OFF TOPIC: The Collateral Damage of Gangnam Style

You might have caught the news last week that the video Gangnam Style has been viewed so frequently, (2 BILLION plus times), that it actually 'broke' YouTube, whose underlying code had been unable to store and display a video views count above 2,147,483,647.

YouTube subsequently fixed the bug, if it even could be called a bug, and now assures us that it can handle a views count maximum of somewhere north of 9 quintillion.

Let's hope that Gangnam Style, (or Grumpy Cat or Celebrities Reading Mean Tweets or anything else) doesn't ever get too close to breaking YouTube again.

Why?

Because there is a cost of sorts in all this YouTube watching. An opportunity cost really, for all of us. A few months back, before Gangnam Style broke YouTube, the folks at the Economist did some calculations to estimate what else humanity might have been able to accomplish with all the time spent (140M hours at that point), watching Gangnam Style.

Here is the chart from the Economist that will proably make you weep a little bit for humanity:

Amazing.

One Gangnam Style equates to 20 Empire State Buildings, 4 Great Pyramids, and almost 2 new Wikipedias.

That is potentially the kinds of things we could have accomplished had we spent the time watching Gangnam Style in more productive endeavors.

Look, I am not sitting here saying I spend every waking minute in deep study, volunteering for the less fortunate, saving abandoned puppies, or helping elderly folks cross the street.

I waste plenty of time. I do.

But seeing this kind of data does make me pause a little. I know I can do better, and I only contributed 1 measly view to the 2 Billion count for Gangnam Style. 

I know I can do better. Probably you can too.

Have a great weekend!

OFF TOPIC: Basketball Shots, Ranked

There are many ways and methods by which one can direct the basketball into the basket.

Here is the ranking of many of these methods, from least interesting/appealing up to most awesome.

The Finger Roll

20. Basic layup

19. Reverse layup

18. Standard jumper

17. Corner three

16. Willis Reed's two buckets in Game 7 of the 1969-70 NBA Finals

15. Heave from 30+ feet to beat the buzzer

14. Basic dunk

13. Put-back slam dunk

12. Two-handed set shot (see Schayes, Dolph)

11. Underhand free throw (see Barry, Rick)

10. Catch-and-shoot 3-pointer (see Miller, Reggie)

9. Jump Hook (see McHale, Kevin)

8. Reverse pivot step-back jumper (see Sikma, Jack)

7. Alley Oop jam (see Griffin, Blake, (among many))

6. Fall back, baby (see Barnett, Dick)

5. Running two-hand dunk (see King, Bernard)

4. Teardrop (see Jackson, Mark)

3. Sky Hook (see Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem)

2. Mid-range bank shot (see Duncan, Tim)

1. The Finger Roll (see Gervin, George)

Note: The blog is taking the rest of the week off. Have a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend and if you are not in the USA, well, pretend you are in the USA and take a few days off.

OFF TOPIC: More and Less

We Need More:

Really cool, interesting, and innovative ideas for work, workplaces and people (see Fuel50, BlackbookHR, Data Morphosis, BrandAmper, QUESocial, and Zenefits).

Simple and elegant approaches to solve complex questions.

Pumpkin donuts.

People who don't take themselves too seriously.

BBQ.

Walt 'Clyde' Frazier.

We Need Less:

Updates on your Fantasy Football team.

Emails sent at 11:49PM.

Details about your latest run, CrossFit Workout, or set of push-ups you did.  You do know you get the same benefit and burn the same number of calories even if you don't Tweet about your stupid workout, don't you?

War or combat analogies when talking about sports. 'That quarterback sure is a warrior down near the goal line.' 

Sports analogies when talking about business. 'This new marketing campaign is sure to be a home run with the target demographic.'

Telling us all how busy you are or how hard you are working.

Comparing yourself to the competition. Forget the competition. Most of the time the people/companies that you are worried about are just as amazingly paranoid and possibly dysfunctional as you. Don't worry about them. There is plenty of opportunity for everyone.

Tom Brady. I am so sick of Tom Brady. (I am a Jets fan).

Have a great weekend! 

OFF TOPIC: Classic toys, ranked

You know you have a favorite toy from the past, from your childhood, but is your favorite toy the BEST toy of all-time/forever? Read on and find out...

100 - 26 - (in no particular order) Wooden blocks, the duck that you pulled with a string thing, the vacuum-like toy that had a round plastic bubble full of little balls, Magic 8-ball, Erector Sets, frisbee, Lincoln Logs, and about 60 other fun for a few minutes but otherwise not that awesome toys

25. NERF football

24. Rock'em Sock'em Robots

23. Ken

22. Silly Putty

21. Slinky

20. Mr. Potato Head

19. Play-doh

18. Lite-Brite

17. Mattel Electronic Football, (the small, hand-held one where the players were just tiny green lines)

16. Transformers

15. G.I. Joe

14. Yo-Yo

13. View-Master

12. Etch-a-Sketch

11. Tonka (props to the classic yellow dump truck, but they were all pretty cool)

10. Barbie

9. SuperBall

8. Wiffle Ball

7. Rubik's Cube

6. Simon (original one with the red, blue, yellow, green lights)

5. Hot Wheels

4. Little plastic green Army Men

3. LEGOS

2. Star Wars Action Figures

1. Crayola Crayons

Off Topic: The Refrigerator Door

On the right is a (partial) picture of my very cluttered and busy refrigerator door.

Maybe yours looks a little something like that too - unless you have one of those shiny stainless steel refrigerators that don't like to cooperate with 'fridge magnets, then chances are there are at least a few things pinned up on the door. click for ginormous view

According to researcher and co-author of Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century Anthony Graesch, families with small children at home have on average about 50 magnets and items tacked up on the refrigerator, (you can see more from Prof. Graesch in a recent interview that aired on CBS Sunday Morning, hat tip to Trish for sending me the link to the video).

That number of 50 seemed pretty high to me, until I began counting up all the stuff I have up on my 'fridge door, mostly mementos from trips or events or airports I have passed through in the last few years.

One funny side note about my door, when I mentioned to my 13 year old that I was going to post something on the blog about refrigerator doors and magnets, he took a closer look at the door and asked, "Why do you still have a picture of you and that MetLife dog up there?"

I replied, "Do you mean Snoopy? That is the dog's name, he isn't 'The MetLife Dog'. He was in Peanuts for about 50 years. You know Snoopy, right?"

"Whatever, Dad. I know him as the MetLife dog."

Welcome to 2014, when stainless steel refrigerators, smartphones, and social networks are eroding the power and majesty of the well-decorated refrigerator door.

And where a generation of kids only knows Snoopy as "The MetLife dog."

Note: I am heading to Vegas for the next four days with most of The 8 Man Rotation crew to soak up a little NBA Summer League action, so the blog will probably be dark until next week.