A City Screams in Terror!

James Lileks discusses Halloween and has some neat horror movie posters.

Healthier Fried Chicken?

Business Week examines KFC's decision to change its recipe to get rid of trans-fat. An excerpt:

And given the direction American food habits have been heading in, getting rid of trans-fats is just one issue in the obesity debate. After all, research from the NPD Group shows that Americans are eating more hamburgers, doughnuts, French fries, and fried chicken than ever before. Harry Balzer, a noted food researcher at NPD Group, says "fried chicken is the fastest-growing fast-food menu item in the last decade" (see BusinessWeek.com, 11/9/05, "Fat Times for Fast Food"). No wonder fast-food chains like Hardee's of CKE Restaurants (CKR) have introduced massive portions such as the Monster Thickburger (see BusinessWeek.com, 6/29/06, "Fast-Food Chains Buck the Healthy Trend").

Hitchens on Exits

Christopher Hitchens writes on indecent exit strategies in Iraq:

Many of those advocating withdrawal have been "war-weary" ever since the midafternoon of Sept. 11, 2001, when it was discovered that the source of jihadist violence was U.S. foreign policy—a mentality now reinforced by the recent National Intelligence Estimate circulated by our emasculated, demoralized, and incompetent intelligence services. To this way of thinking, victory is impossible by definition, because any response other than restraint is bound to inflame the militancy of the other side. Since the jihadists, by every available account, are also inflamed and encouraged by everything from passivity to Danish cartoons, this seems to shrink the arena of possible or even thinkable combat. (Nobody ever asks what would happen if the jihadists had to start worrying about the level of casualties they were enduring, or the credit they were losing by their tactics, or the number of enemies they were making among civilized people who were prepared to take up arms to stop them. Our own masochism makes this contingency an unlikely one in any case.)

Read the entire thing.

[HT: RealClearPolitics ]

Discretion Needed

Employers are checking out job applicants by running their names on Google...

and for a sizable number, that proves to be fatal.

[HT: newsvine ]

Creative Advertising

Via Neatorama, one of the Pedigree light dog food ads.

Carnival of Business

The Carnival of Business is up at Mine That Data.

Like the Carnival of Capitalists, it has a collection of posts on business, management, and financial topics.

Both Style and Honesty

Any professional team that apologizes for poor performance has scored a lot of points - sorry - in my book.

The above ad, which I learned about via Adfreak, was placed by the Golden State Warriors.

Quote of the Day

An extraordinary affair. I gave them their orders and they wanted to stay and discuss them.

- The Duke of Wellington, following his first Cabinet meeting as prime minister

Economics and Then Some

Michael Barone talks to M&B about good news and a train wreck:

I was off the campaign trail for an interview late last week with Office of Management and Budget Director Rob Portman on the budget. He has good news and bad news. The good news is that the budget deficit has gone down far more than any model has predicted and seems headed to go down even further. The bad news is that in the longer term, we face a "train wreck" with rising spending on entitlements–Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Read the rest here.

Fresh from Thailand!

Actor and comedian Larry Miller was in a less than pricey restaurant when a special guest appeared on the Larry King Show.

A guest so special that now Mr. Miller wonders about our culture.

How He Started: Roger Angell

In an interview, Roger Angell talks about both his writing career and editing for The New Yorker.

An excerpt:

I first contributed fiction to the magazine in 1944, when I was in the Army. My first fact piece for The New Yorker, the following year, was about a Seventh Army Air Force bomber mission—I wasn’t on it, thank God—from Saipan to Iwo Jima, in which the plane, a B-24 bomber, was hit by flak and fighters. The guys on the plane were wounded, and the plane fell through the air eight hundred miles back to the Marianas, and broke in half on landing. Everybody survived. It was basically a story about eleven really terrified guys.

Success?

The executive had heard Randall, one of her peers, make some inappropriate comments of a sexual nature.

"It wasn't anything approaching a proposition," she told the Human Resources specialist. "I'd say it was more of a tasteless remark but I think someone should let him know that comments like that just aren't professional."

The HR specialist replied, "Well, I agree that it is pretty mild but it could fall under our anti-harassment policy. We'll launch an investigation."

"I don't want an investigation," the executive replied, "and I don't want Randall to get into trouble. If you drag me into an investigation, I'll resign."

"I'll check with my boss," the HR specialist muttered.

Upon getting the news, the HR director contacted the company's attorney who, thinking of cases in which employers failed to have a prompt investigation, advised, "Too bad about the executive's feelings. Go ahead and investigate it."

The HR director said to the HR specialist, "We have no choice. Investigate it."

The HR specialist launched the investigation and scheduled interviews with several of Randall's co-workers..

Two days later, the executive who'd surfaced the problem resigned.

The HR director and the attorney discussed the matter and agreed that they'd had no choice.

Were they correct?

When is a Curmudgeon Lovable?

What is the difference between a lovable curmudgeon and a cruel abuser?

I ask this because you can find some individuals who are cranky and hard to handle but are revered and others who are simply abusive and mean.

An example: Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I worked with a retired criminal investigator who was in charge of background investigations. He was a rough old guy who never hesitated to tell you, in words of one syllable, how he felt about various matters. He would get angry and stomp off but he always came back. As far as I know, we all liked him.

What distinguished him from the classic workplace weasel?

• He was blunt but never cruel.
• He didn't pull rank. He'd argue with all levels and he never kissed up to gain favor.
• He was tough but professional. The idea that he might tell inappropriate jokes or single someone out for harassment was unthinkable.
• He was fair. He applied the same standards to himself that he'd apply to anyone else.
• He was open to other opinions. If he felt your ideas had merit, he'd seriously consider them.
• He put the mission above himself.

No wonder we liked him.

Protect the Cardinals

St. Louis is ranked as the most dangerous city in the United States.

Check out its competitors.

[HT: Drudge Report ]

Diversity in Iraq

Economist and ethnic studies scholar Thomas Sowell sees the main problem in Iraq has been diversity without assimilation.

In short, the melting pot is better than the salad bowl.

Searching for Insult

If you've been in the workplace any sizable length of time, you have probably encountered people who search for insult.

They listen carefully for every intonation and word that might signal a slight and are eager to label others as insensitive or bigoted. Usually, they are not disappointed in their quest, if only because their benchmark is so delicately calculated, the innocent and well-meaning are lumped in with the malevolent.

My guess is they don't care if their dragnet is too wide. Their game is not about spotting danger or discourtesy but instead is designed to establish their own superiority and, yes, innocence.

Unfortunately, many of these bitter souls work in the diversity field. There are diversity programs that promote practical ways of managing a mixed workforce that can be truly beneficial.

The ones that are conducted by zealots who seek to find racism, sexism, and homophobia under the corporate bed will divide your workforce far more than unite it. I continue to be surprised how often such practitioners are invited to facilitate diversity sessions at major organizations. Perhaps they aren't the only ones suffering from guilt.

Quote of the Day

Don't let your sorrow come higher than your knees.

- Swedish proverb

7 Fast Tips on Files

1. If you can't find a file quickly, it is as good as gone. Eliminate files or make them easy to find. Keeping hard to find files only clogs up the filing system.
2. You don't lose things in fat files. It's when you become too clever and have minifiles that you begin to lose things.
3. Remember this variation of the 80/20 rule: 20 percent of your files are related to 80 percent of your projects. 80 percent of your files only relate to 20 percent of your projects. Why do you have them mixed in together? Set aside your hot files.
4. Beware of using both Word and WordPerfect. WordPerfect generously lists Word documents as well as its own. Word swinishly lists only Word documents. Unfortunately, since most people use Word, it has the advantage.
5. Devote at least 30 minutes a week to eliminating files or else the jungle will start to grow back.
6. Complete your email filing once a day. Don't let email messages pile up. Delete them, act upon them, or put them in files.
7. Ask associates not to copy you on emails unless your participation or review is absolutely necessary.

Old Blogger Trick

Blogger has been acting strange again today. I'm posting this to see if it drags some of my other posts along with it.

Old blogger trick. Sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.

Stopping the Mullahs

Arthur Herman, writing in Commentary, believes there is a viable military option with regard to Iran and it involves going after their gasoline refineries.

Lighten Up Out There

A New York Times article - via Ann Althouse - on people who break up or never start relationships after learning the political views of the other person.

Wow. You mean they don't agree with me?

News flash: Your co-workers can be liberal, conservative, moderate, Democratic or Republican without being:

• Evil
• Greedy
• Ignorant
• Unsophisticated
• Poorly informed
• Unpatriotic
• Bigoted
• Warmongering
• [Fill in the blank]

Same Sex Marriage in New Jersey

Law professor David M. Wagner on the New Jersey same sex marriage decision.

The Man Who Didn't Shout

I once knew a supervisor who didn't shout.

He was polite and soft-spoken. He didn't rush to judgment and when he reached a decision, it was after carefully considering a wide range of alternatives.

He drove many of his associates nuts.

Why? Because they thought he had a hidden agenda. The deadline he gave couldn't be a real deadline, it must be a negotiable one, and the standards he set must be open to haggling.

His rationality was a problem for them. He sought calm, order, and accuracy. They wanted emotion, loose arrangements, and rough estimates.

Both sides, of course, needed to understand the other, but the associates had the greater burden. Their supervisor was not going to engage in emotional pyrotechnics. He would never explode in rage or be abusive. But he was going to be disappointed if they did not learn his low-key lexicon. If he said, "I really don't like that option," that was his equivalent of throwing a lamp across the room.

He didn't have a hidden agenda. He just had a different language.

Ads That Repel

We know about commercials and ads that don't attract customers but what is shocking is how many businesses pay for advertising that actually repels potential buyers.

Do law firms realize that the "actual client" testimonials in their television ads are made by people who look guilty as hell? [But perhaps that is the client base they hope to attract. "Hey, if those fast talkers can get that clown off, they should be able to get my drunk driving charges bounced."]

Do the car dealers who feature their most stereotypic sales men (for some reason, they're always men) ever consider that Mr. High Pressure shouting their bargains might not present the best image? And having some speed reader rapidly recite the reservations, caveats, and disclaimers only adds to the impression that you're going to be taken?

Do political campaign managers know that placing a smarmy candidate in a commercial with a phony script and a doting wife only increases the sleazoid sensation? [I often suspect many of the campaign managers subconsciously do so to save the nation from such creeps.]

Quote of the Day

The ugliest of trades have their moments of pleasure. Now, if I were a grave digger, or even a hangman, there are some people I could work for with a great deal of enjoyment.

- Douglas Jerrold

Just How Reliable Are Laptops?

What's the difference between a Sony or IBM or Toshiba laptop computer and one made at Gateway when it comes to reliability?

According to a Consumer Reports study, not a whole lot.

Lose Weight, Save Money

Want to spend less at the pump? Lose some weight. That's the implication of a new study that says Americans are burning nearly 1 billion more gallons of gasoline each year than they did in 1960 because of their expanding waistlines. Simply put, more weight in the car means lower gas mileage.

Using recent gas prices of $2.20 a gallon, that translates to about $2.2 billion more spent on gas each year.

"The bottom line is that our hunger for food and our hunger for oil are not independent. There is a relationship between the two," said University of Illinois researcher Sheldon Jacobson, a study co-author.

Read the rest here.

The Story That Doesn't Go Away

Neither prosecutor Mike Nifong nor any of his assistants have interviewed the accuser in the Duke lacrosse players rape case. They are relying solely on the police investigation.

Amazing.

[HT: Instapundit ]

Cyber-recruitment

Josh Manchester, writing in Tech Central Station, notes that the world is divided into two groups: the hunters and the hunted. An excerpt:

There are hundreds of websites featuring dozens of professionally produced videos of violence against US forces in Iraq. Dubbed with loud monotonal music for an extra creepy effect, at the point of the attack, the filmers usually erupt into cries of "Allahu akbar!"

The US might film its own missions for forensic or debriefing purposes sure, but that is a far cry from reveling in them. So what might motivate someone to be so twisted as to film and celebrate death?

One answer: recruitment.

Dalrymple on Crime

Theodore Dalrymple, in New Zealand for a meeting on crime, mentions some points that will surprise most of us:

But even if I had not been invited to New Zealand by the Sensible Sentencing Trust, I would have been alerted by reading the daily press to the existence of a dark side of New Zealand life: For every day there were stories of criminal brutality to which the official reaction seemed inadequate, or even casual.

