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Ten Rules for Being Human by Cherie Carter-Scott

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The Drainer: The Overzealous, Not So Positive Facebook User

Facebook is a great way to connect with friends and your peers.  We all know that and we all use it in very different ways.

Recently I was reminded of a particular type of Facebook user that I termed The Drainer.  This user has the following characteristics:

1) Fires off status updates in such rapid succession that your feed is full of their updates.
2) Always comments or likes almost every one of your status updates, links, etc.
3) Their comments are expressing an opinion that criticizes you for your actions (feels like being scolded).
4) They often miss the point of your update which proves they are out of the loop.
5) They often sound like your mother when they offer advice.

These are the people that kill a great conversation.  For Instance, you make a status update about how great a party it was, but that you were feeling a little hung over.  All of your friends are commenting on the fun time they had and then the Drainer hits, leaving a smart-ass comment about controlling your drinking and how stupid it is that you are hung over.  That just kills the conversation right there.

While it is possible to block them, blocking seems extreme since they do, on occasion, contribute some meaningful status updates.  Telling them nicely offline to keep their opinion to themselves might be possible but the drainer might take it the wrong way.  I decided to just ignore them and continue interacting with my "friends."

This really boils down to Facebook etiquette: 

1) I only comment on status updates that I can add value to or offer support of. 
2) If I can't find anything cool to say, I will simply "like" it. 
3) I keep my comments positive and will only criticize if I can offer them a reasonable and meaningful solution.
4) Respect your 'friends' privacy... always commenting/liking on everything is like calling them every ten minutes to tell something, which is a great way to be unfriended.
5) Think of every comment as a broadcast to the entire world, saying negative things only makes YOU look bad to the world.

Has anyone else experienced the Drainer?   Any further etiquette rules to share?

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Popular Pizza Toppings by The Pioneer Woman Cooks

via thepioneerwoman.com

The Pioneer Woman recently held a contest about pizzas. They compiled the toppings by mention and the pie chart above is the result. looks like people love pepperoni, bacon, mushrooms, and sausage on their pizza the most.

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Balance, Don't Forget It!

Balance is one of those things that I think a lot of people go through life without.  It applies to just about everything and can be hard to achieve.  In fact, we often forget to look for the balance in every situation.

Here are some examples:

1) Horseback Riding - The rider must balance their weight on the saddle.  Lean too far right or left and you risk falling off.  Lean too far forward descending a steep hill and you risk tumbling forward, horse and all. Constantly maintaining balance in the saddle is the key to happy horses and happy riders.

2) Triathlons - During a triathlon, the triathlete is balancing speed with energy exertion, meaning that you want to finish in the fastest time possible but still have energy left to make it across the finish line.  Fail at fueling your body correctly or pushing yourself too hard and your performance will show it.  Balance the speed and energy to be a successful triathlete.

3) Swimming - The key to moving through the water is perfect balance, which creates minimal drag.  Michael Phelps (sorry, you can't talk about swimming and not mention him) is somewhat of a scrawny guy, but his success comes from finding the most streamlined position and movements in the water.  Phelps does not need power when he is not losing speed to drag; he just needs enough to maintain.   Balance makes you a happy, efficient swimmer.

4) Nutrition - Eating lots of one thing, really doesn't work for the human body.  In fact, the phrase concerning moderation is right on.  Eating a balance of vegetables, fruits, proteins, and fats is the key to feeling great and losing weight.

5) Personal and Professional Life - Working too much can lead to burn out.  Not working enough can lead to bankruptcy and foreclosure. Not having enough fun can lead to depression.  Not exercising enough and eating too much can lead to obesity. I think you know where I am going with this.  Life balance is about getting paid to do something you enjoy, hanging out with the people that make you laugh, going to the symphony, and even sweating a lot playing basketball or running through the neighborhood.  Finding balance in life can be difficult and many die never having it. 

As you are reading this, ask yourself, Where is the balance in this moment?  Is the lighting just right?  Is your chair comfortable? What can you do to bring balance to the moment?

When you get up tomorrow, keep balance in mind all day.  Observe your world and find the places that you may have forgotten where balance exists or needs to exist. 

DON'T FORGET IT!

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How Do You Know It Is Time To Start Clean?

Life is one giant circle.  Seeing life as a linear graph just does not work for me.  Here is why:

1) The calendar is a revolving set of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, and months.

