Some misc. observations for a Friday Morning…
#1 – I just noticed that I have now posted over 2000 posts on this blog. This is post # 2006.
This milestone slipped past me. (Isn’t it amazing that WordPress keeps count for me?).
My guess is that I have written a lot of not-all-that-great posts. But some, folks have found helpful. And, my feeling is that I usually have something to help you think about… business excellence and success; issues of social justice; speech and communication insight and tips… and more.
Anyway, 2006 posts, and counting. I tell people who ask me that I think a person either takes to blogging — kind of “loves it” – or, he/she doesn’t. I wake up at night with blog posts in my head. And, of course, I use this blog to regularly share my takeaways from business books and books on social justice.
So, maybe – “I am; therefore I blog…”
(And, if you read this blog regularly, you know that we have others on our team. Karl Krayer writes an occasional post, and Bob Morris writes a few posts a week. He has written a total of 3,916 posts on this blog, but these days, you find more of his writing on his own blog, Blogging on Business at bobmorris.biz. It is definitely worth checking out. And, we appreciate every post Bob shares with us here).
So, thanks for reading…
#2 – I recently read the 2010 Commencement Address from Wellesley by Lynn Sherr. I was stuck by this portion of her speech:
When I was at Wellesley I majored in classical Greek, which, by the way, I suggest, even if you haven’t majored in Greek, go study it at some point. It will make you a better person, I promise.
Ms. Sherr is a respected journalist (ABC News; 20/20; Peabody Award Winner). But, she majored in classical Greek!
I am a fan of the liberal arts. Though I grasp why we are moving towards the STEM fields for the current education path, I worry about losing much when we no longer learn from the classics. (I minored in Greek in my undergraduate work, and took a couple of semesters of classical Greek along the way. Yes, very demanding. And, I was definitely not at the top of the honor roll in those days…).
My hunch is that Ms. Sherr’s classical training played no small role in her development, her thinking…
#3 – Aim for the future!
I learn so much from what participants at our First Friday Book Synopsis point my way. Jim Young recommended the book Exponential Organizations, written by Salim Ismail and others. This book then became my selection for the First Friday Book Synopsis in January. (Read my post with my takeaways from this book here).
Mr. Ismail is the global ambassador for Singularity University, and Jim just sent me this article: Welcome to the university of the future.
A couple of excerpts from the article:
At the start of the university’s 10-week summer course they are set the “grand challenge” of coming up with ways to help no fewer than one billion people within a decade. By its end, they are expected to have workable ideas to pitch to potential investors.
To keep up with what the university calls the “exponential growth of technology”, the syllabus has to be re-written fives times a year, while the roster of guest speakers changes almost as frequently.
Talking about why he started the university, Peter Diamandis said: “I realised there was no place on the planet where people can really learn about the fields that are in rapid exponential growth – artificial intelligence, robotics, biotechnology, quantum computing. Yet these are the things that together can be used to solve humanity’s problems.
As much as anything, Singularity University is saying to us all that the breakthroughs keep coming, and we should work on ways to make sure they are put to great use.
So, I guess this morning’s post is this:
- Have ideas, then share them (try blogging)
- Build (and nurture, and rekindle) your foundation in the liberal arts, the classics
- And then, learn the new stuff, and the next stuff, and keep learning – in order to help real people with real problems.
First Friday Book Synopsis 