• Politics - Stoned Thoughts

    What The Media Omits

    2/28/2016 - By 

    I remember in 2012, I tried to read everything online I could, so I could know every small and isolated details between the candidates, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. I watched the debates. This year, I am taking the entirely opposite approach. I am shunning all media, and I avoid trying to read anything about the current crop of candidates. But it is unavoidable. No matter who you are, you are ensconced in the circus that we call the presidential elections.

    As I considered this, I realized that none of the candidates (Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Hillary Clinton, and Bernie Sanders) are talking about the issues that I care about the most. Here are the issues that I think are important.

    1. Balanced Budget.

    It does not take a rocket scientist to know this, but the federal government does not. When the federal government runs deficits so large and for such a long period of time. It hurts the country, it hurts our future, and it hurts our young people. Yet no candidate even mentions this. Of course, just like anything else, balancing a budget requires making choices. Some of them are difficult. It is clear that no one in charge is capable of making even the simplest of choices in an effort to balance the budget.

    2. Money.

    I think all of America has figured out is that we no longer have a democracy. It is an oligarchy that is run by money. It is nauseating to think that perhaps the greatest democracy in the history of the world has lost its way to the seduction of money. We all know it, yet the media makes no mention of this issues, nor do the candidates during this election cycle. We need to get money out of the running the government and the elections. We all know it. Special interests (banks, health insurance, pharmaceutical, the military industrial complex and on and on) contribute to candidates, and then expect favors for their donations. Yet no candidate nor the media talks about it.

    3. Term Limits.

    The president only can be in office for a maximum of 8 years. A governor of any state is 8 years. But a US Congressman or US Senator can be in their position for as long as they can win elections (see section on Money above). Public approval of Congress is nearing single digits. The Constitution was created for the government to be one of public service. It was not meant to be a long term vocation where one can become a millionaire. Yet no candidate nor the media talks about it.

    I could go on. But I came to a realization. There is another party in America. The problem is that the media gives no press whatsoever to the Libertarian Party. If the media only mentioned them once a day, it would sink the moneyed interests running both the Republican and Democratic Party. The Libertarian Party is about freedom. The Libertarian Party is the only party that wants a balanced budget, to remove money from the election process and demands term limits for our career politicians.

    The thing one has to ask is Why? Why won’t the media at least mention the other party? They are programming the entire nation to think that we have 5 candidates from two parties. I can only speculate, but this is NOT how our country should work. After thinking through all the evidence, I am going to vote Libertarian because honestly, I can’t stand any of the candidates from the Republican or Democratic Party.

    Be Free.

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  • Stoned Thoughts - Technology

    My Last Conversation with Mike Hammond

    11/8/2015 - By 

    About two weeks before Hammer passed away, Ted asked me to give him a ring, I gladly accepted. Over the years, Hammer and I have kept in touch, but it had been about a year since we last spoke.

    We talked for 99 minutes, which I would describe as a normal conversation between him and I. During that time, we laughed, cried and reminisced.

    Laughing

    Hammer had an incredible sense of humor, with a unique talent to make a large group of people pay attention and laugh. His sense of humor was gruff, intelligent and usually insightful. I would put Hammer’s wit similar to Larry the Cable Guy. I love this Robin Hood photo of me, Hammer and Tommy because I have a huge grin on my face. I am sure Hammer had just pulled off another one liner.

    Crying

    Hammer shared with me the details of his wife’s passing. It had happened very suddenly. They learned of her illness in March and she was gone in June. Hammer was hurting and he let it all out. I had known Hammer for over 25 years, but I had never seen him like this. I knew that my friend was hurting, and so we cried together.

    Reminiscing

    Hammer’s accomplishments at Gateway were numerous and profound. The sum of them all is a testament to his hard work and insane intelligence. His one accomplishment that he was the most proud was driving the company’s cash balance over one billion dollars. I asked him how he did it, and he slowly and humbly told me what he did. To be honest, I did not understand a lot of it, but I do know it took a special person to make it happen.

    Shortly after we both became Senior Vice Presidents, he made it his personal goal to drive the company’s cash over ten figures. No one told Hammer to do this, he just took it upon himself. Think about how much understanding of the company’s financial status and operations to make such an ambitious target. Over the next four months, Hammer worked tirelessly on this goal. He traveled the globe to realign our supply chain to make the company as efficient as possible. The buzz word at the time was “just in time inventory”, and Hammer made it all happen single-handedly. To be clear, there were no drawn out meetings, no Powerpoint presentations, just one guy “hammering” his vision home. I remember the cold January day in South Dakota, when Dave McKittrick shared with the management team the Q4 97 financial results. Hammer and I shared a long hard hug.

