— छह हज़ार छियानवे —
There was no Daily Lunch Update (DLU) yesterday, because at work we had an all-day training in the Merchandising Department. Well, it was from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., anyway. It was called "
Embracing Complexity," which was amusing to me because when we had our last all-day training back in August of last year (only weeks before our move to the new office), it was all about simplifying how we use our tools at work—particularly Outlook. I have to admit, I actually still do some of the things I learned in that training—particularly using Tasks to clean out my inbox, and color-coding calendar items. (In the older version of Outlook I use in the remote desktop I always work in, I can automate this color-coding based on keywords, a feature I love—but unfortunately, this does not appear to be a feature available in newer versions, a frustratingly typical thing that happens with "upgrades," which do away with great features previously available. Fucking Microsoft!)
That training was called "
Effective Edge." This makes me think maybe I watch too much porn, considering the first thing
that makes me think of.
Speaking of which, there was an amusing moment when, inevitably given the complexity of so many things we deal with here, POS was brought up—this is something we have long colloquially sounded out as a word: "pos" (as in, rhymes with the first syllable of
posse). But, Tyler sounded out the letters, which some people also do: "P-O-S." Jenn, the facilitator, said, "I'm going to guess that means something other than what I'm thinking," which got a good laugh out of the room. I should note that this is kind of an old, stale joke in many circles; many of us have been very aware of the dual acronyms for "point of sale" and "piece of shit" for years. Jenn, however, was not; so, there was a freshness to the innocence of her comment.
The biggest laugh of the day, though, would have to be my favorite moment from the training: a perfectly timed accident when Jenn was queuing up a short video from YouTube, not realizing it would come out of the gate with a commercial, and the sudden and enthusiastically spoken statement, "Watch what alcohol does to stuck poop!"
This is
still crackling me up. I giggled when I just wrote it. And later I had to message both Cathryn and Amanda over Teams:
DAMMIT missed opportunity—when we all went around the room saying what we'll take away from that training I should have said "I'm going to watch what alcohol does to stuck poop!"
I really want to find every excuse possible to repeat this at work. There won't likely be much opportunity for it, but damn do I want to keep saying it. As soon as Noah and Frank arrive at the office. In the middle of meetings. Introducing my team at the annual all-Merchandising meeting. "Watch what alcohol does to stuck poop!"
I don't even know what the commercial was for. I don't think it much matters.
I expect that in an upcoming meeting Gabby will ask me how I felt about the training, just as she did after the "Effective Egde" training. She asked both in 1:1 meetings and in our Pricing & Promotions (now "Merchandising Enablement") team meeting. When we broke for lunch yesterday, Amy asked me basically the same question. I could tell even by then that I got more out of the Effective Edge training than I was likely to get out of "Embracing Complexity." My job is way more complex than it used to be, but I do think its complexity pales in comparison to that of the people in Merchander or Manager positions above me—this would be precisely why I do not want those jobs and never have. I only got promoted at the beginning of this year because Gabby advocated for it and got me a raise and new title to acknowledge how much my job had already evolved—mostly thanks to her, I should say.
I will say I am fascinated by the concept of
complex adaptive systems, and that humans are a part of many, including teams at work, even though the analogies from nature are "superorganisms" created by schools of fish or flocks of birds or ant colonies. The part that left the biggest impression on me was the "small set of simple rules" that otherwise autonomous agents within a complex adaptive system follow, but which can be gently nudged by any of those agents in a way that ultimately effects change on the whole. Anyway this was what I brought up when asked what I was taking away from the training, instead of that I was going to watch what alcohol does to stuck poop.
— छह हज़ार छियानवे —
— छह हज़ार छियानवे —
Having not updated yesterday, what should I tell you about the day before? Nothing, really. I spent Wednesday evening at home; I susbcribed to a month of Apple TV so we could see this year's season of
Slow Horses—there are six episodes per season and this timing meant that the last episode will air a few days before the subscription ends. It also meant we could watch two episodes that evening, after which we were caught up. We then watched two episodes of
Widow's Bay, the show that had swept the Emmy Awards. It's really fun, but so far I'm not sure why all the Emmys. We watched another episode last night.
I spent a good amount of the evening last night at Steamworks. This was my first time there since July, but I went to the bathhouse in Amsterdam twice since then, during our trip to The Netherlands.
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I just had my biweekly lunch over Zoom with Karen. At first she told me all about a bunch of challenges with her work office landlord, and then I told her about a bunch of things I have booked, at verying degrees of expense: the Tasveer Film Festival Gala fundraiser on October 30; the possible Opening Night and Closing Night movies at that same festival earlier in the month; back to the Queen Mary Tea Room for a Christmastime visit with Alexia and Ivan on December 18. I'm doing pretty well with my holiday planning this year, actually. Then we talked a lot about shows on Apple TV, because I just subscribed to a month of it. She has watched the first episode of the fourth season of
Ted Lasso and she quite enjoyed it, apparently. I'm not sure if we'll watch that or
Silo season 3 next, after we're finished with
Widow's Bay.
— छह हज़ार छियानवे —
[posted 1:05pm]