On one day, a young man accused of murder made a vulgar and menacing gesture, in the very court in which he was being tried, to the sister of his alleged victim. Such a gesture could only have been indicative of the deepest possible contempt for the law, a contempt that was no doubt the fruit of long experience.

The day before, I had read of a young man who had attacked an old woman viciously, fracturing two of her facial bones and causing her other injuries from which it is unlikely that she will ever make a full physical or psychological recovery. For this, he was sentenced to a year's imprisonment. It is difficult to escape the conclusion that New Zealand is a country in which young men may with impunity attack old ladies with a murderous intensity; indeed, the government might as well issue them with an invitation to do so.

Of course, terrible things have always been reported in newspapers, for the reason first that they are interesting and second that they have always happened. In this sense, there is nothing new under the sun. But the statistics, as well as daily experience, tell the same story: Despite New Zealand's relative prosperity, it has the doubtful honour of being among the most violent and crime-ridden societies in the West.

Boxers or Briefs?

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — A Canadian city under pressure for alleged sexual harassment within its fire department has ordered firefighters to wear only boxer-style underwear.

Richmond, British Columbia, will spend $14,200 to buy six pairs of underwear for each firefighter in a bid to make firehalls in the suburb of Vancouver more gender neutral, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.


Read the rest here.

I have a feeling that changing the style of underwear may miss the main issue. It is similar to the old story about the wealthy man who came home one evening and discovered the maid and the butler making love on the sofa. The man was very upset. A week later, he came home unexpectedly and discovered his wife and his best friend making love on the sofa. He then decided to take action. He got rid of the sofa.

Justice Thomas Speaks

The Wall Street Journal Law Blog has an interesting post on some candid comments by Justice Clarence Thomas.

Among them: He doesn't like aggressive and hurtful questioning by judges and has some nice things to say about briefs filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Must Reading

Late last night - very late due to my insomniac dog - I finished Bruce Bawer's While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within.

It is not just a good book; it is an essential one if you want to understand what is happening in Europe. It also provides a great view of European anti-Americanism and how it thrived long before the Bush administration.

Bawer, who is gay and a liberal, writes a far more scathing indictment of the failure of Europe's leadership than anything I've seen from the Right.

The Tip

WaiterRant tells about a customer who left an unusual tip and then, something ethical happens!

Diva Update

Business Week looks at the reinvention of Martha Stewart:

Stewart, naturally, prefers not to talk about what the company would be like without her. At first, she will only express the hope that her name will have the longevity of Coco Chanel's or Walt Disney's. When pressed, she does say that "if I played a lesser role, the company could still do extremely well."At 65, though, she considers that prospect to be far off. She has no intention of pulling back her looming presence over the brand. She saw the damage that downplaying the Martha Stewart name caused for her company during "the legal problems," and she won't let that happen again. "I never agreed with that strategy because I believed in myself," says Stewart. The goal now is to take her brand as far as it will go and return her company to profitability (it hasn't made money since 2002 and in 2005 lost $76 million). "It's not like I'm an absentee founder, holed up in my château in France," she laughs. "I'm working every day."

Novels About Terrorism

Gerald Seymour gives his top five list of novels dealing with terrorism.

I'd add:

Harry's Game by Gerald Seymour

Quote of the Day

Reform always comes from below. No man with four aces asks for a new deal.

- The Irish Digest

Jargon Abuse

This CareerJournal article about people using corporate jargon at home is enough to make me scream:

When Michael Schiller, a management consultant, wanted to talk with his 15-year-old daughter about where she was going with her friends, he told her, "You have to recognize your ARAs and measure against them."

If my father had talked like that I might have recognized LSD and measured a rainbow.

His wife rolled her eyes, knowing that he was using HR speak to address accountability, responsibility and authority. His daughter, he says, "looked at me like I was from outer space."

That's because he is from outer space.

Sprawl Beyond Sprawl?

Joel Kotkin is high on suburbs and on America’s population growth:

Despite the desires of some new urbanists and "smart growth" activists to cram people into dense cities and regions, the America of 2050 — contrary to the contention of some demographers — also will likely be far more dispersed. A combination of new telecommunications technologies and rising land prices will accelerate the shift of population beyond the current suburban fringes and into the countryside. The demographer Wendell Cox calls this "sprawl beyond sprawl." It is driven by the simple fact, according to most recent surveys, that the vast majority of Americans — upward of 80% — still prefer single-family homes over apartments, while no more than 10% to 15% want to live near the central core.

Unless there is some sort of cultural revolution, most people, particularly families, are likely to continue migrating to places where they can acquire a spot of land and a little privacy. And despite the much ballyhooed "return to the city" by aging boomers, most experts suggest that most are either staying in the suburbs or moving to towns farther out in the hinterland. At least 30% of Americans, according to surveys by the National Association of Realtors and the Fannie Mae Foundation, express the desire to move to the country or a small environment, far more than live there now. The scale of this dispersion depends largely on urban governance. If cities cannot, due to economic or regulatory constraints, provide sufficient job opportunities, people and businesses naturally will flee elsewhere. Other factors, such as preserving family-friendly neighborhoods and stamping out a nascent resurgence in crime, will also be critical.

Light Amusement: Great Expectations

It's Friday. Time for some light humor.

A man and a woman eye one another in the lobby of a hotel:

Ignore the risque title. This is a brief and tasteful video about a rendezvous with a twist.

Bootlegging, Piracy, and Your Employees

Elizabeth W. Carroll, writing in the Oklahoma Employment Law Letter, on the dangers of employees downloading the property of others:

Employers are responsible for their employees' acts through a doctrine known as vicarious liability. In the same way that you might be responsible if your company truck driver slammed into the back of an unsuspecting bus full of children, you can be responsible if your mail clerk sits down at the computer and downloads bootleg copies of Pirates of the Caribbean.

"Quickie Time Tracking"

The cliche is correct: The simplest concepts are often the best.

From Work, in Plain English, "Quickie Time Tracking."

A very simple way to see how much remaining time you have on projects.

[HT: Political Calculations ]

Boo

Let’s say that your business is putting together “haunted houses” for the Halloween season and you need to know what will scare your customers. You’d do research, right?

Although the polling process did not adhere to scientific standards, Haskell, who lives in Brooklyn and is most scared of getting stuck in a cave, and Smithyman, an Englishman, who is afraid of being eaten alive, had ventured to draw a few conclusions. People from the Bronx and Queens, they said, tend to fear things that might actually happen, like being mugged (harpaxophobia), while Manhattanites are frightened of fantastical and unlikely occurrences (flying sharks, riding in an elevator that rockets through the roof of a building). “In Manhattan and Brooklyn, we heard ‘fear of the homeless,’ ” Smithyman said. “Then, in the Bronx, we heard ‘fear of becoming homeless.’ ” Staten Island residents apparently dread chemical spills and gas leaks.

Read the entire article from The New Yorker here.

Three Unspoken Interview Questions

The three unspoken questions of every job interview:

Can I trust this person?

How will this person fit in with my team?

Will this person embarrass me?

Token Support?

The controversy over whether German and French troops in Afghanistan are avoiding action in the more dangerous parts of the country is growing...and getting notice even in Germany.

British, Dutch, U.S., and Canadian forces are bearing more of the combat burden.

Quote of the Day

The nature of every bureaucracy is to make functionaries and mere cogs in the administrative machinery out of men, and thus to dehumanize them.

- Hannah Arendt

Oasis: Low Cost Flights

An airline that offers flights from Hong Kong to London for $128.

The Omnivore's Dilemma

Many books on food and diet are boring. Reason examines one with an intriguing difference:

As any TV news junkie could tell you, American food is a world in disarray. We're fat, sick, and sick of being fat, thanks to partially hydrogenated soybean oil, hormone-laden beef, and pesticide-coated cauliflower. Every local news station runs a weekly horrifying food-related exposé—some true, some false, all accompanied by a B-roll of big bellies. And when our food isn't a threat to us, we're a threat to our food: Chickens and cows, we're told, are being mistreated nationwide. The proposed solutions run the gamut from big government to huge government: new labeling requirements, bans on trans fats and soda machines in schools, lawsuits against McDonald's.

In the midst of all the chaos sits Michael Pollan, calmly nibbling a piece of homemade boar prosciutto and ruminating, "Let them eat cake made with unbleached organic flour and fresh butter from the local creamery." Pollan is the author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, an irritatingly excellent book. The reporting is illuminating, the writing is clear and swift, and I'm furious at myself for not having thought of the concept first. In this "Natural History of Four Meals," Pollan traces the ingredients of four meals from field to table: an industrial fast food lunch at McDonald's, a "big organic" winter supper from Whole Foods, a "local" dinner from a small farm in Virginia, and a final meal that he hunts, gathers, and cooks himself.

Meathead

The top Muslim cleric in Australia is catching well-deserved criticism after providing an unusual spiritual message:

In a sermon marking the end of Ramadan, Sheikh Taj el-Din Al Hilali told worshippers in Sydney that women who display their bodies were like "uncovered meat". He said that women should stay hidden at home, or wear the hijab, or Islamic scarf, in public.

"If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park ... and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it?

"The cats or the uncovered meat?"

[Note: See the prior post on The Dark Ages.]

Costco Stands Out

Why does Costco work?

This Fortune article on its CEO Jim Sinegal provides a lot of insight. An excerpt:

With $59 billion in sales from 488 warehouse locations, Costco, No. 28 in the Fortune 500, is the fourth-largest retailer in the country and the seventh-largest in the world.

In the 23 years since Sinegal co-founded Costco with Jeff Brotman (now chairman), it has never reported a negative monthly same-store sales result. Yet he's modestly compensated - Sinegal earned $450,000 in salary and bonus last year, chump change by CEO standards. Add in his stockholdings and he's worth $151 million. (One note on that: On Oct. 12, Costco disclosed that an internal review of stock-option granting identified one grant to Sinegal that was "subject to imprecision" and "may have benefited [Sinegal] by up to $200,000." Sinegal says he takes "full responsibility.")

The company counts nearly 48 million people as members, and those customers are not only slavishly devoted (averaging 22 trips per year, according to UBS analyst Neil Currie), but surprisingly affluent as well (more than a third have household incomes over $75,000).
While Wal-Mart (Charts) stands for low prices and Target (Charts) embodies cheap chic, Costco is a retail treasure hunt, where one's shopping cart could contain a $50,000 diamond ring resting on top of a 64-ounce vat of mayonnaise. Despite having 82 fewer outlets than its nearest rival, Wal-Mart's Sam's Club, Costco generates about $20 billion more in sales.

Take That, Ingrates!

Adfreak notes one woman's way to solve family quarrels over the future inheritance:

Place ads until the money runs out!

Now Showing: The Dark Ages

Victor Davis Hanson notes the giant steps backwards in The Middle East:

The most frightening aspect of the present war is how easily our pre-modern enemies from the Middle East have brought a stunned postmodern world back into the Dark Ages.
Students of history are sickened when they read of the long-ago, gruesome practice of beheading. How brutal were those societies that chopped off the heads of Cicero, Sir Thomas More and Marie Antoinette. And how lucky we thought we were to have evolved from such elemental barbarity.

Twenty-four hundred years ago, Socrates was executed for unpopular speech. The 18th-century European Enlightenment gave people freedom to express views formerly censored by clerics and the state. Just imagine what life was like once upon a time when no one could write music, compose fiction or paint without court or church approval?

Read the entire article here.

Ten Ways to Lose the Respect of Your Employees

1. Play favorites.
2. Ridicule people.
3. Fumble the basics.
4. Lie.
5. Overpromise.
6. Gossip.
7. Waste their time.
8. Take credit for their work.
9. Blame them for your mistakes.
10. Don't share their hardships.

For Your Election Day Fix

If you are a political junkie, Slashdot ("politics for nerds") has a posting with some nifty sites to monitor the results of congressional campaigns.

[HT: Futurismic ]

Thoughts for the Workplace

"We look at it and do not see it."
- Lao-tzu

"One of the paradoxes of an increasingly specialized, bureaucratized society is that the qualities required in the rise to eminence are less and less the qualities required once eminence is reached."
- Henry Kissinger

"It would perhaps be poetic justice if planners were paid in Susan B. Anthony dollars."
- Norman R. Augustine

"In life, as in war, the shortest route is usually mined."
- Old Saying

"85% of the world’s work is done by people who don’t feel very well."
- Winston Churchill

"No matter how much you like vegetables yourself, never try to feed a cat a carrot."
- Alex McEachern

"If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted or Beethoven composed."
- Martin Luther King Jr.

