There are a few things that separate dentistry from the larger medical profession…. the schooling, the (smaller) bills, the prolific jokes…. But from the limited breadth of my medical experience, the largest difference is the condescension and belittlement. I recently went in for a cleaning…

Things start off well. Niceties. How have you been? How’s everything? What do you do again? Lawyer? Circus clown? Professional spelunker? With at least 6 months between visits, conversation is comfortably vague.

But alas, the dental discourse quickly devolves into accusative questioning…. a heartbreakingly familiar dialogue that went something like this:

Hygienist: So, how often do you brush?
Stephen: Twice a day…
H: Oh really? What kind of brush do you use?
S: Hmmm… one for teeth….as opposed to toilets….?
H: Let me show you the proper way becuase….And do you floss?
S: Once a day
H: Uhuh (insert cringe-worthy skepticism here). Brush after meals, never before
S: I do

*Now drops the curtain of awkward silence* The dental visit has (un)officially become adversarial

She doesn’t believe me. Not a chance. Like the police officer that asks, “is there a reason you were speeding?” It may be routine, but I suspect that chronicling great answers (”lies”) is a job perk.

I’m not sure why, but dentists have an intrusive and almost despotic right that other medical professionals do not. I take very reasonable care of my pearly whites, and almost always suffer vague chastisement at my 6 month check up.

So then with numbers like that, why aren’t Americans more passionate….in one way or the other. That’s not to say that people don’t have an opinion… Leaving now would be a disaster…..or….pack our bags, we should have never gone in the first place….or a combination of the two. And sure, opinions have heated as the election gains momentum… But hardened opinions are a far cry from the Vietnam-era dove/hawk conviction.

So maybe it’s because of numbers like that. 4,000 deaths is a lot, but perhaps not a number that many Americans would equate with 5 years of warfare. As news of Iraq filters through the MSM, we’re not commonly exposed to on the on-the-ground journalists like Michael Totten & Michael Yon that give insight to how the war affects Iraqis. We also talk about the cost of war, but as the economy shows increasing signs of defeat, there’s little dialogue about the connection between the two.

Perhaps the way we experience Iraq has a lot to do with the reasoned but less passionate opinions about the war. Soldiers don’t return in droves to unanimously recount the horrors. There is no draft and full spectrum, nationwide sacrifice that comes with it. Our voluntary forces are not equally dispersed across socioeconomic and geographic lines. That’s what we don’t have…all elements that would humanize our involvement in Iraq…things that would make our investment emotional, and not just political. Instead we have the 24-hour news cycle and high tech depictions. Remember the coverage of our first missile strikes with night-vision cameras? It was reminiscent of Atari. We’ve seen more interviews with retired generals and military consultants than front-line marines. There are Tuesday night specials showcasing military robotics, but most people don’t know what the letters IED stand for. Recently, more publications have featured human and tactile coverage of the war. This NYTimes piece is a good example. But generally, most of the close coverage and special features on Iraq that are often touted with Oooo’s and Ahhhh’s have prevented many of us from a sincere and emotional investment in this conflict.

Thank you to all of our dear readers who have taken the time to write their suggestions and thoughts – They have really touched me. As we process this advice, I wanted to take some time and elaborate on some of the larger themes not captured in the rigid form of numbered bullets in the ‘what-we-learned-post’.

When I left my job to start The Issue the only thing I read was The Economist and the NY Times. Yup, that’s right… hence #3 (Don’t be arrogant – do the due diligence on the industry and the space). Through my complete (and often, near drowning) immersion in media I think I’ve found one of the fundamental tenets of the media revolution. Of course, if you disagree with me – let me know – you are talking to the kid who knew next to nothing on media about 8 months ago.

Here’s the conclusion first:
The current and coming transformation of media is the reattachment of people to ideas.

Comrades: As you may know much of the web 2.0 buzz is about the democratization of the media; that the Orwellian control of a few who brainwash the masses, is not the inevitable future but a quickly crumbling past. A lot of this cold war thinking posits that now, everyone will be able to share equally in the creation and exchange of information - a sort of perfect egalitarian democracy of news. But this utopian-techie’s dream is about as viable as Russian Communism. Except this time there’s no Stalin to force everyone into blogging.

