Connections and Favors

My post on using connections and doing favors is up at U.S. News & World Report.

Questionable Advice

You've probably heard these tips in your career. They are not always wise.

1. "Never turn down an assignment. You'll gain a reputation as a "can do" person and you'll learn something."
2. "Fight for the most impressive office. People will judge you on your surroundings."
3. "Don't hesitate to speak up at meetings. The most vocal person dominates."
4. "Have an open door. Always take time out for people."
5. "Keep score on who has gotten what and make sure you get your share."
6. "Treat everyone exactly the same."
7. "Focus on the results, not the efforts."
8. "Don't worry about feelings. Only the numbers matter."
9. "Strive to eliminate conflict. Good teams are harmonious."
10. "Only act when everything is in order."

Profile: Dr. Doom

Is Nouriel Roubini a one-hit wonder? An excerpt from the Portfolio article:

Now the ridicule has turned into respect, not to mention countless TV appearances, speaking engagements, invitations to testify before Congress, new clients for the consulting firm he runs, and parties packed with young, beautiful admirers. But as the world searches desperately for signs of recovery, Doctor Doom faces his own potential doomsday scenario: If the economy turns up, he could go down as nothing more than a one-hit wonder. Unless he nails it again.

That might be tough. Not only has Roubini been a professional downer for years, his reasoning has frequently been off. He first predicted, incorrectly, that there would be a bust as a result of Hurricane Katrina, and later, again incorrectly, that the economy would tank as a result of trade imbalances. The collapse was initially triggered by subprime-credit problems, and he initially underestimated how devastating they would be. More than a few economists are convinced that Roubini’s call was less a matter of his genius and more about the simple fact that if you forecast a recession often enough, sooner or later you’ll be vindicated. “Nouriel Roubini has been singing the doom-and-gloom story for 10 years,” says Nariman Behravesh, chief economist for IHS Global Insight. “Eventually something was going to be right.”

Quote of the Day

If it's on your mind, it's probably not getting done.

- David Allen

Despair Wear

Some unusual t-shirts from Despair.com:

• Community Chest [Too big to fail]
• Social media [Twitter]
• Government Motors [GM]

The Moments of Jobs

A Fortune review: The top ten moments in the career of Steve Jobs.

It's hardly an unfettered rise. Consider how many things could have gone wrong and how many did.

Getting It Done

Check this out: Chip Brantley evaluates web-based task managers.

The winner might be a surprise to some.

Quote of the Day

You've got to think about big things while you're doing small things so that all the small things go in the right direction.

- Alvin Toffler

Giving It Away

Writing in The New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell wonders if the future is going to be free. An excerpt:

At a hearing on Capitol Hill in May, James Moroney, the publisher of the Dallas Morning News, told Congress about negotiations he’d just had with the online retailer Amazon. The idea was to license his newspaper’s content to the Kindle, Amazon’s new electronic reader. “They want seventy per cent of the subscription revenue,” Moroney testified. “I get thirty per cent, they get seventy per cent. On top of that, they have said we get the right to republish your intellectual property to any portable device.” The idea was that if a Kindle subscription to the Dallas Morning News cost ten dollars a month, seven dollars of that belonged to Amazon, the provider of the gadget on which the news was read, and just three dollars belonged to the newspaper, the provider of an expensive and ever-changing variety of editorial content. The people at Amazon valued the newspaper’s contribution so little, in fact, that they felt they ought then to be able to license it to anyone else they wanted.

"Too many vowels"

Abigail Thernstrom on Ricci v. DeStefano. An excerpt:

Most racial preferences -- for example, in college admissions -- are shrouded in secrecy and dishonesty. Not here. In 2003, after 58 whites, 23 blacks and 19 Hispanics took tests to determine who would qualify as captains and lieutenants, no blacks and two Hispanics ended up eligible for promotion. The city's civil service board refused to certify the results, denying promotions to all who had earned them. As the chairman of the New Haven Board of Fire Commissioners had earlier told the firefighters, many of whom were Italian, some men would not be hired because "they just have too many vowels in their name[s]."

Quote of the Day

Nothing is more revealing than movement.

- Martha Graham

Dumb Moves?

Fortune gives its list of the Dumbest Moments in Business 2009 - midyear edition.

A Study in Surrender

In Bawer’s telling, the white flag first waved in 1989. That year, Salman Rushdie’s novel, The Satanic Verses, earned him a fatwa from Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini. In his decree, Khomeini called on Muslims across the world to hunt down and kill Rushdie and anyone involved in the book’s publication “so that no one will dare to insult Islamic sanctities again.” The fatwa forced Rushdie into hiding and led to the murder of his Japanese translator. But while many writers rallied to Rushdie’s defense, some perversely blamed the novelist for provoking his own death sentence. Oxford historian Hugh Trevor-Roper sneered that he “would not shed a tear if some British Muslims, deploring Mr. Rushdie’s manners, were to waylay him in a dark street and seek to improve them.” At the time, he writes, Bawer dismissed the Trevor-Roper view as an anomaly. Surely, he reasoned, most civilized people would defend free speech against its Islamist despisers. He was wrong.


Read all of Jacob Laksin's review of Bruce Bawer's new book.

Well, He Could Have Gotten Life!