"He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city."
- 16 Proverbs 32

"Learn to say no. It will be of more use to you than to be able to read Latin."
- Charles Spurgeon

"The chief cause of failure and unhappiness is trading what you want most for what you want now."
- Zig Ziglar

"Coaches have to watch for what they don't want to see and listen for what they don't want to hear."
- John Madden

"If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail."
- Abraham Maslow

"You can't imagine the extra work I had when I was a god."
- Emperor Hirohito

"As soon as you are complicated, you are ineffectual."
- Maxim favored by Konrad Adenauer

"There is at bottom only one problem in the world and this is its name. How does one break through? How does one get into the open? How does one burst the cocoon and become a butterfly?"
- Thomas Mann

Movie Monologues

The House Next Door lists five great movie monologues.

From Citizen Kane: A fellow will remember a lot of things you wouldn't think he'd remember. You take me. One day, back in 1896, I was crossing over to Jersey on the ferry, and as we pulled out, there was another ferry pulling in, and on it there was a girl waiting to get off. A white dress she had on. She was carrying a white parasol. I only saw her for one second. She didn't see me at all, but I'll bet a month hasn't gone by since that I haven't thought of that girl.

[HT: kottke ]

Juan and The Coz

Abigail Thernstrom, Harvard professor, author, and member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, finds much to admire in the message of Bill Cosby and Juan Williams:

Williams is a senior correspondent for NPR and a strong liberal voice on Fox News. And yet he’s poured his heart and soul into delivering a heroic message that is deeply at odds with dug-in liberal orthodoxy. (Or rather, with the orthodoxy of the chattering classes; ordinary black folks are another story.) As Williams himself has said, “You become some sort of leper if you don’t lock-step your opinions in line with white liberals. They run the programming of CBS, NBC, and ABC, and they don’t want you to rock the boat of received opinion.”

Enough is a brave and wonderful book. It is also rather unusual; in effect, Bill Cosby is the co-author. I cannot think of another work quite like it. Williams is Cosby’s translator. As he acknowledges, his aim is to explain and defend The Cos, who gives speeches but does not write. Cosby is a beloved actor and comedian. But on May 17, 2004, in a speech to a glittering black-tie crowd celebrating the Golden Anniversary of Brown v. Board, he wasn’t funny and endearing. He delivered remarks from which his old friends in the civil-rights community (who have been substantial beneficiaries of his philanthropic largesse) have yet to recover.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, “the lower-economic and lower-middle-economic people are not holding their end in this deal” — the deal being rights, accompanied by responsibility. Too many young men are dropping out of school, fathering children from whom they “run away,” and populating prisons. “We cannot blame white people,” he went on; the problem is the underclass culture. “Everybody knows it’s important to speak English except these knuckleheads. . . . These people are fighting hard to be ignorant.”

Quote of the Day

I have two very rare photographs. One is a picture of Houdini locking his keys in his car. The other is a rare photograph of Norman Rockwell beating up a child.

- Steven Wright

They Snigger

George Orwell’s essay, England Your England, written in 1941 resonates today.

Some things never change. An excerpt:

In intention, at any rate, the English intelligentsia are Europeanized. They take their cookery from Paris and their opinions from Moscow. In the general patriotism of the country they form a sort of island of dissident thought. England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality. In left-wing circles it is always felt that there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman and that it is a duty to snigger at every English institution, from horse racing to suet puddings. It is a strange fact, but it is unquestionably true that almost any English intellectual would feel more ashamed of standing to attention during ‘God save the King’ than of stealing from a poor box.

Alternative Fuel Vehicle

When primitive automobiles first began to appear in the 1800s, their engines were based on steam power, the same power source which had motivated the Industrial Revolution. Steam had already enjoyed a long and successful career in locomotive powerplants, so it was only natural that the technology evolved into a miniaturized version which was unshackled from the rails. But these early cars inherited steam's weaknesses along with its strengths. The boilers had to be lit by hand, and they required about twenty minutes to build up pressure before they could be driven. Furthermore, their water reservoirs only lasted for about thirty miles before needing replenishment. Despite such shortcomings, these newfangled self-propelled carriages offered quick transportation, and by the early 1900s it was not uncommon to see such machines shuttling wealthy citizens around town.

Read the rest of the Damn Interesting story of the last great steam car.

But Of Course

Somehow the concern of running out of Halloween candy seems minor:

France is preparing for riots as November 1 approaches.

[HT: Instapundit ]

Letting It Go

Ask Uncle Bill discusses the concept of “never complain, never explain":

Each time I talk to him I try to steer away from the dot bust and back to his kids, his IRA, his paid up house, his rental houses, his great investment in San Diego townhouses but no, the talk always centers around the dot deal and that son of a bitch broker. My friend expends a lot of energy on that guy who, surpise, got cashiered out of the investment business and is probably in jail right now. Which is probably a good thing for him since I'm sure my friend would blast him away with a M-16 if he had one.

We all make mistakes, pass on good deals, invest in bad ones. I should have bought a house in San Francisco when I was three but I didn't. The real thing to avoid is betting the house on one deal. Or if you do, be ready to lose it all and walk away. People that buy businesses or start a business, do this all the time. That's fine but be ready to lose everything and be ready to start over again.

Bermuda Triangle Moves to Europe

Livestock farmers in Slovenia, only two years after joining the European Union, are proving as imaginative as Italian olive growers when claiming Brussels subsidies.

Inspectors found that half the cattle that Slovene farmers said they owned, so qualifying them for special EU cow and beef grants, did not exist. A quarter of their sheep and goats were equally invisible.

Read the rest of The Times of London article here.

Lileks from the Heartland

If a foreign visitor wants to get a sense of the American heartland, reading the columns and blog posts of James Lileks is a good start. Today, he’s discussing Halloween. An excerpt:

All the Halloween stuff came out today. There’s not much, but I remember (insert coot-signifying harmonica melody here) when there wasn’t any Halloween stuff to take out, let alone put away. Maybe one skeleton from the Ben Franklin, conveniently jointed so you could fold it up. Now we have rot-free faux pumpkins, strings of pumpkin lights, pumpkin bobbleheads, pumpkin bowls, pumpkin snowglobes, and pumpkin bubble-blowing bottles left over from three years ago. (I know, because I can carbon-date the detritus from the graphics. Target changes their Halloween designs every year.) I suppose I could dig down deep and find something horribly wrong about this, but I can’t; there’s nothing wrong with Halloween that November 1st can’t cure. No one wakes on December 26th to find the tree has been half-consumed by rodents. Pumpkins, on the other hand, have their faces chewed off in the night.

Leadership Techniques

Slow Leadership has a great post on the limits of leadership techniques.

One big limit: If the technique does not fit the person, it won't last. The person must be before the person can do. Many people go to workshops, get pumped up on some technique, go back and try it for a few days, and then revert to their old approach because although the technique was new, they weren't.

Another key point: You learn to lead by leading. Books and training are helpful in identifying things to avoid but the actual practice of leadership must be acquired by practicing leadership.

Ten PowerPoint Presentation Mistakes

1. Too much information on the slides. [Never reproduce a page or paragraph.]
2. Too many slides. [General rule: Never have more than eight.]
3. Too many bullet points per slide. [No more than three.]
4. Font too small to be easily read. [Should be at least 24 point.]
5. Font color and background color make the slide impossible to read from the back of the room. [Hey! We're getting old!]
6. Far too many background colors are used. [Stick to two or three for the background.]
7. Inconsistent font styles. [Very tacky.]
8. Font styles don't match tone of presentation; e.g., cheery font, somber topic.
9. So many special effects that the message is missed. [Let your message provide the fireworks.]
10. Overall effect is too formal for small audiences. [If the group is small, drop the PowerPoint and use a conversational tone.]

Sophisticated European Update

I routinely read European newspapers and magazines.

Their coverage of American politics and the United States in general is not merely poor, it's laughable. [Check out The BBC, The Guardian and der Spiegel for frequent examples.]

The electronic media aren't any better. Jane Galt is watching Sky News in Britain:

Watching Sky News is weird, because half the news is about America, and half of that is wrong. I mean, not factually wrong, but with a take on things that seems very strange to an American. For example, there was a very long piece on the "rising backlash" against George Bush on global warming. I care about global warming about as much as any quasi-libertarian, ever, I try to live a green(ish) lifestyle, and I follow the issue pretty closely. I had not noticed any rising backlash against anything except the rising gas prices preventing some Americans from taking long trips in their SUVs. Source of this "backlash"? Cities (and California) passing their own global warming ordinances.

This makes perfect sense from a British perspective, where about the only thing local councils are allowed to control is grotty public housing. But overlaying that worldview onto America has very strange results. Local governments can pass ordinances against global warming whenever they want; they can outlaw coveting your neighbour's wife, too, for all the good it will do. But in doing so, they don't strike a blow against the federal government; they are just making themselves part of the grand (classical) liberal experiment that is supposed to flower under federalism.

[HT: Instapundit ]

Quote of the Day

Learn to obey before you command.

- Solon

Humor Break: Achieving Inner Peace

I don't know where this bit of advice came from but it's making the rounds of the Internet:

I am passing this on to my good friends because it definitely works, and we could all use a little more calmness in our lives. By following simple advice heard on the Dr. Phil show, you too can find inner peace. Dr. Phil proclaimed, "The way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you have started and have never finished." So, I looked around my house to see all the things I started and hadn't finished, and before leaving the house this morning, I finished off a bottle of Merlot, a bottle of White Zinfandel, a bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream, a bottle of Kahlua, a package of Oreos, the remainder of my oldProzac prescription, the rest of the cheesecake, some Doritos, and a box of chocolates.

[HT: Lou Rodarte]

Skyline GT-R

Can Nissan's sales get a boost from an $85,000 car?

I See Dead Planets

Via Neatorama, the perfect chair - it rotates! - for lazy stargazers.

Throw the bums out!

Adfreak looks at a survey that reveals which baseball teams we like to hate and notes that the World Series between the Detroit Tigers and the St. Louis Cardinals doesn't trigger raw emotions.

Naturally, the team that inspires the greatest hatred is the you-know-who.

Worry

If you are a worrier - and I am one of Olympic caliber - you might enjoy Edward Hallowell's extraordinary book, Worry.

I pass this along because I've found his insights and recommendations to be extremely helpful. Hallowell, a lecturer at Harvard Medical School and the founder and director of The Hallowell Center for Cognitive and Emotional Health in Concord, Massachusetts, explores how we can bring our worries into perspective. An excerpt:

I was "on" that day and gave a good talk. When it was over and the applause died down, my old teacher, Dr. Leston Havens, shook my hand and told me the talk was "superb." He told me I should feel proud. And I did...for about as long as it takes a light bulb to fade after you flick off a switch.

Why was it that at the very moment Dr. Havens was shaking my hand, I picked out the face of a woman at the back of the room who was scowling at me? My eyes connected with hers, and her scowling face stuck in my mind as if it were a poisonous dart. As I left the lecture hall, that face overwhelmed my mind. Rather than feeling the gentle warmth of a job well done, I felt a chill rising within me instead. What was the meaning of that scowl, I wondered to myself. Why had that woman looked so disapprovingly at me? What had I done wrong? And what bad thing would happen to me as a result?

End of the World As We Know It Update

Mark Steyn is looking at population stats again:

I wonder how many pontificators on the "Middle East peace process" ever run this number: the median age in the Gaza Strip is 15.8 years.

Once you know that, all the rest is details. If you were a "moderate Palestinian" leader, would you want to try to persuade a nation—or pseudo-nation—of unemployed poorly educated teenage boys raised in a UN-supervised European-funded death cult to see sense? Any analysis of the "Palestinian problem" that doesn't take into account the most important determinant on the ground is a waste of time.

Likewise, the salient feature of Europe, Canada, Japan, and Russia is that they're running out of babies. What's happening in the developed world is one of the fastest demographic evolutions in history. Most of us have seen a gazillion heartwarming ethnic comedies—"My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and its ilk—in which some uptight WASPy type starts dating a gal from a vast, loving, fecund Mediterranean family, so abundantly endowed with sisters and cousins and uncles that you can barely get in the room.

