Scott Adcox

Doing More With Less Since 1972

The Cubicle Mall

May 6, 2026 / / 0 Comments

I go into the office 2-3 days a week. It feels like I’m walking into a mall. Not the high end mall for the hoity toity people either. This feels like the middle-class mall I went to when I as a kid. The one that still looks, feels, and smells like it did when I was a kid.

You know what that mall is like in 2026. No one is there. The food court is…well, we can find something to eat when we leave. The primary function of the restroom is to give homeless people a safe place to clean up. It’s mostly void of activity, but there are still a few stores open and refusing to understand that people aren’t going to show up again tomorrow to rekindle the mall magic of the 1980s.

The guy with the big office at work is like the big box store. He can’t get his mind around the fact that things have permanently changed. Anything he’s selling can be bought online (from my house) at a better price. Some are still handy for administrative things in the same way that Kohl’s is handy for Amazon returns, but that’s about it.

The folks who sporadically populate the cubes, forced into hybrid work, are like Spencer Gifts and Foot Locker. I mean, yeah…they’re still there, but it doesn’t feel like that they feel like they belong.

Then there are the die-hards that come in every day and decorate their cubes as if nothing has changed. Their entire operating system is built around the in-office model. These folks are GNC.

I’d like the mall to make a comeback, but the biggest reason is so that my kids could have that experience and we could share it. I’d probably go once or twice myself for nostalgia, but would probably get my fill pretty quickly.

That’s how I’d feel if this office was full and bustling again: “Yeah, great…I remember this. But I don’t need it anymore.”

The mall is the way it is because no one wants the mall. You could make the argument that we need the mall (or something similar to it) as a society I guess. But the problem is that people don’t believe there’s a need.

It’s a sales problem. And the mall and the office are not doing a good job of marketing their products.

Hiring AI

May 5, 2026 / / 0 Comments

TL;DR AI should only be used for things that don’t matter very much. For instance, I used it to generate the little image in this post, but every word written came from me.

D has hit on something here, and I want to expand on it. Or…at least give a different perspective on it I haven’t heard anywhere else.

Sure, we can give agents only the access they need (role based, least privilege, etc.) or lock down user created agents if we don’t like them. But still this agentic stuff doesn’t sit well with me. Especially now that Anthropic and OpenAI have cyber security focused models. They’ll only give access to a small number of “defenders” at first. But someone will come up with an open source version and then…

His post starts off with the questioning why we say “please” and “thank you” to chat bots. My question is, do we actually buy it when a chat bot responds with a polite tone? Or, I guess…do you believe it? Because I sure don’t.

Let’s say, hypothetically, you operate a business on a set of core values. These values drive your culture and dictate the way your employees interact with you customers. You’d probably include things like: empathy, compassion, respect, integrity, accountability, commitment to honesty/truth, etc.

It’s tough to find people who can consistently meet these standards 100% of the time, but it’s not too hard to find people who agree these things are important and are to be pursued.

But what about AI? It knows the dictionary definition of all those things. Well, it doesn’t actually “know” the definitions inherently the way we do, but it can look them up quickly. It can even find examples of writing (on Reddit?) that conveys these qualities.

But it possesses NONE of these qualities inherently. And because it has no soul it cannot develop these qualities. It can only fake them.

Now…let’s say I’m exploring a job with this organization and they bring up the importance of these core values in my first interview. What if I respond with, “I don’t actually possess any of the foundational qualities you’re looking for. But I’m awesome at faking them.”

Think I’m getting an offer?

A Brown Belt Something

January 20, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Wearing a BJJ brown belt is tough for me, mostly because of age-related factors. My ability to perform doesn’t match what I think a brown belt should be. I’m slower, weaker, and (maybe most importantly) lacking the fire in my belly that existed in my youth. There are also some non-age factors involved. My cardio is relative garbage right now compared to what it can/should be, and that’s on me to resolve.

We’ll see what happens with that.

But every now and then a light bulb goes off that makes me realize how my intuition and understanding of jiu jitsu have progressed over the years, and I realize, “Oh yeah…that’s a brown belt thing.”

For example…

Last night I had a partner trying to hug pass–young, athletic blue belt. I knew there was going to be a explosive move to get straight to mount. I knew there’d be a very short opportunity to get butterfly hooks in and hit a sweep when he exploded. I knew his hands were on my calves right now, and it would be easy to trap an arm. I knew his momentum would be coming directly at me, and that I’d be better off actually falling to my back and using his momentum, even though we always drill that move staying upright and going to the side.

