Is the president less scary now?

The president’s dark strength has been the ability to terrorize everyone and particularly all members of the Republican Congress. 

After the recent MAGA and Trump repudiation, that fear might be seriously eroded as the Senate Republicans don’t fear him as much following the 2026 midterms, where Democrats flipped control of both chambers of Congress to secure both a Senate and House majority. 

This already began some time ago when Senate Republicans—led by figures like Senate Majority Leader John Thune—have increasingly clashed with Trump over strategy, executive appointments, and legislative priorities. 

For instance, Thune and other leaders repeatedly refused Trump's demands to abolish the legislative filibuster. Following the 2026 midterm sweep, prominent Republicans and party operatives openly pinned the party's congressional losses and economic/foreign policy liabilities (such as the Iran war and rising fuel costs) directly on Trump and his second-term administration. 

Trump's swayed over Senate Republicans hit a second-term low as lawmakers balked at controversial administration funding requests—like his $1.8 billion fund the January 6 individuals and security funding for a White House ballroom—while some broke ranks on key votes like ending the Iran war. 

Today, as detailed by the Associated Press, high-profile Republicans have publicly described the election outcome as a "reckoning" and a "Watergate-level repudiation," with little consensus or fear stopping them from critiquing the direction of the party. 

Let’s hope this not just holds, but amplifies as some GOP Congress Members will be looking at recovering a modicum of “virginity” if they plan to survive in the US political universe. Another “we’ll see”!

Trump’s never ending surprises…

After having indicated that he would “work” with Democrats (with obviously an overt threat of a flood of vetoes), Trump appointed Stephen Miller as his White House chief of staff, signaling an aggressive doubling-down on his core MAGA and immigration policies following his crushing losses in the 2026 midterm elections. 

The man loves loyal supporters of his, and Miller the perfect incarnation of C. Montgomery Burns, the bad guy from The Simpsons, has been with him from day one in 2016. Following the GOP's midterm electoral rout, Trump conveniently “forgot” to follow a potentially more moderate posture to embrace a hardline, combative approach, in picking Miller for Wiles’ job as an ideological sidekick who believes in maximalist executive power. 

As the primary architect of Trump's aggressive deportation and border crackdowns, Miller represents the core populist and nationalist platform of MAGA that Trump wants to push forward during his final two years in office, despite criticism from some congressional Republicans and business leaders. 

The comparison between Stephen Miller and C. Burns from The Simpsons is a long-running pop culture joke based on physical appearance, facial expressions, and intense, severe mean demeanor. As Trump loses some of his sting, Miller will be the perfect new “Great Satan” that scares the bejesus out of all of us. We’ll see!

France’s presidential wildcard? (Part Two)

Again, I’m speculating that, in view of the current French political mess, it might not be totally out of place to see Christine Lagarde running for president next April. Although she’s repeatedly stated throughout 2026 that she was "not a candidate for anything," her own remarks and the backdrop of the ongoing crisis suggest a figure intent on exerting influence within the national political debate. 

In announcing her early departure from the ECB, Lagarde explicitly cited the obligation of neutrality that had prevented her from weighing in on major political issues. She indicated a desire to regain her "freedom of speech and expression" in order to defend European principles—implicitly targeting the rise of the Marine Le Pen’s “Rassemblement National” (National Rally). Also, France is now weathering a financial storm, with public debt approaching 120% of GDP and borrowing costs (on 10-year French government bonds, or OATs) hovering near 5%. 

By leaving the ECB in February, she avoids the untenable position of having to manage a potential default or bailout of her own country from Frankfurt. Indeed, she has firmly stated that "the solution to France's debt problems lies in Paris, not at the ECB." As a "wild card" candidate Lagarde would be a rallying figure for the centrist, pro-Macron camp that has struggled to find a natural leader capable of standing to Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon. 

Christine Lagarde would tick many boxes as having an undisputed international stature as a former French Minister of the Economy, former head of the IMF, and current President of the ECB, she would embody the highest level of economic expertise at a time of fiscal crisis. Although she comes from the moderate right, she is perceived as being above the fray of traditional party politics. Public opinion polls consistently rank her among the most well-regarded public figures in France. 

As I discussed in my previous blog, she has a few skeletons in her closet and her image of technocratic elite with her highly international profile, closely tied to global financial institutions like the IMF and the ECB, could alienate a segment of the electorate, especially in a tense social climate marked by significant unrest. 

Obviously, lacking a political organization or "war machine", launching a campaign weeks before the April 2027 election might be insurmountable unless she is able “sell” or assuage long-established political figures like Édouard Philippe, Gabriel Attal, or Bruno Retailleau to step aside and support her as the “savior” of what might be a doomed political outcome. 

As expected, both the LFI (La France Insoumise) and the RN (Rassemblement National) immediately denounced her early resignation from the ECB as a strategic maneuver. They allege it was orchestrated in coordination with Emmanuel Macron to let him appoint a successor at the ECB before the end of his own presidential term, a move they see as a sign of disrespect toward the will of the French electorate. 

In summary, if Christine Lagarde is not (yet) an official candidate for the presidential election, her breaking free from the ECB job has deliberately positioned her as an essential moral and technical authority. Whether she emerges as a fallback candidate for the embattled political center or acts as a major influencer in the debate to block the extremes, she might be a key figure in France over the coming months. Let’s see what develops...

France’s presidential wildcard? (Part One)

When I see what goes on in France, I obviously wonder if Christianne Lagarde couldn’t become the “wild card”, or a centrist alternative in the face of France’s political and budgetary crisis, following her surprise announcement in late October 2026 that she would step down as President of the European Central Bank (ECB) on February 7, 2027—nine months before the end of her original term and just ahead of the April 2027 presidential election. 

Coincidence? Calculation? Your guess is as good as mine. Without questions, Christine Lagarde enjoys a highly respected international reputation, but her past in the French domestic politics closet contains several significant "skeletons" that political rivals could weaponize if she were to pursue a presidential bid. 

Her primary political baggage stems from her time as France’s Minister of the Economy, Finance, and Industry (2007–2011) under President Nicolas Sarkozy, alongside structural criticisms of her political identity. 

It starts with the Bernard Tapie’s negligence conviction by a special French court in December 2016. In 2007, Lagarde approved sending a long-running, multi-million-euro legal dispute between the state and controversial tycoon Bernard Tapie to a private arbitration panel rather than letting it proceed through the public courts. 

Tapie, my perennial “Bête Noire” was a flamboyant businessman who – when it suited him – was a vocal supporter of Nicolas Sarkozy, and had claimed he was defrauded by the state-owned bank Crédit Lyonnais during the 1993 sale of his stake in Adidas. In 2008, the private panel awarded Tapie a staggering €404 million in public funds (including €45 million in moral damages). Against the explicit warnings of her own ministry advisors, Lagarde decided not to appeal or challenge the massive payout. 

