Reaction feature switched off

My comment function isn’t enabled on this site. There’s a reason for that.

I see many people have or develop a very bad habit of shooting at everything. It used to be different. Back then, if you disagreed with a newspaper article, you had the option of sending a letter to the editor, which was often published. There was always that hurdle in the process of having to think twice before responding. Back then, you had to dig out a notepad, a pen, an envelope, and a stamp from some cupboard or other. Then there was the hurdle of the postal address and the walk to the mailbox. Not everyone has to take their dog out at eleven o’clock at night to let it poop.

Chances were that by the time you were ready to write your response, your drunkenness/outrage had subsided somewhat.

Dialogue. I love it.

Phone. write me, or speak to me in the real world.

I always think of a comment Johan Cruyff made about that referee who was blowing the whistle a bit too enthusiastically. Johan remarked that it’s not wise to run around with your whistle in your mouth, because if you held it in your hand, you’d still have the time to think before blowing the whistle.

A few anecdotes

  • On Facebook, someone asked me what I would change about Formula 1 if I was in that position.

My answer is always a resounding: Take Monaco off the racing calendar! In my opinion, the cars are now too long and too wide to race there.

You wouldn’t believe the kind of slander I got.

Did I even know what the Triple Crown was? Did I ever watch F1 before Max Verstappen’s winning streak began (I was already in the dunes at Zandvoort in 1977 when Lauda won). The most egregious comment came from a Brit from Torquay, and I only managed to calm him down when I asked him if he was the son of Basil Fawlty.

 

  • I was considering buying a new double bass and was wondering whether to get a regular ¾ size or a slightly larger one, like a â…ž or a full 4/4.

In the end, I’m very happy with my ¾, which was built by Jan Knooren. I have to say, it has a beautiful, big sound, and it fits effortlessly in my car.

At some point, the conversation shifted and we continued on about how to skin a rabbit.

 

  • A guy on Reddit started a conversation about playing the double bass. He’d just bought one and asked if it was wise to start practicing two hours a day right away.

I advised him to build up slowly, because such a large instrument is brutal if your technique/position isn’t right. While you can get away with technical errors with a bass guitar, playing the double bass can lead to injuries, so I further advised him that if he was going to practice two to three hours a day without proper guidance, he should schedule some sessions with a physiotherapist.

That last comment landed came to me like a load of shit.

Wokeness, another thing!

In Dutch, we have the expression “broodje olifant” (an elephant sandwich) for something too big to handle at once.

I also use this metaphor to describe the complexity of functional management within an IT landscape. So, during the transition at Atos from SharePoint on-premises to the cloud-based SharePoint Online, I had an internal website that provoked the following reaction:

 

I’ve never eaten an elephant in real life, and no African has ever confronted me about it.

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