Communication skills for the crazy

So You Wanna Boycott RSA Conference 2014

by Bill Brenner January 9, 2014 Communication Skills

Disclaimer: This is my opinion. I do not speak on behalf of my employer. Folks in the information security industry are debating whether to boycott RSA Conference 2014 to protest RSA’s reported misdeeds concerning the National Security Agency (NSA). Boycotts can be powerful tools. But they can also lead to trolling or a loss of your own voice. Mood music: One of this blog’s missions is to promote more reasonable discussion. I’ve seen how people…  [Read More]

“A Christmas Story” Made It OK to Be Weird

by Bill Brenner December 10, 2013 Communication Skills

Sunday, I settled in with Erin and the kids for our annual viewing of A Christmas Story. Like everyone else, I have my 10-15 favorite lines: “It was… soap poisoning!” “Notafinga!” “You used up all the glue … on purpose!” But those lines, as much as I enjoy them, are not why I consider this movie so special. The main reason is that the movie made it OK to have strange thoughts. Mood video: When…  [Read More]

5 Reasons Not to Share Relationship Troubles on Facebook

by Bill Brenner December 3, 2013 Communication Skills

One of the things I enjoy about Facebook is seeing who is hooking up with who. When I see friends and family basking in the glow of a new love, it makes me happy. But even on Facebook, love is a double-edged sword. Mood music: At some point, every relationship needs work. When that happens, Facebook becomes the last place you should share your feelings. Tossing laundry stained with the blood of your busted heart onto…  [Read More]

To the Asshole Who Wrote “5 Reasons to Date a Girl with an Eating Disorder”

by Bill Brenner November 21, 2013 Compulsive behaviors

The Internet has made it possible for all sorts of assholes to have a forum. Although this is common knowledge, some people still manage to shock me. The latest example is an article someone calling himself Tuthmosis wrote called “5 Reasons to Date a Girl with an Eating Disorder.” Mood music: I always try to see the best in humanity. For all the bad seeds out there, I do believe we’ve come a long way…  [Read More]

Erin Cox Case: The Rush to Judgement Is a Two-Way Street

by Bill Brenner October 23, 2013 Communication Skills

Some say criticism of North Andover School administrators in the Erin Cox case is a rush to judgement. No one knows what information was revealed behind closed doors, they say. And based on comments from other teens at the drinking party, Cox wasn’t the innocent, good friend the media has painted her to be. On someone’s phone there’s video of Cox drinking and puking, they say. Maybe that’s true. But the rush to judgement is…  [Read More]

Objects in the Media Are Often Smaller Than They Appear

by Bill Brenner September 25, 2013 Communication Skills

After yesterday’s post on the Washington Navy Yard massacre fueling the stigma around mental illness, I got the usual assortment of feedback after that post published. If you’re for gun control, you told me I was minimizing the reality of gun violence by suggesting more gun control laws will accomplish nothing. Those of you who don’t see this as a gun control issue took me to task for picking on NRA Chief Wayne LaPierre for suggesting…  [Read More]

Dumb, Racist Reactions to Miss America 2014

by Bill Brenner September 18, 2013 Communication Skills

I typically try to avoid passing judgement on people in this blog. I simply react to events from my own experiences and move on. I also always try to assume that the best of humanity will win out over the worst. I still believe that. Mood music: Sometimes, though, people do things that are so stupid and embarrassing for the rest of humanity that they simply must be called out on it. So it is…  [Read More]

The Problem With That ‘Crazy Wife’ Video

by Bill Brenner July 24, 2013 Communication Skills

A man decided to record his wife freaking out. Now it’s a YouTube sensation and the subject of a post on Gawker, a site seemingly dedicated to shit like this. People are gleefully talking about how bat-shit crazy this woman is. I’m here to rain on their parade. http://youtu.be/1JZZWA_sjJw This video seems to be real, but it’s getting harder to trust what you see on the Internet these days. Under the premise that this video…  [Read More]

“Rolling Stone” Outrage and the Bandwagon Mentality

by Bill Brenner July 18, 2013 Communication Skills

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence; nor is the law less stable than the fact. —John Adams, Summation, Rex v Wemms (1770) I wasn’t planning a follow-up to yesterday’s post about the Rolling Stone cover story on Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokar Tsarnaev. Then I saw all the outrage and realized there was more to…  [Read More]

Be The Blessing

by Bill Brenner July 9, 2013 Coping tools

This was originally written after the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings. Many tragic events have happened since then, most notably the COVID-19 pandemic and its lockdowns, the resulting economic calamity and now race riots in cities across America after the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after being pinned down by a white officer. Now more than ever, we must put aside hate and be a force for good in the lives of…  [Read More]

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