Wisdom
Plate Carriers Are Now Memes
Plate carriers are now memes. Devoid of all meaning and practicality, they have become nothing more than a symbol. A symbol of what, though? Protection? Rarely. Most often in the modern world, we see them being ill-fitting, worn incorrectly, of low quality, and often with foam plates or no plates at all (anyone who has had to wear one or fit someone for a plate carrier can tell)—and being worn in contexts that rarely serve their intended purpose. They are more often than not used as an intimidation tactic by those who can no longer own firearms.
By Atomic Historian6 days ago in Men
Mark Consuelos was once voted sexiest male talk show host in the People magazine sexiest man issue
In recent years like last year People Magazine did their annual Sexiest Man Alive issue. One of the categories was sexiest male talk show host. Mark Consuelos was a nominee from the morning talk show “Live With Kelly and Mark” I voted for him. I voted for him and he had won that honor.
By Revista Miko:XCI 11 days ago in Men
Men who fulfill
Dad was born in Maine in January 1933. He was the second child and son born to his parents, though his older brother died at a very young age. A sister and another brother were born in subsequent years, and they were raised together by God-fearing parents in southern Maine. Grandpa was a carpenter. Dad learned many skills from him. Gram taught briefly. She was frugal, but not cheap. During the Great Depression and World War II years when sugar, eggs, and other staples were rationed, Gram celebrated her children's half-birthdays as an excuse to bake cakes for them, since sweets were rare luxuries. Dad fondly remembered his mother's justification for that tradition.
By Mack D. Ames2 months ago in Men
Self-knowledge is Fertilizer
In which direction shall my thoughts take me now? I have no idea. I just begin writing and hope that something inspires me to write a worthwhile piece. Sometimes, I have already given the subject matter some thought but most times I am searching for something to write about. This is a stream of consciousness exposé and I wish to capture everything that comes to mind from the beginning of the decision to write until the decision to end the session is made. This boilerplate text serves a function. It acts as a catalyst for what follows. Eventually, I stumble upon something to write. I want to demonstrate the mechanism by which I arrived at the topic of discussion. To witness the switching happen in real time. But still nothing occurs. I’m growing impatient. I should never write when seeking something to write about. It’s the least effective means of generating subject matter. Thinking real hard about what to think about yields no results in almost all cases. Interesting that that is so. I wonder why.
By The Dialectic3 months ago in Men
I Don't Want to Find My Limits
Writing every day can’t be bad can it? What if it’s the same junk every day? Then, yeah, you’re doing something wrong. But it may be a symptom of a deeper problem. The inability to move forward, to be stuck, to generate new ideas may be a symptom of…what? I don’t know. It appears to be a symptom. Maybe due to a lack of exposure to new thinking. But then why can’t you just produce that new thinking? Why do you need to be exposed to it? So maybe it’s not so much new thinking that you need to be exposed to as it is fringe thinking. At the fringes of your own limits. You need one foot in ignorance and the other in awareness and as the momentum carries you forward, your breadth of awareness increases but so too does your breadth of ignorance because, suddenly, there are several new directions you could take toward the darkness. But it’s important to step toward the darkness and to do so while keeping one foot in the light. And you want to tread gently and with quick but not too quick pace forward. The inability to move forward, from this vantage point, begins to look less like the inability to move forward and more like pacing back and forth within the light. Staying comfortable. That’s what it means to be stuck. It’s not a lack of momentum. Its oscillating momentum. And its a symptom of fear. The fear of stepping into the darkness. Of what you might find. But the whole point of doing this is personal growth. So what you do is cast your light into the darkness and, with sufficient illumination and courage, you take the first step forward. And what do you find? Usually, even more to love. Even more beauty. Even more to be enriched by. But I should take care to note something here and remind the reader of Nietzsches’ admonition:
By The Dialectic3 months ago in Men
The Independent Director Advantage: What Every Private Company Should Know
There is a conversation I find myself having regularly with the founders and family business owners I advise — a conversation that tends to produce immediate, visible discomfort. It goes something like this: your board is too close to you. You need an independent director.
By Scott Gelbard3 months ago in Men
How to Know When Your Business Has Outgrown Its Strategy
There is a particular kind of stall that experienced business leaders recognize — not a dramatic failure, not a crisis, but a slow-motion divergence between where the business is heading and where the market is going. Revenue is holding. The team is solid. The operations work. And yet something is off. Growth has plateaued. The competitive wins feel harder to come by. The energy that defined the early years has been replaced by a certain operational heaviness.
By Scott Gelbard3 months ago in Men
The Mentor Who Changed How I Think About Business — And What I Now Pass Forward
--- Early in my career, I made a decision that, in retrospect, was almost certainly wrong. I was working on a market entry strategy for a client expanding into a new geography. I had the data, the analysis, the frameworks. I was confident. I was also, as I would later understand, missing something I didn't know I was missing.
By Scott Gelbard3 months ago in Men
