Some Thoughts on Salt

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Hey Indiepreneurs,

Without getting too much into the issues, my son had a (virtual) doctor’s appointment this week. The doctor mentioned that one of his medicines could possibly be causing low sodium levels in his blood.

“Isn’t sodium just salt?” Finley asked. When the doctor confirmed that it was, Finley asked the obvious question, “Can’t I just eat more salt then?”

It seems like an obvious solution: your body doesn’t have enough salt in it, so pour on the salt on your potatoes until you have a nice white layer over everything. Perfect, right?

Turns out, not so much. The medicine actually creates an interaction with the body that potentially blocks the salt from processing, no matter how much you eat. It’s a solvable issue, but having the salt shaker on hand from when you pour your morning cereal until you gargle water before bed isn’t the solution.

Last week I talked about the problem with experts, namely that just because they’re good in one field doesn’t mean that they’re good in the other.

I wanted to follow that up this week by pointing out that while you should be careful with your experts, you still need experts.

My son’s doctor knew right away both the problem and how to solve it, and the solution wasn’t necessarily the “most obvious” one. This can be true in so much in life, including while working on our business, where the “obvious” solution is also the wrong one.

Like I said last week, watch out for the false experts. But at the same time, make sure you find the real experts, those who can save you a lot of time and money.

It’s sometimes fun to try to do everything by yourself. You’ll save a lot of headache if you get help, though.

The Links

• I guess my gut on the latest Studio Ghibli movie looking bad was right.
• Let’s leave this as the last word on the whole Gamestop trading fiasco: it didn’t work.

Service Dog Update

At bus stops around this time of year, PETA ads pop up showing a sad dog sitting in the snow. “If you’re cold, they’re cold” it declares in it’s most accusatory font. You can almost hear Sarah McLachlan singing in the background.

Those ads came to mind this week as temperatures got down to “hell freezing” over territory. Every morning, Sherman and I do some perambulating. And on this morning, just like every other one, I put on my jogging gear, slung on his harness, and went out. This day, though, I only got about two blocks away from the house before I declared it way too cold and headed back home.

Sherman knows that the harness doesn’t come off until he sits. So once we got home, he didn’t sit. He just stared at me with those accusatory eyes. “It’s walk time. Don’t try to cheat out on me,” those eyes said.

Finally, after several minutes of this stand off, I grabbed my huge jacket and we went on a very cold walk. And he loved it.

I was freezing the whole time. According to the PETA ad, Sherman was as well. But if those puppy dogs eyes tell me anything, the real abuse would have been not taking him on the walk.