Victor Rozek
-
As I See It: Stressing Over Stress
December 6, 2010 Victor Rozek
… Read moreI’m writing an article about stress, under stress. I’d enjoy the irony if it was happening to someone else, but it isn’t. I had intended to write this piece all along, but I thought the deadline was a week away. And since I tend to be somewhat spacious with my writing process, enjoying it as I would a multi-course meal, being rushed stresses me out. But when my boss called and asked, “Hey, where’s the article?” the only appropriate response was to murmur a mea culpa and ask for his indulgence until the end of the business day.
It’s amazing
-
As I See It: There’s No Place Like Work
November 29, 2010 Victor Rozek
… Read moreWay back in the last century, 13 years before the world was scheduled to end because of a computer glitch, William Greider published a book. It was an 800-page scholarly tome that, I suspect, not many people actually read, but which today is more relevant than it was back when nobody was reading it.
The size and subject matter may have discouraged more than a few potential readers. Only Ivy League grads like Greider would think that the inner workings of the Federal Reserve would be compelling to the casual bibliophile. But the story, it turns out, was not only
-
As I See It: The Importance of Being Important
November 15, 2010 Victor Rozek
… Read moreI’m at The Bellagio with my wife, watching people working hard at having fun. We are seated in a lounge overlooking a monument to hubris. Actually, it’s just one of many monuments to foolery in the city devoted to all things surreal: Las Vegas. In an area where moisture evaporates faster than a gambler’s cash, The Bellagio boasts an eight-acre pond with 1.5 million gallons of precious water. Every 15 minutes, its computerized fountains spit columns of agua to the dulcet strains of Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, (and less memorable music). It’s impressive the first time you see
-
As I See It: My Name is Bond–Jane Bond
October 25, 2010 Victor Rozek
… Read moreAs far as women are concerned, “Guys. . . are the new ball and chain.” That’s one of the doleful conclusions reached by Hanna Rosin in her recent article in The Atlantic called “The End of Men.” To the typical insecure male, that title would be dismissed as excessively provocative. But as Ms. Rosin soberly documents–albeit with just a little dash of feminist glee–men appear to have lost their economic, educational, and biological edge and are teetering somewhere between pathetic and irrelevant. Ouch!
Well, Ms. Rosin, that’s certainly not true in my castle where I am still the. . .
-
As I See It: The Contrarian
October 11, 2010 Victor Rozek
… Read moreHe could have easily become one of the disposable people. Born in Compton, he grew up in the shadowlands of the urban nightmare, in an area highjacked by gangs, drugs, and despair. He lost his best friend to street violence, and his family home to a predatory lender. His parents divorced. He started numerous failed businesses and, for a time he was homeless, living out of his car. Yet he went on to advise presidents, participate in global economic forums, and become the founder, chief executive officer, and chairman of America’s first nonprofit social investment banking organization, Operation HOPE. His
-
As I See It: Of Better Jobs and Billy Joel
September 27, 2010 Victor Rozek
… Read moreFile this under useless proclamations: The National Bureau of Economic Research announced that the recession officially ended in June 2009. Pardon us if no one noticed. With over 15 million unemployed and one in seven Americans living in poverty, a lot of folks were too busy surviving to join the celebration. Granted, poverty is relative. In this case it means that a family of four is subsisting on less than $22,000 a year. Good luck with that.
Forty-four million people now live that way, with another 3.3 million about to join them when their unemployment benefits run out.
As for
-
As I See It: Introducing the New Quarterlife Crisis (with Cheese)
September 13, 2010 Victor Rozek
… Read moreQuarterlife Crisis. When I first heard the phrase, I thought it sounded silly. The notion of 20-somethings having their mid-life crises two decades early had the suspicious ring of some trumped up Madison Avenue condition that Pfizer would gladly sell you drugs to assuage. I could almost hear the cheerful announcer intoning the disclaimers: side effects include kidney failure and rectal bleeding.
But the more I looked into it, the more convinced I became that the Quarterlife Crisis is every bit as serious as, well, the dreaded Restless Leg Syndrome. OK, maybe more so. Having a generation of kids who
-
As I See It: The Once and Future HP Way
August 23, 2010 Victor Rozek
… Read moreIt’s a human sign when things go wrong
When the scent of her lingers and temptation’s strong
—SacrificeWho knew Elton John was singing about Hewlett-Packard? Yep, things are going terribly wrong at old HP, where temptation was apparently strong enough to cost yet another CEO his job. Think of it as the venerable “HP Way” adjusted for narcissism. Once highly regarded for its progressive leadership, the company is now a place where maladjusted CEOs go to commit career suicide.
More than a half-century ago, Bill and Dave set off on their most excellent adventure and, in the process,
-
As I See It: Data Center Campground
August 16, 2010 Victor Rozek
… Read moreAh, morning in the campground. The tops of evergreens bathed in amber; sunlight filtering through the haze of campfire smoke; crisp, pine-scented air; and the only sounds are the crackle of wood and the sizzle of bacon. Well, not exactly.
It used to be that way, before cruiseship-sized RVs came to dominate the terrain like oversized dinosaurs. You know, those monstrous, four-wheeled condos that turned campgrounds into something resembling Wal-Mart parking lots. Now, instead of rising each morning to a sensory feast, all other sensations are drowned out by the annoying drone of generators.
I was in California this past
-
As I See It: Rolling the Rock
July 26, 2010 Victor Rozek
… Read moreIn Greek mythology, Sisyphus was condemned to roll a huge stone up a hill. Each time he neared the top, the stone would escape his grasp and roll back down. Up, down, and back up. So it would go for all eternity: The frustration of meaningless work.
The guy who designed the pyramids probably loved his job; the guys who stacked the rocks, probably not so much. Soul numbing, repetitive work has been humankind’s burden since frontal lobes became fashionable. Still, in every epoch a select few rise above the survival grind to leave impossible legacies: cave dwellers had their