Douglas E. Castle 's Blogs And RSS Feeds

Losing Our Trust In Each Other

2012-03-06T16:39:00.000-05:00

During the course of my lifetime I have noticed a terrible de-socializing pattern.

It is causing social decay, too much legislation, too much law enforcement, a reluctance to become friends and form lasting relationships, the elimination of the concept of giving anyone, personal or institutional, the 'benefit of the doubt'.

We have, as a world, as a species and as a society been consistently losing our trust in each other.

That is tragedy of catastrophic proportions

Firstly, trust, once lost, is very, very hard to restore. And secondly, distrust, in and of itself is a self-fulfilling prophesy. If we don't trust, we take pre-emptive action defensively -- we act cynical, skeptical, and ultimately call that same behavior forth in some multiple from others. It's not "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." -- It has become "Do it to others before they do it to you." ...as if others, without restriction or qualification, invariably would seek to hurt or harm.

Distrust breeds distrust. And the expectation of distrust and of being cheated brings out the very worst conduct in people.

Trust is the foundation upon which all relationships are built. As our ability (and reason!) to trust has deteriorated, so too has virtually every other aspect of society, and of the benefits of its cohesiveness, supportiveness and synergy.

The question is: How can we restore trust, and restore one of the most precious elements of the very quality of our lives' experience?

The most I can hope to do as an individual Human Being, is to be trustworthy -- and to practice it in my life as if it were religion. Perhaps my example might persuade others to be trustworthy. Perhaps we could all drop our shields a bit and become more trusting.

What if we were all to do this? Could we create a positive outward-whirling viral spiral?

Douglas E. Castle

[http://DouglasCastleRSSFeeds.blogspot.com]

Free Publicity: Notorious Becomes Noteworthy

2012-02-28T18:19:00.000-05:00

If you haven't had a chance to read it, it might be advisable to look at yesterday's ALL TOP BUSINESS NEWS AND INTEL BLOG posting at http://alltopbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2012/02/stratfor-wikileaks-and-other-crucial.html. Then, hit the "BACK" button on your browser to see how publicity works in the real world.

WikiLeaks, in its attempt to undress, embarrass and discredit StratFor, an intelligence source and strategic-futurist-for-hire to some very prestigious Fortune 500 companies, unleashed a stream of purloined and potentially damaging emails intercepted from its target and made the information public. They have indeed attempted to brand their Goliath as "notorious." They might have been somewhat successful.

But in a society that puts a premium on power no matter how it is obtained, and wealth regardless of its origin, a bit of notoriety leads to some additional media exposure. And that media exposure, gone wildly viral, leads to increased noteworthiness. And that noteworthiness sometimes leads existing clients to reaffirm their dedication to the intended PR victim (in this case StratFor), and actually attracts a great many new prospective clients.

Thank you, WikiLeaks and Mr. Assange for lifting the cloak of secrecy from over this mysterious company with its web of unholy handshakes, sketchy sources and uncustomary quid pro quo arrangements. Investigative journalism and exposes are always exciting.

But the public ultimately will not be the greatest beneficiary from this latest WikiLeaks expose-cum-self-promotion opportunity -- no... Statfor will be receiving millions upon millions of dollars worth of free publicity (with a very long tail and wide berth) due to an attempt to assault it. I suspect that George Friedman is putting on a mean face just because his position and circumstances demand that he must, but that he is secretly doing the dance of joy when reviewing the firm's prospective client roster and billings.

The Public does not want truth nearly so much as they want excitement and entertainment.

So Notoriety becomes Notability, and the machinery of Human Nature proceeds along its unevolved course. There will always be windmills, there will always be Don Quixotes, and there will also be a public gathered about to read the book or watch the play -- maybe on BluRay.

Douglas E Castle -

p.s. Should you have an opportunity, you might want to take a look at The Mad Marketing Tactics Blog. We discuss things as exciting as this. Really. We're working at becoming scandalous so that we may attract the attention of WikiLeaks as our unwitting press agent. Only joking.

Our Minds: Rulers Or Servants?

2012-01-25T12:27:00.000-05:00

It is true. We consciously think that we understand how our minds operate, and that we can master them. But, ironically (but not unreasonably) our minds are one step ahead of our awareness of how they function.

Here's an example:

You can conjure up romantic notions about how things are, and your mind will play numerous variations and repetitions on the theme, making the notion feel so very much like reality.

