When in college, I landed a job in a sporting goods store - which was my dream - to bag all my outdoors stuff at a discount. On my first day, I outsold everyone in the store combined, due to hustle, finding the customer’s needs and discussing what the products best met them, and being very chummy. Evidently the long term employees didn’t appreciate my selling skis, tennis rackets and climbing gear and was terminated when I arrived for my second day. I was dumbstruck since I was making money for the store but didn’t “fit in”. Learned an important lesson about culture. In union terms it’s called rate busting - doing more than others. Later in corporate life, I observed first and then produced accordingly. And after surviving at least six mergers and layoffs, I then learned to do just a bit more than the minimum required since all I was, was a liability on the balance sheet - no matter how much my actions actually saved or made money for the company. Started hot, and cooled with experience.

My experience with M&A (and RIFs...) has been pretty commonplace in Biotech. COVID brought a huge surge of capitol, Like crazy. And then it started drying up faster than what everyone wanted. We have been "right sizing" (which means: downsizing) for a few years now. I have been lucky enough to be in a commercial/rev generating role related to our catalog products, which are consumable reagents. My dept has been somewhat insulated but ts been a tornado around me. I am lucky. An entirely different experience from corporate M&A in a different industry, perhaps.

The problem I have with the Keos is that they spin too freely - push down on the clipped-in pedal and the unclipped one spins around its axis so that maybe 20-30% of the time, it's upside down when my foot gets there. The other problem is that I think they designed the pedals and cleats so that if you didn't hit it right, you wouldn't just skid off. If you cleat lands an inch or so in front, or an inch or so behind the correct spot, the cleat will still engage the pedal so your foot doesn't slip off, but then you can't just slide your foot forward or back to clip in. I find I have to lift my foot off the pedal and try again. With Deltas, they always hang tail down as the cranks rotate so the front of the cleat can always find the front of the pedal, and *click!*, you're in.

Productivity hack: You save a lot of time if you don't eat. I just went over 24 hours without doing so.

Downside: You might get hungry.

I had an online debate with a more rightwing friend, more than 20 years ago now. I was The Liberal on the community/political subforum on an archery and bowhunting website, so I was The Enemy, though in those days it was all civilized. My friend challenged me to debate the proposition that an employer owed his employees no more compensation than just enough that they won't leave.

I responded with, "Sure, as long as YOU agree that employEES owe their employER no more work than would keep them from being fired."

He was HORRIFIED! That attitude, he said, was what was wrong with America today! He essentially felt that workers should ALWAYS give their best and work as hard as possible, as some kind of moral obligation. He couldn't see it as a business decision on BOTH sides of it. You'll be unsurprised to learn that he was an employER, not an employEE.

How did the other sales people fire you?

As you may be aware, there is considerable historical precedent for this approach.

I saw a medium amount of trees.

Those trails would be a hoot on the MTB. Running too, as I am quite the trail runner.

A good friend up in Oregon was running his own small construction business with maybe 8 employees or so. He grew up working construction and knows what it's like to not make much money but have to work your butt off all day and had no intention of doing that to any of his employees. He wanted them to do more than earn just enough, he wanted them all to live comfortably and well so he paid them a LOT. Needless to say, he had low turnover, everyone was happy and put in top quality work which meant satisfied customers.

No Rocky Top detected. Too many trees I guess

Anyone know if big john is ok?? No activity in a week, which is quite unlike him.

That's kinda like how a buddy of mine runs his tree service company. There are a lot of shady people in that industry, but he's an exceptionally honest and good person. He pays good wages and offers health benefits, which is not the norm for this area. He does set very high expectations for his employees, but most of those expectations are geared towards safety. He doesn't have much turnover and his employees are generally happy with the job. His prices are on the higher end for this area, yet he has no shortage of business...most of it being word of mouth.

Different school.
DM?

I sent him one yesterday on BF. I do have his landline number but don’t want to panic. He does not have a cell phone.

Nice one! Ba dum tissssss

That's not a small feat in the Year of our Lord 2026.

Agree. Especially for a cyclist. I do hope he is ok. Will give a call.

I got a recording so left a message. Fingers crossed all ok.

For the best results, always ensure what you feel like doing matches your training plan. Some call this an "adaptive training program".

Today's planned workout was to walk to lunch with Mrs tm, planned at 11:30 AM, implemented at 11:45 AM.

Where the hell is Seeds?

seedsbelize

RMOT

Update: I got a call back and he is fine. Just taking a little break.

He is now seedsbelize2 and last activity yesterday. Interestingly, he and big John are two of the three BF’ers I have met in real life. Anyone care to guess the third??