The arbitration award was later quashed by French courts as fraudulent and rigged. But in 2016, the Cour de Justice de la République (CJR), a special court that tries government ministers, found Lagarde guilty of "grave negligence". The court ruled that her hasty actions and failure to appeal showed an unpardonable lack of vigilance with taxpayer money. Though the court spared her from prison time or a fine due to her international standing, a "guilty" verdict for mismanaging public funds is an easy target for populist opponents. 

The left (LFI) and far-right (RN) would continue to paint her as a symbol of an unaccountable elite. The fallout from the Tapie case connects directly to a broader narrative used against her in France: that she is a creature of crony capitalism and acted under political pressure from Sarkozy to favor a wealthy political ally. For an electorate highly sensitive to economic inequality and the privileges of the ruling class, this remains a huge liability. 

Finally, as a former Finance Minister under Sarkozy and a chief architect of Eurozone policy, Lagarde cannot easily distance herself from France's current fiscal crisis. Some will also argue that a person who presided over early iterations of France’s deficit spending—and who has spent years lecturing nations from Washington and Frankfurt about fiscal discipline—lacks the credibility to solve the crisis at home. 

In a next blog we’ll see how she could manage to wiggle her way into the next French presidential election...

Why do we give up so easily ? (Part Two)

It’s clear that over the years we change, have different needs, develop new outlooks and with experience, accumulate much more wisdom too. We eventually learn to cope and deal differently with obstacles, impatience, unfamiliarity and a wide variety of pains or ordeals. We also learn that no situation is ever similar. 

We first do things for reasons that are not always important and valid and often this pushes us into dead ends that we couldn’t have imagined because we lacked imagination and a broader life experience. This observations lead to three particularly interesting reflections. First is all about persistence versus stubbornness. 

Knowing when to persevere and when to change direction is difficult to establish and to perceive. Giving up is not always a failure; sometimes it’s also how we acquire the wisdom that will light our path down the road. Then, there’s the undeniable role of accumulated experience as every time we overcome a difficult situation, we add to our personal database while building a little more confidence in our ability to face the next important decision along with its own challenges. 

To conclude, there’s the advantage of getting older and becoming increasingly more resourceful. It could be that one of the unexpected gifts of aging is that we become less frightened by temporary discomfort because we’ve seen enough of life to know that difficult periods don’t last forever and usually pass or become much more bearable. 

Finally, there is an idea that I think fits perfectly with my broader reflections on aging, curiosity and continuous self-improvement. Perhaps the real measure of personal growth isn't how many times we refuse to give up, but how much better we become at understanding when to hold on, when to let go, and when to start again. 

That intuitive flexibility is to me the real gem revealed as we discuss this subjet. It turns an essay about past indecision into something much more empowering: the possibility that we can keep learning how to persevere and get excellent at it, regardless of how many years we have already spent on this planet.

It's always with great interest that I scan my past experiences, hoping to uncover a little gem that I was unable to recognize or appreciate when certain events were actually taking place. More often than not, I come away with a treasure trove of insights that suddenly flash back into my consciousness, and I feel that this exercise is enormously beneficial. 

There is one particular trend that I have noticed, and it concerns how impatient, indecisive and unfocused I could be during many periods of my youth and early adulthood. 

I seemed to have a rather unfortunate tendency to give up on plans, projects and directions whenever pain, difficulty or discouragement began to cloud my judgment. My goals were there, but they were often too weakly defined and, more importantly, I was woefully unprepared for the obstacles standing between me and their achievement. 

Looking back, I realize that I spent far too much time navigating a world of doubt, fear and sometimes low self-esteem. I wanted to move forward, but I wasn't always equipped with the patience, determination or confidence to withstand the inevitable bumps along the way. 

Then I began asking myself: What was behind this behavior? Was it nature or nurture? Was I simply wired that way, or had my upbringing, environment and early experiences contributed to shaping these tendencies? I have often leaned toward the latter explanation, although I have never been entirely convinced. Perhaps the answer is more complicated than either explanation. 

Maybe it was a combination of temperament, circumstances, expectations and, above all, a lack of experience in dealing with adversity. I suspect that one of my biggest shortcomings was that I often fell in love with the destination without fully understanding the journey. I could picture what I wanted to accomplish, but I had little appreciation for the amount of patience, frustration, sacrifice and perseverance that might be required to get there. 

And isn't that one of the traps we frequently fall into? We confuse the difficulty of the journey with evidence that we have chosen the wrong destination. The moment things become uncomfortable, we start questioning our abilities, our decisions and sometimes even our original aspirations. 

Yet, difficulty is not necessarily a sign that something is wrong. Sometimes it is simply part of the admission price for getting somewhere worthwhile. One last question would be to see if over the years, age and experience make us respond in different ways to similar challenges. 

If this intrigues you, read the next blog…

Trump’s blindness and American exhaustion

For years, I’ve felt that Donald Trump’s leadership style — marked by bluster, self‑absorption, and an inability to imagine life from anyone else’s vantage point — was steering the country toward a breaking point. What finally caught up with him wasn’t just political opposition; it was the nation’s exhaustion. 

His presence saturated every corner of American life, every news cycle, every conversation, until people simply had enough. The recent election results were, in my view, a referendum on that fatigue. They were about him — unmistakably — and the public’s decision felt like a long‑overdue correction. It reconciled me with a majority of my fellow citizens who, at last, seemed to recognize the unsustainability of his approach. 

My own distrust of Trump began early, back in the 2015 primaries, when he chose insult over argument and spectacle over substance. I never believed in his claims of business genius, nor in the aura of infallibility he projected. His confidence often felt less like strength and more like a refusal to confront reality. 

The end of his first term offered a clear warning about the consequences of such leadership, and that warning only grew louder over time. Now, those in Congress and government members or big donors who aligned themselves with him face the difficult task of distancing themselves from the legacy they helped enable. 

Political stains are not easily washed away, especially when they come from years of enabling a leader whose style rewarded loyalty over judgment. I’ve always had a simple test for leadership: Would I trust this person to run my business? Even in 2015, the answer for Trump was an unequivocal no. 

Leadership requires persuasion, steadiness, and the ability to bring people along — qualities captured in the old saying that one catches more flies with honey than with vinegar. That wisdom feels more relevant than ever.

The clock that wouldn’t die

It’s at a famous French watchmaking institution that I got most of my education, so I watch timekeeping pieces like no ordinary person. In 2005, I noticed a cool looking atomic digital clock at a friend’s home in Reno and I bought the exact same one a couple of months later in January 2006, hanged it on our kitchen wall and loved it. 

Ever since, it gave us the absolutely exact time as well as displaying outdoor and indoor temperatures. The first problem occurred in 2018 when the clock stopped for no reason, but woke up after I slapped it. The incident repeated itself a few times in the interim and a few days ago as time changed from daylight saving, I removed the clock from the wall it was hanging, and it stopped.

