Social Media, 1918-19 Influenza flu, Dining Out during Covid, Seagull Manager
Welcome to Sridhar’s newsletter number # 13. Appreciate you being here, so we can connect weekly on interesting topics. Add your email id here to get this directly to your inbox (https://sridhargarikipati.substack.com).
Get familiar with dark side of social media as it is happening all around us and it would be our negligence to not view other side of coin. 1918-1919 pandemic has resulted chaos in world with world war I around the same time, which did not have any vaccine till date. Current Pandemic Covid-19 guidelines are understood by every individual differently and risk is not seen same by every person is biggest concern. Are you a Seagull manager or you are in a team who has seagull manager, what changes are needed for such manager and such team? This week newsletter is all about these topics. So, let us dive in.
Social Media
Read this article sharing flip side or as it says dark side of social media. I recommend every one of us to see the flip side of social media, even it does not impact you, know the information so you may help someone who is impacted. Media consumption has come in many forms, Books, News Paper, Television, and now Online social media in last decade, they all have been integrated to our lives. Recognizing the current way of media consumption is important as its more curated version of media for one individual rather than how earlier source of medias were. So, they can impact thought process and decision-making skills of one individual. That is scary and dark, we have enough examples in society that its already happening.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/12/social-media-democracy/600763/
Or hear this talk from Tristan Harris, Ex google Employee and co-founder and CEO of Apture which was brought by Google. https://www.tristanharris.com/
Or see the latest documentary on Netflix, which at least made me paranoid.
https://www.thesocialdilemma.com/
Tech companies’ intention is to stick their users to their products
Advertisers are the customers not the people using the product for free. We people are sold. What you do, what you think, what you wear impacts slowly your decision-making skills in many aspects to whom you follow online.
They know entire thing about you. So, it predicts models to share the info back to us.
Photo Tagging – is example of psychology. Other user is typing in chat is to let us engage in the chat, auto fill words emojis, so user is engaged to the product.
Per day on average on phone when it says 2.5 hours per day or any number. See where the time is going, is it worth it.
Gen Z, whole generation is Anxious, depressed, fragile.
The Like button flip side of popularizing content which may not be good for you or your followers. Or making one depressed for not getting enough attention
Share or Retweet - Just a headline or glimpse is enough to share the information of someone else to all your followers. Just think how scary it is, sharing them as your thought process even without spending some effort or matching your values, how easy it is to send the information to wide audience which may not match your own values
I am sharing this in my newsletter, as for sure these articles or the documentary has made me re-look at most of these products again as I did two years back. I am more careful now than I was prior to 2017 to what I write, specially the one I post on web. So, if you are reading this, sure see the flip side of all the social media products you use.
Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 - Book Notes
The good part of this book was easy narration. It has lots of historical information, specially world war I and how those events and Pandemic at same time triggered the outbreak even worse. As the Spanish flu or devil virus as many countries have known it in those times and this is compared with current Pandemic of Covid-19 but had higher impact than current Pandemic. I picked up the book to see how governments or people have followed guidelines at those times, but book does not cover this in detail, only highlights. The sad part of this history is doctors have no clue about it apart from giving high doses of aspirin and the devil virus ended up killing many mercilessly.
The name comes from Italian Influenza coeli, meaning influence of the heavens.
The 1918 pandemic, it said, Killed more people in less time than any other disease before or since. It was the deadliest event in the history of humanity.
In the space of eighteen months in 1918-1919, about 500 million people, one third of human race at the time, came down with influenza. Today the best estimate of flu deaths in 1918-1919 is between 50 to 100 million worldwide, and probably closer to the latter figure.
All flu virus that make humans sick get their start in birds. Wild birds that live in water, especially ducks and geese, are their natural reservoirs.
