Category: Uncategorized

Boromir- Plight to Failure, or A Tale of Redemption

Grunk The Duck

Boromir, the son of Denethor II and the Steward of Gondor, faced a profound crisis of identity and purpose. As the last hope for his people, he was deeply troubled by Gondor’s impending doom and his father’s failure to lead. The weight of responsibility to save his homeland and its people crushed him, leading to a sense of desperation and despair.

Why Boromir Failed

Boromir’s failure stemmed from his inability to reconcile his duty to protect the Ring Bearer with his own desires and motivations. He became obsessed with the idea that the One Ring held the key to saving Gondor, and his sense of duty to his people clouded his judgment. This led him to attempt to take the Ring by force, betraying his vow to protect Frodo and ultimately resulting in his own downfall.

Key Factors Contributing to Boromir’s Failure

  1. Vainglory: Boromir’s desire for recognition and admiration from his people, as well as his own sense of self-importance, drove him to prioritize his own ambitions over his duties as a member of the Fellowship.
  2. Desperation: The dire circumstances facing Gondor and his father’s perceived weakness as Steward led Boromir to feel overwhelmed and desperate, causing him to grasp at any solution, including the Ring.
  3. Lack of Faith: Boromir’s reliance on human efforts and his own strength, rather than trusting in the greater plan of the Valar, led him to underestimate the power of the Ring and the true nature of his quest.
  4. Inadequate Guidance: Boromir’s upbringing and education, while noble and well-intentioned, may not have provided him with the wisdom and spiritual guidance necessary to navigate the complexities of his situation.

Redemption

Despite his failure, Boromir’s bravery and repentance in his final moments earned him a measure of redemption. His sacrifice and loyalty to his companions, even in the face of his own flaws and mistakes, serve as a testament to the enduring power of noble character and the possibility of redemption in the face of failure.

“One does not simply walk into Mordor. Its Black Gates are guarded by more than just Orcs. There is evil there that does not sleep, and the Great Eye is ever watchful. It is a barren wasteland, riddled with fire and ash and dust; the very air you breathe is a poisonous fume. Not with ten thousand men could you do this. It is folly.”

Boromir to Elrond’s council. A testament to the wisdom of Boromir’s education.

[Frodo wanders in the woods. Boromir comes up behind him, gathering wood]

Boromir : None of us should wander alone, you least of all. Frodo? I know you suffer, I see it day by day. Are you sure you do not suffer needlessly? There are other ways, Frodo, other paths we might take.

Frodo : I know what you would say, and it would seem like wisdom, but for the warning in my heart.

Boromir : Warning? Against what? We are all afraid, Frodo. But to let that fear drive us to destroy what hope we have… don’t you see? That is madness!

Frodo : There is no other way.

Boromir : I ask only for the strength to defend my people!

[approaches Frodo]

Boromir : If you would but lend me the Ring…

Frodo : [backs away] No!

Boromir : Why do you recoil? I am no thief.

Frodo : You are not yourself.

Boromir : What chance do you think you have? They will find you. They will take the Ring. And you will beg for death before the end!

Trust Thermocline

Grunk The Duck

– by John Bull

One of the things I occasionally get paid to do by companies/execs is to tell them why everything seemed to SUDDENLY go wrong, and subs/readers dropped like a stone.

So, with everything going on at Twitter rn, time for a thread about the Trust Thermocline /1

So: what’s a thermocline?

Well large bodies of water are made of layers of differing temperatures. Like a layer cake. The top bit is where all the the waves happen and has a gradually decreasing temperature. Then SUDDENLY there’s a point where it gets super-cold.

That suddenly is important. There’s reasons for it (Science!) but it’s just a good metaphor. Indeed you may also be interested in the “Thermocline of Truth” which a project management term for how things on a RAG board all suddenly go from amber to red.

But I digress.

The Trust Thermocline is something that, over (many) years of digital, I have seen both digital and regular content publishers hit time and time again. Despite warnings (at least when I’ve worked there). And it has a similar effect. You have lots of users then suddenly… nope.

And this does effect print publications as much as trendy digital media companies. They’ll be flying along making loads of money, with lots of users/readers, rolling out new products that get bought. Or events. Or Sub-brands.

And then SUDDENLY those people just abandon them.

Often it’s not even to “new” competitor products, but stuff they thought were already not a threat. Nor is there lots of obvious dissatisfaction reported from sales and marketing (other than general grumbling). Nor is it a general drift away, it’s just a sudden big slide.

So why does this happen? As I explain to these people and places, it’s because they breached the Trust Thermocline.

I ask them if they’d been increasing prices. Changed service offerings. Modified the product.

