12.09.11
Posted in 2¢ at 14:05 by RjZ
In the post “No Half Measures I suggested that Europe must choose to break apart or come closer together, but that, regardless, there was no middle ground. World markets seemed to agree, punishing stocks and currencies from Hong Kong to NASDAQ until they got their act together. Today, Europe, with the exception of the United Kingdom (which isn’t part of the monetary union in any event) have chosen, like the states of the U.S.A., to come closer together, sacrificing another big chunk of soveriengty to save the Euro.
Europe has much more to lose from a cultural perspective than did those 13 colonies of the United States. Even if the markets are happy at the news, it remains to be seen just what the impact of this move will be.
![]()
115 views Permalink
(no ratings yet, click a square to vote)
Loading ...
11.18.11
Posted in 2¢ at 7:11 by RjZ
I haven’t been at a computer long enough to post anything, but I have managed regular updates on Google +. Follow me there to see pictures of Argentine hotels and hostels that happen to have free WiFi.
(can’t post a link right now from my phone but “R. J. Zimmerman” should be me)
I’m back, so here’s me. I post links to my other blog and a few other comments too short to even warrant a blog posting, if you’d like to follow.
![]()
83 views Permalink
(no ratings yet, click a square to vote)
Loading ...
10.06.11
Posted in 2¢, Society at 9:16 by RjZ
The exception proves the rule. On 5 October, Steve Jobs, one of the exceptional died.
I’ve written about the CEO club on more than one occasion. The CEO club is my name for the concept that we give extra credit to CEOs for the work they do at companies when, in fact, correlating their success with the company’s turns out to be difficult to prove, and worse, being a CEO guarantees that, regardless of how poor past performance is, another company will welcome you aboard to destroy their value as well.
Steve Jobs, so the evidence suggests, was an exception.
He co-founded Apple and they did amazing things. He was forced out and they floundered. While away he invested in Pixar, a struggling company and they went on to make computer animated cartoons that make grown men cry. He rejoined Apple and they became one of the world’s most valuable brands. Listing the rest of his accompishments will be done over and over again around the web today. They should be read with awe not only for the acheivements, but for the force of will and ability to succeed they suggest: he got the music industry to agree to an entirely new (to them) model of business!
Steve Jobs can’t take credit alone. At nearly every developer conference or product announcement he took a moment to thank the tireless engineers and staff of Apple who do the real work of changing the world. John Lasseter is a creative genius, but he too describes Jobs as the “guiding light of the Pixar family.” Yet, while Jobs didn’t do it alone, he was, over and over again, the common denominator driving companies to simply “make it great.”
I have used Macintosh computers and operating systems since 1986. (If it weren’t for my Commodore 64 being so great, I might have had an Apple sooner. The Commodore had a Pi key, for heaven’s sake!) I’ve used the much maligned Newton (best OS ever. no, really) and heard the news of Jobs’ passing on my iPhone. I’ve watched friends and family change their minds about Apple and come to appreciate the “it just works” philosophy (my brother now owns more macs than I, even if he was a bitter anti-mac for years), and the reaction to this college drop-out’s passing around the world is another proof of his exceptional talent.
It may be difficult to truly identify just what a company leader brings to the organization and most will go on taking more credit than they rightfully deserve, but decades of actual evidence points to Steve Jobs talent for success. Apple will go on to make great products. Pixar will make great movies without Jobs’ inspiration. But the CEO club has lost one of its few members who actually deserved to be there and around the world many mourn the loss of a true inspriration.
![]()
125 views Permalink
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...
08.09.11
Posted in 2¢ at 10:46 by RjZ
I read the following in the first few pages of a book I am reading (a review should come later). During an impassioned argument that science may have a place in describing the human experience in ways heretofore considered outside the realm of science, came this:
There are still some people who will reject any description of human nature that was not first communicated in iambic pentameter.
I see a clear opportunity for a poet friend of mine! His humorous, clever, and sometimes metered, poetry is just the thing! He could collect the theories of Newton, Einstein, and Darwin, and rewrite them in metered verse! If this humorous quote is really true, he’d be solving a great social problem for us all!
I hope you’re reading LunarHalo.
![]()
102 views Permalink
(no ratings yet, click a square to vote)
Loading ...
