Scott Adcox

Doing More With Less Since 1972

Category: Thinking (Page 1 of 14)

Twitter Question, August 13, 2026

August 13, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Multiple times.

Once got a haircut and put on a suit to go to an in-person interview right after the dot-com stuff blew up and I was between gigs. During introductions I talked about my background as an engineer and the guy says, “Well we’re about to save your life–you won’t have to do that anymore!”

And from there I knew it was either a pyramid scheme or some kind of sales. I was actually pretty irritated that I’d showed up under false pretenses and they were wasting my time. I wasn’t shy about letting them know either. Not shy. At all.

Another time was just a few years ago. By this time, work from home was standard and pretty much all interviews were happening on Teams/Zoom. I put on a nice shirt and joined the meeting with my camera on. There were a couple of people interviewing me. They never turned their cameras on, and the conversation had a weird pace to it. No verbal queues made it even more strange. I basically told them, “I don’t think this role is a good fit for me, and I don’t want to waste any more of your time. Thanks for considering me, and good luck finding the right person.”

I did let the recruiter I was working with know the main reason though. I don’t expect people to be on camera all the time or anything, but if you have it available, it’s common courtesy when you’re first meeting someone. It definitely says a lot if you don’t use a camera in interviews–probably not the culture I’m looking for.

I wish this guys had asked, “Have you ever interviewed for a job you already knew you didn’t want, but went anyway because you needed a job?”

Twitter Question For August 12, 2026

August 12, 2026 / / 0 Comments

I hate the concept of engagement farming on Twitter, but some of the questions are actually engaging. I don’t want to feed that machine, and the form is too short. Here’s a good spot.

Hmm. The first check I ever got, I think I saved. I really wanted this Alesis Drum Machine, and they were ~ $300 at the time if I remember correctly, and it took me a while to get it.

My first job-job, like career job after college, I remember exactly what I did. I stopped at the Kroger at Cedar Bluff and Kingston Pike and bought ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING I WANTED. Good steaks, fancy ice cream, and the biggest jar of Grey Poupon they had.

That was/is the definition of rich to me. When I look in our pantry/fridge and see several types of peanut and almond butters, options for chips and crunch snacks, fresh berries and vegetables, and choice of different coffees and teas, I can’t help but feel wealthy.

I don’t even bother with the freezer because it is so full I can’t get it open without upsetting the delicate balance of ice creams, taters, plantains, and meats.

Wrong Direction

May 12, 2026 / / 0 Comments

I bag on LinkedIn a lot. Deservedly so. I mostly read it as comic relief, but occasionally something good pops up. For instance:

Your perspective may be different, but this is about my perspective…

How It Should Be: Rewording this post a little bit, true IT/data/digital fluency should be a requirement for the next generation of leaders in most companies.

How It Is: Often, even IT leadership doesn’t understand the technology they are leading.

The gateway to the C-level job used to be an MBA, but maybe it should be an engineering degree. Instead, we give the engineering leadership jobs to MBAs. I think it’s because they are abundant, and they speak the language of those making the decision.

It’s bass ackwards.

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 your 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.

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!

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.

Listening is most important

Communication – The BJJ Job Interview

February 9, 2023 / / 0 Comments

My boy Andy on Twitter just started a new BJJ podcast, and of course I was curious to check it out and finally find out what the voice of a man who can’t correctly tie his belt sounds like. 🙂

The first episode I listened to (actually his 2nd episode) made it clear this was going to be a different sorta jiu jitsu podcast. Andy does an amazing job of relating BJJ to his real life, and that’s really refreshing to hear. He’s not talking about world championships or fancy techniques (yet).

Take this first episode, where he describes incorporating BJJ into a recent job interview. It’s a great story, and it made me think a little deeper on this topic.

It’s Not The Talking That Matters. It’s The Listening.

Something I realized as Andy was talking about BJJ and communication as I was listening–as the danger or risk increases, the onus is on the person who has the greater amount of control/power to improve the communication.

They do this by listening more intently.

Think of a round rolling like a conversation. At the beginning of the round, both players are talking and listening with their bodies. They are talking about what they want to do. They are listening to what the other player is trying to do. Do they sometimes try to mislead the other player about their intentions? Absolutely. And it’s on each player to figure out what is true and what is a trap.

But what typically happens is that one player ends up putting another in danger somehow with a choke or joint lock. At this point in the “conversation”, the player in control has to focus on two things at the same time. They must consider the details that need to be adjusted to end the conversation (get the tap) while also paying close attention to the ways the other player may communicate the tap. This could be with a hand, verbally, or banging their foot on the mat.

The point is that the player in control has to listen more keenly at the end of the conversation than they were listening at the beginning.

So What? How Does This Apply To Real Life?

Good question. The one that immediately comes to mind for me is a work situation. When a decision maker sets a direction (starts the round), there is hopefully going to be a series of conversations about what is to be achieved, what “finished” looks like, and the path to “finished”.

