I've been thinking a lot about the current disaster situation north and south of our home in flood devastated areas and how "the government" isn't doing anything. I don't think I want a government to do things. Governments have historically not achieved anything close to what regular people have.

I'd like you and I to do things, instead of putting our faith in a bureaucracy structured around a democratic election. The incentives are out of whack, and our want for "them" to do something doesn't help the political process. It gives them easy wins by promising money but not delivering, and easy opportunities for a photo and a handshake whilst helping no-one.

I think it would be much more powerful for our communities to find their common unities, for those communities to band together with finances, services, love, care, hugs, cooking, whatever is needed. Not to wait for a old white guy in the capital city to help us, for us to help ourselves. Outsourcing care to those people gets us nowhere except for more taxes and less care with less help.

We've been outsourcing caring to government for too long. They don't do it well.

We asked the government to look after our poor and we got Centrelink's robodebt. We asked the government to look after our health and we got the last two years of whatever 2020-2021-2022 was. We asked the government to look after our financials and we got the GFC, current house prices, and ZIRP (zero interest rate policy). We asked the government to regulate the media and we got nightly news bulletins that somehow are the same length every night, and newspapers that hold power in government, not holding government to account. We asked the government to come and help in the floods and we got a PR and social media marketing campaign. We asked the government to lead and we got Scotty from marketing.

Let's stop asking the government to do things, and ask ourselves to do things, ask each other to do things. It might be scary, but let's be vulnerable, let's ask for help. Let's be real.

The government is good at building roads and collecting rubbish. The government isn't good at care, love, or help.

James Greig in Stop making the Ukraine war about you:

"Social media isn’t necessarily the source of this tendency, but it has accelerated the impulse for people to be obsessed with their own subjectivity; unable to process global events outside of the prism of their own emotional reaction and the relatively minor ways they are affected."

A solid amen to Arne Bahlo on his article: You're using email wrong.

"If I look at my inbox, it’s a joy."

I'm really good at sales

Just attended my eight court mediation hearing because of Covid cancelling someone's wedding plans. If you ever want to feel sad come shout me a beer or eight and I'll tell you the stories.

The Hustle via Kyle Westaway:

"Sixty percent of IKEA purchases are impulse buys. And IKEA’s own creative director has said that only 20% of the store’s purchases are based on actual logic and needs.

How does IKEA trick you into buying more stuff? (1) Store layout. Inside, customers are led through a preordained, one-way path that winds through 50-plus room settings. The average IKEA store is 300k sq. ft.—the equivalent of about five football fields—and their typical shopper ends up walking almost a mile. This forces wider product exposure, creates a false sense of scarcity and creates mystery. (2) Low prices. IKEA often follows a “price first, design later” philosophy: It starts with a price target—say $6.99 for a new stool—then reverse-engineers the design process to meet that goal. IKEA seems to adhere to a “survival of the fittest” pricing model: If a product’s price can’t be reduced over time, it tends to get discontinued. (3) The IKEA Effect. We have a cognitive bias wherein we place a higher value on items we build ourselves, regardless of the quality of the end result. (4) Cafeteria. A survey of 700 shoppers found that those who ate at the food court spent an average of more than two times more on home furnishings than those who didn’t."

Evan Armstrong:

“There is perhaps no more colossal waste of human potential than Netflix. An algorithmic content feeding tube, designed by Silicon Valley engineers to deposit dopamine into our lizard brains at the exact point that we would churn, Netflix’s final form will be a pair of wires shoved directly into our eyeballs giving us personally crafted reality television. I love it.”

Every time I pick up an AFR lately and the front page headline isn’t “World is Fukt” I’m honestly surprised.

Lismore and the New South Wales Northern Rivers needs help.

Skilled labour, stood down unvaxxed workers re-employed and resourced, fresh water, perishables, probably a coffee break. Through Brisbane it’s the same.

Britt just dropped off a bunch of supplies to some friends in need, this is their house, there is so much work ahead for the whole community.

Could you imagine your house going under?

Please find real and generous ways to help.

Most advice is people’s own lost dreams disguised as good advice.

“I think it’s important to live in a nice country rather than a powerful one. Power makes everybody crazy.”

Kurt Vonnegut in a letter to his daughter, Nanette. 20th November 1971.

Kevin is listening through every album of every band he loves:

"Even the great treasure of music can seem dull at times. I’ve found that giving over real considered time to an artist’s work has taught me so much–about art, about creative decisions and really just about how we all get up in the morning and have to make that day happen in a way that it mattered."

This Eater story of how a New York restaurant took the unpopular route of closing on Saturdays plus they increased profitability is the kind of business I want to create and run.

We often presume to understand restaurant economics because we know what a chicken breast costs at the supermarket. “I could make this dish at home for $5,” goes the refrain. Could we?

