Musings
I Doubt It
There is a pervasive untruth that is foisted upon us early in life and then reinforced at every turn. We hear it when we try-out for sports or take tests to get into school. We hear it when we interview for our first, or second, or twentieth job. We hear it every time we make…
Read MoreNatural Born Leader
The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers. Ralph Nader I used to tell people that I was born to be an engineer. It seemed to me that the ease with which I learned math and mechanics, my ability to visualize and design, and the speed at which I could do…
Read MoreInto The Woods
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living…
Read MoreWhen Will We Learn?
I watched a very interesting documentary recently. “Lesson Plan” (2011) is about a one-week experiment in a high school class at Cubberley High School in Palo Alto, California, in 1967. The teacher, Ron Jones, decided to answer the question, “How could the people in Germany go along with the holocaust?” in a very unique way.…
Read More1,453 is the Loneliest Number
I was under the weather this weekend and ended up watching a Sunday morning news program from bed. BTW, the term “under the weather” may have originated back in the days when travel by ship was much more common. During storms the sea would get rough and the ship would rock, sometimes violently, causing many…
Read MoreLimits of Power
I just finished reading Malcolm Gladwell’s “David & Goliath.” I know, it came out several years ago. So, I’m a little behind on my reading pile. Nevertheless, I found the book fascinating. Gladwell knits together several stories about very different people and circumstances to define a thesis: there is an inverted curve function when it…
Read MoreI Choose “C”
I rediscovered an album I hadn’t listened to for a very long time. “Everything That Happens Will Happen Today” is a collaboration between David Byrne (Talking Heads) and Brian Eno (Roxy Music). I was listening to collaborations because that was the theme of much of our work on the trip to Steelcase. In the song…
Read MoreIntermittent Connectivity
This may be the story of my life. Technology is fantastic until it isn’t. I am currently on a trip to Grand Rapids, MI, as we continue the process of programming the space within Cornerstone. I came up early with our architect and project manager in order to visit someone we met shortly the last…
Read MoreThe Script
In his book, Stein On Writing, Sol Stein (an author, playwright, editor and publisher) tells about an experience he had with the Playwrights Group of the Actors Studio in New York. In an improvisation exercise, Sol was given the part of the headmaster of a private school in New York for the privileged young. Another…
Read MoreNot My Problem
The story of the Good Samaritan is fairly well known, but in case you don’t know it let me recap. Dude makes decision to cut through bad part of town, alone, with valuable things on his person. Predictably, he is rolled by the bad guys and left for dead. Several people pass by him without…
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