    Conclusion

    At the end of our conversation, Hammer said, “I love you, Robby.” He frequently ended our conversations this way, and to be honest, I did not always reciprocate. I am so glad that this last time, I did. And I really meant it.

    More importantly, he said, “Robby, we accomplished great things together.” I am very proud of this last comment. The most important word in that comment is “together”. Hammer made me a better business man and person and I like to think I did the same for him.

    I love you Hammer.

    4 Comments on “My Last Conversation with Mike Hammond”

    1. Rob, first, it was nice to see you last week — even if the circumstances were sad.

      Second, this letter/blog/testament is outstanding. Thank you for sharing it with all of us. You two did accomplish great things together and I’m glad you both got the chance to reconnect, laugh, cry and reminisce.

      Take care, Mary Ann

      Reply

    3. Rob, awesome story. It was great talking with you on the plane reminiscing about Hammer and his “one liners”. Thanks for writing this and sharing it.

      Ryan

      Reply

    4. Rob,

      I was very sorry to hear about Hammer’s passing. The first time I met him was in the i29 bar in ’93, and after some half a dozen “Rumpies”, I finally discovered who he was! He was a lovely man, and had a heart of gold, if you were lucky enough to see it. Proud to have known him.

      Karl
      http://www.thespottybox.com

      Reply

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  • Health - Stoned Thoughts

    A Good Night’s Sleep

    10/26/2015 - By 

    The common wisdom is diet and exercise is the key to a long and healthy life. I think this is not entirely correct. The key is exercise and sleep. After getting a good night’s sleep, everything seems to work better. You are rested, you have more energy, and you are thinking clearer. The length and quality of your sleep plays a significant role in your productivity and quality of life. Little is known about sleep, but sleep allows the body to heal, and removes or diminishes many of the pains of life. It is actually stronger than any man made drug Americans like to take.

    They say that as one ages, we sleep less. At 56 years, I am experiencing the opposite. When I was younger, I slept about 7 hours a night, and now I frequently log about 8 hours of sound sleep. I love it.

    Here are some of the things that I do to make sure that I get as much good sleep as possible.

    Exercise

    Modern life and productivity does not include much exercise or calories burned. Whenever I have the opportunity to burn calories, I do. On top of that, I run 5 miles at least 3 times a week. I believe it is a cycle of burning calories and then resting that creates a good rhythm for sleep.

    Alcohol

    Sometimes alcohol makes you sleep well but other times not. It certainly does not promote regular peaceful sleep. It is rare that I drink alcohol and when I do I make sure that i don’t have anything important the next day, because I want to make sure that I feel my best every day. Not because I am hung over, but I think that the alcohol affects my sleep.

    Pills

    One thing that I have learned in life is that there are not short cuts. And that includes your sleep. So many people think that they can take pills for sleep. In fact, I fell into that same trap because of all the international travel when I was younger. But I now know that sleeping pills do not promote healthy sleep. Perhaps more importantly, they can be down right dangerous and fatal.

    Food

    Here is one last tip. I have learned that if you go to bed hungry, you can sleep much longer and with higher quality. In fact, whenever I fast, I sleep amazingly well. It is counter intuitive. You think that you can’t possibly sleep well while feeling pangs of hunger but believe me, it is great.

    Conclusion

    An old friend of mine, Jim Taylor, once told me that your intelligence changes every day. One must be aware of when your intelligence varies, and only make important decisions when you are feeling smart. I believe that the variation in intelligence is a function of the amount and quality of sleep you get.

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  • Health - Stoned Thoughts - Technology

    Insane Productivity

    9/8/2015 - By 

    I like to get a lot of work done. Getting a lot of work done is my competitive advantage. If you think of your competitor, do you think you get more work done than them? Here are some ways to get insane amounts of work done.

    Work from Home

    Working out of your home is not for everyone, but if you are into insane productivity, then it is the holy grail. You waste productive time getting ready for work, worrying about your appearance, and then of course the commute to work. On top of that, once you arrive at work, there is the office chit chat, and the endless people that don’t know what to do that day. Of course, the nemesis of productivity are the dreaded meetings. All of that lost time can be spent doing real work, and moving your company ahead of the competition.

    Get off Facebook

    Some people think that using social media is the same as work. This is a colossal waste of time and a productivity killer. There is a certain psychological component to Facebook too. You think, OMG, my college roommate’s kid is on scholarship to Harvard University. Then you think, maybe I should do more for more my kids. But all of this is just wasted thoughts, that take away from your productivity.

    The funny part is that Facebook is highly addictive. Many people cannot stop. I have mentioned to some that a key to improved productivity is to stop Facebook. They look at me like I am crazy. Some people have convinced themselves that Facebook makes them more productive. They are not.

