The Friday Thing #743

Thanks for all the notes back about the Julia Ioffe piece on Ukraine last week. It seems everyone who read it was moved by it. Great writing indeed.

The Friday Thing #743 brings me to the end of a very long and very productive work week. There was talk of quantum computing, regulation, international trade, company culture, ESG and so much more. When I assess the end of my week, I often ask myself “what did I learn this week” – the answer this week is “a lot”. I’m looking forward to a weekend to digest things.

Of course, the week continued to be one where it was hard to read the news and not feel anger and heartbreak given the war in Ukraine. Amidst all that news though, I came across a story in The Guardian that made me smile and consider an idea about talent exchanges. The story is of Brazilian footballer, Roberto Carlos. He is one of the best left-backs that football has seen and given his retirement form the game, it was a surprise to see him turn out to play for “Bull in the Barne United”, a team named after a local pub in Shrewsbury, England. This is a player who has won the World Cup with Brazil and graced the biggest stadiums in world football – yet here he was playing on a reassuringly Sunday League pitch with a crowd of 150 in attendance.

Needless to say, Carlos scored (albeit not with a trademark free kick) yet Bull in the Barne still lost 4-3 to Harlescott Rangers. That said, the team made the most of the ￡5 ticket the bought on eBay to win a 'dream transfer raffle' as part of a Football Beyond Borders charity campaign. Kudos to Carlos.?

This all got me thinking about a talent exchange between companies – maybe something like this already exists but imagine if you could spend ￡5/$7 and bid for one day of a star talent exchange to join your team or company. I already know who I would bid on in something like this. Hands down it would be my favorite artist, Banksy. Of course, the anonymous artist would never take part in something like this, but I can dream about a day with creative inspiration from the iconic, ironic, graffiti artist.?

So, the question I’d love to hear answered in the comments is “who would you want on your team for a day and why”?

That’s all I have for this week.

Happy Friday. See you next week.

?-Steve