A friend who is a long-time staff employee at a major research university recently told me that he had created a list of principles for success and survival.
1. Listen with respect.
2. Understand academic freedom. If you don't care about what the faculty does, you're in the wrong place.
3. Say no by affirming a yes.
4. The folks up the food chain might get you now, but the folks down the food chain can and will always get you in the long run.
6. You will be appreciated for your work as long as you don't insist that your name be on it.
7. Make others look good. Karma is alive and well in higher education.
8. You know you are replaceable, but the speed with which you will be forgotten will amaze you.
9. You know how hard you work. Support each other and ignore contempt from the outside.
10. Take your vacation - all of it.
11. Take your medications.
Addison Steele
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Monday, March 25, 2013
Integrated fragility
I watched a short TED talk today by Ian Goldin who was talking about many of the global trends that threaten and brighten our future. It's a good talk.
http://www.ted.com/talks/ian_goldin_navigating_our_global_future.html
Goldin did present a concept that resonated with me instantly. He described the emerging complex systems we all rely on to survive as displaying "brittleness."
Our power grid came immediately to mind. From apocalyptic TV shows to the reality of cascading power failures, we are afraid of the single point of failure or the system so interconnected that the innocuous becomes the end of the world.
The global food system has been on my mind lately. We've been very fortunate for the last 50 years in the US. One prediction coming from climate change researchers is that weather patterns are likely to become more exaggerated and food production more brittle.
Of course, a farmer I knew a long time ago said after a week of steady rain had ruined his hay crop, "I've farmed here for 50 years and I haven't had a normal summer yet!"
The systems we take for granted are fragile. If you're part of the 1% in my last blog post, you might not care. If you're in the bottom 30%, you surely will.
Income inequality is, to a writer in a recent Forbes magazine, evidence that everything is well with the economy and the incentive to gain wealth the reward. But the price of going too far is brittleness in our society, our politics, and in our communities. I can't see how anyone can look at world history and fail to see that fact.
Somebody might ask a question like the one the peasant asked King Arthur in Monty Python's quest for the Holy Grail. "So, who made you king then, eh?"
Another pundit, I forget who, characterized disaster planning in the United States as "Blah, blah, blah, blah, BOOM!
I agree that systems, especially complex integrated systems, are brittle. People, however, are anything but.
Addison Steele
http://www.ted.com/talks/ian_goldin_navigating_our_global_future.html
Goldin did present a concept that resonated with me instantly. He described the emerging complex systems we all rely on to survive as displaying "brittleness."
Our power grid came immediately to mind. From apocalyptic TV shows to the reality of cascading power failures, we are afraid of the single point of failure or the system so interconnected that the innocuous becomes the end of the world.
The global food system has been on my mind lately. We've been very fortunate for the last 50 years in the US. One prediction coming from climate change researchers is that weather patterns are likely to become more exaggerated and food production more brittle.
Of course, a farmer I knew a long time ago said after a week of steady rain had ruined his hay crop, "I've farmed here for 50 years and I haven't had a normal summer yet!"
The systems we take for granted are fragile. If you're part of the 1% in my last blog post, you might not care. If you're in the bottom 30%, you surely will.
Income inequality is, to a writer in a recent Forbes magazine, evidence that everything is well with the economy and the incentive to gain wealth the reward. But the price of going too far is brittleness in our society, our politics, and in our communities. I can't see how anyone can look at world history and fail to see that fact.
Somebody might ask a question like the one the peasant asked King Arthur in Monty Python's quest for the Holy Grail. "So, who made you king then, eh?"
Another pundit, I forget who, characterized disaster planning in the United States as "Blah, blah, blah, blah, BOOM!
I agree that systems, especially complex integrated systems, are brittle. People, however, are anything but.
Addison Steele
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Class warfare
I'm sure no one will be surprised that my education included readings from Aristotle, Plato, Descartes, de Chardin, and Thucydides. Some won't be surprised that I also read Trotsky and Huey Newton. I'm also proud of having read Adam Smith, Hobbes, and Milton Friedman!
Moving from old to new, the notion of class as a fundamental element of political economy grows larger, not always adding much to philosophy or economics.
Perhaps the inverse is true in terms of rhetoric. Plato and Aristotle provided real enlightenment on the nature of epistomology and language. They also understood the power and risk associated with language. Later on, the true masters of language in the service of power demonstrated the consequences of the big lie and of words like master race and political rehabilitation.
Today, we face a new rhetoric. I refuse to label it with carcinogenic words like fascist or socialist.
However, when the topic of the distribution of wealth and our obligation to insure both social and individual well-being, class warfare comes out of the closet. "Makers and takers" are code for this concept, like many other words.
Let's be clear here. If there's war involved, I think it's useful to know whose winning and whose losing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QPKKQnijnsM
It will come as no surprise that I believe the current situation serves neither social nor individual self-interest. I also think the current situation is inherently unsustainable. I hope our democracy can, as it has in the past, adapt and endure.
Addison Steele
Moving from old to new, the notion of class as a fundamental element of political economy grows larger, not always adding much to philosophy or economics.
Perhaps the inverse is true in terms of rhetoric. Plato and Aristotle provided real enlightenment on the nature of epistomology and language. They also understood the power and risk associated with language. Later on, the true masters of language in the service of power demonstrated the consequences of the big lie and of words like master race and political rehabilitation.
Today, we face a new rhetoric. I refuse to label it with carcinogenic words like fascist or socialist.
However, when the topic of the distribution of wealth and our obligation to insure both social and individual well-being, class warfare comes out of the closet. "Makers and takers" are code for this concept, like many other words.
Let's be clear here. If there's war involved, I think it's useful to know whose winning and whose losing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QPKKQnijnsM
It will come as no surprise that I believe the current situation serves neither social nor individual self-interest. I also think the current situation is inherently unsustainable. I hope our democracy can, as it has in the past, adapt and endure.
Addison Steele
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