It is, in fact, the inversion of the truth. Greece has a fertility rate hovering just below 1.3 births per couple, which is what demographers call the point of "lowest-low" fertility from which no human society has ever recovered. And Greece's fertility is the healthiest in Mediterranean Europe: Italy has a fertility rate of 1.2, Spain, 1.1.

Read the entire NewsMax.com article here.

Legal Thrillers

Lars Ostrom lists titles that are still available for taut, fast-paced, legal thrillers.

Diversity and Turnover: Weak Link

Business Pundit has an interesting analysis of this study, which finds a weak link between diversity and turnover; i.e., diversity does not in itself help you to retain employees.

Very interesting:

One surprising finding of the study, however, is that women seem to dislike gender diversity. In fact, women are more likely to quit when the gender diversity of their workplace is close to fifty-fifty than when it is mostly female or mostly male.

Consultant Roles

David Maister, who has devoted his career to advising professional service firms, has raised an interesting question: What do consultants know?

In my consulting practice, I've found that our advice tends to fall into these categories:

Narrow Expert: We are asked to assist a client on a project that we've done many times. We know the subject extremely well because it has been our focus and we have a passion for the topic.

Related Expert: We haven't worked on the specific topic, but have handled related matters and the skills needed for success are interchangeable. We carefully consider these projects and only take on ones in which we are fully confident that not only can we do a good job, we can also bring a perspective that the Narrow Expert might miss.

Sage Advisor: On these projects, which usually involve executive or managerial coaching, we are asked to provide objective and sober advice. Our ability to do so comes in part from a knowledge of the particular subject area, but also from the fact that we have "street smarts" related to life and organizations and have the scars to prove it.

What I find interesting about the above categories is the greatest appreciation from clients tends to fall in the Sage Advisor role, possibly because of the personal nature of the service. The consultant is more of an ally and less of a tool. All of us, at some point in our lives, need a Sage Advisor.

Some less enjoyable roles for consultants are:

Scapegoat
Executioner
Fall guy

We do our best to avoid those assignments.

Ten Ways That Organizations Encourage Unethical Behavior

1. Shooting bearers of bad news.
2. Labeling dissenters as incompetents and malcontents.
3. Letting the end justify the means.
4. Aiming solely for legal compliance instead of ethical behavior.
5. Seeking to be right instead of doing right.
6. Justifying questionable behavior by noting that everybody does it or that the competition did it first.
7. Punishing technical violations more severely than ethical violations.
8. Identifying anything related to the success of the business as being synonymous with good ethics.
9. Believing that the top decision makers are so bright that if they favor a course of action, then that course of action must be ethical.
10. Valuing toughness over integrity.

Quote of the Day

Whenever I indulge my sense of humor, it gets me into trouble.

- Calvin Coolidge

"Why Men Hate Going to Church"

From an interview with David Murrow, author of Why Men Hate Going to Church:

Little things matter to men. For instance, how we decorate the sanctuary: soft, cushiony pews, fresh flowers, boxes of Kleenex, lace curtains, and of course, quilted banners on the walls. Honestly, how do we expect men to connect to a masculine God in an environment that feels like Aunt Polly's parlor?I think we could ditch the handholding, prayer requests and screeching violin offertories from seven-year-olds without driving women away. I know a lot of women who would appreciate a more masculine Jesus. I also know women who are sick of the "I'm in therapy forever" emphasis in our megachurches. Men and women need a mission, not just a personal relationship with Jesus.

[skip]

But the male dominated church is largely myth. Men dominate the pulpit (and some governing boards), but women dominate everything else. The average worship service draws an adult crowd that's 61 percent female. Midweek activities are often 70 or 80 percent female. Church staffs are almost totally female. Author Leon Podles puts it this way: modern churches are ladies' clubs with a few male officers.If current trends continue, by 2050 the average pastor in America will be a 55 year-old woman. By 2075 the male pastor will be as uncommon as the male nurse is today. This is already happening in the Church of England; in 2005, that denomination will appoint more female priests than male ones for the first time. And their average age is nearing 60. One observer laments, "the priesthood is becoming a hobby for grannies."

"Street Meat"

Want to be a political commentator on the television news programs?

As this CareerJournal article shows, it's not a pretty process.

And we wonder why we are subjected to people like Ann Coulter, James Carville, and Ariana Huffington.

Carnival Time

The Carnival of the Capitalists is up at Blawg Review.

As always, an eclectic collection of posts on business, management, and financial topics.

Enron Exec Sentenced: 24 and 4

Former Enron executive Jeff Skilling has been sentenced to 24 years and four months in prison.

The Wall Street Journal Law Blog has the story and a list of the sentences in other white collar criminal cases.

Global Swarming

The sign of a real sickness in the legal profession:

Attorneys rushing make a case out of global warming.

Here’s an excerpt from the Business Week article:

So when friend and fellow trial lawyer Timothy W. Porter showed up to help with food and water, the two plotted a legal assault. Since Katrina's fury was powered by unusually warm Gulf water, and since such warmth could result from global warming, companies that have pumped the atmosphere full of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide should be liable for damages, they figured. "To me, Katrina was a clear result of irresponsible behavior by the carbon-emissions corporate economy," says Maples. He recruited suddenly homeless neighbors like Ned Comer and filed a class action on their behalf in federal court in Gulfport, Miss. The defendants? Dozens of oil companies, utilities, and coal producers, from Chevron and Exxon Mobil (XOM ) to American Electric Power (AEP ) and Xcel Energy (XEL ). "This is a heartfelt effort," Maples says. "I don't want to leave this global warming mess to my children."

[Oh, yes, the children. It's always for the children.]

Great Moments in Television

Most Haunted, a big television hit in Britain, has an admirer at The Telegraph:

Last year's Hallowe'en special is out on DVD, and I recommend it to any student of stupidity: you will not find a finer example of sustained nonsense. The show comes from a pub cellar in which a murderer's spirit supposedly lurks among the barrels. The show's presenter Yvette Fielding and the entertainer Paul O'Grady are dispatched into the pitch-dark basement, joined only by a cameraman with an infra-red lens. The idea is that they spend the evening down there, recording any unusual events. Meanwhile upstairs, an audience of paranormal enthusiasts gather to watch the unfolding action on closed-circuit monitors.

That action largely consists of Fielding and O'Grady scaring themselves witless, squealing at every gurgle in the pub's plumbing. Occasionally, Fielding's face is framed in the camera, red-eyed and terrified, earnestly asking if anyone else heard what she just heard. No one has, so she shrieks: "Shush, listen, what was that? Did you hear that?" You listen hard, but there is nothing to hear.

At one point, O'Grady is convinced he sees something emerging from a corner of the cellar. In high excitement, the camera dashes over to the corner and discovers precisely nothing. Soon, the two presenters are joined by a medium who, to no one's surprise, given that his livelihood depends on sustaining the myth, quickly communes with the interloping spirit. As he flaps about the place woo-ing and moaning, the stupidity levels are cranked up so high that even Fielding has difficulty maintaining a straight face.

What They Say and What They Mean: Interpreting Workplace Phrases

"That's very creative."
We don't like creative.

"I'll back you to the hilt but, of course, I can't say anything right now."
My support will consist of meaningful hand gestures.

"Let's run it by the committee."
And then it will be unrecognizable.

"Your research is impressive."
My control over your information sources must be slipping.

"We value diversity."
Except for intellectual diversity, of course.

"The CEO knows about your work."
And you wouldn't believe what I've told him.

"We don't have the time to run it by the lawyers."
We'll mysteriously find the time later if we get sued.

Clever Ad for a Glass Cleaner

[HT: Creative Criminal ]

Box Office Mania

Dustin Hoffman on the film biz:

Hoffman criticised the film industry for being obsessed with looking almost hourly at the box-office takings of a film in its first few days of release, meaning poor quality but populist films could push out higher-quality productions.

“If the movie doesn’t make money it must therefore be a bad work,” said Hoffman, who won best actor Oscars for Kramer vs Kramer and Rain Man. “I don’t remember a time when there was so much respect for bad work.”

However, Hoffman was encouraged by the more recent success of some American films. “You cannot stop the artists.”

For Hoffman, “the most exciting film I’ve seen this year” is the small-budget Little Miss Sunshine, which tells the story of a dysfunctional family driving across America.

[HT: Drudge Report ]

Quote of the Day

It is usually expensive and lonely to be principled.

- Paul Theroux

Claiming the Victim

From gapingvoid.

"www.classmates.com"

Poet R.S. Gwynn on reconnecting with old classmates:

Click here for the poem.

Bawer on Europe

Bruce Bawer, writing in The Hudson Review, examines several books on the crisis in Europe.

Bawer’s own book, While Europe Slept, is a fascinating look at the subject. (If you don't have time to read it, be sure to read the article. It's well worth your time.)

He also has a blog.

Duck and Cover

I had to pass along this law student t-shirt which was featured at Blawg Review.

Nice Finishes First

Writing in The Christian Science Monitor, Marilyn Gardner notes the rise of niceness in the workplace:

Patrick Morris could call it "a tale of two companies." As a new college graduate beginning his first job in public relations at a major cosmetics firm in New York, he knew he would be the proverbial low man on the totem pole.

"You feel you're going to get put upon and crunched and tossed around," he says. But instead of the huge egos and "attitude" he expected, he found himself surrounded by good, caring people. "It made all the difference in the world and helped to shape me into the professional I am today."

By contrast, his next job at a television shopping channel proved to be "an environment full of finger-pointing and backstabbing," he says. "It became a nightmare to go into the office."

Scalia on The Press

Justice Antonin Scalia on the press reporting of court decisions:

Scalia expressed disdain for the news media and the general reading public and suggested that together they condone inaccurate portrayals of federal judges and courts.

"The press is never going to report judicial opinions accurately," he said.

"They're just going to report, who is the plaintiff? Was that a nice little old lady? And who is the defendant? Was this, you know, some scuzzy guy? And who won? Was it the good guy that won or the bad guy? And that's all you're going to get in a press report, and you can't blame them, you can't blame them. Because nobody would read it if you went into the details of the law that the court has to resolve. So you can't judge your judges on the basis of what you read in the press."

Justice Scalia also noted, "It so happens that everything that is stupid is not unconstitutional."

[HT: Drudge Report ]

Ego-Free Leadership

Slow Leadership looks at ego-free leadership. An excerpt:

Here are the business qualities and behaviors Ms. Debnam gives as examples of ego-free leadership:

1. Put the business agenda ahead of your own agenda
2. Recruit the best person for the role – not just personal supporters
3. Discourage empires and cliques
4. Encourage people to challenge the status quo and question existing methods and strategies
5. Encourage leadership to flourish at all levels of the organisation
6. Respond to change initiatives according to business need vs personal need
7. Leave a legacy of ongoing excellence

This sounds very like Slow Leadership to me. All I would want to add is something like this:

8. Encourage good work and discourage cutting corners, even if it takes longer
9. Delegate everything you can (and then some)
10. Never trade off thinking time for mere busyness
11. Remember success is about creating long-term value, not snatching short-term profits
12. Enjoy life, it's the only one you have

[Execupundit note: I recall a person (but not his name!) who described his ego as curtains that kept the light from coming in. When he moved aside his ego, a new world was open to him.]

BBC News Admits Bias

Dog Bites Man: The BBC is biased.

Man Bites Dog: They admit it.

It was the day that a host of BBC executives and star presenters admitted what critics have been telling them for years: the BBC is dominated by trendy, Left-leaning liberals who are biased against Christianity and in favour of multiculturalism.

A leaked account of an 'impartiality summit' called by BBC chairman Michael Grade, is certain to lead to a new row about the BBC and its reporting on key issues, especially concerning Muslims and the war on terror.

It reveals that executives would let the Bible be thrown into a dustbin on a TV comedy show, but not the Koran, and that they would broadcast an interview with Osama Bin Laden if given the opportunity. Further, it discloses that the BBC's 'diversity tsar', wants Muslim women newsreaders to be allowed to wear veils when on air.

Read the entire Daily Mail article here.

[HT: Instapundit ]

1400 Years in Business and Then...

An extraordinary firm is closing its doors.

The oldest company in the world, which was founded in 578 in Japan by a group of people from the ancient Korean kingdom of Baekje, will go into liquidation in January. Kongo Gumi dates its foundation from the year when carpenter Shigemitsu Kongo built Shitennoji. Kongo had been invited to the island country by Prince Shotoku. His descendants continuously maintained the family business, and the construction firm was named the world¡¯s oldest company by the Economist monthly.