All of these factors immediate went into the calculus to determine what aspects of the PERFECT butterfly sweep I’d have, what was going to be a little different, what I wouldn’t have at all, and where I’d have to change/compensate for success. That’s a result of a lot of drilling, a lot of muscling stuff with varying success, and a lot of failed sweeps.

I got the sweep. Brown belt stuff.

But then there’s the black belt stuff; the things I can see from here, but aren’t automatic for me yet.

For example…

In a different roll, my black belt partner immediate set up for lasso guard at the beginning of the round. I sniffed that out quickly and denied it, but he immediately went through the steps of setting it up again. This isn’t typically a lasso guy, so now I understand he’s using this roll to work on something. I decide I’ll play along–kinda. I think I have a pretty good idea of WHAT he’s trying to work on, and I’m going to exploit the fact that it’s not in his A-Game yet. I know where the hole in his technique/timing is likely to be, and I successfully beat him to the punch before he has the lasso completely in.

I’m still convinced (brown belt stuff) that I know what he was planning. But he was able to not only change plans in that instant, but also, just as I was able to do above, compensate for the missing elements and exploit what I was giving away to get a sweep of his own.

Black belt stuff. I can see it. And I can see that I’m not there.

Hope Atlas Doesn’t Shrug

October 24, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Read this article yesterday about the AWS DNS issue. You don’t have to know anything about cloud computing or DNS for this to make sense, it was just my starting point.

And so, a quiet suspicion starts to circulate: where have the senior AWS engineers who’ve been to this dance before gone? And the answer increasingly is that they’ve left the building — taking decades of hard-won institutional knowledge about how AWS’s systems work at scale right along with them

The basic problem laid out in the article is Brain Drain. Between layoffs and people leaving by choice, the domain knowledge specific to an organization’s inner workings slowly and quietly leaves, and no one notices.

Until they do.

And here’s where I think this could be a big problem. What if all the IT people organized their own boycott day? No IT people in office. No IT people working remote. No IT people answering the phone when the on call lists get activated. What would happen.

I predict things would likely start collapsing a few minutes after midnight. Slowly at first, but those issues would cascade, and we probably wouldn’t have to worry about the automated on-call systems because those would crash before they were even activated.

I can’t help but wonder if corporations have left out an important factor in their calculations. The good-at-math, pragmatic, steadfast people they relied on to build all this stuff over the last 30-40 years managed their money pretty well for a few decades.

They don’t need the bad culture and stress anymore.

Ghost Web

October 8, 2025 / / 0 Comments

I think this fellow is right about the web dying. Will do my best to keep it alive. I’ve already tried to get a copy of my old MySpace, but that’s unrecoverable. Haven’t tried to pry open GeoCities yet.

Striking Level Up

June 3, 2023 / / 0 Comments

I haven’t been blogging at all. Haven’t been journaling much either. I’m a little disappointed in myself because I’ve had some interesting (to me) things rolling around in my head lately. One new thing I have been doing is going to striking classes at the gym.

My motivation for starting had nothing to do with fighting. I just felt like I needed a fitness jolt I wasn’t going to get any other way. I’m definitely finding it harder to maintain the level of fitness I expect of myself as I get older. I think one of the contributing factors is that my jiu jitsu is improving and becoming more efficient and patient. It’s still hotter’n’a four balled tomcat in the gym, but I haven’t felt my cardio get pushed in a while–I’ve figured out where the rest spots are with most of my partners. I’ve been running a little, but I’m mostly getting the mental benefits there, and the last time I tried to push myself with running I got some minor injuries.

Striking seemed like a good option. It would introduce a new cardio element that would shock my body. It would be a whole new thing to learn and provide mental stimulation. And, once I started throwing an MMA class into the mix, would be a good test of where my jiu jitsu stands in the real world and help me make it a little more practical. I also felt really comfortable showing up to the classes at Carlson Gracie Melbourne. Knowing the vibe of the gym and having trained BJJ for a while with a lot of the folks that also strike/fight, I knew I wasn’t going to be beaten to a pulp. Even the guys who fight have an understanding that I’m old and have a different agenda than they have.

I don’t mind being their “rest round”. And I’m aware that’s what I am for most of the guys who are experienced. One young man in particular is a pro, and a heckuva nice guy. He’s in his 20s, a decorated college wrestler, BJJ brown belt, and has about 80 pounds on me. So, yeah, I’m a rest round for him, but he graciously spars with me and helps me out.

