We Must Look Up

Welcome to 2022. I took time off from the show and have been going back and forth on what to focus on for episode 100. Will it be an interview, will it be a review of the past year of the pandemic response, will I deep dive into another Project Management topic or review a critical incident response? In the end I decided to do none of these things. Instead, “We Must Look Up” uses quotes from the movie ‘Don’t Look Up’ as an outline to share my $.02 on how we as humans and more specifically, as Americans must look up in the face of divisiveness, hate, misinformation and fear.

LISTEN HERE – We Must Look Up

Below are my top 5 quotes from ‘Don’t Look Up’, my quick thoughts that I expand on in the episode and takeaway snippets I considered from watching the movie and submit to you the reader and listener:

“Are you sure the video of the puppy on the rooster is optimizing our prepubescent sense memory consumer sector? I find the bird quite threatening.” – Peter Isherwell (Mark Rylance)
- Quick Thought: To me the character Peter Isherwell is a mash up of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk and other super smart pioneers that also have deep hooks into society.
- Takeaway Snippet: The quote itself speaks to the algorithms we’re all subjected to and fall victim to.
“Well, maybe the destruction of the entire planet isn’t supposed to be fun. Maybe it’s supposed to be terrifying and unsettling. And you should stay up all night, every night crying, when we’re all 100% for sure going to f***ing die!“- Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence)
- Thought: This statement speaks to the filter many of us try to put on unpleasant experiences
- Takeaway: Humans benefit from scary experiences we’ve lived through.
“We’re people just like you. We deserve to know.” – Random person at the bar
- Thought: In addition to being in the movie, this quote captures life in the years 2020-2022. ‘We deserve to know’. Indeed.
- Takeaway: The truth has always been manipulated. In recent years for science and politics more than others.
“They want you to look up because they are looking down their noses on you.” – Politician
- Quick Thought: This is a message on trying to convince the populace to not look at the truth, e.g. the comet.
- Takeaway Snippet: We should always seek the reality of a situation and not just rely on others to tell us how to live and what decisions to make.
“Not everything needs to sound so goddamn clever or charming or likable all the time. Sometimes we need to just be able to say things to one another. We need to hear things.” – Randall Mindy: (Leonardo DiCaprio)
- Thought: The messaging is too watered down that no-one believes it.
- Takeaway: Many times the simplest message is the best.