[HT: newsvine.com ]

The Fact - Idea Struggle

Joseph Epstein, one of the best essayists out there, on the relationship between facts and ideas:

The point (I don't say it is a fact or an idea) is that the more facts one has at one's command, the less is inspiration for ideas likely to arrive. Imagine the impressive ignorance of facts Rousseau required to come up with his two most famous ideas, those of the Noble Savage and of the Social Contract. Marx had Engels in Manchester supplying him with many of his facts for "Das Kapital," but given all the additional factual knowledge we have since acquired about industrial relations and the true interests of the working classes, it seems doubtful that even the always rage-ready Marx would be able to believe in the class struggle with the same certitude. Or, presented with the wretches of Enron, price-rigging, industrial spying and other corporate malfeasance, would Adam Smith still wish to argue on behalf of his Invisible Hand?

The most fertile ground for the formation of ideas, in other words, is one relatively barren of facts. As facts add up, ideas tend to go down. Facts, bloody damn facts, get in the way of conjecture, speculation, delightful mental footwork of all kinds. Facts, we say with a shrug, are facts.

Quote of the Day

All those who believe in psychokinesis raise my hand.

- Steven Wright

Ten Reasons Why Managers Give Inflated, Inaccurate, Performance Evaluations

1. They failed to talk to the employee about the performance problem or misconduct when it first occurred and are reluctant to bring it up months later.
2. They believe the employee's poor performance will reflect poorly on them.
3. They are afraid of confrontation.
4. They are afraid of the employee.
5. The performance evaluation system won't permit merit increases to be given to employees who receive a rating that is less than Meets Standards and the manager wants the employee to get a merit increase.
6. They feel they could have done more to help the employee.
7. They think a low evaluation will demoralize the employee and result in even worse performance. [See reasons 3 and 4.]
8. The employee has miraculously improved performance two weeks before the rating is due ("The dead come to life!") and the manager feels that the employee has permanently rebounded. [This belief is almost always unjustified.]
9. They are in a hurry and don't believe that they have sufficient time to give the employee's performance problems the thorough discussion they deserve. [See reasons 3 and 4.]
10. They believe that upper management will not back them if they give an honest evaluation.

The Executive Coloring Book

Dated but amusing: The Executive Coloring Book.

[HT: Tom Macmahon ]

Trend Warning

From Indexed.

Blogger Problems

There have been Blogger problems today. They've inhibited posting; turning the fastest computer into a Commodore.

More later as soon as I finish this game of Pong.

The Martyrs

Her co-workers didn't take on as many assignments as she thought they should. She shouldered the extra work and said nothing, but she felt their failure to volunteer was a character flaw.

He went to meetings where others took positions that he regarded as ethically questionable. He never challenged them, however, because he thought the transgressions were self-evident and the associates must have known of his opposition.

She hunkered down and did extraordinary work, achieving a productivity record which she thought should speak for itself. In the meantime, far less competent peers who knew how to publicize their accomplishments were promoted over her.

He deeply cared about the development and advancement of his employees and often sacrificed his own training needs so others could be sent to workshops. As a result, his training background was less impressive than those of peers who neglected their employees.

She avoided conflict and complaints. Rather than enhancing her reputation, she later learned that one executive quipped, "She couldn't trigger an electric door." She quietly seethed as complainers were given special privileges.

He was dedicated to excellence. His boss was dedicated to getting things done. His quest for excellence was seen as low productivity.

He and she were two of the nicest, most talented, individuals you could hope to meet. Later, when they retired at levels far below what their ability merited, people who knew of their quality quietly wondered, "How did the organization ever pass over that person for promotion?"

67 and Sailing: Once More Around The World

Writing in The Telegraph, Sir Robert Knox-Johnston, 67, reflects on the challenge of a solo yacht race around the world:

This is the ultimate sailing challenge, the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest. Only 165 people have sailed this course solo - about a twentieth of the number that have climbed the world’s tallest peak.

It is a mean, cold, inhospitable place and stinging freezing water hitting the eyes at storm speeds causes temporary blindness for minutes. Here are the largest waves, frequently over 27 metres, created by the strongest winds; with sea water temperatures affected by Antarctica fractionally above freezing.

In the frequent storms the sailor cannot take rest as a mountaineer might in similar conditions because this is when the boat needs constant attention. So why go there? Simple, it is because it is the toughest challenge open to any sailor - and far better to do something hard and have the satisfaction of a real achievement.

Totten Goes Storm Chasing

Michael J. Totten, travel writer extraordinaire, is storm chasing on the Navajo reservation.

Great photos and commentary.

Asking for I.D. from Job Applicants

The West Virginia Employment Law Letter examines the legal dangers of asking to see an applicant's driver's license before making a conditional job offer.

Wimp Update

Do some people begin to lose I.Q. points when they become school administrators?

Officials at an elementary school south of Boston have banned kids from playing tag, touch football and any other unsupervised chase game during recess for fear they'll get hurt and hold the school liable.

Recess is "a time when accidents can happen," said Willett Elementary School Principal Gaylene Heppe, who approved the ban.

Read the entire story here.

[HT: Dave Barry ]

Heads on Public Display

The drug lords at war in central Mexico are no longer content with simply killing their enemies. They are putting their severed heads on public display.

In Michoacan, the home state of President-elect Felipe Calderon, 17 heads have turned up this year, many with bloodstained notes like the one found in the highlands town of Tepalcatepec in August: "See. Hear. Shut Up. If you want to stay alive."

Many in Michoacan's mountains and colonial cities are doing just that: They are tightlipped, their newspapers are censoring themselves and in one town, 18 out of 32 police officers quit saying they had received death threats from drug smugglers.

Read the rest of the US News and World Report article here.

[One of the great untold stories of our time is the heroism of honest law enforcement officials who have to confront threats like these.]

Do CEOs Matter?

Writing in Fortune, Justin Fox examines the impact of corporate CEOs. An excerpt:

Do CEOs really matter? Back in 1972, an article by Stanley Lieberson and James O'Connor in the American Sociological Review contended that the identity of the chief executive mattered far less to corporate performance than which company he ran and which industry it happened to be in.

Ever since then, management scholars have been arguing about whether Lieberson and O'Connor were right. I think it's fair to say that the consensus now is that they weren't--CEOs do matter. Two interesting recent papers on the topic available online, for those of you who like footnotes and advanced statistics, are "The Good, The Bad, and the Lucky: CEO Pay and Skill," by Robert Daines, Vinay B. Nair, and Lewis Kornhauser, and "How Much Do CEOs Influence Firm Performance--Really?" by Alison Mackey.

But it's also fair to say that academic research does not reveal CEOs to be the corporate superheroes we often portray them as in the business media. Consider the recent study of "superstar CEOs" by Ulrike Malmendier of the University of California at Berkeley and Geoffrey Tate of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, who found that companies run by top executives who won awards handed out by the business press between 1975 and 2002 consistently underperformed the market after being honored. Malmendier and Tate argue, in part, that CEOs who are anointed as superstars neglect their jobs.

Project Runner-Up Way

Entertainment Weekly talks to the Project Runway runners-up and Tim Gunn.

Quite interesting if you've followed the program and one thing is confirmed: The people you suspected were strange were.

Quote of the Day

Half a loaf is better than no time off.

- Anonymous

Watching the Little Things

Tom Peters once observed that if airline passengers put down their tray tables and see coffee stains, they wonder about the condition of the plane’s engines.

The little things can send signals that may or may not be accurate, but if a little thing is negative, the signal will be likewise.

I mention this because recently part of my time has been devoted to reviewing workshop materials. One poorly worded case example or (God forbid!) misspelling and the wrong signal may be sent.

Some items I've noticed in the media over just the past few days:

• A news reporter mispronouncing the name of a city.
• A quote attributed to the wrong person.
• Overstatements. (I know, that was an easy one.)
• A generalization stated as fact.
• Misspelled captions on television newscasts.

We all make mistakes - I caught a glitch on the blog this afternoon - and most of our blunders are probably quickly forgiven.

But how many are the equivalent of the coffee stains on the tray table?

Is Nothing Sacred?

First, it was Tower Records.

Now, it's plastic flamingos.

The Study Group

What might come out of the post-election report of the Iraq study group headed by James Baker and Lee Hamilton?

Writing in Reason, Michael Young gives his predictions. I just find the composition of the group to be so interesting that it would be fun to be a fly on the wall at its meetings:

The group includes establishment stalwarts, including former CIA director Robert Gates, Bill Clinton advisor Vernon Jordan, Reagan administration attorney general Edwin Meese, retired Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor, former Clinton White House chief of staff Leon Panetta, former defense secretary William Perry, former senator and Virginian governor Charles Robb, and former Wyoming senator Alan Simpson.

The CBS News Audience

From National Review: Rob Long's satiric take on focus group testing of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric:

America Faces Terrorism
This segment was problematic. Of course, America does face a terrorism threat, and a discussion of it is appropriate and necessary for any news broadcast. And yet, our viewership, 27 percent of which is non-ambulatory, becomes unduly panicked and agitated by most of the news items in this general category. Viewers in the crucial 70 - 88 age range reported heart palpitations, anxiety, and irrational anger directed at (for some reason) Guatemalans. Suggest making this segment a "web only" feature of the broadcast.

Focus, Focus

BusinessPundit has a great post on the dangers - nay, the evils - of multitasking.

If you think of the times when you have been highly productive, focus usually played a major role.

And no, delegation is not multitasking. Delegation is marvelous. It approaches chocolate.

What Are Weekends For?

Lileks plans his weekend. Sound familiar?

This weekend I plan to take 37 cans of paint to the recycling center (Motto: "Pouring it all down the drain after you drive off since 1987!"). The previous owners left every single can for future reference, and I've decided to use the space to store old stuff we never use but can't quite toss -- tax returns, half-completed novels, cryogenically frozen relatives and all those investment statements that boil down to "we moved some stuff from here over there and charged you seventeen dollars." The cans were moved to the garage, which exerts a peculiar status-quo field; non-car items in the garage tend to remain there for years. But they have to go. Aside from mailing the cans one at a time to the recycling center, what are my options?

Read it all here. (His analysis of the options is worth your time.)

The Media's Tet

Noted military historian John Keegan rejects the comparison of Iraq with Vietnam and is right on target with his identification of the media’s negative role:

The recent upsurge of violence in Iraq in no way resembles the Tet offensive. At Tet, the Vietnamese new year, the North Vietnamese People's Army simultaneously attacked 40 cities and towns in South Vietnam, using 84,000 troops. Of those, the communists lost 45,000 killed. No such losses have been recorded in Iraq at any place or any time. The Tet offensive proved to be a military disaster for the Vietnamese communists. It left them scarcely able to keep up their long-running, low-level war against the South Vietnamese government and the American army.

Indeed, insofar as Tet was a defeat for the United States and for the South Vietnamese government, it was because the American media decided to represent it as such. It has become a cliché to say that Vietnam was a media war, but so it was. Much of the world media were hostile to American involvement from the start, particularly in France, which had fought and lost its own Vietnam war in 1946-54. The defeat of Dien Bien Phu rankled with the French and there were few who wanted to see the Americans win where they had failed.

It was, however, the American rather than the foreign media who decided on the verdict. The American media had begun by supporting the war. As it dragged on, however, without any end in sight and with the promised military victory constantly postponed, American newspapers and — critically — the evening television programmes began to treat war news as a bad story.

Love, Hate, and Your Product

Writing at Creating Passionate Users, Kathy Sierra notes that "'safer' really isn't safe anymore."

Miscellaneous and Fast

Ms. Dewey, a search engine that talks to you.

Chinese banks have stopped financial transfers to North Korea.

Peggy Noonan, flashing back to FDR and Reagan, sees the need for some joyous style in politics.

A look at an unusual concept car - the Lincoln Indianapolis - that was produced in 1955. Only one was made.

Checking Cleavage in Iran

The story of one of the more interesting jobs in Iran: covering up "immodest" magazine ads.

One look tells a great deal about the whacked out nature of the Iranian regime.

[HT: Adrants ]

Losing Priorities

Overlawyered notes that after a smoking ban, citizens in Omaha are being encouraged to call 911 if they see illicit smoking.

Harassing a Manager

This Labor Prof Blog post on whether a manager can be sexually harassed by subordinates sparks certain concerns:

• If a manager is reponsible for maintaining a harassment-free work environment, then why doesn't the manager simply take appropriate disciplinary action against the harasser? This is not the same as a person who is powerless to correct matters.
• But if the manager does try to take corrective disciplinary action and the employer fails to support such action, then the situation has changed and the employer is vulnerable to a complaint.

