Pitching pennies for the win

Pennies are worth much more than you think and it's tough to find a good example these days. So, what else is new? Read on...

• This whole discussion about getting rid of pennies is monumentally stupid. Yes, it costs more than a cent to mint one, but you’re not using it just once. A penny stays in circulation 20-30 years, which means it gets spent at least 1,000 times during that time without needing to be replaced. It's a lot like a car, which costs more than a rideshare, or like a house, which costs more than a hotel night, or anything else that costs a bunch upfront and then gets used over and over again. Feel better now?
  
• I had a partner who told me nearly every question needs several follow-up questions, because the first answer won’t be what you’re hoping to learn. Very wise, she was, because some guy will tell you he worked on the leadership team at Mayo Clinic and it turns out he organized the coffee runs.
• That last comment was surprisingly challenging and it says a lot about our world. I was trying to think of some big event or major company to connect to my pseudo-executive and all I came up with was names involved in scandals of some sort. Tesla, Facebook, Amazon, NASA, Centers for Disease Control…you name it…it’s nearly impossible to come up with a reference to an organization that isn’t embroiled in some major controversy. Mayo Clinic is still safe, right?
• I’m playing cards with the grandkids and, suddenly, it occurs to me. Not only do I not know the cultural references that they know, but all of them know how to read. I must have blinked when a whole New World opened up for them and, now, nothing is the same.
• There will always be problems we cannot fix and we cannot table every solution until Problem Number 1 gets resolved. I see a ton of people saying we shouldn’t help X group until 100% of Y group is taken care of, but that kind of view makes no sense. No problem will ever be 100% solved for any large group, no matter how much effort and money we throw at it. That’s just not how the world works. We'll can make progress in several areas, but we'll never finish the job, and we just have to accept the reality.
• I used to work with a guy who always introduced himself to all the guests at any company event, including people he had met dozens of times in the past. He was either the most considerate guy I ever met or the most insecure. You can never tell.
  
• I’m finally at peace, more or less, with the expiration dates on pretty much everything I buy. Maybe it was the date on my bottled water that pushed me over the edge, or it could have been the predictions on items with so much acid or alcohol that they would never go bad. Just to be safe, though, I’m not buying anything that expires before 2027.
  
• Have you noticed that paying the bills hasn’t actually gotten much easier over the years? Yes, I can pay online and avoid sending checks in the mail, but there’s always a catch. This company won’t take Zelle or PayPal, these won’t take credit cards, and some websites don’t show payments made within a billing cycle. If I need more information, I have to talk to a bot that refuses to connect me to AGENT!!!! Sometimes, progress isn’t.
  

 
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