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All things being equal, the simplest explanation is generally true. (Occam's Razor)
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. (Hanlon's Razor)
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. -Arthur C. Clarke

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Dealing with Anger and Frustration--10 steps:

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Dealing with Anger and Frustration--10 steps:

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1. Breathe. Count 10 slow breaths.
2. Talk to yourself about the problem. Work it out in your own words.
3. Try empathy. If someone is bothering you, think of what you might have done or felt in his or her place. Are you so very different, truly?
4. Model grace. Practice makes (almost) perfect.
5. Be patient. Remind yourself that time, like water lapping a beach, tends to smooth wrinkles.
6. Remember what is important. Are you really prioritizing correctly?
7. Laugh. At something, anything.
8. Can you do something to make it better right now?
9. Repeat Step 5. Perhaps given a little time away from the situation, you might see it differently.
10. Ask someone for help--someone you can trust and be yourself with.

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Stress shrinks your brain's available solution pathways! Fight or flight is a binary response, and most modern problems don't get solved that way. I mean, try it, but don't blame me when you lose your job, have a bloody nose, are brought up on assault charges, and nobody loves you.
Raise dopamine in your brain by thinking about things you are grateful for. Make a list. Right now. I have one at my desk for emergencies.
Name your state of mind and take control of your own thoughts and feelings. "I am freaking out right now. My chest feels like it is constricted. I am afraid of..........etc"
Breathe deeply. 3 times.
Take a walk.

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This morning as a drove on a familiar highway interchange which involves a long sharp turn and lower speeds, I passed a slower truck and another car which was not travelling very fast, seemingly by choice. I waited  to see if one of them would challenge me as I passed, and neither did. So, I moved like a rock out of a slingshot beyond them both, and said to no one " ok, then,  if that's how it is, see you later".
Sometimes we are the passers, and it's not malicious, it's just practical and reasonable, by choice or by chance. Leaving people behind on the road is not something we are sad about or feel guilty of when we are driving--either someone has a slower car or just wants to go slower. I don't care which--it's not important.
But in life sometimes I have felt pity for the people being passed, like if I get better grades or make more money. And maybe the there is a lesson there from driving. Perhaps I should recognize that people make choices which regulate their speed of advancement, and for that matter, their destination. Rather than judging them by my own haste, better to leave them to their own plans, be it as it may. People don't need my pity. A lift now and then, help with a blown tire--sure. But it's really not my business where they are going or what determines the rate of speed.
There are also those who pass me--and I am the one left in the dust. I do not need their pity, either.

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Mintzberg's theory on organisations | ACCA Qualification | Students | ACCA Global

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Mintzberg's theory on organisations | ACCA Qualification | Students | ACCA Global

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Strategic apex

This element of the organisation is made up of directors and senior executives. Their role is to interpret or define the mission of the organisation and ensure that its objectives are consistent with this mission. The strategic apex is also responsible for managing the organisation's relationship with the macro-environment.

Operating core

The operating core carries out the activities necessary to deliver outputs.

Middle line

This element provides the link between the strategic apex and the operating core. The role is partially one of interpretation, as the work of the operating core has to be consistent with the expectations and plans of the strategic apex. Simple, smaller organisations may not have a middle line at all.

Technostructure

The technostructure is made up of key individuals and teams working in functions such as human resources, training, finance and planning. Mintzberg states that there are several roles here. Analysers decide on the best ways to perform jobs and seek to standardise skills. Planners decide on outputs and define quality requirements.

Support staff

Support staff work in functions such as research and development, public relations and legal services. Their outputs do not contribute directly to the core purposes of the organisation, but their activities contribute to the efficiency and effectiveness of the strategic apex, middle line and operating core.

The relative influence of these elements to one another have a significant impact on the nature of the organisation. Mintzberg asserts that each element will have a preferred means of coordination. For example, the strategic apex will attempt to coordinate through direct supervision, and will be especially important in smaller organisations with simpler structures. The middle line seeks to standardise outputs, while the technostructure attempts to standardise work processes. The operating core will try to standardise skills.

