Musings
Humility
I’m going to forgive you in advance because I know most of you are not aware that Bob Taylor died last week. I’m also going to forgive you for not knowing who Bob Taylor was. Teams led by Robert Taylor pioneered or perfected many of the innovations we associate with modern computing: the computer mouse,…
Read MoreDay 1
Nikki forwarded me a link to an article about Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, and three words he recommends we use to make good decisions and do good work: “Disagree and Commit” This phrase was quoted from a letter Jeff sent to his shareholders. I had read another article that included the full text of…
Read MoreThe 1 Percent Rule
There are approximately 16,000 tree species in the Amazon rainforest. However, 227 “hyperdominant” species (1.4% of the total) are so common that they account for half of all the trees. Of the 16,000 species, 11,000 only account for 0.12% of trees. Why? In nature, as well as in human society, we are often faced with…
Read MoreDoomsday Prep For Non-Paranoid People
That is the title of an amusing article I read by Leigh Anderson. I will warn you there is a bad word in the article, but overall I found it funny and thought-provoking. Reading this article coincided with Kimray’s Annual Shareholders Meeting where the subject of “what do we do if something bad happens” almost always…
Read MoreBananas
In 1890, a pathogen called Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense wiped out the banana plantations across Latin America. This was because unlike in a natural environment where there is diversity, the banana plantations had been reproducing and planting clones of the Gros Michel banana. Basically, every banana plant in Latin America was an identical twin of…
Read MoreAll the Small Things
Travis Barker and Tom DeLonge of blink-182 wrote a song called “All the Small Things,” which includes these words: All the small things True care, truth brings… She left me roses by the stairs, Surprises, let me know she cares I love that song because it reminds me that I don’t have to do big,…
Read MoreTo Protect and To Serve
I noticed a police car the other day. Not that I don’t notice police cars when I see them, but the way I look at them these days is different. I used to see them as potential problems, and my unconscious response was to check my speed. Since I no longer speed and am not…
Read MoreWe Are the Champions
I spent the weekend in Tulsa watching the Big 12 Wrestling Tournament. The Oklahoma State University Cowboys dominated the event and made history several times over. All 10 Cowboys made it to the finals, and eight Cowboys won the championship in their weight. We scored more team points than anyone in Big 12 history, and…
Read MoreToo Little Too Late
In 1985, the US Army selected the Beretta M9 (a version of the 92FS) as its standard issue side arm. On January 19, the Army ended that 30-year relationship when it chose the Sig Sauer Model P320 as its new weapon of choice. If you’re keeping score, that 10-year contract is worth $580 million. The…
Read MoreMediocrity is a Virus, Excellence is the Cure
“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation: we do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have these because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” —Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy Many hundreds, if not…
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