By John Y. Brown III, on Thu Jan 31, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET My delusion of getting LinkedIn attention and an apology.
I like using LinkedIn. It’s a useful and efficient business networking social media tool, in my opinion.
And so I was amused at first, then overjoyed, and ultimately circumspect a few weeks ago when it began raining LinkedIn “acceptances” in my email box.
I knew over the years I had requested a number of LinkedIn connections that had gone un-responded to. And I wondered why this or that person may not have “confirmed” me.
Was it something I said? Did I remind them of someone they dislike? Or am I the person they disliked–and kept others who reminded them of me from being “confirmed” on
LinkedIn?
I just didn’t know.
It started with a trickle. First two, then four, then nine, then 14 LinkedIn confirmations –all in the space of a few hours one day.
 “Well, what do you know?” I thought to myself. “I feel I hit the social media jackpot. I guess all those people who never responded are all finally coming around. And at nearly the same time.” Which seemed odd….but the thought was replaced quickly with the self-serving, “Well, it’s about time.”
And then I began wondering “Why now?” Was it the ad in the airport just breaking through. Was there some effort at LinkedIn to end the moratorium on people who had requested to be linked but were in the “questionable” category?
But before I could think through that remote possibility here came 10 more confirmations. And then another five and another seven.
“What the heck?” I thought to myself.
By the end of the day I had lost count. I had at least 300 new LinkedIn connections. All in one afternoon. The likelihood they were all coincidentally people I had requested but hadn’t yet decided until today seemed not only unlikely —but downright delusional.
And then I got an inkling. A few friends who are more colleagues and acquaintances began asking “Did you mean to ‘Link’ to me the other day on LinkedIn?”
I checked my LinkedIn account. By the end of day two I had about 600 new LinkedIn connections. If this trend kept up, I would soon be closing in on Richard Branson of Virgin airlines as the most linked to member of the social media site. I began to wonder if Mr Branson (well, “Richard” now to me) had experienced a similar dramatic surge like mine.
And I realized, at last, it wasn’t a sudden burst in my popularity or people coincidentally seeing the value of linking to me on a social media site. No, something far less impressive and a great deal more humiliating. I had inadvertantly “blast requested” LinkedIn connections from every single person whose email address I had in my Outlook account that could be found on LinkedIn (that wasn’t already connected to me).
Of course, this last and more plausible explanation is a little unsettling and embarrassing. I would like to apologize to everyone I contacted and also thank those that are now “linked” to me.
I think.
I actually want to hold off on a formal apology (and thank you) until I can be sure.
I’d like to hold on ….for just one more night….the convoluted idea that finally, at last, all the people who had gone silent to my LinkedIn requests saw the error of their ways and rose up to link to me. Simultaneously. All in a matter of just a few hours.
I may be able to stretch it out for two more days and nights with this pleasant delusion.
So please be patient waiting for me to get back with that formal apology.
Oops. Gotta go. Just got 12 more new “confirms” on LinkedIn.
“It’s about time!”
By John Y. Brown III, on Wed Jan 30, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET Love is…
When your spouse knows you have a number of quirky habits and addictions, and doesn’t comment critically when she realizes you are frittering away time with one of the more harmless ones–because she knows it could be worse.
And even says something encouraging.
Like when a patient at a mental hospital finishes making a wallet and shows it off with pride and receives praise from the hospital staffer on duty.
By Artur Davis, on Wed Jan 30, 2013 at 8:30 AM ET The following is the prepared text of a speech Artur Davis delivered at the National Review Institute on January 27, 2013
Rich Lowry, thank you. Rich said that he wanted to get together a few friends for lunch after the campaign, and now I see what he means. And thank you for letting me be the warm-up act for Bobby Jindal, whom I deeply admire, and whom I served with in the House of Representatives.
I want to begin by saying something that needs to be said: I am not going to tell you that we have the luxury of feeling good about where we are as a movement, or that we don’t have lessons to learn. But this is the movement and the cause that rescued this country 30 years ago, when serious people thought we were too complex to be governed anymore. This is the movement and the cause that refused to believe freedom was exhausted; only that it was tired of not being defended. And you held up freedom and made it so vibrant that prisoners in Prague and shipbuilders in Gdansk and freedom fighters in Managua and dissidents in gulags in Russia saw it and were moved by it.
And not only have you been right about these large cosmic things, you have been right about more basic things: we can’t grow an economy by making audacity cost too much, we can’t strengthen people by penalizing them for work, we can’t own our future by living on the credit of countries who want to dominate us. Those values are as right today as they were yesterday, and may they always define us. I have not always been with you but I am with you now and I am proud to stand with you to wage this fight.
