Forgotten Failures

Abraham Wald was a Hungarian Jew who fought in WWII and was responsible for untold numbers of pilots and crew members coming back alive from engagements over Europe. He did all this from an office in New York City. His weapons were mathematics and statistics, and his battlefield was data used to create solutions to…

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Arts And Crafts

More than one person around me lately has said that something was part art and part science. Many examples of art intersecting with science exist around us. Art is crucial in helping us understand our scientific legacy, and science is well served by applying an artistic lens. Together, art and science help us interpret, study,…

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Harder Than It Looks

Sometimes things we think should be easy turn out to be quite difficult. At my age, this is a lesson I should be familiar with, yet I often forget it and end up where I ended up this weekend. My son and I were replacing the rotors and brake pads on his 2004 Ford F-150.…

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What Am I Meant To Know?

I am a data junky. I love to know things. How things work. How things came to be. How things are made. I want to know. This is not a bad thing in general. Knowledge can be good when it enables us to move ourselves and those around us in positive directions. Knowledge can lift…

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Of, By, and For

On July 4, 1776, thirteen American colonies declared themselves to be the United States of America and claimed freedom from the tyranny of the British Crown. It was a dangerous and bold move. They went on to say that they “hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are…

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Stranger Things

My youngest son and I watched all three seasons of the Netflix series, Stranger Things, and eagerly anticipate the release of season four. If you have not watched or even heard of this award winning and critically acclaimed masterpiece, I am truly sorry for you. However, I can easily give you enough background for the rest…

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Gateway

I’ve been thinking about pain a lot lately. The emotional kind. Where it comes from. Why we have it. What I do with it. There is a lot of pain related to what we are having to do these days. I haven’t always been able to face that. I used to ignore and medicate it…

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The Oldest Story In The World

I recently had breakfast with a good friend, Ken Parker, who is the Founder and CEO of NextThought. Ken brought breakfast tacos to the office and we sat in a conference room and ate as we talked. I love talking to Ken. He tells stories. On this particular morning he was telling me the story…

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I 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…

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This Is Your Brain on a Laptop

We love our electronic devices. They make our lives better, right? Connected life is richer, more fulfilling, more efficient. Ok, you know that is not necessarily true, but having a laptop in a meeting or a lecture surely increases your ability to record and remember what occurred and therefore are helpful, right? Wrong. A growing…

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