But the finish is so critical. If I think of it in terms of information technology, the finish is when something goes live. It’s the time when things are volatile and dangerous. It’s at this point when we need to listen intently to the people who could possibly be negatively affected by the actions we’ve introduced.

[image credit]

The Promise Of Perfect Jiu Jitsu

January 3, 2023 / / 0 Comments

The other day I wrote a post on “What Makes Jiu Jitsu Fun For You?” laying out my top personal reason for continuing to train. As I was writing it, I had a realization and line of thought that didn’t really jibe with that post, but is something I wanted to pursue separately–there’s more to why I train than just the fun. Don’t get me wrong–it’s mostly about the fun. But there are other reasons as well. And one of the biggest is the concept of “Perfect Jiu Jitsu.”

I’m not sure if there’s an “according-to-Hoyle” idea of perfect jiu jitsu, but I have one that I’m able to wrap my tiny little brain around, and it’s pretty freaking awesome.

Perfect jiu jitsu is, while playing in the rules of jiu jitsu, the ability to convince your opponent they have no hope of survival. Perfect jiu jitsu achieves this by doing nothing other than accepting the choices the opponent makes and responding only in ways to which the opponent does not resist.

So, obviously, no striking or biting or anything like that. But…wherever they want to place their hands, you allow it. Conversely, you allow them to object (by resistance) to ANY hand placement you choose. Same goes for feet, head, legs, etc. They are allowed to do whatever they want. You don’t do anything they don’t allow. And you still get them to tap. Oh, and the person you just defeated can effortlessly beat everyone in the world except for you.

Now, that’s PERFECT JIU JITSU. I know it isn’t possible. It’s just an aspirational goal–people may aspire to achieve, but no one will actually get there.

There are people who dedicate their lives to achieving perfect jiu jitsu. They are aware they’ll never get there either, but it’s a concept that is so powerful and alluring, that they feel it’s worth a lifetime of work to reach for.

I’m not one of those people.

So, if it’s not something that’s achievable by anyone, and I’m not even one of the people who’s willing to dedicate myself to achieving it, why am I even bothering to write this post? How does the existence of the idea of perfect jiu jitsu even motivate me?

Because I see the beauty of the idea of perfect jiu jitsu. I’m aware of how effective jiu jitsu is when done poorly, by someone without special talent, who trains a few times a week, holds down a regular job, takes their kids to activities, eats an imperfect diet, and has a million other things going on.

That may sound like a pretty accurate description of me, but I’m not talking about me. The guy I just described will utterly destroy me at jiu jitsu. That’s how magic it is. If they guy I just described can beat me so easily, what must close-to-perfect jiu jitsu look and feel like.

I can’t fathom what that may be, but I want to be a part of the movement towards it.

And the reason I really wrote this post is that:

The concept of practicing something that can be abstracted into an idea that is beautiful and yet unattainable scales both horizontally and vertically, and it’s the stuff that a meaningful life is made of.

[image credit]

What Make Jiu Jitsu Fun For You?

December 29, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Not, “why do you do it?”

What makes it fun?

Maybe it’s not fun for you. Maybe it’s a “have to” for some reason or another. But I haven’t encountered many people who feel this way about it. I think it’s a pretty fun activity for most of us.

It’s ironic, because a huge amount of time spent in jiu jitsu is spent losing, suffering, dealing with discomfort, being humbled, feeling vulnerable, taking steps backwards, plateauing, getting bruised and mat-burned, and suffering from the occasional minor injury and constant back/hand pain.

And I didn’t even mention that some of us are daily forced to deal with the fact that we are old and quickly declining.

Have I convinced you to start training yet? 😀

Somehow, it’s fun. It’s the thing that always puts us in a good mood and makes us smile. For some, it’s one of their only sources of happiness.

I can’t answer for anyone else, but for me jiu jitsu is fun because it’s magic. As much as it taxes my body, it is constantly tickling and amazing my mind. It’s constantly causing me to question what I know.

How can someone so much smaller than me control me that way?

How can they continue to control me in the exact same way, even after they’ve shown me exactly what they are doing and how to stop them?

Why did that simple adjustment that makes all the difference elude me for so long. And it’s so simple and obvious–why didn’t I see it myself?

Why are so many of my natural intuitive motions so incorrect?

Why is this guy asking me for advice–can’t he see I know nothing?

Why am I giving this guy advice? I’m 100% positive there’s someone out there who can show me why everything I just said is absolutely wrong.

Is he even trying this round? Did he just give me that? WHY did he just give me that? Is this a trap? Does he think this trap is going to work? Why didn’t I see the REAL trap?

I guess, for me, the reason it’s fun is because it’s a series of difficult puzzles that, once solved, reveal themselves to only be a small part of an infinite number of larger, increasingly difficult puzzles.

I realized a while back that I’m not an outcome-driven person. I’m an experience and journey driven person. Endless puzzles with ever-changing parameters…where do I sign up?

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