Category: work

healthcare, Life, Politics, politics, workLeave a comment

The Great American Ripoff: The High Cost of Low Taxes

Mark Cathcart

Americans pay almost four times as much as the citizens of other wealthy countries for things such as retirement security and health care on the private market – 10.6 percent of our economic output versus an average of just 2.7 percent among OECD member states. via The Great American Ripoff: The High Cost of Low Taxes | Connecting the Dots, What Matters Today | BillMoyers.com. Bill Moyers website has a great perspective on the whole state vs private industry, tax vs pay debate. It shows that Americans for the most part want what the government provides, well-maintained infrastructure, safe food … Continue reading The Great American Ripoff: The High Cost of Low Taxes

healthcare, Life, politics, workLeave a comment

Be careful what you “Like”

Mark Cathcart

I’ve noticed recently that Facebook has been heavily promoting “Like Walmart” in my timeline. Facebook helpfully not only shows me which of my friends “Like” Walmart, but it also provides a link to their timeline, I guess so I can hop on over and ask them useful questions about Walmart? Well Facebook, you are not going to socially shame me into liking Walmart. Sure I shop there when I have no alternative. I bought my current Netgear router there, it was the only place in town that had one when I needed it; many people in small outlying areas use … Continue reading Be careful what you “Like”

Life, technology, work1 Comment

Remote working…

Mark Cathcart

A lot has been posted online about the decision of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, to end remote work at Yahoo! As usual the interwebs erupted with a lot of people not involved, spouting out their opinion on why she was wrong to do this, and their opinions on the effects. Even I just replied to a comment in my last “balance” post wondering how it would work out at Yahoo. Then I read this, a great piece on the Business Insider War Room. Bingo. It makes perfect sense, when the system is broken, you need to fix it and I’ve … Continue reading Remote working…

Life, work6 Comments

Balance, or lack of it

Mark Cathcart

One of the things I commonly say to high performers is When you live on the edge, sometimes you’ll fall off it’s from a lifetime of trying to succeed. One of the things that was a recurring theme of my work 5-10 years ago, as a senior technical leader at IBM, and as part of the professional review board for both Senior Consulting IT Specialist, and IBM Distinguished Engineer, work/life balance. Google has thousands of links to blogs, articles and books on it. One of the most interesting experiences I had on work/life balance, was down in Australia. After presenting … Continue reading Balance, or lack of it