2catrule.com

Rule # 32: 15 minutes

I have been modestly successful in business starting a dozen companies and selling them from time to time. I get asked what the secret to success is a lot, and find my kids are always looking for the magic formula that will jump start them in the right path. I wish I could say there was an investment or course that would give them an advantage, but truthfully the answer is less challenging than that.. it comes down to 15 minutes.

In my first ” real” full-time job at Harleysville Insurance I noticed virtually everyone showed up about on-time at 8:30 am  and that the same people generally left within minutes of when work ended at 5 pm.  Yes there were a few people that came in very early or stayed very late, but 99% of the people were gone by 5:15 each day.

I also realized that the vast majority of the executives were there a little later or a little earlier- but it wasn’t like they were there till 9 pm at night… it was just a little more than the masses were doing. So I decided that I would never just get up and leave but wait till I was done what I was doing and organize my desk for the next day. That extra couple minutes at beginning and end of the day allowed me the advantage I needed to compete better at my job. It also drew attention from my bosses, they noticed me.

Of course I wasn’t subtle about getting noticed, often stopping at Dunkin prior to coming in, and grabbing 2 coffees rather than one. Nothing builds relationships like stopping by and asking if a boss would like your extra coffee or bear claw. Its the 15 minutes, the coffee, the time, the little differences that matter.

Tom Brady’s 600+ wins make him the GOAT of the game and possibly of all sports. Yes, he did sell his soul to the devil for the wins and Gisele- that’s a given. But as much as I loathed this guy in the past I see a lot of the 15 minute rule in him. During Covid he was training in the off season, he has a consistency about showing up and making a marginally greater effort than others.

This guy doesn’t run fast, have the best arm or the agility of most modern quarterbacks. He just puts in the extra 15 minutes in his game, he shows others that he is committed to the game, the team and the win. The team respects him.

I still hate him but I too have learned to respect him.

And I guess that’s what the 15 minute rule is about. Doing what is necessary to earn the respect of those you work with. The marginal differences, the few extra minutes with your head in the game makes all the difference.

This rule fits work easily, but it fits your personal relationships even more clearly.   The thing that your family wants from you most is you. Your undivided ,focused attention. If you give of 15 minutes of focused engagement with your partner and separately your kids each day your life will change dramatically.

Your family will respect you for being there that 15 minutes. Its easy to think the engagement is too big, and that you are already feeling overwhelmed by life’s demands – but that extra small bit of focused time earns respect. And after you have their respect all things are possible. Without it even the big wins will feel empty and meaningless.

Rule # 42: Ask for Help

One of the things I have noticed in developing this list of  “life rules” is that the most important rules are the simplest.  They sort of cut through the BS of life with a clarity that is self evident. This is one of those rules.

In the past week 4 of my 6 children have come to Bobbi and I for some sort of help. That might make you think that our family is in crisis or failing – but it is actually an indication of the strong health of the family. Failure would be family suffering alone, and spiraling into bigger problems.

In the United States the culture of “rugged individualism” is glorified.  Its the “pull yourself up your bootstraps”, “put on our big girl panties”, ” Yippi-Ki-YA Mother-fucker” philosophy that is reinforced as 100% American, that gets us headed down the wrong road.

Don’t get me wrong I am not becoming a ” it take a Village” liberal, all I am saying is that sometimes Tony needs to see a shrink. You can’t do it all alone.

And there is the root of the whole thing… we are not alone.

Since we were all swinging monkeys in trees we were social animals.  Animals that require the interaction with others to both survive and thrive- we were not made to be the John Waynes or John McClains of the Animal kingdom – we were meant  to interact with each other. It is only through interaction that we learn and grow.

As a father the scariest thing we face is that our children will feel lost and alone. The fear that my kids will not realize how wonderful they are and how great life can be is my greatest fatherly fear.

Before each kid left for college I gave them all the same lecture. The snowball effect talk.

I told them that when they go to college they will be faced with thousands of new distractions from relationships with roommates, to college parties, to new sexual interactions. It will all come hurdled at them at 100 mph when they least expect it. It will  be a blizzard of distractions pulling them in  every direction, and burying them in a bank of despair.