With the industrial revolution, came the advent of new tools of production and therefore two ways of viewing the production of goods: egalitarian communists and individualist capitalists. In this web revolution, marked by the rise of new tools (blogs), there are again two ways to view the production of news: the egalitarian and the individualists. And like in Russia, the inevitable future is the individualist. So let’s skip the bread lines and get straight to the point.

Blogs are not about giving everyone an equal voice.
Some blogs are better than others. So people will naturally gravitate to a few, leaving the vast majority in the desktop trash bin. This is not an egalitarian internet and there’s no taxation and redistribution of traffic. Power over information is not democratized - it is simply transferred. The HuffingtonPost replaces the New York Times.

But what does change is a direct connection between the reader and the blogger. And why will the HuffingtonPost overtake the New York Times? Because to win over your customers you need more personable customer service (since the price is already 0) - And so in news – you need personality. Blogging democratizes within the media organization itself not the field of media. Removing the need for layers of editors and revisions, blogging allows the writer’s personality and perspective to shine through. And this will always win. Why?

Because as humans we are primed to seek out and respond to other people. Marketers know this as they pay athletes and movie stars to endorse products, reporters and PR people know this as the stories that sell best are the “human interest” ones. The most widely read articles in any newspaper are always the Op-Eds. Reality television makes a lot of money.

The current news revolution is all about putting people back into the focus of the news in every manner possible. That is the race for the bomb and that’s how you win in media. Let’s just hope it’s not MAD as well.

Regrettably, The Issue did not command enough traffic (or ad clickers!) to be self-sustaining. The Issue has been a great experience and successful in ways that we could have never imagined. We want to thank friends, family and loyal readers for their support.

The editors of The Issue will continue to write on this blog and all the archives and past Issues of the Day are accessible through the navbar.

We would love to hear your feedback. Your fawning praise is always flattering; but we would also like to know why we failed. What could we have done better? We turn to you, our friends and loyal readers, for your thoughts.

-The Editors

Whether or not yoga lovers admit it, there’s a pretty serious social stigma associated with their… er… activity. Now that I’m a reformed eye roller (I took a couple classes and, to my chagrin, enjoyed it thoroughly) I thought I’d share some thoughts.

I think the yoga stigma comes from two things. First, the Armageddon-like seriousness with which participants treat it, and second, the perfectly understandable bewilderment one feels when observing. Having lived on both sides of the yoga divide, I think everyone can come together and admit that yoga, to an untrained eye, looks fantastically nuts. Stretching, humming and moving slowly, sometimes while eyes are closed, disagrees with nearly all modern conceptions of physical exercise. So, all this considered, the mammoth disconnect between citizen and yoga citizen is not at all surprising.

Adding insult to injury are the pose names. I couldn’t help but to laugh, nay, breakdown hysterically, when I first heard King Dancer. The Tree pose, the Wind Removing pose…. the Downward Dog…. Truth be told, that one put me over the edge. When I heard Downward Dog uttered with supreme causality and confidence, tears started streaming down my cheeks.

I propose a truce between eye rollers and yogaites. Clearly, both sides will need to make concessions. For the part of the eye rollers, they’ll need to at least superficially entertain the idea that yoga isn’t a complete joke…that it has physical and mental benefits….that it is exercise when judged by a standard other than the conventional. For the part of the yogaites, don’t be so defensive….abstract exercise is a difficult concept. And please, consider changing the names.

Close to one year into trying our hand at entrepreneurship, we’ve learned more than we thought there was to learn. Wow. Some of these we gleaned from the people who generously shared their brains with us. Some of them we picked up through our own direct experience. And many of them we learned after getting hit over the head with them. Repeatedly.

Here’s our list, so as to remember these nuggets and avoid subsequent battery.

