moves that would destroy a human), they are definitely not human made. So what are they, and who/what made them?

I’m mixing my enthusiasm with a dose of scepticism, but unlike most other news stories, these are two I’m going to be watching!

Fictional assassins

I’m reading one of Mark Greaney’s Gray Man books, Sierra Six. It’s a spy novel with a rogue CIA agent fighting against evil terrorists. It brings to life how a handful of people can wreak havoc in the world.

It also makes me think about a few other things:

1. We like to support an underdog.

2. Vigilantes with a virtuous agenda make great underdogs.

3. Nefarious criminals have the upper hand in that most people don’t expect others to act in an evil way, and so bad scenarios are harder to defend against.

4. Assassins have amazing technology at their disposal, and I’m surprised more assassinations don’t happen.

On this last point, don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to live a world where vigilantes and assassins take justice into their own hands, but I also don’t want criminals doing the same… and criminals doing this are far more likely than good people.

How long before we see a political figure being killed by a drone, or from a weapon more than a mile away? What kind of world would we live in where any political figure needs to constantly think about personal threats to themselves when out in public?

I know that books like this are about larger than life heroes, victims, and criminals, but the technology described in these books are usually real and/or possible. I know most people are smart enough to know that the vast majority of criminals get caught, and a life of crime doesn’t usually pay. But it only takes a few angry people to really disrupt the world we live in… and there are specific tragedies we can all think of that prove this.

Fictional assassins tend to have intelligence, physical strength, and top of the line high tech tools. Real assassins probably aren’t the full package that makes a storybook character, but they are probably getting access to similar weaponry. The threats they could pose are only getting worse. We shouldn’t need to live in fear, but we should never doubt the threat of people willing to do bad things for bad reasons. And maybe, just maybe, a vigilante do-good-er could come out of fictional imagination and into the real world to make the world a safer place.

Now back to my book!

Follow the Thread

The first social media app that I fully engaged with was Twitter. Of course, back in 2007 it wasn’t an app, it was a website. And in the early days it would often crash. I was so enamoured that I wouldn’t miss a tweet in my timeline. I’d come home from work and scroll from my last read tweet forward until I was ‘caught up’. And along the way I’d click on links, and read blog posts my friends shared, and even go to their sites to comment. Sometimes I’d end up with 12-15 tabs open and the catching up would take me over an hour.

I’d go to conferences and meet people I only knew through Twitter and I’d feel like I was meeting old friends. My connections were down to earth and very real. I loved the richness of the conversation and learning that happened on Twitter.

Then it changed.

It went from friendships to engagement, from conversation to activity, from a tool I spent time on to a tool I transmit to.

Now Meta has come out with Threads. Maybe the conversation is coming back. Maybe. But my time investment won’t be there unless I’m pulled there by others. Sure, I created an account, and yes, I’m interested to see where it could go. But it would require others drawing me in to make it something I use regularly. I’m not investing the time to making it work for me.

I’m just that much more selfish with my time now. I don’t have time for angry posts and outrage. I don’t care about building a follow-ship. I am not interested in clicking a link to see an image or video on another platform… which ironically someone on social media needs to do to fully read my Daily-Ink. In short, I’m not willing to put the time and energy into yet another social media platform, unless I see an immediate and positive engagement… and that doesn’t happen until a spend time on the platform.

So, I’m more likely to watch the threads fray than I am to stitch together a profile that I’m willing to wear. Threads is probably headed to my laundry basket of apps I never put on.

95% off

This isn’t about a discount, it’s about holidays. Today I had to order more licenses for our online language courses, and I also had to follow up on contacting an employee about making their position full time with me. Neither of these things took a long time. Neither of them are a problem, they both lead to positive outcomes. Neither of them could be done by someone else right now. They also both come to me while I’m at a campground on holidays.

[I stopped writing this earlier and was reminded to get back to it after a work related text message and subsequent email.]

It’s not a big deal, and yet it is. It’s me on 95% holidays and not 100%. It’s me not turning completely off, but rather having a slow drip that keeps my fingers wet from my work.

I am glad that I have the job that I do. I was a Starbucks manager before getting into education. I can’t imagine my life being happier if I stayed in positions like that. But sometimes I really wish my holidays gave me that last 5%. I sometimes really wish that when I got home after a work day that my job was 100% done until I arrived the next morning.

I’m enjoying myself. I won’t let the little things I dealt with disrupt the rest of my day. The holiday time is great and I’m making the most of it. It’s just some times I wish I got to have that last 5%.

View points

The saying goes:

“There are many paths to the top of a mountain, but the view from the summit is the same.”

However in reality it’s the journey that matters. Everyone can see the same things from the peak, but what was the path there? How enjoyable was it?

How many view points did you stop at?

That’s a question from two points of view, each with a very different perspective.

Errands day

Some days are just task after task. The day feels slow then you look back and realize that it was a good day filled with small accomplishments.

My favourite thing to do with errands is to listen to a book. Something like watering plants suddenly feels like it’s worthwhile doing. But some tasks pull me away from my book and I find myself rewinding to re-listen at times. Still, this isn’t work, it’s errands. And if I’m searching through camping gear and forget that I’m also listening to a book, that’s ok.

Getting stuff done always feels good after the fact. Check a few things off of the ‘to do’ list, and listen to a good spy novel while I’m at it… sounds like a pretty good summer day to me.

Gut Biome

As we learn more about our bodies, it seems that our minds are not 100% in control of our decision-making. Some things like craving of sugar could actually be influenced by our gut biome. Give your body a lot of sugar, and that changes your gut biome. Then your gut biome signals the brain to get more sugar to feed not just you, but the billions of little sugar-craving creatures in your gut.

We don’t often think of living a symbiotic relationship with the bacteria in our stomach. However, that’s what we do. Tiny microbes in our stomachs influence our thinking, and we comply. We live in symbiosis, happily cooperating for mutual benefit… or at least mutual gain.

The next time you feel a craving, ask yourself, ‘Am I really wanting this food, or is it just the bacteria in my gut making the request?”

Performances and life

We watched The Prom last night at Theatre Under The Stars (TUTS). It was an excellent performance, with clever comedy and fun songs. It was also a nice, cool night for outdoor theatre. My wife and I had a wonderful night out.

This morning I thought a little bit about the play’s theme: “The musical follows four Broadway actors lamenting their days of fame, as they travel to the conservative town of Edgewater, Indiana, to help a lesbian student banned from bringing her girlfriend to high school prom.”

While the town is fictional, I can’t help but be disappointed that this story doesn’t play in my mind as an era piece. It doesn’t come off as a 1960’s hick, small town story from yesteryear. Instead, it feels incredibly relevant to some of the stories coming out of small towns, and whole states, south of our Canadian border.

That equality and equity are still basic rights being fought for today is sad to the point of tragic. That there is relevance to the play’s message, and it’s not a piece about a long gone era is upsetting. However this was based on a similar story in a small town in Mississippi in 2010.

2010!

Good theatre tells stories that are relevant, I just wish this performance was less relevant today, and more of a historical telling.

Holiday from the holiday

Ever find that the day after a holiday is a day of recovery? It’s like needing a holiday to rest up from your holiday. I did a few necessary errands, but it’s taken me the whole day to get to my workout and now to writing, and I still haven’t meditated. It’s almost 5pm and I’m making frozen waffles for lunch.

That said, it’s date night at the theatre tonight and so it’s still going to be a great day overall. Yet I can’t help but feel like today was a recovery day. Just wondering if it’s only me or do others struggle with the after-holiday ‘blahs’ even though it feels good to be home?