    Stop the News

    It isn’t easy, but I have turned off all of the news in my life. I do not watch news on TV, and try to avoid the news whenever possible when on the internet. I believe that the news is constructed so that all of us are distracted from whatever is really important to us. Right now, we are in the midst of another presidential election, and whatever stupid or smart thing a candidate says, it makes national news.

    The news is not about what’s important. It is now about page views and likes. And I hate to say it but what people want to read and what they need to read are two different things. Now our sports pages are filled with the home lives of the stars rather than just sports. Or the dentist that killed a lion. I don’t care about any of this and neither should you. Either way, you must agree that paying attention to any of this hurts your productivity and should be discarded.

    Eat When You’re Hungry

    I mean really hungry. Somewhere along the line, we have all been trained to eat three meals a day. When I get a lot of work done, I routinely skip meals. The funny thing is that people believe that skipping meals is unhealthy. That somehow a missed meal weakens the immune system, and may make you sick. This idea is archaic, and it comes from people that live in the most obese nation in the history of humanity.

    When I miss a meal, it makes me hungry initially and it passes. But when you miss a meal, the next meal tastes even better. It is awesome plus you get done a lot more work than anyone else.

    You Control the Internet

    As a general guideline, the internet exists to make you more productive. It is great to research a problem, or to a check the background of a job candidate, but the internet should not control you. The internet is about page views and monetizing page views. So the more time you waste on things that you did not originally intend, the more money they make and the less you productive you have become. There is so much information good and bad on the internet, and you need to focus on just the information you need right now, so you can get back to work.

    Conclusion

    I have a feeling that this is going to come off as radical. And imagine that, insane productivity is considered radical. I love getting a lot of work done. It is a great feeling and you have after you are done. Radical it is.

    One comment on “Insane Productivity”

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  • Stoned Thoughts

    How to Win in Las Vegas

    1/27/2012 - By 

    I went to Las Vegas a few weeks ago and I won about $2000. It had been a long time since I had gambled but I got to thinking about it. After I left Gateway in 1999, I had a certain fascination for gambling and I went on an incredible run.

    In fact, long before there was blogging, I made a list of all my winnings. Here they are:

    Date Winnings Location
    Feb 12, 1999 $1500 Las Vegas
    Feb 13, 1999 $1500 Las Vegas
    Feb 14, 1999 $1500 Las Vegas
    Feb 20, 1999 $2500 Sioux City
    Mar 6, 1999 $2000 Sioux City
    Mar 20, 1999 $4000 Las Vegas
    Mar 21, 1999 $2000 Las Vegas

    So in the space of about six weeks, I made $15,000! I remember it well, because I was always walking around with a wallet full of one hundred dollar bills. When I think about this time, and all my times before, there is one simple rule that will allow you to consistently win money gambling. I mainly play blackjack but this simple rule most likely work for virtually any type of gambling.

    Before I start, there is one prequisite. In the case of blackjack, you need to know what you are doing. There is a certain way to play the cards, and you have to always play the cards “according to the book”. If you play each hand according the book, your odds of winning each hand is right about 49% or maybe a little higher but less than 50%. You get the idea.

    So here’s the big big secret. If you play by the book, your stack will go up and down. You will have incredible runs of bad luck, and it will seem horrible. But then it always happens, you will go on a good streak. The good streak happens in many ways but here are a few examples. It is entirely possible to win 10 hands in a row or even 5 hands in a row is a good streak. Sometimes, you have the opportunity to put a lot of the chips on the table through the process of doubling down and splitting. Either way, suddenly your pile of chips will be growing and you will be way up. The key to winning is to stop when you are ahead.

    That’s it, but it is not so simple. When you are up, you want it to keep on going. Matter of fact, it quite often does. You don’t want to quit then, or do you? But then, it is inevitable that the streak will end. You start to lose a few hands. That is also a good time to quit, but most people don’t. They remember how much money they had and they don’t want to leave with less than that. But the streak is over, and your pile is dwindling. At this point, some people get desperate and starting betting more than normal in a vain effort to get back their stack. At this point, it is way too late, and most likely they will lose everything that they invested.

    I like to play alone. The main reason is if you are playing with your buddies, then you feel compelled to keep on playing even though you know your streak is over.

    So in conclusion. Play the cards smart. Get a sense of when you are on a hot streak and then quit after the hot streak is over. The problem is time. Sometimes, you can sit down at the table and immediately you win $2000 in less than 15 minutes. You should quit right then, but who is going to quit after 15 minutes? Heck, you’re going to win $10,000. Wrong. Sometimes you need to quit after 15 minutes.

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