Presidential Oratory

I just finished reading President Eisenhower's farewell speech to the American public, from 1961 (aka the Military-Industrial Complex speech).

It's a remarkable piece of history and oratory. The elevated tone and language is striking, particularly since he was talking to everyone, not just Congress or university professors. This is how he spoke to ordinary citizens. I would love to see today's political leaders (and aspiring leaders) talk to us this way - even though to do so would certainly carry the risk of being labeled "elitist."

I hope you'll go read the entire speech - it's not long, but it is thought provoking. For those who can't muster the mouseclick necessary to read the entire thing, here's a short excerpt:

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

On The Road Again

Many years ago, while working working on my first master's degree, I began a little project we now know as "The Radical Elements of Radical Success."

I was studying organizational behavior, reading books by Tom Peters, and generally discovering the grown-up world of work. Over the course of 5 years, I wrote a book which (much to my surprise) continues to sell, for reasons which are entirely mysterious to me.

I also created a Radical Elements briefing. It lasts a little over an hour and it opened a lot of doors for me. I got job offers, I met some cool people, I got to brief some senior members of the intelligence community. I even had a regular gig with my agency's in-house "School of Leadership" for a couple years. I long ago lost track of how many times I've given it (30 times? 50? more?), and I'm sure I'll do it again in the future.

But tomorrow, a new chapter begins. I'm going to Florida to give a new presentation, with a new book. This presentation is titled "FIST: Fast, Inexpensive, Simple and Tiny." I've previously mentioned The FIST Handbook, and I've got a stack of copies to hand out while I'm down there. I've already got my second FIST gig lined up here in Ohio for later in the month.

It will be interesting to see where this leads...

Dandelions, part II

The previous post got me thinking about dandelions - actually, all the dandelions in my yard got me thinking about them.

Why don't yummy plants, like strawberries, grow as voraciously and successfully as weeds? Why don't weeds taste good? I'm no expert on the biological logic of survival, but it seems to me that irritating humans isn't a great survival strategy - and yet, it seems to work for the hardy dandelion. No matter how many of them we spray, dig or otherwise kill, they keep coming back. It's a successful species, even though it tastes yucky. Wouldn't you think it would do even better if it was scrumptious?

And the plants we want to grow, the delicious ones like strawberries or zucchini, those we have to plant and cultivate and care for. Wouldn't it make sense for either a) humans to develop a taste for dandelions or b) dandelions to develop a tasty flavor?

Mutant Monster Dandelion!

I came across this 8-headed beast in my yard the other day, and I have to be honest - it scared me. It might be a little difficult to see in this particular shot, but you're looking at a super-wide dandelion flower stalk with a collection of at least 8 buds... all on a single stem!

Here's a better shot of just the stem (after I picked it):


I'd never seen such a thing. I wonder if this is the future of mutant yard weeds.

FIST Handbook Done!

Whew - I'll spare you the long, tedious trials involved with getting this little booklet published, but let's just say, I don't think FedEx/Kinko's actually made any money off this job. There were several reprints, countless phone calls, more visits to their shop than I care to recall - and they ended up giving me a more expensive binding (at the lower price) because they just couldn't get the thing to print right with the binding I'd wanted.

But - it's done, and with two days to spare. I fly to Florida on Thursday to deliver the first FIST presentation and to handout the Handbook. Should be a fun time!

Wrong Way! Wrong Way!

Nathan Bransford is a pretty cool literary agent (even tho he isn't interested in my book at this time). As he mentioned recently, the publishing industry is in a contraction mode, in the midst of overall growth.

Simultaneous contraction and growth? How could that be? My explanation: there is more than one publishing industry - there's the big old dinosaur publishing houses, and the smaller, indie/self-pub companies (like Lulu, or Peachpit Press - also cool, also not interested at this time). Guess which one I'm more interested in, philosophically and practically.

As Nathan writes, "the industry is moving in the direction of a blockbuster model built around fewer, bigger books. Meanwhile self-publishing is getting bigger and bigger and growing at a brisk pace as the mainstream publishing game is open to fewer authors, creating a long tail situation where a bazillion books are selling two copies."

I understand the math behind blockbusters - JK Rowling is richer than the queen (and her publisher probably didn't do too bad either). But chasing after that rare blockbuster doesn't make much sense to me, as a corporate strategy. It's the whole "all your eggs in one basket" scenario. Far wiser, it seems to me, to tap in to that long tail and have a bunch of writers (ala netflix, amazon, etc), selling more (in aggregate) than the blockbuster writer ever could. And this interweb thing is making it faster, cheaper and easier to do most of the traditional tasks done by big publishing houses. My prediction - the indie guys win in the end.

And by the way, Nathan, I'm selling tens of copies, not two's of copies...

Two copies...

I just checked my account at Lulu - and guess who just sold two more copies of The Radical Elements of Radical Success! Hmmm... looks like Nathan was right.

The Internet Archive

Have you ever tried to visit a website, only to find it isn't there anymore? Or have you ever retired a website, like I did with RogueProjectLeader.com?

Well, there's a good chance it isn't gone forever. I came across The Internet Archive, a cache of old websites, and used their "wayback machine" to find copies of old RogueProjectLeader pages.

Understanding Imperfectionism

I've mentioned my philosophical commitment to imperfectionism a few times before (and I'm proud to point out that if you google "imperfectionism," my blog comes up first!)

Anyway, I saw a short presentation on RocketBoom that helps shed a little more light on why, in this particular point in time, with the rise of the internet and the blogger/YouTube/Wikipedia culture, imperfectionism makes so much sense.

The clip shows a guy named David Weinberger talking about fame. It's a cool little presentation, but the best line (and the reason I'm writing about it) was when he said:

"Perfection is the enemy of credibility."

Yeah. I think that nails it.