Let's Stop Trying to be Kings and Queens

The term "living like a king" is so misused, outdated, and truly misleading.

The luxuries of kings, queens, emperors and even nobility from ancient times all the way to the Industrial Revolution, can't compare to the mundane things that the average person has in 2020, in North America and Western Europe.

Those kings didn't have electricity, antibiotics, vaccines, or even the level of access to food year-round that we currently have. Only a small sample had access to temperature controlled drinking water that we do.

They didn't have the easy access to scientific knowledge and information that we do. We have nearly instant access to music, art and other forms of entertainment.

So no, I prefer not to live "like a king". Just give me a couple of billion dollars, and I'm good.

And don't get me started on treating women and young girls "like princesses".

Business Opportunities From COVID-19

With the COVID 19 pandemic now affecting the entire world, we need to be prepared for the upcoming changes that it will bring to those who don't get sick. This implies huge shifts in the way we work and how we make a living.  Unfortunately, with businesses being closed down, many people are going to be without pay or worse without jobs.

The good news is that there are other jobs that are going to be created in other industries and will most likely thrive throughout this crisis. Here are a few things to watch out for.

Remote work will finally become more widespread.
In order to reduce the spread of COVID-19, many companies around the world have either had to close their doors, or have made it mandatory for their employees to do their work from home.

Businesses will realize after a couple of months of this that they can trust their office-dwelling employees to be just as productive when working from home.  The existing technologies for video conferencing, IP telephony, IT security and cloud computing will allow employees to do that.  So it's very likely that most companies will end up wanting to save on real estate costs, commute times, and absenteeism by no longer limiting "work from home" to specific roles (sales, consultants, virtual assistants, web developers, IT support, podcasting, etc.).

What might be interesting here is that many more jobs will be created by large businesses who won't need to hire locally because the job can be done using the right technology.

The rise of Virtual Training / Learning

This kinda relates to the point above about remote work, but with the same technologies being used for leisure. With gyms, yoga and dance studios, martial arts schools and other activities with big groups of people being shut down temporarily, it won't be long before virtual classes rise in popularity. Sure some people can follow YouTube videos for instruction, but having an instructor who can see you and correct what you're doing in real time without the risk of catching a virus is the next best thing.

The same goes for other education. With schools and universities closed down, lectures and homework are now being made available online. Again, with the technologies now available, expect to see more and more flexible, web-based, academic programs.

While these virtual classes might not replace the real person training when these locations are finally allowed to re-open, they will make for great supplementary material and additional income streams later on.

Delivery services will become more streamlined
The risks of spreading viruses by going into crowded spaces to shop will create new jobs in delivery services. Whether it's groceries, restaurant food, toilet paper, soap, alcohol, cannabis, or any other necessity, the fact that most people will need to stay home will create an even greater demand for delivery services. Yes, companies like Amazon, Uber, FedEx, UPS and of course the post office already have massive networks to deliver to your door.

However, with demand rapidly increasing, other companies will invest and innovate to further improve these delivery methods making it much easier for customers to get something sent to their door. With summer coming, we should also expect more and more local niche entrepreneurs offering delivery services that can promise faster delivery times than the logistical behemoths.

Streaming Services and Podcasts

Entertainment is going to be incredibly important with people staying indoors. Whether it's bored kids or adults needing escapist entertainment from the doom and gloom news stories, we're going to need something to distract us.

Getting easy access to Internet-based entertainment is going to be crucial.  We've already seen huge jumps in subscription numbers for Netflix, Amazon Prime video and Disney plus.  YouTube had to reduce their video quality to save bandwidth, expecting a higher volume of streaming.

So if you're a vlogger, a podcaster, a YouTuber or any kind of web content creator, the opportunities to build an audience and eventually monetize is bigger than ever.

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I am very thankful for being one of the lucky ones who has the ability to work from home. Yes the current pandemic has caused the loss of plenty of jobs. Instability and uncertainty seem to be the norm.  Despite all the economic doom and gloom news, there are going to be new opportunities for small businesses and entrepreneurs to pivot.  It's going to be possible for many of us to thrive during a crisis and come out of it stronger than before.

How Weiss, Benioff and the Cast and Crew Should React to Game of Thrones Critics

***THIS POST IS DARK AND FULL OF SPOILERS*** 

One of the biggest television and cultural phenomena came to an end last Sunday. Throughout the final season, critics and long-time "fans" have taken to social media to post their dissatisfaction. The complaints and criticisms ranged from the "poor lighting" during the epic NIGHT BATTLE of Winterfell, Starbucks cups in the Great Hall of Winterfell, plastic waterbottles in King's Landing, Jon Snow not petting Ghost, and supposedly poor writing and plot twists.

