Overnight Success Stories | Respected, Elected, Executed | The Battle to End the Forever War

Over the holidays two articles struck me as revelatory in what they reveal about success, creativity, and hardwork. It took 20 minutes for Robert Frost to write the famous poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” in 1922. Apparently it took Mariah Carey just 15 minutes to write the song “All I Want for Christmas is You” in 1994. My system one reaction is how fast geniuses work. My system two thinking is it takes years to decades for geniuses to be instantly creative. Frost began writing poetry in 1912 and Mariah Carey released her debut album in 1990. Consistent work, effort, and patience gives us inspiration in all of our endeavors: “Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.” So we raise our glasses to all the future overnight successes who are now putting in the years of hard work.

“Chaos is a ladder. Many who try to climb it fail and never get to try again. The fall breaks them. And some are given a chance to climb, but they refuse. They cling to the realm or the gods or love. Illusions. Only the ladder is real. The climb is all there is.” – Game of Thrones

“Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void but out of chaos.” – Mary Shelley

Respected, Elected, Executed: Holding public office in parts of Mexico is a life or death experience, and we don’t just mean political life. Between September 2017 and August 2018 the number of murdered politicians reached 175. The New Year began in similar fashion when the mayor of the town of Tlaxiaco, state of Oaxaca, was killed Tuesday within hours of taking office. Alejandro Aparicio Santiago had been walking to his first official meeting at city hall when a group of gunmen opened fire; a suspect is reportedly in custody. Aparicio was a member of Mexico’s National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), the same party as newly elected President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Obrador campaigned on a platform of restoring order in Mexico by forming a National Guard. Surprisingly, the president has been known to travel with very light security, often riding in a Volkswagen sedan with only a handful of unarmed citizens providing protection.

Another MORENA politician, María Ascención Torres Cruz, was killed December 30 in the state of Morelos. The Economist magazine analyzed violence against Mexico’s mayors, concluding they were frequently targeted after cracking down on corruption and local crime, or sometimes because they sided with one gang and were killed by a rival gang. In Oaxaca, where gangs are weak, mayors have been killed over land disputes. There were more than 33,000 homicides in Mexico in 2018, so many that morgues overflowed and bodies were sometimes stored in refrigerated trailers.

Reunification Anxiety: Daily Pnut reported yesterday that Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said Tuesday in her New Year’s Day address that China must respect the freedom and democracy of Taiwan’s 23 million people. On Wednesday Chinese President Xi Jinping responded in a policy speech given at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People. Xi said that while Beijing would seek a peaceful “reunification” with the self-governing island, China would not rule out using force if necessary. Clearly, the message was that a Taiwan independent from mainland China is not an option. And although he didn’t name any country specifically in Wednesday’s speech, Xi warned against foreign interference in China’s “Taiwan issue,” saying family matters should be resolved by family members. Only about 20 of the world’s countries recognize Taiwan as a sovereign nation; the US is not among them. (NPR)

Save Canada! Save Canada!:This is a national election year in Canada, and for voters, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s environmental policies are right up there with the standard electoral issues of jobs, the economy and foreign policy. Trudeau’s been attacked for doing too little for the environment, and also for doing too much. Canadians have become increasingly concerned about the environment. But the country is still largely dependent on resource extraction. October’s elections could come down to how voters feel about the government’s recent pipeline nationalization and its carbon tax plan. One pollster said voters still think Trudeau is the best choice for prime minister, but as for choosing between Liberals or Conservatives, it’s a coin toss. (Guardian)

Let The Door Hit Ya: Somalia is in the midst of a political crisis pitting the governments of its semiautonomous regions against the federal government based in the capital of Mogadishu. Regional governments are currently holding elections. So when the UN’s most senior official in the country, Nicholas Haysom, criticized the detention of a former al-Shabab leader who was contesting regional elections, Somalia’s Foreign Ministry declared Haysom a “persona non grata” and kicked him out of the country. (WaPo)

Take The Road Less Copywritten: When US copyright laws expired in 1998, works protected in 1922 entered the public domain for the first time in 75 years. But legislation passed in 1998, called the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, added a further 20 years to existing copyrights. With the expiration of that legislation works first published in 1923 are now freely available, meaning thousands of books such as Agatha Christie’s ‘The Murder on the Links’, and poems such as Robert Frost’s ‘Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening’, will become part of the repository of texts on public sites like the Internet Archive and Google Books. Writers can write sequels should they so desire, students can quote from works, and theater producers can adapt them however they wish. (Guardian)