1) 4 beers and 3 weeks of no sleep was certainly not the way to “go-live.”
2) Always ask: What do customers really want?
3) Don’t be arrogant – do the due diligence on the industry and the space.
4) Viral marketing doesn’t exist. Get your PR and marketing in line 3-5 months prior to launch.
5) Start planning strategy months before, not after launch.
6) Raise seed money immediately.
7) Avoid a slow death. Execute Faster.
8) Don’t straight jacket the company with multiple ‘lofty ideals’ – know what matters and what doesn’t.
9) Make sure you’ve got all sailors on deck before setting sail.
10) Set Priorities. Don’t undervalue your own time.
11) Micro-managing wastes everyone’s time – Whoa boy, that took a while to figure out!
12) There’s a reason why division of labor exists.
13) Be bold! Get out of the office and meet people. They are more than willing to help.
14) Net-weave, don’t network. When you meet someone new, always think: “how can I help this person.”
15) Don’t botch HR. When bringing people on board have a plan in place.
16) Breathe innovation.
17) Brainstorm so often you need a giant red umbrella.
18) Write those brainstorms across the walls– for constant review and later synthesis (chalkboard paint works great for this).
19) Don’t get embroiled in the assembly line. Be the visionary.
20) Eat breakfast as a team: and keep a schedule.
21) A Manhattan apartment is just too small. Space is important. Both literally and figuratively.
22) Take time away. Weekends. Vacation time. Get out of the office.
23) Trust your team to make decisions. Delegate.
24) Set up the legal documents before you start. You’ll never find time to do them later.
25) Talk to a lawyer.
26) Burn Perfectionism at the Stake. Execute Always.
27) Yoga.
28) Have fun. Play Foosball. Build Camaraderie.
29) Focus.
30) More caffeine for the addicts.
31) More exercise, meditation, frisbee and football for the rest.
32) Manage towards goals not tasks.
33) Finish a test project up until you can get customer feedback. No more. No less.
34) Keep the Grand Canyon between personal and work accounting.
35) Set regular meetings for various levels of conversation. Vision, Strategy, Operations, etc.
36) Keep operational meetings short and with a strict agenda. Use a timer.
37) Keep vision meetings relaxed and open ended.
38) Read!
39) Make sure each employee has only one boss.
40) Incorporate new hires like ingredients in a sauce – one at a time.
41) Save the airplane sleeping visor and sleep with it.
42) Don’t have a TV. Ever. It’s junk anyway.
43) Continually identify “The Need” in the market.
44) “Fail Faster and More Often” – Tristan Louis.
45) Sell water in the desert.

The first video below is brilliantly funny. Watch it, it won’t disappoint. It pokes fun at the Clinton campaign for invoking race while rejecting it. After watching I started thinking if such a thing were even possible.

First, the racial highlights of the campaign: (1) There was Bill Clinton’s Jesse Jackson remark in S. Carolina. (2) The whole which candidate can own MLK day fiasco. (3) The recent comments made by Clinton supporter and former VP candidate, Geraldine Ferraro. If you haven’t read the quote, here it is: If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position…. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept. What sticks out here is its grammatical incorrectness. Was should be were. Just kidding. To be fair, I posted a video of Ferraro defending herself. It’s the link at the bottom of the page. It’s also worth noting that HRC said that she disagreed with the statement. And by now we know, Ferraro resigned from Clinton’s finance committee.

I’m skeptical of all those who say that Hillary has “played the race card.” Obviously, to do it overtly, would be political suicide. I think Bill Clinton’s Jesse Jackson comment was taken out of context as was Hillary’s MLK blunder. Watch Ferraro defend herself. She does a decent job but I have to admit that her explanation left me a little unsatisfied. So if Hillary were to play the race card, it would have to be so subtle as to be undetectable…. or…. she would have to invoke race passively while rejecting it as the first video suggests. But if Clinton thinks there’s any truth to what Ferraro said, it would only help Obama to passively paint him as the black candidate.

Clinton Campaign Racial Parody

Ferraro Defending Her Statement

Eliot Spitzer could not be more busted… Is the moral standard changing or do we not just know exactly when political leaders have sexual affairs…. whereas in the past we wouldn’t find out for decades. Alexander Hamilton for example. Even Thomas Jefferson. What about JFK who famously said, “If I don’t have a woman every three days or so I get a terrible headache.”

But in keeping with the theme of the day, former Gov Eliot Spitzer, many in recent years have resigned for similar reasons. (It’s worth noting that most political sex scandals do not involve prostitution, but regular ol’ affairs… which complicates Spitzer’s life a bit, no?) What about the more obscure names like Bob Packwood, Bob Livingston and David Vitter. Then there are the more famous Mark Foley and Larry Craig. But perhaps Foley and Craig are only more “famous” because they’re more recent…. Am I just not remembering Packwood and Vitter well, or did politicians involved in sordid sexual affairs fold quietly into the ether of namelessness without the 21st century brouhaha that we love so much…

She stands in a street, clad only in jeans and pink bra. Perhaps you’d know her from the tattoos, but the trademark beehive and thick eyeliner are gone, rendering her bare and practically unrecognizable.