Then, when it becomes necessary for emotional survival or psychological progress to dispel these illusions, they persist -- we cannot un-ring the bell or un-conjure the powerfully entrenched thought. Our minds mobilize their own defenses and resist us, refusing to un-create a vision (however fantastic or false) which we had originally called upon them to create.

Perhaps minds are like mythological gods - they create the whole mechanism of imagination for their own amusement, but trick us into thinking that they are tools for our use....to call upon, to help us, when, in fact, the opposite may well be true. We are puppets for our minds' independent entertainment. They don't like when we try to contradict them, and they punish us with a persistence of memory and emotionally-charged thought.

Douglas E Castle [http://DouglasCastleRSSFeeds.blogspot.com], and
[http://Braintenance.blogspot.com]

"Engineer for reliability, but be prepared for failure." -- Douglas E. Castle

2012-01-11T10:46:00.000-05:00

In composing an article for my BUSINESS AND PROJECT PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT Blog, the above words of unconventional wisdom screamed out at me. Along the lines of "Expect the best, but be prepared for the worst," I felt that business plans, project management and the whole concept of building things could really be distilled down to its essence in a handy cliche (I usually avoid cliches like The Plague):

"Engineer for reliability, but be prepared for failure." -- Douglas E. Castle

Thank you for providing me with the opportunity to publish the briefest post in my blogging history. Hire an experienced pilot to take you to your destination in the best-crafted plane, but pack your floatation apparatus and parachute. Amen.

Protecting Your Online Reputation | Douglas E. Castle

2011-12-14T01:49:00.000-05:00

Invest your social media and networking time in gathering complements and credibility instead of fighting with your detractors. Generally speaking, this only gives them (your detractors, accusers and ex-lovers) power and attention, and increases doubts about your integrity. Avoid this type of "he said/ she-said" ridiculous engagement. It invites attention from the scandal-craving public, and detracts from your message, reputation and branding.

Reputation protection and management are indeed crucial aspects of building and maintaining your credibility. Because anyone can post anything to any number of complaint boards, fraud alert boards, or to the web in general, unless we have never been alive, someone has been angered with us over something which we have said or done -- whether baseless or absolutely true. Some are matters of opinion and some are matters of documented fact.

Many online credibility management or social media "cleanup" services have recently sprung up to combat the increasing problem of getting negative news (posted on the web for all to see) by either persons you've wronged, persons who just don't like you, or personal details about your divorces, regulatory issues, multiple bankruptcies, business failures, table manners, misdemeanors, felonies, arrests, time in a sanitarium, firings and dismissals, censures, license revocations, affiliations, rotten posts which you later regretted after placing them on FaceBook and other social media, your pending foreclosure, pictures of you with a lampshade over your head at an office party, personal telephone and residence information, sealed court records (incidentally, nothing is ever actually either sealed or is actually inaccessible for an assiduous muckraker) consumer complaints either 1) off of the the major search engines (particularly Google), or 2) "buried" deep in the bowels of the search engines (i.e., the 59th page in Google) where no "normal" person would have the time or patience to look.

There is actually no good news here, folks. There are no panaceas. No "black hat" hackery/ crackery or quackery tools or cleanup squads available... even powerful governments have been caught in massive lies, coverups and political scandals -- WikiLeaks, anyone? There is some useful information which can help to minimize or mitigate the effects upon you and your career by these pesky postings that befoul your otherwise exemplary search engine reports.

1) If someone has posted something that is a matter or published fact or public record, don't even bother trying to delete it or remove it, unless it is a civil matter which has subsequently been legally settled, paid, satisfied, rescinded, vacated, dismissed, released or otherwise satisfied with a court-stamped or other evidentiary agreement. If this is the case, the cheap fix is to publish the document evidencing the satisfaction. The better fix might be to retain a professional firm, as referenced above to have the posting party issue a publicly-posted rescission.

2) If there was a regulatory investigation, whether dropped, or prosecuted, it will not be expunged. Don't waste a minute. Don't try to eliminate facts. Be prepared to briefly explain them (denials are invariably perceived as admissions of even greater guilt and wrongdoing) only if asked and don't offer apologies or feeble, wishy-washy discussions about mitigating circumstances. Stay in command, and never assume a defensive posture. Remember -- whatever happened in the past is done. Right or wrong, it is now merely a piece of history. Let it strengthen you, or even have a third party spin it in your favor.