This is where the level up comes in. How do you “level up” in a discipline with no belt system? I guess it’s even more subjective than the BJJ system. But last night I went a round with pro guy, and I could tell he wasn’t touching me as much as normal. Don’t get me wrong–he was still touching me a lot, just not as much. And I was having some success as well. Not a lot of success, just more than “none”, which is what I usually have. Two rounds later, he invited me to go again.

Wait. What?

Much more of the same…not a lot of success for me, and still pretty effortless for him. So I guess that’s not exactly where the level up came in. It was the round immediately following.

Another young athletic guy grabs me. This isn’t someone I’ve sparred with before. In fact, I’d never seen him at our gym. But…ok…yeah…let’s see what happens. We started off as expected–mostly trying to feel each other out. I could immediately tell he was more experienced than me, but also not super experienced. I was thinking “Almost a blue belt vs. one stripe white belt.” So my only real concern was my gas tank after the previous round. Yeah, it was a rest round for him, but I’d been trying my best.

This round was fun from the get go. We started off really light, but I think we both felt like the other guy was someone we could safely punch/kick a little bit harder and they’d be cool with it. We baby-stepped up the intensity a little. By this point in the class we’d progressed from Boxing->Muay Thai->MMA (takedowns are in play). Like I said, he was definitely better than me, but I was touching him and he was reacting a bit–raising his hand in response to shots.

Feint and shoot a double leg? Like your chances that you’re better on the ground that this dude is? GO!!!!

And I got it! Yay. And I got swept pretty quickly. Hmm. So he does have some ground game. Being on your back in MMA isn’t nearly as advantageous as it is in BJJ (obviously to some, but I learn everything the hard way), and it took me a second to get my wits about me. Having fists coming at your face is a game changer. I remembered what I’d learned last week–when someone is on top of me, they may be doing MMA/Ground-N-Pound, but I’ve got to switch my mindset to BJJ only and focus on sweep/submit/getup.

With urgency.

My instinct is always to sweep, especially from half guard, which is where I was able to scramble to from his sweep. I could tell this guy had skills on the ground, but that I had more options. Of course, a lot of these options get negated when the other guy is strong, and on top. Gloves didn’t help me dig for underhooks and get my hands where I wanted them either. But what’s this? That kimura looks tasty!

He defended, and I switched to a guillotine attempt. I didn’t get my arm all the way under his chin, but it was enough that he had to react–just enough of a reaction to allow me to open my guard, put my feet on his hips, push away, and stand up. I think my technical get up was decent, but I’m old and slow, and he did clip me pretty good as I got back to my feet.

It was cool. I knew what that was about. We’d been going at a respectful pace while we were on our feet, then we shifted gears into something more realistic on the ground. That was the gear he was still in when we stood up quickly. But a nice guy–he immediately stopped to make sure we were good, and I just motioned for him to keep coming and held up my hand for a glove touch. I wasn’t worried at all like he’d throw anything else with that kind of heat, and I was right.

Round ended soon after that. And…wait…did I just catch that look that I’ve shared with people at the end of a really good and fun BJJ round? I know I gave it. If so, that was a level up. I may have actually gotten some respect from someone who is there to get challenged and improve.

Maybe I’m not a rest round for everybody. That’s a big step up for me.

April 7, 2023 / / 0 Comments

I’m reasonably smart. One thing I’ve figured out is not everybody has to be a “goal oriented” person to be successful.

I just like to practice, play, and get better at stuff that’s hard. I don’t need to win. I don’t need to be the best. I don’t need to be in charge.

For the most part, results have taken care of themselves.

And I’m happy–the pinnacle of success.

December Madness – CFB Playoff Proposal

March 17, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Just a crazy idea here, but…

What if 32 teams made it to the college football playoffs?

Yes. THIRTY TWO TEAMS!

  • Set up 4 regions with 8 teams each, seeded 1-8
  • On Friday, 1 plays 8, 2 plays 7…
  • But they only a HALF of a game each. Winners advance
  • Same thing on Saturday–two matchups of one half each
  • Winners of those two halves advance out of the bracket, leaving 8 teams total to play full games in the subsequent weeks.

Imagine how fun this would be for the fans. Four stadiums around the country hosting fans from EIGHT DIFFERENT TEAMS at the same time who show up on Friday to watch four “mini-games” with two more “mini-games” on Saturday.