Its LED screen dissolved from view never to reappear. So I repeated my previous routine like changing the batteries, pressing all the back buttons in various and different ways, before slapping it and then dropping the hapless clock on the floor but nothing woke it up. 

After a few minutes of this, I asked my wife to dump it into the garbage bin while I was ordering a replacement from Amazon. And the day went by… The following morning, I noticed the 3 AA batteries from the clock that I left on my desk and for no sensible reason thought “Let’s try once more”. 

I went to the garage, dove inside the large garbage bin, fished the clock, brought it to my office and re-installed the batteries, and… Bingo! The clock beeped and the screen reappeared as if by miracle. The device displaying the cold garage temperature was brought to life and soon thereafter after picking the atomic signal displayed almost the correct time, except for the new winter hour. 

This time, I kept the new clock that I’ve already received and now need to decide where in the house I should hang the 20+ year old clock... 

Embarking on immense projects (Part Two)

Is acceptance truly able to trigger difficult undertakings?" 

This sounds like a powerful principle of behavioral psychology and personal productivity. It means that acknowledging the reality of a hard task—including its stress, boredom, or complexity—is the precise spark needed to actually begin.

When we can stop fighting the idea of how difficult something will be, we free up the mental energy required to start doing it. I believe the way acceptance triggers action by defeating procrastination that’s rarely a time-management problem, but rather an emotional regulation problem. 

Accepting that a task will feel uncomfortable reduces our urge to avoid it. It also lowers our mental barrier and the layer of stress that goes with it, reducing that internal friction. As a result, it shifts the focus towards execution, shifting our brain from complaining to problem-solving. 

What’s needed to accept, is identifying and acknowledging explicitly the perceived discomfort. We need to convince ourselves that it will incredibly tedious, and not enjoyable, at least at first. We also need to accept that our initial progress might be messy or imperfect by giving us permission to build a terrible first draft just to get the momentum going. 

Finally, we need to focus exclusively on the smallest possible action required to initiate the work, such as doing a specific task no matter how small and insignificant it might seem. 

With that in mind, “At your marks, set, go!”

Embarking on immense projects (Part One)

An overwhelming endeavor is generally hard to apprehend and accept, depending on a person’s motivation and propensity to accomplish it. 

Sometimes, the commitment and the effort are totally optional and in some ways gratuitous, but in other situations they have to be handled no matter what comes in their way because there’s no other choice or no miraculous exit ramp.

In such cases accepting is the hardest and necessary part, because without it the unavoidable execution will have to be handled anyway, and if they is no acceptance at all, this will make the task that much more painful, difficult and interminable. 

Therefore acceptance is the key that opens the door to managing humongous, ugly tasks and bringing them to term in the best possible way while minimizing the harmful impact, and for me acceptance is the by-product of a challenge that I give myself by framing it within the terms and limitations of my skills, competence and reputation. 

It's just like “A guy like me should be able to achieve this…” This kind of triggers me into jumping into the task and hoping for the best possible outcome. Doubt and fear close doors, acceptance opens them wide… 

In a next blog we’ll see how this works.

Another Halloween in stats and video

We always hope to beat the previous year in terms of Halloween visitations, and this year was no exception. 

When all was said and done and it was time to lock our front door and turn off the lights, we managed to do better than last year by a small 5% margin, at least beating inflation. 

Seven groups added up to 21 visitors, just one more than last year and that compares to our best year (at our previous home location) with 82 youngsters in 2007 and just 12 in 2011. 

Sadly the Latina family chose not to show up with their kids, like they did last year, fearing Trump’s resurgent ICE raids by its barbaric force, and hopefully, next year this sad situation might improve somewhat. 

On the plus side, I included a short video to help you picture that very low key event at our home! 

Sölden post-mortem

Like many ski racing enthusiasts, I watch the recent opeing race in Sölden and while some think the Rettenbach slope is one of the most punishing on the circuit with gradients of up to 68% (approximately 34 degrees) on its steepest section, it’s quite brutal and, in my view, lacks the variety of sites like Adelboden or Alta Badia. 

The race starting at an altitude of 3,040 meters drops about 370 meters over a course length of nearly 1.2 kilometers. This "very long and steep ascent" is considered the key passage of the Rettenbachferner glacier. To break the monotony of the flat end-section, 2026 saw its profile further “enhanced” by deliberately modeling it three wave-like bumps. 

Without natural snowpack, the snow on the race course was praised for being in excellent condition. This was achieved through a massive logistical effort involving 60,000 m³ of snow stockpiled from the previous spring and preserved over the summer using the "snow farming" method allowing to keep 70 to 80% of the stored snow over the summer. 

That old snow, combined with high-performance snowmaking systems activated by a cold spell, created a "compact and race-ready base" with an "ideal snow surface". The result was the hard, icy, and consistent racing surface required for a fair World Cup race. This said, it was hard to shy away from the view of the Rettenbach Glacier looking "unusually brown" just before the races, with the prepared piste looking like a narrow white ribbon in a barren landscape. 

Whatever snow was there was ultimately tested by difficult and rapidly changing weather on race day, which became a major story-line for pundits as the women's GS was delayed by 30 minutes due to snow and wind on the glacier, setting a chaotic tone for the day. 

Then the race became a battle not just against the clock, but against the elements, with a changing weather becoming a decisive factor in the race outcome. Mikaela Shiffrin, who led after the first run, encountered fog and increasingly dark conditions in her second run. 

Meanwhile, Paula Moltzan who won the day, caught a crucial break of sunlight, allowing her to ski a flawless second run and take the victory. Shiffrin later admitted, "It was tough, you can say that, this second run... It was getting darker and darker on the course". I didn’t particularly enjoyed the race, but based on the press articles I read, I must have been the only one!

The Nobel Prize Committee doesn’t get it

Unanimously, it seems, Norway is recognized as a highly developed, first-world nation with one of the highest standards of living, strongest social safety nets, and largest sovereign wealth funds in the world. In spite of that reality, Donald Trump begs to differ. 

Last Sunday, at a rally in Michigan, he characterized that county as a "shithole", like he likes to name countries he abhors. 

That name-calling began in 2018 when in an Oval Office meeting on immigration, Trump contrasted nations he described as "shithole countries" with Norway, asking why the US didn't have more immigrants from places like Norway (though he had previously praised Norway's economy and trade relations). 

Perhaps he was already fishing for his coveted Nobel Prize. 

Fast forward to Sunday October 25 when suddenly Norway, the “shithole” opposite, conveniently fell into that colorful category, following the decision by the independent Norwegian Nobel Committee to award the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize to a South African jurist. 