It seemed that nature gathered all her strength and demonstrated to man how puny and insignificant he and his fellows are, with all his murderous machinery, in the destruction of his fellows. - Victor C. Vaughan, 1922
Post 18 months it started ending, did rest of populations got herd immunity or virus itself was not able mutate further and it ended. Real reason is not known still
Science has evolved very later in the age like 1930 or 1950’s more. So, scientist was able to figure out the virus having its gene as RNA like our DNA very late. Even till now (current date of this article 9/30/2020) there is no vaccine for the 1918-1919 Spanish flu virus
Few states in U.S had a strict policy of wearing masks at the time, people would get arrested or fined for not wearing masks and will end up having jail time.
Few scientists at the time argued that agriculture revolution has harmed us more than good. Food was produced in such an abundance then what people would need. Prior generations were having more of nomad lifestyle, always on the go, they were much healthier than the generations post agriculture revolution. Therefore, WHO still checks densely populated areas in search of new viruses.
Social distancing requested by many governments at the time were 12 ft apart
World War I and Pandemic both going hand in hand is most sad part to me to read about the history. Losing a life does not have any option either in war or with virus. War conditions also triggered the outbreak much worse
Dining out during Pandemic Covid-19
I was asked at work this week to connect sometime over lunch in nearby restaurant if possible, I did not even take a second to give my response. I replied quickly saying, right now I am limiting myself only for grocery stores once in a two weeks and that too early in morning, we can do online meet for now. In the same week when I was talking to another colleague of mine, he mentioned about his last week meet with few of work mates in bar. This made me think, everyone’s risk assessment is way different. Yes, all were following the guidelines of social distancing, masks, washing hands, but risk seen is different from every person to another. so please respect other person judgement of risk assessment.
Center of Disease control (CDC) also puts dining out at more risk, as most of the nations are now allowing to open bars and restaurants clearly mentioning about higher risk places they are. If you have followed July, August reports, it was clearly stated that 3 out of 4 persons who visited either restaurants or bar or coffee shop have tested positive compared to people tested negative. I am not against restaurants, just sharing as it is common activity for many, so recommend everyone to read the information before taking a risk. It may sound risk for one person but not for the other person is major issue for me. Click here for CDC Link to go over yourself. Thought of sharing it in my newsletter so adding in this week’s dispatch.
How to handle a Seagull Manager
How to Stop the swooping, squawking, and dumping of the Seagull Manager. This is a problem every workplace has and how to handle is a lesson every team needs. You can read the book by Travis Bradberry on this topic. I am sharing my viewpoint on seagull manager in teams.
Shows Up only when asked for
Or shows up and resolve the issue for the team and leaves
Without Understanding the overall Issue, gives big lecture or thinks that shared a solution and leaves the room
If you have noticed some basic features of Seagull manager,
They Do not Interact with team often
Team is not clear of their tasks or goals they must accomplish, so looks at their manager
Gives a half-baked solution or full solution to team, so it shows not enabling the team to up-skill to resolve their solution
Seagull manager is star performer as they steal the show and team lags behind
There is a lesson for the manager here and for the team. Manager should see this issue with clarity and work towards changing their management style which can enable team to win as they win. Team should step up to visualize their goals, roles clearly and clarify quick if any gap.
Team should have Clear missions, Clear Roles
Reevaluate often, work projections, resource availability and reallocate tasks accordingly
Lookout for teams’ work is always relevant to reality. Manager should be part of team to bridge the gap between business requirements and team implementing them. If requirements are changing, team should be connected to be on same page. i.e. team should agree to the changed work scope and prioritize the work rightly, so team is justified
Manager should create safe environment, so team can share their ideas or feedback freely any day
Define how decisions are made in team. Allowing team to clearly define their roles and tasks, will enable within team some levels who can make certain decisions. Break the approval flow always to the top, give that free hand to team. So do come up with a workflow, to clearly define within team, so not everything requires higher management approval. Basically, trust the team and it goes both ways.
Recognize and Appreciate at individual level and at team level, do not assume it is just team daily job. If the team is successful, than at each individual level they are putting in effort not just in best interest of themselves rather team first, only then team can win.
That is all for this week. See you again.
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