Do Something! Do Anything!

Here's a simple truth: leaders like to actively manage problems. The problem comes when they don't really know what they're doing. Try to solve a problem you don't understand and you get...more problems.

Since university (where I had the most excellent mechanical engineering professor for heat transfer who ranged into other topics) I have struggled to grasp climatology models. No big deal. That's not my profession. But I've been rather frustrated by the pop discussion about global warming. There is a passionate, well-meaning, increasingly larger group w/in society that are clammoring for a Do Anything! approach.

I was greatly pleased to run into Michael Crichton's presentation Fear, Complexity, & Environmental Management in the 21^st Century which he delivered to the Washington Center for Complexity and Public Policy. Wonderfully articulate, full of facts, and thankfully on the side of environmental management. (I thought his recent novel put him in the wrong camp. Guess I should have read it...)

via Sacca

Yak Shaving and "Turtles All the Way Down"

I've just been introduced to 2 neologisms that I feel compelled to share. From Wikipedia:

1. Yak Shaving:

Yak shaving is a neologism which describes the act of performing seemingly unrelated and often annoying tasks which stand in the way of an ultimate goal. Often these tasks stack up on each other, where one task becomes impossible due to some obstacle, which leads to another unrelated task, yet another obstacle, and so on.

Read Seth Godin's LOL explanation and example here.


2. Turtles All the Way Down:

“Turtles all the way down” refers to a infinite regression belief about the nature of the universe.

The most widely known version today appears in Stephen Hawking’s 1988 book A Brief History of Time, which begins with an anecdote about an encounter between a scientist and an old lady:

“A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the Earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the centre of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy.
“At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: “What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.”
“The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, “What is the tortoise standing on?”
“You’re very clever, young man, very clever,” said the old lady. “But it’s turtles all the way down.”

via Darren

History of the Blow Job

"For many a straight man, life's long tragedy is first disclosed in early youth, when he discovers that he cannot perform this simple suction on himself. Cursing god, the boy then falls to the hectic abuse of any viscous surface within reach. One day, he dreams, someone else will be on hand to help take care of this."

--from Christopher Hitchens must-read article here

Spam Stock Tracker

I worked with a guy a couple years back who was made rich by the madness Steve Case created at AOL. My friend was a nice guy, trusting and kind. One day he found a fax in the tray that told him to buy stock in this bridge building company in Iraq or something and, no shit, he dropped a pile of money in it. I know what you're thinking. "OMG! No he didn't!! Well, as PT Barnum would say, 'A fool and his money are soon parted.'" But here's the kicker--HE DOUBLED HIS MONEY. Unbelievable. To the mere mortals in the office (who have to work) the universe was mocking us. I am in no way tempted to follow his "strategy" (I'm known for my "buy high, sell low" strategy) and thought this site was a great case study in the bogus "opportunity" that is spam stock.

http://www.spamstocktracker.com/

Great data, fast read.