Look, you get born, you keep your head down, and then you die. If you’re lucky.

#fedi22

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  • 142 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 14th, 2023

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  • Back in 2012 my family and I flew home to the UK from Portugal and landed at London City.

    We happened to be on the same flight as the UK Olympic athletics team. All super nice people. Better still, because of the athletes we got a priority passport control queue and the quickest baggage reclaim I’ve ever experienced - the bags were on the carousel before we even got there.

    So, yeah, really enjoyed London City Airport but I definitely recommend flying with a team of Olympeans whenever possible.






  • Saddleback Leather springs to mind. Their stuff is expensive but they have a 100 year warranty and their tag line is “They’ll fight over it when you’re dead”. I have a couple of their bags, belts, and wallets. I don’t expect to ever need to replace them.

    First thing I bought from them was a briefcase back in 2011. About three years after I bought it one of the steel D-Rings for the strap failed and they paid courier fees for me to return the briefcase from the UK, replaced the part, cleaned the bag up, and sent it back, no questions asked.

    Full disclosure: 1) they’re an American company which might put some off buying in the current climate and 2) the founder is a devout Christian which might put others off but none of their products have ever tried to make me a believer so I’m ok with it.







  • I think it’s short-termism combined with capitalism.

    Capitalism tells people that success equals money. Short-termism tells people to focus on how much they can grab right now.

    Look at the actions of C-suite level people. They do what they can to increase profits this year to get a massive bonus this year. If that means laying off half the company that’s ok because they’re incentivised to maximise profits now. So they do. The next year they’re off to a different job at a different company and they will get that job because “When I was CEO of Mongoose & Felcher I increased YOY global profit by 270%”. Their focus is never on the actual well-being of the company or its employees or on the social or environmental impact of the company because their bonus isn’t dependent on those things.

    Politicians are much the same. If they’re not in power they want to get into power. If they are in power they have to act as quickly as possible to achieve their aims because they might only be in power for a single term.

    One of my favourite ‘business’ ideas came from Gus Levy who was CEO of Goldman Sachs back in the 1970s. He came up with the term ‘long-term greedy.’ The idea was that you dealt fairly and honestly with your clients, never gouged them, kept your word, and did a good job. Sure, you might make slightly less profit from those clients this year but you would keep them as clients next year too.

    No-one seems to be long-term greedy anymore.