Comments

Episode-2175- Listener Feedback for 3-5-18 — 10 Comments

  1. Thanks for answering my question about the opposite of snowflake.  It’s given me more to think about.

  2. Hi Jack.

    I was listening to your “song of the day” idea, and would suggest two songs that you might like to listen to (if your lineup for the week isn’t already decided).

    The first is “New York, New York” by Liza Minnelli who first sang the song in the film of the same name (1977). It wasn’t recorded by Frank Sinatra until 1979 and prior to him singing it was little known.

    The second song is a cover of (coincidentally) her mother’s song – “Over the Rainbow” by Hawaiian singer and ukulele player Israel Ka’ano’i Kamakawiwo’ole. While it’s probably a lot better known to people than the Liza Minnelli version of NY, NY, it might be one you’d like to feature on your show.

  3. I’m not sure where you are from, but in the Mid-Atlantic when it snows, we put down what we call rock salt on the roads and sidewalks. It causes the snowflakes to melt down. My wife and I often say, “We’re raising rock salt not snowflakes.” Usually in response to someone who questions our decision as a parent, like allowing our kids to play in the woods by themselves or taking them to the gun range. We sometimes direct this at the kids when they complain about something trivial. Maybe the term rock salt is just a regional thing, but the saying seems to have caught on in our circle of friends and family.

  4. If you’re interested in more about resiliency as a more developed concept, I suggest Nassim Taleb’s ‘Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder’.

  5. I would like to submit another word for the opposite of snowflake; antifragile.

    It is from the book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Antifragile; Things That Gain From Disorder. 

    From the beginning of the book, “Some things benefit from shocks; they thrive and grow when exposed to volatility, randomness, disorder, and stressors and love adventure, risk and uncertainty. Yet, in spite of the ubiquity of the phenomenon, there is no word for the exact opposite of fragile. Lets call it anitfragile.

    Antifagility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile get better.”

    Its not a highly marketable word, but I think it works well.

  6. I would also suggest the use of  Taleb’s “antifragile” for the opposite of a snowflake.  After hearing your description of how the willow tree lives longer and benefits from adversity, it was the first thing that came to mind.

  7. Drain tank, change filters, blow out fuel lines and it should be fine, a job you could do yourself, if the garage charge you for more than that then they are probably riding you.

    • Actually it can be that simple, and fortunately for the young man that works for me this time it was.  It can be drain and refill or it can be the death of an engine, I have seen that happen.  It is basically a coin toss but more like the roll of a dice where 4 of the numbers are drain and fill and 2 are blown motor. 

      We got lucky, the red beast lives.  Total cost about 600 bucks.  Not a job I had time to do myself, especially with someone else having to pay the bill. Not to mention what to do with 34 gallons of 80% gas, 20% diesel.

  8. Glad to hear the Red Beast lives on.
    Stephen Harris will have some ideas on how to utilize the 80/20 fuel mix if you can collect it from the garage).
    I know I have used roughly that mix in a Coleman camping stove.
    (Caution : there are different models of Coleman camping stove, I would not recomend drifting away from manufacturers user instructions unless you are qualified in fuel dynamics).

  9. I think the opposite of a snowflake is to flow like water. In the words of the late great Bruce Lee.
    “Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.”