At one point, a bunch of entitled, self-indulgent fans decided it would be a great idea to sign a petition asking the show to create a do-over of season 8. You know, because their favourite characters aren't doing what they expected them to do. As it stands, there are over 1 million people who signed this petition.

While the season certainly wasn't perfect you can't deny the success of the show. If I were the writers, cast and crew of Game of Thrones, I would point out the following to the critics and haters.

Weekly Success in the Age of Streaming

Television as we know it is now dominated by the on-demand, streaming model. Even the larger cable and satellite providers now have no choice but to provide more and more on-demand options to compete.  TV ratings overall are down.  Fewer people are sitting down at an exact time every week to watch a show that's constantly interrupted by commercials that take you out of the viewing experience.

In that environment, Weiss, Benioff, the cast and the crew should point out that Game of Thrones is probably the only show that people worldwide anticipate, wait for, and run home to watch at the specified time every Sunday night that it's on.  It's a phenomenon that isn't matched any where.  As a premium HBO show, it gets somewhere between 10 to 16 million LEGAL views per episode.  If you add illegal streaming and pirating, some estimates bring that up to close to 44 million viewers per episode on season 8 alone.

As a point of comparison, the final season of The Big Bang Theory, the most watched network sitcom in the binge-watch/streaming era, got about 18 million viewers for their final episode.

No other show comes close.  Game of Thrones, by that metric alone, is a phenomenon.

Not Meant to be Allegory

Some of the "disappointment" that many fans expressed might also have to do with viewers mistakenly attributing allegorical aspects to the story that the author of A Song of Ice and Fire book series never intended to be there.

Some fans made a decent case for saying that the Night King, his White Walkers and the army of the dead as being an allegory for climate change. It's being largely ignored by those in power because their priority is to fight wars against each other.  The White Walkers were always presented as a looming threat that was being dealt with by a small, understaffed, underfunded, minimally-trained team who are desperate for help.

Despite thousands of losses during the epic battle of Winterfell, the fact that the Night King was killed in relatively easy fashion by super assassin Arya Stark effectively ruined this allegory.

Another potential allegory was the feminist angle of the show.  Yes the show depicted a lot of physical and sexual violence against women.  However, the show had very strong female characters flouting the norms of both Westeros' and Essos' patriarchal societies.

At the end of season 7, three women were positioned to be contenders of the battle to come: Cersei Lannister at King's Landing, Daenerys Targaryen was getting ready to land with her dragons and armies, and Sansa Stark was pretty much on her way to becoming Queen in the North.

Understandably, feminist viewers have been given a reason to believe that the future of Westeros will be female.  So what happened?  Well, the "evil queen" Cersei was killed by falling bricks in anti-climactic fashion.  Not exactly the glorious end for such a power player.  Dany, the "queen of the ashes", defeated her enemies to win the Iron Throne only to have a man stab her in the heart before she could even sit properly on said throne.

Sure Sansa ends up becoming the Queen of the newly independent North, but it's a comparatively minor kingdom when compared to the remaining six kingdoms to be ruled by her younger brother.  With the show ending with "Bran the Broken" as king and his small council made up mainly of men, it's not surprising that the feminists want to criticize the show's conclusion as well.

The truth of the matter is, George R.R. Martin didn't intend to create a feminist novel.  If anything, he was actually tried to base his books on medieval history. Sure, the period mostly had male leaders but women played much more important roles than what we stereotypically think in shaping the time period.  And that's what the author (as well the cast, crew and writing team) managed to portray in the series. 

"Bad/Rushed" Writing and Plot Holes?

Many fans seem to lay the blame on Benioff and Weiss for the seemingly rushed writing that supposedly left a bunch of plot holes.  That just seems strange to me considering that these guys, along George R.R. Martin, have worked on the show since the beginning to critical acclaim and multiple awards.  All of a sudden the greatest tv-screen storytellers of the past decade are now garbage?

Maybe additional episodes were needed to "build" the character twists. Or maybe as an audience we weren't paying enough attention to 8 SEASONS WORTH of "character development". Dragons, undead soldiers, and bare breasts can be quite distracting after all.

Unexpected character twists and deaths are the norm for this show: be it the Dany heel turn, Tyrion actually makes a misjudgement, King Bran, Jon Snow back in The Black, Arya sailing west to discover "Amerikos", etc.