I tell them, it isn’t a question of if this will happen, but when it will happen. It may happen when you fail you first biology exam ( that’s how it happened to me) or when you realize that you are four weeks behind on a project that is due in two days.  But that storm is a coming…

I tell them to remember at those times…. ASK FOR HELP. Don’t let the snowballs start rolling, because the longer they turn in those freshly packed layers the larger they will get. Eventually they will run you over.

I tell them that to know this before you even walk on campus. Start thinking about who you they will call and how they will ask for help. Learning that skill of asking for help will be the only way they will survive the blizzard. Know the campus tutor lines, the mental health crisis lines and all the other sources of help.

And don’t be ashamed of failure, be focused on the recovery.

To Err is human to recover Devine.  You can’t avoid the weather, it comes to all of us eventually, but you can prepare and recover.

When Mr. Rogers was a child he tried to understand terrible things happening in the news. To understand why these things were happening to him and the world.

His mother told him ” Look for the helpers, you will always find people that are helping”.

I take that just a little further in that you need to ask these people for help.

As JK Rowling points out in the Deathly Hollows … “Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it.”  Dumbledore was one wise dude.

The proudest moments in my life are coming now when I see my children helping each other. I  see them sharing their problems and secrets with each other, and rallying to the aid of a sibling when needed. I see that they have truly know that Help will be given to those that ask.

Life is hard as it is wonderful. Sometimes its fucking hard. Sometimes the snow seems like it will never stop and that snowball will crush us.

But it always stop. Look for the helpers, particularly your brothers and sisters, because help will always be given.

You just need to ask.

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Rule #444- Never buy a Tiger

In the isolation of COVID-19 pandemic Bobbi and I have found comfort in the soft glow of Netflix on our TV at night.  Trolling through such solid entertainment as  “Ozark” and “Better Call Saul” has made this period of limited outside contact tolerable at times.  It has been a source of sanity at times when the world seems very insane. Thank you Netflix.

But then along came “Tiger King” and its cast of characters that has scared me of leaving my home bunker if these people are now roaming free and have become our new normal. Its watching the train wreak, knowing we should turn away from the carnage but being unable to do so. I got sucked in long before Joe’s rendition of “Kitty Kitty”, and like about 30 million other Americans binged watched the 7 episodes  in one night.

But now having those 7 hour stolen from my life I have to ask myself .. ” what have I learned”, I need to share these insights with my children.

1.Never Buy a  Tiger– I like many of you were shocked to learn that I could have bought a tiger for $2,000, $600 less than I spend on both Whiskey and Charley. As tempting as the deal may seem the “2 cat rule” criteria is amended in terms of size of cats, one tiger is enough to consider you have lost your mind.

2.  Crazy is a gift that gives everyday- In watching Joe and crew find new ways of violating every social norm in each episode its teaches us the important lesson that crazy is a gift that keeps giving and giving. In life as we surround our selves with friends, the crazy ones generally just get more crazy. I’m sure when young Joe bought his first big cat some of his friends thought it was funny and quirky. But crazy stays crazy most of the time. There is a huge difference between being quirky and being crazy. Quirky is really getting into Chinese cooking or collecting coins, crazy is bringing wild animals into your home. There’s a big difference between quirky and crazy…quirky will make you smile, crazy will not. Run from crazy.

3. Freedom can be abused- The United States is a wonderful place where personal freedom is cherished as a gift from God, it is what makes us special as a people. You can start a business, be a vegan, worship chickens, protest any injustice  or just choose to do nothing. Unfortunately in a world of freedom liberty is extended to the sane and the insane. The freedom that allows artists to express themselves  is the same freedom that allows someone to own a tiger. Drawing the line in the sand between the sane and insane has always been a challenge for our country. I think its good that we try to error on the side of more freedom, rather than less. But the world’s common sense seems to get lost from time to rime… Joe has certainly missed the train to it.  Knowing that when some one does something that is truly dangerous common sense should still take priority.

4. Read a book and take a walk- Covid and Netflix has made the crazy seem normal. We have to find a way to step away from the TV and get both distance and perspective – taking a hour walk in the woods does more for you that 100 hours of binge watching anything.  We have to rediscover both quite and sanity.

