tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post107944317505592840..comments2024-03-27T03:19:11.216-04:00Comments on Assistant Village Idiot: The Cost - Part IIAssistant Village Idiothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-47939069174582412042010-11-18T09:01:06.670-05:002010-11-18T09:01:06.670-05:00BS King - My boss must have read that book, or one...BS King - My boss must have read that book, or one like it. A few weeks ago he started off a management meeting saying he wanted our company to have a new vision statement. It started, "Company X is a happy place..." Hooo boy, isn't it good enough that we all just do a competent job?Sponge-headed ScienceManhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12914014641719908195noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-88028218489586593922010-11-18T03:29:26.620-05:002010-11-18T03:29:26.620-05:00AVI, I think you might find the book "Joy at ...AVI, I think you might find the book "Joy at Work" a bit intriguing (if a bit on the self aggrandizing side). It's by the (Christian) former head of AES (Dennis Bakke), who felt that building a large values based business was his calling. By values he meant that each and every person who worked there should love working there and feel they were making a difference. A decently light read, but a few major good points about regulation prohibiting some of the best solutions and some fascinating outlooks on our "calling".bs kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02871717971078952304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-55801392013234245262010-11-17T19:14:46.684-05:002010-11-17T19:14:46.684-05:00Sponge, as my commencement speaker we had some sho...Sponge, as my commencement speaker we had some short sandy-haired dude named John Edwards (pre-love child of course). He (of the $$$ lifestyle) talked about "giving back" to the "poor" etc. Barf. <br /><br />Although I appear to have a second-order job, which is good I guess???Annahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05456587175845040114noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-23129584438512725142010-11-17T18:07:59.293-05:002010-11-17T18:07:59.293-05:00james, I think the key phrase in there is "fo...james, I think the key phrase in there is "for decades." Your 1st-4th order of usefulness is time-dependent. If you follow that trail, you will see that it's the time for payoff, not the amount of payoff, that is different. Basic research pays off zero in the short run, but very well in the long. Considered that way, the 4th-order people might be better poised to do what 1st-order helping comes before them than the 2nd- or 3rd-order.<br /><br />Reading CS Lewis's "The World's Last Night" and "Learning In Wartime" provide fascinating perspective on this.<br /><br />Dubbahdee. And let's see, give every one of those employees a $.10/hr raise and the place goes broke and no one has any jobs at all.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-38735324483781767812010-11-17T13:57:56.785-05:002010-11-17T13:57:56.785-05:00If I want to relieve human suffering, I suppose th...If I want to relieve human suffering, I suppose the first thing I have to do is forget about my career. Particle physics is what you might call a 4'th order job.<br /><br /><i>First order jobs are the farmers, police, truckers, teachers, doctors, pastors, machinists and whatnot who actually make or provide the goods or services people need. Second order are the engineers who design things, the people who make the tools, or managers who keep things going. Third order are the applied researchers who find the new drugs or processes, lawyers who keep the overall machinery working, advertisers to let you know what you need :-) , etc. 4'th order folks are the basic researchers, mathematicians, and others who, truth to tell, most of us wouldn't notice the absence of for decades. I leave as an exercise figuring where artists fit in, or politicians/community activists. Or monks.</i><br /><br />We can't all have careers as first-order helpers--somebody has to do the more abstract stuff--but is there anybody who doesn't have the opportunity to be a first-order helper to his neighbor? (Well, maybe folks like Bill Gates who probably don't have a lot of neighbors--lots of would-be hangers-on but not neighbors)<br /><br />Absent a clear directive from God that I should be doing X, I figure that if I seek out opportunities to help my neighbors (<i>I'm not really very good at that: my wife is better</i>), if I am working at something that is worth doing, and if I am doing good work when I do, then I'm probably OK with a career in Y. Lot's of "if"s in there....jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01792036361407527304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-60092517335399337232010-11-17T13:15:59.389-05:002010-11-17T13:15:59.389-05:00Great commencement address from PJ O'Rourke. I...Great commencement address from PJ O'Rourke. I wish PJ had spoke at my youngest daughter's commencement a few years back. Instead we had this guy named Obama. Something about "hope" - I think.Sponge-headed ScienceManhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12914014641719908195noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-77348921528875395782010-11-17T10:50:20.980-05:002010-11-17T10:50:20.980-05:00Malcolm McLean, who created the container shipping...Malcolm McLean, who created the container shipping industry, did more to reduce poverty in the Far East than all the foreign aid workers ever born.David Fosterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15464681514800720063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-51586429655819646112010-11-16T23:49:17.128-05:002010-11-16T23:49:17.128-05:00I don't know about the genetic manipulations t...I don't know about the genetic manipulations to eliminate the conditions...Awful tho they are, some, including bipolar at least may be a bit like sickle cell disease in that they convey both advantages and disadvantages (depending on how much of a genetic load you get of it). <br /><br />I'm intrigued by the idea of preventive measures relatives or descendants of people with various conditions can take. In other words, plenty of people may have a genetic predisposition to certain conditions, but we know that it often takes environment, sometimes viruses, stress, etc. to bring on full fledged illness. <br /><br />If I had to do it over? Easy. What I was about to do when I met my spouse (and got carried away to start a family): go to the Bryn Mawr pre med program to finish up pre med requirements, go to med school, become an adolescent psychiatrist. Either that or an ObGyn working with pregnant teenagers or family practice. Believe it or not, I used to be better at math and science than all the wordy nonsense I waste time with now...Retrieverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09036341287285545932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-32441479051197392282010-11-16T23:18:25.398-05:002010-11-16T23:18:25.398-05:00I worked for 9 years a the largest family owned fu...I worked for 9 years a the largest family owned furniture retail company in the country. The owner was harshly criticized (by some) when he built a 25000 sq ft home. "Why" cried the offended busybodies, "That money could have been used to feed the poor." <br /><br />What they did not realize was how much money he actually did donate to support a variety of charitible works in a city that needs it more than most. <br /><br />And of course, the fact that the business he created from scratch employed 2500 people, including many of the complainers. <br /><br />I always thought that a particularly egregious oversight on the part of the Great Indignant Mob.Dubbahdeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00075702513873912334noreply@blogger.com