Know why you are going to that meeting
A few years ago I sat at a cubicle right by the office door. It was unbelievably distracting to see and hear people coming and going all day. Do your best to never get such a seat.
One joy of this location was that I became the defacto greeter for new faces who entered our bit of cube farm. One day I was sitting at my cubicle when a man I didn’t know walked into our office. I asked him if I could help him find someone, and he opened his mouth, then paused. After a moment he told me that he couldn’t remember the person’s name; they had never met before. This isn’t as unusual as it sounds if you work in a particularly large bureaucracy. You get invited to some meeting because of your presence on an email alias or your relationship with someone else in the organization. The host, whom you don’t know, invited you indirectly.
So I thought no problem and said, “Okay, what’s the meeting about?” Again, the man opened his mouth to speak, then paused.
Then something happened that isn’t supposed to happen at work: the man became hyper-aware of his mortality. While I watched.
“I…I don’t know,” he said.
Though I could see his world crumbling, and my heart felt for the guy, all I could mutter was: “I’m sorry. I don’t know how to help you.”
After a few quiet moments, he looked down towards his shoes then walked out of the office, without saying a word.
Know why you are going to that meeting. Every meeting. Don’t get so trapped in the routine of the office that you start floating mindlessly through life.
At the water cooler
Elon Musk bought about 10% of Twitter’s shares on Monday. Then on Tuesday morning, Twitter’s CEO announced they were adding him to their board of directors. Some people think Musk is going to use his influence to save free speech from wokeness; others think it’s just an egomaniac’s idea of a practical joke. The market thinks it all makes Twitter more valuable; Twitter’s share price has gone up over 25% since all this news broke.