It’s amazing how things change fast with Trump, how unpredictable the man is, and therefore how mentally troubled he must be. Someone should finally teach him what peace means, what good judgment is, and that one catches many more flies with honey than vinegar.

Handling repulsive projects…

We all have projects that haunt us — tasks we know must be done, that nag at us every time we walk past them, yet somehow remain untouched. They sit there like silent judges, reminding us of our ingrained procrastination. 

In my case, recently, it was a set of home repairs — complicated, multi‑stage, time‑consuming. Every time I saw them, I felt a mix of guilt and irritation. I could hire someone, of course, but I also knew I could do it myself, if only I could get past the psychological barrier. 

The first trick I use is simple: I stop avoiding the task and look it straight in the eye. I remind myself that if I consider myself competent, then this is exactly the kind of thing I should be able to handle. It’s a gentle but firm form of self‑accountability if not self-shaming. 

The second tool that comes to my mind is the salami technique: slice the project into thin, manageable pieces. A task that feels impossible in its entirety becomes surprisingly doable when broken into small, self‑contained steps. And then I remember Lao Tzu’s old wisdom: a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

That line has become my trigger. Once I take that first step — even a tiny one — the project loses its power over me. That’s how I finally began tackling the repairs I had dreaded for so long. In the end, repulsive projects aren’t defeated by willpower alone. 

They yield when we stop avoiding them, but begin to tame them by breaking them into slices, and taking that first small step. Once I did that, the project I had loathed for months finally began to move — not because it became easier, but because I finally stopped letting it intimidate me.

The invisible car license plate

As of 2026, it’s no longer need to install a license plate in the front of our vehicle in Utah. Even though this practice was tolerated before, it’s now official. The state only issues one plate for the back of the car. 

Along with that, cyclists that like to carry their bikes on their car use the rack hitch that attach to the rear tow insert. 

That placement however does a perfect job in hiding the license plate and it prevents its reading by toll cameras on bridges and other paid access areas. So my question is, what’s the police doing about it? Is it even aware of that reality? 

Even since these bike carriers have been out, I’ve always wondered about the impact of this problem, not just in Utah, but in the US or even elsewhere? I did some research and yes, the police everywhere absolutely know this is happening. Now here are the official rules grounded in how US states actually enforce license‑plate visibility laws and how police deal with rear‑mounted bike racks that block plates. 

Utah’s one‑plate rule (2026) doesn’t change the visibility requirement, the law still requires that the plate must be clearly visible, unobstructed and illuminated at night, so a hidden plate is illegal. Outside of Utah, this also a known nationwide problem and police departments have been dealing with it as the rear plate is the only identifier. 

This means that toll cameras. red‑light or speed cameras, ALPR (automated license plate readers) and police patrol cars, all depend on that single rear plate. Now, here’s the real enforcement pattern, based on how departments handle this in Utah and other states, police issue warnings or citations in a large number of States and anywhere with toll roads or ALPR systems. 

This said, there does not seem to be much enforcement in Park City, probably because of the tourism economic impact. Elsewhere, I’m told that if an officer sees a plate that is partially or fully blocked, they can stop the vehicle and issue a fix‑it ticket or a visibility citation. They ask for plate‑relocation brackets and move the plate to the bike rack using a plate relocation kit. 

In Canada, most provinces require the same. Most European countries and Australia require two plates with no obstruction allowed and mandatory relocation if a bike rack blocks the plate. Now you know the score. Drive safely and have fun riding your bike!

Marcel Grivel-Delillaz, 1946-2026

Marcel and I first met at Chamonix, in May of 1971 during a staff orientation meeting prior to leaving for Australia to teach skiing at Mt. Buller the following summer. 

We then met again at the small Victoria resort in mid-July when I finally got there along with JP Chatellard following a protracted 6-week ocean journey. 

Marcel was an avid skier, full of energy and enthusiasm and kept his high-level intensity through the end of the September when the ski season came to an end. Following that fun-sharing experience, we kind of lost touch, I simply knew that he just married Nadia and as a result decided not to rejoin some of us for another season down-under. 

We then briefly reconnected on April 13, 1974 when I ran into Marcel and Nadia at the Robinson ballroom under memorable circumstances. It would almost take another three decades for us to reconnect when I retired and had time to chase my former acquaintances. 

Skiing, mountain biking and shared memories fed our many phone conversations and social media sharing. Finally, on October 14, 2023, Evelyne and I had an enjoyable lunch with Marcel in Annemasse, near Geneva. 

Following that we talked on the phone and exchanged on social media and our last conversation goes back to January 23 of this year, and our exchange on Whatsapp this past September 24. Marcel passed away on October 26 from heart failure, he was about one month away for his 80th birthday. 

He will be missed a lot by his family and all of his mountain loving friends.

Socialism and economics “à la française”

France, my home country, offers a remarkable confluence between comfortable socialism, “elastic” economic, financial concepts and reluctance to confront hard and painful issues. Simply said, all the benefits earned and accrued over time, could be likened to what’s called a no-return mechanism, used in any winch, namely a ratchet and pawl system. 

This ratchet effect didn’t appear overnight. It grew out of the post‑war social contract, reinforced by strong unions and a political culture where the street is considered the legitimate and most potent arena of democratic expression. 

This means that any social benefits earned over the years cannot be removed and if there were any attempt to impose it, no matter the reason, it seems that the populace would come down in the street to protest and oftentimes, break, burn and loot around. 

This might seem like a hostage-taking scheme and it probably is. So if you are thinking of retirement age (62), numbers of hours worked in a week (35) or a host of other hard-earned benefits as well as the most robust social safety net in the world, forget even thinking of changing or reducing any them. It’s in a way similar to our US Constitution, it’s set in stone and practically unchangeable. 

France’s social architecture, admirable in many ways, now collides with a global economy that rewards flexibility, innovation, and rapid adaptation — qualities the French system often suppresses. Yet, the work around us change, each nation ends up being in economic competition against its neighbor and this onerous social net is now paralyzing a French government held hostage by demonstrations that always have the potential of choking the Nation. 

French demonstrations oscillate between peaceful mass mobilization and disruptive unrest. Both forms are part of a long tradition where public protest acts as a counter‑power To change this would require political courage that Macron, and the traditional right before him were woefully unable to muster. Today, by taking a page from the Trump playbook, LePen would probably dare to do so if she can managed to be elected, which I still doubt. The next obvious candidate, the leftist Mélanchon if elected, wouldn’t be able to achieve much either with a divided parliament. 

Successive governments — left, right, and centrist — have struggled to reform the system because any attempt to adjust the ratchet triggers massive resistance. Whether future leaders can overcome this dynamic remains uncertain. France’s ratchet‑and‑pawl system has preserved social gains admirably, but it has also created a political equilibrium where change is nearly impossible. Whether this equilibrium can endure in a rapidly shifting world is the question France must eventually confront.

Is there water sloshing in the phone?