Quote of the Day

If you're there before it's over, you're on time.

- Mayor Jimmy Walker

The Hoff on Marketing

Back by popular demand: David Hasselhoff, King of the Internet.

Lemony Snicket Ends

Lemony Snicket, the bizarre and highly successful series of children's books has come to an end.

If you are unfamiliar with the series, check out the web site which says, "Warning: Do not enter. This site is very unpleasant."

How can you resist?

Does Scandal Sell?

Attention Mark Foley: This New York magazine article indicates that publishers should think twice before giving a big book deal to someone who's been at the center of a scandal.

Remember Jason Blair, the disgraced New York Times reporter? His book sold a whopping 4,000 copies.

[More people bought copies of my obscure book on the Arizona Right to Work Law!]

Europe Sinking?

Mark Steyn on the population crisis of the future. An excerpt:

My old – very old – friend George Abbott, the director of On The Town, Damn Yankees and Pal Joey, died in 1995 at the age of 107 while working on a revival of The Pajama Game. A few years earlier, in his late nineties, he’d given up playing tennis because all his partners had died. That’s the position America is facing in respect of its transnational social life: it’ll be turning up to the G8, Nato, the EU-US summit only to find that all its partners have died.

The single most important fact about the early 21st century is the rapid aging of almost every developed nation other than the United States: Canada, Europe and Japan are getting old fast, older than any functioning society has ever been and faster than any has ever aged. A society ages when its birth rate falls and it finds itself with fewer children and more grandparents. For a stable population – ie, no growth, no decline; just a million folks in 1950, a million in 1980, a million in 2010 – you need a Total Fertility Rate of 2.1 live births per woman. That’s what America has: 2.1, give or take. Canada has 1.48, an all-time low and a more revealing difference between the Great Satan and the Great White North than any of the stuff (socialized health care, fewer handguns, more UN peacekeepers, etc) that Canucks usually brag about. Europe as a whole has 1.38, Japan 1.32, Russia 1.14. These countries – or, more precisely, these people – are going out of business.

Read it all here.

Style Mixtures at Meetings

Recently, I was talking with an executive about the frustration and conflict that can arise when a variety of styles comes together in a meeting...and no one recognizes the differences.

For example, put a linear thinker in with a bunch of creative types whose thoughts jump about like grasshoppers and then watch as the irritation level climbs. The lonely linear will want to move through the process in an organized, methodical, manner while the others will shun that as unduly restrictive.

Put people who are committed to excellence in with others who are solely in search of a workable approach and you'll find one side thinking the other is sloppy and the other believing the first group wants to gild the lily.

Put process freaks (lawyers and accountants come to mind) in with a bunch of hard-driving "bottomliners" and watch the eyes roll. The process people will suspect that the bottomliners are either sloppy or unethical. The bottomliners will regard the process folks as a bunch of beavers who want to dam up the works.

The next time you attend a meeting, keep an eye open for these groups. Don't expect to convert them, but see if you can take their concerns into account. It will save time and win allies.

Mistakes of Start-Ups

If you've ever been in a start-up that experienced problems, you'll recognize a lot of the points in this Paul Graham essay on 18 mistakes of start-ups.

If you aren't battle-scarred but are considering starting a business or major project, be sure to check it out.

[HT: kottke ]

PC Military Doctrine?

Military analyst Ralph Peters questions a new counterinsurgency doctrine. An excerpt:

Have we lost the will to win wars? Not just in Iraq, but anywhere? Do we really believe that being nice is more important than victory?

It's hard enough to bear the timidity of our civilian leaders - anxious to start wars but without the guts to finish them - but now military leaders have fallen prey to political correctness. Unwilling to accept that war is, by its nature, a savage act and that defeat is immoral, influential officers are arguing for a kinder, gentler approach to our enemies.

They're going to lead us into failure, sacrificing our soldiers and Marines for nothing: Political correctness kills.

Obsessed with low-level "tactical" morality - war's inevitable mistakes - the officers in question have lost sight of the strategic morality of winning. Our Army and Marine Corps are about to suffer the imposition of a new counterinsurgency doctrine designed for fairy-tale conflicts and utterly inappropriate for the religion-fueled, ethnicity-driven hyper-violence of our time.

Best Laid Plans

The story of the Love Canal, which was to be part of a beautiful park.

Quote of the Day

Mark your words, as a matter of caution when with rivals, and as a matter of decency, when with the rest. There is always time to add a word, but none in which to take one back: speak, therefore, as in a testament, for the fewer the words, the less the litigation: make of that which is of no importance the training ground for that which is: reserve has an aspect of divinity about it: he too easy of speech, shortly falters and falls.

- Baltasar Gracian

Honor Wars

Jonathan Rauch on honor wars. An excerpt:

In the modern West, interest trumps honor (or subsumes it). We don't shoot ourselves in the foot to prove we're tough and fierce. Or, if we do, we expect to be ridiculed, not admired. If interest trumps honor, a country will swallow its pride in the face of a defeat or setback and make the best of its lot. For Germany after World War II (and for Japan, which was quick to adopt Western ways), getting rich was the best revenge.

In a traditional honor culture, that sort of pride-swallowing compromise may not be possible. Honor trumps interest (or subsumes it). The well-educated and talented Arabs of the Levant might today be enjoying the same prosperity and security as Spain or South Korea if years ago they had accepted Israel as a fact of life, made peace, and moved on. To Hamas and Hezbollah militants and their supporters, however, Israel's continued existence is a standing humiliation, and the debt to honor must be paid, never mind the cost.

Nor can militant Islamists settle with the West. When the post-honor West says, "Come, now, give up this foolishness, join our club, be free and rich," they hear something more like, "Be our poodle, sit at our feet, enjoy the fruits of capitulation." Admonitions that bellicosity accomplishes nothing miss the point, which is that the very act of fighting ("resistance") redeems honor and therefore accomplishes what matters most.

[HT: Victor Davis Hanson ]

The Rake's Progress

Business Opportunities Weblog examines a landscaper's plan to sign up 100 new customers.

Not bad ideas although other businesses will want to do more with a web site.

Selling Indulgence

Breakfast: It's the most enjoyably lethal of all meals, if done right. Pancakes, bacon, eggs and hash browns. Of course, you might as well inject a tube of tub caulk into your veins, same effect. Since I want to fit into my pants, I have the Breakfast of Denial -- overpriced yogurt and a small pathetic sausage, squeezed in a napkin to extract all the deadly juices until it tastes like a maple-flavored Duraflame log.

James Lileks ponders the renaming of Armour sausage.

Anthrostrategic

Tony Corn, who teaches European Studies at the U.S. Foreign Service Institute notes a change in the approach to strategy:

"Amateurs talk about strategy, professionals talk about logistics.” In the five years since the 9/11 events, the old military adage has undergone a “transformation” of its own: Amateurs, to be sure, continue to talk about strategy, but real professionals increasingly talk about — anthropology.

In Iraq as in Afghanistan, real professionals have learned the hard way that — to put it in a nutshell — the injunction “Know Thy Enemy, Know Thyself” matters more than the bookish “Know Thy Clausewitz” taught in war colleges. Know thy enemy: At the tactical and operational levels at least, it is anthropology, not Clausewitzology, that will shed light on the grammar and logic of tribal warfare and provide the conceptual weapons necessary to return fire. Know thyself: It is only through anthropological “distanciation” that the U.S. military (and its various “tribes”: Army, Navy, etc.) will become aware of its own cultural quirks — including a monomaniacal obsession with Clausewitz — and adapt its military culture to the new enemy.1

Read the rest here.

Where's The Shotgun?

At Tech Central Station, Glenn Harlan Reynolds, aka Instapundit, writes that when Target and Eddie Bauer are selling survival kits, we've all become Soldier of Fortune-types.

Project Runway: Early Peek

The winner of the Darwinian reality show Project Runway will be announced tonight.

If you want to get an advance peek at the Fashion Week work of the designers, New York magazine has obliged:

Laura Bennett

Jeffrey Sebelia

Ulrike Herzner

Michael Knight

Give Me Hard Copy

If you want to send e-mail to someone who is computer-challenged, the Presto Printer might be the answer.

Political Hair

It's sad but true: If you run for office, people are going to check out your hair...or lack of it.

Fortunately, an amazing array of styles survives the voting booth.

Radar Online provides a scathing analysis of political hair-dos. (One category: "Dead-Animal-Hair")

[Via Neatorama ]

Advancement Strategies

Dr. Betty Spence, president of the National Association for Female Executives, has a list of books that she recommends to women who want to advance in the workplace.

The Wal-Mart Blog

Cartoon from gapingvoid.com.

Background story by Business Week.

The EEOC's Strange Categories

How does the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission categorize people?

Let's say you are an Arab from Morocco. Morocco is on the continent of Africa, so are you listed as African American? You can be - at least indirectly - if you are Black because the EEOC's categories define Black as all persons, not of Hispanic origin, having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa. EEOC does not use the term "African American" but you would be linked to Africa via your racial group.

On the other hand, if you are an Arab from Morocco and are not Black, then you are placed in the category of White (Not of Hispanic origin), which is described as "All persons having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, North Africa, or the Middle East."

But wait, you say. What if I am an Iraqi Arab? Iraq is in the Middle East and the Middle East is in Asia. Geographers may follow that delineation but not the EEOC. The EEOC defines Asian or Pacific Islander as "All persons having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, or the Pacific Islands. This area includes, for example, China, India, Japan, Korea, the Philippine Islands, and Samoa." Unless you're Black, if you are an Iraqi Arab, you are categorized as White.

Does that clarify matters?

No?

Well, things get trickier.

Hispanics are defined as "All persons of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race." What if you are a Black Cuban? The Department of Labor's guidance to employers who are reporting on the composition of their workforce is that the employees should answer the Hispanic question first. If an employee indicates that he or she is Hispanic, then the person is counted as Hispanic.

This could, of course, lead to an undercount of Blacks and an overcount of Hispanics but that seems to have been missed by the Congressional Black Caucus.

What about non-American Indians who suddenly discover an American Indian ancestor and seek to change their classification in order to gain a hiring preference? Nice try, but that won't work. The EEOC definition of American Indian or Alaskan Native is "All persons having origins in any of the original peoples of North America, and who maintain cultural identification through tribal affiliation or community recognition."

All of this makes me appreciate the wisdom of the line used by one employer at the bottom of its recruitment ads:

We discriminate solely on the basis of merit.

Quote of the Day

One of the surest signs of a bad or declining relationship is the absence of complaints from the customer. Nobody is ever that satisfied.

- Theodore Levitt

Land Rover: Drastic Diet?

Could the 2010 Land Rover be 1,100 pounds lighter due to an aluminum structure?

See the Jalopnik post.

101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived

A rather interesting list:

The 101 most influential people who never lived.

(I know Atticus Finch certainly had an influence in my life.)

[HT: newsvine ]

The Torture Debate

Alan Dershowitz, who caught holy hell for suggesting the use of "torture warrants" a few years ago for extraordinary "ticking bomb" circumstances, notes that former President Bill Clinton recently stated that such warrants would be feasible and the press has yawned.

Professor Dershowitz observes that President Clinton's advocacy of such warrants goes even further than his suggestion because Clinton's warrants would be post facto whereas Dershowitz advocated pre-torture warrants.

Read the Los Angeles Times article here.

[HT: Real Clear Politics ]

When to Ignore Lawyers

In many workplaces, lawyers are the high priests brought in by upper management to confer special blessings upon various courses of action.

Much deference is given when the lawyer speaks because the lawyer is The Great Explainer of the arcane mysteries of the law. And, as we all know, grave consequences can befall any soul who fails to navigate those mysteries. Late at night, around the company camp fires, tales are whispered of employers or executives who fell into the dark pit of litigation and never surfaced.

That said, it can be as important to understand when to ignore the lawyers as it is to know when to heed them. Be wary of paying strict adherence to the lawyers when they start:

Giving advice on management practices. They are lawyers, not management consultants. Many of them have had sparse management experience. Furthermore, what makes sense from a lawsuit avoidance standpoint may make no sense from a management perspective. For example, the lawyer who advises the quick settlement of a nuisance suit may not appreciate the extraordinary damage the settlement can do to the morale of the supervisory team. Be prepared to explain that damage.

