Tag: pingpong

Team building: Barriers

June 28, 2019

Remember that little thing I mentioned about leading our morning stand-up at work:

https://anonymole.com/2019/06/14/your-favorite-a-stand-up-round/

Well, it’s been a stellar success. We’ve gone through nearly the entire list, one more day—today—and then someone else will take over the minor roll of leading this team’s morning meeting. And now, no one wants to take over. They like this format and would care to continue it. Damn!

It turns out, all those team building exercises you’ve read about, the off-sites, the silly activities, pyramid assembly from crouched bodies, blind-fold nonsense, the potlucks and such—they don’t measure up to these simple sharing sessions.

Every morning, for a month, go around the room and share a simple favorite, a memory, a dislike, a dream, a wish or a meme. Sure, folks might lie, make things up, but it seems that they don’t; the sharing-bug is infectious.

The team is now more cohesive than ever.

A lesson in sociology? Risk a thought, a private memory: be rewarded with camaraderie?

Are games sports?

May 5, 2019

Over on Frank Solanki’s poetry blog:

May The Test Match Win

he used the word “sport” to describe games being played between rival teams.

Now, the world over conflates the word “sport” with a game played with equipment (sticks, balls, gloves, etc.) on a field or court, constrained by rules and governed by referees.

In a jocular mood I penned, as a comment, the following limerick:

The players declared this was sport.
The team owners together claimed tort!
If there are rules and a ball,
And lined fields to fall,
It’s a game, the judged cried with a snort.

In my mind, games are NOT sports.

fishingbaseball

“There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games.” – Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway was an avid hunter and fisherman and no doubt would include those activities as sports.

But games? Maybe if you got rid of all the rules, put nails and barbwire on the bats and balls and PAID to play in fights to the death — then I might consider those sports.

Your thoughts?

 

I give you ONE wish

May 27, 2018

Here are the rules:

You get one wish.

It will come true the moment you utter the sealing spell “that is my wish.”

It must be specific, that is, enactable by an omnipotent being (me). Meaning, it cannot be vague, “I wish for world peace.” (What would that mean? And how would any omniscient, omnipotent being apply that to the Universe?)

It can apply to any era in the history of the Universe; to any aspect of existence, any land, sea, creature, peoples or culture.

Go.

For thought fodder here are a few that you might consider. If multiple folks pick similar wishes then I’m sure they will eventually come true. (OK, this might not be possible, but, hey, we’re all living in a material, I mean, virtual world, right?)

  1. I wish that the physics of matter made it impossible for life to evolve.
  2. I wish that altruism balanced aggression in the natural order.
  3. I wish all planets that could harbor life, did harbor life.
  4. I wish that humanity was not alone in the universe and that we would discover this tomorrow.
  5. I wish that telekinetic power was possible.
  6. I wish unicorns existed today.
  7. And elves, flying dragons, 2nd law of thermodynamics defying physics existed too.