Covid has really screwed with our perception of reality. We are afraid of people and viruses – and used Netflix, Amazon and the internet to hide from reality.

The Tiger King teaches us much, much of it is what not to become.

Stay safe Kids.

Bob goes to town- Podcasting 101

As part of the aging process there are moments when you realize that you are missing lots of the cultural changes in the world. I use to laugh at my father’s lack of understanding of basic web sites and search engines.  He carried maps in his car until he could no longer drive rather than learn how to use navigation apps like Waze.

It wasn’t like it he was resistant to change, it was just that he was going 35 mph on the expressway and everyone had just passed him by. Its not avoidance, but neglect that lets you fall behind.

In recent weeks I have been on the fringe of conversation between my children discussing Podcasts…and I realized that I become my father routing in the glove compartment for the map of Florida. There were parts of the new universe where I was clearly in the slow lane and my kids were honking at me while passing me.

There are two solutions to lagging behavior.

You can get off the expressway and stay on the backroads during the daylight, searching for the good diners and early bird specials. Or be bold and take a risk , picking up speed and moving with the traffic.

When we moved to Florida in 2017  I was 57 years old and very comfortable with my life in Pennsylvania. Wawa was close, roads were all familiar and friends just a phone call away- things were easy.  Maybe a little too easy.

My world had seized getting larger and it was become more manageable but less risky.  I had traded adventure for safety, wonder for certainty. And I did it slowly over decades and hardly realized it was happening.

Fortunately I married a woman what liked risk, that always challenged me. When the opportunity to move to Florida came up I was first resistant to it, then embraced it as if I was stepping on the gas and moving into much faster moving traffic. We adopted the mantra that we would “live on vacation” for the next  5 years and see what happened.

In the time since June of 2017 we have encountered hurricanes, floods, snakes and virtually every critter the Florida Jumanji game threw at us and survived. We kept good friends from the past and developed many more in our new home. Life changed dramatically- some for the good, some for the bad. But it changed.

Yes I still like Wawa (thank God they had them here) and can’t resist a good dinner even at 5pm. But, I left my comfort zone and felt like I was again moving with the traffic. Maybe still in the Ford 500 of the road, but at least I was in the flow.

It felt good.

As I start the 5th  year of this vacation I realize that as Thomas Wolfe said  ” You can’t go home again” . The vacation may end this year, but the new adventures are beginning. I’m not sure if that is sailing a yacht around the world or a hang gliding but there new adventures left to come for Bobbi and I.

As a very small step this post marks the start of a new technological adventure into podcasting.

I know nothing about Podcasting besides watching Joe Rogan and Cooking with Babish. I am venturing into the world of audio podcasts, saving the world from my not ready for broadcast video. Baby steps…

Through guidance of my children I have found Buzzsprout and record this my “trailer” to the Podcast. As part of this push into the “uncomfortableness of change” I will be recording 2 podcast every week with one being new content of this 2catrule.com site and the other being a recording of an existing rule.

Those that know me well know that I tend not to follow rules well.  As Matthew is found of saying I have the ability to tell a lie, and say it so convincingly that I believe it myself.. making it a truth.  I intend to follow that practice in these podcasts, so Matthew buckle up for the ride.

For now I am planning to release the podcasts at 11pm on every Thursday.

Also  I have had a life long stutter and I am certain that this will be captured on these podcasts. I encourage you to embrace it, it doesn’t bother me, and I hope it doesn’t bother you.

Finally I am technologically challenged. I get about 70% of the process the rest I will discover as I go along.  So I’m starting with the wrong microphone, the wrong technology and complete lack of knowledge, but I’m starting.

As for sponsorship I have that covered..

Sponsored by Oma’s Spirits ..carefully handcrafted since 1952.

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Rule #1989: The Chicago Way

When Matthew went to college I heard from him about every two weeks, usually with the routine call of  everything is fine, and classes are going well and nothing to report. Basically keeping me in the dark and failing to mention anything of substance , the standard nosey parent report. No lies but nothing incriminating.