The answer is normally: “yes, but not much. And everyone still paid”

Then I ask if they did that the year before. Did they increase prices last year? Change the offering? Modify the product?

Again: “yes, but not much.”

The answer is normally: “yes, but not much. And everyone still paid.”

“And the year before?”

“Yes but not much. And everyone still paid.”

Well, you get the idea.

And here is where the Trust Thermocline kicks in. Because too many people see service use as always following an arc. They think that as long as usage is ticking up, they can do what they like to cost and product.

And (critically) that they can just react when the curve flattens

But with a lot of CONTENT products (inc social media) that’s not actually how it works. Because it doesn’t account for sunk-cost lock-in.

Users and readers will stick to what they know, and use, well beyond the point where they START to lose trust in it. And you won’t see that.

But they’ll only MOVE when they hit the Trust Thermocline. The point where their lack of trust in the product to meet their needs, and the emotional investment they’d made in it, have finally been outweighed by the physical and emotional effort required to abandon it.

At this point, I normally get asked something like:

“So if we undo the last few changes and drop the price, we get them back?”

And then I have to break the news that nope: that’s not how it works.

Because you’re past the Thermocline now. You can’t make them trust you again.

Classic examples of this behaviour are digital subscription services, where the product gets squeezed over time, or print magazines (particularly in B2B) that constantly ramp up their prices a little bit each year until it’s too late.

Virtually the only way to avoid catastrophic drop-off from breaching the Trust Thermocline is NOT TO BREACH IT.

I can count on one hand the times I’ve witnessed a company come back from it. And even they never reached previous heights.

So what’s the lesson for businesses here?

– Watch for grumbling and LISTEN to it.
– Don’t assume that because people have swallowed a price or service change that’ll swallow another one.
– Treat user trust as a finite asset. Because it is.

And I will admit this is one of the reasons I am (with sadness, because I’ve got a lot of value out of this place) watching Elon’s current actions wrt Twitter with curious horror.

Because I’ve NEVER seen someone make such a deep dive for the Trust Thermocline, so quickly.

It’s why I’ve got about 20 big accounts I’m watching on here to see when they personally feel he crosses that Thermocline and begin shifting their main effort and presence elsewhere.

Because that’ll be the moment I suspect things will start changing very quickly. /END

ADDENDUM:

Been reminded of the time I was brought in to talk about this to a gaming company who I can’t name.

The marketing manager got SUPER angry and was like:

“rubbish! we did lootboxing like this five years in a row and people kept paying!”

I’m:

“Mate. That’s my point.”

For those asking, I’m bet-hedging myself while I wait to see what happens. So you’ll find me now on:

Mastodon: mastodon.social/@garius
CounterSocial: counter.social/@garius
CoHost: cohost.org/garius

15 things introverts would never tell you

Grunk The Duck
Introverts get a bad rap in a world that celebrates extroversion and “people-persons”. There are things introverts wish you knew about them that would help any relationship or situation.

15 Things That Introverts Would Never Tell You

COMMUNICATIONRELATIONSHIPS BY MARYANN REID

Introverts get a bad rap in a world that celebrates extroversion and “people-persons”. There are things introverts wish you knew about them that would help any relationship or situation. For instance, we are not anti-social or depressed, we’re just different. In fact, many envy us for our self-contained, cool manner that keeps others calm, focused, and safe. People love us, in secret. As introverts, we have many “ways” that only our closest friends understand. Here are several things about introverts you may not know.

We don’t care about your birthday.

Any introvert who works in an office knows how it feels to be hustled for birthday cake money. It makes us squirm when a random office person cheerily volunteers that it happens to be their birthday. We think they expect us to respond with like enthusiasm and interest, and maybe even accept their invitation to join them for drinks with a group of about 300 other random people to celebrate. Three hundred is a bit of an exaggeration but feels that way to an introvert who just wants to go home. If you don’t invite us, we’re not offended. We’re relieved.

We don’t need you to care about our birthday.

Yeah, we don’t. We have friends who genuinely know us and care if we care. However, an interesting thing about introverts, is some don’t need to celebrate it. We’re okay with quietly honouring the day on our own or with a group of friends we’ve carefully selected. We don’t have to let the world know.

We are not really listening as you recount your weekend.

Unless you are part of our circle of friends, we don’t care what you did last weekend. We are of the mind that everyone has a right to privacy, and if you chose to spend it in a drunken stupor or beating down the door of your ex, then that is up to you. We don’t judge and find it takes too much energy to give it to people we don’t know. Just because we work with you, that doesn’t mean we know you.

We hate crowds.

