When I was raising my three youngest kids, one of our regular stops each Saturday was the GameStop store on Mission near 24th Street. Those of you who know San Francisco will recognize this as one of the busiest parts of the city, at least on the weekend.
At least it used to be, pre-Covid.
I lost count of how many video games we bought and sold there, but it equated roughly to the number of dreams I could make come true for my sons as they traveled back and forth between my house and their Mom's.
Their little sister was sometimes along for the ride, but she had a whole separate set of routines to make her weekends special, which usually involved visits with her friends.
Of course, like most parents, I worried that I might be feeding my boys' addiction to video games, but I consoled myself with the thought that at least they were learning a lot about how to navigate the iterative world of software.
So this week as I've tried to comprehend the forces that have sent GameStop's stock soaring from about $4/share to about $150/share, making many Millennials millionaires, I've been suspecting it has something to do with a whole generation of people who learned all too well how to navigate the iterative world of software.
So much so that they have brought the hedge fund overlords of Wall Street to their knees.
It couldn't have happened to a nicer group of guys.
You know, our lives in certain ways resemble software projects, though not necessarily video games. Especially those of us who've remained in the workforce. We've had to reinvent ourselves so many times over the past quarter-century that our original operating systems have become strained under the weight of adding new features.
Just keeping up with the evolving language of the workplace requires a mastery of next year's edition of the urban dictionary long before it's issued. (You know that you are on top of things when it anoints phrases you left behind three developmental cycles ago.)
In my travels through Silicon Valley, many times I was one of the few non-engineers in a company. Some of the coders just ignored me; others befriended me as a curiosity -- a kindly, aging uncle who couldn't code his way out of a paper bag but somehow seemed to be providing something useful to somebody somewhere.
For my part, I loved them -- every last one of those engineers, even the ones who never talked to me. Maybe because they reminded me of my guys back home.
In any event, I've developed the ability to sense when it's time for me to embrace my next iteration. And that time is now.
[Footnote: The sweet 2015 film called "The Intern," starring Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway, conveys a fraction of what I'm trying to say in this post.]
***
The news:
* Former President Trump's five impeachment defense attorneys have left a little more than a week before his trial is set to begin, according to people familiar with the case, amid a disagreement over his legal strategy. It was a dramatic development in the second impeachment trial for Trump, who has struggled to find lawyers willing to take his case. And now, with legal briefs due next week and a trial set to begin only days later, Trump is clinging to his election fraud charade and suddenly finds himself without legal representation. (CNN)
* Dodger Stadium’s mass COVID-19 vaccination site was temporarily shut down Saturday afternoon when about 50 anti-vaccine protesters gathered at the entrance, frustrating hundreds of motorists who had been waiting in line for hours. (LA Times)
* FBI probe of U.S. Capitol riot finds evidence assault was coordinated -- Agents are probing interactions between on-the-ground instigators and leaders of national extremist groups. (WashPo)
* G.O.P. Quiet as Pressure Mounts to Address Lawmaker’s Conspiracy Claims -- In a newly unearthed video from 2018, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene suggested that 9/11 was a hoax, President Barack Obama was a Muslim and the Clintons were guilty of murder. (NYT)
* Democrats building emotionally charged case for impeachment (WashPo)
* The World Health Organization-led team investigating the origins of COVID-19 during a mission that has been tightly controlled by its Chinese hosts visited a hospital on Saturday in the central city of Wuhan that treated early coronavirus patients. (Reuters)
* What’s Happening to Our Economy Is Like a Natural Disaster (NYT)
* The Pentagon raised doubts on Thursday that the U.S. military would withdraw from Afghanistan by May 1 — the deadline set in a February 2020 agreement with the Taliban — after accusing the Taliban of failing to uphold its commitments under the deal. (AP)
* Actions by Proud Boy at Capitol show ‘planning, determination, and coordination,’ U.S. alleges (WashPo)
* What’s Driving Everything From a Market Frenzy to an Embrace of U.S. Deficits? Magical Thinking. (WSJ)
* U.S. Airstrike Kills Top ISIS Leader in Iraq (NYT)
* As Biden pushes to reopen schools, Europe is moving in the other direction (WashPo)
* As California virus cases fall, more people than ever dying (AP)
* Legal Pressure on Trump Increases With Judge’s Order in Fraud Inquiry -- The order, answering a demand for documents by New York’s attorney general, rejected a bid to shield the records with attorney-client privilege. (NYT)
* In race against time on virus mutations, U.S. is ‘falling behind’ (WashPo)
* In Biden’s White House, Masks, Closed Doors and Empty Halls (NYT)
* Biden environmental challenge: Filling vacant scientist jobs (AP)
The Grand Tour
If you'd like to take the grand tour
Of a lonely house that once was home sweet home
I have nothing here to sell you,
Just some things that I will tell you
Some things I know will chill you to the bone.
Where she'd bring the paper to me
And sit down on my knee
And whisper oh, I love you
But now she's gone forever
And this old house will never
Be the same without the love
That we once knew.
Where we'd lay in love together
And Lord knows we had a good thing going here
See her picture on the table
Don't it look like she'd be able
Just to touch me and say good morning dear.
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