2) The sun comes up and the sun goes down, everyday.

3) Businesses operate on a quarter system, meaning every 3 months, the same planning processes are restarted.

4) The hands on an old school analog watch, go in circles.

5) The earth is round and you can circle for years and never see the whole thing.

Very much like watches, days, quarters, and the earth, our careers are circular.  With each new challenge, we face it head-on, conquer it, and then move on to the next one, building our networks, skills, and experience with each cycle.  

It is the end of a cycle that most intrigues me.  At this point, you start to realize that the next cycle does not tickle your fancy like it did previously.

For some, the constant need for new and bigger challenges often dictates their next step.  It is almost too human of a need to be challenged and when that does not happen, human feels bruised.  Granted there are circumstances beyond our control, but when the circumstances beyond our control supercede the challenge, the human needs to start clean again. 

Starting clean means new environments, new systems, new people, new seeds, and even new watches, but you can't alienate the old. Afterall, we are building upon the old.

The very thought of knowing when to start clean can be a fascinating challenge in itself, proving that starting clean, is the right thing. Be human, it is okay to start clean.

How do YOU know when it is time to start clean?  Please leave a comment, I am very interested in everyone's view on this subject.

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Collaboration, Do You Have It?

Collaboration.  It is a powerful word. 

Cities are built on Collaboration.

Business rely on Collaboration.

The future of your career depends on Collaboration.

According to Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers", some of the most intelligent people go untapped because of their isolation.  It seems the truly successful outliers were well connected with those that helped them take the steps toward world success. They had collaboration.

Collaboration is what you need to use to do anything large successfully.  Afterall, two heads are better than one.

If you don't use it, you will find yourself in very different circumstances. 

I think I will make that phone call to a friend that had a great idea to help our community. 

How about you?  How are you going to collaborate today?

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Flickr Photo Download: 50 Years of Space Exploration

via flickr.com

Visualizing information is a powerful way to communicate. A good graphic artists is a must for any analytics department. The above graphic is astonishing.

1) I see that the moon is the most visited planet.
2) There have been two space craft that went to multiple planets.
3) Mars is the second most visited plant.
4) The sun has been visited more often than I thought.

Overall, Awesome graphic depicting a ton of fascinating information.

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Those Long Days

Those Long Days seem to last forever. 

The task list never seems to get smaller. 

The email piles up.

Three crisis happen at the same time.

Your voicemail is full.

The database is still refreshing.

Lunch just didn't seem filling.

There are no Chips Ahoy in the break room.

The coffee tastes like it has been there for years.

The air conditioning vent targets you and you only.

Yet, you perservere and come back the next day. 

Yep, those long days are just part of the fun!

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Data: Confidence in Metrics

Metrics are the individual numbers that relate to other numbers that tell a story. Often, these are the numbers that people of all levels of the company use to make decisions. 

If a company has a firm grasp of their metrics, fully understand their engine, and have reporting in the right places, there can be some pretty impressive looking dashboards available that tell the health of business at a glance.

However, those fabulous looking metrics and dashboards might be completely meaningless if the there is a broken link between the customer touch point and the data server.  As companies grow, data grows exponentially and marketing landing pages pile up on the server, there is more and more potential for something to break.  Undetected breakage can kill a company! 

The best way to resolve this is to assume that the entire system is broken and one must test, test, and test again.  Keeping records at the major data transfer points is one way to keep track of records dropping out and why.  Doing routine quality checks on the data is also a way to keep confidence levels up. 

Knowing the data, the trends, and the engine is a great way to detect breakage.  If sales from search take a dive and they have been consistent for the past three years, maybe something broke... maybe your campaigns need a refresh.  A good analyst usually has great instinct on the issues. 

Patience in drilling down, slicing and dicing, and becoming intiment with your data is the only way to understand it, make sure it works, and that the story is non-fiction as opposed to some strange, poorly written fiction novel.

How confident are you in your metrics? Is it fiction or non-fiction?

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Being Genius

Being genuis is not hard.

Being genius takes patience.

Being genius does not make you better than anyone.

Being genius requires you to listen, and listen well.

Being genius needs great communication.

Being genius is not what you are, but what you do.

Being genius means you do it just a little bit differently.

Being genius can be you!

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