So when I got a call on a March morning in 2008 at  9am from Matthew’s older brother  Andrew asking me how Matthew was doing, and telling me I should think about checking on him I was confused. The next conversation with Matthew went like this…

Dad: ” What are you doing”

Matt: ” Eating Breakfast”

Dad: ” What are you having for Breakfast”

Matt: ” White Castle Hamburgers”

Dad: ” Where did you get White Castle Hamburgers in Shippensburg, PA”

Matt: ” The White Castle’s on Wacker Drive”

Dad: ” You mean in Chicago?”

Matt: ” Yea that one”

That’s how I learned my son was taking off from school mid-week and driving around campaigning for President Obama in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and New York. It wasn’t that he lied to me, in fact he was very forthcoming when asked. I had just failed to ask the right question, and he was not offering the details without heavy inquiry. I have since referred to this as the “Chicago Way”

I have and continue to have “Chicago Way” moments in my life with my children, business associates and other family. Just a couple weeks ago when I tried to reach Stephen on the phone and became concerned when he didn’t answer,  till he called and told me that he had not returned the calls because he was in Hawaii for a week. Oh, Chicago.

I’ve had other calls when I called concerned while he was living in a Hawaii and a hurricane was a approaching to find he was on his way to Burning Man. Oh, Chicago.

It isn’t the Chicago Moments that bother you in themselves, its the moment that you realize that you thought you were playing checkers and all of a sudden the game changes to football, without warning.  I would not have stopped Mathew’s and Stephens’s adventures ( frankly I don’t think I could have if I wanted to) but I would have loved to be part of the discussion.

With kids its part of the process. You almost have to experience the Chicago Way for them to become full adults, with independent thinking and actions. Its painful at times but I’ve learned to evaluate these Chicago Moments much like I do the City of Chicago.  There are moments when you find them in Wrigley Field eating a Chicago dog ( I call type A) and moments when they are calling from a police south precinct for bail money ( I call type B).

Type A is when they are experiencing independent thought and taking chances- basically living their lives as functioning adults. Type B is when they are doing something they know is wrong and hiding the truth because they are trying to get away with something. There is a huge difference between A and B, both are lies of omission by not all lies are created equal.

I found that understanding the Chicago Way has served me very well in business. Its impossible to run a company with 100 + people and 1200 consultants and know what everyone is doing all the time. And everyday someone will surprise you with changing the game and doing something entirely unexpected. As a manager you have to decide are these actions are Type A or Type B.  Surprises are not bad, but ones where there is intent to harm and deceive are the ones that you have to eliminate. So when surprised by new information I first have to ask myself  “was this to help us or themselves”.  You want people taking chances and thinking of new and innovative ways to do things, but you don’t want people trying to rig the 1919 world series.

A challenge in life is to create a world for your business and family to be both independent and honest. Its too easy to tell yourself a lie, and many people live with the George Costanza philosophy of:

“It’s not a lie, if you believe it”

In  my favorite book by Dr. M. Scott Peck ” People of the Lie” the sub-tile is “The Hope f0r Healing Evil”. His central theme is that the malignant narcissism is the root cause of evil. Doing what you know is wrong then hiding by omission is never justified, and is the root the nature of evil. Telling yourself that the ends justifies the means fails when the ends hurt other people and takes advantage of the lies for your own self interest.

We have to create environments in our lives where were are not being cleaver and deceitful but living with openness and honesty.  There is plenty of room for unannounced trips to Chicago and Hawaii, and every thought does not  need to be shared.  ( trust me we don’t want Matthew sharing his deep dark secrets with anyone)

We have to be sure our trips to Chicago are not to hide unpleasant truths but to have privacy and personal adventures. The Chicago Way can be a pathway to great adventure, it is doing it for the right reasons that makes all the difference in our lives.

I’ve been to Chicago quite bit myself, sometimes to enjoy a baseball game and sometimes to hide. I regret the hiding and enjoyed the Cubbies. Our lives can have both wonderful secrets and great shared truths,  the success in life is to make sure your trips lead you to where you want to go.  The secrets should become things to celebrate when it comes time to reveal them, not to be ashamed of the people they hurt by keeping them.

Go Cubs.