So, about this election. Yes, we have learned that we the American people can trust us to do a better job on the three things they said mattered the most to them, the economy, healthcare and spending and still not vote for us. We learned that 5 million fewer people can vote for the president and that he can still get reelected, the first time in 120 years that an incumbent has won and gotten fewer votes than he got the first time—in contrast, 12 million more people voted for George Bush in 2004 than 2000. How is that we lost when so many Americans agreed with our broad principles, and when 5 million people abandoned Obama?
Read the rest of…
Artur Davis: A Winning Conservative Message
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Jan 29, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET
Want to have a brighter future? Here’s how.
Have a “Growth Mindset” –as opposed to a “Fixed Mindset.”Mindset is a simple idea discovered by Stanford professor, Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., in decades of research on motivation, achievement, and success.
Mindsets are beliefs individuals hold about their most basic qualities and abilities.In a Growth Mindset, people believe they can develop their brain, abilities, and talent.
This view creates a love for learning, a drive for growth and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishments. On the contrary, people with a Fixed Mindset believe their basic qualities, such as intelligence and abilities are fixed, and can’t be developed.
They also believe that talent alone creates success, and see effort as a sign of weakness rather than as a positive element of life needed to reach one’s full potential.
The diagram above shows how people with different views of intelligence behave in different situations.
(Thanks to Lee H. Baucom for teaching me about this theory and doing it in such a memorable and meaningful way).
By RP Staff, on Tue Jan 29, 2013 at 10:00 AM ET From Jason’s newest venture: Sock 101
 SOCK 101
How’s your sock cred? Step it up for $7.
Sock 101 exists to enhance the style, appeal, and success of young professionals through colorful, yet professional and stylish socks.
Socks you say? Yes, socks. Our question…Why not socks? Socks are no longer your grandfather’s boring Gold Toe’s. The idea that your socks should match your pants is long gone! Socks are now a fun accessory that you can use to spruce up your wardrobe and appearance while remaining professional. Socks, like ties, can add color and style to any outfit.
Being the self-proclaimed fashionable young professionals we are, we noticed an opportunity that such a small accessory as socks had in the market. Even President George H.W. Bush was quoted in an interview saying, “I’m a sock man!” We are sock men ourselves. We believe in a new sock style.
There was one significant problem, we were tired of paying between $12 and $25 for a nice pair of socks. We knew there had to be a better way. We started with a question…Could we make high quality, high fashion, colorful, yet professional socks and sell them for $7?
It turns out, we could. Without any real experience in the fashion business, but with passion and ideas, we began work on Sock 101. We know what we wanted and now the product is here.
Three “Sockpreneurs” coming together. One an entrepreneur, one an attorney and marketing strategist and one an attorney and media man.
One man was responsible for handling the manufacture. One man was responsible for the marketing and PR. One man was responsible for our website and operations. All helped build the designs. To say the least, it was a learning experience and a total blast! Overall, we were very pleased with the result. Now, we hope you are too!
We design our own colorful yet professional and stylish socks, and sell them for only $7 each. That’s right, seven bucks for a great pair of socks. We ship our socks in 24 hours and there is a flat rate shipping price of $5.95 no matter how many socks you buy. Oh yeh we also have a sock of the month club, a six pack and sock gift cards.
Get noticed. Look Great. Join us in crossing your legs, raising your pant leg and showing off your Sock 101’s!
By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Jan 28, 2013 at 2:15 PM ET Lincoln and the power of story–and humor. And a lesson in leadership.
Throughout the movie Lincoln starring Daniel Day-Lewis, we are treated (as we should be) to multiple instances of Lincoln entangled in a tense and threatening situation only to hear him start his response with a story. The stories Lincoln tells are usually pithy, homespun, humorous and wise. They each sound at times like an Aesop’s fable all dressed up in grown up clothing. And often-times don’t even seem to be on point with the topic at hand. But work nonetheless.
This story-telling tic, or device, of Lincoln’s worked profoundly well for him. And for our nation.
The stories –and the time it took to tell them–communicated something much more important than an answer to the question posed. Which Lincoln would eventually get to.
First, the story was a distraction which defused an already overly tense situation. But the time Lincoln had finished his story, others present had had time to broaden their perspective and return to the ability to be reasonable rather than just react hastily. And the humorous punchline only helped punctuate this for the president.
 Second, it brought everyone in the room together on an unrelated matter. Sure, everyone may be divided by the national conundrum they were debating, but for a few brief moments they were reminded that there was more than united than divided them by laughing together at a commonplace story. And if they could do that, perhaps they could agree on bigger issues. At least, I believe, that was the subconscious message achieved by Lincoln.
Three, Lincoln would re-establish through his story that he was “one of them” –just an ordinary fella not a slick, manipulative, self-serving politician. He could be trusted and was a person of goodwill trying to solve a thorny problem for reasons beyond merely self-interest. Like his familiar stories. He put his audience at ease with him and the process they were engaged with.
