educating eric

I don't often give career advice but I do have some in me. And if you have subordinates, you need to read this article: https://www.fastcompany.com/40481089/stress-is-making-you-micromanage-which-is-making-everything-worse I know some people don't like the term "subordinates" so let's rephrase it as: "If you have people in your life for whom your actions have a direct (and perhaps debilitating) impact on their income and career..." Want to go back to the word "subordinates" now? I thought you might. I've had plenty of managers in my 21 years of full-time employment and working several years part-time before that. Probably shy of half have been textbook micromanagers (the type to read that Fast Company article as a how-to manual) and one of my biggest regrets in life is that I was one, too. Only at times... but a character flaw that only shows up when things are stressful is about as major a character flaw as you can have. What ...

It's both entertaining and embarrassing that I can point to this blog at a blogging convention and note its 2002 start date. It's a mess -- a glorious, fascinating, pathetic, inspiring mess -- of random content over the past 15 years. So when I confront the "what's my niche" question... I don't have one. And maybe that's what it is. A non-niche. (That's so meta! I was introduced to the term "lifestyle blogger" at this year's Minnesota Blogger Conference , and the fact that I'd never encountered that term before now probably tells you something about my qualifications as a "blogger." I explained to those around me that my attendance was "aspirational" rather than... I don't know. "Real"? "Functional"? I don't know what the opposite word would be. I know that I'm nothing like the bloggers who were around me, with their focused themes and editorial calendars and monetization...