John Stewart: "Whatever happened to those faces in the old photographs?"
Tuesday, July 02, 2019
Contemplative
I use the fountain pen and write slowly, sometimes surrounding one thought with related ones, and at other times jotting the steps backwards from an ultimate destination in order to identify the necessary tasks I'd gloss over if I started at the beginning.
Slower is better and it guards me from distractions; those wolves that seize and so thoroughly shred one's focus that the parts are later unrecognizable.
Pen. Ink. Paper. Thoughts.
Thinking. Thinking. Thinking.
[Photo by Aaron Burden at Unsplash]
Trip to Shanghai
The standard of service in the hotel was fabulous. When I opened the door of my suite, there were always a couple of young ladies in black pyjamas crouched outside ready to rush in and change the flowers, the toilet rolls, the wallpaper. They called me, in their language, One Fat Important Man, and equipped me with a tiny cup of red wax and a jade seal (called a chop) on which the name was carved in Chinese characters. They also joined in the task, gladly shared by every local we met including senior members of the Communist Party, of teaching me quite a lot of Mandarin dialect: a very pretty way of speaking Chinese, as opposed to the Cantonese dialect, which is impossible to mimic unless you have the vocal equipment of a dying dog.
- Clive James in The Blaze of Obscurity
- Clive James in The Blaze of Obscurity
Monday, July 01, 2019
First Paragraph
War is a nightmare. It is awful, indifferent, devastating, and evil.
- From The Dichotomy of Leadership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
- From The Dichotomy of Leadership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
End of a Love Affair
Car and Driver reports on the sad end of its affair with the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio. An excerpt:
Our honeymoon lasted 2400 miles. Then the Giulia failed us for the first time. We still hadn't taken it to the track to perform our initial battery of tests when, on a 650-mile road trip, our Giulia lit its "service electronic throttle control" warning as well as a check-engine light. The car was still operational, but its mode selector became inoperative, locking the car in its standard suspension and powertrain settings. Once it was back near our Michigan headquarters, we took it to the dealer, who could find no cause for the warnings, which were no longer lit by then anyway. While crawling around the car for a solid week, though, the dealership tech found a small coolant leak. Tightening a loose hose clamp stemmed the flow. This incident is what's known as foreshadowing.
Our honeymoon lasted 2400 miles. Then the Giulia failed us for the first time. We still hadn't taken it to the track to perform our initial battery of tests when, on a 650-mile road trip, our Giulia lit its "service electronic throttle control" warning as well as a check-engine light. The car was still operational, but its mode selector became inoperative, locking the car in its standard suspension and powertrain settings. Once it was back near our Michigan headquarters, we took it to the dealer, who could find no cause for the warnings, which were no longer lit by then anyway. While crawling around the car for a solid week, though, the dealership tech found a small coolant leak. Tightening a loose hose clamp stemmed the flow. This incident is what's known as foreshadowing.
Sibling Rivalry and Family Fortune
It was June 4, 2014, and Bryan, then 54 years old, was incredibly stressed out. He had just left a mediation meeting in Lafayette, Louisiana, with his elder brother, Mark; his younger sister, Kelley Sobiesk; and their team of respective lawyers. Mark and Bryan had for a decade been locked in a battle over control of their family company, Knight Oil Tools, the largest privately owned oil-and-gas-equipment-rental company in the world. That might not sound like much to boast about, but the company was worth an estimated $800 million; each sibling was worth over $100 million. The meeting, at which Bryan’s inheritance was at stake, had been contentious, and he found it supremely coincidental that, after pulling him over, the sheriff’s deputy almost immediately asked to search his vehicle.
What Makes an Effective Executive
A short video of insights by Jack Welch, Steve Jobs, Marcus Lemonis, Sheryl Sandberg, Richard Branson, Richard DeVos, and Reed Hastings.
Lasting Changes
People can make lasting changes in themselves only through a commitment to a continuing discipline. For example, crash diets don't work, but a permanent modification of one's eating habits does. Visits to spas don't work (after they're over), but the daily practice of exercising, stretching, or weight lifting does. The same is true in management. Lasting change comes only from the adoption of sound management principles that are practiced on a continuing basis. There are no quick fixes.
- Richard Farson in Management of the Absurd: Paradoxes in Leadership
- Richard Farson in Management of the Absurd: Paradoxes in Leadership
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