The rise of the cubicle is surely due in part to its economics. Partitions are simply a very efficient way of organizing office space. Construction for cubicle offices is standard and cheap, made and assembled in large quantities and with minimal skilled labor. The building shell, lighting, and air conditioning can be set up with little consideration of interior walls, allowing contractors to build economical big white boxes to be filled in later with “office furniture systems.” Perhaps most importantly, cubicles maximize floor space, granting workers only the necessary square footage—a number that is shrinking all the time. According to brokerage surveys cited in National Real Estate Investor, the average office space per worker in the United States dropped from 250 square feet in 2000 to 190 square feet in 2005. Some observers expect this number to drop another 20 percent by 2010. This shrinkage not only saves space, but time as well—time wasted walking to restrooms, the coffee pot, and the marketing department, for example. Supervision is made more efficient too: with no walls to hide behind, slackers have to work or at least imitate work in a convincing way.
Read the rest of David Franz on the moral life of cubicles.
[HT: Arts & Letters Daily ]
[Execupundit note: I loathe cubicles.]
Monday, June 02, 2008
Book Review: A Romance on Three Legs
I confess. Katie Hafner's new book, A Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould's Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano, hooked me with its title.
That attraction was assisted by the fact that Glenn Gould, the reclusive and brilliant Canadian pianist who died at the age of fifty, has long evoked an air of mystery. Hafner's book indulges anyone who loves genius and eccentricity. Given her subject, it was hard to miss.
Gould's light and fast playing brought a new dimension to classical music. Hafner shows, however, that Gould's ability to wrench an extraordinary sound from a rather beaten-up Steinway Grand owed no small amount to the brilliant engineering at Steinway and the perceptive ear of a blind piano tuner named Verne Edquist. This, coupled with Gould's use of what he called a "pygmy chair" that put him six inches lower than the standard piano bench, helped to produce Gould's soft touch. Gould said the angle would not have worked with more forceful pieces.
Hafner notes another advantage:
"When discussing his technique, [Gould] offered this Zenlike explanation: At all times, he maintained a mental image of every key on the piano, a tentacular awareness of where each note was and how it would feel to reach for it and strike it. Thereafter, the physical act itself was simply. It was a strategy not unlike the one coaches urge on athletes as they master a sport through a form of visualization. In Gould's case, his skill was aided by an uncanny capacity for memorization. He could read a score through once, then play it flawlessly. And once he had played a piece, years could pass and he could sit down and play it again without hitting a single wrong note."
But that was Gould and he was only part of the picture. Hafner's book is a fascinating exploration of how piano, tuner, and pianist came together. As with all good things, eventually the story changed. The magical piano became beyond repair, the pianist and the tuner parted ways, and Gould switched to a Yamaha.
Music lovers will enjoy this book but many a manager could benefit from its account of passion and excellence.
That attraction was assisted by the fact that Glenn Gould, the reclusive and brilliant Canadian pianist who died at the age of fifty, has long evoked an air of mystery. Hafner's book indulges anyone who loves genius and eccentricity. Given her subject, it was hard to miss.
Gould's light and fast playing brought a new dimension to classical music. Hafner shows, however, that Gould's ability to wrench an extraordinary sound from a rather beaten-up Steinway Grand owed no small amount to the brilliant engineering at Steinway and the perceptive ear of a blind piano tuner named Verne Edquist. This, coupled with Gould's use of what he called a "pygmy chair" that put him six inches lower than the standard piano bench, helped to produce Gould's soft touch. Gould said the angle would not have worked with more forceful pieces.
Hafner notes another advantage:
"When discussing his technique, [Gould] offered this Zenlike explanation: At all times, he maintained a mental image of every key on the piano, a tentacular awareness of where each note was and how it would feel to reach for it and strike it. Thereafter, the physical act itself was simply. It was a strategy not unlike the one coaches urge on athletes as they master a sport through a form of visualization. In Gould's case, his skill was aided by an uncanny capacity for memorization. He could read a score through once, then play it flawlessly. And once he had played a piece, years could pass and he could sit down and play it again without hitting a single wrong note."
But that was Gould and he was only part of the picture. Hafner's book is a fascinating exploration of how piano, tuner, and pianist came together. As with all good things, eventually the story changed. The magical piano became beyond repair, the pianist and the tuner parted ways, and Gould switched to a Yamaha.
Music lovers will enjoy this book but many a manager could benefit from its account of passion and excellence.
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Standpoint
Britons: Get ready for a new magazine described as "a new monthly review of politics and culture, will make its debut with contributions by Michael Burleigh, Tim Congdon, Robert Conquest, Clive James, Douglas Murray, Andrew Roberts, Mark Steyn, and others."
