I am currently in the midst of reading the Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. The author describes a Black Swan as a high-impact, hard-to-predict, rare event beyond the realm of normal expectations.

In the book, Taleb states he is often asked by members of the media to predict the next 10 Black Swans. While the question itself proves they missed the point of the book entirely, I do believe that at least one Black Swan is foreseeable.

An artist has a lifetime to write and prepare for their first record. There are very few expectations. There is no “mold” to break. The canvas is blank.

But the follow-up record? The sophomore album? That’s a completely different story —

I haven’t posted in a while, and I know I need to catch up on a few things. I wanted to add a quick post on something I found while preparing for an interview.

I love unintentional humor, and discovered a gem when I read this sentence from All Music’s bio on the band, Trout Fishing In America:

In the early part of the 2010 season, the Boston Red Sox found themselves off to their worst start in the past 10+ years. Every aspect of the game was a struggle for them through the first 13 contests. On April 20th, G.M. Theo Epstein stated, “We’ve played bad baseball… We’re not pitching, we’re not hitting, we’re not playing good defense, we’re not running the bases well. So take your pick.”

While I have little insight on wholesale changes the club could make (especially in April), I do have one suggestion that would spark the offense.

I’m a big believer in red flags. I’ve ignored some in the past only to be burnt in the end, so I seek them out now. When I go into a retail establishment for the first time, as soon as I walk in the door, my eyes immediately go to the ceiling. If I see more than 1 or 2 burned out light bulbs, I know there’s an 85% chance this will be my only visit to the store. Similar to the “broken windows” theory, I’ve found that if a retail location doesn’t pay any attention to changing their burned out light bulbs, they’re probably not paying much attention to other details as well.