For years now, when my daughter was walking outdoors, using her Apple airpods, what we could mostly hear was a very annoying background noise as if she were in a bathtub with water sloshing around. On numerous occasions, we told her that countless times, but every time she always remained in total denial, not being able to hear it for herself. 

 We were just exhausted from having that recurring conversation! I don’t know if you’ve experienced this from your next of kin or friends, but I after getting too much experience from my own offspring, I investigated to make sure I wasn’t dreaming and then what could cause that irritating noise of "water sloshing" or "underwater bathtub" sound, and overwhelmingly found out that it came from her Apple's noise-canceling ear pieces. 

In researching the issue, I found out that it could happen with many wireless earbuds, but AirPods were the worst offenders because of how their microphones and noise‑processing algorithms work. The AirPods use outward-facing microphones to pick up environmental noise so the internal chip can cancel it out or filter it during calls. 

When the caller is walking outdoors, ambient breezes or wind blowing directly across those small microphone meshes create severe turbulence. Instead of passing the harsh wind noise directly to the ears, the AirPods' digital signal processor (DSP) aggressively cuts and suppresses those frequencies in real time. 

This continuous, heavy-handed filtering creates a swirling, muffled sound that resembles water sloshing around in a tub or underwater pressure changes. Also, when walking briskly, each heel strike sends subtle vibrations up through the body. At the same time, her hair or clothing might have been lightly brushing against the stems or mic grilles of the AirPods. 

The noise-suppression algorithm tried to isolate her voice from these rapid, subtle thuds and friction noises, which further distorted the background audio into that "sloshing" texture. In digging deeper, I discovered a couple of quick fixes she can try on the AirPod’s user end. First, switch Voice Isolation On (iPhone Setting): During the call, she can swipe down to open the iPhone Control Center, tap Mic Mode, and select Voice Isolation. 

This uses machine learning to isolate her vocal cords specifically and cuts out almost all ambient background/wind artifacts. Then turn off Transparency Mode: If the individual is using AirPods Pro and has Transparency Mode or Adaptive Audio active, switching the AirPods to standard Off mode during windy walks reduces the aggressive mic processing transmitted through the phone call. 

Finally, clean the Mic Grilles: Over time, fine dust or lint trapped in the small black microphone meshes on the outer body of the AirPods can cause the algorithms to miscalculate wind, exacerbating the muffled sound. Clean grilles keep the processing running smoothly. Now, shut up, let your callers listen, and hopefully all they’ll get will be crystal clear!

An American raclette cheese?

For years, I’ve been considering myself lucky to find raclette cheese from Mifroma, Emmi (Switzerland), and Livradois (France). Because authentic alpine raclette is strictly regulated by origin, these major exporters dominate American specialty cheese counters and online gourmet retailers. 

The primary imported brands are categorized below by their country of origin. Swiss raclette cheeses are traditionally made in the alpine regions (particularly Valais and the Emmental valley). They are said to carry a dense, velvety consistency with a deeply savory, nutty, and slightly sweet flavor profile that holds up remarkably well when melted. 

As for the French, its raclette cheeses, predominantly hailing from the Savoie and Auvergne regions, tend to be slightly softer, creamier, and carry a more robust, pungent aroma with a fruity or earthy finish. The downside of all of these cheeses is their sporadic availability and their astronomic price (around $25 per pound (45€ per kg) or even more!) 

As an alternative to that “dear” raclette, I discovered last week at Costco, the Whitney, a US-made alternative to these pricey specialty cheeses at $15 a pound. I just couldn’t believe it and was reasonably skeptical. 

The product is made by Jasper Hill Farm in Greensboro Bend, Vermont. Whitney is an award-winning, raw-milk raclette-style Alpine cheese. Its name is no other than Tim Whitney’s, a long-standing employee and pioneer affineur on the Jasper Hill team. 

It’s a semi-firm, alpine-style, raw cow's milk (from the farm's own Ayrshire/grass-fed herd). It’s said to be aged for 3 to 6 months in the farm cellars at Jasper Hill. We tried it the other night and were pleasantly surprised. 

Aside from its stark white appearance when it melts and some visible emulsion on the edges, it tasted good, we digested it very well and it might become an affordable alternative for us to its Alpine counterparts, as long as Costco keeps stocking it!

Welcoming and leveraging “Down days” (Part Three)

Around the corner, as always, there’s still one question left that we must absolutely address and that’s if we lived in a smooth, totally perfect universe in which all days feel perfect, what would happen to us poor humans as we would get everything we can wish for, and some? 

How would it feel to have lives that would be endlessly smooth, easy and happy? Would it finally be the bliss we all seek and call happiness? 

I’m not so sure! We’d get terribly bored very quickly and soon we would grow into folks that are impossible to satisfy. Even if our lives are pretty good, a down day or a few difficulties, some mild suffering or strong frustrations remain a blessing because they’ll make us fully appreciate the comfort and ease of all our other days. 

So let’s remember that when a not-so-good-day gets our attention, we should see it as simply and innocuously as a bright punctuation mark into a smoothly written text. It simply calls our attention to how lucky we are to only have to deal with episodic traumas, dramas and inconveniences. There is a deeper lesson here that I think is particularly worth exploring as we grow older: happiness may depend less on how many good days we accumulate than on how well we learn to recognize them. 

We can spend a great deal of time waiting for something exciting to happen, for a new achievement, a special occasion, or an exceptional experience. Meanwhile, the ordinary days pass by almost unnoticed and often totally ignored. Yet those quiet days often make up the greater part of our lives. 

We don’t need perfection to be totally happy as a little “texture” helps us remember that Formica was unwittingly created to quickly become boring and out of style! 

If we can lodge that reflex response into our mind it will go a very long way and at the very least remind us to be super grateful for all the other days that would even fall into the “boring” category! 

We can’t guarantee ourselves a life without down days. But we can work toward a life in which down days create less influence in our minds, while good days shine a much warmer light into our hearts.

Welcoming and leveraging “Down days” (Part Two)

Now that we know and accept that down days are here to stay and are fully part of our lives, why not make more out of their occasional presence? 

Can we even seriously think about leveraging them? I think we could, and at least that’s what I’m trying to do every time I’ve got a chance, when I don’t blinded by the pain and forget. 

In reality, these are perfect opportunities to practice patience, strengthen our resilience, discover what really matters, and remind ourselves that we are fully capable of navigating life's inevitable bumps. 

We may not have chosen the difficulty, but if we’re smart, we can sometimes choose what we can extract from its teachings. At least, this is what I force myself to do. With a little practice, we might even learn to appreciate the ordinary days we once dismissed as boring. A peaceful morning, a familiar routine, a pleasant conversation, or simply a day without bad news can be a wonderful gift. 

