Tonight I turned to ESPN in preparation for the UNC bowl game and caught the end of the Kansas State vs. Syracuse game.  With about a minute left Kansas State threw a scored a nice touchdown where the receiver caught the ball and made a sweet run into the end-zone.  This brought Kansas State within 2 points and made the score 34-36. After the receiver scored the touchdown he dropped the ball and saluted and then joined his teammates in the end-zone. What is crazy though is that the referee threw a flag for unsportsmen-like conduct.  This was a 15 yard penalty and took the ball from the 3 yard line to the 18 yard line and made the possibility of a 2 point conversation extremely difficult.  Kansas State missed the 2 point conversion and lost the game.

According to the commentators a flag can be thrown for unsportsmen-like conduct if the player brings excessive attention to themselves.  Now technically you could consider that by flexing his bicep he did just that, but I mean come on. We have all seen a lot worse and a lot more excessive.  The referee who threw the flag either did not play sports or has forgotten how it works, but if you score a touchdown to bring your team within 2 points with 1 minute left in  bowl game the adrenaline is going to be flowing. The excitement will be uncontainable. In fact I think the receiver did quite well to restrain himself and not celebrate excessively.

Has this penalty gone too far? I get the idea of trying to prevent people from hiding cell-phones under goal posts or do freaky dances in the end-zone, but throwing a flag for a guy who just scored with 1 minute left to setup a potential game-tying play because he saluted seems outrageous.

I used to have this idea that it was ok to be late for anything. A doctor's appt, meeting, class, flights etc. It wasn't that I wanted to be late, it was more that I tried to squeeze an extra 3 mins of work right before I left rather than leaving what I was doing until I got back. As a result I would usually be late for most things by 5 - 10  mins and not really mind if others did the same to me. It didn't stress me out.

My wife however is quite the opposite. She hates being late for anything and will leave extra early to account for traffic etc. I used to think this was crazy and a waste of time when you could use those extra minutes to do something productive before you left.

I don't know if it is me getting older and potentially wiser or if my wife's attitude has been rubbing off on me but now I hate to be late. Mostly because I feel I am disrespecting the other person's time. It is so funny now to think that I take great pride in being early for a meeting because I see how I have grown in that respect. It's not to say that I am still not late, but I try my best to not be.

Is there something in your life where you have grown and are proud of the fact?

Recently I read a post from Mark Peter Davis' blog entitled "The Venture Mullet." It is a great post and something I have been thinking about for some time when watching people at tech conferences. It seems like the "hip" fashion for tech entreprenuers is jeans on the bottom and sports jacket on top with either a dress shirt or t-shirt below.  The reason I have been thinking about this is because I wondered how this came to be the norm for tech entrepreneurs. For me its almost as if you don't want to wear a suit because that would be too serious and you can't wear jeans and a t-shirt because that would be too casual. So this seems to have been some sort of compromise.  

Why does it matter though? Well the issue is that other people also think this is norm and by wearing this outfit you will meet people's expectations of what a tech entrepreneur SHOULD wear. So if you're not wearing this then you must either 1) take yourself too seriously 2) not be in the "know" 3) not take yourself seriously enough.  And who would want to risk that.

But this lends itself to a broader discussion which I have thought about for years. Why is it that you can stereotype a person by the clothes they wear? If you want to be a hispter then skinny vintage pants is expected.  If you want to be a hippy then sandals and long baggy clothes should suit you. A republican should wear dress pants and a golf-shirt. But how does this happen? And why is that you feel compelled to have to wear those clothes in order to fit the ideology or group that you are a part of.

Over the next few posts I will try to delve deeper into these questions and I thank my friend Mark for opening up this avenue of exploration that has been floating around in me for some time.