Rule # 161: Sin is good

In the crazy world of elections and COVID I have been thinking a lot about what is dividing us into camps. I have gone back to my bible of human understanding, the works of Dr. M Scott Peck, especially the ” Road Less Traveled” and ” People of the Lie: The Hope of Healing Evil”.

Dr. Peck was a flawed man who had extramarital affairs and was estranged from his children. It may seem ironic that this behaviorist who wrote about sin was at times deeply immersed in it. But if you are going to learn about the consequences of sin the best person to listen to is a sinner.

The central theme of his theory was that people are imperfect creatures that are prone to mistakes, or sin. And that all mistakes have consequence, and that realizing these consequences is what make us grow and learn. It is in this way sin makes us human, and guides us on the path towards empathy with others, kindness and forgiveness. Without failure and recovery we can not learn to be better humans.

He believed that bad things happen when people develop “militant ignorance” of their sin, basically saying everything one does is OK because no one can sit judgement of you. It is the thing that allows us blow past the speed bumps and stop signs of moral judgements in religion and society and believe that everything you do is ok because you have chosen to do it. It develops into anger with others ( the militant part) when someone challenges your beliefs or points out your mistakes ( or sins).

I think the militant ignorance within the camps in our society has allowed all sides – republican, democrats, and independents to become pretty unrepentant sinners and basically assholes. People have forgotten the value of admitting mistakes and listening to other points of view, the world of social media has made us into bigger assholes. And worse than assholes, we are assholes that that are damn proud of it, arrogant about our asshole-ness.

What I worry about most is that this militant ignorance will slip into the world of malignant narcissism, where our “camps” begin to demonize one another and actually project evil on each other. When I see people storming the capital and others calling for the re-programing of people I worry that we have hit this level. Dr. Peck used some extreme examples in his writings, notably the My Lai massacre in his argument. But as extreme as that example is, it does point out that once you start thinking your position is absolutely right, and everyone else has no value its not a long slide into evil behavior.

I hated the New England Patriots. I mean hated them. I thought Bill Belichick was a cheat and bum, and Tom Brady his willing puppet. I mean I dislike then more than Brussel sprouts.

Now Tom Brady comes to Tampa and gets our team into the super bowl. All that malignant narcissism against the Patriots is destroyed, I now have to focus my evil thoughts back on the Cowboys.
Yes, in the world of sport my behavior was not dangerous, and I don’t think Tom stayed up nights with Gisele worried about my feelings ( although I hope he did back then). And the consequences of my inappropriate, irrational thought was only some good natured ribbing from Pat fans.

But when it comes to politics and belief systems I think we as a country and society are on a slippery slope towards the evil of malignant narcissism.
We have to embrace that “sin” as part of life, and that listening to each other and having empathy toward those with vastly different belief systems then our own.
We have the ability and to listen and change- hell I even ordered a Brady Bucs Jersey in 4x today. We can accept difference and change. We are all sinners.

But fuck the Cowboys.

#Rule 2021 : Cure for 2020

As horrible as 2020 has been we have started 2021 almost in a worse position. The divide between people has grown beyond politics to fostering hate and distrust of even friends and family. I’ve seen families divided by the anger and distrust, it feels like we are finding new ways to dislike each other.  The ability to have a beer or two and agree to disagree has been lost, now every issue is a defining one. How you feel about the soon to be former president, the new president, masks, vaccinations and lockdowns have begun to divide us into camps. Information flow has become more bias to one’s own views that other view points are not just shouted down before they are even heard.

Why? I don’ t think this as simple as one man, a disease or a political party. I think the root cause is the way we live our lives and how we communicate with one another.

When I was in high school during the prehistoric era, hanging around with Fred and Barney we had disagreements amongst our friends. It may have been arguments about ideas or opinions but they took time to develop and resolve. If you had an argument with your girlfriend the fastest you could continue it after taking her home was in a couple hours on the phone. Even then it was limited to time allowed on the phone, the length of the phone cord and the girls ability to have a private conversation no more than 6 feet from the avocado green phone in the kitchen.

These disagreements took time to develop, sometimes you waited for the next day, sometimes it took a couple weeks to talk to one another. In the interim you talked to friends and family and got advice and prospective on what happened, usually around 24hrs it would dawn on me that I was being an asshole. Sometimes it took longer, but that was the usual outcome.