What we call an uneventful day may actually be a very good one that has escaped our attention. So, the next time a down day comes knocking, let's open the door, deal with whatever it will show us, and remember that the tinge of pessimism we feel is just a visitor, not a permanent resident. 

And why not going even one step farther and be grateful for those ordinary, uneventful, even supposedly boring days. They may well be among the greatest luxuries our lives have to offer! Knowing this, we’ll conclude this series by wondering how life would be if everyday was smooth, uneventful and just perfect. Stay with us!

Welcoming and leveraging “Down days” (Part One)

What would happen if our lives were continuously smooth, easy, and happy? Wouldn't we eventually become terribly bored, perhaps even take our good fortune for granted? After all, how can we fully appreciate the sunshine if we have never experienced a cloudy day? 

Even when our lives are going pretty well, an occasional down day, a few difficulties, some mild suffering, or a strong frustration can serve a useful purpose. They remind us of the value of all those other days when things go smoothly, when we feel good, and when life doesn't demand too much of us. 

Sometimes, we need a little bump in the road to remind us how fortunate we really are. So, the next time a not-so-good day demands our attention, why not try to look at it differently and positively? 

Instead of treating it as a major disruption, we could see it as a punctuation mark in an otherwise smoothly written text. It might be a comma asking us to pause, a semicolon reminding us that the story continues, or even an exclamation mark calling our attention to something we had overlooked. 

Of course, this doesn't mean that we should enjoy every difficulty, pretend that suffering doesn't hurt, or passively accept circumstances we can change. Some problems require action, some disappointments need time to heal, and some experiences are simply painful. But there is a difference between experiencing a difficult day and allowing that day to convince us that our entire life is going in the wrong direction. 

Perhaps the real challenge is to develop a new reflex: when frustration, disappointment, or discouragement shows up, we acknowledge it, deal with it as best we can, and then remind ourselves that this is only one passing moment in a much larger picture. We don't have to turn every inconvenience into a drama or every setback into a verdict on our happiness. 

We can even go further by leveraging our down days and we’ll discover how we can make it work in a next blog….

The French High School revolt

Even before last weekend’s riots in France, much had been said and written about the current wave of demonstration at French high-schools and all the discussion I have heard seem to miss a few crucial points. To begin with, I wonder why does the French government seem reluctant to bench-mark its secondary education with that of its other European counterparts? 

This is what should be addressed in priority; namely, how does French secondary education actually perform compared with Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, etc.? This should not just been seen or measured in test scores, but by carefully comparing academic achievement, mathematics and reading, school dropout rates, vocational vs. academic education, university access, teacher compensation and working conditions, student-to-teacher ratios, school autonomy (vs. centralization), hours of instruction, learning facilities, youth unemployment after secondary education, student satisfaction, social mobility and transition from school to employment. 

I must say that I’m quite shocked by the lack or the insufficient attention these comparisons appear to have contributed to the public debate. Next, I’m also asking myself why does France cannot grow up and still needs to solve its problems through recurrent waves of violent? I know my home country well enough to understand that France has a strong historical tradition of street protest, strikes and demonstrations; that students have historically been important participants in political movements; and too often the French governments has been forced to retreat after intense public mobilization. 

In other words, protesting is not an exceptional political tool in France—it’s part of the country's culture and it often works! Perhaps it wouldn’t be such a bad idea if that revolutionary heritage mellowed out some and France rejoined the concert of Nations?

Finally, while I can understand that adults have an inherent right to demonstrate in public place, should kids be given the same right to do it on their own, given their physiological development and social experience be placed face to face with police forces? 

Does a minor's right to political expression automatically imply the right to participate physically in a potentially confrontational demonstration and likewise should society allow minors to assume the physical risks and responsibilities associated with adult civil disobedience? I personally don’t think so. 

till, I recognize that a teenager may have opinions, and perhaps a legitimate desire to express them, but there’s a big difference between having a political voice and being placed in the middle of a confrontation with police. 

I strongly feel that when a political protest places minors in a situation where they may be confronted with riot police, tear gas, projectiles or other serious risks, why shouldn't parents and other adults take the physical place of the children while preserving the children's right to have their grievances heard and being their spokespersons?

Time to vote

In our household, the mid-term voting process has never been as fast as this time. 

Perhaps we were impatient to accelerate some change in the American political landscape, but suffice to say that we received our mailing vote kit on October 14 and the next day we had already cast our votes and dropped them in one the collection boxes set up for that task.. 

We had to pick a few political candidates. One Representative among 434 others that will be part of a new Congress and a State Congress person for the State of Utah, plus some other County officials. What did we look for? Expertise, track record or other typical traits? Not really, our overwhelming concern was NOT to vote for a GOP Republican. 

We consider these people being Trump fanatics (Taliban-type) who have long given up their common sense, good judgment and traded it for a life of lies and hypocrisy, just like their boss, the man with the red hat who no longer controls what comes out of his mouth. 

We’ll see if our efforts will pay off...

Who is really behind the French riots?

What was shocking about last Saturday’s French riots, was how widespread into the country they were and how early they broke out. All this was evidently pointing towards a well orchestrated movement.

The next logical obvious question is who has the most to gain from such an enormous and frightening unrest: To me, the response is obvious: Marine LePen. She is clearly the greatest beneficiary of this terrible as, just like Trump, she can now pose as the logical “Law and Order” candidate at the upcoming presidential election. 

At the same time, she can blame all the unrest on the Left extremist Jean-Luc Mélanchon who is the perfect boogeyman for the circumstances. Now who might also be pulling the strings of this revolution? Who else but the nefarious Vladimir Putin. At least that’s what I intuitively believe. 

On the one hand, it’s undeniable that Russia has a long history of information operations that are effectively aimed at destabilizing Western democracies. At the same time, French intelligence has repeatedly warned about Russian disinformation networks amplifying social tensions and Russian state media often highlights French unrest as the perfect example illustrating Western decline. 

On the other hand, there is no confirmed link yet between the recent riots and Russian direction, funding, or coordination. Still, my speculation is understandable as Putin has motive, precedent, and capability but, I do agree that motive alone is not proof. 

In conclusion, while my intuition is emotionally and geopolitically plausible, it still remains hypothetical and would have to be demonstrated if the French government and both the world intelligence and media can confirm it.

Jacques Thomas, 1945-2026

It’s in Nevers, at the Look factory in 1974, that I met Jacques Thomas for the first time. In those days he worked under Eric Chevasson, and was doing promotional work for Look Bindings in the Pacific Northwest region that encompassed Oregon, Washington and Idaho. 

His job was a mixture of shop employee education and on-snow promotions aimed at the skiing public. 

Prior to that, as a kid born in Paris and an avid skier, he first become a ski instructor at Club Med in Switzerland, prior to teaching at Woodstock Suicide Six in Vermont and then moving to Mammoth Mountain in California. 