When a corporate executive and aspiring statesman was asked (as in an "Is it true that...?" open question-style confrontation) by a reporter at a press conference about a previous felony conviction (from some years prior), the executive (after waiting for a hush from the crowd of reporters, and signaling them to be quiet), simply said, without, engaging the reporter, something to the effect of, "Yes. That is absolutely true. It was a troublesome thing. Now, ladies and gentlemen of the press, if you don't mind, I'd like to avoid wasting any further of your valuable time and get back to the matter that needs to be addressed immediately. I'll continue, but I will insist that we keep the nature of this conference relevant and highly-focused. I have limited time, as we all do, and a business to run. Thank you."

That "Thank you," was fully and deafeningly dismissive.

3) Do not waste a minute of time or a penny seeking legal relief for defamation of character;

4) Do not engage the other party by any inflammatory response.

5) The best of the professional services will either 1) legally seek to have incorrect factual information corrected or removed, or what they will do is use some SEO chicanery to "stuff" the search engines with all manner of articles related to all manner of possible search engine queries which speak of you or your business in glowing terms.

Having said all of this, the best advice that a leader who has chosen to be successful is to avoid wasting too much time with off-target problem solving, lest you fail to conserve adequate time to invest in pursuing growth opportunities.

Douglas E. Castle [http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/douglascastle] and the Taking Command! Blog.

Never, ever let defensiveness or desperation be a motivating force for your decisions or actions. Leaders and commanders are permitted to err. The idea is to keep your Achille's heel (which each have one or more) out of a bear trap, and to keep from letting emotion turn the present path of progress into a detour into the woods. Stay in control, and never exhibit submissiveness. Nobody said that it would be easy.

Additionally, as I have stated unequivocally in my Taking Command Blog, my Sending Signals Blog and my Mad Marketing Tactics Blog:

1) Assume everything that you say and do is being recorded; that you are "always on the record."

2) Assume that people will complain or lie about you on the internet.

3) The best defense tactics are always some combination of:

A pre-emptive strike, where you actually showcase the negative comment in your own posting (without defense or denial), and find something humorous about it. Take the moral high road;
A non-acknowledgement, so as to avoid a protracted, intensified, attention-getting volley of vituperative turdacious* asteroids. Don't dignify it at all;
Incorporation of sufficient self-deprecating commentary and closeted skeleton releases in your articles and posts to grant you a wide margin for criticism;
Avoidance of self-righteous denials or counterclaims;
Creation of a broad body of internet-published or posted work such that any one or two misery- or mischief-laden articles are either barely noticeable (statistically), or appear to be mere aberrations from the valuable person whom you truly are.

And again, invest your social media and networking time in gathering complements and credibility instead of fighting with your detractors. Generally speaking, this only gives them power and attention, and increases doubts about your integrity. In the words of a famous essayist whose name eludes me, "Don't try to drown a flame with gasoline."

The Algorithm Versus Practical Intelligence

2011-11-07T10:30:00.001-05:00

There is a great deal of discussion about search engine optimization and trying to "crack the code" of the algorithms which evaluate websites and blogs for prominence and positioning in search engine results. There has also been an increasing amount of time and expenditure invested in writing "style formats", inbound links, attaining "expert status," staying "on top," exploiting or 'gaming' social networks and bookmarking in order to stack the SEO decks favorably. Bottom Line: Everyone seems to be writing for search engines instead of readers -- sadly, this has deterred unconventional writing styles, spontaneity, and a great deal of the magic that comes from brilliant wordsmithing.

Sadder still, is the fact that algorithms are continually being changed by those services (Google, et cetera) which employ them to rank and rate content, and that they are structured somewhat recursively, so that they are programmed, in part, based upon the input of search terms and the formatting of the material being spidered and robotically searched.

Trying to find the Philosopher's Stone or Holy Grail to unlock the key to the search engines is akin to developing a vaccination against an ever-mutating virus. The algorithms are always changing, and rankings are radically affected.

An excerpt of a brief article follows (just by way of example) to illustrate this point. This material is available courtesy of TechRepublic:
---------------
Can Google survive its blind faith in the algorithm?

By Jason Hiner

October 31, 2011, 9:02 PM PDT

Takeaway: It’s been a tough year for Google search. It’s had a difficult time targeting content farms and has accidentally removed good content.

