The Blunder Years

With some science and even some data. Based largely on this original post from September 2015. Hope you ... find some information and solace within it.

If you want to go bigger on sample size here and use actual people instead of sex therapists, here’s a Reddit thread (with 278 comments) where people talk about their amount-of-sex-per-week relative to their age, time married, and kids. Some of the better comments are subsequently summarized on Huffington Post.

I'm not a big or relevant voice in the RBG implications and legacy discussion, but I did want to weigh in on some of her "branding" and the ridiculous flaws and assumptions we have around a woman's role in society.

Trying out a new thing here on some episodes where I walk through one of the 2,400 blog posts I've done and try to present some degree of relevance (hopefully) to y'all in 10 minutes or so, with some data or understanding about topics/issues/life/work. I'm starting by going through the post that kind of inspired this podcast, about how much your life changes between 28 and 35. Enjoy, happy weekend, and I'll be back with some of these posts and some guest posts (i.e. me talking to someone) in the next couple of weeks.

Grant Aldrich, who comes from a startup background, is currently the CEO and Founder of OnlineDegree.com. Obviously affordable higher education has been a big topic politically and socially for years now, often in the context of debt that people enter the job market with. We talk a lot about that here, about different biz models for education, about finding purpose, and about the changing nature of the college student. There’s a couple of kernels of life advice near the end as well. Let’s roll.

I turn 40 on November 7. My friend Diana, who has guested on this podcast before, turned 40 this past Tuesday -- August 25. I talked to her on Monday about the promise and the peril of the big four-oh. Plus, if you either listen through or scroll to the end, we have a bunch of horrible conference call stories. Let’s roll.

This is an interview with my friend Nathan, who I think I once called a “KPI Kevin” on LinkedIn and that cemented our relationship. We talk a lot about politics, about outsourcing, about Libertarians and old white men on Facebook, and because he works with a teachers union on the marketing side, we talk about the COVID return to school stuff as well. It’s a longer interview of maybe 70 minutes or so, but we get into the weeds on a few things, including how I myself ended up in Texas. So, give it a whirl if you get some time.

This interview is with Joe Matar, a Marketing VP at Brazen, which is a top virtual events platform, including career fairs. We initially met back in February of 2018, because I was helping work a RecruitingDaily event at Brazen’s HQ in Virginia. We bonded over some funny leadership stuff and sports. Joe is a big Wisconsin guy, i.e. Bucks, Brewers, Packers. I have an odd fascination with the Bucks, so that got us going, and then we saw each other at a couple of trade shows along the way pre-COVID. This is a discussion about sports, leadership, working at Amazon, the Midwest vs. the coasts, making friends after you move for work, “the platinum rule,” and more. Hope you enjoy it. Let’s roll.

This is an interview with my man Fritz in St. Louis, who runs ArchDevOps. He was actually the guest on Episode 27 back in the day. On that episode (27), we talked about battling cancer, raising daughters, and more. This one is more about parenting through COVID, homeschooling, the power of weightlifting, Earth as a “death planet,” and finding and retaining work during a pandemic. Hope you enjoy.

This is a short interview with my man Stuart Higgins of Higgins Talent Sourcing. We talk shop a tiny bit (recruiting), but most of this is about the uncertainty of the modern moment. He's based in England, but his wife is from Poland, and he did this interview in Poland. They're kinda floating and taking care of her mom these days, and oh by the way, they just had their first kid during COVID-19. He couldn't be back up to the hospital for two weeks after the birth. What's the experience of new fatherhood like in such a weird time?

This is a conversation with my LinkedIn friend (I surprisingly have a few of those), Daava, who is a recruiter in Portland Metro. We taped this maybe two weeks ago, so before all the political stuff happening in Portland right now, hence that’s not covered. However, this is still pretty interesting, and we talk about dance moms (she is one), competitive motherhood, the future of recruiting, communication styles, and what type of candidate/employee might excel because of COVID paradigm shifts. There’s also a story about low ponytails and excessive Miller Lite consumption in here. Hope you enjoy it!