Organisation structures

Based on his organisational model, Mintzberg described five categories of organisation structure, each of which would rely on one specific element of the model.

Simple structure

The simple structure is centralised and often autocratic, with power emanating from the strategic apex. Typically, control is exerted by the chief executive or small, influential executive team. Perhaps due to its simplicity, the structure can be flexible and sometimes informal, with a strongly defined sense of mission. However, Mintzberg warns that the simple structure is vulnerable, stating 'one heart attack can wipe out the organisation's prime coordinating mechanism'.

Machine bureaucracy

This structure relies heavily on a robust technostructure. Strategic planners and financial controllers are influential, leading to the creation of multiple layers of management, formal procedures and standardised production processes. Due to the high degree of standardisation, the tasks performed by the operating core can be rigid, offering little discretion for the individual. For this reason, Mintzberg observed that motivation can be difficult and the organisation can be unreceptive to the need for change. The machine bureaucracy is typified by large-scale car manufacturing plants.

Professional bureaucracy

Like the machinery bureaucracy, the professional bureaucracy is based on clear lines of authority and standard administrative practices. However, the practices may be built on standards set by law, regulations or independent external bodies, including professional bodies. Mintzberg cites schools, hospitals and professional practices as examples of this structure. He suggests that the professional bureaucracy is more democratic than the machine bureaucracy counterpart, and that it is easier to motivate people. The operating core is the major coordinating influence.

Divisionalised

In a divisionalised structure, a small central core provides guidelines for business units that enjoy a high degree of autonomy. Mintzberg states that this is an extension of the machine bureaucracy, or may even comprise several machine bureaucracies within a single corporation. It is the middle line that forms a strong coordinating influence, as its key role is to translate the demands of the small central core into the objectives of the operating core. The divisionalised structure is typical of multinational companies.

The adhocracy is task or project-based and has to respond quickly and flexibly to changing demands. These demands may be driven by rapidly changing markets or by innovation. There is little formality, so direct supervision and defined processes are less important than in other organisation structures. Research and development can be a primary driver of adhocracies, as typified by new technology industries.

The evolution of organisation structures

Mintzberg believes that structures are often a product of their time. He states that simple structures and machine bureaucracies were a feature of the past, when developed economies were highly reliant on large-scale production and manufacturing. By contrast, professional bureaucracies and the divisionalised form are more common today. Mintzberg predicts that the adhocracy will become more important in the future.
Written by a member of the Paper F1/FAB examining team

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Strategic apex This element of the organisation is made up of directors and senior executives. Their role is to interpret or define the mission of the organisation and ensure that its objectives are consistent with this mission. The strategic apex is also responsible for managing the organisation's relationship with the macro-environment.

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Hillbilly Elegy - J. D. Vance - Hardcover

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Hillbilly Elegy - J. D. Vance - Hardcover

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About the Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, NAMED BY THE TIMES AS ONE OF "6 BOOKS TO HELP UNDERSTAND TRUMP'S WIN" AND SOON TO BE A MAJOR-MOTION PICTURE DIRECTED BY RON HOWARD "You will not read a more important book about America this year."A riveting book."-The Wall Street Journal "Essential reading."-David Brooks, New York Times "-The Economist
From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a powerful account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America's white working class

Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis-that of white working-class Americans. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegrating over forty years, has been reported on with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.

The Vance family story begins hopefully in postwar America. J. D.'s grandparents were "dirt poor and in love," and moved north from Kentucky's Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually their grandchild (the author) would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of their success in achieving generational upward mobility.

But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that this is only the short, superficial version. Vance's grandparents, aunt, uncle, sister, and, most of all, his mother, struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, and were never able to fully escape the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. Vance piercingly shows how he himself still carries around the demons of their chaotic family history.

A deeply moving memoir with its share of humor and vividly colorful figures, Hillbilly Elegy is the story of how upward mobility really feels. And it is an urgent and troubling meditation on the loss of the American dream for a large segment of this country.