When I went to college I communicated with my girlfriend via mail or once a week phone calls – because from State College to Lansdale was long distance and cost too much.  I was forced to write thoughts down and think about what I wanted to say before putting a 15c stamp on it and walking it to the post office. I tore up dozens of letters already stamped on that walk to the post office. The whole process encouraged self reflection and patience, the consequences of communication were too high- saying an insult in writing was permanent, and would require many calls and letters to undue.

I think that is the essence of the problem  is that communication is too easy and too fast. Every thought you have can be expressed not only to the person you are arguing with but dozens of friends within seconds of having it. We are taught every thought or feeling you have has value, and that you deserve to be listened to.  It sounds like a great idea, but just because you get 100 likes on your latest post doesn’t make you Aristotle, hell it doesn’t even make you Lindsay Lohan. Thoughts are not good because they get the most votes, they are good because the reflective, emphatic and real.

As I write this it is being done over 3 days, with me coming back to this rule a number of times- editing and changing my thoughts. I know my spelling and grammar doesn’t reflect this effort, but this blog allows me to develop ideas thoughtfully. I have in fact deleted rules and changed rules as my thinking developed, because believe it or not changing your mind or developing an opinion overtime is healthy. We should allow ourselves the opportunity to make mistakes and change as we learn.

I really can’t imagine the asshole I would have grown up to be ( ok bigger asshole) if I had the availability of facebook, twitter or instagram when I was 19. The stupidity I would have spewed with mind boggling certainty is frightening. The fact that every idea I had would have received dozen of supportive comments and likes would have just encouraged my to develop more extreme and egocentric thoughts. I would have stopped growing and just built bigger walls of followers to tell me I was right.

Today I think the world has become dominated by 19 yr old Bobs validating their thoughts through a contest of social media. As I watched the protests and riots outside our capital last week I saw thousands of people texting from the glow of their phones while in the crowd. There were hundreds of people podcasting and facetiming every thought and action from the crowd- no filtering, no reflection or balance. And as this is happening our media (both left and right) broadcasted every thought they had on what they were seeing. No longer reporting, but developing every broadcast into an opinion piece that was supported by about 35 seconds of reflective thought. Its no longer about getting it right, or being reflective, its about being popular and validated through likes, comments and ratings.

I think of us all as monkeys with guns, shooting opinions at each other without regard to either aim or consequence. It scares me that what seems to win is the court of public opinion is no longer as Dr. King eloquently said the “content of their character” but the number of followers you gather.

I have begun to reflect on a “cure” for this problem, a way to bring people back from civil war and insanity. It seems we have to slow down communication and go back to that 6 ft phone cord in the kitchen.

I am personally starting by stopping all posting during the work week, and giving myself “social media” free days. I am hoping to evolve this to no cell phone Sundays and other gaps in cycle of social media disease. We need to build in breaks into our communication.

I also am following a 2 hour rule before I respond to any post or thought on social media, during that 2 hours I intend to think about what I was going to say, and decide if the comment is necessary at all. If I think it must be posted I’m giving it another 2 hrs.

It may seem hypocritical to be expressing this plan via a blog, but this blog is not immediate communication, and is agonized over for days before posting. The most important thing I think about on 2catrule.com is how the rule I am posting helps my kids. I have over 5 dozen  started posts that have been left in the editing in box. Trust me not all, in fact most of my thoughts are not valuable to share- I think this site uses that aggressive editing before posting.

We need a way out of this madness. I have stopped using CNN and FOX as my news sources and have online subscriptions to the NYT, Tampa Bay Times and Washington Post. I find reading is more reflective, even if the reporting is at times very bias. We need to be able to think about what is happen and respond with thought rather than reflex.

I hope you reflect on this rule and find ways to but into practice a more thoughtful process. I know I need to get better at mine, and that this monkey is unloading his weapon.

Rule #74: Motorcycle Paradox

As an insurance geek and underwriter I have very few opportunities to teach my kids life skills from my career. I couldn’t show them how to make a compound joint or tune up a Chevy, most of my lessons were boring and not useful in daily life.