Saying no to any and all. Lawyers are trained to be cautious. They can see litigation potential in a rock. (Someone might trip over it or, worse still, throw it. Have we provided sufficient warning to our employees of the dangerous nature of rocks?) Because change brings uncertainty, they can be especially fearful of any bold actions. You need to take their warnings into account while explaining why you cannot live with the current situation. A good lawyer will find a legal - and ethical - way to meet your needs.

Being slaves to process. Executives are results-oriented. Lawyers are process-oriented. Those respective orientations are both strengths and weaknesses for each side. Executives may forge past procedural requirements that are there for a reason and in doing so create legal and ethical problems. Likewise, lawyers may be so infatuated with procedures that they may advocate following them when to do so is senseless. If you ever hear about some school principal who suspends a child for bringing a water pistol to class and cites the school's anti-gun policy as the reason, you know an attorney is lurking in the background.

Falling into blind advocacy. Lawyers are advocates by nature and profession. Great lawyers, however, are willing to speak candidly when the client's position is ridiculous. Junk-yard dog attorneys may voice your desire to be and seem right, but they won't help you to do right. Remember that the righteous indignation they summon to your cause would be just as readily summoned for the other side if it were paying their bill.

Lawyers play a vital role in the workplace and should be frequently consulted. That consultation, however, should always be accompanied by a clear understanding of when to listen and when to ignore. If you sense that your lawyer has slipped into any of the above practices, don't get upset or quietly fume. Get the topic out on the table and have an open discussion of your concerns. A good attorney will not object.

Do They Also Require Plaid Pants?

Not a bad move. I would have gotten more out of this than that biology class I took:

A Chinese university is requiring law and business students to take golf lessons to prepare them for a business world where deals are made on the golf course, news reports said Tuesday.

Find the rest of the article here.

Beyond Exaggeration

This article from The New Yorker about an unusual Yale student/job applicant is both amusing and sad.

Among his many achievements: Teaching tennis to Jerry Seinfeld and killing men in Tibetan gladiatorial contests.

"Firing" Yourself

Here's a productive mental exercise and not just for CEOs: firing yourself (in your mind), then asking what your replacement would do:

To test his own decision making, Mr. Fraizer regularly fires himself -- at least in his own mind. It's a tactic he learned from former Intel CEO Andy Grove in his 1996 book, "Only the Paranoid Survive." When Intel's memory-chip business was getting battered by Japanese rivals in the 1980s, Mr. Grove asked Intel co-founder Gordon Moore: "If we got kicked out and the board brought in a new CEO, what would he do?"

Mr. Moore answered that a new CEO would get Intel out of the memory-chip business.
"Why shouldn't you and I walk out the door, come back and do it ourselves?" Mr. Grove retorted. He then did just that, reshaping Intel from a memory-chip producer to a microprocessor maker.

Read the entire CareerJournal article here.

"Surely we can talk about this."

According to witnesses, [Dutch filmaker Theo] van Gogh had said to his murderer (who at the time was living on welfare payments from the Dutch government) : "Don't do it! Don't do it! Mercy! Mercy!" And: "Surely we can talk about this." The blunt, outspoken van Gogh had been an unsparing critic of European passivity in the face of fundamentalist Islam; unlike most Europeans, he'd understood the connection between the war on terror and the European integration crisis, and had called America "the last beacon of hope in a steadily darkening world." Together he and Hirsi Ali had made a short film, Submission - he'd directed, she'd written the script - about the mistreatment of women in Islamic cultures. Yet at the end, it seemed, even he grasped at the Western European elite's most unshakable article of faith - the belief in peace and reconciliation through dialogue.

- Bruce Bawer, While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within

Buffett on Ethics and Numbers

SOXfirst blog has a great post on Warren Buffett's warning that "everyone else does it" doesn't hack it when it comes to ethics.

I've always been amused by people who want to use math to determine propriety. They are, in essence, saying, "If we can get two more people on board, it's ethical."

[HT: Commerce Bucket]

Eliminating Guilt-Mongering Projects

Some time management guru whose name escapes me - that saves time! - once said that we suffer more stress from the projects that are not completed than from the ones that are never started.

Solution: Never start anything.

No, wait! That's not a good move. But his observation, aside from ringing true, does raise the fact that every day our peace of mind is disrupted by the groans of uncompleted projects.

And those groans are thoroughly depressing.

Two strategies make sense:

1. Focus on actions that lead to completing the projects. Do at least one and preferably several today. Then do some more tomorrow. That is the power of incrementalism.
2. A bolder move, if possible, is to focus on a single project that is a guilt-producer and do not stop work until it is done.

So those are your choices: Bold Action or Steady Incrementalism.

Either way, you'll feel better.

Quote of the Day

Problems are the natural offspring of change, so you'll see plenty of them in the years to come. Build a name for yourself as a problem-solver, and you'll be a valuable person to have around.

- Price Pritchett

Project Runway's Secret

As the finale of Bravo’s Project Runway reality show nears, New York magazine has an interesting take on the program's appeal and some predictions. (Could there be a German surprise?)

It’s been suggested that Runway’s success represents the democratization of fashion, part of a new widespread fascination with design, all of which is usually tied in with Michael Graves at Target and the slender beauty of iPods and the metastasizing of home-renovation shows. These are all, no doubt, factors in its larger success, but I think the reason New Yorkers like Runway is because, unlike The Apprentice, with its play-school business challenges, Runway is all about work. Hard work, and the people who are willing to do it, in exchange for a faint promise of rewards but a weekly guarantee of weariness. At its core, Runway fetishizes drudgery, and as we’ve seen this season, there’s no more damning accusation than you didn’t do all the work yourself. The designers, locked away in that harshly lit Parsons dungeon, toil under that damned, remorseless clock as it mocks them with each sweep of its time-lapsed hands. Tim Gunn is the genial jailer, always tut-tutting and tapping his watch. Two more hours, people! Make it work!

Read it all here.

Steampunk Laptop

Enough of those wimpish laptops!

Check out one of these rough-looking suckers at Geekologie.

Attorney Man: The Super Hero

Law firm consultant Karen Katz has developed a new training tool:

Attorney Man!

Drawing info from a Boston Globe article, The Wall Street Journal Law Blog notes:

Katz has created “the rock ‘em, sock `em, must-have business development and sales story of the century for law students and attorneys of all ages.” Here’s the dramatis personae, as described by the Globe:

• Evil uberpartner Harry Hoard, who refuses to share clients or money or to mentor junior attorneys
• Silver’s sexy, cellphone-toting, scantily dressed wife (“Hand over those legal briefs, baby!” she purrs in one bedroom scene), whose collagen regimen depends on Tim’s paycheck
• Dr. Development, who gives Tim a magic elixir that transforms him into his alter ago, Attorney Man

Without his cape, Silver is introverted, risk-adverse, and better at talking than listening. But Attorney Man — creative, forward-thinking, knowledgeable about his clients’ business — develops his own book of business. A satisfied client gushes: “Wow! Look at those learned hands!”

Read the rest here.

Treason and Other Priorities

Mark Steyn sees deeper meaning in a Reuters news story:

Who is James Vicini? Well, he works for Reuters, the storied news agency. By "storied," I don't mean in the Hans Christian Andersen sense, though these days it's hard to tell. But they have an illustrious history and they're globally respected and whatnot. And last week newshound Vicini got assigned quite an interesting story:

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- A California-born convert to Islam, accused of making a series of al-Qaida propaganda videos, became on Wednesday the first American charged with treason since the World War II era, U.S. Justice Department officials said.

"Fugitive Adam Gadahn, 28, who is believed to be in Pakistan, was accused of treason, which carries a maximum punishment of death . . ."

Read the rest here.

Carnival with a Twist

There is an interesting twist at this week's Carnival of the Capitalists. The first segment to be posted contains the best posts from the past, as determined by the submitters.

I wasn't sure which one to submit, but since I got a lot of positive feedback on Lessons from Jerks, that's the one I submitted. [Who knows how they associated my post with a site on business in India, but if you want to read Lessons from Jerks, you can find it here. ]

Anyway,check out the historical Carnival by clicking here. I'll let you know when the segment with the current submissions is up.

Toughest Interview Questions?

There's a discussion at CareerJournal on "What is the toughest interview question you've ever had?"

Some of the entries:

Would you rather be a knife, fork, or spoon?

What does your desk look like at the end of the day?

[I'd be tempted to respond to the latter with, "I don't know. I've never been able to see it at the end of the day."]

My theory is the toughest ones are the basic questions such as "Why should we hire you?" Many applicants are so worried about the complicated that they fail to prepare for the simple queries.

Do you have any nominees?

Governor Kinky?

Matt Labash, writing in The Weekly Standard, explores the nation’s most unusual gubernatorial candidate:

Kinky (so named for his "Jew-fro," as the ladies at Supercuts call it) is most famous these days for trying to become the first independent governor of Texas since Sam Houston in 1859. For two decades prior, he was known for his 17 well-reviewed comic-mystery novels, with himself cast as the protagonist ("I'm not afraid of anything, just that I may have to stop talking about myself for five minutes," he's said). But it was as head cheese-maker in Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys that he first entered public consciousness.

Before that, Kinky did a two-year Peace Corps stint in Borneo, where he introduced the locals to Frisbee while they introduced him to betel nut and hallucinogenic rice wine. Perhaps under the influence of it, he conceived the Jewboys. When Kinky got back to Texas in the early '70s, Austin had become a hothouse for outlaw country heroes who'd said adios to the slick sounds of Nashville in order to do some honest-to-God songwriting. Cosmic Cowboys and gypsy troubadours like Michael Martin Murphey, Jerry Jeff Walker, Billy Joe Shaver, and other guys with two first names walked the land.

Countering Telemarketers

Pestered by unwanted calls where a telemarketer disregards your responses and plods through a script?

Although I have sympathy for many people who are stuck in telemarketing jobs, this anti-telemarketer counter-script is brilliant and long overdue.

Follow the Other Hand: No Hocus-Pocus

I have been reading Follow the Other Hand by Andy Cohen.

When a review copy of the book arrived, I approached it with some trepidation. Business books that have a gimmick – talking animals, missing cheese, and the like – can spark justifiable skepticism. When I saw that Follow the Other Hand was a fable about business owner who obtained guidance from a magician, I wondered how much of it would be fluff.

I mean, a magician?

The book is a pleasant surprise. It’s extremely well-written and amusing, and while I’m not certain that I agree with all of its concepts, the book’s best part is its ability to trigger creativity. The tips on innovation and marketing cite “real world” examples from companies such as Build-a-Bear, General Motors, and ProofReadNOW.com. The material on persuasion is extremely good as are the tips on brainstorming.

So many business books hit my desk that I have a simple standard: The author must give me at least one good idea. Follow the Other Hand gave me several in a light and amusing way. There were several times when I thought, “I wish I’d read this before that project.” Don’t let the hocus-pocus keep you from checking it out.

Quote of the Day

In a recent poll, more than 70 percent of teenagers said they'd give up TV before giving up their computers or the Internet.

- Richard W. Oliver

Napster Stripper

In an ad that is sure to get attention, Napster has a stripper giving money to the patrons.

Reducing Customer Fear

We had to take our dog to a vet this morning. (It's a group of specialists and they have Sunday hours.)

Great people. Caring. Nice.

But the offices needed some warmth. They resembled the standard doctor's office: cold, sterile, forbiding, and - yes - even somewhat frightening.

Kathy Sierra at Creating Passionate Users discusses the need to reduce fear in the customer relationship. It is one of the most underdiscussed topics in business.

Workplace Myths (Lies)

We are family.
No, an organization is not a family. You don't lay off family members when times get tough. Drop the family talk. It's bogus.

We are a fun place to work.
Workplaces can be reasonably enjoyable but, for most folks, work is not fun. Even the best jobs have their moments of drudgery.

We hire on the basis of merit.
Do you really? Why is it that we can point to any number of hires and promotions that are highly questionable?

We want candor.
That's good, but as I recall, the last person who was brutally frank about our product is now hawking it to villagers in Bolivia.

None of us is as smart as all of us.
Unless this is one of those occasions when the team has the collective I.Q. of a clam.

We respect our employees.
But we keep supervisors who are notoriously abusive so long as their numbers look good.

We reward performance.
So much so that if you are a great producer you'll get all of the tough projects and tight deadlines while the slug down the hall is permitted to coast.