Additional read: “Mickey Mouse will be public domain soon—here’s what that means.” (Ars Technica)

The Battle to End the Forever War: Regional CIA-sponsored forces in Afghanistan are holding the line against the most brutal militant groups, such as the Haqqani wing of the Taliban and Islamic State loyalists, but the fighters brutal tactics are terrorizing the public and undermining the US mission. The CIA-trained and overseen strike forces are a parallel mission to the US military’s, but with looser rules of engagement. The units have operated unconstrained by battlefield rules designed to protect civilians and have conducted night raids, torture and killings with near impunity. Some Afghan and American officials say the abusive covert campaign is actively pushing people toward the Taliban. (NYT)

Additional reads: “Afghanistan’s neighbors fear refugee crisis if U.S. pulls out.” (Reuters); and “Top U.S. commander in Afghanistan sees peace opportunity in 2019.” (Reuters) And “Time to Get Out of Afghanistan: The United States is spending beyond its means on a mission that might only be helping its strategic rivals.” (NYT)

Building Walls and Burning Bridges: It’s not just federal workers in some agencies that aren’t getting paid during the ongoing government shutdown. Visitors to Washington DC can’t get into the Smithsonian Museum or the National Zoo. The Small Business Administration isn’t processing loans for small businesses and startups. The Agriculture Dept isn’t issuing any new rural development loans. Housing quality inspections for HUD aren’t happening. Immigration courts aren’t holding hearings, and garbage and human waste is piling up in national parks. Thank you, Mr. President. (NPR)

Take That, Earth: Ryan Zinke, controversial Interior Secretary and subject of numerous ethics investigations, has stepped down. His replacement is his deputy, agency insider David Bernhardt, a former oil-industry lobbyist and lawyer representing fossil fuel companies who sees himself as a foot soldier for President Trump’s pro-energy development agenda, with goals including deregulation and relaxing environmental standards for oil and gas companies. Acting Secretary Bernhardt is a polarizing figure, loved by the industry and loathed by environmental protection groups. Some of Bernhardt’s recent accomplishments include erasing a chapter on climate change from the department’s handbook, advocating the rolling back of Endangered Species Act protections, and weakening methane rules for oil and gas companies. (NPR)

– “Trump’s Judicial Appointments Were Confirmed At Historic Pace In 2018” (NPR)

– “Big claims strain senior living market for U.S. insurers” (Reuters)

– “Trump fires back after incoming Senator Romney blasts president” (Reuters)

Personal Finance in 2019: We hypothesize that a majority of new year resolutions center around health and personal finances. On the personal finance front here are some articles to consider, how the vast majority of Americans live: “Living paycheck to paycheck is disturbingly common: ‘I see no way out.’” (WaPo) These personal finance lessons apply to not just tech professionals: “10 Personal Finance Lessons for Technology Professionals” (Troy Hunt) A sobering but thoughtful article about “The Economics of Divorce: Even in the most carefully run and financially independent of lives, there will be some wrenching twists and turns.” (Mr. Money Mustache)

How Big Companies Make and Lose Money/Mammon: “How one man’s eureka moment earns Disney $3bn a year: Andy Mooney’s career has taken him from a small town in Scotland to running US guitar company Fender, after time with both Nike and Disney” (BBC) Disney turns fantasy, content, and escapism into pure capitalism (Star Wars, Marvel Universe, theme parks, etc…). But some Disney characters are too cute: “When Too Cute Is Too Much, The Brain Can Get Aggressive: Researchers say human brains can become overwhelmed by cute traits, such as large eyes and small noses, embodied by movie characters like Bambi.” (NPR)

Meanwhile older companies that don’t reinvent themselves are hurting: “From Campbell’s To Kellogg’s, Classic Brands Are Feeling The Crunch:The world of mainstream consumer brands is in a major slow-motion transformation.” (NPR)

“The only geniuses produced by the chaos of society are those who do something about it. Chaos breeds geniuses. It offers a man something to be a genius about.” – B.F. Skinner

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