"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it."

– Henry Ford

“He mooed we must fight, escape or we'll die. Cows gathered around, cause the steaks were so high.”

Sunrise Surfers Paradise shoot this morning for a construction client

Our precious Goldie turns one today!

Deep cuts for Nikon photographers

Luna’s taken it upon herself to put the front page of Spectrum from the weekend’s SMH on the fridge because she likes the bird.

Tugun got a bit wet today

#floodlyf

Why You’re Christian, by David Perell:

"If you believe in human rights but don’t believe in God, you need a logical explanation for why they’re self-evident."

Todays a good day to announce that we’re extending the pool and colouring it the same colour as the lawn

Quiz

Friday 13 Mar 2020, and the ABC quotes an F1 fan in its report on the Melbourne F1 Grand Prix being cancelled:

"Are you going to close schools and supermarkets and everywhere else where people gather?"

Just one moment

Eric Karjaluoto on the fallacy of individual wins and benefiting from the one force that every great business success has leveraged: The Wave:

Henry Ford didn’t invent the automobile; he rode the assembly-line wave.

Mary Kay Ash didn’t invent cosmetics; she rode the direct-sales wave.

Andrew Carnegie didn’t invent steel; he rode the building wave.

Steve Jobs didn’t invent computers; he rode the digital wave.

Anita Roddick didn’t invent soap; she rode the ethical business wave.

Larry and Sergey didn’t invent search; they rode internet wave.

Chip Wilson didn’t invent stretchy-pants; he rode the yoga wave.

Jeff Bezos didn’t invent book sales; he rode the ecommerce wave.

Day four no bathroom.

Old Spice has been drafted for service.

Chuck Klosterman on the 90s:

"It feels as though the 1990s weren’t just the last decade of the 20th century but sort of the last decade, period — the last decade with a fully formed and recognizable culture of its own."

David Ogilvy:

“The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.”

“Wonderful things can happen when your brain is empty.”

– Maira Kalman

The Russian Military website is down with HTTP error code 418, which means it is a teapot #nottheonion

"The HTTP 418 I'm a teapot client error response code indicates that the server refuses to brew coffee because it is, permanently, a teapot. A combined coffee/tea pot that is temporarily out of coffee should instead return 503. This error is a reference to Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol defined in April Fools' jokes in 1998 and 2014."

I do appreciate how impossibly hard Kanye West has made to listen to Donda 2. It's like Schrödinger's album.

What ever happened to the Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention?

Crime in Tugun: Cromulent. A new issue of The Tugun Pause is in inboxes.

For those wondering where "Old Zealand" is, it's in the Netherlands and it's called Zeeland.

“Whatever you are, be a good one.”

– Abraham Lincoln

Day three without a shower and bathroom and I’m considering starting using Lynx Africa.

I impulse purchased a Stem Player a while back because I convinced myself I needed something this weird in my life. Now I’m probably one of like ten people in Australia who will be able to listen to Kanye West's new album. What a time to be alive.

Most of you wouldn’t know about the disappointment I carry that my first personal computer was a 486SX and not a 386DX. All my friends had 386s and my dad rented a Packard Bell with a 486SX.

Our bathroom, a photo series.

Sometime around the turn of the century (before we owned it) vs. 7am today vs. 11am today.

It’S TWOSDAY! Tuesday 22/2/22.

Guy in a Palm Beach cafe this morning:

“Anything north of Mermaid Beach is Logan, love”

In my humble opinion, one of the most under-appreciated literary works of the past 25 years are Chuck Lore’s vanity cards

One day boomers are going to learn about Option + Shift + Command V and then us Millennials are going to be really screwed.

Dear Vanessa Carlton,

Despite your willingness to walk a thousand miles to see me, I regret to inform you that you cannot fall into the sky.

“Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome”

– Charlie Munger

If NCIS: Sydney can get off the ground

Blue Heelers: New York. Surry Hills, 2010. ER: Covid Ward. Buffy the Prime Minister Slayer. Law & Order: W.A. Unit. JAG: Garden Island. Grey's Anatomy: Brisbane-Team. 3rd Rock From The Border. Everybody Loves Dan Andrews. The Ibrahim’s. It’s Always Sunny in Adelaide. Orange Is The New Black (a travel program about going to Orange, NSW).

And I just want to point out without bringing too much attention to myself, that Sweden, Poland, Israel, Germany, India, France, Chile, the Czech Republic, Canada, Finland, and the god damned United States of America have had their own versions of The Office.

The Office (Australian TV series).

Successful Man 2022 BC: Killed animal for family to eat.

Successful Man 2022 AD: I’ve emptied three of my four email inboxes and there’s only seven emails left in that one so they can wait til tomorrow because it’s almost 11pm.

Good and new music alert: Ben Abraham - If I Didn't Love You