X-Message-Number: 22482
Date: Mon,  8 Sep 2003 13:15:19 -0700
Subject: Unhappy coincidence; how to work together?
References:  <>
From:  (Tim Freeman)

I wrote this text in cryomsg 22480:

>3. Why Alcor's personnel turnover rate has been huge lately, and what to
>   do about it.  (This is an important problem but I don't see how to
>   get much traction on it.  Maybe someone else will.) 

before reading this:

>Message #22478
>Date: Sun, 7 Sep 2003 18:29:42 -0400 (EDT)
>From: 
>Subject: Alcor membership
>
>On Saturday September 6th, I decided to cease working for
>Alcor as an independent contractor and have terminated my
>membership.   This is not connected in any way with the Larry
>Johnson affair, and does not mean that I am dissatisfied with
>Alcor's member services. ...

Sigh.  My message was in reply to Jerry Lemler's stepping down as CEO,
Johnson's sudden exit as COO just before that, Platt's short stint as
COO before that, a number of other half-remembered changes during the
past few months that I don't want to look up right now, the Cryocare
mess before that, and Darwin's on-again-off-again dance during the
last few years.

What's going on here?  What do we do about it to work together anyway?

Platt terminating his membership seems a little odd, given that he's
not dissatisfied with Alcor's member services.  The argument du jour,
whatever it was, probably has little to do with whether being frozen
is better or worse than being buried.

>I will be happier if I am not closely involved with Alcor, and Alcor
>may be happier too.

Check this out:

   http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/07/magazine/07HAPPINESS.html

Free registration required.  The one-sentence summary is "People tend
to overestimate how much changing circumstances will affect their
emotions".

The Buddhists have a good approach to happiness (except they call it
freedom from suffering) if you set aside all the supernatural
mumbo-jumbo and just pay attention to the Four Noble Truths and the
Eightfold Path.  I have seen it make a difference and cause large
apparent decreases in neuroticism.  Do we need to have classes in this
or something similar?

-- 
Tim Freeman                                                  
GPG public key fingerprint ECDF 46F8 3B80 BB9E 575D  7180 76DF FE00 34B1 5C78 

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