Ralph von “Koenigswald’s discoveries [of early humans called the Solo People in Java] might have been even more impressive still but for a tactical error that was realized too late. He had offered locals ten cents for every piece of hominid bone they could come up with, then discovered to his horror that they had been enthusiastically smashing large pieces into small ones to maximize their income.”
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly Everything
In my latest Epoch Times column I argue that the painfully visible vulnerability of our electric grid is due to politicians and bureaucrats who increasingly think we should be grateful that they let us pay high prices for lousy infrastructure and other public services.
“Nose to the grindstone, eyes on the hills.”
Peter F. Drucker Managing the Non-Profit Organization: Principles and Practices
In my latest National Post column I say the enduring, stomach-churning, decades-long futility of the Toronto Maple Leafs furnishes valuable lessons on how not to succeed in all sorts of areas of life including public policy… if only we could figure out what their secret is.
“University of Hawaii researcher Lou Herman ‘has proved that dolphins are capable of complex problem solving, demonstrating prodigious feats of learning, memory and creativity,’ reports Reader’s Digest. ‘One well-known anecdote involves a clever aquarium dolphin who was rewarded by his trainers for retrieving one piece of garbage after another. It turns out that, in order to maximize his fishy rewards, the dolphin had stashed an entire newspaper at the bottom of the tank and was tearing off one small piece at a time.’”
“Social Studies” in Globe & Mail June 12, 2012
In my latest Epoch Times column I explain why I didn’t berate a guy over Ukraine just because he had a Russian accent.
“The secret of success is to do the common things uncommonly well.”
John D. Rockefeller, quoted in an RBC Financial Group ad in Globe & Mail February 7, 2004
“We deliberate not about ends but about means.”
Aristotle Ethics