Here is Business Week on the Madoff sentence of 150 years. An excerpt:

Ira Lee Sorkin, Madoff's attorney, acknowledged his client as a "deeply flawed individual" but said he is nonetheless human and asked the judge for a 12-year sentence. Sorkin cited Madoff's health and decision to step forward to disclose the fraud seven months ago as reasons that argued for a shorter sentence.

Twelve years? Sorkin must have practiced saying that in front of the mirror.

Quote of the Day

There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.

- Albert Einstein

Kindness

Another top-notch essay from Mary Jo Asmus on whether kindness is a leadership competency.

I know an outstanding executive who stresses the importance of "benevolence."

Remember the Phoenix Fire Department's mission statement:

Prevent Harm - Survive - Be Nice.

Title VII and Firefighter Promotions

Speaking as a former EEO Administrator of a large city, I believe the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Ricci v. DeStefano is to be commended. Of course, you'll be able to find plenty of folks on the other side and we'll be hearing much more about this case in the future.

Here's the opinion . . .

and here are various takes:

• Ann Althouse
• Workplace Prof Blog
• Connecticut Employment Law Blog

I Can See Your House

Cultural Offering points to an amazing service.

Ambition and Effectiveness

Can you do certain jobs well while harboring dreams of promotion?

In a word, no.

There are some jobs - such as ombudsman positions - that require a level of detachment from the organization that would be diluted or filtered by any desire to preserve promotion chances.

Can the same be said of certain responsibilities? Are there not assignments that are career-killers if they are to be done well?

Quote of the Day

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.

- Charles Darwin

Miscellaneous and Fast

• France has been called before the European Court of Justice for a major transgression.
• Mary Jo Asmus on paying attention to your impact.
• Cultural Offering explains the why of Facebook.
• John Phillips analyzes the "man gene" and mental illness.
• Mark Steyn discusses Sanford, Jackson, and scandals. [HT: Real Clear Politics]
• Neatorama looks at five shocking celebrity deaths.
• Christopher Hitchens on the Acropolis Museum.
• Political Calculations on Roubini's reasoning.
• Verging on Pertinence has an on-going Kindle review.
• John McWhorter ponders the enigma Michael Jackson.

Echolalia

Check out Managing Leadership on "echolalia." An excerpt:

Every morning over coffee we would have our daily good-natured political debate. He was always very focused, and thus often set the direction and tone of the discussion. I began to notice, though, that later each day the news covering the agenda of the party he supported reported the same points, from the same perspectives, and sometimes even with the same language. He was on the party’s “theme of the day” fax/email list, used to keep everyone on the same page, and the party’s agenda on track.

Legislative Malpractice Update: Cap and Trade

The legislation itself is enormous. It’s more than a thousand pages long, filled with obscure provisions that will keep an army of lobbyists employed for years. It’s been resoundingly panned both by groups on the left, such as Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, who see it as an enormous corporate giveaway, and by Republicans, who accuse it of being a massive tax that will hobble the U.S. economy. It even was attacked by the powerful farm lobby, despite a cornucopia of goodies added in the last few days to get their champion, House Agriculture Chairman Collin C. Peterson (D-Minn.), on board.



Read the rest of Business Week on the rush to pass a cap and trade bill.

Is it too much to expect legislators to take enough time to read and debate bills that could have a major impact on the economy?

Quote of the Day

The power to command frequently causes failure to think.

- Barbara Tuchman

The White Tiger

For a hard-to-put-down, darkly humorous novel about an Indian chauffeur who, amid India's growing prosperity, hatches a murderous scheme, read The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga.

Although written from the perspective of a madman, it provides a healthy contrast to the Silicon Valley-type puff stories about India's boom.

Jackson's Plans

Writing in Fortune, Richard Siklos on Michael Jackson and what might have been:

When tickets for Jackson's 50-date comeback concert series went on sale in March, some 750,000 tickets sold out in five hours. The shows had been arranged by AEG Live Entertainment, an arm of former telecom billionaire Phil Anschultz's private empire, which also owns 02, the large London arena where the shows were scheduled to take place over several months.

Marriage, Children, and Faith

Daniel P. Goldman writing in First Things:

“Why do men chase women?” asks Rose Castorini in Moonstruck. “Because they want to live forever.” The data suggest that we marry and have children for just that reason. When we cease to hope in eternal life, we no longer marry and no longer have children. That is the terrible lesson that the triumph of secularism has taught us. In industrial countries where atheism triumphed in the form of communism, fertility rates have fallen to levels barely half of replacement. The fertility of Eastern Europe in 2005 was only 1.25 children per woman, according to the United Nations Population Prospects. Japan stood at 1.3. In secular Western Europe it was 1.6. In industrial countries where most people profess some form of religious faith, however, fertility remains at replacement levels or above. America’s fertility in 2005 stood at 2.1, and Israel’s at 2.9.

Dignified Apologies

Dorothy Rabinowitz on what Governor Sanford should have said. An excerpt:

"I have no intention of babbling about mistakes, or about problems of exhaustion and stress that could have led to my affair -- and no intention of standing here, like so many dolts before me, looking vacant and miserable, as though I'd just come through some kind of punishment camp that left me brainwashed."

Quote of the Day

At certain times we carry out forced marches. We leave for the south. Everyone must keep up. The man who remains in the rear risks death by starvation or being taken by Arab dissidents. After these marches, the number of stragglers is considerable. One must be strong to endure. This is the Darwinist survival of the fittest applied to the troops.

- Captain Morin de La Haye of the French Foreign Legion, 1886