She was certainly recognized though, as the picture was shown all over the world.

It’s an incredibly difficult photo to look at, but if you do, you see there’s bewildered desperation in the eyes, but something in the open, upright stance, as she’s facing and – loaded language in this context, I know – exposing herself to the photographers documenting her downfall, remains defiant. Like on her chart-topping record, Amy Winehouse is still saying no, no, no.

I used to say that Winehouse’s “Rehab” was a actually a metaphor for a woman rebelling against patriarchal control. It was only half a joke. To me that song still rings true as a woman’s determination not to let anyone else – men, social institutions – tell her what’s best for her in a time of crisis. The story is not entirely different from Victorian narratives of women who were deemed “hysterical” or “mad” and locked away to be kept from making trouble.

Now, there seems to be little doubt that Winehouse has serious drug abuse issues. But watching her tribulations unfold in a constant sensationalized manner, practically in real time, is like some sort of fun-house mirror version of the experiences of many twenty-something women. If all the messy details of our personal lives, fashion choices, and mistakes were writ large in the public sphere, we probably wouldn’t come out looking so perfect and in control either.

I hope Winehouse gets better. I want to see her making more music, happy and strong and beautifully dressed and giving a big old finger to the press who have reveled in her tribulations. Because, while I sadly can’t get my hair to do anything close to her look and I certainly don’t face the severity of problems that she does, Amy Winehouse is my sister.

She has a litany of voices – including Keith Richards, of all people – telling her what’s best for her, passing judgment on almost every aspect of her life. Not all of these actions may be badly intentioned, and it would appear that if Winehouse is indeed to conquer her demons, she will certainly need help and perhaps institutionalization.

Nevertheless, there’s something about this chorus of voices telling this young woman what’s she’s doing wrong and how she should lead her life, and the attitude of condescension disguised as genuine concern, that again draws a parallel to ordinary young women struggling to make their way in the world.

You don’t have to be a pop sensation with a drug problem and a mass media following to have your life dissected, your mistakes analyzed, and to have other people offer unsolicited advice and opinions on how you should live and work and everything you’re doing wrong.

If you’re an editorial assistant, a graduate student, or an investment banker, if you’re any kind of young woman starting out in the world, finding your place and voice, your confidence will frequently be shot by a chorus of voices – often, but certainly not exclusively, male – calling you names, telling you what you should do, and undermining and denigrating your skills and abilities. It’s enough to make any girl go a little crazy now and then.

It’s because of this kinship, because I have a sense – not that I know what it feels like – but that I’ve experienced my own, normal gal version of her situation, that I hope Amy can show the world that her tears will dry on their own.

By now the news has spread like wildfire. NY Governor Eliot Spitzer was involved in a prostitution ring. His apology was vague and unsatisfying… but making up for this inadequacy are the colorful commenters (over 1,800 of them) at the New York Times.

Commenters at The Issue Blog are encouraged to add their own and good ones they’ve seen but here are some highlights:

What’s the big deal? He already prostituted himself for Clinton.
— Posted by Eric

Well.. at least he is NOT gay!!!
— Posted by John Smith

If you make as many enemies as Spitzer does, you’d think you’d know enough to keep your nose clean. Not very smart, Spitzo. Game over. I voted for this dufus because I’m an idiot.
— Posted by Jim Lax

Someone was out to get him, and succeeded.
— Posted by Ben

I consider the presence of drugs in our drinking water to be more scandalous than this.
— Posted by jane doe

men and politics. what changes remains the same. it’s time for women to stand up and take charge, in the home, in the office, in leadership and the White House
— Posted by carole

This actually makes the Clinton/ Lewinski scandal look better. At least Bill Clinton didn’t have to pay to have an affair.
— Posted by EJ

$5500 an hour. Once again the state overpays for services.
— Posted by Jonathan Drezner

All men holding public office should be forced to wear an estrogen patch.
— Posted by Addie Pray