But along came Corina 19 and I am now able to teach them about the thing I work with daily RISK.  As an underwriter by trade I had to learn how to measure risk, decide which risks I would take or avoid and how to price the assumption of risk.

For an underwriter the challenge is not to avoid risks, but to take the right risks for the right price. If you own a car the best way to lower or eliminate liability risk is to simply keep it in the garage and never move it. If you never  take it on the road you can’t hurt yourself or others. But then what is the point of having a car at all. Hiding is the garage is not an option.

Every parent of a new 16 yr old driver knows they risk their child’s life by giving them access to a car.  Every time my kids would drive off I would worry about the risk they were taking.  It the acceptance of risk that makes living possible- it’s scary but it’s life.

Covid is scary and keeping my kids from work and school would be far safer.. but that garage would feel very small very quickly. Hiding in the garage is not an option.

Underwriting risk is a process of understanding. The better we understand risk  the better we can assess it. But this requires accurate and unbiased information- something that it true, and not just an advocation of something you believe. In insurance we saw  “disinformation” happen with sexual misconduct claims, environmental and construction defects- the first “information “caused panic and shut down all insurance availability. As actuate facts developed common sense started to come back to the market. Bad information leads to bad decisions. With Covid there is a whole lot  of bad information- WHO, CDC and others say things that contradict their previous statements. In insurance it’s follow the actuaries – but the actuaries often disagree. In COVID it’s follow the Scientists .. but what do you do when scientists at WHO say shut downs hurt people worse than COVID and scientists in NY say close down the schools. The truth is every actuary and scientist needs to be evaluated for bias and inaccuracy. It’s a trust but verify policy. Listen to everything but believe ONLY what you can validate. People have bias which will impact their decisions. Truth matters.

The “motorcycle paradox”, is similar to the mask issue with COVID.  Virtually nothing has more data than the effectiveness of seat belts in mitigating injuries , and that data has lead to mandated seat belt laws in all 50 states. Its for our own good.

Yet there are over 8 million motorcycles in the USA with obviously no seatbelts… and there are a majority of states (31) that have laws allowing adults to ride without helmets. How can we allow people to hurt themselves and others with motorcycles and at the same time require these same people to wear seat belts.
Why aren’t motorcycles illegal?

People know the risk and are will to assume it.

I’m trying to understand how driving without a helmet is less dangerous than walking in public without a mask. I always wore a helmet when I rode a motorcycle- and didn’t get angry at those that did not.

I wear a mask because I am 60 and have diabetes – but I don’t get angry at the people walking without them.  Yes there is an slightly elevated risk with some people not wearing them- but it’s a price of living is a free society. I accept motorcycles, sky drivers and gun owners.. freedom has risk.

My kids need to be good underwriters.. not fearful of taking risk or stupidly assuming unneeded danger. I truly wish I could wrap them in bubble wrap and keep them from all harm, but then they would not live life.

So drive safely…but get out and enjoy life. Its all goes to fast to not get on a motorcycle from time to time ( but wear a helmet)

Rule #572:  House divided against itself cannot not stand

IN THIS TEMPLE AS IN THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE FOR WHOM HE SAVED THE UNION THE MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN IS ENSHRINED FOREVER.

This sickens me. The stupidity, the hatred, the blame and insanity- it all sickens me.

The needless deaths of Eric Garner and now George Floyd sicken me. Yes, they were allegedly committing crimes but not capital offenses. The force by police has to have kept in check, this was murder and should be treated as a such. Police reform, discipline and training are all needed. We need to trust our police force again.

We are living in a country that is focused on blame and hate, we have lived through a crisis of the COVID-19 and came out of it not united but more divided.  Everyone is digging into their positions and piling barrels of gasoline around their foxholes. With the riots over the last few nights we have now begun tossing lite matches at each other. The fires will only get bigger and more deadly.

We are fighting over if we wear a mask or not, or if we fly a trump flag. The hate for our fellow citizens is overwhelming. We have stopped seeing ourselves as Americans but as part of a group that is either with us or against us. We are distrustful of everyone because they are distrustful of us. We have lost empathy. As looters are arrested others are bailing them out.

