All posts by Mark Jacobsen

Parenting

Telling Our Kids To “Walk Up, Not Out” Isn’t Just Wrong, It’s Incredibly Dangerous

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Absolutely love every bit of this. Just a few nuggets…

“it isn’t an either/or proposition”

“Walking out is a powerful political statement being made by students too young to vote, but old enough to have performed multiple lockdown drills in their school.”

“insinuating that children are responsible for mass gun violence because they simply don’t take the time to “befriend the lonely kid” is not only victim-blaming, it’s dangerous”

“Walk up to the mirror, look yourself in the eyes, and tell yourself that you’ve done everything you can to prevent the next mass shooting. And if you can’t, stop looking to the students to save themselves and start looking at yourself.”

Telling Our Kids To “Walk Up, Not Out” Isn’t Just Wrong, It’s Incredibly Dangerous

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Disclaimer: Thoughts and opinions are my own, and do not reflect the views of any employer, family member, friend, or anyone else. Some links may be affiliate links, but I don't link to anything I don't use myself. You would think this should be self evident these days, but apparently not...
Health

The Value of Fasting (from Anything). And How to Get Started.

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Have been trying this in various forms since around the beginning of this year. Thus far I’ve had success with abstaining from alcohol for almost 100 days, and intermittent fasting off and on. Haven’t had anything stick, but it does feel good to know that sometimes you can maintain some of that old self control… at least for a while.

The Value of Fasting (from Anything). And How to Get Started.

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Disclaimer: Thoughts and opinions are my own, and do not reflect the views of any employer, family member, friend, or anyone else. Some links may be affiliate links, but I don't link to anything I don't use myself. You would think this should be self evident these days, but apparently not...
Financial

401(k)s Aren’t ‘Bullshit’

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There’s a lot of truth here, just as there is in Oh Damn, 401(k)s Aren’t Magic …

401(k)s Aren’t ‘Bullshit’

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Disclaimer: Thoughts and opinions are my own, and do not reflect the views of any employer, family member, friend, or anyone else. Some links may be affiliate links, but I don't link to anything I don't use myself. You would think this should be self evident these days, but apparently not...
Parenting

Feed Your Kid Dinner at 3 P.M.

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Seems like an interesting concept if you can pull it off. My only reservation is that it can cut down on “family time”, but if it means better bedtime routines then it may just be worth it.

Feed Your Kid Dinner at 3 P.M.

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Disclaimer: Thoughts and opinions are my own, and do not reflect the views of any employer, family member, friend, or anyone else. Some links may be affiliate links, but I don't link to anything I don't use myself. You would think this should be self evident these days, but apparently not...
Parenting

Porn is not the worst thing on obscure social media sites

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Love the reminder why my kids aren’t getting a phone or going on social media any time soon (if ever)…

“Puberty is harrowing enough in physical form, asking a child to also manage an online ego is like asking them to thread a needle while the plane is going down”

Porn is not the worst thing on Musical.ly. – Anastasia Basil – Medium

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Disclaimer: Thoughts and opinions are my own, and do not reflect the views of any employer, family member, friend, or anyone else. Some links may be affiliate links, but I don't link to anything I don't use myself. You would think this should be self evident these days, but apparently not...
Technology

A Funny Look at the Unintended Consequences of Technology

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Funny and scary at the same time…

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Disclaimer: Thoughts and opinions are my own, and do not reflect the views of any employer, family member, friend, or anyone else. Some links may be affiliate links, but I don't link to anything I don't use myself. You would think this should be self evident these days, but apparently not...
MySql

Execute MySql script from the command line

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This tip is very similar to how to “Execute a SQL file via the MySQL command line in one line” only this time specifying the DB you want to execute the script against and being prompted for your password…

mysql -u user -p -h localhost MyDb < ~/SQL/script.sql
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Disclaimer: Thoughts and opinions are my own, and do not reflect the views of any employer, family member, friend, or anyone else. Some links may be affiliate links, but I don't link to anything I don't use myself. You would think this should be self evident these days, but apparently not...
Linux

Using sed to view and replace text on a specific file in Linux

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Ever need to replace very specific text on a particular line in a very large file on Linux? Enter the sed command.

To view the line (let’s say line 864 in this case) in the specific file, issue this command…

$ sed -n '864'p myfile.txt

And let’s say you get back the string ” I hate cheese”. Since we all know that’s not true, you can use a different variation of the sed command to replace “hate” with “love” like so…

$ sed -i '864s/hate/love/' myfile.txt

And if you’re really curious on how this even came about, it was due to an error in the phpMyAdmin export.php script when you had to change “break 2” to “break” on line 846 as identified here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/928883/500-error-on-phpmyadmin-export-on-phpmyadmin-export-php/930975

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Disclaimer: Thoughts and opinions are my own, and do not reflect the views of any employer, family member, friend, or anyone else. Some links may be affiliate links, but I don't link to anything I don't use myself. You would think this should be self evident these days, but apparently not...
Books

The Culture Code

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Just finished reading “The Culture Code” by Daniel Coyle, and have to say that I would highly recommend it especially to anyone in a management or leadership position. You can find the 3 parts and some recommended actions below.

  1. Build Safety
    • Overcommunicate your listening
    • Spotlight your fallibility early on – especially if you’re a leader
    • Embrace the messenger
    • Preview future connection
    • Overdo thank-yous
    • Be painstaking in the hiring process
    • Eliminate bad apples
    • Create safe, collision-rich spaces
    • Make sure everyone has a voice
    • Pick up trash
    • Capitalize on the threshold moments
    • Avoid giving sandwich feedback
    • Embrace fun
  2. Share Vulnerability
    • Make sure the leader is vulnerable first and often
    • Overcommunicate expectations
    • Deliver the negative stuff in person
    • When forming new groups, focus on two critical moments (1st vulnerability & 1st disagreement)
    • Listen like a trampoline
    • In conversation, resist the temptation to reflexively add value
    • Use candor-generating practices like AARs, BrainTrusts and Red Teaming
    • Aim for candor; avoid brutal honesty
    • Embrace the discomfort
    • Align language with action
    • Build a wall between performance review and professional development
    • Use flash mentoring
    • Make the leader occasionally disappear
  3. Establish Purpose
    • Name and rank your priorities
    • Be ten times as clear about your priorities as you think you should be
    • Figure our where your group aims for proficiency and where it aims for creativity
    • Embrace the use of catchphrases
    • Measure what really matters
    • Use artifacts
    • Focus on bar-setting behaviors
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Disclaimer: Thoughts and opinions are my own, and do not reflect the views of any employer, family member, friend, or anyone else. Some links may be affiliate links, but I don't link to anything I don't use myself. You would think this should be self evident these days, but apparently not...
Life

How to Achieve Work-Life Balance in 5 Steps

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If you don’t want to read the entire article because Time’s website is so overrun with ads, here’s the summary…

  1. Everything is not equally important. Do fewer things and do them well.
  2. Decide what your values are — and which ones take precedence.
  3. Do the things that get disproportionate results.
  4. Focus on the things only you can do.
  5. Do the important things which must be done now.
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Disclaimer: Thoughts and opinions are my own, and do not reflect the views of any employer, family member, friend, or anyone else. Some links may be affiliate links, but I don't link to anything I don't use myself. You would think this should be self evident these days, but apparently not...