Alan Weiss's The Uncomfortable Truth®

SHOW NOTES: Wherein the people in real or petty power learn what it's like for others to have to follow the often asinine rules that the former create. And why followers on social media are so easily outraged at what the rest of us realize is mundane. And why you can be so full of yourself than you can implode in public.

SHOW NOTES: If you're sensitive or overly partisan about politics, don't listen. Alan takes on the lying, cheating, obfuscation, and essentially greed that is the shame of both major parties.

SHOW NOTES: Have you noticed how we're drowned with ills and maladies and their cures and remedies? During the unceasing bombardment (arthritis, incontinence, cognitive decline, diabetes, breathing issues, lack of mobility/flexibility, hair loss, facial lines and wrinkles, vision deterioration, muscle aches, skin discoloration, and on and on) I think many of us start to believe we have conditions that we don't! This is called "recency bias," wherein something you're hearing repeatedly makes you suddenly begin searching for the condition. Instead of simply misplacing your car keys, you think it's the onset of dementia. Instead of a mole, you think it may be melanoma. You have infrequent indigestion and believe it may be a heart problem. Doctors are telling me they're seeing too many patients who see their advertisements, self-diagnose over the internet, and come in demanding tests and medical responses that are unwarranted. And, of course, all of this is well worth it despite possible spoken and written side effects of public urination, committing arson, gangrene, and suicide ideation!

SHOW NOTES: • More cheats, frauds, schemers, liars and thieves than ever in our perception. The turning point was internet access. • Men's and women's sob stories are followed by glam shots. • Drugs and gizmos for the aging are hyped until people get wise: tinnitus, incontinence, arthritis, hair loss, hearing decline, cognitive issues, constipation. • Book deals for the ego needs of prospective and new authors. • False identify for editors from major publishers. • "Tricks" to bake cakes, seal pipes, preserve food, fix toilets. • Phony endorsements from people who don't really exist. • I told one scammer that he was obviously a foreign, spamming, scammer who had no quality and the intent was theft. He said, "I'm a citizen of the Czech Republic, why are you making this so personal?!" • I can understand the elderly, perhaps, who lack proper advice and family, for falling for this stuff. But really, holding a metal object next to your ear to cure tinnitus? • My doctors tell me too many people are self-diagnosing and coming in with preferred treatment suggestions. • Vacations aren't fulfilled or people are left stranded or in run-down facilities. • Of course, I could afford all of this if those Nigerians just delivered on the $5 million they found in my name in a Swiss deposit box, awaiting for US air mail.

SHOW NOTES: There is a great deal of work being done today around what's called "difficult conversations." I think the work is important and needed. In my experience, I've witnessed, been part of, and had to deal with more poorly done performance evaluations than good ones. I've had to help people gain the courage and proper language to talk to colleagues, let alone customers and prospects. The basic issue is that we don't want to endure the "pain" of dealing with a tough or sensitive issue: performance, relationships, behavior, lies, failures. So we live with a long-term ache instead of facing the short-term pain. It's like avoiding the dentist and the needle and drilling to cure a toothache, and instead living with the discomfort endlessly. Of course, the same applies to people in long-term, very unhappy marriages, who dread the pain of divorce. Divorce IS painful, but it's temporary, and horrible, continuing bad marriages can destroy your health and your soul. Pain is temporary, suffering is voluntary. Don't avoid the difficult only to create the debilitating.