Thang Nguyen 555

At work, at play or at home, one brings his/her whole being, warp and weakness, to bear. Therefore:

You play long; they play short (Bill Clinton made an observation that in one’s life career, a worker has to switch jobs 7 times. Of late, I overheard 4-years was a good “run”. Do the math!).

You wait and watch; they make it happen.

You weigh the importance of a decision i.e. life vs work balance, opportunity cost, the road not taken. They push for urgency via forced choices (y/n pathway). All because you still struggle in our human psychological and physical world, while they have moved on to digital and virtual world.

You dig deep into context and nuance; they are hot on being in the know (of late people are bumping into each other, with no eye-contact for fear of missing out, that “conversation” in the ether).

You are a team player (in the age of AI and remote work, hard for people-oriented folks); they look out to be number one (type A and task-oriented, current desirable trait combo). Numbers on the board. Bigger COLA and EBITDA.

You think disagreement are to be avoided (for the sake of harmony); they are conversation-toppers to dismiss you with final say (time is money): King of the Hill, no time to pick up a shiny “lucky” penny. Speed of thought.

You seem to “fall short”, hence better get with the “program” i.e. hustle to work the law of average.

You pride yourself in being a realist; they talk the dream, with confidence of a con “producer” who swindles hundreds of dollars out of hundreds of little old ladies, intentionally and knowingly plays the system i.e. a flop benefits more per tax code.

You lose; they win (sale leads inherited/stolen from laid-off colleagues).

Then they got promoted – as should be – beyond their level of competency (Peter’s principle). Fast in/fast out- (the Happiness curve takes on a Bell-shape, not hockey-stick’s. What goes up must come down, the higher the climb, the harder the fall. Bernie who?)

After all, while you focus on the steak they sell the sizzle. Right! yesterday we’re prospects. Today customers. Sizzle always settles down. Where? at Wendy. “Where is the beef!” (product integrity).

Then comes time to be forced out, whitewash history, cook the books and cash out via legacy make-over (post- sanitorium self-aggrandizing reputation rehab, edited “eulogy” version – in David Brooks’ term – employing hungry ghost writers, AI assisted writing tools). “I am not a crook!” (the American people ought to know that, certainly all along among the Silent Majority).

That which is unsustainable will always be unsustainable e.g. Cold War, World War or Longest War. Per long arc of history, we’re lucky to be registered a footnote or dot in our family tree.

Only the poor will always be with you, at the border or out on the street. Mr. Rogers no longer hummed: “it’s a beautiful in the neighborhood”, or more playfully, “something strange in the neighborhood…who are you going to call…” all along avoiding eye-contact with local homeless.

The long loneliness.

They play it short e.g. pausing the machine, shutting it down, furlough and merger, severance and OT. Winner-takes-all society. The K-shaped economy.

“Don’t give the dog a donut”…. Some are born to be wired. Others to beg or die at an early age (malnutrition, ill-educated and lack of vaccines and vulnerable to cults and sub-cultures).

You live long, at times self-sabotaging and self-inflicting @home, by default serving as an echo chamber and conduit for social media lies, internalizing past critique and criticism that happened @work. Ironically, those unscripted comments, even quarterly performance reviews, were long forgotten, as bygone as the lamp you brought back from work (Joe vs the volcano) in those Bankers boxes.

But the algorithm in the cloud doesn’t forget. Its function is to resurface “verified” version, as click baits, solicit immediate attention/emotion (to personalize for 7 trillion-dollars programmatic ads industry).

AI arrives without alarm or announcement. Slowly, surely then suddenly. Our new “electricity”.

Back then it was the laying of the Transcontinental Railroad with the Irish and Chinese coolies.

Nowadays, it’s the laying of fiber along said tracks (Wil-Tel and TCI) to extract data and dollars.

You have become what you detested. After all that self-projection and transference. Heroes and traitors, deserters and underground resistance (the Pianist).

Perception, like policies, always carried with them their own seeds of destruction (or expiration date). In Chunking Express, even pineapple in can has expiration date. Even love.

No one wants to sit through a pre-mortem exercise. Or else we wouldn’t have failed, maimed and died needlessly. La vie sans joie. Street without joy.

At work, at home or at play, conflicts are inherent. Leaders expect diverse p.o.v.’s and tension (what DOGE! to the point of complete shut-down – in the vein of “destroy to save”). Thriving in chaos they move forward after weighing the long and short of policies, to reach 75% certainty. Timing is everything (with exit strategy in mind e.g. executive buy out package). Little did they know, it’s the 25% of unknown and unintended consequences that kill you.

Those who did the most damage gets the largest leave package (to save money in the long term. Speaking of long term, SNAP is good for future generation who will in turn contribute to our dwindling Social Security and Medicare pool).

We are not perfect. This reflects in our prejudice, perception of reality and personalities/clash. We bring to the job all of ourselves, warp and weakness (Don’t you hate those bot-filtering questions about ethnic origin, handicap and military service?). Obedience to authority studies confirm this. At My Lai, we did. At Uvalde, we didn’t (some was reportedly using hand sanitizer while waiting around for the shooter to run out of ammunition or ambition).

To those who are at the very top, what transactional games? They live it like fish swimming in the water.

After a while, the real and the unreal merge like an actor deep in character. Role playing Ponzi at the top. Yes, we betrayed you. You’re now clustered in urban, sprawling around, where it’s “safer” (never mind traffic congestion due to antiquated infrastructure e.g. overcrowding sewage, fewer servers, pollution and overpopulation).

Rural vs Urban, small-town feel (eye contact) with urban amenities (Google fiber). Born to be wired. It’s best to pinpoint a fixed coordinate for control, navigation and if/when needed, drone destruction and reconstruction (Gaza or Greenland beachfront).

At work, you play long; they play short. The best outcome is a compromise.

The problem with any pursuit, work or play, is by the time you reached destination, you’re too exhausted to enjoy. Earlier expectations by then have morphed (Maslow scale applied e.g. Valley of the dolls, our main character once wished to take up marriage for security, but by the end, self-actualizing i.e. the app layer, already took hold).

Coffee and coffee. The common denominator. Even that is on the list of cost-cutting measures. Drink the Kool-Aid instead.