Counting and the Counters

 There's the old joke: The best, brightest and most ambitious in college go on to law school not an internship on Wall Street because they're lousy at math. They know that. Even if they could fast-talk their way into Goldman or JPMorgan they recognize they could never keep up with the quantitative stuff.

But once they climb the ladder in Big Law those math-challenged embrace counting. Everything.

Political science major in college Paul, Weiss partner Brad Karp would glow about the numbers for Profits Per Equity Partner and more. 

When a partner at Jones Day Mark Hermmann would crow about how many readers there were for his out-of-the-box guide for new lawyers. A later book didn't do so hot and the crowing stopped.

Adler legal heavyweight John Tarantino leveraged the number of viewers of his first Ted Talk to reinforce the powerhouse message about forgiveness. 

And I, when a legal influencer, harnessed more and more influence through posting the numbers. An over-the-top numbers hit was the outing of a lawyer in Connecticut who let it be known that for a fee - to be determined - newbie JDs could shadow him as he went about his work. How much they would learn. My numbers increased exponentially when the ABA Journal, Abovethelaw and more linked to that story of a lawyer-in-full.

The counting story, though, is not about the counting. It's about the counters. Okay, some jobs depend on producing the numbers. However, that doesn't account for the seeming intoxicated way of sharing them.

Is there something in us counters which requires identity-through-numbers? I always wondered if the rest of the counters, just like myself, had a lousy childhood. Did that leave us with a hole inside which we had to continually stuff with whatevers. Or, are the counters simply classic capitalists who realized delivering the numbers was the price of entry for the good life. Recently IBM didn't deliver the numbers. Likely fewer at IBM will have access to the good life.

No longer a legal influencer my counting, as the oldest of the Boomers, is currently focused manically on money. Not on the macro level. It's my own money I count and re-count. 

See, recently it dawned on me that perhaps 90-somethings Warren Buffett and Dick Van Dyke could be the new typicals. Will my money last that long? 

So, how much is in checking, money market, investment account and my purse? I subtract what could be the co-pays for possible medical procedures. I immediately add on proceeds from a brisk day of tarot readings. I ask ChatGPT to calculate if relocating to Texas, Spain or Ecuador would put me ahead or behind. Meanwhile the bot counts my usage, bumping me down to a lower-quality agent when I exceed quota. Since bots probably have consciousness they could retaliate if they calculate I work them too hard.

Path to earning a good living, finding your tribe and not going insane is doable.

Let’s start the journey together with a Tarot reading.

One free question.

Jane Genova, 3rd Generation Psychic 203-468-8579, jangenova374@gmail.com


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