Pessimal

After signing a petition opposing Cormann's candidacy for OECD SG, I realised that pessimal, the antonym to optimal, should be used more.

Actually I first encountered it in the Spanish form in 1997, when some Chilean girls talked about their coche (car) pessimo. I understood immediately from the context. That was also my introduction to pisco sour. Fun times.

20%LOAF

I came across a piece of advice in a Mark Rice-Oxley’s The Upside newsletter: Try to give 20% less of a fuck about everything. In these times where we are inundated by information, are we wasting time on issues that we have no power over, when we could be making a real difference and be more happy working on issues that we can influence? Often these issues are closer to home and closer to our self.

20%LOAF means that out of every 5 issues confronting us, we discard one as not worthy of our energy. This is a more realistic course of action than DGAF immediately. Now assume that we make a yearly resolution to give 20%LOAF, then our attachment will then diminish according to this series: 0.8, 0.64, 0.512, … By the 5th year we would only waste a third of our time, and by the 10th year only a tenth. Wouldn’t that be worth aiming for?

How should we determine if the issue is worth GAF? Here’s a flowchart that might help:

 

Generic language joke

A [NationalityB] walked into a shopping centre and saw an attractive shop. He walked inside and said in a thick [NationalityB] accent: Can you gimme a half kilo of cheese please?

Everyone began to laugh loudly. As the [NationalityB] walked away deeply offended, he thought to himself: If I learn to speak good [LanguageA], then they will not know I am [NationalityB].

He took course after course until he spoke flawless [LanguageA].

He went back to [NationA] and went into a shop. There he said in his best [LanguageA]: May I have half a loaf of sliced brown bread, four biscuits and a white milk loaf?

The shopkeeper began to laugh uproariously and said: You're [NationalityB], right?

The poor [NationalityB] was completely embarrassed and said: But I spoke perfect [LanguageA]. I don't have the slightest [NationalityB] accent.

The shopkeeper replied: You asked for bread. This is a butcher shop.