This isn’t about Antifa, white supremacists, Donald Trump , Joe Biden or anyone else you care to blame- this is about a house divided against itself.  We have begun to look at each other as something else, that because of our opinions we are different,we are less intelligent, less evolved, less human.

The people that are looting must feel that they are the underclass and as such can take what is not rightfully given. If you no longer look at the rich and often white as part of your world its no longer stealing, because in their world you have no rights.

Dr. Peck in his book People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil  defines evil as “militant ignorance”.The people looting are not dumb, or less than human, they are people that have lost empathy for others. They are not stealing from the Foot Locker  to feed their families or protest a act of police brutality, they are stealing because they have made themselves escape their own conscience and rationalize evil behavior. They no longer have empathy for the rich, white, privileged and police- to them stealing from them is not wrong because they don’t care about them.

This “scapegoating” of other groups ( as Dr. Peck calls it) is necessary for evil to exist. I watched a video of a woman being beaten by looters in upper state NY, to do this they must have lost the ability to have a viewpoint of the victim, and become completely narcissistic. Watching the video, like the video of Mr. Floyd being chocked to death is to witness evil.

We must find justice for George Floyd, we must have empathy for the pain his family and friends must be enduring and we must change through listening.

We must find justice for those homes, businesses and in some cases lives have been taken by these looters. Both should be done swiftly, and decisively.

We stopped listening and have developed a covert intolerance to criticism and that is the pathway to evil. Something is seriously wrong with our society, and we need to take pathways back to caring about each other. We can disagree without hate.

Rule # 117 : Trust but Verify

You kids know that I tend to tell my stories and make statements that appear to be based fact, but are colored by my opinion. My Dad use to do this at the dinner table and quote aspects of social studies, math and science as fact and do it in such a convincing way  you left the meal certain that he was telling the truth.

For the most part is was, but when the facts didn’t support his arguments he slightly changed the facts. For better or worse I inherited this unique skill set… creating my own reality for the benefit of a good story.

It was a lot more fun up till the introduction of the world wide web in 1990 and even more fun before Jerry Yang sprung YAHOO on us in 1994. Instead of requiring a trip to the library to fact check me, you can now test all the stories with a simple search.This all makes telling a good story increasing hard.

This was all bad enough until the information we had available started to include intentionally misleading or wrong facts, trusted sources of information were being eaten up by the “user created” data in places like Wikipedia. Now its possible to be fact checked with incorrect or intentionally wrong information made look real.

I love the satirical websites like “the Onion”with their “made to look real” stories, and find it hysterical when “real” news pick up one of their stories and re-report it as fact. Unfortunately this has started happening weekly not a couple times a year. That laziness of fact checking by reporters is not as funny, and often dangerous

Take for example National COVID-19 team saying that deaths from COVID-19 could be as high as 240,000 people- pretty scary.

But in 2017 ( latest complete data) there were 2,813,503 deaths the US.

Heart Disease  647,457

Cancer 599,108

Unintentional Injuries ( car crashes and the like) 169,936

Were the big 3- but what the numbers aren’t saying is that many of the people who died from respiratory illness (160,201) and things like diabetes (83,564) would have died anyway. If all the 240,000 people were people that would not normally have died this year it could be 8.5% increase in death rate. But the CDC is say the net effect may be something like 50-75,000 new deaths ( which would not have occurred anyway in the year)

The point of all this is that in this world of fluid information and “story tellers” that look like creditably sourced information we need to adopt a TRUST BUT VERIFY position on everything we read or listen to from others.

When I took a journalism course ( back when their was journalism)  we were taught that every story needed to have credible sources, and sources of information had to be verified. Check and re-check and never believe anything as fact without proof from multiple sources.

In this new age of COVID-19 and the next crisis which will come along we need to behave like the good journalist- checking sources, verifying and re-verifying.  I have learned through this crisis not only not to trust any source on its own but not to trust my own instincts. So its up to each of us to be our own guardian of the truth, searching for the truth and not just an answer that agrees with our opinion.

With that said I need you to give your old man a break, as I did your Grandfather. Sometimes “stories” are better with the facts changed a bit, and far more interesting. The fish grows bigger with each retelling, but far more exciting to catch. There is a difference from humoring your Dad’s stories than relying on news from the cable channel.