A government plan to make your job suck less
Also: bad trombone, missed Sinatra opportunities. Sinatrotunities? No.
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Some brief self-promotion:
The Surgeon General wants your workplace to suck less
Our interview with Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy airs on Monday and a lot of what we’ll be talking about was this framework on workplace recommendations around mental health.
From Forbes:
“Chronic stress leads to overactivation of the “fight or flight” response, among other responses, and can have negative effects on numerous organ systems in the body,” the report reads. “In addition to the many impacts on the health and well-being of workers themselves, workplace well-being can affect productivity and organizational performance. When people feel anxious or depressed, the quality, pace, and performance of their work tends to decline.”
It’s a five-point plan:
Protection from Harm
Connection and Community
Work-Life Harmony
Mattering at Work
Opportunity for Growth
And here it is presented in a kind of confusing but nonetheless vibrant graphic:
Anyway, tune in Monday and we’ll break this down some more. Bring a notepad. I tell people in the episode to go grab a notepad.
I just interviewed Jason Kander
Really interesting guy and I was very tired after reading his book, Invisible Storm, even though it’s not even all that long.
Here’s what happens:
Enrolls in ROTC while in law school
Eventually goes to Afghanistan as an intelligence officer and on multiple occasions finds himself in situations where he and others could have been killed
Comes home and runs for Missouri legislature, wins
Becomes Missouri Secretary of State
Almost wins a US Senate seat
Is encouraged by Barack Obama to run for president
Runs for mayor of Kansas City but drops out to finally get treatment for what went down in bullet point number two
I was reminded of my talk with Kevin Love a couple weeks ago, about how you can’t achieve your way out of depression. Turns out you can’t elect your way out of it either.
Unfortunately, we never got to talk about his great-uncle John Kander of Kander & Ebb, the songwriting duo who ONLY WROTE “NEW YORK, NEW YORK”. IS ALL.
Suicides down among soldiers in Alaska
Turns out if you dedicate resources to something… it helps!
The Army dispatched more than 40 counselors and chaplains to Alaska starting in May after USA TODAY reported in April that soldiers with suicidal ideas had waited weeks for appointments with counselors.
Other initiatives aimed at preventing suicide include a mandatory annual counseling session for soldiers, a program to connect soldiers families with Army leaders, and an option for soldiers to choose to serve in Alaska where the harsh climate and isolation can contribute to mental health problems.
Nationally, soldier suicides were down just slightly in 2021 compared to 2020. It’s hazardous to try to glean too much from any narrow set of numbers over a tight time period. But! The problem had been severe in Alaska and, with a variety of new/improved resources available, things got better.
Trombone Champ is the stupidest funniest thing this week
It’s a game! Like Guitar Hero. But more like a bear being strangled than Guitar Hero is.
Here’s someone racking up a high score (?!) on “Careless Whisper”.
I just laughed like an idiot at this one. Here’s another:
Over on Axios, the game’s developer attempted to explain the appeal:
“The game is generally more entertaining when you perform badly,” Trombone Champ lead developer Dan Vecchitto, told Axios over email.
Other music games sound cleaner, because they're programmed to forgive mistakes in timing and still play correct notes.
Trombone Champ, however, lets its players gleefully blunder through a tune, and emits all the right and wrong sounds, accordingly.
It does demand skill to be played well, but the developers found that letting players hear their mistakes made the game more appealing.
“The more work we did to correct things,” Vecchitto said, “the less entertaining the game would be.”
All those science teachers who thought I would never amount to anything in science…
Well, they were absolutely right.
But I am on Science Friday tomorrow!