Brigadoon Weekend
May 15, 2021
Take time to get your 50 mission cap
A fifty mission cap was a stiff cloth cap with a visor issued to Allied bomber pilots in World War II when they had completed fifty missions.
After fifty missions, the pilots were known to weather and beat their cap into a more rugged and worn look. Cheating death and pushing the envelope makes one want to display a roughness and not wear a stiffer and newly issued flight cap.
These worn and personalized hats obviously made these pilots more identifiable and, therefore, more respected by the rookies.
The cap was thus a status symbol.
A symbol that you had the knowledge.
A symbol that you had the experience.
A symbol that you had the professionalism.
Junior pilots were known to work in their caps to look like a fifty-mission cap. They, too, wanted to appear that they had more than they did.
Sure, you may have the cap, you can work it in to look like that, but that doesn't mean you have the knowledge, experience, and professionalism.
Not all of us can have a fifty-mission cap for the simple reason such a cap requires time, experience, and commitment.
Most of us want the cap as soon as possible.
But why?
The journey is needed.
Most overnight successes take decades.
Most artistry is gained by failure.
Most skills are gathered by doing the reps.
Sure the journey has stress. Sure the journey has unknowns. Sure the journey has complications.
But in the end, you're a different person. You get the fifty mission cap. You earned it.
The journey takes you beyond, propels you to achieve more, and contribute to others along the way.
The journey is needed.
The challenge as entrepreneurs and thought leaders is finding a journey worthy of your heart and soul.
That's when you want to put the cap on.
This post was inspired by The Tragically Hip's song Fifty-Mission Cap. Listen here.
WHAT BRIGADOON IS WATCHING THIS WEEKEND
Paris will ban through traffic in the city center: Mayor Anne Hidalgo's latest effort to rein in car use and fight pollution would prevent non-residents from driving across the French capital's city center in 2022.
The plan would stop through traffic from a large zone covering Paris' core, cut pollution, reduce noise and free up more space for trees, cycle lanes, and pedestrian areas. Public consultation for the plan launched this week.
Bloomberg reports the car-calmed zone is seen as a new tool to fend off a post-pandemic car comeback within Paris' innermost ring of boulevards.
Elsewhere in Europe, other cities are also seeking to curb traffic. Oslo will start to phase out access for fossil-fueled vehicles in 2022, while London and Milan have employed congestion charges for cars driving into their centers for several years. Within France, the cities of Lille and Nantes already have a low-speed limit and pedestrian-priority zones covering their downtowns.
Look for this trend of car-calmed zones to spread to North America soon, with population-dense cities of the Northeast leading the way.
Algae protein is expected to become a $1 billion industry by 2026: Several companies see a bright future for plant protein, and for microalgae in particular.
Some see algae eventually overtaking soy and pea as the leading alternative protein source. Demand for plant protein of all stripes is growing as more are interested in reducing meat consumption.
From vegans to flexitarians to Meatless Monday dabblers, many are substituting vegetables for meat. Plus, with Michelin three-star restaurant Eleven Madison Park going meatless and still commanding $335 for a prix-fixe meal, vegetable protein will continue to gain market share and mind space.
Forget to-do lists. You really need a 'got done' list: Most digital productivity tools focus on what you have yet to do, but they never celebrate what you've accomplished.
"Keeping a daily log of what we actually got done, even if it was just a series of unexpected small wins, can soothe our frustration at not having conquered the whole to-do list and boost our motivation for work the next day." -- Teresa Amabile, professor at Harvard Business School and co-author of The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work.
Can you have more than 150 friends? Robin Dunbar, a British anthropologist, theorized that humans could have no more than 150 meaningful relationships, a measure that became known as the Dunbar Number.
In his original research, Dunbar studied monkeys and apes and determined that the size of the neocortex, the part of the brain responsible for conscious thought, correlated with the groups they lived among. The neocortex in humans is even larger, so he extrapolated that their ideal group size was, on average, 150.
So relevant is the Dunbar Number that in 2007, when the Swedish tax agency was restructuring, a strategist for the agency proposed that each of the new offices have about 100 to 150 employees.
However, new research on the subject has found that no maximum number of friendships could be established with any precision.
Trust me, you can beat the Dunbar Number; it just takes effort and commitment.
Are you cheugy or non-cheugy? What started with Gen Z shaming Millennials' habits and outfits on TikTok now has a name: cheugy (pronounced chew-ghee).
The term was coined by a high-school student in the not surprising cultural powerhouse of California. According to the New York Times, the term is "used, broadly, to describe someone who is out of date or trying too hard."
Can someone tell me who made Gen Z experts on cool?
Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance is back on: Long a bucket-list trip for motorheads and the jet-set crowd, on Sunday, August 15, 2021, the 70th Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance is back on the calendar.
The Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance is the flagship of Pebble Beach Automotive Week.
Begun in 1950, the gathering is considered to be the world's premier celebration of the automobile.
Known as "The Pebble" by long-time attendees, planners expect Sunday's principal Concours will have some 200 cars displayed.
BRIGADOON EVENTS
Communications Audit | How To Workshop
May 18, 2021
The Poetry of Leadership | Brigadoon Monthly Call
Fateme Banishoeib | heARTist + Founder @ ReNewBusiness
May 19, 2021
Media Trends + Tendencies | How To Workshop
May 25, 2021
Thought Leader Communications How To Workshop
June 8, 2021
Speak Globalization | How To Workshop
June 15, 2021
Adventures with Fiat Pandas + Autogrills + Negronis | Brigadoon Monthly Call
Matt Hranek | Founder + Editor @ Wm Brown Magazine
June 16, 2021
More details and passes - click here.
Thanks for supporting Brigadoon. See you next week.
-Marc
Curation + commentary by Marc A. Ross | Founder + Chief Curator @ Brigadoon
Brigadoon is always powerpoint free and conversation-driven for better insights and connections.
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