Musings

I think the reason why I can't keep this going steadily is that I take it too seriously. Instead of just posting any old thing up here and letting the words flow for the day, I end up drafting and editing the post.

I realize that's silly. This is a journal, and since I'm treating it like Julia Cameron-style Daily Pages, I should just let loose. No one reads this stuff anyway, and if anyone did so what? It's just stream of thought musings and I wouldn't mind showing anyone the notebooks that I filled up longhand in the exercise.

So, the battle cry from now on is "be like Neil" and don't overthink it.

Who Owns Language?

This post on Miss Snark's weblog points to an interesting discussion on who gets to decide how we all write English.

I fall on the side whose argument for leaving well enough alone stems from etymology. If the English language started spelling "plateau" as platoo, or "pizza" as peetsa then how would we know that the words were stolen from other languages?

That argument aside, it would be a nightmare to retrain everyone. It would be like learning to read a whole new language that you already know. Kids who would be taught in the "new" phonetic (fonetik?) composition would be unable to read much of the English body of work.

I won't call the whole thing stupid, but there's too much of a switching cost to even consider it.

Back and Not Alone

Billy Mernit not only worships Jess, he proposes that she be The Candidate.

Google Spreadsheets

For a person in my line of work, the spreadsheet is a fact of everyday life. Lotus 1-2-3 was my best friend until Excel usurped that position.

Now, we have Google Spreadsheets.

It's currently a very bare-bones app, with limited formatting options and a clunky formula interface, but it's a good first step. If Google continues down this path with full-featured web-based competitors for Word, Powerpoint, Project and Visio, there will soon be little need for MS Office on a workstation.

Wasn't this what they were calling the "network computer" a few years ago?

Misdirected Idealism, Misguided Light

So I've got a front-row seat for a corporate function. We've got five supposedly-distinguished guests on tap to talk about (surprise, surprise) leadership. One's a marketing exec, one's a basketball coach, one's an NGO exec, and the last one is an exec who just spearheaded an org-rendering cultural shift. Of those four, one spoke with passion, and another spoke with intellect and vision. Two out of four, not bad. The fifth speaker, I didn't know what to make of.

It's a guy who quit his day job to write a book (more of a booklet) on things a person can do to supposedly help this country. He's now speaking where he can to talk about this epiphany of his.

Yep, I don't get it. His heart may be in the right place (I have no idea if he's got delusiuons of grandeur - I don't think so) but he, to my mind, is going about this in an extremely ineffective way. What bothered me even more is that he's clearly an intelligent man, perhaps lacking a bit in the public speaking skill department. What he's become is a quote-spewing machine. Quotes from all sorts of historical figures and management gurus.

That's simply brain power going to waste.

I guess we all tilt at our own windmills, and follow our own yellow brick roads.