Read the rest of…
John Y. Brown, III: Lincoln and the Power of Story
By Artur Davis, on Mon Jan 28, 2013 at 1:30 PM ET The consensus about Barack Obama’s inaugural address is right. It is the most fulsome presidential defense of liberalism we have heard since 1965, and the most programmatically specific inaugural speech since the thirties. This was also the rhetoric of a partisan who believes his opponents are losers and fools, who won’t have much threat left in them ten years from now.
But before liberals feel too deep a thrill, they should consider the following proposition: Obama’s words will be paired with a second term resume that could be the thinnest since Richard Nixon. Given the alignment in the House, and the number of Red State Democratic senators on the ballot in 2014, there is no viable chance Obama can actually enact a single item on the liberal wish list. Not one, from an assault weapons ban to an overhaul of corporate deductions, to cap and trade, to comprehensive immigration reform, to a government financed infrastructure plan, to a recalibrated war on poverty, to campaign finance reform.
 So, Obama Part 2 is more about the tactical work of isolating conservatives than classic presidential legacy building: in other words, not so different from the stalemate of the second half of Obama’s first term. Of course, for liberals, the president’s middling results have had the perverse consequence of providing a rallying cry without a record of accomplishments that are susceptible to backfire (the backlash at Obamacare is a window into how vulnerable Obama might have been if he had managed to pass legislation on immigration or climate change).
This entirely unpredictable element–that gridlock has spared Democrats the consequences of their policies floundering–plus shifting demographics which Republicans have struggled to adjust to, have left an altered political landscape. If not quite the liberal dawn that some Democrats are prematurely celebrating (as they did four years ago), the terrain is changed enough that major stretches of Obama’s speech already seem more boilerplate than visionary.
Read the rest of…
Artur Davis: Obama’s “Us Versus Them” Speech
By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Jan 28, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET Facebook and the levels of dopamine hits.
It’s a good feeling when a friend request on Facebook gets “accepted.” Of course, we are adults and perhaps shouldn’t acknowledge the affirmation rush we feel, but it happens and is pleasing.
But what about the “delayed acceptance” of a friend request?
This gets complicated. The “dopamine factor” (we’ll call it) is reduced the more time that passes before we are notified of the big “accept.”
A week delay is probably only about a 20% reduction in the dopamine delivery. It’s possible this were really busy or is just now checking Facebook for new friend requests. But the chances are they saw the request from you 5 days ago and weren’t excited enough about it to immediately accept but knew they would eventually accept when “other” friend requests came in and they could kill 5 birds with one round of accepts, so to speak.
A month delay, is concerning and delivers only about 40% of the dopamine an immediate accept produces. In this case, it’s likely the person decided not to accept you but then in the intervening weeks realized they needed to ask you for a favor or remembered you know someone important to them and don’t want you saying bad things about them for not accepting you on Facebook. Hence, the month delayed “accept.” The reason this is 40% and not lower is we know going in these people aren’t crazy about us and getting an accept in the first place is a bigger surprise, increasing the dopamine punch.
6 months or longer. It delivers about 20% of the maximum dopamine surge. Sure it’s offensive to know it took 6 months for someone to finally think of something redeeming enough about you to “accept” but the “relief factor” of knowing they eventually did come up with some reason to accept is worth a 20% hit. In fact, we are so relieved we don’t even need to know what the redeeming factor about us is. Just that there is one at all (for these individuals) is good enough.
1 year and 9 months? This is a tough one to explain. And is what got me thinking about this topic in the first place tonight. I haven’t figured it out yet. I’ll say a 25% dopamine burst. These are people you had written you off as undeserving of a friend accept. And about 639 days passed before they changed their mind…..and you have come back from the social dead to them, figuratively speaking. And coming back from death from anything is worth at least 25% of the maximum dopamine burst. I’m low-balling this one. ; )
By John Y. Brown III, on Fri Jan 25, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET Clean living. Baby steps.
I have several hundred songs downloaded on my iTouch.
All of them legally downloaded. And I’m feeling kind of smug about that.
And yet my inner rebel refuses to put on my seat belt until I am leaving my neighborhood—several hundred feet from my driveway.
I can’t explain why I feel the need to flout the law and live on the edge like that?
Who can say? It’s who I am.
Like a Hell’s Angel of suburbia (but driving a Honda Accord instead of a Harley.)
But at least the version of Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wild” I listen to before buckling up wasn’t illegally downloaded.
And today was followed on my iTouch by George Michael’s “You Gotta Have Faith.”
Baby Steps
By John Y. Brown III, on Thu Jan 24, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET The McRib Code
The McRib sandwich is back at McDonalds . But there is far more to it than the simple reintroduction of failed fast food sandwich for about the 19th time in approximately 31 years.
I have combined the DaVinci Code formulas and validated them through Nostradamus’ projections that reference a similar irregular phenomenon.
And it is not pretty.
How bad?
Almost enough to make you want to go Mayan.
After you’ve eaten a 2 for 1 McRib. Just know there more at stake. ; )
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