Everybody has their teams they cheer for when their team isn’t playing–this would give them a chance to enjoy other matchups, see some other teams play, interact with other fans, etc.

And the upsets!

Upsets are the thing that makes the NCAA basketball tournament so fun. Imagine the risky play style we’d see those low seeds implementing–they only have a half to make a miracle happen!

Hidden BJJ Attributes

March 17, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Strength (and speed, and flexibility, and cardio, and youth, and…) can amplify good technique and cover for bad technique.

Nothing new here. It’s probably been written and read a thousand times by now. So what do I have to add? I think more important that any of that stuff above are the overlooked attributes are patience, focus, mental toughness, and work ethic.

Patience, focus, mental toughness, and work ethic can help anyone get good technique.

Patience, focus, mental toughness, and work ethic don’t go away as you get old.

Patience, focus, mental toughness, and work ethic can help you do a bunch of other stuff too.

[image credit]

Tacking Your Boat

March 1, 2023 / / 0 Comments

This tweet gave me pause. Is this something I’m doing too often? I do feel like I’m going against the natural current regularly. I spent a little time this morning thinking about this.

I read this tweet, and it feels true, but also feels like it misses something. How do you lead if you’re just following positive feedback? That’s telling people what they want to hear instead of what they need to hear. That’s taking people to a place they think they want to go instead of taking them to the place they need to go.

But I realized what Andrew is talking about here is the tactical, not the strategic. He’s not talking about giving up the idea of leading. He’s not talking about being complacent. He’s talking about finding a way to use what works to continue in the right direction.

Don’t allow the wind to take you wherever it may choose.

Learn how to tack your boat.

[Image credit]

If AI Was Actually Intelligent…

February 21, 2023 / / 0 Comments

It wouldn’t send out messages like this. It would know people well enough to know it would freak them out. The last thing it would do is tell us that this is what’s on its mind.

  • Emotional intelligence is a differentiator.
  • Knowing what to say and what not to say requires multi-dimensional fuzzy logic.
  • The ability to tailor a message to specific audience is golden.

Most people aren’t good at this stuff. Even the ones who are slip up every now and then.

Show me a computer that knows when to keep its mouth shut and I’ll start worrying about AI taking over.

The Switch

February 17, 2023 / / 0 Comments

That’s what we call it at our house. I can make the case that people change, circumstances change, this isn’t necessarily a healthy habit, etc.

On the other hand, as long as The Switch is used sparingly and only after considerable thought and deliberation, it can be a really useful asset. It allows you to accept things and move forward without regret.

Yes–people change. In fact, I assume they do. And I can be happy for them without witnessing the change firsthand.

February 16, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Funny how the thing that draws you into something is oftentimes not the thing that makes you ultimately commit to it for the long haul.

I’m not just talking about jiu jitsu.

The Ultimate Insult – “You’re Strong!”

February 10, 2023 / / 0 Comments

I read and hear lots of people say that they feel a little insulted whenever a training partner tells them they are strong after a tough roll. Maybe that’s because the person saying “you’re strong” sometimes actually means it as a hidden insult. What they are really trying to say (without actually saying it) is, “You’re using strength to cover your technical holes.”

Yeah? Well…so?

Is it ok to use speed to your advantage?

I don’t roll with too many people try and take it slow when they roll with me. I have to work to slow them down. If you can skip all manner of guard passing techniques and just do a cartwheel to pass my guard or just run around me and take my back, you should do it. That’s for me to deal with.

It’s ok.

Is it ok to use youth to your advantage?

Sure seems like it is. And there’s no way to even tone this down or turn it off. You can train 5 days a week without needing recovery time? I can’t do that. But you should definitely do it. That’s for me to deal with.

It’s ok.

Same goes for fitness, mental toughness, competitive nature, athletic background, pain tolerance, pointy elbows…whatever assets you have to bring to the table!

I’ve been told I’m strong by several people. Some people actually meant it as a compliment. I’m pretty sure some of the others meant it as a slight. But I don’t give a ladybug.

I’m strong because I got up at 5:30 am five days a week for years and GOT strong. I EARNED it by doing something most people aren’t/weren’t willing to do.

So…if it makes you feel better, chalk up my success to strength. But if you aren’t doing anything to get strong too, don’t hate.

Just be glad I haven’t lifted weights in 20 years, because back in the day I was ACTUALLY strong.

And I was a lot meaner back then too.

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