James Drogan

"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man."  Heraclitus (c.535 BC - 475 BC).

We awake each day to a different world than the day before.  It behooves us too give some thought to how the world may develop, what role we might play, and how we prepare to play that role.

Complex Global Issues Explored in the World Brain Trust’s Annual Reports from the World Eonomic Forum blog is a gateway to insight that may help us wrestle with this issue of the future.

As you ponder what you should do with yourself and how you can survive, thrive, and make a difference in this increasingly complex, fast-paced world, I call our attention to What Good Are Generalists, Anyway? from the Resurrecting the Renaissance Man blog.  Related to this is a previous post on this blog, Homer, Great Books and Modern Life.

Career decisions are difficult decisions, requiring deep, comprehensive, honest thought.  One ought, in my view, consider an array of outside views bearing on the decision.  I've suggested two.

The end, as mentioned in A Scholar's Workbench: Close to the End, has been reached with the granting of the degree on June 17.

Now, all I need to do is to make something out of the journey.

Beware, students, beware.

The following is from MarineLog, June 9, 2011.

Maersk Line CEO, Eivind Kolding has a message for the container shipping and logistics industry: If container shipping is to secure its license to operate in the future, the industry needs to change now!

In a keynote address to the TOC conference in Antwerp, Belgium, yesterday, Mr. Kolding noted that containerization – often referred to as the engine of globalization - revolutionized world trade. The potential it unlocked by effeciently connecting producers and consumers across the world enabled both shipping lines and their customers to develop their businesses in ways that previously had seemed impossible. However, container shipping, is also the story of an established business model that often disappoints customers: one in every two containers is late, shipping lines are complex to do business with, and the industry, even while being the most environmentally-friendly transportation mode, still lacks transparency and common goals.

With examples from the automotive, aviation, portable music players and mobile phone industries, Eivind Kolding told the conference that just because an industry is established it may only be a "few years from being completely overtaken" by new technology. And, that market and customer behavior is forcing companies to "never lose sight of what customers really want" - including the needs that they are not even aware of.

"The container shipping industry stands on the brink of an era-defining moment and we face some fundamental challenges," declared Mr. Kolding. "However, why not see these as fantastic opportunities? What if we could guarantee that cargo would be on time, every time? What if placing a shipping order was as easy as buying an airline ticket? What if the shipping industry was known for beating environmental expectations - not struggling to meet them?"  June 8, 2011

Students, be thinking about what changes need to be made to enable Kolding's vision.

I have been associated with the Bernard L. Schwartz Communication Institute at Baruch College for a number of years.  I have pariticpated, sometimes as a moderator, in several of the annual symposia on communication and communication intensive instruction.  During this time, beginning in October 2002, I recall little conversation, formally or informally, on the role of trust in communications.

I am reminded of this by a post,  Miriam Meckel on communicating trustworthiness, in David Weinberger's Joho the Blog.  It seems to me that effective and efficient communications is profoundly affected by trust.  If we do not discuss the issue, then, we compromise, perhaps prevent, meaningful communication.

I want to couple this with words from Jim Kelly, then the CEO of UPS.

I believe that we’re about to witness what may turn out to be the last competitive frontier business will see.  It’s going to be a war over the one priceless resource.  Time.  And when it comes, trust may turn out to be the best investment anyone’s made (2000).

The lack of trust causes us to squander that most important of all nonrenewable resources, time.

Kevin Bourque, over at the blog of the Society of Creative Generalists, brough to my attention the article The Last Days of the Polymath.  I see that a polymath and a generalist are essentially equivalent.  Hence, I read the article and, as I am want to do from time to time, marked it up with comments and questions.  The result is The Last Days of the Polymath, Annotated.

From The New Yorker.

Any foreign power hoping to promote peace, stability, and democratic inclusion in the Middle East must account for the Israeli-Palestinian divide, the Sunni-Shia divide, the Muslim-Christian divide, widespread anti-Semitism, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the security of oil supplies pumped by weak regimes, Al Qaeda and related radicals, tribalism, corruption, and a picturesque lineup of despots. For half a century, the region has made outside idealists look like fools, turned realists into complicit cynics, and consigned local heroes—Yitzhak Rabin, Anwar Sadat—to martyrdom (Coll, S. (2011, May 30). The Syrian Problem. The New Yorker. Retrieved May 24, 2011, from http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2011/05/30/110530taco_talk_coll).

From The Economist comes this image.

"The Economist Opinion Cloud aggregates all user commentary by readers of The Economist."

This image changes as the content changes.  If you click on the link I used you will see a different picture than is presented here.

Move your cursor over the words in the image to get additional information.

This is an interesting, powerful example of the intersection of technology and imagination accessible through the Internet.

Imagine if you, as an organization, were able to aggregate in this fashion all that people were saying about you, your competitors, your marketplace.

Portrayal of information in this fashion adds acceleration to the SIDAL loop.

And yes, the title of this post is from The Telephone Hour, a song fom the musical Bye Bye Birdie.

I've long been a follower of Creative Generalist and, over the last few days, I joined The Society of Creative Generalists.  I posted on the societies blog a bit of an introduction to me that prompted the following comment from Arnold Beekes: "Hi James, do you have any thoughts on how to best use the talents of generalists?"

Well, I like provocative questions and a brief response to Arnold was:

This seems to me to involve 1.) determining what sort of generalist(s) one needs, 2.) locating and retaining the generalist(s), and 3.) using the generalist(s) to maximum advantage.

To play on Pierre de Fermat, I may have some good ideas, but they appear to be larger (and taking more time to develop) than can fit in this space.

More in a few days.

Some Thoughts on Using Generalists is the more complete response.

Amazon’s $23,698,655.93 book about flies.