All the personal development stuff in workplaces makes me feel awkward.
Self-assessments, 360 reviews and personal SWOT evaluation is just a really odd and alien concept to me. I am more familiar with the competitive sports feedback loop. Your coach keeps saying that you suck, until you become better, hit your coach or quit (can be combination of all of the above). Negative feedback fuels your fire to show the world.
Developing yourself is naturally important and performance reviews in work as well. Maybe because of that sports background, I generally remember the negative feedback better. The following two criticisms I have gotten throughout the years have stick for some reason:
1. Being too cerebral
I had to check what that word evens means from a dictionary. I think that proves that this criticism was not really valid.
2. Trying to make joke about everything
This I heartily endorse and will continue to do as long I am living and breathing.
If you do not recognize the absurdity of work and life in general, you will likely suffocate to your own seriousness. Like my spiritual advisers Monty Python stated in their song “Meaning of Life”:
What’s the point of all this hoax?
Is it the chicken and the egg time, are we just yolks?
Or perhaps we’re just one of God’s little jokes
Well ca c’est the meaning of life
The humor is the greatest survival mechanism to the various setbacks of life. Continuing with my gurus Monty Python from “Always look on the bright side of life”:
Life’s a piece of shit, when you look at it
Life’s a laugh and death’s a joke, it’s true
You’ll see its all a show, keep ’em laughin as you go
Just remember that the last laugh is on you
And…
Always look on the bright side
of life…
Humor is a universal way for people to connect. You laugh with someone, laugh at someone or are the one who is laughed at.
When people and things get too self-righteousness to their own right, it serves as a balancing act. If you are not able to laugh at the things you are doing, you have drunk your own Kool-Aid for way too long.
Irony is the highest form of self-confidence. That is why we trust people who are able to laugh at themselves. We recognize that they realized something bigger in this life. If you look at the bright side of life, generally the bright side will eventually appear.
The minority of us still buying records in 2014 has experienced the surge of special pre-order packages from artists. With colored vinyl records, autographed shirts and other swag, artists are trying to fill the void of the disappeared record sales. Rappers El-P & Killer (collectively known as Run The Jewels) took a delicate piss on the phenomenon with pre-order packages to their sequel Run The Jewels –effort. In addition to real colored vinyl and merchandise packages, there were a couple of really crazy ones:
The We Are Gordon Ramsey Package*: 150,000.00 USD
Run The Jewels will self produce a new episode of Kitchen Nightmares with Gordon Ramsey, with Mike and El both playing Gordon Ramsey. We will travel to a restaurant with you of your choice, completely uninvited, and attempt to force them to change their menu. All the while verbally abusing and insulting the entire staff to hilarious effect.
The Self Righteousness For Sale Package*: 350,000.00 USD
Run The Jewels will spend 6 months pretending to care about whatever you care about. We will travel to no more than 3 events of your choosing and make eloquent, timely speeches on your causes behalf. We will shoot a heartfelt, informative video for your cause as well as co-author an info packet to be distributed on your causes behalf that includes an original song called “WE’VE GOT TO BRING _ _ _ _ _ _ _ TO AN END”. This offer does not extend to terrorists or cops.
The Run The Jewels Retirement Plan Package*: 10,000,000.00 USD
Run The Jewels will retire from music, making only one song a year for you personally. Every song title will be your name with a number next to it. You are free to exploit these recordings however you feel like.
Includes:
All run the jewels publishing from any new song created during our retirement
2 fake gold 36” chains
2 green hands
A sticker
The Meow The Jewels Package*: 40,000.00 USD
Run The Jewels will re-record RTJ2 using nothing but cat sounds for music. You are free to profit from this album in any way you see fit up to 100k in net global profit or 3 years (whichever comes first).
Actually the last one has now become a reality. Hardcore fan started a Kickstarter campaign to raise those 40k. And as of writing this, it has already gone over that goal.
Yes we are getting a rap album done entirely from cat sounds:
The surrealism continues with this video where El-P “auditions” potential collaborators:
Where this really gets interesting is that the proceeds from Meow the Jewels will benefit Eric Garner and Mike Brown, who were victims of police brutality. El-P summarized the project really nicely:
“(This is) an opportunity to possibly do something good in the stupidest way possible.”
Just because you are not taking things serious, does not mean that you don´t care.
Stand-Up Strategy 