Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday... Shopping is hard. Let's work, instead.

[lagilman]

Good morning, world. I hope that your Monday started better than mine (with an email saying, basically, "um, I know we go live in 24, but there are A Few Problems in the File..."). Nothing like seeing that at 6:05 AM to make you double the amount of coffee you're making.

The Do Board is brief but fierce today. And the window of "I need to hear by" for several projects has started to close. If Merc is still retro, it should get the hell in line ASAP, because I do not need any more communication screwups, thank you very much.

Reminder: the Thanksgiving-for-Readers contest has been extended until Sunday (to allow those of you who were traveling for the holiday time to get your entries in).

Reminder: if you're giving copies of my books as gifts this season, let me know, and I can personalize/send a bookplate! (no charge to you).

And, because it wouldn't be me on a Monday without a small grumble...

Friend: "oh my god, did you hear about [insert financial news]?"
Me: "yeah, [insert business news neepery]"
Friend: "How do you know all this?"
Me: "Because I've been paying attention for the past twenty years?"

I may be slightly annoyed at people who are only now discovering things like how finance charges work, or that companies buy and sell bits of each other on a regular basis...guys, I have only a layperson's knowledge of this, but seriously.. once you're past 30, it's a bit late in the game to be playing wide-eyed innocent at OMG the business world. ESPECIALLY if you aren't inherently wealthy, pun intended.

Comments

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

>once you're past 30, it's a bit late in the game to be playing wide-eyed innocent at OMG the business world.

It's a bit baffling, I agree.

Hope the to do list is readily beaten into shape.

[madrobins]

Every time the stock market loses 50 points in a volatile week, and I hear **DoomDooomDoooooom** from an acquaintance, I remember that my mother thought the world was near to an end when the Dow hit 1000. Yes, 1000 points. How do you get to be my age and not have some perspective on this stuff?

[lagilman]

Mainly because, until recently, most people didn't think it "mattered" to them?

I remember back when the banks started to show signs of weakness, talking about the FDIC and discovering that most people not only didn't know what it stood for, they didn't know what it did (and what institutions weren't covered by it).

I've given my finance-for-freelancers talk enough times that you'd think I wouldn't be surprised, and yet...