The Military Mavericks
Victor Davis Hanson on whether we still have Grants and Shermans. An excerpt:
Few in 1861 anticipated the carnage that would ensue in the American Civil War, in which massive armies collided with lethal new weapons — and depended on industrial production, electronic communications and railroads.
Before the war broke out in 1861, the obscure U.S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman had failed at almost everything they had tried. But after the Union army was nearly wrecked by establishment generals like Ambrose Burnside, Henry Halleck, Joseph Hooker, George McClellan, John Pope and William Rosecrans (who were all wedded to the set style of Napoleonic warfare), President Lincoln turned to his two generals who best understood modern warfare.
On the eve of World War II, Gen. George Marshall, the Army chief of staff, promoted a series of junior officers — Omar Bradley, J. Lawton Collins, Dwight Eisenhower, George Patton, Matthew Ridgway and Maxwell Taylor — while retiring senior generals he felt had little idea of the new warfare of armored vehicles, rapid mobility and close air support.
Few in 1861 anticipated the carnage that would ensue in the American Civil War, in which massive armies collided with lethal new weapons — and depended on industrial production, electronic communications and railroads.
Before the war broke out in 1861, the obscure U.S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman had failed at almost everything they had tried. But after the Union army was nearly wrecked by establishment generals like Ambrose Burnside, Henry Halleck, Joseph Hooker, George McClellan, John Pope and William Rosecrans (who were all wedded to the set style of Napoleonic warfare), President Lincoln turned to his two generals who best understood modern warfare.
On the eve of World War II, Gen. George Marshall, the Army chief of staff, promoted a series of junior officers — Omar Bradley, J. Lawton Collins, Dwight Eisenhower, George Patton, Matthew Ridgway and Maxwell Taylor — while retiring senior generals he felt had little idea of the new warfare of armored vehicles, rapid mobility and close air support.
Where $4 Gas is a Bargain
Europeans are protesting $8 a gallon gasoline. A revealing excerpt from The Christian Science Monitor:
French president Nicolas Sarkozy has called for European Union (EU) cuts in fuel sales taxes to help consumers, noting that as fuel prices have shot up, so has the tax take. But the EU objects. It argues this would drain public coffers and merely benefit oil producers.
"The European Commission considers this to be extremely dangerous, because it sends a very negative message to producing countries to say they can raise prices because we will counteract that with [lower] taxes," says Ferran Tarradellas, a spokesman for EU energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs.
French president Nicolas Sarkozy has called for European Union (EU) cuts in fuel sales taxes to help consumers, noting that as fuel prices have shot up, so has the tax take. But the EU objects. It argues this would drain public coffers and merely benefit oil producers.
"The European Commission considers this to be extremely dangerous, because it sends a very negative message to producing countries to say they can raise prices because we will counteract that with [lower] taxes," says Ferran Tarradellas, a spokesman for EU energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs.
Musings on the Self-Centered and Insecure
For years I confused self-centeredness with conceit.
This failed to explain, of course, people who are enormously self-centered but also suffer from strong feelings of inferiority. It can be baffling when a person who continually considers the world from the standpoint of Me, Myself, and I can also be insecure but it seems they make a numerous tribe.
The self-centered person who is not conceited can pose special problems because whereas there can be a certain justice in countering the conceited, matters get more complicated with a person whose self-esteem is already afflicted. These folks can be even more demanding than the conceited but the relative victimhood accorded by their insecurity becomes a shield; indeed, their insecurity is often the only characteristic that is seen even though it may not be the predominant one. Self-centeredness may govern.
The problems they have with others, however, often stem more from their self-centered nature than from any feelings of inferiority. That brings us full-circle for the odd combination may be a form of conceit.
Nowadays there is considerable status in the role of the victim.
This failed to explain, of course, people who are enormously self-centered but also suffer from strong feelings of inferiority. It can be baffling when a person who continually considers the world from the standpoint of Me, Myself, and I can also be insecure but it seems they make a numerous tribe.
The self-centered person who is not conceited can pose special problems because whereas there can be a certain justice in countering the conceited, matters get more complicated with a person whose self-esteem is already afflicted. These folks can be even more demanding than the conceited but the relative victimhood accorded by their insecurity becomes a shield; indeed, their insecurity is often the only characteristic that is seen even though it may not be the predominant one. Self-centeredness may govern.
The problems they have with others, however, often stem more from their self-centered nature than from any feelings of inferiority. That brings us full-circle for the odd combination may be a form of conceit.
Nowadays there is considerable status in the role of the victim.
Quote of the Day
We can believe what we choose. We are answerable for what we choose to believe.
- Cardinal Newman
- Cardinal Newman
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)