Narcos-Season 2

Someone always thinks the rules don't apply to them. That's the hardest part of being a leader, keeping everybody in line. You think you want to run a large organization, that manpower is appealing, as is the money raised when your company goes public, but I'm of the one man band variety, I want to be in charge of my own destiny, because I'm sick and tired of people who know little telling me what to do.

Isn't that the ethos of Silicon Valley? Misfits doing it their way?

That certainly used to be music, before the goal was to become a brand and sell out to the corporation, play by the rules and reduce innovation for fear you'll be left off the playlist.

But I'd rather watch "Narcos" than listen to most new music. Because it takes me away, removes me from this fast-paced world where you've always got to be available and are in fear of missing out, and shows me what life is really about...living.

Pablo Escobar died.

But you knew that. I didn't ruin anything for you. That's what the second season was all about, his escape from prison and eventual decline and ultimate demise.

We finished it last night. I just spent ten hours dedicated to a TV show when I complain that I've got no time. Guess I just have time for what is truly great, for what I think is primary.

And the second season of "Narcos" is not as good as the first. The first was a lark, no one had any expectations. Whereas the second... That's what success will yield, eyeballs, attention, can you succeed under the glare? The filmmakers did, but they added too many arty angles, overreaching, Shakespearean metaphors, whereas the initial season was down and dirty.

My number one takeaway?

I want to go back to Colombia. In a world where everybody wants to be more comfortable, I'm looking for danger, for excitement. Somewhere they don't speak English and the values are different. Like St. Petersburg or Bogota. Those are the two best places I've gone to recently. Because they kept me on edge. I felt that something was going on that I couldn't completely grasp. I didn't feel totally safe. The people weren't playing by my rules, in St. Petersburg it was all about coping with corruption, in Bogota it was all about not getting shot. And...I felt fully alive.

Of course Pablo Escobar was a murderer. Of course he deserved to die.

But he did it his way. Came from nothing and built something. Went against the grain, did it via his own smarts. Today we venerate those with chips, education, parentage. But the world is really changed by thinkers. Those who see things differently.

It is all about being wise. Something we don't revere. We think being rich makes you smart, but that is not true, although sometimes they go hand in hand.

And it's about having insight. Something we pay fealty to but no longer teach. Yes, we quote the great Gretzky, about skating to where the puck will be, but we don't teach kids how to see where the puck is going, how to unpack the facts and reassemble them in a way that makes sense.

Kinda like income inequality and climate change. You can deny them or go deep, try to see what's going on.

But no one wants to go deep anymore. They're too busy building out their identity online.

Pablo Escobar believed the rules didn't apply to him, that institutions were to be manipulated.

That's one thing that's opened my eyes in my ascension up the food chain. Leaders see the press as something to be manipulated, to their advantage. And the press is not as omniscient as it appears. I'm stunned how much doesn't make the news, and how often reporters get it wrong. No, I'm not talking about Sarah Palin's "Lamestream Media," she's clueless, publicly decrying a world where idiots don't reign. Whereas true players...work behind the scenes and their fingerprints are undetectable.

As for taxes... Have you noticed the big corporations don't pay them? That their effective rate is near zero? How can you complain they're too high when they only exist on paper? But, once again, the rank and file have no understanding of what's truly going on. While those with power wield it to their advantage.

This is the world we've arrived in. One of drudgery. Where a few have exciting gigs that stimulate them and the rest of us live for entertainment. We're dying for entertainment. Hollywood has never been more powerful. There's all this hogwash about haunted models, the techies taking over. But the techies don't know how to tell a story, how to take us away and fulfill us. As Steve Jobs famously said, Apple made tools, he was an industrialist. Whereas those in Hollywood are capitalists of the mind.

My problem is I'm left empty. With nothing to watch.

Oh, the papers are full of hype, there are a zillion channels and services. But nothing that titillates me the same way as "Narcos."

Life is a struggle. Where you can't survive without family. Where some are out to get you and you must follow your own counsel.

It's all right there on the screen.

Take the time.

This is the story of a notorious drug lord.

But it's simultaneously the story of today's world. Where government has its own agenda while business people tie it in a knot while nitwits think owning a gun protects them from the establishment.

Life is fluid. We get to make choices every day. What would you do for a buck? Are you willing to bend the truth? Does longevity supersede quality?

The renegades run this world. Whether it be outsiders like Pablo Escobar or insiders like Vladimir Putin. We're just pawns in their game.

Unless we decide to play.

Are you willing to play?


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