On Healthcare

Mike D, owner of SMASH in Des Moines, in a letter to the editor not published in the Des Moines Register:

To the Editor,

Chuck Grassley says that a public option in health insurance is not an option for him because “the public option is an unfair competitor” with private industry?

I guess I’m confused, Chuck: I thought a government program would be cutting off the wrong limbs, using pliers for tooth removal, making people wait for days while they bleed in the lobby, and thus would be a total disaster. Now this bumbling government system would prove a threat to the mightily efficient, popular, and cost-effective private health care system?

As the owner of SMASH, a small business in Des Moines, why would I wish the horrors of socialized medicine on myself and my employees when I am so happy with private health care? That’s like saying I’m going to send my kids to cesspools of socialized education like Roosevelt or Valley!

There’s actually nothing to fear, Chuck. I couldn’t be happier with America’s current health care. From a business perspective, it makes perfect sense, and has so many great features. For instance, I love that full coverage is about 6%-25% of after gross pay, even for young and healthy 20-somethigs like the people here at SMASH (good thing we don’t hire any 45 year olds!); I love that if we ever actually use the system our rates go up; I love that if we DON’T use the system our rates go up; I love that if you get contract a serious illness before you get insurance, the insurance you can get will exclude care for that illness; I love that they can make money off of people like me, and dump the actual sick people on Medicare (which company runs Medicare again?).

Most of all I love that America’s health care executives are business people, concerned about what business people should be concerned about: their profit, their market-share, and avoiding government intervention.

So Chuck, I can see where you’re coming from, but I wouldn’t worry too much. With such a rock-solid health care industry, I can’t see a single person switching to a government program, so it won’t cost us anything.

Therefore, you have my blessing to support a government health care program. After all, you don’t want any of those Pinko nuts thinking you’re in the pocket for big health care or something!

Mike then received an invitation to present before Congress.

Sunday Newspaper

There was a time when I used Sundays as a sabbatical from technology. Lately, though, I’ve been reserving the end of the weekend for my version of the “Sunday paper.” Sunday paper is in quotation marks because it’s electronic and I’m the editor.

Here’s how I put together my newspaper…

Whenever I stumble across something on the Internet that looks interesting, but will take five minutes or longer to read or watch, I bookmark it using Instapaper. Instapaper is akin to a temporary bookmark. It’s a way of saying, “I want to check this out, just not right now.” So by the end of the week, I’ll have anywhere from 5-20 articles and videos that I’ve added to my queue.

On Sunday mornings, I wake up late in the morning, pour myself a bowl of Frosted Mini-wheats doused in almond milk, brew a strong, black cup of coffee and open up my trusty laptop. Then I spend a couple hours going through my newspaper.

Here are a few of the interesting things I’ve learned recently from the paper:

- To manage a business, buy a big whiteboard. Don’t use calendaring, bug tracking or project management software. Put it all on the whiteboard. At the start of each week, erase and start over. Worried about losing something? If you erase it and forget, it wasn’t that important in the first place. via

- Waiters who repeat customers’ order to them make 70% more in tips than waiters who just say “Okay”. Our mind subconsciously appreciates the effort taken to ensure the things are perfectly right. via

- When it comes to identity goals - that is, the aspirations that define who we are - sharing our intentions with others doesn’t motivate achievement. In fact, experiments show that when others take notice of our plans, performance is comprimised because we gain “a premature sense of completeness” about the goal. via

- The brain processes different kinds of information on a variety of separate “channels”—a language channel, a visual channel, an auditory channel, and so on—each of which can process only one stream of information at a time. If you overburden a channel, the brain becomes inefficient and mistake-prone. The only time multitasking does work efficiently is when multiple simple tasks operate on entirely separate channels—for example, folding laundry (a visual-manual task) while listening to a stock report (a verbal task). via

- There is a test to determine whether someone is toxic or nourishing in your relationship with them. Here is the test: You have spent some time with this person, either you have a drink or go for dinner or you go to a ball game. It doesn’t matter very much but at the end of that time you observe whether you are more energised or less energised. Whether you are tired or whether you are exhilarated. If you are more tired then you have been poisoned. If you have more energy you have been nourished. via

The newspaper isn’t dead, it’s just different.

The Avett Brothers recorded a Tiny Desk Concert for NPR. There’s not a single album I’m more excited for this year than their pending September release I and Love and You. And I’m going to see them Friday night…