Large groups of people make us tired. All the stimulation of having so many different types from all walks of life can make us a little woozy. Some introverts are empaths, so they tend to take on the energy of others easily. We sometimes feel like we “know” everyone in the room and get easily overwhelmed with the swirl of activity.

We don’t really like networking events.

This is especially hard for introverts who run a business. Networking makes us feel like we have to perform. We struggle to say the right thing and listen attentively. We don’t really care since we don’t know you. Even in business, we have to feel connected to someone on another level to get the most out of a networking type of event. This takes time, and choosing the right event, and coming up with a plan to offer value to others while getting some for ourselves.

We force ourselves to act like we like you.

This is the nasty truth. We know who we like and don’t. It can stem from many reasons that can have its roots in childhood to what we ate for breakfast this morning. Don’t take it personally. We appreciate honesty, and sometimes it hurts. To survive, we have to supersede these feelings and be nice. Nice can be harder than being real.

We know how to get stuff done.

We pack our alone time with activities–projects, phone calls, emails, rough drafts and blueprints for world takeover of our next big idea (which we have lots of). We value solitude because it lets us experiment with new concepts, plan and stretch our imagination. Anything is possible when we spend time alone, and what we create may change our lives, and yours, too.

We like to write things out.

We love email because it helps us get what we need without interruptions. Interruptions throw us off course, and we need to expend more energy to get back on track. So, please don’t call unless it is a close-ended question.

We feel safe with the right people.

When we have the right people in our lives, we give our all. We give our best selves. We become protective warriors who will fight almost any cause for someone we love. Just ask our friends. We blossom in the right company and shine. It takes us time to find the right people, and when we do, we don’t hold back.

We do have friends, who really like us.

Introverts like people and people like us. Most introverts have no issue with hanging out in groups and spending time with others. If we have friends, it’s because we consciously chose them. We’ve put effort into the relationship, and our friends know that. We go to bars, parties, and meet new people. The difference is that not everyone we meet becomes a friend.

We can do the extrovert thing, for a while.

We have to do that to get along. We can be the life of the party, host the networking event, and be the chairperson of the charity. We do this willingly, knowing that at the end of the day we can go home. When we get there, it may take days, or weeks to replenish ourselves, and feel ready to do that again.

We are not shy, rude or uptight.

At first, we may seem that way. Get to know us, and we can actually make you laugh, and hold a conversation that lasts more than 15 minutes. The thing is, we don’t share this with everyone. Being “social” or “sociable” is an option, not a way of being. We can’t fake happy or excited really well, and we show what we think on our face, not as much in our words.

We are okay alone.

We have lots going on in our heads and don’t need more. Unlike our extrovert counterparts, we don’t need others for stimulation. We’re constantly working out life in our heads. We entertain ourselves with creative projects and know how to take ourselves out for a good time. More people mean more stuff to deal with, and we’ve got enough of our own energy to hold.

We hate small talk.

We’re thinkers, and we relish conversations about big ideas, theories, and ideals. We rarely get into small talk and do so comfortably.

We make a choice to be with you–appreciate it.

We value our alone time and are picky about who we let in. Letting in the wrong person will drain us, leaving nothing for ourselves. We tend to attract extroverts who suck our energy and search out like-minded introverts for our groundedness, deep thinking and sense of control. We appreciate our time with other introverts and have an understanding of each other’s limits and boundaries. Featured photo credit: photo credit:

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Zombie setting where the undead are drawn towards unhygienic scents, so survivors constantly bathe to avoid being eaten.

  • Zombies are docile when adorned with flowers.
  • Settlements overgrown with herbs and flora.
  • Barely any banditry; everyone is focused on farming and gathering.
  • Different human factions and towns named after flowers like Lilies, Orchids, Roses, etc.

  • Instead of immediately killing an infected survivor, they’re given special funeral rites – the zombie is covered with flowers to keep them calm, and  allowed to walk out from the settlement to join the hordes.

#this makes me curiously sad #the idea of flowers covering the undead #that symbol of human love is what makes them docile

me to zombies:

Thank you all for the responses!!!! I got a few more notes to share from folks asking me about this setting 😀

  • It’s incredibly risky to attack zombies. The scent of

    the attacker’s aggressive intent coupled with spilled pungent rotten blood drives other zombies into a frenzy.

