Chief Slowdown Officer

Lex Fridman interviews Jeff Bezos about making decisions:

YouTube comments:

“I think this is very liberating for perfectionists, most decisions are not permanent and you can pick another door if necessary, if they are one way door decisions then you can allow for some perfectionism.”

“I’m the same age as Bezos. Also studied engineering and moved into management. What he’s talking about is, basically, exactly what we were taught in our control systems engineering classes back at university. Almost all engineer managers of our age group say the same thing.”

“I think everyone fails to understand the message of this discussion. It’s not about decision-making mechanisms, it’s about truth-seeking and the idea that no matter what the debate is about the objective should always be to try to get as close as possible to the truth to make the decision that resembles closest to the truth. That the whole point of this conversation, to leave the ego aside and search for truth.”

Nature of the Problem

H.R. McMaster, February 2017 until April 2018 National Security Advisor under President Donald Trump, describes how critical it was at the beginning of his tenure to get clarity on scope. Listen to minutes 3:00 to 4:15 about “the nature of the problem”, and about “framing out the problem”:

McMaster earned an M.A. and a Ph.D. in History, both from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He turned his dissertation on the strategy of the U.S. in the Vietnam War into his book entitled Dereliction of Duty.

Joe Rogan is one of the most widely listened-to long-form interviewers on the Internet. His podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, has as of February 2022 nearly twelve million subscribers. More viewers, and more loyal viewers, than most networks tv shows. Because he has serious guests, asks the right questions, and listens.

Mercedes C-Class 2022

The bestselling Mercedes-Benz model series over the past decade will start production in Bremen, the lead plant in the global C-Class production network. This will shortly be followed by start-ups at international locations in Beijing, China and East London, South Africa.

YouTube comments:

“My 9 year old C350 is still solid and tight as a drum in terms of build quality and how the materials held up. Hopefully these keep that going.”

“We’ve come to an age of true automation. Amazing work! Feels like a sci-fi movie in which humans are the supporting cast only.”

“Being an owner of 2 New ordered Benz, I have to say this. The quality of my W204 was superior than my American built W205. My W204 was build in Germany with pride and you can tell it whereas my W205 was just put together because of the buck and no pride = Pegged with problem after problem taking years under warranty to sort out with the help of Mercedes Germany. It is no wonder, Mercedes Germany now gives American dealerships a direct contact to help solve problem with their cars.”

Jack Barsky was too pushy

“Barsky discovered that the people who trained him (Russian KGB) did not have an authentic understanding of Americans, and he struggled at first with his assignment. While his instructions were to infiltrate political circles and get close to Brzezinski (National Security Advisor under US President Jimmy Carter), he was not given specific instructions on how he was supposed to accomplish that.

He also learned that while his English was excellent, he was very pushy and argumentative when dealing with people. He was shocked when he was confronted with this fact by a fed-up friend. He realized that he was essentially too East German to fit in.” From Wikipedia

See the CBS 60 Minutes story on Jack Barsky:

Jordan Peterson’s interview with Jack Barsky is extraordinarily fascinating:

Haimer in Germany

CNC Machine Shop Tour. Titan Gilroy takes you on a VIP Tour through the Haimer manufacturing plant in Germany. Epic Innovation. 170 CNC Machines and a workforce that is highly skilled.

YouTube comments:

“We need more Titan videos. As a German I should add that we also need to bring manufacturing back. Our industry has been very keen on outsourcing production to other EU and non-EU countries. It starts with the identity and our core competences. Time to get that back, especially in the minds of the general public.”

“Glad to see a CEO who knows what he’s talking about and leading from the front….from tools to machining processes to tolerances etc….German engineering at its best….would love to walk through that shop.”

“Absolutely incredible, as a CNC instructor it’s been extremely difficult to get full classes going. Granted our program is 12 weeks and not 3.5 years but its fully funded. I feel like they pulled the trades out of schools and pushed college onto high schoolers when the trades are a more realistic approach for many teenagers. Honestly I wish I had known sooner how satisfying a career in machining could be now I’m trying to inspire a new generation who has no idea that there’s a career path for them that doesn’t involve 4 years of college.”

Who Benefits When Salary Info Is Public?

It’s good for pay equity, and it can be good for managers, but it’s not so good for superstars.

This month, laws went into effect in California and Washington State that required companies to post salary ranges on job listings. Like similar rules in New York City and Colorado, lawmakers passed them on the premise that pay transparency helped reduce wage gaps.

There’s little debate among researchers that this is the case. “It is totally 100 percent true across all the studies I’ve seen, with very few exceptions,” Zoe Cullen, an economist at Harvard Business School, said. Pay transparency laws are “very good” at reducing wage disparities, she added.

But that’s not the end of the story. As companies embrace pay transparency — either because the law forces them to, or because their employees are becoming more comfortable disclosing their salaries anyway — both employers and workers have noticed ripple effects. It’s changing how bosses set salaries. And it has the potential to make life a little less lucrative for star performers.