Originally circulated on 2 October 2020
Aweh fellow Ruminants & Groupies in Lock Down Level 1
Aweh from day 189 of lock down – now level 1.
Some eclectic Ruminant Pink Friday’s ™ thoughts in no particular order.
Firstly a quick continuation of appropriate South African slang for our times:
Dog het gedog hy plant ‘n veer en ‘n hoender kom op
This is literally translated as – “thought thought it would plant a feather and then a chicken would come up”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_South_African_slang_words. This is appropriate for Ruminant Pink Friday’s ™. It is appropriate that we introduce suitable acronyms here, FPI (Feather Planting Initiative) and FPII (Feather Planting Initiative Index). The FPII measures the number of feather planting initiatives relative to the baseline rate. The FPII index is currently very high. Having said that it is sometimes difficult to tell the difference between a seed and a feather but other times it is quite obvious that a feather is a feather. Unfortunately feather spotters are in short supply.
Secondly, my current work involves working with a lot of accountants and very surprisingly I have received some wonderful inspiration from them. This started with my accountant colleagues reminding me of the Monty Python skit on an accountant looking for a career change. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8I5TtNfjBI. This is well worth watching. This led to a discussion regarding the different sub genres of accountants and I was alerted to the existence of punk accountants. I was not aware that punk accountants are a thing but indeed they are.
Not only this my colleague punk accountants wear Doc’s with spikes and practice Krav Maga. Krav Maga you ask? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krav_Maga Krav Maga is a is a military self-defence and fighting system developed for the Israeli Defense Forces. It has a philosophy emphasising aggression and has no restraining rules. Attacks are aimed at the most vulnerable parts of the body, and training is not limited to techniques that avoid severe injury; some even permanently injure or cause death to the opponent. Let’s just say I have renewed respect for my punk accounting colleagues and I am sure that if their careers don’t work out at where they are they have tremendous potential in the debt collection industry.
Finally I would like to do a quick recap on a submission from eighteen months ago on the topic of Parkinson’s law of buildings which has become even more relevant in this Covid and post Covid world. This law comes from the book “Parkinson’s Law, and Other Studies in Administration” by Cyril Northcote Parkinson. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0464974364/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=b4bbef4e-170e-463d-8538-7eff3394b224&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1568490151&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=ESAD2E3WR2E1Z14QZPH2&pf_rd_r=ESAD. It was originally published in 1953 and is still very relevant today. This law states:
“A perfection of planned layout is achieved only by institutions on the point of collapse… Perfection of planning is a symptom of decay. During a period of exciting discovery or progress there is not time to plan the perfect headquarters. The time for that comes later, when all the important work has been done.’
There is significant historical evidence for the truth of this law. https://seamussweeney.net/2019/05/31/beware-the-gleaming-purpose-built-headquarters-c-northcote-parkinsons-law-of-buildings/
Thank you very much for the many helpful suggestions and input and keep the submission ideas flowing.
Regards
Bruce
Ruminant Pink Friday 