Victory over “War on Terror”
My friend, Rafe Furst, just shared some exciting news on Twitter. Apparently, there will be no more “War on Terror” from this current administration. Victory over War on Terror! Sweet!
On another note, the Decision Education Foundation event I hosted was a huge success up in Palo Alto this weekend. For those of you not familiar with the Decision Education Foundation, please explore the website. It is a truly amazing educational foundation that I am proud to be a board member of. The Foundation develops curricula to teach decision making skills to kids. Howard Lederer, Erik Seidel, Rafe Furst, Perry Friedman, and Andy Bloch all came up to support the event. We had a small luncheon the day of where there was the kind of lively intellectual discussion and debate that makes me miss my days in academia. This group of people are all committed to the improvement of educational philosophies and decision making skills in this country. At the luncheon we heard from Carl Speltzer, director of the foundation, who eloquently educated the players about the history of the foundation and why this is an important cause. Eric Brooks, fellow board member and, among other things, winner of the $10K Championship Stud event at the WSOP in 2008, also took the floor and, with his infectious passion, really explained why he is living his dream of trying to reform the educational system in his life time by doing what he can to ensure that every child is given the tools to be a great decision maker. At companies like Susqehanna International Group (which Eric co-founded) decision making skills is part of the curriculum for new employees. Carl Speltzer is a founder of SDG which is a consulting firm that works with huge companies to teach them how to make better decisions. Decision making skills are one of the key components to success. Knowing how to own your choices. Being able to think through consequences. Finding the paths to achieve your goals. Knowing how to define those goals in the first place. Without these kinds of skills, people flounder around reacting rather than acting.
I recently read an amazing book called Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, author of Blink and The Tipping Point. Outliers is a book about what makes someone successful. I highly recommend the book…it is an amazing read. But the thesis is that while Americans think anyone can be successful with enough hard work and effort that that is very far from the truth. Among other things, these kinds of decision skills really enter into the equation, particularly this idea of defining goals and owning your choices.
Anyway, that was a digression. The First Annual Annie Duke Celebrity Poker Tournament was a huge success, raising well over $50K for the Foundation. Erik Seidel took the tournament down, winning first place and a $10K necklace. He was incredibly generous and donated the necklace back to the foundation! I could not ask for better friends or ones that are more thoughtful and supportive. I can tell you that!
I want to thank everyone who help put the event together. I know I am forgetting some people but: Patty Harris, Diana Pickett, Betty and Paul Skov, Laurie Mandel, and Carl Speltzer. Also, a HUGE shoutout to Matt Savage, tournament director extraordinaire. And, of course, Eric Brooks whose amazing vision and generosity is an inspiration to me. As for Howard, Andy, Erik, Perry, Rafe and the rest of the Tiltboys, I could not love you guys more! Thank you so much!
xoxo
I never understood how you can have a war on terror. Terror is a tactic not a person, group or a country. War on a tactic? War on grammar?
It’s all just semantics. Now they’re changing “terrorism” to “man-made catastrophes” and the “war on terror” is now the “overseas contingency operation.” Makes it sound like we’re just helping foreign tsunami and earthquake victims. The war goes on no matter what they call it. The reason it was called the war on terror in the first place is because we aren’t fighting a country, but an ideology. That’s why it has no definitive ending. There’s no one person or one body to demand a surrender from. It’s like a war on drugs or a war on poverty. You just keep fighting it because the alternative is even worse. Meanwhile, I can’t believe this administration is wasting precious time coming up with new buzzwords for the same old stuff. They certainly don’t have a problem copying Bush’s surge strategy, although I’m sure they’ll come up with a new non-threatening term for that as well. I can’t imagine what our soldiers must be thinking when they hear about this nonsense.