I recently saw David Byrne in concert, and before the show started, I was routinely accosted by people trying to get me to register to vote. Later, in the middle of the show, he stopped to ask that we all vote. An hour ago, I was looking at a friend’s Facebook page, and she was reminding everyone of the upcoming primary voting deadline and advocating we vote. This whole “get out the vote” thing has always vexed me. When you tell everyone to go vote, are you assuming they’re all going to vote the way you want? If not,…
Hire outside your industry
Earlier in my career, I was working as a manager in a declining industry, and I developed an informal rule of not hiring anyone from within my organization. Our industry was already facing some challenges for the Internet changed the nature of our business. Our only chance was to change the way we did business. It was a time for new ideas, and I didn’t think I was ever going to find the combination of talent and fresh perspective it was going to take to make the kind of difference I thought needed to be made. So I decided…
Solving the evolution/creation debate
Evolution theorists will tell you that science says Charles Darwin ideas are proven and exactly correct. Creationists will tell you that God created the earth in six days, and Adam and Eve were the first people. Evolution theorists say Creationists (and Christians, in general) are anti-science. Creationists claim evolution theorists don’t believe in the existence of God. People… people… Why don’t we just accept that God created evolution. Now we all get to be right.
Flaunt the imperfection
Many seek to delegitimize our system of government and the Constitution by obsessing over the flaws of the Founding Fathers. Christopher Columbus didn’t really discover America. Thomas Jefferson had an affair with one of his slaves. George Washington was a slaveowner. Andrew Jackson persecuted Indians. And on, and on… The interesting thing is that one of the core premises upon which our Constitution, written by the Founding Fathers, was based is the idea that men are not angels. All people are able to be corrupted, act selfishly, or simply make mistakes born out of greed or poor judgment. The…
Who doesn’t want to solve traffic problems?
Complaining about traffic is a national pastime. Especially during construction season (otherwise known as “Summer”) or for if you live in a high-density urban area. There are engineers who study the situation and try and create band-aid solutions which usually just create different versions of the same problem. Here’s a different approach: Driving is not a right, so let’s put people through some rigorous testing before we give them a license. There are a lot of drivers out there who’s inabilities are causing many of the messes. Why not just screen more aggressively and really make sure they’re up…