ScaleBright Solutions

Most people would define “maintenance” as “fixing stuff that’s broken”. If you told them that that’s “repair” and that maintenance is different, they’d reply that you should get your head out of the dictionary and stop being so pedantic. After all, the difference is semantic at best and nobody cares! My argument is that you should care, and that the difference will save your household, your business, and your society.

This week is a short story about an off-grid homesteader in the near future. The various technical and other odd bits I used are all either real things or will be very soon.

Artificial intelligence is upon us and not showing any signs of slowing. The most common concern from those in the workforce is being replaced by one of these “thinking machines”. But what if AI wasn’t coming for your job? What if it was coming for your boss’s job instead?

Welcome to part 4, the final entry in the What is Money series. We’re capping it off with “crypto” and CBDCs.

Millennials remember the era of Buzzfeed quizzes with fondness, and some may even describe it as identity or culture shaping. People have always loved these miniature personality tests, and while Buzzfeed may no longer be in its heyday, the popularity of these dinner-table icebreakers has transcended generational gaps. To the analytically-brained among us this sounds like a datapoint that could be used in the workplace. Or is it?

Welcome to part 3 of the “What is Money?” series! So far we’ve covered the base concepts of money and money as a system in part 1, and the Canadian Dollar in part 2. Today we’re going to talk about a relatively new system of money, Bitcoin!

If you haven’t had the experience of waking up in the morning and fearing going to work, you’ve probably heard at least one story of someone who has. Someone who was afraid of their boss, a coworker, an impending audit, or layoffs. These stories are centered around fear, but what about fear’s older, more mature cousin, respect? How are they related, and what are their roles in the workplace?

In part 1 of this series ([Part 1 - What is Money? ]( https://scalebright.ca/blog/2025-01-20-what-is-money-series-part-1-what-is-money)) we overviewed the history of money and as a global concept. Now that we have a base understanding of what money is we can get into detail about the Canadian Dollar. Why the Canadian Dollar specifically? One of the inspirations for this series was realizing how much the pervasiveness of American media has affected the average Canadian’s understanding of how our money works. How many of you can quote what is printed on US bills? Do you know what is printed on Canadian bills? What about what the Canadian Dollar is backed by, and who’s in charge of it? To preview, it’s not gold, and it’s not the Federal Reserve.

Minimum wage has been a hot topic as far back as I can remember. If you’re an employer it can feel like government needlessly meddling in the free market, while for employees it feels like its never high enough to make a difference. This is especially true where oversaturated labour markets are combined with high costs of living (HCOL) (which is pretty much everywhere at this point). Workers may need 2 or even 3 minimum wage jobs just to cover food, shelter, and transport in these areas, and would probably love to see minimum wage lifted. Employers in less-dense areas are faced with the opposite problem; even if they advertise pay “above minimum wage”, acquiring and keeping entry-level staff in HCOL areas is a constant battle. In this case, my recommendation is to localize your minimum wage.

“What is money?” sounds like a bit of a silly question. You’d probably hold up some cash or maybe flash your debit card. But I challenge you with this: imagine a 5-year-old asking you this question. How would you answer? If you showed them a $20 bill, they might respond with, “I know that’s a money, *but what is it?*” If you manage to explain that the bill is worth $20, they’re next question is going to be, “how many is your card?” How would you answer that? At some point you’d probably end up trying to distract them with something else while you worked to ignore the dread feeling that you should have those answers, but don’t. Never fear, for we will attempt to explain it in such a way that you’ll have an answer for 5, 15, 50, or 95-year-olds by the time we’re done this 4-part series!

We’ve all been in meetings that seem to be stuck in an unending loop of “discussions” going nowhere while simultaneously ratcheting up everyone’s emotions as the minutes past dinner continue to climb. You stand to leave as you reach your limit and declare, “It’s past my bedtime”. If only there was a way to make meetings more efficient!

“Technology never changes” sounds insane, doesn’t it? Of course it changes! Far too fast! New models of smartphones, laptops, refrigerators, cars, and toasters every year! And that’s just hardware; software and the internet move even faster. Every time you open your social media app of choice you’re greeted with a new *thing* to figure out. But under the hood of version 999 of all these newfangled widgets, they’re all the same as they’ve ever been, because technology never changes.

Look at any white-collar office job posting from the last few decades and you’re likely to see something like “basic computers skills” listed as a requirement. “Great,” you think to yourself, “I can use technology, after all, I managed to find this job posting!” And if you’re on the hiring end for a position that’ll be spending six to eight hours in front of screen, you’d certainly hope applicants would know that they need to be able to use a computer. Ten years of bookkeeping experience? Reception? Managing remote staff? In a Venn diagram of work experience and basic computer skills, those should be a near complete overlap! We shouldn’t need to train them at all! Can we be sure though? It turns out “basic computer skills” doesn’t have a universally accepted definition.

“Can you help make our website good?” is one of the most loaded questions I get. There are many aspects to this question’s galactic gravitas, and their root is another question: what makes a website good?

I’ve been on the internet since the mid 90s. Once I started “cyber-schooling” a few years later my time spent in front of a screen skyrocketed. One of the time vortices both for and outside of school was finding things on the internet. Everything from encyclopedia-style information pieces to news articles to music to games; the hunt was relentless.

“Sam did it!” You can hear the edge in the child’s voice as they attempt to shift blame for whatever minor misdeed they may-or-may-not have masterminded. In the court of humanity our feelings take wide precedence over objective justice. Even if there’s no fallout or formal punishment for that thing we did wrong, we really don’t like taking the blame.

The Americans just had a big election, and Canada’s next has been effectively underway for a while now. Automated moderation systems are being increasingly relied upon by large social media networks and are running amok with bans (I may be biased on this one, see [“The Technology Deleted Me”]( https://scalebright.ca/blog/2024-10-07-the-technology-deleted-me)). Opinions are everywhere, and many social media users live in fear of getting booted from their platform of choice over an innocuous post. “Of choice” usually being where the largest concentration of their connections also have accounts. For me that’s Facebook; for others it might be Instagram, Snapchat, Bluesky, or X.

The internet has had tutorials for job applications for a while; I remember searching for and reviewing them as part of “Career and Life Management (CALM)” in grade school. But it still never hurts to go back to the basics!

What is “the cloud”? And more importantly, who cares? The term has been in use for years and is long past the point of being a buzzword, but it might become relevant again as we enter the next phase of the cycle.

Last week our household acquired a dog. I’ve had and trained dogs before; four in total over the course of about 20 years. But it’s been about 6 years without one, and this one is an inside dog, which is completely new to me. Old habits die hard though and I’m finding nuggets of skills and knowledge slowly returning.