Don't Trust A Company's Better Nature

One of the first customers I got was a start up, but a very well funded one.  They had sold out their previous very successful business some years before and were now starting again.  I assume they have a reasonable pile of cash behind them.  I was contacted to do some work by a young employee and helpfully steered her in the right direction and gave her a quote.  Once she had to get approval she had to come back to me and ask for a discount.   I was just starting and keen to sign up solvent customers so happily conceded one to be sure of getting the business.

Fruit For Breakfast

When you wake up in the morning your blood sugar level is low and if you want to get started you need to get that glucose flowing in your blood.  What's the best solution to this?  The most widespread option is breakfast cereals.  These have the advantage of speed and convenience.  They certainly give you the sugar.  Many are very rich in the stuff indeed, particularly the ones that children seem to find most appealing.  But for shear pleasure you can't beat something hot and fried.  Bacon, egg and sausages are all a glorious start to the day.  But if you want to get things done, I don't think you can beat fruit.

Leadership. Is it really that great?

 

Humans are always impressed by leaders.  We used to write epic poems about them.  More recently we have devoted numerous biographies to their lives.  It goes without saying that top leaders deserve the limelight.  They are treated as celebrities and earn stonking great piles of cash.  After all, these are the people that make all the decisions and drive the rest of us on to make progress.  It is little wonder that we accord them such a high level of status.

What Reality TV Shows Tell Us About Reality

There is one myth that I, and I suspect a lot of people, have found hard to shake off.  It is the idea that leaders are somehow special and have unique insight and skills.  I suppose it goes back to childhood when your parents were your expert guides to life and whose opinions you weren't in a position to question.  This mindset gets transferred onto teachers and then managers as you grow up.  You are hardly aware of it.

The Seventies - Three Things About Them You Won't Know If You Weren't There

For no other reason than it popped into my head, here are my recollections about a decade that doesn't get much attention.  History usually concentrates on the big picture and ignores what life was like on a day to day basis, and certainly has no way of telling what it was like for the people at the time.

Zen Approach To Annoying People

Annoying People Often Reflect Ourselves

In a recent political story here in the UK a member of a political party was caught investing a considerable amount of  his time and resources to plotting against the party leader.  He ended up having to resign and left with the parting shot that the leadership had become too middle of the road and had abandoned its principles.

Seek Richness Not Riches

When the Titanic sunk it took about 15 minutes to hit the bottom after sinking beneath the waves.  We can make this estimate even though nobody was there to observe it thanks to the Navier-Stokes equation.