This post is a spin-off of a post I wrote yesterday on Medium.com entitled The Star Wars Sandbox and The Last Jedi: Why #NotMyStarWars Means #NotMySandbox. That post debunks folks who think the Star Wars stories should be a certain way because that’s what they expect. Remember: a Wookiee was aroused by a hologram during […]
Author: Michael G. Lortz
Three months and counting in Qatar
Greetings, I am entering my fourth month here in Qatar, which means I just concluded my third month, which should be halfway. Maybe. More on that later. Month three was good. Work has picked up and I am working with a new team of military folks. One of the exciting things about these kind of jobs […]
What I’m Reading: April 2018 – Innovation, Global Conflict Problems, Solutions, and Cooperation
Here are articles I found most interesting in April 2018: The 20-year-old entrepreneur is a lie – MIT Sloan School of Management, 4/20/2018 Although young entrepreneurs get all the headlines, two MIT professors found that the average age of a entrepreneur is in their 40s. This is mostly due to experience in the field, understanding […]
The Qatari Two Month Milestone
So it has been two months already. Month two flew by. I am still in Qatar, still doing well. Still trying new things. Work has been good. I am working with an Army team. My past military experience has been a great way to connect. I talk to the senior leaders about shared experiences in […]
What I’m Reading: March 2018 – Strategy, International Order, Information Conflict, Marketing, the Dark Web, and Baseball
Here are the articles I found most interesting in March 2018: Two Worlds of Strategy – The Strategy Bridge, 3/6/2018 This was my favorite article of the month. Dr. Mike Hennelly discusses a phenomenon I noticed when I started work on my MBA – that military strategy and business strategy are very similar. Both work […]
A White Middle Class Dude’s Take on Joyner Lucas’s “I’m Not Racist”
A few months ago, rapper Joyner Lucas dropped a video for his song “I’m Not Racist”. The video was a viral sensation, stimulating discussion in hip-hop circles and in the mainstream, to include CNN. If you haven’t seen it, here: It is definitely a provoking video, touching many third rails. It should make you think. […]
One Month in Qatar – Settling In and Going Out
Try new things and be healthy. That was the advice I gave my 10-year old nephew before I began my adventure to Qatar. I am always encouraging him to be more adventurous and more active. After my first month in Qatar, I realized the same advice applies to me. Unlike other times I have worked […]
What I’m Reading: February 2018 – Disruption, Innovation, Information Conflict, Comedy, Sweat Equity, and Influencers
Here are a few articles I found interesting in February 2018: The New Digital Mandate: Cultivate Dissatisfaction – MIT Sloan Management Review, 2/16/2018 A good article on organizational behavior and how to rightly change organizations. While the wrong kind of dissatisfaction can be toxic, a willingness to tinker for the better can make companies far […]
The Need for New Support in the International Conflict of Ideas
This is a response to an article from January 2018 that was getting long, so I decide to make its own post. Losing the Information War and How to Win – Small Wars Journal, 1/9/2018 A look at US government efforts in positive information conflict. This article specifically looks at efforts to counter violent extremist […]
Cited on USAToday.com on the plight of the Tampa Bay Rays
A few weeks ago, I closed down my blog on baseball in Tampa Bay. It was a great research project, one I pust a lot of hours into, but one I couldn’t see continuing from 7,000 miles away. I wrote 1,200 words on why I was putting the site on hiatus and as well why […]