Tomorrow, on the 25th of February, I will travel to Cairo, taking all my belongings. 

The first time I came around to this part of the world was Jan 2023. I spent the last 6 months in Dahab, Egypt. When I first arrived, I hurt my left knee from a prior injury that was exacerbated on the final days of my Himalayan tour. I stayed in my hotel room a lot and did not go anywhere. After a month in Dahab, I started diving. With the help of my friend Assar and Haithem, I started collecting and buying my own gear. In the short span of the following few months, I have dived in all the dive sites in Dahab, many many times. Yesterday marked my 50th dive in the span of this year.

As I finished my last dive with my friend and instructor Omar, I told him, I plan to go back to the USA only a few months before I come back to Egypt or Turkey. I remember, in 2019 when I had just returned from my big trip, I was in a similar position. I had every intention of going back to Colombia and Ensenada Mexico. I even had rough plans of returning that were beyond just an idea. I never returned, and 5 years later, there are no longer any plans to return. 

As I sat there in the cafe for my final dive in the Canyon, I could not help but notice the parallel of the two events, and the uncertainty of life. Will this be the last time I see the Red Sea? I do not know. I sure hope not, but if my own experience taught me anything, it is that I’m not certain of anything. 

I have worked online for the 6 months since I came to Dahab. I would have never imagined in my wildest dreams that I would feel close to people I have never met in person. But, no matter how close it may seem, there are many things that online interaction simply cannot replace actually interacting with someone in person. 

I am uncertain if the bonds I made online will stand the test of time, I am uncertain if the connection I feel is reciprocal, I am also uncertain if the connections are genuine or simply the product of necessity made by the job, and the most melancholy of all, I wonder if these connection will forever just be virtual. 

There is however, one thing I can not deny, in the 6 months living alone in a place I do not know the language, and have very few friends, the messages and interactions are the things I look forward to the most every morning. 

I finished my first dive safari, and saw the famous wreck thistlegorm. Experience diving from the zodiac and getting enough dives to be ready for elphinstone.

I have worked online for more hours than I can count. I have met so many people on this new platform. As we measure the value and efficacy of this next generation, we often speculate the metrics that will yield the result we desire. Regardless of which one we focus on, they are all interconnected. 

Managing people is perhaps the most difficult job, period. Most bad behaviors are overt and easily identified. If a person is defiant, argumentative, and defensive we can easily see these conflicts. While these behaviors may bother me to varying extent, none have vex me like the behaviors of sycophants, suck ups, and brown nosers. Anyone in a leadership position that wishes to avoid the pitfall of echo chamber and polarization, it is imperative to not see differences in opinion as an existential threat. We must feel differently when we are receiving flattery. We ourselves have to ward off our own narcissism. We need to reject these flattery, and when we can, we need to do so publicly. 

Flattery can come in many forms, people regurgitating what you said, offering baseless compliments, appealing to pity fallacy, or simply smiling sweetly but offering nothing more than a little charm. There is a clear line between respectfully having tact when speaking to your boss (or anyone for that matters) vs. glorifying them with ass kissing behavior. You can have tact when speaking the truth, without offending people, and making compliments without kissing ass.

Sycophants are perhaps the most dangerous in any organization. Their desire to appeal to a manager or boss means that their desire is narcissistic to the core. Not only will their intent be nothing more than the benefits/ reward they will receive from their superior, but they also simultaneously ignore all their colleagues as well as the company’s goal. They may seem to be aligned with all the ideas you are saying because they are simply regurgitating everything you said, but they do not have any independent thought of their own. On top of that, their allegiance will waver at the drop of a hat, depending who will benefit them. We call these “opportunists”, but it’s nothing more than a description of people who can not be trusted. 

But I digress, these are just kids and these are just childish behaviors. So it is up to those who lead to not reward these behaviors. The more we reward people who are suck ups, the more we breed a den of snakes. The less we reward these behaviors, even those who are predisposed to these behaviors will learn to focus on the work rather than appealing to their bosses. Then we go back to judging people based on their actual value, rather than their personality.