I Hate People...But It's Nothing Personal

Turning Hate Around

2012-01-16T03:00:00-08:00

Wow. Long time no post. Happy New Year to all you Haters from Jonathan Littman and myself. We've been busy on many other fronts but we continue to keep Hate alive in a number of little ways. That includes spreading it under the guise of being kind to others. We had a request a few months ago from Faith Knight, an author and Project Management Professional, who was working on a new book about how people are the core of any project that you might be working on. And, it turns out, that those people may take some finessing...er, understanding...

Favored Third Place Becoming Turd Place?

2011-08-05T22:38:55-07:00

Readers of I Hate People! know that co-Hater Jonathan Littman and I advocate the cultivation of a "Third Place", a respite that's neither home nor office, where one can escape the grind of the day in exchange for the fruit of the grind instead. Even though its very popularity has polarized the international community to either love or hate it, Starbucks was one such haven mentioned in our book. A place to kick back for a while with some joe, plug in your laptop and get some work done in the blessed buzz of a public place where no one...

Is Your Future Boss Horrible? A 10 Point Reference Check

2011-07-13T13:50:25-07:00

The film Horrible Bosses opened on July 8th. The basic plot, as I understand it, is that three guys who hate their bosses, played by Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis, conspire to murder them. I don't recommend that way of dealing with a bosshole, and have been suggesting more constructive approaches (see this ABC interview). As part of the film's release, I have been getting quite a few media calls about bosses. This reminded me of a checklist that I worked on with the folks at LinkedIn and Guy Kawasaki a few years back to help assesses if...

Pass The Succotash, Please!

2011-04-21T08:27:44-07:00

Ever do a project just because you wish someone else had done it? It's usually why I write a particular movie script — I want to see the movie and no one else has gotten around to writing it yet. Well, that's what was behind my starting up Succotash, my new "comedy podcast podcast". I really love listening to comedy podcasts. To the point that I don't ever listen to the radio in my car any more, I just Bluetooth podcasts out of my iPhone whenever I drive. But there is never enough time in the day to listen to...

The Truth Just Might Be In Here

2011-04-09T14:36:50-07:00

Full disclosure: I'm a huge conspiracy buff. Not in the sense that I believe in UFOs, hybrid alien-human star babies, FEMA death camps or many of the other theories that fuel the hearts and minds of the delightfully paranoid. I'm just a fan of the idea of conspiracies. That one can construct an intricate and detailed web of connections and associations that, with very little effort or even imagination, can explain any number of events as being the intended result of planning by some nefarious cabal of secret power mongers. Knowing that, it's small wonder that I enjoyed watching The...

NSFW - A New Workplace Online Comedy

2011-01-13T06:35:24-08:00

Wading through the millions of videos online these days has become tiresome, which is why most of us wait for some kind of critical mass to occur before we drag our eyeballs over to YouTube to take a look. Invariably, we often discover that it wasn't even worth the click. So it was a rare pleasure to hear from some sketch comedy friends of mine in Los Angeles yesterday that they have completed the first in what may be a continuing series (if THEY get enough eyeballs to make the trip to watch) called Not Suitable For Work. It's a...

Guest Post: 5 Effective Ways to Use Anger in the Office

2011-01-12T03:00:00-08:00

Now that we’re past the season New Year’s resolutions, here’s a commitment to take seriously in 2011: get angry, stay angry, and direct the anger to things that matter. A little known secret to leadership is that great leaders tap into their dark side (think Bill Clinton), while wimpy leaders don’t, or don’t have a dark side to tap into (think Jimmy Carter). The challenge is how to tap your dark side without being consumed by it (think Bill Clinton, Eliot Spitzer or Darth Vader). Here are some ways to use your dark side to sharpen your leadership skills: 1....

A Sporting Chance

2010-12-16T21:52:31-08:00

My good friend and the co-author of I Hate People!, Jonathan Littman, has a new book out on the market! Just in time for Christmas (and available through Amazon), Crashing Augusta is a collection of his sports-related tales which he has spun over the years for Playboy Magazine. Jon is a great journalist to begin with so when you mix that with his uncanny ability to put himself in harm's way in the course of pursuing a story, it's the stuff that makes for high adventure of the real kind. To put it in his own words: "I've been lucky...