Archive | Psychology

Making Friends

A recent email conversation with a friend, Tom, made me think about a fact of life that has some unfortunate consequences. As adults in the working world, we typically relate to each other on a single dimension, that of work. Whatever the work relationship, co-workers, client/consultant, or otherwise, our interactions are narrow in comparison to […]

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Luckily for me, I have always made friends in every kind of situation.  David’s friend, Tom, is an attorney at a large law firm, but neither David or I knew this when we met him while sitting next to each other at a RUSH concert.  David and I also met another, prominent and high profile, […]

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Patience

“I appreciate your patience.” “Thank you for your patience.” How many times do we hear this when dealing with customer service? When dealing with problems with vendors, contractors, retailers, etc.? These are obviously trained phrases. That is, the customer service reps are trained to say these words. But, in my opinion, they are ill considered […]

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Oh, the silly things people say!  Here are some of my favorites, starting with David’s, “Thank you for your patience.”  When someone tells me “Thank you for your patience,” I ask, “Why do you assume I have patience?”, particularly if I have been waiting for what seems like an eternity for the person to get […]

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Things Back to Normal! Water Fountains, Crowded Elevators, Smiling Faces

Hooray! Hooray! I had the privilege of selecting 2 juries, for 2 different clients, in 2 different courthouses, recently. Usually, this would be nothing to write about, however, these jury selections were noteworthy due to the fact that they were the first, and second, jury selections for me since the world shut down in March […]

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As the one who watches the business side of our business, it is great for Melissa to be back in the courthouse again.  Non functioning courts have been terrible for our business as clients have had little perceived need or motivation to hire a trial consultant if there can be no trials.  So, having trials […]

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Brave New World

Recent conversations with several attorneys prompted this post. The title many will recognize is from a 1931 book by English author Aldous Huxley, and I have to say, I’ve never read it. But, here we are in the 3rd quarter of 2021 and I have to say that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and other […]

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As David and I have written before, there are some people (like us) who thrive on change and there are others who prefer the status quo and/or wish things were “like they used to be.”  The latter types of people are, for the most part, boring to me.  Change is part of human existence and, […]

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J.D.

I met J.D. Harvey in the fall of 1980, shortly after I moved to Wakulla County, Florida to attend graduate school at The Florida State University. My dad was born in Medart, in Wakulla County, and he was particularly close to one of his cousins, Venice. I was fortunate to live in a mobile home […]

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In Melissa’s world there is, perhaps, a blurry line between being a psychologist and a friend.  The experience with J.D. is one of those.  I have a small, sticky backed, teddy bear on my computer monitor today that J.D. gave me (I have a couple other bear reminders as well).  Due to a turn of […]

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Quantifying Change

It is an exciting time to be a data nerd – the 2020 Census data are trickling out. And, apologies to Bob Dylan, with the times, the data are a-changing! The key data points released thus far confirm the growing diversity of America. I’ve been looking at some of the numbers for Florida, with a […]

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I’m thrilled that David decided to write about this topic!  I am the embodiment of the definition of “science nerd” and “data nerd.”  I love both science and the data obtained from research more than almost anything.  (The recent refusal of some people to believe in science, particularly medical science, is mind numbing to me, […]

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Passive/aggressive behaviors

Many people believe they know someone who is passive-aggressive. But, does the average person, without a psychology background, really know what the term, “passive-aggressive” means? Within psychology, there exists a psychological disorder known as passive-aggressive personality disorder, also known as negativistic personality disorder. This disorder has the following characteristics: overall negativism; persistent feelings of being […]

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I struggle in responding to Melissa’s post about this one because I don’t think I’ve ever had the displeasure of dealing with someone who is totally passive aggressive.  Instead, my point of reference to someone exhibiting passive aggressive behaviors is my own mother.  She was quiet, sweet and kind to everyone to such a degree […]

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Extend a hand

In a recent round of interviews, I experienced some things I had not thought about in a quite a while. First though, I should say that it has been several years since I had to go through this process and various things have changed. The job “ad” was different than ever and involved more online […]

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I have always admired David’s willingness to help people.  That is one of the things we have in common!  David goes out of his way to help people who need help and often, those in need of help are strangers who don’t expect anyone to help them.  This recent example of a job applicant is […]

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My Three Sons

David is one of the three sons of the late Carole and Herman Fauss. David is the eldest son, followed by Dale, then many years later, Stephen. Unlike many families with whom I am familiar, David and his brothers share a harmonious existence. None of them have ever been in any kind of trouble, there […]

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Writing this a few months after my parents’ deaths, it is interesting to reflect on how we three sons/brothers worked together well.  We missed a few details; there was so much to be done to look after our parents’ affairs.  But, we worked together in ways that apparently aren’t the case in all families.  I […]

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Trial team members, not vendors or facilitators

I’m writing this on a Monday, so I’m going to vent a little. This is a topic I’ve had on my list to write about for quite some time; I just never got to it, in part, because I don’t like to venture into areas of self importance. But, here I go. As trial consultants, […]

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Please note: I am not writing my part of David’s post on a Monday; furthermore, I think David’s topic is appropriate regardless of the day of the week!  This being said, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, wrong with being a vendor.  In fact, some of my favorite things are sold by vendors: hot dogs being […]

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