06.28.11
Posted in 2¢ at 9:28 by RjZ
David Frum, CNN columnist and soon-to-be-rejected-conservative has retracted his objection to same-sex marriages. Why? A decade ago he made the same argument that is still being made today, that same-sex marriages would damage the moral fabric of society. Thing is, they’ve been around now for quite some time and there is demonstrably no disintegration of the family, at least no greater disintegration than the previous decade.
I’ve made a similar case about health-care, and even marriage: look at other countries and if all hell didn’t break loose when they passed some highly controversial law, then, of course, you can still respectfully disagree with that law being passed where you live, but you can hardly claim gloom and doom is the likely outcome.
Put another way, this whole fear of gay marriage? Much ado about nothing! I suggest the current crop of conservative presidential candidates look somewhere else for some really divisive issues.
![]()
182 views Permalink
(no ratings yet, click a square to vote)
Loading ...
06.17.11
Posted in 2¢ at 9:12 by RjZ
So sorry for the delay my dear (seven) readers. There were some technical difficulties that prohibited me from posting, but I am back, and I’ll get some stuff up here again soon. Tell your friends, start reading again, and above all, say something! comment!
More in a bit.
![]()
93 views Permalink
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading ...
09.07.10
Posted in 2¢ at 6:13 by RjZ
Back in this review of Nassim Talib’s Fooled by Randomness I mentioned the CEO Club.
Well, here’s a pretty good example of it again. Mr. Hurd admits to serious enough ethics failures that he leaves HP and once he’s gone, widespread stories claim HP’s recent success may not have so much to do with him after all (they would say that, wouldn’t they?) Meanwhile, looks like questionable performance and ethics failures don’t bother Oracle at all; once you’re in the CEO club it’s pretty hard to get kicked out.
Maybe it’s just HP. Former CEO Ms. Fiorina was elected to several company boards once she got canned for almost driving a world renowned brand name in technology into the dirt, and is currently running for senator of California.
![]()
337 views Permalink
(no ratings yet, click a square to vote)
Loading ...
08.27.10
Posted in 2¢ at 4:20 by RjZ
I must get back to this blog. It’s been weeks, and that’s no way to engage an audience.
A moth is a no different than any other butterfly, except they fly at night. They usually have fuzzy antennae and a few other differences, but really there is little to distinguish them even if moths are considered uninteresting while butterflies are things of beauty.
The Moth Story hour is a radio program where people tell stories, live, without notes, in front of a live audience. Like real moths, story tellers find themselves “drawn to some bright light—of adventure, ambition, knowledge—but then find themselves burned or trapped, leaving them with some essential conflict to face before the story could reach its conclusion.”
They really know how to engage an audience. If you haven’t already heard of it, go check it out!
![]()
216 views Permalink
(2 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)
Loading ...
07.22.10
Posted in 2¢ at 11:07 by RjZ
A faithful reader pointed out that the Traveling Hypothesis tagline “Travel places, look at things, think about them, write your thoughts down” is dumb. Um, yeah, you think? Like the blog’s title, it was a settings field I had to fill out in order to start publishing my stories. I should have given it more thought, but it’s not too late.
Essentially, this blog is about being a tourist. Not the annoying white socks and shrill voice type, but being a tourist with your eyes wide open to observe and learn about what you see, instead of complaining how it’s not better than home and wondering why you left in the first place. A lot of people hate tourism and want to be anything but a tourist. They’re probably in for a big disappointment, spending they’re wondering how much they stand out in a French beret (a lot) or in an Indian sari (even more, but the Indians will love you for it.) Quite a bit of this blog is defending the short trip, vacation trips that are the only kind the majority of us will ever get around to doing. Of course, you don’t always have to go very far to be a tourist, so there’s other nonsense in here too, but all of it is (hopefully) the kind of things I’d like to talk about with the people I meet while traveling.
So, can you help? What would be a better tagline for Traveling Hypothesis? Oh, the blog name is stupid too, but it’s probably too late to change that…! (Well, unless someone comes up with something great!) Please leave ideas in the comments! (Remember, I don’t save e-mails or use them in anyway whatsoever other than to weed out spam–don’t be shy, comment!)
![]()
280 views Permalink
(no ratings yet, click a square to vote)
Loading ...
« Previous Page — « Previous entries « Previous Page · Next Page » Next entries » — Next Page »