Google’s search engine is a triumph of technology. There’s no denying that.
It was the capstone that completed the initial structure of the Internet. But, the Internet is now in the midst of a dramatic remodel and it’s unclear whether Google search will get the refresh it needs to make it more appealing than ever or if it will be one of the things that gets painted over. [whole article]
---------------

I believe that this is not possible. Each search engine has its own bias (toward its own brand and links to itself), its own 'twist' to the basic keyword-based algorithms, and its own validating sources. When algorithms change, search engine ranking change, too.

I propose two rational approaches to addressing this issue, and they will require the collaboration of searchers and writers:

1) Searchers need to get a list of search engines, and run the same search on several of them. Well-positioned articles common to the majority of those search results probably (probabilistically) are the most relevant and useful;

2) Writers need to start writing interesting, stylized, less-compromised material to confound the algorithms and to please growing, loyal readerships. As a writer, you should invest more heavily in branding your own name and column or publication than in technical SEO. Branding philosophy and technology produce longer-lasting results, and represent a better return on time and resources. For some ironic fun, run a Google search on Lists+Of +Search+ Engines - since your results will vary from mine (we are filtered, like bourbon or coffee), see what you get.

A fine listing of major Search Engines can be found at: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2048976/Major-Search-Engines-and-Directories. I am a fan of SearchEngineWatch -- you can learn a great deal about what those folks behind the curtains are thinking, as well as find some great informational access channels that you will miss by simply looking for Google's top ten search results.

Ultimately, you'll only know good writing after you've read the writer's work -- and the challenge is finding those articles by those writers. There's just no substitute for hard work and practical intelligence.

And in the words of an iconic American philosopher, "That's all I've got to say about that."

Douglas E Castle

"I'm Struggling Too Hard At Surviving To Get Rich." - OWS?

2011-11-04T13:08:00.000-04:00

People are becoming poorer. Their standard of living is declining. Their emotional state is suffering. They are stuck in the midst of an immutable law of simple mathematics.

The decreasing percentage of persons who are actually rich, or who are becoming rich are either celebrities, professional athletes, trust-fund beneficiaries of dynastic families of great wealth, and a few exceptionally successful entrepreneurs whose fortunes are largely on paper. They can use their assets or credit to leverage purchases of assets which will increase in value or generate income. They could never do this without being rich to begin with.

The paradigm has shifted from the Horatio Alger "Strive And Succeed" work ethic to the notion of "get rich quick, or die trying." These latter strategies require a great deal of risk, and, in many cases, a very "flexible" interpretation of the laws which seem to bind "ordinary people," but not giant institutions, the captains of industry or some powerfully-connected politicians.

Please refer to http://aboutdouglascastle.blogspot.com/2011/11/im-struggling-too-hard-to-survive-to.html

Douglas E. Castle

Broadband Access Crucial For World Economy And Peace

2011-11-02T11:00:00.000-04:00

Those parts of the world without access to broadband access to the Internet, with its communications, news, social media, communication and commercial possibilities are being relegated to the increasing ranks of the world's poor. Making access more readily available would go a long way toward both economic recovery and a more peaceful world.

Douglas E. Castle

"If you're not part of the solution, then you probably haven't dissolved yet."

2011-10-29T19:56:00.000-04:00

"If you're not part of the solution, then you probably haven't dissolved yet."

That's pretty much it. I like those Paraprosdokians -- they have the unique effect of waking people up.

"If you're not part of the solution, then you probably haven't dissolved yet." People have a right to be insoluble as well as inscrutable. This is a re-post. I felt compelled. A second re-posting (which is the same a a third posting) would take us over the line to "composting."

Douglas E. Castle [http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com]
http://Braintenance.blogspot.com
http://MadMarketingTactics.blogspot.com
http://TheGlobalFuturist.blogspot.com

Altered States? Yes. Altered Realities? No.

2011-10-28T14:22:00.001-04:00

A fact is never an illusion. The perception of a fact may be an illusion. Reality, by conventional definition, is simply 'what is.' Our perceptions, however formed or influenced, are what produce the illusion of altered realities. Altered States are differing perceptions; Altered Realities are differing conditions in the facts or circumstances.

Just wanted to clear that up. Thanks. I feel better...but then again, that's subjective.

Douglas E Castle

Douglas E. Castle 's Blogs And RSS Feeds

Losing Our Trust In Each Other

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