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Blogging On The Lam
If you didn’t hear about it yet, retired multi-millionaire anti-virus software entrepreneur John McAfee is on the run from the law. He’s wanted in the tiny country of Belize for questioning in the murder of his next door neighbor and he’s afraid he’ll be framed by the cops for the dastardly deed.
What’s really wild is that John is blogging his story in real-time, on the run: “Who is McAfee?“. As you might expect, the comments posted on the blog are highly emotional and polarized.
The Experiences Of Others
When you think “differently” about the world than the majority, there’s a tendency to start feeling isolated and alone. Such is the power of authority and peer pressure to impose thought conformance to the prevailing world view.
When you encounter others, either in person or more likely in prose, whose “different” thoughts overlap with yours, a sense of kinship and belonging, which all human beings crave, blossoms.
Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform. – Mark Twain
One of the main reasons I read a lot of non-fictions books and articles is because I love to discover and learn through the direct experiences of others. Because of the constraints imposed by the limits of physical space and time, I cannot do and directly experience everything in all the areas that interest and impact me. Thus, I rely on the written expressions of others to feed my thirst for knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. To do otherwise would be to live life in a closed bubble, devoid of richness and variety.
Zero Experience
If you look at the “Categories” box on the right side of this blawg page, you’ll see that the number of posts categorized as “management” is much larger than any other category. However, except for 4 years of serving as a software “lead” on two different projects, BD00 has zero management experience over his un-illustrious career-end. Nada, zilch, the big goose egg.
So, you ask: “What gives BD00 the right to write about management practices and behaviors?” My good buddy and intellectual inferior, Mr. Albert Einstein, says it best in “Essays In Humanism“:
Many readers may ask: “What right has he to speak out about things which concern us alone, and which no newcomer should touch?” I do not think such a standpoint is justified. One who has grown up in an environment takes much for granted. On the other hand, one who has come to this country as a mature person may have a keen eye for everything peculiar and characteristic. I believe he should speak out freely on what he sees and feels, for by so doing he may perhaps prove himself useful.
Except for maybe the “mature” and “…for by so doing he may perhaps prove himself useful” parts, that’s one of the reasons why I do it. Another is that I’d love to see the guild move much more quickly toward what Gary Hamel calls “Management 2.0” instead of languishing in its 2oth century, self-serving creation.
Berkunated
A left uppercut to the jaw (ouch!), a right jab to the kisser (D’oh!), a left hook to the kidney (Blech!). I’ve just been Berkunated and I’m down for the count – yet again!
I just finished reading Scott Berkun’s fourth book, “Mindfire: Big Ideas for Curious Minds“. It was as delightfully painful to read as the other three of his books that I’ve read. Here’s what I mean by “delightfully painful“:
Was it as delightfully painful for you as it was for me? Got a cigarette?
Four Reasons
When I don’t do something that I’m “supposed” to do, it comes down to one of two reasons:
- I don’t know how to do it because of a lack of expertise/experience (ability).
- I don’t believe it adds any, or enough, value (motivation).
But wait, I lied! There are also two more potential, but publicly undiscussable reasons. They’re elegantly put into words by Mr. Alexander Hamilton:
Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike. – Alexander Hamilton
How about you? When you don’t do something expected of you, why don’t you do it?
Humbled And Overjoyed
I’m humbled and overjoyed that some people actually appreciate and want to hear what BD00 has to say:
If you don’t overcome the fear of publicly expressing yourself somehow, then how else can you experience the same warm feelings – outside of your small, bounded, circle of family and friends? Why, daily, at work, of course.
Command Vs. Control
One of the acronyms in BD00’s evil glossary is “CCH“. It stands for “Command and Control Hierarchy” because BD00 thought that command and control were fused together like Forrest Gump‘s peas and carrots. However, In “Making Sense Of Behavior“, Bill Powers distinguishes between a command hierarchy and a control hierarchy in an interesting way.
In a command hierarchy, a command dictates a specific action (git ‘r done!). In a control hierarchy, a command is a reference signal that specifies the state in which a particular perception is desired to be at in a future point in time; a vision, if you will.
For example, a sequence controlling system doesn’t order the limbs to be in a particular configuration; it tells a lower level control system to perceive the limbs as being in a particular position, then another, then another. By receiving a less specific reference signal, the lower level position control system can compensate for unforeseen disturbances (wind, gravity, physical obstructions) without distracting the higher level control system from its purpose.
Healthy Debates
The article, “Overconfidence May Be a Result of Social Politeness”, opens up with:
Since society has taught us not to hurt other people’s feelings, we rarely hear the truth about ourselves, even when we really deserve it.
Phew, BD00 is glad this is the case. Otherwise BD00 would be inundated with “negative feedback” for being a baddy. Uh, he actually does get what “he deserves” occasionally, but what da hey.
Florida State University researcher Joyce Ehrlinger, upon whose research the article is based, empirically validated the following hypothesis to some degree:
If person A expressed views to a political subject that person B found contradictory to their own, the result would not be a healthy debate, but just silence from B – and an associated touch of overconfidence from A.
Now, imagine applying this conjecture to a boss-subordinate relationship in a hierarchical command and control bureaucracy. Bureaucratic system design natively discourages healthy debate up and down the chain of command and (almost) everybody complies with this design constraint. As a result, overconfidence increases as one moves up the chain. Healthy debates can, and do, occur among peers at any given level, but up-and-down-the-ladder debates on issues that matter are rare indeed. Hasn’t this been your experience?
Best Of…
The fans have spoken! After reviewing over 1900 dorky images in the BD00 wordpress.com media library, the top 5 were chosen. Here they are:
Culture Divide
Prallenge
Bozometer
Bowling For Managers
Christmas Message
Even though the polls are closed, you can still tell me what your fave is – or the worst.
The History Of Man
The particulars of each discontinuity may be different, but regardless of which “ism” rules the roost at any given time, the sawtooth pattern is the same at the macroscopic level:
When the ratio of “have-nots” to “haves” in a stable society exceeds an unknown threshold, instability and revolution are sure to follow; it’s just a matter of when. The old order is jettisoned, and the new order, sincerely but falsely promising equity for all, is lovingly embraced by the “have-nots“. The ratio then abruptly decreases because the “haves” are forcefully transformed into the new “have-nots” (usually violently) by the previous crop of “have-nots“…. whose leaders instantly become the new “haves“. And then….. the ratio starts increasing…. yet again.
I guess this is why many people assert that history repeats itself, and lessons, if ever learned, are eventually and conveniently forgotten.
And hey, you’re welcome for the depressing post. But wait… here’s an upbeat closer that (hopefully) makes up for the downer:
Jokes are often offensive. If you get offended, the problem is solidly at your end. – Linus Torvalds
Why am I here?
WTF?
Meh!
D'oh!
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