culture

This came up in my RSS feeds today and I found it oddly appropriate seeing as how some people's lives have gotten quite crazy lately.

Lower Your SSR

I'm feeling that there's a kind of ratio to associate with a manager's communications that I call the "silence to signal ratio (SSR)." E-mail and voicemail have provided direct ways to measure one's own SSR. How many e-mails and calls do you fail to return? Versus how many do you actually return?

There is a critical equilibrium to achieve in your personal SSR because if your SSR is equal to 0.0 (0% silence for 100% communications) then you're pushing the edge of humanity. On the other hand if your SSR is equal to 1.0 (100% silence for 100% communication) then either you're living on a deserted island or your co-workers and reports have moved you there and you're just sadly unaware that this has happened. Thus a high SSR should be avoided. Instead, a low SSR should be maintained to achieve a high degree of mental health and productivity within your social network.

Saw that the Feral Cities article from the Naval War College is making the rounds again. Can't say I'm surprised, watching and reading the news. We're seeing more and more places around the globe descending into warlord-run city-states. Coups, juntas, insurgents, lawlessness, might making right... so much of it was laid out in black and white years ago (the article is from 2003, and I've been reading other stuff from the mid-90s and earlier), how could we not have seen it coming?