We value quality.
Although if quality is up against convenience, quality may lose.

We cherish excellence.
On second thought, make that "comfort." Our comfort. Excellence can be so hard.

Anagram Genius

And now for something completely void of substance.

The Anagram Genius permits you to enter a name or phrase and get anagrams.

[HT: Neatorama ]

The Sausage Grinder of Litigation

House of Caduceus on the personal cost of a lawsuit won:

An ER doctor who had been happily practicing medicine for many years had his first lawsuit brought against him. From what I was told by his friend, this ER doctor absolutely loved his profession and helping people. Concerning this lawsuit, he did not make any medical error, showed no negligence, and performed his job to the best of his abilities. His insurance company would have easily settled out of court, which to all doctors is like a big slap in the face. His medical record would have been tarnished and he felt like it would be admitting fault, which he was morally against, so he fought the case in court to prove himself right. The court case lasted a couple years, he was humiliated in court b/c that is what a good lawyer will do, spent thousands of his own money, and eventually won the case. You would think that this win would boost his confidence, but instead, he felt betrayed by the patient and the patient's family, abused by the court system, and worried about a another possible future lawsuit. This doctor then quit the practice of medicine and refused to keep his job, despite the begging of his employer.

My congrats to those patients and lawyers out there destroying American medicine. You're doing a fine job of wasting our time and talent.

[Execupundit note: The emotional cost of the adversarial system is seldom examined. I've met attorneys who regard the filing of a lawsuit as part of a game and who completely fail to consider the very real emotional harm that can be done to defendants and witnesses who are trying to do the right thing.]

[HT: Overlawyered ]

Alarm for Champions

This is the sort of alarm clock that all of you Zig Ziglar types will enjoy.

It awakens you with "We are the Champions." Then you can go eat your Wheaties.

Quote of the Day

Get the facts first. You can distort them later.

- Mark Twain

Worse Than Terminal

Slow Leadership examines a survey finding that members of senior management rate their personal quality of life lower than do terminally ill patients.

The Secular Saint?

Michael Novak recalls his ties to Eugene McCarthy and Robert F. Kennedy:

I’ve had a talk with Mayor Daley,” he told me, in whose Chicago the Democratic Convention would be held, “and he will not support a loser. I have to win in California. I have to win California.” He looked into the distance (something he often did while talking with others). “Then I have to persuade him I am going to win in November. Odd how it’s two totally different campaigns, winning the nomination, winning the presidency. I’ve got the job of my life winning California. But then it will be even tougher, going into November. But it’s doable. Can I have your help?” He turned those clear blue eyes full on my eyes: “Will you help?”

I told him I had urged Gene McCarthy to throw his hat in, and that it would be hard for me to abandon him now. I asked for twenty-four hours to think about it. Both the candidate and Mr. Siegenthaler respected that. They said they would be hoping for a good answer the next day.
Even at that time, I was thinking of the working-class ethnic wards of Chicago, Milwaukee, Toledo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and other cities, and of the need to unite both blacks and working-class whites. If not Bobby, I couldn’t see who else could do it.

Read the entire article here.

Back from the Reunion

It was interesting, mainly in how little people have changed personality-wise.

You drift into the same circles. The friendly people are still friendly and the shy ones are still shy.

(I'm in the latter category.)

But it was nice.

Reunion

I'm going to my Camelback High School reunion tonight.

[If you are unfamiliar with Arizona, "Camelback" may sound odd. It's named after a mountain that resembles a camel's back. I'm just glad the mountain didn't resemble salamander eyes.]

The motives for attending are unclear. Although it is certain that I'll encounter several old friends, high school does not rank anywhere on my list of pleasant experiences; in fact, I'd put it on another list.

One of my friends mentioned that it is odd that we have high school reunions instead of elementary school ones since we often have greater ties to the people who were in our elementary school classes instead high school where we tend to scatter.

Anyway, it should be fun, especially if the statute of limitations has expired on All Dumb Things Said and Done.

South Park Creators Make a Training Film

Back in the days when Universal Studios was acquired by Seagrams, a decision was made to make an employee training film.

And someone made the additional decision to have the two guys who eventually made South Park make the film.

I bet your company’s film isn’t as funny as this one.

[HT: Trexfiles ]

Labor's New Face?

Is Andy Stern of the Service Employees International Union the model of the new labor leader?

Fortune thinks he may be.

A Hero Dies

Navy SEAL Michael A. Monsoor threw himself on a grenade to save others.

Free Ryan Stupples!

Some food police at a primary school in Britain have clamped down on a serious problem:

Ryan Stupples brought more than two snacks to school.

More details on this shocking transgression follow:

Ryan's lunch consisted of a sandwich, fruit, fromage frais, cake, mini cheese biscuits and a bottle of water. The cake and the biscuits broke the snack limit. They were discovered when a teacher checked his lunch box.

A teacher checked his lunch box? Now there's a job for a professional. They must have a lot of time on their hands.

Michael Stupples, 41, said: "What 10-year-old boy won't get upset when he's out of a dining hall in front of everyone and made to eat his lunch in the head teacher's office?"

You don't understand, Michael. Eating lunch with the head teacher is part of the punishment.

Malcolm Goddard, the headmaster, said: "We take healthy eating very seriously and everyone is aware of our new policies."

Well, if they aren't, humiliating a 10-year-old is a great way to get out the word.

[HT: newsvine ]

"What have you been reading?"

Slate asked some bloggers and booksellers for their "favorite little-known reads."

Later, I may post some of my obscure favorites - The Ascent of Rum Doodle comes to mind - but do you have any?

Slob Appeal

Business finds a way to satisfy the most unusual needs and now there's a product for a sizable population: slobs.

Throw your dirty clothes on the laundry rug. It has handles and a draw-string and can be used to transport the items to a mysterious device called a washing machine.

Flashdance Interview

It's Saturday. You need a smile.

Check out this video of an ad for Carlton Draught.

[It reminds me of my last job interview.]

Tall Cotton

Fortune gives its lists of :

The 10 highest paid women

The 10 highest paid men.

Midways Up!

On the Moneyed Midways, with its collection of posts on management, business, and finance, is up at Political Calculations.

ADD in the Workplace

Learning-related disability complaints, such as Attention Deficit Disorder, have risen significantly.

This CareerJournal article explores the job challenges for employees and employers.

Political Insiders

Mike Murphy gives his top five list of books by political insiders.

I'd add:

Churchill by Lord Moran [Controversial, since Moran was Churchill's physician, but fascinating.]

Plunkett of Tammany Hall by William Riordan. [The political observations of George Washington Plunkett, a Tammany Hall ward boss who believed in "honest graft."]

The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat by Ryszard Kapuscinski. [Recollections of the associates of Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. My favorite is: "I was His Most Virtuous Highness's pillow bearer for twenty-six years. I accompanied His Majesty on travels all around the world, and to tell the truth - I say it with pride - His Majesty could not go anywhere without me, since his dignity required that he always take his place on a throne, and he could not sit on a throne without a pillow, and I was the pillow bearer. I had mastered the special protocol of this specialty, and even possessed an extremely useful, expert knowledge: the height of various thrones."]

Quote of the Day

Google processes roughly one billion searches per day, with only a third coming from inside the United States.

- Thomas L. Friedman

2/05 to 10/06 = $1.65 billion

Daniel Henninger explores what we should know about YouTube. An excerpt:

YouTube.com is a Web site. It entered the World Wide Web in February 2005 with a homepage that said: "YouTube: Broadcast Yourself." The site's technology lets people create a personal channel and then upload video to it for everyone to see. That's pretty much it. Why is this worth $1.65 billion and your idea isn't? Because every day 65,000 new videos are uploaded to YouTube's site, and every day the world's people tune into 100 million of these videos. One consultant with time on his hands has calculated that during YouTube's short life, people have spent 9,305 years watching it.

Our Slogan

From www.gapingvoid.com

Reading the Boss

Bosses, like the rest of us, like to be read and protected.

They like it when employees anticipate and fulfill unspoken needs and love it when it is clear that the employee is looking out for their interests.

Consider the following: Ted and Karen are in charge of separate projects. They both report to Ellen.

Ted knows that Ellen hates surprises. He sends Ellen a one page project update every week and, if something extraordinary occurs, gives her a quick phone call just as a heads-up.

Karen does neither. She focuses solely on completing the project on time. Ellen really doesn’t know what’s happening with Karen’s project.

Ted keeps an eye open for events that could change the priorities of the project. He contacts Ellen if there is a chance that the priorities could shift.

Ellen sticks with the original priorities and plows ahead.

Ted is sensitive to the politics of the organization. If a major decision maker wanders anywhere near his project, he notifies Ellen and tells her about the comments that were made and any questions that were asked.

Ellen is flattered by the interest of the decision maker, but sees no need to bring her boss into the loop. After all, she doesn’t want to be a pest.

If Ted sees a potential problem in meeting a deadline, he tells Ellen immediately.

If Karen sees a potential deadline problem, she devotes a sizable amount of time to meeting the deadline and only notifies Ellen if a deadline extension must be requested.

Ted gives Ellen some interesting “talking points” regarding his project.

Ellen gives a general update at staff meetings.

Ted considers how his project inter-relates to other projects that are under Ellen’s authority. He coordinates with any staff members who have related projects so there won’t be any conflict.

Karen sticks to her territory and doesn’t deal with the other staff members unless there is a conflict.

Ted has studied Ellen's professional background, knows which individuals are her allies and which ones are adversaries. He incorporates that knowledge into his decisions.

Karen knows little of Ellen's alliances or background. As a result, she doesn't consider any of those factors when making her decisions.

Which person would you rather have working for you? Ted or Karen?

Hollywood's War

Michael J. Lewis, writing in Commentary, on Hollywood and 9/11:

Would it have been too much to hope that Hollywood might produce a movie focused not just on tragedy and victimhood, as these three films do in their different ways, but on patriotism and heroism? A movie calculated to inspire not just pity and terror but martial fervor and a sense of national purpose? Evidently it would have been too much to hope. To date, no films have been announced that will deal with the dramatic fighting in the mountain caves of northwestern Afghanistan and the hunt for Osama bin Laden; the military campaign that seized Baghdad in record time; the drama of the occupation. The American film industry will not be making a film like Wake Island in the foreseeable future.

Keeping in Touch

As one who cannot stand networking events that resemble shark tanks - the very term "networking" is odious - I liked this CareerJournal article on how just a few minutes here and there can make a big difference.

Business Class Seats Extraordinaire

Fortune has a slide show of the best business class seats.

One look and you'll never want to fly coach.

Dilbert Finance

Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert cartoon strip, has created the unified theory of everything financial. Its points are:

1. Make a will
2. Pay off your credit cards
3. Get term life insurance if you have a family to support
4. Fund your 401k to the maximum
5. Fund your IRA to the maximum
6. Buy a house if you want to live in a house and can afford it
7. Put six months worth of expenses in a money-market account
8. Take whatever money is left over and invest 70% in a stock index fund and 30% in a bond fund through any discount broker and never touch it until retirement
9. If any of this confuses you, or you have something special going on (retirement, college planning, tax issues), hire a fee-based financial planner, not one who charges a percentage of your portfolio

[HT: The Business of America is Business ]

MBA Schools

Thinking of getting an MBA?

Business Week gives its rankings of the top business schools of 2006.

The Leash

There’s no mistaking the North Koreans for the Swiss. A Times of London report from the Chinese-North Korean border:

The North Korean refugee had one request for her captors before the young Chinese soldiers led her back across the steel-girdered bridge on the Yalu River that divides two “socialist allies”.
“She asked for a comb and some water because she said that if she was going to die she could not face going to heaven looking as dirty and dishevelled as this,” recounted a relative of one soldier who was there.

What happened next is testimony to the rising disgust in Chinese military ranks as Beijing posts more troops to the border amid a crisis with North Korea over its regime’s plan to stage a nuclear test.

The soldiers, who later told family members of the incident, marched the woman, who was about 30, to the mid-point of the bridge. North Korean guards were waiting. They signed papers for receipt of the woman, who kept her dignity until that moment. Then, in front of the Chinese troops, one seized her and another speared her hand — the soft part between thumb and forefinger — with the point of a sharpened steel cable, which he twisted into a leash.

[HT: Tech Central Station ]

Nuclear Future?

Is nuclear power the answer to our future energy needs?

This Wilson Quarterly article gives both sides.