  • Zombies given funeral rites grow flowers within their bodies, eventually bursting from their chest and head area. These zombies are naturally gentle and their presence tames other zombies in the vicinity. Due to their helpfulness, it’s taboo to harm “blooming” undead:
  • Sweaty summers are the worst and everyone hopes they have enough dried flowers to last the winter. 
  • It’s a colourful apocalypse! An overabundance of flowers in the world leads to plenty of dyes and busy little honey bees!! Scented candles are a thriving export.
  • Survivors who help spread flowers, look after “blooming” undead, cull the hordes, and herd zombies away from safe areas are affectionately called Florists.
  • Regular weapons such as guns and knives are still used but everyone prefers perfumed water guns, spray bottles, and incense.
  • Zombies are so overwhelmed by the pleasant scent of rain that entire hordes cease movement until it’s gone.

I wanted to add more to the funeral rites, so here we go!

  • When someone is infected, their favorite flower is what the people cover them in. It’s in honor of their bravery.
  • If someone had been a horrible person, say, they sacrificed someone selfishly, the flowers they get are Aconites (they symbolizes hate.) Those who consider Aconite their favorite but were good people are instead given their 2nd favorite flower.
  • Thanks to the funeral rites, most survivors know the many different meanings behind flowers.
  • Some flowers are rarer than others, so usually it’s replaced with the persons second favorite. If someone goes out of their way to get the rare flower, then it’s considered a very strong sign of grief and love, leading to people trying to help the person with their lose.
  • If two lovers die together, they get both theirs and the others favorite flower.
  • When a blooming undead is killed, they are grieved as if they were human, but instead are buried with the flowers they were covered in.
  • (This one if off topic of funeral rites.) Arson is not only a crime, but one that is punishable by undeath. They are pushed into a hoard of zombies and left for dead. (Some survive if they’re lucky enough.) The punishment is so severe because arson can possibly burn flowers.

Hope you enjoyed!

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thinking about that WoW epidemic

i was telling my dad, ever the skeptic, about corrupted blood back in March at the start of lockdown, and how the cdc studied it. how it can be used as a model for what to do and how people might act in the event of an unpredicted pandemic, and how people were playing out the same behavior during covid.

he said “so they fixed it, right? how did they fix it in the game?” and i told him the truth: they didn’t. they couldn’t control it. they had to reset the servers and roll them back to the time before the ZG encounter.

a CNN article recently referenced another “viral” event in world of warcraft: leeroy jenkins facepulling as a metaphor for the expedited reopening of businesses. what it fails to mention however is how the video ends. everyone who charges in with leeroy dies. he wipes the raid.

it really feels like that meme where it’s like “wow, cool video game reference!” and the point soaring over their head says THE DAMAGE WAS IRREVERSIBLE. THE THREAT SPREAD TOO RAPIDLY AND EVERYONE DIED.

weird reframing of the corrupted blood incident to make it seem, for some reason, like it was all selfish actions that people said was unrealistic because real people would help others. in fact its literally the opposite, it was used as real world data specifically because of the player driven efforts to fix it

The reason this plague in the game was a good model is because we had all walks of life type people reacting in different ways.

Those with healing magic would go into infected areas to see if they could save the infected or at least keep them alive through the disease. Those that couldn’t do that tried to warn players before they entered infected areas. NPC could be infected and have “no symptoms”; they could be asymptomatic carriers and pass it to nearby players.

The best part though was by the time Blizzard had finally come out and said “if you are infected, try to quarantine yourself so you don’t spread it!!” the player base was ALREADY DOING SO. The players had recognized the problem and worked together in myriad ways to fix it.

They also had negative reactions as well, another reason this was such a good example of a real outbreak. They had a couple people report healers or alchemists who were claiming to sell cures/treatments to the disease that ultimately would do nothing. They had a group of players that would hide in the mountains near cities and just pass the disease back and forth between themselves and then raid cities to infect them all over again. They had higher level players start rebelling on the servers. Saying it was an overreaction and if you get it you’ll just die and you can come back and be fine, etc. Since they could get the disease and survive, ie it didn’t do enough damage to them since they were higher level, they felt it unnecessary to care about whether they got it or not. They complained about not getting to play like normal just because this plague could kill lower level players.

ALL of these reactions, good and bad, were real enough to what we assumed a real life epidemic would play out that people started to use it as a model. And now look, we have proof that it was accurate.

However, what we needed to learn from it was primarily that it wasn’t reversible. The bad reactions and lack of care from the few players that weren’t cooperating made it impossible in the end to contain. The only reason it was fixed at all is the game had to reverse time, literally just delete their entire game log a few weeks and time travel weeks into the past to before the plague even began.

Think about that.

The reason no one believed it was a valid model is that it was a video game and thus the consequences weren’t permanent. “No one would act like that in real life.” But look at how we are handling this outbreak. Is it not eerily similar?

And we can’t time travel.