Skip to main content

Random Thoughts - 10

Friendship is a bond whose strength is measured in trust.

-------------------------

Modern policy and justification.  When one side advocates some policy which works out poorly, there is never an admission is was wrong, or flawed, or anything.  The most common excuses are these: we didn’t go far enough; we didn’t spend enough; we didn’t message enough. The policy, however, is right!

The policy belief is paramount.  Some sort of decision commitment is involved, having little to do with outcomes.  Belief, you may agree, is a lot easier a sell than logic or evidence. It closes doors; it relaxes intellectual demand; it commands single-mindedness of thought.  We seem to have left behind the rational age of Voltaire, Laplace, and Newton, and entered into another universe where truth is decided beforehand.

Huxley said it best as paraphrased in, “We live in a brave new world.”

The ability to accept that a solution or method fails is essential for progress, personal, political, national, and even global. Said inability spells eventual disaster.

-------------------------

Cool CEOs.  Gotta luv ‘em. Their dress in a (clean) T-shirt and blue jeans, today’s cool garb.  Truly sexist, this is, as you hardly see women CEOs giving annual reports wile prancing about in T-shirts and jeans. Women are still more circumspect in their corporate presentations. They wish to look good, and wear designer dresses to accentuate their position. 

It started with Steve Jobs. Since then many have been conditioned to believe that dressing ultra casual signals (a) competence or (b) disrespect of the status quo or (3) discontent with “the suit.”  Lately, some combine the T-shirt with a sport coat.  We see the same with the Ted lectures. Dressy!  Are we impressed?  

If anyone appeared for an executive job interview clad in blue-jeans and a T, the job offer would not happen. You gotta be a CEO or billionaire to get away with such dress, to be super-cool, perhaps to convince supplicants or shareholders you are intellectually superior. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Behavioral Science and Problem-Solving

I.                                       I.                 Introduction.                Concerning our general behavior, it’s high about time we all had some understanding of how we operate on ourselves, and it is just as important how we are operated on by others. This is the wheelhouse of behavioral sciences. It is a vast subject. It touches our lives constantly. It’s influence is pervasive and can be so subtle we never notice it. Behavioral sciences profoundly affect our ability and success at problem-solving, from the elementary level to highly complex wicked problems. This is discussed in Section IV. We begin with the basics of behavioral sciences, Section II, and then through the lens of multiple categories and examples, Section III. II.     ...

Principles of Insufficiency and Sufficiency

   The principles we use but don't know it.  1.      Introduction . Every field, scientific or otherwise, rests on foundational principles—think buoyancy, behavior, or democracy. Here, we explore a unique subset: principles modified by "insufficiency" and "sufficiency." While you may never have heard of them, you use them often. These terms frame principles that blend theory, practicality, and aspiration, by offering distinct perspectives. Insufficiency often implies inaction unless justified, while sufficiency suggests something exists or must be done. We’ll examine key examples and introduce a new principle with potential significance. As a principle of principles of these is that something or some action is not done enough while others may be done too much. The first six (§2-6) of our principles are in the literature, and you can easily search them online. The others are relatively new, but fit the concepts in the real world. At times, these pri...

Crepe Myrtle Flower