When Look cut all of its international promotional programs, he went to work for Rossignol skis, in Europe first before ending up on the World Cup circuit and eventually returning to the US where he serviced the World Pro Tour and found a friend in Otto Tschudi. 

That’s how he branched out to become a ski tuner when he settled in Winter Park, Colorado and his tuning and rental ski shop eventually became “Le Feet Lab” in 1998, a boot fitting place where Jacques built a fine reputation as a premier boot-fitter. 

Since I met him, I kept on running into Jacques at ski shows or even in Park City. I also have met him often at Winter Park during my Colorado years from 1999 to 2006. 

More recently he passed the baton to his daughter Jacqueline and began to spend more time fishing in San Carlos, Mexico. The last time we talked on the phone was about one month ago when he turned 81. 

He passed away in Denver following surgery for a pair of aneurysms he had in both knees. He will leave a huge empty and irreplaceable footprint in the ski world in general, and the art of boot fitting in particular.

An easier way to create videos?

Making videos is for sure a hobby of mine that I find frustrating at times because I think it takes too much time to plot a script, get footage, and most importantly edit the whole thing. 

So a short while ago, a former high school friend of mine from France sent me the picture of a very athletic guy with my face pasted upon his, which was accompanied with that caption: "A lion on a leash... The things he'll do to get noticed!…" 

I replied by sending back a photo taken of me two days earlier, after I’d had surgery on my cheek to remove a sarcoma. I added the caption: "Cut the crap, Robert—look what happened to me with your lion!" He didn’t give up and replied, "What is that?… Did your wife bite you???" 

That same evening, I happened to watch a news program featuring that revolutionary new film production process called "EyeTell." It’s an AI-powered desktop studio and video platform created by YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley that lets users write, cast, direct, render, edit, and export AI-generated short-form videos and interactive stories. Never one to be easily defeated, I thought to myself, "Oh boy, hang in there, Robert, I’m coming for you!” 

The next day, after a quick familiarization with the website, I took a minute or two to give EyeTell instructions for a short video script, added these two photos, and sent it all off. It took two or three hours for the system to process the info I’d submitted, and eventually, I had seven short videos telling the story of my alleged mishap with the lion. 

I could have spent more time on the narration, but I blurted it extemporaneously in a single take; then I edited the video and uploaded it to YouTube. That finishing stage took me 10 to 15 minutes. To give you an idea, and a point of comparison, I’ve been producing a year-end video for more than a decade that usually takes me between 65 and 100 hours of work. 

It’s staggering—no, it’s terrifying how, with a good script and the right still photos or videos, I can do everything in an hour (at least 65 times faster). This EyeTell program isn’t meant for the kind of tinkering I do for fun, but for full length feature films. Hollywood has some seriously good reason to worry about AI!

Curiosity and me (Part Two)

For me, curiosity is not a hobby or a passing interest. It’s instead a defining characteristic that has helped make me who I am. I see curiosity as an impulse and a willingness to take risks revealing that my curiosity has sometimes pushed me beyond the comfortable or the prudent. That makes the reflection more compelling than a simple celebration of learning. In a certain way, curiosity is also a refusal to stop growing.

This is, to me, the most powerful idea, as it connects the desire to discover with the desire to remain mentally alive. Further, I see in that trait the enemy of intellectual stagnation. Indeed, it’s very easy to become prisoners of our accumulated knowledge, believing that what we already know is good enough. 

Curiosity challenges that complacency. It reminds us that our experience, however extensive, is always incomplete and has room to grow. It also keeps us young in spirit as we can’t stop the passage of time, but we can influence how we experience it. Every day when we continue to ask questions, explore unfamiliar subjects, and revise old opinions we gain the potential to bring something unexpected. 

Further, curiosity requires a little humility. Perhaps the greatest expression of curiosity is not asking, “How can I prove that I am right?” but rather, “What might I be missing?” That question keeps the door open to learning more from other people, including those whose opinions differ from our own. This also brings a useful distinction: curiosity does not mean pursuing every question or ignoring every boundary. 

Experience and self-knowledge teach us when to explore, when to pause, and when to respect the risks. The challenge is to preserve the appetite for discovery without allowing it to endanger what matters. To conclude our discussion on the subject, I would add this sentence to our reflection, “My curiosity may not always have taken me down the safest roads, but it has kept me from mistaking the road I know for the only road worth taking.” 

This, I think, captures something important about a life shaped by curiosity: the willingness to keep discovering, even after decades of experience...

Curiosity and me (Part One)

Ever since I was born, I seem to have been a curious person. Well, that’s nothing unusual in itself: we are all born curious. But my curiosity has always had an enormous appetite — insatiable, I should say. At times, it has nearly cost me my life as I experimented with dangerous endeavors. 

Yet neither those close calls nor the occasional crossing of boundaries has ever managed to tame that voracious trait of mine. 

Curiosity often carries a negative connotation, as though being curious meant being nosy or meddlesome. But if that happens to be the price I pay for satisfying my thirst for discovery, who really cares? 

Looking back, I believe curiosity has served me remarkably well. It has helped shape the person I am today, with all my flaws and virtues, and I have learned to accept both. In fact, I would go even further: to me, curiosity is one of the measures of how intensely we experience being alive. It keeps us alert, open to new possibilities, and eager to learn. 

Perhaps that is what we call lifelong learning, or even permanent education. Whatever the name, I see no reason to stop as long as there are questions to ask, things to discover, and ideas to challenge. It’s not the first time I write on the subject. In a following blog we’ll delve deeper into the amazing treasure trove curiosity represents. 

Keeping us motivated (Part Two)

For those of us who are older and have accumulated decades of experience, we just have to think back to the times when we were extraordinarily motivated. What were we thinking then? Why did we believe it was possible? What did we tell ourselves? Motivation isn't some mysterious external force that is brand new to us, we already possessed a personal instruction manual for producing it! 

Let’s not interpret the low tide as failure, and this may be the most important secret. As motivation naturally goes up and down, we should never interpret every downturn as "Something is wrong with me," this would add a second problem to the first. Instead, we should just observe "That’s it, the wave is going out. This is part of the cycle," and we won't blame the ocean because the tide is low, but we simply prepare for the next wave and there’s something wonderfully liberating about that perspective. 

It could be that my opening metaphor was a bit misleading, motivation may not actually be a wave that comes and goes, but the wave is the enthusiasm that fuels our motivation. In its deeper sense, our motivation can become something more stable and become a decision about what matters enough to continue doing even when enthusiasm temporarily disappears. 

We could say that it gives us two different engines as enthusiasm will say "I want to do this!" and our commitment continues “I still do this even when I don't particularly feel like it." Finally, the most successful people may not be those who experience the biggest motivational waves, but the ones who have learned to keep moving during the troughs while remaining ready to exploit the peaks.

