James Drogan

Re: Conversations wth Dave

My students and I have been discussing the Dubai Port World situation and, the other night,we touched on oil.

There are two points I would like to make in connection with these discussions.

First, we teachers have an obligation to engage our students in discussions of contemporary events to hone all those survival skills they need when they walk out there where the cold wind blows. I opined to my department chair that it would have been absolutely terrific if the DPW situation could have been a focal point in all our courses over the last couple of weeks. But we lack the culture to enables that.

Second, the students were a bit more tuned in to what was going on, had thought about things more, and had more reasonably well-formed arguments than I had expected. I was pleasantly surprised. There are a few glimpses of light on the distant horizon. 

Re: Conversations with Dave

"Who the deuce ever did anything worth naming without sacrifice?" John Herschel 1830

There was a time when I thought of life in terms of the homeruns. That's now gone as I've grown older and, quite possibly, grown more mature.

Now, life is about how I live every day, that collection of small wins and losses that manifests who I am. And I need some losses. I reckon that winning all the time means I'm not trying hard enough, not pushing the envelope, too content with the warm, comfortable feeling that often means I'm stuck in the center of the herd and not out in front far enough to do any good.

The frustration I have is being unable to get at all of the world's riches that I now sense. By riches I mean ideas, information, knowledge, interesting people, etc., etc.

I bought an iPod Nano (I'm listening to NPR's All Songs Considered as I write this morning) which is helping me get at more of the riches. I plug it in to the laptop in the evening, iTunes automatically updates my playlists, I plug me into the iPod the following morning, and while driving to the college, partake of a mind feed.

Therein, however, lies an interesting question. Perhaps I'm cutting more and more into my downtime. Downtime represents that incubation period that I think often gives rise to unexpected ideas and insights.

We'll see (it seems I end many notes with these two words).

Re: Conversations with Dave

See Troubleshooting the Tale of a Hunt Gone Sour in today's Times.

It seems to me that much of this stupid business could have been avoided if Cheney had simply been forthright early. But that's not him. And because that's not him, he, as Bush's Brain, and the administration have a problem with credibility.

Honesty doesn't require spin.

Friggin' disgustin' 

Re: Conversations with Dave 

You often point your interlocutors to Wikipedia. While you never, insofar as I can recall, specifically cite it as an authority, your use of it in context would strongly imply you think it an authority. And what is Wikipedia but the product of links?

You may recall the discussion of a few weeks ago in MSM and the blogs of Wikipedia versus Britannica. The conclusion, I believe, was that one was about as accurate as the other.

Now I, for the same reason as you, have some issue with links as an indicator of anything beyond interest. However, if these links are by those whom I respect as authorities, then it becomes a different matter. I almost always will check out links you send me inasmuch as I respect you as an authority in a number of areas.

So, how do we find the authorities and how do we find what links they're using? By the way, what makes them authorities? Are they cited more than others? Does their view agree with ours?

This,of course, takes us back to previous discussions we have had regarding information management which, at its heart, is about discernment. I instruct my students in the following principles:

1. What decisions must be made and why?
2. How will the decisions be made and why?
3. Where will the data come from and how will it be obtained?

The powers of discernment, often painfully developed, inform each of these questions.

As to "that said - having test Technorati it couldn't find much on key topics and what it had on economics was literally pathetic - didn't find Ritholz or any of the worthwhile Top10/20." perhaps the economic authorities do not blog much. Perhaps other links between economic authorities exist.

It seems to me that blogs address "what would be really valuable is to have shared (think open-source agendii and standards of exchange around which communities could coalesce) - a model might be Amzn or Torvalds (this was the model I proposed to the New America foundation to serve as the trusted broker for triggering the collaborative emergence of a shared, constructive vision of shared policies and leverage widespread expertise and commentary..." Which brings me to other instruction I give my students regarding communication:

1. The grammar and syntax of the messages being exchanged is understood.
2. The information communicated in the messages is relevant.
3. The medium of communication is acceptable.
4. There is a desire to communicate.

As you and I discussed on Friday in the context of geopolitics, it is often the fourth point that is missing.

Re: Conversations with Dave 

As one of my client's used to inevitably say sometime during my presentation to him, "So what?"

America needs a major political transformation if Rubin's Recipe is to be of any value. This can only take place through the emergence of strong leadership of the kind not currently visible to me.

We used to talk about the "burning bridge" in the consulting business. What's it going to take to get America off its collective butt? I think the body politic needs to be immediately hit in the pocketbook. It seems to me that to the extent America is maintaining some level of economic growth is at the expense of eating our seed corn.

All this may not affect me too much as I reckon I've about 20 years left. But I am concerned about the following generations suffering from the folly of the current bunch of dysfunctionals in power.

This rant is not very tightly reasoned and is expressed more from a sense of frustration than soberness.

"Speech is conveniently located midway between thought and action, where it often substitutes for both." John Andrew Holmes

The runup to the new term beginning January 17, then January graduation on the 27th, has kept me off the blog circuit.  But then that may not matter too much. 

I've no idea if I have any regular readers nor am I much worried about that statistic.  I reckon if I say anything worthwhile someone will find it, perhaps get something out of it, maybe even provide a rejoinder.

But my head is above water a bit and I'll try to provide a useful comment or two in the coming days. 

This item from USA Today raises interesting questions related to my earlier post of Swimming in the Sea of Knowledge.

I would like to add to these questions.

How does the easy availability of a large amount of information promote the development of  critical thinking and communications skills?  The notion here is that it is easy to ask the Internet (what a phrase!) a question.  If the answer is not what one seeks, ask again.  It's easy.   But in this process does one think much about the most appropriate question to ask?  Is the result a regrettable consumption of bandwidth -- physically and mentally -- and an equally regrettable lack of focus on objectives and issues? 

Does this ease diminish the ability to discriminate between fact and fiction?  Or truth and all else?  Or to see  holes in an argument?  Or see the whole of the argument?

Are we simply becoming busier, but not better? 

I've been reading this blog for sometime and I'm beginning to wonder about the point of Milking (as in milking  something for all it's worth).  While apparently a popular blog, what does she contribute to the national discussion that is meaningful?  Milking is all too quick with the acid and the stiletto, but rarely (ever?) forthcoming with useful ideas.

Is there a reason why she has no ability for a reader to publicly comment on  her posts?  Perhaps the comment button is there, buried somewhere on the right side of the page (certainly one would not expect it be in the center or, horror of horrors, on the left).  Perhaps. like most of her ilk, she is simply trying to control the conversation.

Ah, the Heda Hopper of cyberspace.

I saw a little article earlier today where AOL claims that 8 of 10 inbound messages are spam.  I wonder how many of these are from Milking?

Abraham Lincoln said "You can fool some of the people..."  Such attention as Milking gets is apparently reliant on this law.