Educator and Librarian Resources

Critical Praise

"[A] compassionate, discerning sociological analysis...Combining thoughtful inquiry with firsthand experience, Mr. Vance has inadvertently provided a civilized reference guide for an uncivilized election, and he's done so in a vocabulary intelligible to both Democrats and Republicans. Imagine that." - Jennifer Senior, New York Times

"[ Hillbilly Elegy] is a beautiful memoir but it is equally a work of cultural criticism about white working-class America....[Vance] offers a compelling explanation for why it's so hard for someone who grew up the way he did to make it...a riveting book." - Wall Street Journal

"[Vance's] description of the culture he grew up in is essential reading for this moment in history." - David Brooks, New York Times

"[ Hillbilly Elegy] couldn't have been better timed...a harrowing portrait of much that has gone wrong in America over the past two generations...an honest look at the dysfunction that afflicts too many working-class Americans." - National Review

[A]n American classic, an extraordinary testimony to the brokenness of the white working class, but also its strengths. It's one of the best books I've ever read... [T]he most important book of 2016. You cannot understand what's happening now without first reading J.D. Vance. - Rod Dreher,The American Conservative

"J.D. Vance's memoir, "Hillbilly Elegy", offers a starkly honest look at what that shattering of faith feels like for a family who lived through it. You will not read a more important book about America this year." - The Economist

"[A] frank, unsentimental, harrowing memoir...a superb book..." - New York Post

"The troubles of the working poor are well known to policymakers, but Vance offers an insider's view of the problem." - Christianity Today

"Vance movingly recounts the travails of his family." - Washington Post

"What explains the appeal of Donald Trump? Many pundits have tried to answer this question and fallen short. But J.D. Vance nails it...stunning...intimate..." - Globe and Mail (Toronto)

"[A] new memoir that should be read far and wide." - Institute of Family Studies

"[An] understated, engaging debut...An unusually timely and deeply affecting view of a social class whose health and economic problems are making headlines in this election year." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Both heartbreaking and heartwarming, this memoir is akin to investigative journalism. ... A quick and engaging read, this book is well suited to anyone interested in a study of modern America, as Vance's assertions about Appalachia are far more reaching." - Library Journal

"Vance compellingly describes the terrible toll that alcoholism, drug abuse, and an unrelenting code of honor took on his family, neither excusing the behavior nor condemning it...The portrait that emerges is a complex one...Unerringly forthright, remarkably insightful, and refreshingly focused, Hillbilly Elegy is the cry of a community in crisis." - Booklist

To understand the rage and disaffection of America's working-class whites, look to Greater Appalachia. In HILLBILLY ELEGY, J.D. Vance confronts us with the economic and spiritual travails of this forgotten corner of our country. Here we find women and men who dearly love their country, yet who feel powerless as their way of life is devastated. Never before have I read a memoir so powerful, and so necessary. - Reihan Salam, executive editor, National Review

"A beautifully and powerfully written memoir about the author's journey from a troubled, addiction-torn Appalachian family to Yale Law School, Hillbilly Elegy is shocking, heartbreaking, gut-wrenching, and hysterically funny. It's also a profoundly important book, one that opens a window on a part of America usually hidden from view and offers genuine hope in the form of hard-hitting honesty. Hillbilly Elegy announces the arrival of a gifted and utterly original new writer and should be required reading for everyone who cares about what's really happening in America." - Amy Chua, New York Times bestselling author of The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

"Elites tend to see our social crisis in terms of 'stagnation' or 'inequality.' J. D. Vance writes powerfully about the real people who are kept out of sight by academic abstractions." - Peter Thiel, entrepreneur, investor, and author of Zero to One

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Hillbilly Elegy - J. D. Vance - Hardcover

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About the Book #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, NAMED BY THE TIMES AS ONE OF "6 BOOKS TO HELP UNDERSTAND TRUMP'S WIN" AND SOON TO BE A MAJOR-MOTION PICTURE DIRECTED BY RON HOWARD "You will not read a more important book about America this year.