Even though I cannot surf and would have love to use a ski analogy, this could lead to a rather beautiful formulation for our collection of reflections, “Don't try to live permanently on the crest of the motivational wave. Learn to surf!”

Keeping us motivated (Part One)

For those of us who thrive on motivation just like a toaster needs to be plugged-in, motivation is like a wave, it comes and goes, and when it's moving away from us, it can be tough to experience. So, what are the tricks and secrets for rekindling it? 

Through this metaphor there’s an important distinction that perhaps the secret isn't to keep motivation high, but to know how to catch the next wave—and what to do while the tide is out. Often, we treat motivation as a prerequisite for action, in that motivation leads to action, that in turn leads to results. Yet, in practice, the chain of events frequently works the other way where action leads to progress, progress to satisfaction and then the latter creates motivation.

This reversal may be one of the most useful "secrets" as we shouldn’t wait for the wave. It’s absolutely true that when motivation disappears, our instinct is often to say, "I'll get back to it when I feel motivated again." That's dangerous because motivation can become increasingly distant, and out of sight turns fast into out of mind. 

Instead, it’s a good idea to significantly lower the re-entry threshold by saying "I'll work on it for five minutes" or "I'll only read two pages," the objective isn't to accomplish the task, but just to restart the engine. Quite often, five minutes becomes twenty, but even when it doesn't, we have broken the inertia. Another good trick, when motivation is low, is not to make the goal smaller, but instead lower the starting point. 

Don't say, "I need to exercise", but "I'll first put on my shoes." Our brain has much less resistance to beginning than to committing to a whole project! Yet another trick is to make the activity something you look forward to, like putting on music we love while exercising or pouring a particularly good coffee while writing. 

Also, motivation becomes fragile when an activity turns into an obligation, and we should remind ourselves why we’re doing it. Not the superficial reason—the deeper one. For instance, "I want to learn Spanish" becomes "I want to experience the pleasure of suddenly being able to communicate with all the Latinos in Park City." 

Tomorrow we’ll conclude by digging even deeper into that matter, so please, be there!

Be careful what you wish for!

Over the past weeks, as the mid-term vote approaches, electoral signs have started to invade most Park City front yards. One of them that clearly stands out is non-partisan and cares more about what keeps this community alive: winter snow! 

“Vote Super El Niño" is a lighthearted Ski Utah marketing and community campaign launched ahead of the 2026–27 winter season to unite skiers and snowboarders after a dismal, low-snow previous winter. 

Ski Utah is the state's ski industry trade association led by Nathan Rafferty and its seasonal goal this year is to provide us all with fun, non-partisan relief from political election season by rallying residents and visitors around a shared hope for heavy snowfall. 

This fun campaign coincides with high meteorologic expectations for a strong or "super" El Niño weather pattern in the Pacific, but as we say "Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it", is a popular warning that getting a lot of snow could turn into far too much, just like what happened this summer and continues to happen in Portillo, Chile!

Real tools for persuasion? (Part Three)

To fine tune our persuasion strategy, we need to get into that elusive "sweet spot", the missing component I was looking for in asking my initial question. Here are the boundaries that we must pay close attention to. With too little assertiveness we accommodate, but with too much demand we create resistance.

If there’s too much emotion in our tone we might lose strategic clarity. With too much dry logic, we won’t connect with the person. Same thing with talking, when we can’t keep our mouth shut, we give the other person more opportunities to object. Conversely, the same holds true when we listen excessively, we often miss the chance to clearly state what we want. 

The sweet spot might therefore fall somewhere in between, like by successively moving from clarity to empathy, to confidence, flexibility and to detachment. That very last trait, detachment, may very well be the hardest one to acquire, but the most powerful. When we are in my late seventies, just like me, we may actually have an advantage that we didn't have decades ago. 

We’ve accumulated thousands of experiences of attempted influence—successful ones, botched ones, negotiations, disagreements, misunderstandings, compromises and moments that makes us suddenly realize, "Ah, that's exactly what made that person say yes." We have in fact accumulated a remarkable personal laboratory that can be treated as a lifetime of persuasion attempts as a dataset. 

Now, instead of asking "Why didn't I get what I wanted?" we should wonder "What was happening in the other person's mind at the moment I succeeded—or failed—to influence them?" 

This is how, given enough time, we might discover our own personal theory of influence, and perhaps that is the elusive element I was looking for—not a magic formula for controlling other people, but a progressively refined ability to recognize when to push, when to listen, when to offer, when to withdraw, and when to let the other person feel that the decision is entirely theirs. 

That, in my view, brings the whole process much closer to mastering influence than mastering persuasion. If I had more of this when I was younger, I would have sold more ski lessons and far more ski equipment and retired even early!

Real tools for persuasion? (Part Two)

Persuasion is full of paradoxes, just like this one: the harder we try to control someone's conclusion, the more strongly they may resist being controlled. In reality, to be powerful and effective, persuasion should be as invisible as possible. Just consider the difference between: "You should do this because…" and "How do you see the situation?" 

If the second proposition appears much weaker and less dictating, it invites instead the other person to construct the reasoning themselves. And this is the clincher, once individuals have articulated an idea in their own mind and own words, they are no longer receiving a third-party argument. They are fully invested in participating in the creation of the conclusion. 

This is one reason good negotiators, therapists and astute folks often ask questions rather than making statements or demanding specific actions. 

They’ve understood that the goal isn't necessarily to force an idea into someone's mind but to involve them in helping them discover the idea themselves. More importantly, what I mentioned yesterday as my "burning need" to convince is made of a string of important variables that often frame our demand. 

It goes just like this: let’s suppose that we desperately need someone to agree with us. If they don't know precisely why, they can often feel it as our tone changes or as we talk too much. We anticipate objections even before they arise. We become attached to particular words and react emotionally to some anticipated resistance and all that staging ends up weakening our influence and the final outcome. 

There is enormous power in being able to think: “I strongly prefer that you agree with me, but I don't need you to.” That psychological position gives us room to listen, adapt and even walk away, and paradoxically, it often makes agreement more likely. One could argue that the real objective isn't persuasion and this where my opening statement helps me guide the discussion further. 

As I wrote, I’ve spent a lifetime encountering situations where I needed something from another person and had to persuade them to give it to me or just do it. Still, over the years, I found out that the outcome didn’t work well for me. Perhaps expecting total victory was the wrong metric? If instead of wondering "How do I get this person to give me what I want?" I had thought "How do I move the situation as far as I reasonably can toward a mutually acceptable outcome?" 

I might have set the stage for something much more productive, because it was much easier to achieve. That small change is enormous as it stops trying to win the person's mind, but starts trying to improve the outcome, keeping in mind that sometimes, the best influence strategy can actually be to concede something that costs us little but is still highly valuable to the other person. 

To conclude our discussion, we’ll explore the details of that strategy in our next blog, so please, stay with me!