Best Easter Bonnets

These are all from the New York Times -  New York doing what it does best,  doing something completely over the top and giving us something to smile about... 

Happy Easter,  Hope yours was full of Chocolate and rabbits and good times... 

Severance

The TV show Severance,  from Apple TV,  has a high concept - that they could somehow split people so what they do at work and what they do out of work do not connect.  It's fascinating and the first season was lighter in my eyes,  this season was more bleak.

But the NYT had a great article about it and how people can appear split right now - and in the comments someone from Seattle wrote I've come to the conclusion that we now have people divided into their normal self and their enraged social media self. The normal self, in most cases, shows restraint and courtesy and keeps opinions to itself. The social media self never questions "Should I say this?" they just blurt out vile vitriol.

And that was perfect for me! I do think we often have a split personality when it comes to social media and people I know and like have said some awful things, while strangers have said really vile things. And it is like there is some inside and outside split. I hadn't thought of it in the context of the tv show, but there really is a severance between how people act in the real world and how they act online. (Though how they act online is bleeding out into the real world right now, which is not a good thing at all!)

We have to work to stop the vile rhetoric online,  but also to present ourselves cogently,  so we are the same person at work, online  and at home.  Perhaps more relaxed in one environment,  but not fundamentally different. And to remember in each environment,  that we are communicating with other human beings,  as complicated as ourselves... 

Finding the Connections

As someone who  plays the New York Times words games daily,  I was delighted with yesterday's Connections game.  I immediately got the purple level -  the connection between Lover,  Magician,  Fool and Tower leaping to my eye.   

Tarot cards!   

Funny how easy it  is to see connections when you have some knowledge of the area... (the sports ones always trip me up! )

Work questions

The New York Times has a column The Corner Office, where they ask business leaders about leadership and management. 

In an interview with Chris Barbin,  he mentioned “One of my favorite interview questions is, “What are you most proud of?” It’s a fascinating question if you just end it there. People will say, “Well, what do you mean, in business?” And I’ll just say, “No, what are you proud of?” You can always tell when people kind of make-up answers to impress you. Another one is, “What do you stink at?” Some people will say, “Oh, I take on too much and I work too hard.” Then I’ll say: “That’s a pretty common answer. Give me something better.”

I speak to a lot of people about work changes, and I think these are good things to think about before the interview, but they are also interesting things to think about life.

sculpture from Bondi to Bronte beach walk