I wonder this stuff at least twice a week. — A few days ago, I was minding my own business on my Facebook Marketplace couch when, all of the sudden, YouTube fed me this Chris Williamson video: I am not, myself, a “soy boy,” although I do believe I am infertile, and thus I think about this stuff a…

Getting profound for a second. I don’t honestly know how either set of my grandparents met. I am pretty sure my parents met because they were both involved in a summer share in (say it snooty) “the Hamptons” in summer 1969 or 1970. As every story is ever told by…

Hello, friends. — While I’d be the first to admit I’m confused by the point of LinkedIn and all their platform rules, as I detailed here once, this is just a quick note to say I am indeed back on LI if you feel like connecting with me after reading some of my stuff: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tedbauer2003/ If not, no worries. Here’s the link as a hyperlink.

Managers’ heads are about to explode, dude. — I believe that graphic above is from a Microsoft report. Since the beginning of COVID, they have authored numerous “future of work” reports, some of which are valid and some of which are BS. You have to remember that Microsoft sells enterprise software, so they try to make you panic…

The Still Face Effect and more. — A lot, and I mean a lot, of hand-wringing in recent years about whether there is a decline in parenting due to “the screens.” There is absolutely a decline in parenting, and “the screens” are part of it, but so are 10,000 other things, including Snowplow Parenting, parents wanting to…

It’s a more endemic problem than maybe we openly discuss. — Whenever you write something about fatherhood and you’re not a father, you get a few hucksters from the cheap seats telling you that you “wouldn’t understand” or “don’t know what it’s like.” Got it. I’d agree with that. When you’re not a dad by reasons of infertility, which is a…

A relatively Pivotal question of adulthood. — We do have a lot more “happiness” research in the last 10–20 years, including the semi-seminal Harvard study that is now run by Robert Waldinger. I’ve mentioned Waldinger and that study in a couple of posts, probably most notably this one: What Are The Reasons We Seemingly De-Prioritize Friendships In Our Life? Usually it’s about “success” and “legacy,” honestly — especially for dudes.tedbauer.medium.com

Seems that way in a lot of cases, honestly. — It feels often that people love to hand-wring about “surveillance” and “lack of privacy,” and yet many of those same people log onto TikTok — which is, breaking news, essentially controlled by China — and do dances and give data about how they look, where they are, when they’re bored…

There are reasons to be angry about tipping, but it requires some context too. — People definitely feel broke, even if they’re not broke, and I understand that, as I feel the same way often myself. Since August 4th, I’ve mostly been working in the service industry as a bartender, with a few flighty white-collar things here and there. At the same time, I’ve seen…